This is the Read category

A collection of text posts, including Poll Questions, Text Interviews with moddersand Phillip’s Blog. All posts are written to encourage friendly debate and discussion.

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Poll Question 297 – Would you replay the games to find clues about HL3?

Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3

Imagine this for a moment.

Valve release a press release saying something like the following.

A randomly selected 10% of Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode One and Half-Life 2: Episode TWo have been updated with minor clues related to a forthcoming game announcment.

All the above games get updated but only 10% from each game will contain the clues.

A website has been created to track clues that have been found.

Now, the question is, would you replay the games to find the clues or would you just wait until somebody posted them on the Net?

HL3 is not mentioned but assumed for the sake of this post and poll.


29th July 2014 22 Comments

Poll Question 295 – Which games have you finished?

Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3

I was just checking Reddit and started reading a thread entitled I Just Finished HL2: Ep2 and there wa a message on there by somebody saying he/she hadn’t finished Ep2 because not having HL3/Ep3 made him sad and it got me thinking, how many PP readers haven’t finished the games.

I’m pretty sure we had the discussion before but because readers come and go, I thought it was time for a new one.

I sometimes don’t watch the last episode of a TV series and wait for the next series to come on, so I can watch it just before. I HATE cliffhangers.

If you haven’t finished a game or games, why not?


8th July 2014 20 Comments

July 2014 General Chat

Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3

Welcome to July!

Got any money left from the Steam sale? I didn’t buy anything, although I might get Metro: Last Light via the HumbleBundle store today.

Anyway, let’s hope we have a fine modding July and look out for quite a few posts from me this month.


1st July 2014 37 Comments

July 2014 Mapping Competition

Hi All,

Just to let you know that at 12:01am on Friday 4th July, I will be posting details of the next mapping competition.

Usual rules will be confirmed as will the actual theme.

If you have any general questions, please post them here.


27th June 2014 20 Comments

2014 Donation Drive

Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3

I hate asking for money from readers, but I need to.

Firstly, James and Jonathan from GetNodecraft.Net have been AMAZING. The site, as I am sure you have noticed, is SUPER fast, but not only that but they have been very generous regarding the price I pay, so in many ways they have already donated – thanks so much guys!

There are still other costs, including the files and media server in France but the advertising does bring in more or less enough to cover those costs and the readers have always donated plenty of games to use as prizes etc.

Whilst the site no longer costs me money personally, I still like to have funds in the account to pay for any unexpected costs or emergencies etc.

So, it is with all that in mind, that I ask you to donate any spare cash you can. Of course, I also know times are tough and if you can’t then that’s fine too. I hope you continue to enjoy the site.


1st June 2014 17 Comments

June 2014 – General Chat

Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3

Welcome to June!

The sun is starting to appear more and more where I live and the days are so loooong, which is great. I’ll probably spend more time away from my PC this year than any other in the last 12 years, but I’ll also try to be more productive when I am there.

Please use this post to talk about about anything you want to – except maps and mods, which should be done of the specific post, assuming there is one.

This Month’s Sci-Fi Movie

From now on, I will use a poster from a classic Sci-Fi move as the background for the post image. This month it is from Forbidden Planet 1956, which features Robby the robot and the Krell. The Krell base is 20 miles square and underground. There’s a nice summary of the movie over on Sci-Fi Movie Zone, but don’t visit it if you plan to watch the movie.


1st June 2014 54 Comments

Forest train Version 1.1 Is Now Available

Forest Train, Version 1.1 is now available. It was already a fantastic release and I am sure this update will make it even better.

If you would like to re-review it and change your recommendation image and or the Meta Review Data, that’s fine.

Please don’t post any reviews of the mod on this post as it will be deleted in a few weeks.

The changes are in this post and the release itself.


25th May 2014 4 Comments

Poll Question 294 – Do you think Valve made a mistake in making Gordon Silent?

Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3

There’s been some recent talk on Reddit about Gordon, specifically related to “Is anyone else annoyed by the level of undue praise in HL2?” and “The Success and Failure of Silence: Gordon Freeman in Half Life and Half Life 2”.

I mentioned the first thread on the May 2014 General Chat but I have wanted to re-start the Poll Questions for some time and this seems an interesting enough topic.

Clearly Gordon is “special”, both in terms of in-game and as a game character. Not speaking allows players to slip into his shoes more easily than if he spoke, but is that sort of wording just me regurgitating commonly held views?

How do women feel about playing as a man?

Is it really that important?

I think in the Second Unreal, the player is a woman and it didn’t make any difference at all for me.

Perhaps once we get into hardware that more completely immerses the player then it will matter, but not at the moment.

Thoughts and votes?


4th May 2014 27 Comments

May 2014 – General Chat

Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3

May! Yes, May! Can you believe it’s May already?

It’s starting to get warming and the days are definitely longer – at least where I live.

Can’t wait for Summer, can you?

Please use this post to talk about about anything you want to – except maps and mods, which should be done of the specific post, assuming there is one.


1st May 2014 48 Comments