News posts

Valve just recently launched a new site update which includes a lot of snazzy new images and text describing their studio and work. Plenty to read about and look up, including a page listing their publications for download.

In other news, Valve recently moved to a larger studio disbanding their original 38,000 sq.ft. (~3,530 sq.m) studio for a new one down the road that's almost three times larger. A video showcasing their old to new transition can be found here. Courtesy of Game Informer Magazine. Makes you want to work their eh?

Considering also the New Steam beta skin (more like a re-designed UI) AND their winning The Escapist's 2010 Developer Showdown, this must be the year of the Valve: "Your talents will be recognized and suitably rewarded."

Taken from Halflife2.net

The highly regarded American actor Robert Culp has died at the age of 79. Best known for appearances in Everybody Loves Raymond, I Spy and most notably as the voice of Dr Wallace Breen in Half-life 2.

The 79-year-old actor was rushed to Queen of Angels hospital shortly after 11 a.m. after hitting his head while taking a walk outside his home. He was pronounced dead at the hospital a short time later. A preliminary investigation found "that his death is accidental and there appears to be no sign of foul play"

Playing Half-life 2 for the first time was highly memorable, especially hearing those first words...Welcome. Welcome, to City 17. RIP.

Dr Wallace Breen: When the singularity collapses, I will be far away from here. In another universe, as a matter of fact.

Looking to get your SP mapping fix? Look no further; Planet Phillip is hosting a competition for HL2: EP2. The goal is to "[create] an interesting scenario using at least one Hunter. Maps [should] create tension and foreboding of a coming battle."

The competition ends May 3rd. It's meant to be an original single-player mission built specifically for this competition and within the allotted time. Custom content is allowed, but doesn't guarantee better chances. Phillip is the sole judge and if you've ever followed his posts on the site, you'd know he's a fair guy. The cash prize for the winner is $100! Time to fire up the Source SDK and get to work!

You can read all the details here.

Valve released a strange update to Portal on March 1st that included one new Steam achievement and 26 audio "transmissions" to be found in-game. It turned out to be a massively impressive puzzle hinting at details for the next iteration of Portal.

Some of the transmissions are clearly Morse Code recordings and others as SSTV encoded messages. Many members across the Half-Life community already took it upon themselves to break these messages down and get to the dirt of it all. The process involved using old modems to dial up Valve's Bulletin Board Service and reveal a collection of ASCII images and text with words from Aperture Science founder Cave Johnson dated from 1973. It's a pretty impressive viral campaign that as some theories go, mark March 11th, the date Gabe Newell will receive his Pioneer Award at the GDC this year with some significance in the decoded messages.

See Kotaku's full story here.

[UPDATE]: It looks as though there has been yet another update today, simply labeled: "valuable asset retrieval." Once again, the community already looked into it and posted a video of the change in-game. Valve changed the ending of Portal! Watch it here.

Now it's getting exciting!

Join in on the discussion in the forums here.

The winner for Muhnay's Mapping Challenge is Niborius. Congratulations!

Enjoy your new prize! Check out his entry on the forums here.

One of our more enthusiastic members, Muhnay has started a new mapping challenge. Something quick and easy for those with little time to devote these days. -There's even a prize! If you're interested, be sure and stop by to show your enthusiasm!

You can read more about it in the forums here.

It was noted by our member Crono in the forums about a new released 'mod' for HL2. It's a complete revamp or 'upgrade' of the original 2004 release of Half-Life 2. Developed by Filip Victor, the mod is complete with updated EP2 models, sprites, achievements, HDR and much more! Everyone recognized the official updated release in the '07 Orange Box version for the consoles, but we never saw any love for its PC counterpart. -What gives Valve?

Well, wait no further, It's free to download but requires both HL2 & HL2:EP2 in order to play. Check the Steam Forums for the original post and other details.

Score another one for the community.

Finally some major progress! We're almost done with this mammoth of a project.

There are still a few things left to do, but now you can enjoy every space intended for the map since the beginning -And at a good fps speed too!

Zoom over to the update post in the forums and mention any bugs you may come across here.

For those who are ready for a download, you can grab that here.

If you're ready to play it on a server right now, we have it available 24/7 on 'TKM's Vantage Point' HL2DM server: 8.9.36.83:27015

Enjoy!

Just released today for the Holidays is the new L4D2 SDK; you can find it under the 'tools' tab on your Steam window.

L4D Blog said:
PLAYERS: If you are not looking to design but play custom campaigns all you need to do is install the add-on support package. Just go into steam and open up the Tools tab. Look for the entry labeled Left 4 Dead 2 - Add-on Support click and install it. This download is sizable, but will update your L4D2 installation to allow running ANY map, including custom maps made for the original Left 4 Dead. Once installed, you do not need to run this application, it will always be active.

We will be updating the Left 4 Dead 2 game UI to include links to this package when applicable but for now please just download it directly. If you see any missing textures or models from your favorite map let us know in the forums.

Find out how to get it, and read more at the L4D Blog

The SnarkPit has also been updated with a database entry for your new L4D2 maps too! Apparently porting your original L4D map to L4D2 is pretty easy as well. Time to get mapping on your new L4D2 maps!

Phillip over at Planet Phillip is at it again. This guy doesn't stop! The goal this time is to take advantage of HL2 sniper gameplay and build a small single player level with that in mind. I'll admit I'm six days late in posting this, but you have another 29 days to work; it's due January 4th, you still have plenty of time!

The great news about this competition is you don't have to work hard impressing people with custom content; while although it is allowed, Phillip is the sole judge of this competition and will predicate his judging criteria on layout and use of assets. Furthermore, cash prizes! -Including a random map cash prize. It's the holidays, surely, you have time to work on a small SP map!?

Read all about it here