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.

Follow the Read releases via RSS

This Week’s TV Guide

Citizen GreyAcumen wrote to the City 17 Times’ offices this week to remind us that choosing TV shows to watch is difficult without knowing what is on and when!

So this week we present our TV GUIDE:

1st September 2010 17 Comments

Motion Blur in Episode Two

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

I’m not the smartest person in the world nor the dumbest but I’ve just noticed that Episode Two has motion blur. This could have been included weeks or even months ago but I only noticed it a couple of days ago.

Makes me wonder what other features I’ve missed.

28th August 2010 36 Comments

Poll Question 187 – Should games or mods use famous voice actors?

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

You’ve probably seen the recent Portal 2 videos and news about the voice of Wheatley; the companion in Portal 2.

When they first released a video it apparently had one of Valve workers voicing the part and , at least for me, I thought he did a great job. However, then came the announcement that Stephen Merchant was doing the voice.

27th August 2010 37 Comments

BreenGelina! Are the rumours true?

In shock news today we hear that Brad Pitt has been dumped by Angelina Jolie, but the news doesn’t stop there, oh no!

Apparently Angelina has been having an affair behind Brad’s well oiled and muscular back, with none other than City 17’s incredible Dr. Breen.

25th August 2010 4 Comments

Poll Question 186 – Should mods release demos?

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

I originally used to believe that the bigger mods should release demos. I viewed things from the perspective of retail sales. A player is a customer and a mod a product. Players “pay” for their mod by the time and effort of downloading and keeping up to date.

To convince players that they should play a particular mod, a demo could be used to show how good a mod is. I no longer believe that’s true.

22nd August 2010 14 Comments

What have the Combine ever done for us?

When patrolling through the streets of our beautiful city, I often hear the mumbling and grumbling of ungrateful citizens. The most common question I hear is “What have the Combine ever done for us?”. I can’t help but think back to our decadent days and ways and the first thing that springs to mind is Monty Python’s scene from the Life of Brian.

So, let’s take a moment a think about what the Universal Union have done for us.

18th August 2010 27 Comments

Poll Question 185 – How long do you leave between replaying mods?

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

I read quite a lot but recently I haven’t had access to new books, so I have had to start re-reading some old ones. Some I remember very well and stop reading almost before the end of the first chapter, others seemed to have faded from memory and only some things are familiar.

At first i thought it was simply the amount of time between each reading but now I don’t think it’s that simple. I then thought it was how much I enjoyed the book the first time, and again, I now don’t. To be honest I’m not sure exactly what it is, but it’s interesting.

13th August 2010 13 Comments

Headlines not funny enough

In a shock development, City 17 Times recieved word from Dr. Breen’s office, via a weekly audio broadcast, that the quality of the headlines of this newspaper weren’t funny enough. As the wave of depression swept through both rooms of our extensive offices, reporters could be seen jumping from the windows in a futile attempt to rid themselves of the shame.

11th August 2010 7 Comments

Poll Question 184 – Are you interested in a recreation of the leaked HL2 beta?

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

Each month seems to see the announcement of a new mod whose objective is to release a recreation of the leaked beta.

The four I have heard of are: Project Terminal, Beta Source, Anonbeta mod and Missing Information.

Seems a shame that so many people are working on more or less the same thing when they could be A: working together (although that’s a lot easier said than done) or B: working on something original.

Obviously a lot of people love this sort of thing but are players really that interested? You tell me.

6th August 2010 18 Comments

Asking the right questions

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

Getting a map or mod tested is very important and it’s something I’ve written about many times in the past and I still feel passionate about.

I even went as far as creating a SP beta testing team [now dead] that contained members with varying quality PCs, different levels of playing skill and even some modders. The idea was to create a committed group of individuals who took testing seriously and offer that service to other mods.

4th August 2010 6 Comments