This is the third and final mod in the 3×10 Mapping Competition Series.
Mapper were tasked with creating an defence scene.
There are 3 entries for this competition.
Basic Details
- Title: MovieVille
- File Name: hl2-ep2-sp-3x10mc-movieville.7z
- Size : 17.10MB
- Author: Various
- Date Released: 28 December 2013
Download Options
Download to your HDD [17.10MB]
Installation Instructions
- Copy the MovieVille folder into your SourceMods folder.
- Restart or start Steam.
- MovieVille should now be listed in your Library tab.
If you require more help, please visit the Technical Help page.
About the MovieVille Theme
The winning map(s) will be the one that uses a movie as INSPIRATION for the map in the most novel and interesting way. I am NOT expecting EXACT recreations of movie scenes.
Entries
Heat by Erik-Silver Toomere AKA ESToomere
Long Way Down by Will Gallagher
War Room by RT
Screenshots
WARNING: The screenshots contain spoilers.
Each map has 5 screenshots. Thanks to ArctixSnowPup for providing the screenshots!
1600 x 900
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Reader Recommendations
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Meta Review Data
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Manually: 13 Users
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Total Time Played: 4 Hours, 55 Mins
Using Gauge: Users
Manually: 13 Users
Time Taken:
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Shortest: 0 Hours, 1 Mins by
Longest: 0 Hours, 35 Mins by PlanetPhillip
Total Time Played: 4 Hours, 55 Mins
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This is the first Mapping Competition that I didn’t give a Play It recommendation. I feel bad about that but sometimes the theme and/or the timing just don’t work.
Heat is unfinished , but quite fun to play.
Long Way Down was definitely my favourite and pretty cool.
War Room would have been interesting if there was just more to it.
Not the most successful competition but that’s life. Hopefully the next theme will be more inspiring and result in some great entries.
Manually
Easy
35 Minutes
You’re right about the timing for this competition. It was pretty clear from the start that fewer people would be entering MovieVille, and the comments section on the announcement page was extremely barren in comparison to the last two 3×10 parts.
I actually don’t think the theme was too restrictive, and would like to see what people might do with it given a different time of year or a longer deadline. There are a ton of interesting possibilities and interpretations of the theme, only a cross section of which were explored in this map pack.
Surely next time things will pick up where they left off and we will see a good number of submissions again.
Thanks for the pick on Long Way Down. It was inspired by the 2012 version of Dredd.
Thanks for hosting the competition. I look forward to the next one.
I suggest “Finishville.” The theme would be, “Submit a map that you didn’t have time to finish for a previous PP contest.”
I’m being sarcastic, of course… but only a little.
Also, doing these contests around finals time is probably not the best idea. I know many (most?) community mappers and modders are still in college.
Anyway, don’t let it get you down. Even the most unsuccessful PP competition has a hidden gem or two that makes it worth playing.
I’m not sure I agree about the age of the mappers but Christmas is definitely a factor. Hopefully, the mapping competitions will bounce back!
MovieVille was an interesting theme but I think that a lot of mappers felt like it was a very restrictive theme making it difficult for them to come up with ideas.
—
This map starts out with you in front of a building that is occupied by rebels.
You walk inside to grab your gear. Soon after picking up your gear you hear Combine APCs arriving on the scene.
You’re ambushed. Time to make a run for it.
The map is probably the most varied of the three submissions and doesn’t look all that bad. The ending pops up right when you expect to be driving a car around for a while so that was a bit disappointing but it isn’t bad.
You find yourself in a elevator that doesn’t look like it will be able to hold you for much longer. You decide to jump out and find a way out of here.
Fun fact. The first time I just jumped out of the magic box to tumble to my death. Then I realized that I had to jump to the ladder on my left.
I think this was actually a good thing. What I like about this map is that to a certain extent you’re required to just figure stuff out and when this happened to me at the start I initially thought it was a bit silly but in the end, it worked.
