Source: BrainBread

Brainbread is now nearly release ready, we only need a little time to test some last things and include the second Map BB_Slaywatch (Map Screenshots later the Mail) So be ready for eating Brains later the Week, or beginning of the next week ;)

Source: Resistance and Liberation

This week we bring you some new media from our art team: final renders of the C47 and Flak88 along with renders of the models of the R35 and Panzer IV Ausf H. In addition, our own artist Skwerl has created a new piece of concept art. Please jump over to the media page for the rest of our weapons, vehicles, concept art, and player models.

Source: HalfLife-2.nl

HalfLife-2.nl reports that a fake Steam e-mail is roaming around. The e-mail reports that there are some problems and that you will need to send your Steam account information to a certain e-mail. DO NOT do this. Valve will never ask for your information in this way. Here the fake e-mail:

From: "Steam" < accounts@steampowered.com >
Reply-To: "Steam" < steam-validation@mail.com >
To: "---@hotmail.com" < ---@hotmail.com >
Subject: Please validate your Steam Account
Date: Mon, 22 Nov 2004 21:39:45 +1100

Dear Steam User,

In order to continue using Steam you must validate your account by forwarding this message to Steam-validation@mail.com.
You must include your account information in this format in the message:
Username: (your Steam username)
E-Mail: (the email you registered your account to.)
Password: (the password you used to log in to your Steam account.)

Our database will be formatted soon, due to some damage caused by some users. We will need to record our active users and add them to our database once again.

You must validate your account within 30 days or eles your account will get closed. Thank you for your co-operation, Best regards, Steam account Managing Team.

As said this is fake, so if you have received such an e-mail, do not reply, just delete it directly.

Source: PlanetHalfLife
Related: Project Timeless

The mod Project Timeless is moving over to the Half-Life 2 Source Engine. Project Timeless 2 will feature Co-Op and Deathmatch multi player set in the Project Timeless universe:

Project Timeless is a 3D-Shooter, which is conceived for the multi-player mode exclusively. It takes place in the year 2047. Two teams fight against each other: The United Defense Forces (a global military organization) and the 'Hammer of Retribution' (a high developed generation of cyborgs).
The player has the opportunity to join one of those fractions. The game takes place in different locations, sometimes the missions are part of a small campaign that features different mission-targets that have to be fulfilled by the teams.
Each soldier arranges himself at the beginning an individual equipment from different components. Each of these components/weapons has tactical pro's and con's whereby a complex play happening is developed. By killing opponents or fulfilling mission goals the individual players receive points.

More info can be found here at Project Timeless.

Source: PlanetHalfLife
Related: Cause And Effect

The Cause And Effect team is holding a design a zombie contest in which you can win a spot on the beta testing team:

We're announcing the official Zombie Design Contest for Cause And Effect! Design a zombie, and you'll win a betatest slot, a mention in the credits, and you might even see a cameo of you AND your zombie in the game!

Check out our forums for the full details.

Here some more details:

In light of the SDK's recent release, and therefore the fact that our work will soon begin, I've decided to begin a zombie contest for the HL2 community!

What we will require from the participants is some or all of the following:

- Proposed nickname of your zombie
- Abilities, advantages and disadvantages
- Physical Features
- etc. etc.

The contest will close on Friday, December 10th. Try to limit your submissions, but all submissions will be considered.

For the full list of details go here to the site of Cause And Effect.

Source: PlanetHalfLife
Related: Valandil

Some new media has been released by the Valandil team, including a piece of ingame media:

A little preview of some of our content in game, credits on the image.



KingTurd has just finished off skinning Raptor's brilliant trebuchet model, so I rendered it and thought I'd post a shot of the result :)

Check the Valandil site for more.

Source: Steam

A platform update is available and will be applied automatically when Steam is restarted. The change includes:

• No longer require "remember password" to be checked to play offline

Source: United Admins

At long last Cheating-Death 4.24 has been released. The new version fixes various false codes, modifies the UI slightly, contains several tweaks for multiprocessor systems, and adds quite a few new detections. The extended delay was due to time constraints on the part of our main C-D developer, a situation we are currently working to improve. United Admins would enjoy any suggested improvements.

Source: Half-Life Fallout

20.000 Steam accounts have been disabled by Valve. The reason, piracy, credit card fraud, account hacking and more. Go Valve :) Here the full story:

Yesterday, Valve disabled approximately 20,000 Steam accounts which had been used to try to access Half-Life 2 without purchasing it. The method used was extremely easy for Valve to trace and confirm, and so there is no question that the accounts disabled were used to try and illegally obtain Half-Life 2.

Accounts also may be closed due to fraudulent activity in an attempt to obtain additional products for your Steam Account. This includes Credit Card fraud, theft of accounts you do not own and using cracked versions of Valve games.

If you violate the Steam Subscriber agreement your account can be permanently disabled and you will lose any products registered to those accounts.

Also, a few myths floating around out there that need to be cleared up.

First, Valve did not put out any kind of fake key or fake warez or hack instructions to trap people. The hack came from the "community" as do they all.

Second, the number of people who actually had bought HL2 and used the CD key cheat was VERY small. VERY small. Most people just tried to rip off the game and not bother buying it.

If your account was used by your brother, your cousin, your friend or even your mom and they attempted the hack and now your account is now disabled, you should discuss this with them. If you wish to contact Valve about this issue, visit this support document for instructions.

Also Waldo from the Steam forums posted the following about this:

If you know what 5J52E-FVKXV-882FQ-YJXRQ-DOD98 is for...
...and tried it, please try and refrain from being too upset in your posts.

If you don't know what it was for, it was part of a way to steal HL2 which doesn't work anymore.

If you've got questions about your disabled account, please read the support FAQ My Account is Disabled, Why? for further information.

For more go and check the Steam site.

Source: HalfLife2.net

HalfLife2.net has put online a great review of the Prima Games book Raising the Bar. The review includes exclusive never before seen images of the book. Here some words:

Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar was originally designed as a full “Making of...” book that was to include a full history of Valve, their previous titles and the turmoil they went through to get Half-Life 2 on the shelves. Not only was it to include a lot of narrative points written by David Hodgson, but it was also to include thorough discussions with many of the staff at Valve. At first I was originally disappointed that this was all going to change but after reading the new version, I can understand why they made the change as Raising the Bar is now essentially a 300-page directory of concept art and original scripts most of which have never been seen before. Alongside the artwork you’ll still see some narrative and comments from Valve staff explaining aspects of the art pieces on the page.

The full, detailed review can be found here.