What The Headcrab: Episode 005

Here we are, getting close to Christmas, which is either really great for you or you’d rather just go to bed and wake up in the first week of January depending on your life.

But just because Father Christmas is preparing his present, doesn’t mean that the Half-Life community just sits back and relaxes, OH NO, we/they have been hard at work and we are now going to look at exactly what they have been doing.

If you don’t know what this podcast is about, please read the What The Headcrab: Introduction.

Listen to the Podcast

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7th December 2015 10 Comments

Poll Question 331- Can you tell the quality of a mod from a screenshot of its final release?

As I was preparing an image for the RTSL Tumblr account, I realized that for so many mods, just a screenshot is enough to see how good the mod is or was.

Now, this could be because I associate the screenshot from a particular mod I have played and I wondered whether just from looking at a screenshot if it was possible to judge the quality.

My thinking goes like this…If a modder spends time making the mod look great, then the chances are the gameplay is good too. Yes, I know that’s a stretch, but attention to detail is not always skill specific. There are definitely some mods that are fun to play but don’t look very good and vice versa, but not very often.

What do you think?

3rd December 2015 12 Comments

Week 49 – Weekend Livestream Schedule

Hi Everybody.

This weekend, Darren will probably be streaming Chaseville on Saturday at 1pm GMT.

Phillip will be starting his Strider Mountain adventure. He will be streaming on Saturday Morning, Sunday morning and maybe in the afternoons too. You will need to check the RTSL Twitter feed for announcements.

On both streams we will be giving away a few copies of Decent: Underground as well as at least one copy of Circuits, all courtesy of SteamContests.com AKA Aaron’s Giveaways, so a HUGE thanks to Aaron.

2nd December 2015 3 Comments

December 2015 General Chat

December is here and it’s time for Olentzero, he is like the local Father Christmas over here. The real legend is quite dark but has been cleaned up for kids.

Anyway, done your shopping yet? I’m going tomorrow. That said, I just bought a new webcam and my mother is supposed to be bringing it over with her when she visits, but it might arrive after she has left, so fingers crossed. If it does arrive, you’ll be able to see all my beauty spots in the livestreams. In fact, I might have to start wearing makeup!

But seriously, are you hoping to get a lot of gaming in over the Christmas and New Year period? I am.

1st December 2015 47 Comments

Discussion Topic 002

A couple of weeks ago Scott Warner, Game Director for the Star Wars Project at Visceral posted a tweet and a image saying “Don’t do this in level design: prize behind counter is gated by locked door but counter could be scaled by anyone.”.

You can follow the thread if you click the link above but as with many Twitter threads it gets mixed up in other tweets.

Essentially, he said that it was an immersion issue and I disagreed.

I tried to organize a podcast with him about it but it never happened.

29th November 2015 21 Comments

Communications Detour

for Black Mesa

The military has hindered your progress by shutting down a communications array on the far side of the facility.

You need to power up the communications tower in order to re-establish a communication link with the scientists held up in the Lambda Complex.

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Total Downloads: 1,77728th November 2015
6 Comments and 5 recommendations, most say "Play It Now!"

Poll Question 330 – Is a review a product of its time?

Recently, Steve has been reviewing some older mods (and I thank him for that). Often times, he hasn’t liked them (It’s on the list of code tasks, to make it easy to find comments and reviews by users – for now, you will have to check the 100 Most Recent Comments).

When he hasn’t liked something, he has been apologetic because his review often goes against the general feeling. Please don’t think I am criticizing him for this, because I am not. Everybody has a right to their opinion.

What is interesting is that fact that like a lot of other reviewers before him, when you review something from a few years ago, it never seems to live up to the original reviews and by “original reviews” I mean the ones made when the mod was released.

Clearly, this isn’t the case for every mod as some are absolute classics, but the ones that received good reviews don’t seem to stand the test of time, which is where this week’s poll questions comes in.

Is a review a product of its time?

What do you think?

26th November 2015 21 Comments

CrossoverVille Mapping Challenge

I have to admit I was planning on AntlionVille but by the time I had finished Antlions Everywhere I was sick to death of the freaking things. I am sure there will be an AntlionsVille in the future but not this time.

There were some really great theme/challenge suggestions made by people and, again, some are sure to happen in the future, but the one that really caught my eye was CrossoverVille. I am going to open it up to a wider range of games though.

Hope it inspires you!

25th November 2015 60 Comments

Audio Interview with Half-Rats

I finally got my time machine to work again, that flux-capacitor really needs to be overhauled, and managed to sit down and chat with Half-Rats, the creator of Half-Rats – A Fever Dream.

We chat for just under the hour about the making of the mod.

You can listen via this page or download it to your HDD.

23rd November 2015 5 Comments

Antlions Everywhere

for Half-Life 2: Episode Two

The man character, Carter Grok together with a squad of rebels, has received new orders.

They are to reach City-S where more rebels are located.

To reach the city, the player’s squad is sent through the mines in an attempt to avoid the main Combine forces.

Once in the mine, the squad is separated and the player finds himself alone.

That’s only the beginning of his troubles.

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Total Downloads: 2,48922nd November 2015
19 Comments and 10 recommendations with no significant bias