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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A Place in the West – An Interview with Ross and Michael.

The range of creations based on the Half-Life series never ceases to amaze me. Of course, that’s probably true of many IP franchises but Half-Life is the only one I am interested in.

I can’t say I have always been a fan of comics and am a little embarrassed to say that the movie “Unbreakable” was the first time I had really thought about their societal impact and influence.

Even as a child, I never really bought comics, so it was with some trepidation that I started to read A Place in the West. I won’t lie – it took a while for me to become interested and I did find it tough going at times, but I will say that I enjoyed what I read, even if I didn’t agree with all the creative choices.

I actually printed all the chapters and read them like a tradition comic and I actually liked that more than reading them on-screen (call me old-fashioned if you want).

That said, I have absolutely no hesitation at all in recommending reading the comic. The first chapter is free but the following ones are much better and at a very fair price of 1.99 Euros.

Below is a brief interview I conducted with the creators of the comic and I would like to thank them for taking the time to reply to my questions.

All the images below are taken from the first chapter.

So, either before or after reading the interview, go visit the A Place in the West Steam page and get reading.

26th May 2018 No Comments

May 2018 – General Chat

As I was lying in bed this morning, thinking about getting up or thinking about staying, a new feature for the site popped into my head.

I’m going to call it “Reference Gallery” and it will contain reference images from HL1 mods. I’ll split it into a few sub-galleries: Ceilings, Corridors, Large Arenas, Set Pieces and Science Baby!

I’ll start building the framework pages this week and slowly add images to each section. Let me know if you feel I should have other sub-galleries. I did consider creating an account on an external social media site just for this but want to keep everything hosted on RTSL.

Anywho….

Here we are. Getting closer to summer. I still haven’t finished Wolfenstein The New Order – shame on me. Who knows, MAYBE I will this month.

Found a mod I have been meaning to play for ages, so that takes presidents (Thank Mr. Trump for that spelling), plus a bunch of other stuff related to the site.

What about you? Got any big plans for the month of possibilities?

BTW, the image is taken from Dark Interval – Canals

1st May 2018 15 Comments

Special Quiz Giveaway 2018

In the past I was pretty bad about keeping records of which games I had been given and which games I had given away. I do things differently now, but I have a file with a list of games that may, and this is REALLY important, MAY have been given away.

The only way to find out is to actually put the codes into Steam (some in Origin) and see what happens.

Therefore, this quiz giveaway is held on the basis that all or possibly none of the keys I have will work. By entering, you accept that possibility. No subsitute games will be offered even if none of the keys work.

Yes, this is pretty cheeky or me and yes, if they don’t work, that’s pretty shitty on the winner – but as Gordon says “”.

Here are the games:

1st May 2018 1 Comment

Untold Stories – Fan Fiction Event

“Were you the only ones on that train?

Overwatch stopped our train in the woods and took my husband for questioning. They said he’d be on the next train. I’m not sure when that was. They’re being nice, though, letting me wait for him.”

What happened to her husband? What happens to her? That is just one untold story and Half-Life 2 is full of untold stories. Stories that need telling. Stories that you should tell.

For this fan fiction event, I would like you to write a about any supporting character from Half-Life 2.

Your story must be no more than 1500 words.

The story can be serious, comedic, scary, light-hearted or whatever genre or combination you desire.

Entry Deadline

Please send your entry, via email, either as a txt attachment or even written in the email itself, to [email protected], not later than 11:59pm UTC Monday 28^th May 2018.

Rules

All entries must be Safe For Work.
All entries MUST be in English (sorry).
Authors may enter as many separate stories as they wish.
Phillip’s decision is final regarding winners.
No purchase necessary.
Other weird rules may be added later.

Prizes

I’ll be giving away a few Steam games. the more entries I get the more games I will give.

Other Fan Fiction Events

I would like to encourage ALL readers to take a look at the previous Fan Fiction Events. There are some great entries in there.

28th April 2018 18 Comments

Special Challenge – NostalgiaVille

Half-Life 2 has been around for longer than 13 years, but many will agree that the game has still not lost its charm. However, as Episode 1 and 2 came out, people switched their focus to the new environments and gameplay that were introduced. NostalgiaVille seeks to balance out the scale by re-introducing the classic environments of Half-Life 2 in the modern day.

In this challenge, you are given 2 months to create a level set in the early chapters of Half-Life 2 (think City 17 up to and including the Coast, however we find that the City and Canal sections in their pre-Uprising state are the least prominent within usual challenge entries). Don’t feel pressured to work for the whole 2 months, as that would mean a high risk of burning out, but consider the possibilities for the scope and scale of your entry.

