Half-Life - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Alec Meer)

I think I've been writing about this one game for more of my life than any other. That ain't right

Allegedly, at least. This footage of the aeons-in-the-making Half-Life 1 remake seems far too elaborate to be a hoax, so the real question mark hangs over whether it’s out there by accident or not. ValveTime.Net say they received it from an anonymous reader, and have no clue as to whether the footage represents a recent build of the Source Engine-based mod or not. (more…)

Portal - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Adam Smith)

I'm not going to lie to you, I have NO idea what is happening here

The Sourceruns team have completed a 8:31.93 run of Portal, which is absolutely ridiculous, brilliantly devious and laudably investigative. The latter descriptor is appropriate because of the level of understanding required to complete the run. These glitch-hunters have an in depth knowledge of each chamber, of the Source engine and of the strange ways in which portals work. You can watch the run below, and read about the techniques used and the analysis of each chamber in an extensive document. Oddly, the closest I think I’ve ever come to exploring a game in this way was when I played deathmatch Doom for an entire year without stopping. I knew every layout and every trick, and I was still> rubbish.

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Half-Life 2 - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (John Walker)

This is the kind of image my mum probably thinks is at the top of RPS all the time.

Scaring someone is a fine art. Scaring someone when they’re expecting to be scared makes it even trickier. So Grey is a big task for the Deppresick team of modders. A total conversion mod for Half-Life 2, it’s a horror game that borrows liberally from every other horror game, movie, book, and scary painting you once saw. I put on my bravest trousers and had a look.>

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Dota 2 - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Cara Ellison)

Battle Arenas is a series in which Cara looks at Multiplayer Online Battle Arena games, and tries to answer why they might have become so popular. She used to play DOTA. A lot. Like, from back in 2003 when it was first released (she is old). Now DOTA clones are everywhere! THEY MUST BE EXAMINED. But first: a little musing on the intricacies of DOTA, the first, the best.> (more…)

Left 4 Dead - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Nathan Grayson)

Yes, um, I believe I would like to request a different doctor. No, I know I'm in a coma and this shouldn't be possible. But these guys are *really* wigging me out.

We are suddenly talking about Left 4 Dead a lot again. Could this be a sign of more substantial things to come? I doubt it, but it’s fun to hope for things – so long as you never stop hoping and are incapable of sorrow. Regardless, Payday: The Heist’s much-vaunted reproduction of Left 4 Dead’s Mercy Hospital is here to cure whatever ails you – assuming, of course, that you are made physically ill by the idea that Payday might eventually cease releasing DLC. Go download it! Or read details. These are your only options.

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Half-Life 2 - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (RPS)

Joe Martin is a Half-Life 2 obsessive who often wells up with actual tears when he thinks of the content Valve cut during development. Imagine his joy at finding the Missing Information mod, which collects workable snippets from the stolen HL2 beta and assembles them into a Steam-compatible mod. Joe takes a look at the parts of HL2 Valve didn’t intend for us to see, and wonders if the game we got was the best it could have been.>

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Left 4 Dead 2 - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Nathan Grayson)

OH GOD. It's a lot colder than I thought it was going to be.

‘Twas more than a year ago that Left 4 Dead 2′s Cold Stream DLC first stirred beneath the grave of Valve’s nearly immortal undead sequel, and then – as though cast in the world’s most anticlimatic horror movie – it just kind of sat there. “I’ll rise and kick off the end of all human civilization tomorrow,” it thought to itself. But tomorrow never came. Until now! After gobs of testing and fine-tuning, Valve’s finally deemed Cold Stream fit for public consumption.

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Portal - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Alec Meer)

Next month, the Adventure Core goes to Peru

Does P-Body sound at all like ‘oddity’? I don’t think it does, does it? That’s why I’m torturously explaining my lame gag here. That’s why they pay me the almost adequate bucks. Not to mention that the gag, if it can indeed be called a gag, is entirely redundant as this story doesn’t involve Portal 2′s co-op robo-chum P-Body in the slightest. Rather, it’s solely to do with the Space Core, who’s found himself – or at least his image – on a trip to the International Space Station courtesy of an anonymous fan at NASA. (more…)

Dota 2 - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Nathan Grayson)

Well, this is something of a nice surprise. Once upon a time, Heroes of Newerth – a pretty solid MOBA that can’t shout quite as loudly as genre giants like League of Legends – cast off its price tag and went free-to-play. Now, though, it’s taking things one rather large step further. Following in DOTA 2′s footsteps, HoN’s sending all of its Newerthian heroes into battle with no strings attached. In other words, starting today, every last one’s totally, completely free>.

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Team Fortress 2 - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Nathan Grayson)

I give it a day before someone's made a video where he's playing a hat and wearing that guitar.

I, like many of you, have dreamed of creating the next great cinematic masterpiece since I first laid eyes on Kindergarten Cop. Unfortunately, I just never had the tools, so my gift to the world remained wrapped and hidden away. And then I got horribly distracted by Meet The Heavy meme videos created in Source Filmmaker, and that’s a hole I don’t see me digging myself out of any time soon. So my magnum opus has probably been shot by a regular magnum. There is a small spot of good news here, though: Source Filmmaker’s now available to everyone and, more importantly, Valve’s updated it with Meet The Engineer. So hooray, more memes that make me giggle uncontrollably for some reason.

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