As the game begins, Barney Calhoun rides the tram from the Area 8 Topside Dormitories on the surface, into the underground sector of the Black Mesa Research Facility.

Along the way many new details about Black Mesa are revealed; Calhoun passes a laundromat and several fast food outlets, suggesting that the facility is very self-sufficient and probably houses many of its workers.

While Calhoun is locked outside the door to Area 3 Security Facilities, he is passed by Gordon Freeman riding in another tram heading towards Sector C in a scene that mirrors one in the original game, in which Gordon Freeman sees a guard locked out of a door on the inside of a tunnel.

Need practice firing some weapons?

Then this is the map for you.

Enter the Firing Range and practice to your heart’s content.

The training chapter of Half-Life: Blue Shift set in the Training Facility.

The “Black Mesa Hazard Course for Security Guard Training” trains the player to effectively use their uniform, how to move around and interact with the environment and how to use weapons.

Scientists (such as Rosenberg) can be seen watching the player during the training.

In this audio interview podcast I chat with Andrew Vasiliev AKA Lexxor about his mods Diversion and Depot.

We cover a few different topics, ranging from his start into modding and his future plans.

It’s about thirty minutes and please remember that English is not Andrew’s native language, so please forgive his pauses.

Again, I am very pleased to announce the release of, what I am sure is without doubt, the most comprehensive walkthrough of Opposing Force available.

It was made possible by the writing and research of Stanley E. Dunigan and the formatting skills of William Barnard.

Together, we have created a PDF version that can be viewed both online and printed.

Here is another HL3 Question. Seeing a pattern? Think I know something you don’t?

Anyway, assuming you have a regular PC and not some fancy, screaming fast machine, if HL3 was released next week would you play it straight away on a lower graphical setting or wait until you had a machine that could run it properly?

And so it begins.

This is the first of the 3×24 Mapping Competition Series.

Just to ease everybody’s mind, the 2 models requirement has been removed.

Full details are below.

There’s lots of talk about the Steambox and other Valve related stuff but let’s not forget HL3 – not that I thought you had!

In case you didn’t know there’s a Twitter account called IsHL3OutYet to let you know. Not that you would actually need it as I am sure everybody and their cat will hear about it within 1 minute of the official announcement.

Anyway, do you think it will be released this year? I’m not sure but obviously I hope so. My biggest concern is that I will need to buy new hardware to run it, which is going to be a serious problem for me.

The player finds himself on a wasteland – a wasteland inspired by Valve’s Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar.

Work your way through various rusty vessels and enter the depot.

Who knows what you will find…