BD seems like an FPS with RTS components. How does that work?

Ultimately, war is an expensive business. It takes tons of resources
in order to be able to keep a good army maintained. In BD the player has the ability to take control of resource management. Notice how I say that this is an ability, not a requirement. If the player is not interested in this aspect of the game, he is more then welcome to let the computer take care of this. However, don't be surprised if shortage issues arise.

If the player does choose to control resources, he will have control
over a special resource HUB in between missions. Essentially, this HUB will have a list of locations where certain materials can be found. If the material is something that is required by Unity, you can issue an order to set up a mine/refinery. As the game progresses, new resources locations will present themselves. As well, these area may be occasionally discovered by JEC forces. When this happens, you will have the chance to either defend the site or abandon it.

I've started a small contest in which you can win the activation code of a ATI Half-Life 2 Coupon, which will grant you a free copy of Half-Life 2 via Steam and it will also allow you to participate in the Counter-Strike: Source beta.

So start up your design programs because it's a create a wallpaper contest. The contest starts today (August 18th) and will go on until the next Saturday (August 21) 18:00 PM GMT. And on Sunday I will announce the winner. All the details of the contest can be found here.

Good luck to all.

As you can see, we are slowing in posting updates. That´s because we´re really busy (not only) with works on the First Moon mod... Like a small compensation for a delay, we´re bringing you wallpaper inspired by the First Moon environment. Check out the Download section and enjoy this stuff! And just for sure - Half-Life 2 is knocking on the door... Yippee!

The days of playing chess with static plastic pieces is over! HLC is a fully featured "Battle Chess"-like chess game on the Half-Life engine. You are in command of the chessboard as you order your troops on a 3D chessboard. Fully animated pieces walk around the board and attack each other as they vye for your superiority.

Some features include:

- A fully extensible set scripting system using the powerful and fast Lua scripting language allows set makers to script how they want their pieces to act, talk, walk, attack, and die.
- For those who are bored of simple chess, many other game modes are available including Crazyhouse, Bughouse and Checkers.
- A chess clock, rating system, PGN game importer/exporter, and a powerful Chess-playing AI are included standard.

Unfortunately, we have not completed the game yet, so we have decided to release a Set Development Kit so that mappers can make chess sets while we are still developing the game. The HLC SDK is a miniature version of HLC, with multiplayer and many of the game options removed. Included in the SDK is an fgd and utilities needed to create and script chess sets. We have also assembled a short HLC mapping tutorial and the documentation of how the Lua Scripting System works.

We are very interested to see any set-making efforts that go into HLC, so please drop by the Half-Life Chess Forums or our IRC channel, #hlc on irc.gamesurge.net and share your thoughts with us.

Half-Life Chess Set Development Kit 1.0 - 7.8M

Download from www.halflifechess.com
Download from www.thewavelength.net

The second phase of the Counter-Strike: Source beta has opened and the game is now playable for owners of Counter-Strike: Condition Zero and the ATI/HL2 bundle. During this limited-time beta, issues can be reported using the in-game bug-reporting tool. In addition any crashes will automatically generate a report back to Valve's bug database.

COUNTER-STRIKE: SOURCE BETA CHANGES / ADDITIONS:
Added new benchmark level
Added command "net_start" to start networking without loading map Improved bullet penetration code Improved upper body player animation at low framerates Improved dedicated server behavior on level change Improved sniper scope zoom sound behavior Improved weapon sounds Improved weapon v_models Improved shadow behavior in de_dust tunnel Improved setmode antialiasing behavior in dx8 Improved selected weapon sound behavior Addressed players flickering in de_dust tunnel Addressed sound stuttering behavior Addressed bomb target overlays flickering Increased blast impact on ragdolls Eliminated delay when someone can pick up a tossed weapon Optimized network message

For more information on the Counter-Strike: Source beta, please visit: http://www.steampowered.com/index.php?area=productnews_CSS

The Message Boards are now online. They can be accessed from here. Have fun!

Coding is coming along, slowly but surely, We have one gameplay mode finished, Rammstein and myself are starting another mod, ( Gonna keep you all in suspense about which ones) hehehehe. Rammstein is working on a particle engine for the waterbeams on the guns, I am working on adding more weapons to the game. Just bear with us folks, We have one map 99.9% completed. and a few more nearly so. We will try to get you folks some screenshots asap.

For our first update in a while, we have released 3 new models. We are still alive and are working hard to crank out as many models as we can. We are still delayed in skinning because we dont have many skinners, so if you can skin and would like to help, please go here.




This is a small update but we have a very big one on the way. We have planned a new website, at least 7 new weapon models, 1 new vehicle, and several new concept pieces.

Phase 2 of the Counter-Strike: Source beta begins today at 7pm PST, extending the beta to owners of Counter-Strike: Condition Zero and the ATIHL2 bundle.

Also included in this portion of the beta is a Valve Source technology benchmark. The benchmark will be available to all beta participants via the main menu. Results will be displayed upon completion, and beta participants will then have the option to send the results to a Valve-hosted public web page tracking the results as done in prior Valve surveys.

For more information on the Counter-Strike: Source beta, please visit: http://www.steampowered.com/index.php?area=productnews_CSS.

CS: Source started pre-loading yesterday and we have a great new Bender Comic for you to shorten the wait. There are actually quite a few other CS: Source related comics I haven't gotten around to translating yet but that should be done shortly. Thanks to my mom I only have two hands though.