Source: Steam

An update to the Counter-Strike: Source beta has just been released. Steam will update itself automatically when you restart. Here is a list of the changes:

COUNTER-STRIKE: SOURCE BETA CHANGES / ADDITIONS:

• Improved consistency of hitboxes between the server and client


• Fixed glows showing through map geometry


• Fixed grenades getting stuck in props


• Fixed rendering errors with DX8 and anti-aliasing


• Fixed playerlist in-game UI: will now properly display players


• Fixed skywalking exploit on De_Dust


• Fixed alt-tab video corruption bugs


• Fixed player hovering over ground on round restart


• Fixed reload animation bugs on AWP and Scout


• Updated scoreboard to display 32+ player games properly


• Updated weapon sounds


• Updated weapon model textures


• Updated player hand texture


• Reduced effectiveness of flashbangs behind the player


• Added Friends list to in-game UI


• Added sv_password for servers

Source: Altered Realms: Tray Spy

Altered Realms has released AR Tray Spy 2. A successor to the original AR Tray Spy, this version utilizes the .NET Framework 1.1 and will only run on .NET compatible versions of Windows.

Changes since version one:

* Over 5 times as fast as version one, does not affect game play even with 20 servers in list.
* Querying can be disabled when a game is active
* Custom Friend Colors
* Custom Friend Sounds
* Custom Map Sounds
* Server Player Counts Logging
* Start with Windows Option
* Query Timeout/Retry Options
* Friends/Map can be specified as partial match or case sensitive
* Server Address now takes hostnames instead of just IP's, works with dynamic IP servers
* Notifications can be automatically disabled when a game is active
* Support for Doom 3
* Too many features too list all


The following games are currently supported:
QuakeWorld
Quake 2
Quake 3
Call of Duty
Doom 3
Soldier of Fortune
Soldier of Fortune 2
Unreal
Unreal Tournament
Unreal 2 XMP
Unreal Tournament 2003
Unreal Tournament 2004
Return to Castle Wolfenstein
Battlefield 1942
Battlefield Vietnam
Serious Sam
Serious Sam 2
Jedi Knight II
Jedi Knight III
Star Trek: Elite Force
Alien vs. Predator 2
Global Operations
Vietcong
Americas Army
Postal 2: Share the Pain
Devastation
Half Life
Halo
Painkiller
Medal of Honor
Star Trek: Elite Force 2
Raven Shield
Neverwinter Nights
DeusEx
No one Lives Forever
No One Lives Forever 2
Far Cry


And voice communication servers:
Teamspeak
Ventrilo
You can download the latest version at the official site http://www.alteredrealms.com/artrayspy

Source: Frontline Message Board
Source: Halflife2.net

People have been trying to solve Valve's "Second Test" ever since the G-Man picture was found in the preload files. Today it was(seemingly) solved by Halflife2.net users.

At the Half-Life2.com Media Page, it was discovered that the 6th picture changes to the G-Man's face upon mouseover. When you click it it takes you Here

After you insert 'nova' as a username, and 'prospekt' as a password you are taken to a Black Page with a text box dominating the middle of the screen. The source of the page has an ascii art of Alyx, with reference to whatsmyname.jpg

If you enter the name of that creature(Barnacle) into the text box on the Secret Page, you get to see new art work for Half-Life 2.

Since there is no 'Congratulations Halflife2.net', some users speculate that the test isn't over. Only time will tell

You can read more about the ongoing efforts Here

Source: Natural Selection

The Natural Selection development team has been very busy preparing the next version of NS. There has also been a lot of update activity taking place on the Natural Selection forums, specifically the announcement forum. Not only have there been change log details, but also screen shots as well. Click here to read about all of the released changes to the latest version of Natural Selection (3.0 beta 5).

While you are looking at the updates, sign up and become part of the Natural Selection community. You can find the registration form here.

Source: The Somme Valley

As you can probably tell from the previous days news post, we are doing exceptionally well with progress. Skins and models are coming in like a dog from the rain, and animations are going smooth as silk. But, we could still use a hand here and there. We are in need of people with the following skills:

1) Level Designer - Must be good with complex terrain, while keeping r_speeds to a minimum
2) Weapon & Prebab Skinner - Must be able to do wood and metal skins, good quality
3) Voice Actors - Must have a good handle on either German or English, with a good German or British accent
4) UV Mappers - Experience is definatly an asset here, so skinners can understand your meshes
5) Weapons Animator - Although our animations are coming along, we could definatly use another hand to get our own hands moving (can you spot the pun?)

