I, and very much along with the rest of the Curse developement team, would like to thank every single fan out there. I have recently checked our hits, and they are much higher than we have expected. Without you, we would have no motivation. Please, spread the word of Curse, and look for some hints coming soon!

I know I have said that for a while, but this time, things are happening.

The Black Dragon mod is going through a big revolution! We have our new forum running; we are installing a new News System and we are also remaking the team (this is indeed the most important task!)!

Now, more than ever, we are looking for new talented people who can put this mod on the top, where it belongs. This week we must welcome the new members: BoomWav, ChaosCarlos, Namir, and Zac. They are all concept artists (except BoomWav)! Soon, you will be able to see their profiles in the team page.

We are also expecting the arrival of 2 new (and fabulous, if I may speak) modelers. Soon, soon we will know the final answer.

This new team we are making is full of talent and we believe that they will take us to the top: the Black Dragon Revo is running. Soon the dragon will fly higher ;).
Thank you all!

PS: to alll the old members: if you still want to continue in the team you must register again. Thanks.

CA is proud to announce a new media update and an updated team to coincide with the launch of our new web site. Alot has happened in the last 6 months, - HL2 is finally out and we have been testing the SOURCE engine for several months now, literally pushing HAMMER's capabilities to accomodate our large-scale city maps. Expect another media update this week as we release new screenshots from our upcoming map.

It’s about time all loose ends are tied up and some details are revealed.
“The Opera: Release 2” for Unreal Tournament 2003 was cancelled, but development did not cease, it was merely postponed until a more suitable engine was found. It is time that we announce the engine we have chosen to develop “The Opera: Release 2” under. This engine is Valve’s Source engine (Half-Life 2).

This move has been supported by many over at our forums where discussion is beginning over what is likely to be in the new incarnation of The Opera. We are sticking to a much simpler plan this time round however – but keeping the same vision.

The plan is to release smaller betas, but more frequently as opposed to our previous efforts where we released large chunks of content once in a blue moon.
These plans have been set into stone and we are working through them to release the first beta of “The Opera: Release 2” to the public as soon as possible.

However, the timing of this engine change has not reflected overly well with our development team and as a result we are desperately looking for new talent to head The Opera onto new heights, we will be requiring:

A talented player modeler with the ability to create player models of our concept characters at a budget of 7500 polygons per character. Player skinning is a mandatory characteristic with model animation acting as a bonus. Knowledge of Valve’s Face Poser is also a much desired bonus.

A talented animator with the ability to animate any player and weapon models, with knowledge of Valve’s Face Poser posing a much desired bonus.

A weapon skinner to create multiple skins for our many (already created) weapon models, any bump/normal map experience is much appreciated here.

A texture artist with the ability to create level materials of resolutions ranging from 512x512 to 2048x2048 is needed to help our current team with the high number surfaces in our maps. Experience with Valve’s shader technology is a most wanted attribute, with any knowledge of bump/normal maps acting as a bonus.

Extra support in other fields such as mapping, sound engineering and prop designing will be much appreciated and will help The Opera’s first beta reach the public domain sooner.

If you want to apply, be prepared to show a resume, or some examples of your work.
If you are interested and want to join us, email me at aneurexorcyst@gmail.com and I’ll put you through to the correct channels.

It’s not all bad news though, for we have some new team members to help The Opera along the way.
I (Aneurexorcyst) have joined to help in the mapping department to create level textures and design maps. I’m also helping to create all the weapon sounds needed, and have recently taken up Padre’s spot in the field of Public Relations.

Long time forumite, Genn has joined to take Supernaut’s position as weapon modeler.
And ex mapper, Bert has returned to help mapping progress smoothly, bringing his friend ANTIDEAD (ex beta tester) to create level props where needed.

More news detailing this release soon, but meanwhile you can play a community updated version of The Opera, entitled “The Opera: Mook Arcade Edition” available at the fan site, “The Mook Arcade” found at http://www.mookarcade.tk/

Hey, its almost that time again. So here is a little peak of our Zat-gun.

This week in RTTF we have for you some in-game WIP shots from Mike’s map, Sainte-Mere-Eglise. Also the new HEER Infantry player models by RyanD. That’s all for now, stay tuned for more in the coming weeks.

If you live in the UK, checkout the next issue of PC Gamer. Chitan has a feature with heaps of inside info you wont find anywhere else (We'd be grateful if someone can scan the article and send it to us).

It's been another busy month. Today we've got a new map to show you and some more weapons from TheOtherChris. In the next month or so, we'll show ingame screens too.

Renders of our new Beretta 9000 Model have been posted in the media section. Here they are:

Hello everyone. Just writing to say we're looking for about two additional team members to work on Sven Co-op v3.5.
If you have experience with UV unwrapping & 3d art, etc. please send applications with a portfolio of your work to sniper@svencoop.com. Previous mod experience a plus, but not required.

Major features are being worked on at the moment, while dealing with college :*(, and an internal mapping SDK will be released to a select number of people in the next week or so.

In regards to donations, those who have donated after v3.0's release will gain bonus features in the next patch.

Sven Co-op 2 is progressing and everyone on the team is working on that, hence our need for additional team members to work on v3.5.

Over the next month or so there will be a couple of interesting releases via Steam, in addition to the upcoming Counter-Strike map cs_compound.

First, we'll be releasing an update to Half-Life 2: Deathmatch that will include the Slam, Stunstick, and the Crowbar. We're not ready to release the contest winning maps just yet, but we will be releasing a new map we've built at Valve to tide people over while we sort out the contest winners. There will also be a release to Counter-Strike: Source around the same time that will address a few minor issues.

One feature that we'll be adding to the Source engine in the coming months is high dynamic range lighting. To showcase this we've taken a part of the Highway 17 chapter of Half-Life 2 and worked it into a single level that incorporates HDR along with some new gameplay. We're calling this short level "The Lost Coast," and it will be made available free of charge to Half-Life 2 customers that meet a specific set of high end hardware requirements. We'll be publishing those requirements soon.

Below are a few early concept sketches of the level early in its development.