Half-Life 2

The head-chomping, zombie-making alien of Half-Life looks good in a powdered wig when painted by Gearbox Software artist and Team Fortress 2 hat maker Shaylyn "ChemicalAlia" Hamm, as seen at deviantArt.

Dean Fraser hits it out of the park once again. As seen on Springfield Punx.

Who doesn't love sending Half-Life 2's headcrab zombies to the great beyond with a few whacks of Gordon Freeman's trusty crowbar? And who wouldn't love to have said bloody, shambling headcrab zombie in statue form?

Thankfully, the next great Gaming Heads creation based on Valve's Half-Life games is coming soon. The figure makers is opening up pre-orders for the 1/4 scale headcrab zombie next Monday, October 4. No price yet. But like Gaming Heads' previous releases, the Tank from Left 4 Dead and the Heavy from Team Fortress 2, we expect the headcrab zombie to cost a pretty penny.

1/4 Scale Headcrab Zombie [Gaming Heads]

You get The Jacknife Chronicles, a piece of machinima that uses Source Engine editor Garry's Mod and makes a gripping little short film out of it.

Set (loosely) in the Half-Life universe and running for an impressive 12 minutes, The Jacknife Chronicles blends assets from Half-Life and Mirror's Edge into something entirely different. And very impressive.

[via PC Gamer]

Self-professed "virtual photographer" Robert Overweg has a portfolio up on his site, showcasing a series of shots he calls "The End of the Virtual World".

They don't show the last minutes of a dying game world; instead, Overweg journeys to the end of a game's maps, shooting the desolate, lonely places that exist on the periphery of your favourite video games.

Four titles are features: Left 4 Dead 2, Half-Life 2, Counter-Strike and Modern Warfare 2. You won't find any men running around. Or aliens. Or tanks. Or ammo, or crates, or health packs. There's just...a road. A road to nowhere.

The End Of The Virtual World [via Gizmodo]

The infamous leak of Half-Life 2's beta in 2003 was a story with an international scope and wide-ranging consequences, some just now coming to light. Such as this box of Russian-made Half-Life 2bubblegum.

The guy unboxing this won it in an eBay auction for $2.25. It's obviously a knockoff - in 2003 and 2004, other than finishing and publishing the game, Valve's top overseas priority was probably catching the hacker who leaked it, not licensing Russian confectioners to make Gordon Freeman into Bazooka Joe - which is the second product this stuff infringes on. (Note the tiny wax-paper comics.)

Right there at the end - is that the snap of a six-year-old ingot of bubblegum, or the shattering of a molar?

Thanks to Jim B. for sending this in.

Reader Michael is so happy about Portal and Half-Life 2 coming to the Mac he sent us this picture. Seems Michael isn't the only one happy about it! (Update - now available as a t-shirt!)

As promised, Half-Life 2 has come to the Mac as part of Valve's weekly updates to the Steam library. PC gamers are also in for an update, as the classic first-person shooter gets a few new tweaks.

Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode One and Half-Life 2: Episode Two are now available via Steam on Mac, sporting Steam Cloud support that will let players access cross-platform save games remotely. Half-Life 2 and Episode One have also been updated with "improved graphical effects" and new Steam achievements, an excuse to revisit those games.

EVE Online: Tyrannis is also available via Valve's digital distribution service as of now, representing Steam's first day-and-date release for the Mac and PC.

Steam for Mac gets a big update this week with the addition of Half-Life 2, coming to Mac OS X on May 26.

Valve has confirmed that Half-Life 2 plus Half-Life 2: Episode I and II will be available to Mac users as of this week's update. A long wait, some five and a half years since Half-Life 2 was released on the PC, but a welcome addition nonetheless.

If you love the look of Half-Life 2 - and really, who doesn't - Viktor Antonov is the man to thank. But the art director for Valve's masterpiece doesn't just do games. He does movies, too.

For a few years now - since his last project, The Crossing, was canned - Antonov has been working as design director on The Prodigies, an old book which is being made into both an animated film and a video game.

Due out in March 2011, it'll be screened in stereoscopic 3D, and is about five teenagers who, after being assaulted, take it all out on the world at large.

In addition to his work on the film Antonov will also be directing the game adaptation. Be interesting to see how much of the development side of things he picked up while working with Valve.