lambda Friday, 24 October 2003
Posted by gimpinthesink @ 10/24/2003 14:01:17 | Category: General
Boomtown has revieewed the Firearms mod.

Here's a snippet:

With the main focus on the weapons and abilities, the mod is lacking when it comes to graphics. A lot of the models and maps can’t compare to the graphics we see today and it makes the game feel older to some extent. However, for a game designed with the Half-Life engine, there are some really cool things that shouldn’t be missed. There are a few good animations and the weapon models look real enough. Changing the mp5 to equip a silencer is probably the best looking animation I have seen. A lot of work has been put into the weapon models and animations and it has paid off. They look really authentic, not overly detailed, and they add to the excitement behind having a totally unique player.


You can read the rest of the review here
Posted by MJCS @ 10/24/2003 08:48:54 | Category: Half-Life 2
Source: Games Radar
Have you expanded those communication techniques in HL2? To explain to the player he can do things like stitch a zombie with a crane full of girders?

I think that comes down to the testing stage we've been spending more and more time on since before E3 [early May]. We learned this lesson with Half-Life. We didn't spend as much time on that stage as we wanted to. Around July 1998 [HL shipped in October 1998] we basically said the majority of the game is done. Now we need to find out how other people experience this and just how much of the stuff they find in there.

Some people test by just bringing in a couple of hardcore gamers and seeing if they can find their way through. We approached it a bit differently and said, "OK, let's bring in Gabe's father [Gabe Newell is Valve's founder and MD], this 60-year-old, retired air force guy who's never even thought about firing up a PC, never mind an action game. Let's sit him down and see how he does. And let's sit the guy who designed the level behind him with a gag order and a pen and paper. He can only take notes. He can't give Gabe's Dad any hints. And until Gabe's Dad gets through 30% of the game - having a good time - we're not shipping.

So we really play-test the hell out of it with a wide range of gamers. Unfortunately, a lot of folks feel the budget constraints, or think the money tap is going to be shut off before they get a chance to do that. Many games don't reach their full potential because of that.
lambda Thursday, 23 October 2003
Posted by gimpinthesink @ 10/23/2003 20:53:52 | Category: General
Alkon has interviewed John Matrix from The Specialists.

Here's a spippet:

-Which are your plans for the future of this project?

Our plan is to release another version, possibly the most definitive one, but i cant give you any precise date.. hopefully before the end of the year ;). We plan to add more levels, for this weve announced a mapping contest (here the dedicated forum link:) and to add/improve some weapons,models and TeamPlays.. maybe something like a CFT is coming along..


The interview is in Spanish but if you click on Página 2 at the bottem of the page you will get the English version.
Posted by MJCS @ 10/23/2003 19:22:14 | Category: Steam
Source: Steam Powered
Several exciting things are happening in the coming weeks.

Changes to the Steam Network
Things have stabilized quite a bit since the Steam release last month. Our player numbers are at an all-time high -- over the weekend the number of simultaneous Steam users in-game reached an all time high. We are, however, definitely still stamping out bugs.

We are about to make some significant additions and changes to the Steam network in order to guarantee quality of service during the Counter-Strike: Condition Zero rollout. We’ll be adding lots of new content servers and plenty of bandwidth to handle the load in the next couple of weeks.

Before we release CS:CZ, we will need to test these changes to see how they hold up under lots of stress. Stay tuned for details of how you can help us test the network (and get some free stuff in the process).

Offline/LAN play
Work on offline/LAN play is now nearing completion. To play any Steam game while not connected to the Internet it will only be necessary to let Steam finish downloading all of that game’s content, at which point you’ll be able to play games without connecting to Steam.

WON
Roughly 50% of the community has migrated to using Steam as the way to play our games. The WON authentication system won’t go away until Steam is ready for the entire user base. We don’t yet have an exact date when this will happen.

Banning, Cheaters, etc.
The process of banning Steam accounts with bad (or duplicate) CD keys was behind for a while, but the servers which handle these transactions have caught up with the backlog. This means that many of the people currently using cheats in CS are dissappearing.

Counter-Strike: Condition Zero
Valve is about to ship Counter-Strike: Condition Zero, and the game will soon be available through Steam. The in-store date and the Steam release date will be the same day. Watch this space (or your Steam Games list) for details.
lambda Wednesday, 22 October 2003
Posted by MJCS @ 10/22/2003 01:13:56 | Category: Steam
Source: Steam Powered
We have identified a bug in the recent update which was causing Steam users to download much more content than was necessary. This was overloading the network and not allowing people to play games, so we have reverted back to the previous version for now. There will probably be some network congestion due to all this for the next couple of hours or so.
lambda Tuesday, 21 October 2003
Posted by StrangeBrew @ 10/21/2003 23:43:01 | Category: General
Kanonball is a mod that should be given a look at. I noticed it awhile back, and had a crack at it. It was pretty damn fun.

You can run over to the Kanonball site here!

Here are some in-game shots courtesy of the Kanonball team:





Have a blast with this mod!

Yarr harr!
Posted by gimpinthesink @ 10/21/2003 21:58:37 | Category: Mods
ChaosOps have updated with some renders of the AK-47, Swat Truck, M4A1 and lots more.




Head over to there forums to see more
Posted by gimpinthesink @ 10/21/2003 21:28:29 | Category: General
Steam-Skinz.com has opened it doors, they are dedicated to bringing you skins for Steam.

Currently there are only a handfull of skins but more will come with time.