A big focus of NostalgiaVille is, well, Nostalgia. The player should be reminded of the time when they first played Half-Life 2, and levels should, to some degree, feel familiar. So feel free to include HL2 Easter eggs, references, and maybe even altered segments of the original chapters in your entries. However, with time, technology and level design practices have improved.

We would like the early Half-Life 2 environments to be used and a level of familiarity in the level design to be kept, but gameplay can be either similar to the way it was in the original game or changed to add new concepts into the old environments, thus combining the new and old in your entry. Keep in mind that even if your map follows the same ideas from the environments in Half-Life 2, it should be polished and up-to-date with modern standards in other design aspects.

Deadline

The deadline for submission is 11pm UTC Sunday 24^th June 2018

Prizes

The top 3 entrants will win cash prizes as follows, all paid via PayPal:

First place: $300
Second place: $200
Third place: $100

27th April 2018 26 Comments

The Extreme Team Experiment Mapping Challenge

This experimental mapping challenge has two aspects.

A Team of Two

For this challenge, we would like you to find a partner and work with them on the entry. As part of your entry, you MUST include a readme that states what each person did.
Your partner does NOT have to be another mapper, but can be. They could be an environmental artist, a modeller, a sound/music artist, a texture artist – it’s YOUR choice.
It’s impossible for us to define or check how much each partner does, but we would like to feel it’s a minimum of 70/30. Meaning that the junior partner does at least 30% of the work.

Phillip’s Note: “Remember, the Experimental Mapping Challenges (EMCs) are a chance for mappers to try something new. Not just in WHAT they produce but HOW they produce it. I would like to think that in a few years time, mappers who entered the challenges can say that they learnt, improved and benefited from doing so. Working in a team is something that people often have to do, sometimes against their will, but it can be a useful experience.”

The Theme: Extreme

For this challenge, we would like you to take one aspect of Half-Life, Half-Life 2, Ep1 or Ep2 and take it to the extreme.
Firstly, that doesn’t mean simply adding hundreds of enemies or set the whole map a standard vent.
We accept that thoughtless and over-use of any aspect of any game can produce boring maps, so the judges hope for clever intepretations of the theme.

You may set your maps in whatever location you choose and they can be as short or as long as you want. Think carefully about the three games above and try to find some aspects that will produce some unusual and interesting maps.

Here is an example, although we hope you consider other things.
Exploding Barrels. Imagine a map whose only form of attack was with exploding barrels. Perhaps the enemies are behind defenses that your weapons can not penetrate or maybe barrels must be placed against walls to progress. Or even a puzzle where the barrels must be placed in certain places to allow a chain-reaction. That might lead to some fun maps.
Simply adding lots of exploding barrels to a level is not what we are looking.

You just have to find an aspect that interests you and take it to the extreme. Remember, this is an experimental mapping challenge and therefore it is about pushing the limits. GOOD LUCK!

Deadline

11am UTC Monday 16th April 2018

6th April 2018 4 Comments

Have you submitted your status report to the administrator today? – Fan Fiction Event

I am pleased to say that this fan fiction event seems to have been a success.

7 reports were received, each with a differing style and tone.

The link to the PDf is below, along with a poll for you to vote for your 3 favourite entries.

Thanks to all who entered. There will be another fan fiction event in May.

Read the Reports.

Left-clicking the link below will open the PDF report in your modern browser. Right-click, to have the option of saving it to your computer. It’s approximately 184KB.

1st April 2018 8 Comments

April 2018 – General Chat

No doubt, there’s a bunch of “Half-Life 3 Has Been Announced!”, “Exclusive Half-Life 3 Screenshots!”, “Valve announces Half-Life 3!” etc but we are all too wise for to fall for those.

In fact, some of you might even avoid the Internet all together in the hope of not being disappointed yet again.

Sometimes the timing of news releases can have us doubting but the reality is that not everybody pays attention to April Fool’s and therefore inadvertently add to the strange news stories released.

I might have something to announce today and unfortunately it has to be today, so no doubt you’ll question its timing.

Anyway, enough of that.

As I write this, I still have another few more days off and hope to do some behind-the-scenes work on the site, including getting the multi-tags feature working again. I’ll also trying to open J.A.C.K. and starting doing some mapping again.

That plus my monthly promise to finish Wolfenstein: The new Order!

What about you, what do you have planned?

1st April 2018 10 Comments

11am UTC Monday 16th April 2018

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