Earth's Special Forces is a mod for the original Half-Life's engine (not Half-Life 2's Source) that transforms Valve's shooter into a massive arena for Dragonball Z battles.

It's a third-person fighting game with a few different modes (you can team up for deathmatches, etc). Being a mod it's a constant work-in-progress, and comes with a warning that "there is a learning curve so newbies beware", but if that doesn't deter you, the mod can be downloaded below.

Earth's Special Forces mod for Half-Life [ModDB]

Team Fortress 2's Heavy, Pyro and Spy will all be playable characters in the PC version of Sega kart-racer Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. We didn't like the game all that much, but many readers did, so... this is good news, PC/Valve-loving folks!

The game will be out on PC at the end of the month.

This news also should please anyone who plays six-degrees-of-separation with video game characters. See, Sonic has fought all the Nintendo characters in Smash Bros. and now Sonic has raced against TF2's characters. The Heavy was in Telltale's Poker Night, which also starred the rabbit from Sam & Max and others. One step closer to Kevin Bacon!

You may remember that, nearly four years ago, Australia's classification board refused to classify Left 4 Dead 2, effectively banning it from sale in the country. At the time, Australia's ratings system for video games topped out at MA15+, which basically means suitable for teenagers. Valve released a highly sanitized version of the game just for Australia, disappointing many and calling attention to the country's insufficient ratings policies.

Well, in the three-plus years since, Australia has gotten its act together. On Jan. 1, a new R18+ rating went into effect (Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge was the first to claim it.) Fans down under are wondering if Valve is keen to revisit the subject with a fully unedited Left 4 Dead 2. Writing on Valve's official forums, Chet Faliszek says yes.

"We have been exploring the options here and what we can legally do," he said.
"We will have more information on this when we understand the issues fully and how we are moving forward."

The game was submitted and refused, the decision was appealed, and the appeal was denied. It sounds like Valve isn't yet certain if Left 4 Dead 2 is eligible for a re-review under a new rating, or if an old decision is final no matter what.

Still, any expense of resubmitting Left 4 Dead 2 for classification "doesn't worry us," he added. "This is something we want to do."

Valve investigating R18+ options for Left 4 Dead 2 in Australia [GameSpot]

YouTube user Marflus1 has created this musical gem, which is described as follows:

An Arrangement of "Still Alive" from Portal, produced using the Wintersday Bell and Pipe Organ in Guild Wars 2, a little bit of pitch editing in Audacity, and an awful lot of time in Adobe Premiere Pro.

Whatever it takes!

Marflus1 previously figured out how to wring "Billie Jean" out of Guild Wars 2.

Portal's "Still Alive" in Guild Wars 2 [YouTube]

By now you've probably seen the ridiculous bikini-clad severed torso that publisher Deep Silver is packaging with the European/Australian special edition of zombie action-RPG Dead Island: Riptide.

It is gross and awful—to the point where Deep Silver just issued an apology for the statue—but hey, why let them have all the fun? We've put together some Severed Torso Special Editions for a handful of other deserving video games.

Above: the Portal turret gets the torso treatment.

Torso Mario isn't quite as useful as Raccoon Mario or even Frog Mario, but he's still an integral part of any statue collector's inventory.

There's nothing like cuddling up with a Cortana torso after a long night of shooting space aliens and getting called racial slurs on Xbox Live.

Dante from Devil May Cry apparently has no penis. Now he also has no arms or legs or head.

"Reach for the sky!" says Sheriff Woody in Disney Infinity. "Unless you have no arms!"

This lovely Princess Peach torso ain't gonna save itself.

Your turn, Kotaku Photoshoppers. What other games do you think need special torso editions?

For years now, there have been rumors and reports of a now-cancelled Half-Life 2 episode called Half-Life 2: Return to Ravenholm. The project, an overview of which can be found at the Combine Overwiki, was to be a collaboration between Valve and Dishonored-makers Arkane, and would, presumably, take players back to the creepy, zombie-infested village of Ravenholm. The existence and cancellation of Return to Ravenholm was confirmed by Valve's Marc Laidlaw in January of last year.

The folks at ValveTime have posted what they claim to be some new unearthed prototype screenshots from the long-cancelled project. They've compiled them into the video above, as well. For clarity's sake: These screens are old, and no one has any reason to think the project has been un-cancelled or anything like that.

Seeing as how the images come from an unconfirmed (by us) source and the game apparently never got very far into development, I'd suggest taking them with a grain of salt. I've reached out to both Arkane and Valve to ask about their authenticity, and will update if I hear back. Still... absorption? Interesting.

It wouldn't be an article about Half-Life unless I closed with some sort of Half-Life 3 joke, so… no, you know what? This one time I'm not gonna do it.

New Images of Half-life 2: Episode 4 / Return to Ravenholm [ValveTime, thanks Glenn]

3D printers are not machines. They are portals to a realm of dark magic, where you can conjure anything you want, in return for a plastic sacrifice.

Take this, for example: this is not an expensive, professional action figure (though you'll soon be able to get one of those). It's something made by a human being—albeit a very talented one—and a 3D printer.

That human being is Psychobob, a user whose work we've featured here before. Actually, we've featured this Portal figure before as well, before it was finished, but now that it's done, complete with lighting effects and base, it's worth another look.

3D Print: Atlas (Portal) Part2 [PsychoBob, via MAKE]

The cinematic adaptation of Brian K. Vaughan's beloved graphic novel series Y: The Last Man will be helmed by Dan Trachtenberg, director of the excellent 2011 Portal fan-film No Escape, Vulture reports.

It'll be Trachtenberg's first time as a feature-film director, which... could go either way. Given how strong No Escape was, I could see him doing something interesting with Vaughn's story. Then again, given the source material, he'll certainly have his work cut out for him.

Here's Trachtenberg's No Escape.

Y: The Last Man Director Is Named [Vulture]

This footage is taken from something called Half-Life Alpha, a demo of Valve's classic shooter playable in 1997, a year before the game would eventually be released.

As you'll quickly see, most of this is actually a tech demo. Which might explain why there's a Macross Pod hiding in a stairwell.

Update - Ah, the video was captured from a leak of the demo itself. Want to try it out yourself? Have at it.

Half-Life Alpha v 0.52 (9/4/97) - Tech Demo Gameplay [MarphitimusBlackimus, via PC Gamer]

Fresh off their success with The Walking Dead series, as well as experience with half a dozen other properties that belong to someone else, developers Telltale have told Red Bull (the website of... the drink) what their dream projects are.

And they're about the same as anyone else's dream projects.

"Coming from LucasArts we always felt we could do a great Star Wars story game," Telltale's CEO and co-founder Dan Connors says. "We also love the idea of building out a deeper story to a great game franchise, something like Half Life Stories or Halo Stories."

I'm pretty sure Halo's story is already deep enough, thanks, but it'd be hilarious to see someone try and make a narrative-driven adventure game out of Half-Life. The Adventures of Lamarr & Barney...

The Walking Dead: Bringing the World's Smartest Zombie Series to Life [Red Bull]