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 155 – Does your partner play video games?

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

This is a great question that came from Jasper and those who visit the forum will know that his partner also plays video games and has even started to comment on the site.

I fear he is one of the lucky ones, the chances are that a lot of men will at least give gaming a try, even if they don’t like it, whereas women seem to be less inclined to try and that’s a shame because it’s cool to share some activities with your partner.

17th January 2010 38 Comments

Poll Question 154 – How do you feel about pure puzzle mods?

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

There has been some discussion on the forum about “the rise of puzzle mods”. Personally I don’t see that they are becoming more popular or being released more often.

Considering how long physics has been in the HL games, it’s almost strange that we haven’t had more pure puzzle mods. Ideally, I think 95% of players prefer a balance between action, exploring and puzzles, but the operative word is “balance” and for some 30% of each is too much.

10th January 2010 27 Comments

Looking Backwards and Forwards?

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

This is something that occurred to me while walking yesterday and watching a couple of cats stalk a bird. It’s probably been done in games before but I can’t remember seeing it – that’s one of the problems of not playing other games.

The idea is that when you press the backwards key somewhere on the screen a small window appears that shows the view behind you. The size, placement and transparency of the view would be controlled by the player in an options window, same as other in-game options.

3rd January 2010 18 Comments

Poll Question 152 – Have you played the HL games in release order?

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

I was lucky, I waited until HL, OP and BS were released, so I could play them straight after each other, thereby living through each story in the right order.

These minor details are very important to me. As many readers may know I HATE spoilers, even the smallest detail is a spoiler to me. However, I do recognize that many people don’t really care that much.

27th December 2009 26 Comments

Poll Question 151 – Would you prefer new content or more maps?

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

I know a lot of players get bored with the standard assets of the games, but I am not one of them. As long as the modder knows how to use them wisely, them I am a happy headcrab.

Given the choice I much prefer a mod team spend the time on making more maps and therefore more gameplay for me. Of course, the usual It Depends rings loudly in the air, but these polls are just for a little fun and we must assume that the quality of the new content is the same as the new maps

20th December 2009 25 Comments

Things I would like to see in mods in 2010 – Part 2

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

Yesterday I wrote about six things I wanted to see in mods in 2010, today I write about 6 more.

Some of the things I wrote about yesterday could be quite hard to implement properly, but that’s the point. If the things were too easy then we would probably have already seen them.

What I really want to see is something that is challenging for the modder and something that is new and exciting for the player.

There must be hundreds of possible ideas and these are just a few of mine.

20th December 2009 17 Comments

Things I would like to see in mods in 2010 – Part 1

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

At this time of year I normally write some sort of wish list for the following year (2007, 2009 (not sure what happened to 2008!)), but this year I decided to be much more specific. This year I am going to talk about what I would like to see in mods.

I have decided to split it into two articles, so that we can discuss each point in greater detail. So, without further ado, here are the first six.

14th December 2009 29 Comments

Poll Question 150 – Do you play fullscreen or windowed?

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

Firstly, sorry for being a few days late with this poll – I was in bed ill for most of the weekend and I have to admit I kinda enjoyed the rest!

I was talking to William and Emanuel from Podcast 17 a few weeks ago, just before we started recording and we could hear Emanuel playign a mod. he said he was windowed and William said he also plays windowed.

14th December 2009 35 Comments