Jul 15, 2010
Fan Film: Beyond Black Mesa
Half-Life 2 - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Alec Meer)

Listen up, near-forgotten supporting character fans: Half-Life: Opposing Force’s Adrian Shepherd is back! Just, y’know, unofficially. I suspect it’s the only way we’ll ever see anything else of the Gearbox-developed add-on’s soldiery hero-mute – and it’s also a snazzy way to see real life human beans interacting with Striders, Combine police et al. Beyond Black Mesa is set during the Combine occupation of Earth, and was made by a bunch of HL2-lovin’ film-makers with $1,200 made from their day jobs. Shoestring, then, but going on the trailer they’ve not done badly considering… Strider! (more…)

Jun 29, 2010
It's The End Of The Virtual World As We Know It
Half-Life 2

It's The End Of The Virtual World As We Know ItSelf-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]


It's The End Of The Virtual World As We Know It
It's The End Of The Virtual World As We Know It
It's The End Of The Virtual World As We Know It
It's The End Of The Virtual World As We Know It
It's The End Of The Virtual World As We Know It
It's The End Of The Virtual World As We Know It


Jun 26, 2010
Unboxing Half-Life 2: The Bubblegum
Half-Life 2

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.


Jun 14, 2010
Portal, Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode One and Half-Life 2: Episode Two Updates Released
Half-Life 2 - Valve
Updates to Portal, Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode One and Half-Life 2: Episode Two have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

  • Fixed crash when local sound cache files were corrupt
  • Hide cursor when playing movies in game
Jun 4, 2010
Half-Life 2 Update Released
Half-Life 2 - Valve
Updates to Half-Life 2 have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

Half-Life 2
  • Fix getting stuck after doing level transition from d2_prison_08 to d3_c17_01, the Nova Prospekt end battle

If you have a save game that causes you to be stuck in the teleporter with Alyx after this level transition you will need to manually restart this level to continue. To do that enable the developer console and type "map d3_c17_01" to load into this map.
Jun 3, 2010
Portal, Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode One and Half-Life 2: Episode Two Updates Released
Half-Life 2 - Valve
Updates to Portal, Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode One and Half-Life 2: Episode Two have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

Half-Life 2
  • Fixed crash due to long hud hint messages, seen when playing in French
  • Fixed Lambda logo at end of credits being cut off (Mac)
  • Added pre-caching of GLSL shaders on game launch to prevent hitching in game (Mac)
  • Performance improvements when using anti-aliasing on ATI GPU's

Half-Life 2: Episode One
  • Fixed localized content not loading properly resulting in English audio
  • Added pre-caching of GLSL shaders on game launch to prevent hitching in game (Mac)
  • Performance improvements when using anti-aliasing on ATI GPU's

Half-Life 2: Episode Two
  • Improved frame rate on opening map
  • Fixed localized content not loading properly resulting in English audio
  • Added pre-caching of GLSL shaders on game launch to prevent hitching in game (Mac)
  • Performance improvements when using anti-aliasing on ATI GPU's

Portal
  • Added pre-caching of GLSL shaders on game launch to prevent hitching in game (Mac)
  • Performance improvements when using anti-aliasing on ATI GPU's
Jun 2, 2010
Somebody's Happy About Steam On Mac
Half-Life 2

Somebody's Happy About Steam On MacReader 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!)


May 31, 2010
Where Are The Road Games?
Half-Life 2 - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Jim Rossignol)

And I don’t mean games of The Road – that’s an entirely different kettle of misplaced licensing. I mean this: the road movie is a fruitful, interesting genre for film, and even TV, but what is it’s equivalent in gaming? Could it have one? Or are all linear games basically just that classic story-as-journey? Are shooters our road movies? Maybe, but perhaps there’s something in the nature of travel in videogames that makes it difficult to execute something authentically “road”. More essentially redundant thoughts below. (more…)

May 27, 2010
Portal, Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode One and Half-Life 2: Episode Two Updates Released
Half-Life 2 - Valve
Updates to Portal, Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode One and Half-Life 2: Episode Two have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

  • Fixed crash on launch (Mac)
  • Fixed main menu not rendering on 10.5.8 when anti-aliasing is enabled (Mac)
May 26, 2010
Portal, Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode One and Half-Life 2: Episode Two Updates Released
Half-Life 2 - Valve
Updates to Portal, Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode One and Half-Life 2: Episode Two have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

Engine
  • Fixed fonts sometimes not displaying when the game is loaded (Mac)
  • Fixed crash on launch in rendering subsystem (Mac)

Portal
  • Optimized particle rendering for lowend GPU's, made acid pits more performant (Mac)
...