The slow motion door blasts are pretty cool though some could have been timed a bit better because I would often be trying to get a shot on an NPC only to find out time was flowing as it normally should again meaning that the shot I lined up would miss.
I liked Heat but I think Long Way Down was more immersive.
Nice design though maybe a bit too simple. I think that this map was designed with the very strict rule in mind that this competition is about recreating a scene or location from a movie with no puzzles or combat required.
So they’ve done nothing wrong, it meets those requirements.
The room looks nice and clean but it could have been more detailed.
It doesn’t feel like someone worked on this for ten days but instead just two or three.
—
Well there we have ’em. My opinions on this map pack/mod.
Manually
Easy
15 Minutes
Thanks for the review of Long Way Down, Christiaan. You make a good point about the slow motion affecting the player’s ability to land shots. I’ll keep that in mind when I come back to this concept later. I’m glad you liked it overall.
but I think that a lot of mappers felt like it was a very restrictive theme making it difficult for them to come up with ideas.
I disagree. I feel this was the most open of the three.
I think that this map was designed with the very strict rule in mind that this competition is about recreating a scene or location from a movie with no puzzles or combat required.
This is a misunderstanding. The theme was never about recreating scenes or locations from movies but being INSPIRED by movies.
It doesn’t feel like someone worked on this for ten days but instead just two or three.
Correct. This was entered a few days after the competition was announced. The author, just didn’t have any time after that.
Thanks for giving it a play!
As the name suggests I used Heat (1995) as inspiration. I took three of the moments from the movie but I tried to make them work in a HL2 setting.
One of the scenes ends with two of the perps escaping in a car. I wanted to make that scene a bit more interesting in the game but, sadly, I ran out of time. I had even planned a larger fight with where you got the AR2.
But, can’t wait for future challenges!
I know that, for my part, I’m always skeptical about using someone else’s work as a basis for my own, so I was more uncomfortable with the theme than anything. I looked to movies in the public domain and couldn’t find anything that would be recognizable, save for Metropolis. It beats Santa Claus Conquers the Martians and most Mystery Science Theater 3000 fare, at least.
Not that you can tell what movies these three maps are based on – except for “War Room.”
“Heat” starts you off in a rundown building with a handful of rebels and a pending assault from Civil Protection and APCs. Where you are supposed to go is not entirely clear, but the gist of the map is that you’re running from building to building while avoiding the Combine in the exterior stretches. The screenshot features a Strider, but I apparently didn’t stick around long enough to see it because once I got to the jalopy, I was gone. There’s nothing special about this map – it’s a generic Combine encounter.
“War Room” is clearly based on the same room in Dr. Strangelove. I was going to comment on the lack of… well… anything here, but as AniCator points out, combat and puzzles were NOT mandatory in this competition. So, we’re left with this showcase map with a shiny reflective floor and stark black-and-white imagery. I don’t know how anyone could compare a map that exists purely for artistic purposes against one that is filled with gameplay – which is probably why art maps have their own competitions in most forums.
Then there’s “Long Way Down,” which is easily the winner and marks a substantial improvement in Halvgoeden’s skills from DefendVille’s Outpost 400. The visuals in this map reminds me of the first Deus Ex – dark, ominous cityscapes with dingy alleyways. Here, you need to shut down three drug labs and leave. Each lab is defended by a small number of Civil Protection forces and slo-mo effects. This map isn’t going to blow you away, but for 10 days, it’s a quality effort.
In fact, the whole reason I’m writing this at all is really to compliment Halvgoeden. I expressed my opinion that his Outpost 400 had the bones of a decent level – it just suffered from pacing issues. His entry in this competition is a great improvement, offering a simple, satisfying objective that is well executed and I look forward to what he offers next.
Manually
Easy
20 Minutes
Thanks for the review of Long Way Down, JG. I’m glad it reminded you of Deus Ex in a way, since its reference could be considered in the realm of cyber punk. My improvement since Defendville is in no small part thanks to people such as yourself right here on PlanetPhillip, who are always helpful and direct. So, thank you for that as well.
