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'Half-Life' writer reveals what could've been Episode 3
Nearly ten years after the debut of Half-Life 2: Episode Two, the world is still waiting for Valve to deliver the final episode in the trilogy, but we may have to settle for something else. Just a few months after the last of the game's writers left Valve, and 21 years to the day since the company started, lead writer Marc Laidlaw has posted "Epistle 3" to his personal website (it's overloaded and inaccessible now, but you can view it on Archive.org).
Valve has no more 'Half-Life' writers left
Marc Laidlaw's departure from Valve last year was a shock. The author was responsible for single-handedly writing both Half-Life and Half-Life 2, and worked as the story lead on the latter's two episodic sequels. Chet Faliszek and Erik Wolpaw, co-writers on Half-Life 2: Episode One and Episode Two, stuck around however, meaning some of the series' writing talent still remained at Valve.
Valve scrapped an MMORPG at the dawn of the genre
Did you know that Valve was once hard at work on a third-person MMORPG called Prospero? Alas, the studio scrapped the project around 1997 in favor of a little tiny game called Half-Life, which "absorbed" the developers working on the MMO. Website Valve Time has dipped into the mysterious history of the game, said to be a "moody, literary" science-fantasy epic influenced by Myst with its focus on story and exploration. Though Prospero was canceled, some of its groundbreaking social and map features were eventually realized in Steam and Portal. The video also includes some wonderfully dated screenshots and quotes from developers who worked on the title.
Half-Life world record speed run is fluid, frightening
I considered myself a pretty good Half-Life player, until now. This speed run video, which reportedly took four years of planning to execute correctly, proves I was completely wrong and should stop thinking so highly of myself. [Image: Valve]
Valve: Trust in employees is key to good game development
If you treat your workers with kindness and compassion, they'll reward your support with better work - at least, that's the stance Valve Software takes. In an interview with the Washington Post, Valve CEO and co-founder Gabe Newell explains this philosophy by examining how the company handles employee sick days. Specifically, Valve doesn't handle them, and employees are trusted to be responsible with their time. "[W]e don't track vacation time or sick time - we just tell people we trust you to make all of these other decisions, of course we are going to trust you to manage your own time," Newell said. "It's actually a pretty minor issue in terms of how much time people actually spend on vacation or sick leave." "But it's a really important issue for someone who is say, coming out of Hollywood," he added. "When you tell them that - and it's really true - it seems to be useful in getting them to start to realize that there is a rationale behind how the company works. There's sort of the flashy public things like desks on wheels, but it really is intended to create a better environment for a highly technical set of tasks that vary fairly quickly over time." While other companies have different tactics in dealing with the inevitability of employee illness, it's hard to argue against the games Valve has produced. Half-Life and Half-Life 2 regularly feature on "best games of all time" lists, and Team Fortress 2 is heading into its seventh year of operation with no indication that it will lose popularity any time soon.
Steam adds VR support category, Oculus Rift games now easier to find
We're inching slowly toward the virtual reality future the 1980s promised us with the addition of a "VR support" category on Valve's digital distribution service Steam. Currently, nine games can be found by searching for VR support in Steam. Highlights include the Valve Complete Pack, Surgeon Simulator 2013 and Strike Suit Zero. Notably absent from the list is Euro Truck Simulator, though its omission could either be the result of the search query still being fleshed out, or because the game's Oculus Rift support is still in the testing phases. It should go without saying, but if you want to experience these games in their fully immersive glory, you're going to also need to own an Oculus Rift headset. Unfortunately we still have no pricing or release date information for the gadget. (Image credit: Sergey Galyonkin)
Half-Life revamp Black Mesa head(crab)s to Steam for a 'low price'
Black Mesa, the fan-made Half-Life mod that re-imagines the game with current technology and a bunch of extra goodies, is coming to Steam soon for "a relatively low price," the development team says. Black Mesa started as a free mod, and there will still be a free version, but the team wanted to give players a chance to support its efforts financially. "For us, Black Mesa is purely a labor of love," the team writes. "We believe this philosophy has significantly contributed to the overall quality and feel of the game. Our decision to sell Black Mesa rests on two key points. One is we believe we can make the game even better by having full access to the Source engine. This lets us tackle and fix limitations instead of working around them. The second is because frankly, our team could really use the financial help." The paid version will include a few features not in the free game, but soon after the paid version launches on Steam, a brand new free version will go live, too. Black Mesa was one of the first 10 games to make it through Greenlight in September 2012, granting it a spot on Steam. The current, free edition of Black Mesa is available now through a number of hosts, including Mod DB. Check out the complete list under "Download" here.