Experience on other mod teams (for whatever game, doesn't matter) will definatly help here. Be prepared to show examples of your work as well. Upon joining the team, you will receive your own webspace, an e-mail address or re-direction (you@sommevalley.com), as well as all your work labled as yours. Also, I personaly have 6 GMail invites handy, so the first 6 members to join the team will receive a gmail account (1GB of space, amazing spam filter, it's invite-only!)

I'd also like to explain why the site was down yesterday. Oktagone Publishing was hit by a DDoS (Definate Denial of Service) attack, which means spam bots hit all New York servers with so much traffic, it lagged them offline. It's unfortunate that some people are so pathetic, they spend their days attacking and hacking sites.. well.. lets see where they are in 20 years if that's what they do for fun!

Source: Insects Infestation
Two new renders have been put on the Insects Infestation website. Check 'em out.

Source: Adam Aldred by e-mail

The 3d Alliance (3DA) dev team are looking for dedicated and talented developers for thier new multiplayer mod to help get the game off the ground. If you have mod experience or are talented in coding, modeling, art, level design, web design or sound engineering and are interested in working on a talented mod team for the next generation Halflife 2 Engine, please send me an email with your info and samples of your work if possible to AdamAldred@gmail.com


The modification is currently planned as a single player, adventure game based on the Books by Clive Cussler.

Players will be Able to choose between first person view and third person view and more while playing.

It will feature unique levels and a original story

Experience New Ways to battle numerous intelligent enemy's .

New Vehicles, Land and by Air and Sea, different ways to use them and new types of prototype weapons.

Gameplay will be simalar to Tomb raider, mixed with elemnets from Metal Gear, and other simlar adventure titles.


The Lead Character will be Dirk pitt.

extract from: http://www.fact-index.com/d/di/dirk_pitt.html

Dirk Pitt is a fictional character, the primary protagonist of a series of bestselling adventure novels written by Clive Cussler. Dirk Pitt is an adventurer, a sort of blend of James Bond and Indiana Jones.

Dirk Pitt is the son of Senator George Pitt of California. With a woman named Summer Moran, he has twin children: a son, Dirk Pitt, Jr, and a daughter, Summer Pitt. He has had a long-term relationship with Congresswoman Loren Smith. He graduated from the United States Air Force Academy with lifelong best friend, Al Giordino. His weapon of choice is a .45 Colt that he received from his father. In the course of his work as a marine engineer of the National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA), a oceanographic research organization head by Admiral James Sandecker, Dirk Pitt has made numerous important shipwreck discoveries as well as thwarted a large number of plans by villains intent on global catastrophe or world domination.

A website will be set up soon outlining detailed information on the modification and story.

Source: Valandil

We now have a newsletter to sign up to, we plan to start putting out fortnightly newsletters rounding up everything that's happened.

We won't be sending out the newsletters until we've got a decent amount of people signed up though.

There's a link to the signup page on the sidebar of the site.

Source: Half-Life Earthbound

It's news time again, this week we have animated Jeff and a new crosshair! We have a couple other surprises coming so stay tuned. Lets first start off with the crosshair by DragonDude:



And I put together a couple of screenshots from an updated Dalaam, Saturn Valley and Winters to show you Jeff's new animations:




DragonDude has also been working on a Life-Up attack (as stated in his developement journal). Thats all for now. And all I can say is, we've come a long way since the days of actual Half-Life Earthbound.

Source: Vampire Slayer

I've made a new Chapter VI video showing the new Nina model in game and the finished bike plus a glimpse of JMW's maps vs_roadster and vs_desolation.

Download vs6.avi High Quality from FilePlanet (40M) (GetDivX 5.2)
Download vs6.avi High Quality from the VS Archive (40M) (GetDivX 5.2)
Download vs6lo.avi Low Quality from FilePlanet (22M) (GetDivX 5.2)
(if you get a page error, press "back" then click the link again)

We're in final testing of Chapter VI now, there's still some bugs to fix and there's always a lead time of a few weeks to get it all complete but it's not far off.