Thanks for giving it a play!
As the name suggests I used Heat (1995) as inspiration. I took three of the moments from the movie but I tried to make them work in a HL2 setting.
The Strider was actually a trap, a demotivator if you went the wrong way. I wanted the NPCs to feel like they were clamping down on you, blocking every available path for you, just leaving you one path to… lose the heat.
But, can’t wait for future challenges!
I thought that the theme for this competition had a lot of potential, it’s too bad that there aren’t many entries. I was working on one but had trouble nailing down the details, and it was too late to finish by the time I had started in earnest. Perhaps people had similar problems, or maybe they had other things on their mind given that this competition ran into the end of the year. I’d like to finish and release my map later on, but then that’s what they all say!
I liked what Heat was going for, imitating the movie with a fast run down the street. It feels very different to the usual combat in Half Life. It wasn’t as exciting as a running battle down a street should be. Perhaps it would have been more effective if the player was forced to find cover in the street itself instead of bunnyhopping (figuratively) down the road and into the next handy corridor. Still, I didn’t run into any frustrating situations and it was an interesting change in pace. The soldiers lined up at the end to be run over like balling pins was a bit of a laugh.
Long Way Down is a very solid entry, with a few decent combat encounters and visuals that are a bit limited but evoke their inspiration well. Going through some humdrum future-tech corridors into the huge indoor shaft was a nice moment. It’s a little odd that I’m busting cops who are cooking up drugs. But hey, let’s say that they are mercs or something! The addition of a breach mechanic to Half Life 2 was quite cute and evoked the movie nicely. Additions like that were what I was hoping for from this competition.
There’s not much to War Room. I was a bit disappointed in how sparse and lacking in detail the room is; there isn’t very much to see. As a proof of concept for an art style though it’s brilliant. The strong monochrome colours, spotlights, and reflective floor tiles work very well together. I’d love to play a game with visuals in the style of this map.
Thanks for giving it a play!
As the name suggests I used Heat (1995) as inspiration. I took three of the moments from the movie but I tried to make them work in a HL2 setting.
The bowling pins were there as a… consolidation price? Actually they were supposed to be part of the last AR2 fight.
But, can’t wait for future challenges!
The idea of this competition was an interesting one, but I don’t watch very many movies, so it was kind of hard for me to guess what movies the different scenes were from, so my opinions are strictly on the game play itself.
Heat:
This map was pretty solid in its foundation, a simple ambush followed by an escape sequence. I really was expecting the APC to chase me down the street, or at the very least make the scene feel more like an ambush. I also failed to realize that I didn’t have to kill all the enemies on the bridge, and ended up running out of ammo. The path to the car at the end was not easy to find when you are being shot at from above, and a visible path would have probably been better here.
Long Way Down:
Overall, this was the most fun and aesthetically pleasing of the maps. The color pallet used in the map conveyed the idea the scene was going for, which looked like a drug bust of sorts. I liked the little extra touches such as the g-gun machine where the magnum was located, and the visuals for the outside there were really brilliant. It was really hard to tell when the slow motion effect was in place, but that could be easily fixed by some sort of screen overlay (perhaps the teleporter effect from the beginning of HL2 would be a good choice)
War Room:
More of a visual showcase than an actual map. The room was aesthetically pleasing, but there wasn’t really anything to do but walk around. I was hoping that there was more to the map, as in I tried crawling into corners trying to find a way out, but there wasn’t one.
My winner: Long Way Down
Manually
Medium
32 Minutes
Well as I don’t really want to give a kind of undecided recommendation, I won’t say this is a Maybe as I initially thought to state, because this overall felt like a pretty weak competition. As Phillip says, sometimes that’s the result and is no one fault, maybe the time and this holydays seasons are big externalities which didn’t help to offer a great 3×10 comp. And comparing the last two competitions to this one, the first two are just millions miles away from this one, especially in content, variety and quality terms.
