While travelling home, your motorcycle experiences trouble.

You see a house and hope to find help inside.

What happens next is the stuff of nightmares – specifically, YOUR nightmare.

Here we are again.

A room, with ramps and places for enemies to emerge from.

It sounds simple and it is, but HOW you play it is key.

Find the scientist and all your troubles are over.

I am looking to start the next mapping challenge this Wednesday or Thursday but would like modder feedback before I make a final decision.

As you can see from the title, I am seriously considering running a TransmissionsVille mapping challenge.

Now, I am sure that many players would like to play this but I really need to hear only from modders.

The theme would be to create a map that uses the new Concussion Gun and textures in interesting ways.

There would be no obligation to use the textures, although clever inclusion with standard EP2 textures might be fun.

However, there are some technical issues that need to be addressed before the challenge is agreed.

A seemingly single room.

Ramps, health, weapons, ammo and of course, enemies.

Your objective is to kill them all and reach the scientist alive.

Can you do it?

“Our hero has become very bitter toward the government for sending in the storm troopers to kill every living thing at Black Mesa.

If he can blast his way through the gauntlet of enemies, an F-16 sits poised for his escape.”

Nova Exhange: “After taking a wrong turn on the way to Lighthouse Point… Gordon stumbles on a Combine secret”
Takes place between the chapters Sandtraps and Entanglement, replacing Nova Prospekt.

Delayed: The strider at the end of Half Life 2 Episode 1 destroys the escape train, leaving Gordon and Alyx stuck in City 17 as the Citadel goes critical.

Blast Pit: A re-imagining of the classic scene from Half-Life.

Unless you have been hiding away, you will no doubt have heard about the release of Black Mesa on Steam. It has received a lot of in-community attention and probably deservedly so.

I don’t have any problem with the team behind it selling their work and as a side note it would be interesting to know how many of the people who said that they wouldn’t buy mods have purchased it. It started as a mod but I digress.

Like some other RTSL readers I was a little disappointed by the price of 19.99 Euros but as Jason Gimba has said if releases like Stanley Parable sell for 11.99 Euros then it doesn’t seem too unjust. However, compared to Episode Two it doesn’t seem such good value.

I haven’t bought it yet for a variety of reasons but the main one is the lack of Xen. I won’t play it until I can play the whole game through and there’s no reason to buy it now. What are your thoughts on the pricing and your purchasing plan?

After the exhaustive, confusing and deceitful experiences that you suffered during your first day at the Black Mesa Lab you finally arrive back on Earth. The mysterious man in the suit had left you little choice but to agree to his “offer” of joining the government department that he worked for. Without the knowledge of who, exactly these employers were, you nervously stepped into the teleporter.

On Earth you materialize in the “incoming” portal of your employers military station. Scientific work extends only to fulfil the military needs of your employer, but at least the workers include some familiar faces that put you at ease.

You start in a prison cell with a crowbar and vent.

Perhaps guards have given you some sort of drug.

Are you dreaming or is this real?

Does it matter?