I’m back, and I arrive with more shots of 1.4. This time we will be featuring OpticHelix’s baby, hi_aurora. The map has been perfected for 1.4, and I complement OpticHelix on his fabulous work on the map. MasterMind has also been a busy guy, and has hammered out builds with minor tweaks that make the game play and feel much better. In fact, MasterMind pushed out so many new builds we had to force the testers into overtime, and as a reward we let them have a bit of fun just playing the game as it should.

The new build and the testers came together to produce a brilliant display of teamwork, tactics and overall strategy that I haven’t seen anywhere else. NATO stuck together and used their Flash Bangs and Smoke Grenades to split up the TANGO defense and take them down room by room. This effort was only to be met next round by a more centralized and reactive TANGO team. I saw, in these test rounds, what HI truly is; not just a realism inspired First Person Shooter, but the only game where teamwork, tactics, and strategy truly matter. Check out a few screens from the play test evident of that:


In some other good news, Bic-B@ll has finished off hi_basque, and has produced a near final version of hi_efreeti that is only missing a few small final touches. Rifter, always the diligent worker, has turned out two new build of player models. Content is only an iota from finished for 1.4. This has freed up most of the team to turn to HI:PR, which will be in full swing shortly.