So being said that, I guess HEAT entry was the most interesting in what mapping respects, it was a kind of big map, but with very scarce and few weapons available to the player, so what could have been a great combat after the escape eventually becomes pretty bland and is pretty frustrating not allow the gamer to battle against the strider. also there were annoying invisible walls and parts where you can notice the map is clearly unfinished, but as it can be a cool urban battle map I’d love to see it finished.
The second entry A LONG WAY DOWN: is the best of the all entries in my opinion, because is neat and finished, that middle pit between the high rise buildings brought me strong memories of the great G-String mod, and overall this map had a feeling close to that mod, the combat felt ok, though those resistance members close to the CMB soldiers didn’t appear logic to me at all.
The 3rd and last entry WAR ROOM: well I have nothing to say about, it looked interesting and pretty nice in that lighting effect but is just an empty room and an unfinished map, which is a pity, and I’d also love to see it finished and released properly in near future if it’s possible.
In conclusion I guess if you are a real fan of the PP competitions then you have to try this one no matter how bland it is… I think this one, New Mesa Ville and Gravity Gun ville are between the weakest competitions in PP.com events.
That’s all I have to say and I have a big question for anyone who can really respond it: I really didn’t know which movie was related to all of the 3 entries, so I insist, DO YOU KNOW WHICH MOVIE IS RELATED TO WHICH ENTRY?? if anyone knows please let me know, and if you can post a web link about it.
Manually
Medium
25 Minutes
Heat, Dredd, Dr. Strangelove 🙂
I played the first and second part of the 3×10 mapping competition and really liked some of the entries.
I was really looking forward to play this third part. Sadly it was rather disappointing. But also understandable at this time of the year.
Heat:
The introduction text at the beginning faded away so fast that I couldn’t read it. Then I was greeted by some rebels which was nice. Also the APC coming in from the street and then exploding was a nice touch and made up for a good action packed start.
But after this I was completely lost and didn’t know what to do. I tried to go up in the building and got shot from a sentry, same scenario in the back of the building. Combines came in from all directions and I killed them.
I guessed I had to follow the long street since the other shorter street was clipped. It was nice that the player has to run from side to side to avoid the APC guns, but then it seemed like there is no real “ending”, it even felt like I wasn’t supposed to be there. Lots of nodraw textures where I could see through the whole map etc.
Eventually I just closed the game.
Long Way Down:
After the first Entry I wasn’t expecting much, but this map was a blast. First the Elevator which seems to fall down any moment. Then nice intructions onscreen so I kind of knew what to do. Nice touch with the gravity gun mounted onto the wall.
And then the slow motion after blasting the door open – insane! I really hoped for more scenes like this and was not disappointed. Some more drug labs and slow motions. Also the little rebel “camp” with the crossbow. There was some magnum ammo if I remember correctly, but I couldn’t find any magnum.
When I entered the elevator in the end I really hoped for some more action but the map was sadly over. Really nice entry.
War Room:
My weapon binds were messed up when I played the first 2 maps so I closed the game and corrected my config to be able to play in the best conditions on the final entry.
Sadly there were no weapons.
First I was astonished of the style of the map, that black and white and mirrored floor. But looks like there was nothing more to it. Which movie was this from actually? It reminded me of The Matrix.
The map looked nice but after 3 minutes I closed it.
Manually
Medium
25 Minutes
Hey, Maxtasy. I think I recently stumbled into your YouTube channel. I’ve really enjoyed your DefendVille series so far. You should cover EndVille sometime. 🙂
There were a fair number of reviews for EndVille, but precious little video of it.
I think the Avoid It recommendation is a little harsh. I believe that Long Way Down is good enough for people to download the mod and play it.
War Room is from Dr. Strangelove.
🙂
Hey, Max.
Indeed your recommendation is harsh. If you really enjoyed the 2nd entry, don’t you want others to enjoy it, too?