Half-Life modders gain Valve's approval, will launch new 'Sven Co-op' on Steam
Having developed Sven Co-op for the better part of two decades, the team behind the Half-Life mod has finally been given the keys to Valve Corporation's candy store. The company has granted the modding group access to the original game's engine in order to produce a custom edition that's designed to support co-operative play. In return, the next Sven Co-op, in which players have to work together to survive and solve puzzles in various time periods, will be made available through Steam as a free-to-play title. All we ask is that Daniel "Sven" Fearon uses his new-found access to hunt around for any files entitled Episode Three, and keep all of our flickering hopes alive.
Newell: Valve looking to make Portal or Half-Life movie with J.J. Abrams
During today's DICE keynote conversation between movie director J.J. Abrams and Valve co-founder Gabe Newell, the latter noted a collaboration he's looking forward to making a reality if possible."We're going to try and figure out if we can make a Half-Life movie or a Portal movie together," said Gabe Newell.The two sparred on storytelling methods in movies and film, and used scenes from each other's work to illustrate how player agency can augment storytelling, and how films can use "forced" foreshadowing to set up later events. According to the creative pair, they wanted to pursue this dialogue more seriously, and now hope to collaborate on a film based in some way on Half-Life or Portal.There are no details available beyond this brief announcement, likely because the process is still in its early stages.
Half-Life now runs on Mac OS X and Linux, we assure you
Now with a Steam page that doesn't expressly list Mac as a supported platform, we understand your skepticism regarding the headline to this very post. Indeed Half-Life has been ported to both OS X and Linux today.We tried it on OS X and it totally worked, though we've yet to try it on Linux. Odds are if you have a Steam account, you probably already own Half-Life – but if for some reason you need to purchase this iconic shooter, it'll set you back $9.99 on Steam right now.
Valve releases the original Half-Life for Mac
Fifteen years after its release in 1998, Valve Software's groundbreaking first-person shooter Half-Life has made its Mac debut. While its sequel, Half-Life 2, and other games based on Valve's later Source engine have been available on the platform for years, the original Half-Life has remained beyond the reach of Mac gamers without resorting to Boot Camp or other workarounds. Half-Life is still listed as being Windows-only on the Steam store, but we've confirmed that the option to download it for Mac does appear when selecting the game from within your Steam library. Being such an old game, it runs very well on lower-end systems. You can buy Half-Life for US$9.99 from the Steam store, but you might just find that you already own a copy since the game has been included with various Mac-compatible compilations even though it was only made available for the platform today.
XBLA Minecraft's 'Skin Pack 3' features Half-Life and Awesomenauts skins
In addition to the recent 1.8.2 update for the Xbox Live version of Minecraft, there's even more content showing up soon. Specifically, a third character skin pack is set to come to the popular sandbox game. Like the first two packs, this one will contain quite a few new skins for Minecraft characters from other media, including content based on the Half-Life series and Awesomenauts. Sure, you could dig a hole as a dwarf, but why do that when you could do the same thing as a headcrab zombie?There's no information yet, unfortunately, on when the update or the skin pack are coming out; both still need to finish going through Microsoft's certification system. But we'll expect to hear from Mojang and Microsoft as soon as the skins are ready for purchase -- probably in just a few days from now.
Alt-week 10.13.12: is the Universe a simulation, cloning dinosaurs and singing mice
Alt-week peels back the covers on some of the more curious sci-tech stories from the last seven days. Are you reading this? Seriously, are you? Sure, we know you think you are, but what if you're just a sub-feature of a complex computer program. A sprite, nothing more than the creation of software. The problem with this question is, how would you ever know? You wouldn't, right? Well, not so fast there. Turns out, maybe there is a way to unravel the matrix (if there is one). It'll come as no surprise, that this is one of the topics in this week's collection of alternative stories. Think that's all we got? Not even close. We'll explore the truth behind cloning dinosaurs, as well a rare performance by singing mice -- all before dinner. Or is it really dinner? This is alt-week.
