Another day, another Half-Life 2 mod, but this one was definitely worth the wait. Called ‘Entropy: Zero 2’, you lead a small army of Combine synths and soldiers on a Northern campaign to capture Dr. Judith Mossman. There’s a completely overhauled combat system, complete with new effects, enemies and weapons.
One Half-Life superfan has just released a playable ‘We Don’t Go to Ravenholm’ demo, which is actually a Half-Life 2: Episode 2 mod that aims to evoke the familiar feel, atmosphere and action of the original. It’s been in development for over a year and you play as Gordon Freeman who has returned to Ravenholm by the G-Man.
A programmer who goes by ‘OatmealDome’ on Twitter managed to get Half-Life 2 working on the Nintendo Switch via the Portal: Companion Collection. How so? Since the source code is very similar for both, Half-Life 2 actually runs on top of Portal 1, but this is not a native port, so you’ll experience a few glitches, such as frequent crashes.
The Valve Corporation has just released three new Half-Life: Alyx gameplay videos, which is three weeks away from its retail launch on Windows PCs. All of this footage has been spliced together from various moments through the campaign, with only one the first scene taking place within the game’s earliest section. These aren’t designed to show tons of story, but rather Alyx’s VR movement, beat-by-beat gameplay, and of course, the gravity gloves. Read more for three videos and additional information.
Half-Life: Alyx has been officially introduced, and it’s a “full-length” experience that has been designed from scratch for VR headsets. Featuring all of the hallmarks of a classic Half-Life game: world exploration, puzzle-solving, visceral combat, and an intricately woven story that connects it all with the characters iconic to the Half-Life universe. Read more for a gameplay trailer, additional pictures and information.
For those unfamiliar with Black Mesa, it’s essentially a third-party remake of Half-Life (1998), developed and published by Crowbar Collective. It received a standalone commercial release through Steam Early Access on May 5, 2015, with a full release slated for Q2 2019. In this game, the player controls Gordon Freeman, but unlike the original game, this one includes an entirely reskinned collection of textures, models, and NPCs, a noticeably longer runtime, and additional dialogue and story elements.
After 9-years of development, the Half-Life 2 mod, officially called “MMod”, has been released. In addition to the audio and visual enhancements (post-processing shaders and dynamic lights), players also get to enjoy a hardened AI, a new particle system, as well as a Combine with new prompts to complete, including grenade launchers. “In this jolly holiday season, I’m happy to bring Half-Life 2 : MMod under your Christmas tree, it’s been a long road for me, from HL2EP2Enhased (sic) with basic particle replacements and FPSBanana skins to a fully fledged mod with its own huge, original ( for the most part ) feature set, loads of brand new content and remastered gunplay mechanics. This incarnation of MMod is my true vision I had from the start, but never could realize before, until now,” said its creator.
A Russian gamer spent 2-months building a custom drone from scratch based on Half-Life 2’s City Scanner. Measuring 80cm x 55cm. it’s mainly comprised of a carbon fiber (carbon) shell, along with expanded polystyrene, and features a DJI Naza-M Lite flight controller, AX-2810Q-750KV brushless quadcopter motors, an Afro ESC 30Amp, three-bladed screws, as well as a 3300mAh 4S 30C battery.
Texas Instruments’ Ti-83 graphing calculator can run DOOM, as well as hundreds of other games, but let’s face it, smartwatch games leave a lot to be desired, that is unless you have an Android Wear LG G Watch with the SDLash app. YouTube user “Dave Bennett” managed to get Half-Life running on his watch, and while it’s not exactly practical for this type of game, it does give us a glimpse at the future of smartwatch gaming. “Thanks to the SDLash app, which emulates the GoldSource engine, it runs on your smartwatch. Keep in mind that this is only a proof of concept and is far from the ideal gaming situation,” said Bennett. Continue reading to see it in-action.
Photo credit: Sean Keenan
You might think these movie posters are for an actual Half-Life movie, but unfortunately, they’re just the work of talented British graphic designer Sean Keenan. Put simply, “he’s based them on the posters for Chris Nolan’s The Dark Knight Batman movie, if you think the colour palettes and design are familiar.” Continue reading to see them all.
[via Kotaku]