There were a lot of possibilities for this theme, so the results of the competition are a little disappointing. It is worth keeping in mind though that 10 days is simply not enough time to create the kind of custom content needed to accurately replicate a movie scene, which is why entries were supposed to be “inspired by” them instead. I haven’t seen any of the three movies these entries were based on so I can’t really comment on that aspect of the competition.
Long Way Down was my favourite of the maps because it provided the most complete experience, although I thought the timing of the slo-mo effects was off in that they ended before I could fire at anyone. The outdoor area was very cool but had the common issue of broken cubemaps which could have made it look better. It made me think that a Matrix-style bullet time map could have been really fun.
Heat is obviously unfinished and there are visible nodraw textures and ways to get out of the playable area. Even so it was quite fun to play and the concept of street combat was well though out. It could be polished and expanded into something great.
Although War Room meets the rules of the competition, I think it’s unfair to compare it to the other entries as all the effort has gone into creating an accurate and graphically polished area rather than something playable. I feel like there should be a separate competition for maps like this as they could never be judged fairly compared to levels with gameplay.
I gave MovieVille a Maybe since the first two maps are enjoyable, but probably not for everyone. I don’t think the theme was to blame for the shortage of entries, it was probably just a combination of factors. Seeing as the other two of the 3×10 were very successful, hopefully the next theme will bring many more entrants.
Manually
Medium
30 Minutes
Dr. Strangelove is pretty fantastic if you’ve never seen it. It’s a dark comedy that takes place during the Cold War and deals with the concept of mutually assured destruction and what happens when some very unbalanced men are in control of the nukes.
Personally I like the most of Phillip’s contests, but this, obviously, something went wrong. Don’t want criticize this Ville hugely, just a little about what I seen, but I can recommend this only for collection.
Heat seems unfinished a lot. Also, it freezes when I was killed by sentry, so I gave up.
War Room try to comply with the contest rules. Black and white texture were quite interesting. Nevertheless, there is simply no action except to look at mapping work.
Long Way Down, by far, best work on this Ville. Useful instructions, SLOW MOTION, some combat action. Map is pretty short, but it simply feels a cinematic all the way.
Anyway, Happy New Year to everyone!
Manually
Medium
25 Minutes
Heat was very interesting because of the placement of enemies and weapons. It had so much potential to be developed into a winning mod, but the flaws were too many.
This seems to be a common theme (not enough time in the competition to complete properly). Maybe they could be worked on and presented later as new mods? That would be appreciated by all for sure, especially as there are so few mods to play these days.
I thought Long Way down was a 9 out of 10, really impressive, in design and graphics. Especially the thought that went into placement and locations. There was one vent access and movement “puzzle” that was the best and most complex I have ever seen – a vent which was difficult to get into in the first place breaks under your weight and it appears you need to get back inside somehow to continue. Unfortunately it wasn’t built into the plot that way and it went nowhere I hadn’t been…lol.
War Room, really? Why? Thank heaven I read the previous reviews and saved myself multiple minutes doing nothing and going nowhere.
I gave the contest a Play It Later as 2 of the mods were Play It Now in my opinion.
Manually
Medium
30 Minutes
Heat
The first lines of text disappear too fast to be read fully, I guess we all had that issue and needless to say 1 simple playthrough from a betatester would’ve shown this, as I feel I missed important information.
Ahaha nice APC flyin about, fit right into the theme. I was able to jump to 2nd floor and see behind the scenes, sadly it wasn’t the only place.
The police just stand where they spawn and shoot, no time for building routes, either? The items appear to be ON the crates and not in them, not sure if bug or simply time constraint, and I end up in a spot where I can see behind the scenes again.. and see 4 police spawn right in front of me, making me feel I skipped something.
Strider but no rpg. I can go behind 1 apc and see behind scenes again.
The standing turret in the beginning has untextured wall next to it, talk about unfinished 😀
I kind of replayed some of it to notice that the squad wont follow me outside at all 🙁
“Feeling scorched?” Not really.