Natural Selection 2 makes it to Steam, set for October release [update]
Ten Halloweens ago, the absurdly popular Natural Selection mod transformed Half-Life into a multiplayer shooter with real-time strategy. Today, its long-developed sequel is finally up for pre-order on Steam, attached with a very convenient 'October 2012' release window. Yup, we'll eat our pumpkin hat if Natural Selection 2 isn't out by October 31. Until then, the game remains in beta with over 40,000 active players according to developer Unknown Worlds.Natural Selection 2 now offers a tactical team-based shooter in a proprietary engine, with one side the marines, the other the aliens. One member of each team plays the "Commander" role, overseeing the fight from above and influencing it through RTS features like defenses, buildings, and upgrades.Pre-orders on Steam are being rewarded with Natural Selection 2's deluxe version. That includes the official soundtrack, a digital art book, and some in-game armor amongst other goodies, all for $24.95. Sadly, there's been an oversight regarding a pumpkin hat.Update: Clarified release window and corrected engine information.
Black Mesa scheduled to launch on September 14
Black Mesa, a fan-made Half-Life remake that began development in 2004, will see its first public release on September 14. According to a post on the game's official forums, the launch won't be of the entire game, but will include the team's "re-envisioning of Half-Life all the way up to Lambda Core," which constitutes about eight to ten hours of gameplay.Black Mesa is a "total conversion" Half-Life 2 mod that uses the Source engine in order to tell the story of the esteemed 1997 first-person shooter by Valve, Half-Life. No launch date has been announced for the full version of the PC-only remake.[Thanks to everyone that sent this in!] %Gallery-164145%
Valve reportedly preparing second-generation Source engine, kinda explains the Episode Three delay
ValveTime has dug through the Source Filmmaker code to reveal references to "Source 2," reportedly a next-generation revamp of Valve's famous game engine. Given that the three major consoles are all due a refresh, it's unsurprising to see preparations being made. That said, however, the second (and major) launch title for the original Source was Half Life 2, so we're gonna be getting a complaint letter ready if we don't get some more time with Gordon, Alyx and Dog in a beautifully rendered future dystopia.
Valve Source Filmmaker makes a movie out of any Source game, now you're directing with Portals (video)
Creating machinima with a video game engine usually requires accepting one of two truths: either that it will require a lot of fudging or that it will have all the sophistication of playing with action figures. Valve Software isn't very happy with that dichotomy, which is why it's posting its very own movie-making tool, Source Filmmaker, as a public beta. Any game that runs on the Source engine, whether it's Left 4 Dead 2, Portal 2 or another in the family, can have gameplay run-throughs edited and dissected right down to custom facial expressions. As Valve expounds in the video after the break, throwing a gaming-grade PC at the task gives directors the advantage of seeing exactly how any changes will look in the final scene; there's no rough wireframes or pre-rendering here. Budding Francis Ford Coppolas can sign up for an invitation to the Filmmaker beta at the project page. If you'd just like to see how far someone can go with the end results, we've also included the latest Team Fortress 2 character profile video, Meet the Pyro, after the jump.
Valve puts fake Half-Life: Episode 3 listing on Steam for April Fools' Day [Update: Nope]
Damn it, Valve.UPDATE: We've discovered that this website is a fake and does not actually belong to Valve. We were duped by a fake April Fools' Day joke posing as a real April Fools' Day joke and sincerely apologize for passing this along to you as fact.
Half-Life: Origins, a trailer from the people behind Beyond Black Mesa
Some people are content with letting Hollywood fat cats license, interpret, reboot and reinvent the world's most beloved gaming franchises, but not the team at InfectionDesigner. They've been doing it themselves for years, and apparently have no plans of stopping.
Bit.ly quantifies internet impatience, old links get no love
Oh internet, we love your animated GIFs and sad Keanu websites, but how much attention are we really giving each link? According to a recent study by URL shortener Bit.ly, a standard link is clicked for an average of three hours until traffic subsides by 50 percent, eventually fading away into oblivion. If we're talking about a super timely news story like an earthquake hitting the east coast, well, its half-life was a paltry five minutes. When URLs are shared on social networks, they last around 3.2 hours on Facebook and 2.8 hours on Twitter, but those on YouTube persist more than twice that long. There, link half-life is 7.4 hours -- probably because it's home to phenom bomb memes like the one found after the break.
