hl2 posts

Half-Life 2 and Episode 1 to get achievements soon?

by James Murff Feb 24th 2010 @ 2:30PM

(Click on the image above for a larger screenshot)

If you were quick on the draw with today's new UI update to Steam, you may have noticed something strange. In the new interface for browsing games, it now shows you the achievements a game can have in the information pane, as well as information on achievements you have earned. This is cool, and in the case of Half-Life 2 and Episode 1, it actually showed achievements specific to those games that were not there before.

Is this indicative of an update to the original Half-Life 2 and Episode 1? Achievements on the Steam network were finalized around the time Episode 2 released, so the original two Half-Life 2 games didn't have achievements built in (although they did have achievements in the Xbox 360 versions). Either way, for a brief while, Half-Life 2 displayed 33 potential achievements and Episode 1 displayed 13 potential achievements. They had icons not used in Episode 2 or any other Valve game on Steam, which indicates that the achievements were legitimate, even if you couldn't earn them. We've emailed Valve for comment on the potential new achievements.

MODmonday: Garry's Mod

by David Craddock Dec 22nd 2008 @ 4:00PM

While Xbox 360 and PS3 users have worked themselves into a veritable tizzy over downloadable content, PC users have been accustomed to having the lifeline of their favorite games extended far past their in-the-box values since the days of Doom - and even before that. What's more, we're used to downloading new levels, weapons, characters, and new episodes absolutely free of charge.

Big Download understands that a five-hour game can be extended by hundreds of hours via total conversions, brand new monsters, and weapons you've always wanted to see in your favorite title. In the spirit of extending a title's longevity beyond mere out-of-the-box expectations, MODmonday celebrates the best modifications for games new and old. Half-Life, Half-Life 2, StarCraft, Diablo II, Doom and more will all be represented here, ensuring a wide spread of mods available across every possible genre of PC gaming.

This week's MODmonday modification is Garry's Mod, a full-featured construction set able to modify any Source engine-based game.

Continue reading MODmonday: Garry's Mod

Filed under: Features, Action, FPS, Multiplayer, Sandbox, Opinion

Half-Life 2 overcome with Eternal Silence

by Kyle Horner Jun 5th 2008 @ 1:00PM

Eternal Silence may not be the newest Half-Life 2 mod around but it's certainly one of the more compelling projects. We're always up for some epic space battles, which his what Eternal Silence is all about. ModDB recently ran a preview of the newest beta build (the 3.0 build, if you're curious) and gave their overall impressions.

It seems as though the space environments have been markedly improved, especially the lighting and shading elements. However, being a beta build means there is still work to be done and in the case of Eternal Silence the interiors have yet to be finished. It should be mentioned that indoor visual improvements have been promised by the development team, Crank Shaft, for the next beta build. It's all part of the mod experience and means we have something to look forward to in the near future. There's plenty of screens and even videos towards the bottom of the preview, so check it out if you'd like to see the game in motion.

Filed under: Mods, FPS, Multiplayer

WRUP: Nowhere nearly enough Mass Effect edition

by Krystalle Voecks May 31st 2008 @ 9:00AM

This has been an exciting week in PC gaming! The release of Mass Effect, more information on the highly anticipated StarCraft II, and Valve has decided to let us back things up via the upcoming Steam Cloud service. (This is, of course, after most of us spent last week playing On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness - Episode One.) Going into this weekend we figured it would be a no-brainer as to what most of the Big Download staff would be playing....

Steven Wong, our fearless all around bad-mutha and Managing Editor is playing Mass Effect as we expected, but will be adding a side of Age of Conan and possibly some City of Heroes or City of Villains in the mix. Samuel Axon, blogger and caffeine fiend will be kickin' it old-school in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Deus Ex. John Callaham and David Craddock, aside from being our esteemed (and crazy workaholic) leads, will both be spending time playing on Steam. John's planning on spending time in Team Fortress 2, and David's got his sights set on jumping into the Get a Life mod for Half-Life 2. (Well, and he'll be checking out some mods for WarCraft III for an upcoming column, but that's work.) As for me, I have a copy of Mass Effect for my PC, and of course will be continuing my own all-over-the-place MMOG adventures for Massively.

How about you all? Will you be jumping into Mass Effect as well, or are you still playing through OtRSPoD? Perhaps you're more interested in fragging the crap out of people in TF2 after a (not very) long week? Tell us, What aRe yoU Playing this weekend?

Filed under: Features, Opinion

Garry's Mod to include skeleton game mode in new update

by James Murff May 26th 2008 @ 7:00PM

The folks playing with GMod are known for their penchant to create awesome contraptions and hilarious fan-fiction parodies. And now Garry is giving them something else to play with. Included with his next update are the bare bones skeleton for a simple gametype. Garry demonstrated its usefulness by creating a game called Melon Racer (pictured above). Gradually, it seems, GMod is turning from a physics sandbox into a full-blown in-game SDK. And we love it.

Filed under: FPS, Sandbox

Ten modding tips from Garry

by Kyle Horner May 12th 2008 @ 5:00PM

If you're an aspiring modder, than Garry (creator of Garry's Mod) has a list of ten things he'd like you to consider when creating your mod. All ten of the tips seem like solid advice, especially the last one -- which rounds the entire list out quite nicely. We're big -- no scratch that -- huge supporters of mods and their creators here at Big Download. It's the mod community that makes PC gaming so very special. The good kind of special, not the kind of special you tend to encounter in most Xbox Live conversations (NSFW).

We can't count the number of hours we've spent playing everything from Team Fortress and Day of Defeat to Dystopia and Pirates, Vikings and Knights II. Although now that we look at it, there's a strong tendency for FPS mods, which makes us wonder what kinds of mods we'll see after Starcraft II launches.

Filed under: Mods, FPS

Jailbreak gets massive renovated release

by James Murff May 5th 2008 @ 8:00PM

Almost everyone has played Dodgeball at some point or another. The rules are fairly simple. Tag the opponent with the ball, they go to jail. When all opponents are in jail, you win! Pretty easy. What happens when you apply that to the world of shooters? Jailbreak.

Jailbreak carries on this dodgeball spirit in the gory tradition of shooters. Kill an opponent, he goes to jail. Kill all opponents, and you get to punish the jailed folk by hacking them to pieces. The original was released quite a while ago on the original Half-life, and the second iteration came to Half-life 2. And now it has finally updated.

Featuring 4 new official maps, 17 new weapons, a new perks system, and plenty more updates, it's an excellent multiplayer mod for anybody wanting to for some classic childhood fun (with machineguns). Check out the official download page to get the installer. You won't regret it.

[Via modDB]

Filed under: Mods, FPS

Get a Life through HL2 Total Conversion

by James Murff May 1st 2008 @ 6:00PM

Anybody who is a big fan of videogames will no doubt hear the phrase "Get a life!" sometime in their life. A group of modders has apparently taken this to heart, and indeed, have gotten a life. To be precise, they have released Get a Life, a single-player total conversion for Half-life 2. You play Alexander Zemlinsky, a subway technician with leukemia who wakes up in a strange laboratory without knowing what is going on.

The game has a slew of features, including approximately 11 hours of gameplay, 25 levels, 11 weapons, 24 music tracks, a completely new gameplay system, and voice-acting with subtitles. It's a rather impressive feature list for a singular mod, so if you're into downloading and playing mods, give it a whirl! You can download it at modDB, and the trailer is embedded after the jump.

Continue reading Get a Life through HL2 Total Conversion

Filed under: Downloads, Mods