This week’s question is another that started as a forum thread called: The Power of Steam. MikeS noticed he had 94 games on his Steam account but thought of himself as a casual gamer.

I only have 30 games but I doubt I have even finished half of those. That’s not as bad as it sounds because a lot of those games came free when I bought something else; games like TF2, DOD: Source etc.

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You probably are aware that a recent engine update by Valve caused a lot of mods to stop working. At the time of writing and to my knowledge Valve had neither acknowledged the issue nor apologized. Fine, that’s how they treat the people who put bread on their table, that’s their choice. I don’t like it but there’s nothing I can do about it.

However, the community, lead by gorpie, a PP and Steam Forum regular, have worked very hard to find fixes, patches, solutions and hacks to get the mods working again.

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There´s a thread on the forums where, GypsyJim, a PP reader, asks a question related to achievements: Does anybody bother? The discussion moved onto whether achievements were fun and then to the difference between achievements and finishing a game.

It´s an interesting topic that I felt deserved a wider audience, so here it is as a poll question

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In case you don’t know, the Fourth Wall is the imaginary “wall” at the front of the stage in a traditional three-walled box set.

I don’t know if it’s used for gaming or even if it’s been broken in games or mods before, but I thought it would make an interesting question.

Personally, I think it would be fun in a humorous mod but not in a serious mod because it would break the immersion for me.

If it has been used in mods, which ones?

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Last week I asked Would you play a mod that was purposefully trying to be offensive? and naturally the discussion touched on what is and isn’t offensive. So this week I have decided to allow that discussion more freedom.

Let me start by saying that personally none of the items in the poll are acceptable for me in a HALF-LIFE game. I am not saying that they shouldn’t appear in other games but that I don’t think it’s suitable/acceptable in a Half-Life game. Valve have worked hard to set a certain tone within the games and focus on other elements rather than simple shock value and for that I am glad.

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This is a tough question to broach. In fact, I am not even sure that I should start this discussion. I’ve used the image but I am talking about all types of offensive content.

Personally, I dislike almost anything outside of the basic idea of killing to save my planet and I know that’s naive considering the game genre I play but I do feel that some things are off-limits.

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Now I know that nobody reading this even remotely believes that Episode Three will be anything but incredible BUT I can’t get the thought out of my head.

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For this poll question I am specifically thinking about people who post reviews and recommendation images here on PP.

I am not talking about playing a mod on different difficulty settings, but the general idea of going back to the mod after a few months and playing it again.

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In the HunterVille mapping competition, one of the “Honourable Mentions” starts without a weapon. Unfortunately I didn´t find the crowbar the author placed near the beginning, so I had to struggle through until I found another one (It was right next to me, so it was completely my fault!)

At the beginning I was incredibly frustrated, but that frustration turned to motivation quite quickly. I knew I must have missed something but I wanted to see if I could still finish the map.

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As much as I follow any other game, I have been following Brink. It’s not exactly my style of game but the details are incredible.

The Container City is a complete dream for me and if there is a proper SP version then I may even buy it just for that, once it comes down in price of course!

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