Reading the reviews, and seeing how the author for this entry had in mind us mostly running away, it explains why I died a few times in unfair ways. In the hl2 universe im usually the hero and I expect to kill everything in my path 🙂 turns out I wasn’t supposed to…
Playtime: 12m
Long way down
After betatesting this, I must say the added details fit nicely now. I’m glad this entry made me watch the movie Dredd and at that time I wished the authors would mention the movie they were inspired by, or just pick some more memorable movies, for all ages and tastes.
Hmm looking up I see the building blocks aren’t continuous, broke my immersion a bit.
The rooms the random combine come out of could’ve been more detailed and made bigger with the help of some corridor blocked by forcefields etc you know, fleshed out a bit. It’s a common issue, just looks bad when you see they were just waiting there in a square room.
But a nice entry overall, with nice variety, always giving the player something to do.
Playtime: 9m
War room
I was literally astounded by the looks of this map and kept blinking in disbelief, even took a screenie
http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/666830221545220535/8EF99AF318AA514265D864DA259516546C3AEF94/
as those are definitely some interesting new textures and effects. For a long time I thought I would actually get to fight in such a beautiful surrounding, but after 6 minutes of inspecting, boy, was I let down. Indeed the rules never obliged the author to include combat, but… to leave nothing for the player to do is not really how things work in Ville competitions.
Playtime: 6m
And actually watching the movies (was actually glad I found Dredd, got bored by Dr. Strangelove but I got to see the famous room, and Heat was quite a nice blast from the past) was nice to see how the maps got inspired by them, and they all did a nice job imo. “Long Way Down” wins from more than 1 pov of course.
Manually
Medium
27 Minutes
I think my point of view isn’t different from others hoppefully there was the second map that was enjoyable…put up a theme with a limited time and an Idea in mind has bring a lot of really good experience and sometime it’s normal to wait for more and don’t have something expected that’s life but let’s focus on some words: “keep up the good work” 🙂
Manually
Medium
20 Minutes
Mediocrity at its finest.
I won’t talk about them individually, because they’re all basically the same. It’s more or less like a huge grundfest.
I don’t know, I just didn’t really feel like this competition was that great.
Heat
This is pretty good, or could have been with better choice of weapons to help during that ambush. Seemed like a great idea but badly executed. Might have been nicer to have an obvious path through, especially when being picked off so easily. Dunno, seemed OTT to me.
Long Way Down
Easily the best of the bunch. This was great fun to play and I like the idea with the doors. The slo-mo effects were quite funny and it felt like the soldiers were sometimes fumbling for their weapons! Still, it was odd that somebody could blast down their door and they stood their waiting to see me. Couldn’t they see that door fly across their room? 😀 lol this was great fun to play.
I wanted it to go on…..!! Great map.
War Room
Yeah….
Ummmm!
Nice shiny fx here….
Little else 😉
Anyhow, download this for Long Way Down. IMHO.
Heat was unfinished and bland.
Long Way Down was good but short.
War Room… check please.
Manually
Easy
10 Minutes
Only one map is the most decent one here. I’ll explain all three entries in details
The map has some playability in it but it is so broken and unpolished that I could simply break out of the map by running into places where I’m not supposed to be. Take one example where I run past two ceiling turrets at the beginning of the level only to see nothing but dead end and the boundaries of the map. So instead I made all the way to the other side until I see a jalopy, driving straight forward to a border of a map. It ruins the experience to break out of the map that easily.
If it weren’t for this entry, this Ville would’ve gone to “Avoid It.” Gameplay is amazing, slow motion features, instructions and objectives are clear and simple. Combat is kinda easy to be honest, a gravity gun would easily kill every soldiers at ease.
If it weren’t for visuals, this would’ve been a dire entry because of no gameplay and interaction to the map. All you gotta do is just walk around aimlessly while looking at the visuals of the map, though it is really appealing. This is something you’d see from Map Labs’ Eye Candy.
If you wanna play this Ville, play it for Long Way Down, and I suggest starting with that entry for a good impression.