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'Half-Life 2' mod puts the sequel inside of the original
The chances of us getting Half-Life 3 or, hell, even Half-Life 2: Episode 3 seem about as likely as the Detroit Lions winning the Super Bowl at this point. To help take some of that sting off, a group of enterprising fans crafted Half-Life 2: Classic, a mod that essentially runs the game in its prequel's "Goldsrc" engine. It serves as "a way to see what Half-Life 2 could have looked like in the limits of Goldsrc, if Valve never developed the Source engine," the listing page says.
Valve teases a Mac release of Half-Life, Portal, Team Fortress 2
Even I was dubious about the rumor the other day of Steam coming to the Mac, but now here's something straight from Valve hinting that it might actually happen. MacRumors got an image of Half-Life's Gordon Freeman via email... with an Apple logo on his chest. MacNN got another picture, this one showing turrets from Portal and Team Fortress 2 parodying the "I'm a Mac" ads. And Shacknews got a third, with the Heavy from TF2 eating a sandwich shaped like an Apple logo in a parody of the iPod dancing ads. Oh Lordy. Looks like Valve is planning to make a Mac announcement, and while it might not be quite as far-reaching as bringing the whole platform over, they might as well start with all of their blockbuster games. It's also possible that this is related to the secret message hunt going on the PC version of Portal, which itself seemed to be hinting at an announcement of Portal 2 or even the long-awaited Half-Life 3. Whatever the announcement, it looks like Valve will have something to tell us at GDC next week. I'll be there with ears open -- if we hear that Valve is bringing some or all of their catalog to our platform, you'll be the first to know. Update: Our game-obsessed friends at Joystiq have gotten copies of five of the images (there appear to be six total, according to the dots on the image above), and you can see them all in the gallery below. The rest of the images show the Steam platform itself, and Francis from Left 4 Dead. Awesome. Update 2: Looks like Macworld got the last image. You hurt us, Valve. But we still love you anyway -- how can we not after seeing that "rest of us" ad parody for Steam below? Gallery: Valve Mac faux ads
Jade is Latina, Asian, Black ... who knows?
Earlier this week, a story by Jason Ellis traveled around the intertubes listing 11 black video game stars. The list was tragic, highlighting that black leading characters, especially original intellectual properties, are few and far between. However, the topic of most debate had to do with the appearance of Jade, from Beyond Good and Evil, on the list. Jade was black?It was the immediate thing we wondered about on our staff. Latina, Asian and "just tan," were terms we came up with. The crew over at Wired apparently had a similar issue. Writing up a column on racially ambiguous characters. Chris Kohler says, "The reaction to Ellis' piece would suggest that Michel Ancel and his team got it perfect with Jade. Because only a few people are suggesting that Jade 'looks' black or 'seems' Asian. They say with conviction that she is black, is Asian, is 'clearly' Latina. Everyone is right, and no one is right."Half-Life is also master of the racially ambiguous. Alyx Vance could be a mix of anything, her look is truly exotic. Then there is always the question of Gordon Freeman. Not the most stereotypically "white" name, you never actually see him, and other than the box art -- we'd never know. Was making Freeman white, or showing him at all, a last minute marketing decision? It's a fun experiment to take Freeman and just change the pigment of his skin, it's amazing how well it works. The main point is when things are ambiguous, we see what we want to see. Personally, we don't care what race Jade is, we just want to see that girl in a sequel!
Half Life 2 delayed
For everyone looking forward to living in Gordon Freeman's world early next year, it looks like you'll have to wait just a little bit longer. Recently Doug Lombardi, Valve's Director of Marketing, told CVG that Half Life 2: Episode 2 will be delayed until Summer 2007. I guess the Xbox version of Half Life 2 could hold you over if you can't bear the wait, but I want my episode 2 now!
Duct tape + cardboard = DI? Half-Life 2 costume
A Planet Half-Life member, who goes only by the online nom de guerre "Kevin," created this incredible Gordon Freeman costume with nothing but duct tape and cardboard (seriously, that's it). In exchange, he has earned the admiration of nerds and Halloween costume partygoers everywhere. Why do cosplayers always have to dress up as Final Fantasy characters, or Mario anyway? Joystiq salutes you, Dr. Freeman. Just don't bring any of those headcrabs to our staff party.[Via Aeropause]
