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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Rainmeter and a Half-Life 2 style desktop

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

I received an interesting email from Joe Albericci AKA ThePengu a few days ago and I thought I’d share the content with you.

He told me about a a desktop customization platform called Rainmeter, whilst I had never heard of that particular application, I was aware of these types of applications. The whole thing looks pretty cool and I am running it as I type, although I am yet to find the right skin for me.

18th July 2010 6 Comments

The 7 Year Cycle?

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

I was recording Podcast17 yesterday and was speaking about a mod I added a few days ago called Minimicus.

There’s nothing remarkable about this mod, although it is good fun and well produced, but the interesting things is that it is 7 years old. In gaming, that’s a loooong time.

18th July 2010 14 Comments

Poll Question 181 – Should mod makers be expected to support and update their mods over a number of years and engines updates?

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

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.

16th July 2010 35 Comments

Poll Question 179 – Would you like to see a mod break the fourth wall?

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

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?

2nd July 2010 33 Comments

Thank You William McMahon

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

As I was walking along the beach the other day, my feet enjoying the cool, refreshing waves, I starting thinking about stuff. Not just regular stuff, like shopping lists and housework, but world-changing, cataclysmic stuff. Stuff like Podcast 17 and how it has nearly 90 episodes. That’s one a week for over 21 months. Do you know how much work is required to produce one podcast? I do and it’s a lot.

27th June 2010 10 Comments

Andrej Mernik’s HL1 Mod Page

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

Andrej contacted me a while ago and said he was going to make a lot of the Hl1 files that used to be available on my Filecloud server available from his site. He has been working very hard and I would like to thank him for all his hard work.

He has listed them in alphabetical order and each file has plenty of details. Many of the reviews are in Slovenian but he plans to translate them soon.

26th June 2010 2 Comments

Poll Question 178 – What is acceptable in a Half-Life game?

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

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.

26th June 2010 38 Comments

Poll Question 177 – Would you play a mod that was purposefully trying to be offensive?

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

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.

18th June 2010 69 Comments