World of Mods: Half-Life 2 Comments by Alec Meer

Good idea. I like 'The Hidden' for Half-Life 2 as well.

EG, welcome to the noughties! ;-)

All of these are old.

that makes Valve's own approach of shoot for five minutes, wait to load a new section, shoot for five minutes and repeat almost laughable.


Haha, that's actually what I thought of the original game when I first played it.

I was hoping for more single player mods to be honest. I know theres not a huge amount out there but there are a few pretty good ones.

Mistake of pythagoras, coastline to atmpsphere and rock 24 are some that I enjoyed.

The Hidden is excellent as AHiFi points out. Really like Minerva too.

I'd like to see an update of the HL1 mod Vampire Hunter. I thought that was a lot of fun.

Er, thanks for the article. First couple of lines describe my games situation exactly. I haven't fired up Steam for months and can't be assed downloading dozens of mods attempting to find the 5% that are actually decent.

On the topic of mods The Last Days mod for Mount & Blade revitalised my interest in that game for a couple of weeks, grab if it you have the full version of M&B.

http://www.zombiemaster.org

In a few years time we could see a similar article for consoles.

"Pirates, Vikings and Knights II"

But not ninjas??? For shame.

"...his, his and his..."? SEXIST BASTARD!

"In a few years time we could see a similar article for consoles. "

Hahahahaha! No chance, unless you mean user made spore maps using the in game tool. I cannot see for the life of me a MS or Sony allowing users to run unsigned, unvetted code on their little machines.

If mods are made using provided dev tools (e.g. XNA) then you can bet you bottom dollar that you will need to jump through a LOT of hoops to get them onto everyone's machines.

Good stuff. Articles like this are very welcome to help me wade through all the mods.

@Narv

Missed the UT3 announcement? User mods will be available on the PS3.

Narv, didn't I read recently that UT3 mods will run on PS3?

From Wikipedia: "It was also announced that the PS3 version will be able to use PC-created mods and levels."

You are totally right, I stand slightly corrected. However, interestingly in that same article it sounds like it does't bode well for MS users (of which I am one) which:
a) get the game later
b) the mods will have to be vetted (as I said) by MS before they go on XBL
c) break the Xbox architecture to allow unsigned code to be place on the machine.

Which IMHO defies the whole point of mods which should be without censor or review. I do give kudos to Sony for making their machine much more open even if 95% of users will not ever use it.

I will also be interested in what steps you will have to go through to put PC mods onto the PS3, and also by the sounds of this you still need a PC version of the game to create the mod. Which in turn means that it will only be possible to support mods for non-console exlusives as most mods kits rely on the game assets to work.

Unless I can be corrected further ;)

EDIT: I kant spel

Minerva is awesome. The fact that it's all done by one single guy makes it even more impressive. The article seems a little unsure as to whether there are one or two chapters out - it's definitely two, with the third on its way soon. Can't wait for that third (and final?) chapter, it's definitely the best single-player mod I've ever played.

I have just been trying Insurgency this week - it's very highly polished, and the graphics, which are all brand new - no reused textures or models here - are amazing. Baghdad looks just like it does on the news which, as the article mentions, is kind of unsettling. In terms of gameplay - it's hardcore. You'll die in a split-second from a shot which seems to be out of nowhere, but learning the maps seems to help a lot as you start to anticipate where the enemy might be coming from. There's a lot of players so you'll always find a high number of games to choose from. This is a mod that has a lot of promise for the future.

The Hidden is also great, very tense and original gameplay, and I am still waiting for Black Mesa: Source - a complete remake of the original Half-Life using the source engine and all-new assets.

Mods are a big part of gaming for me, and I often wonder if console gamers know what they're missing out on. UT3 players on PS3 can expect tons of free maps released on an almost weekly basis, instead of this bullshit '£6 for two new maps' that DLC and Xbox Live in particular has encouraged.

edit: wow, that post was far too long, sorry

HAR HAR MY MOD AR REVIEWED!!!1

...

Ahem.

Please bear in mind that the first MINERVA map was the first non-box map I created for Half-Life 2, and indeed the Source engine overall - and the second was, well, the second. Okay, I'd learned mapping on the original Half-Life and actually got round to releasing one map, but I was very much a beginner at this new game...

Plot answers? Well, there's something big hidden at the bottom of that shaft - which I hope is enough as a starter. Yes, I've been far too cryptic with all the hints and the apparent foreshadowing, but remember that you've just seen the second part of perhaps nine - splurging all the mysteries immediately would have been silly!

Anyway, lovely constructive criticism. I like constructive criticism. Too late for part three (which should be released 'soon', but already has got lots more Valve-tested puzzles, variation in settings, combat and themes to go on) but I shall bookmark the review and re-read it in the dead of night when I'm stuck for inspiration.

Thanks!

What? No dystopia? http://www.dystopia-game.com/


Probably the most professional of the mods out there. Mind, you, it might be anti-Aussie bias.

Edit: And they totally ripped the laser rifle from the Spartan Laser in Halo 3.

Thanks for the game mate!

Valve-tested puzzles? Sounds like you've got some recognition for your work - good stuff, it's deserved. I hope it leads to a Part 3 that's even more fun than the first two.

edit: @ CargoCult, obv.

Just finished playing minerva yesterday only to find a review of it on eurogamer today. uncanny. Highly recommended, I liked the way more often than not you were able to scout out the locations first before the enemies showed up. Also a good use of vertical space which doesn't really feature in HL2.

Also can't wait for Black Mesa mod. This sounds incredibly ambitious and possibly game breaking if it really is a full source engine overhaul of the original.

It bugs me that most of these mods have a higher requirement than HL2.

Cargocult - stop reading the forums and get back to slaving away on the third part! I've waited far too long for it already!
the two minerva episodes are great fun and definately the best of the single player stuff thats around at the moment.
Multiplayer wise - I go for Lethal Agents (basically an updated and expanded version of the HL1 mod frontline force) - not many players at moment though :(

I was about to say you should have grown out of that by sixth form.
Then i went and looked at one of my A level text books.

@Narv

Quoted from arstechnica.com's horrible horrible gaming blog:

"Frank and I were amazed at how open Midway was on the issue of user-created content for Unreal Tournament III on the PS3. You just download your content, put it on a memory stick, and then add it to your console. "

Simple enough :)

Agreed. That caption was equally pathetic and unnecessary, and that's form someone who's been against the war in Iraq since well before it started and would like to see Cheney put on Michael Vick's pitbull rape stand.

@xyuppiex

sweet :) my memorystick is at the ready, and mouse and keyboard.

Everyone needs to play SMod with CSS Sci Fi right now. It's some of the most fun I've ever had with Half-Life 2.

http://www.amphibian.myzen.co.uk/css_sci...

Chalk up another recommendation of Mistake of Pythagoras for anyone who enjoyed Minerva. It's very peculiar and extremely good fun.

There's also an "educational" mod called DoomEd floating about which, while I'd hesitate to call it good, is at least unique, and tons of effort's clearly been put in, loads of new voices and so on. No other game tries to teach you Key Stage 4 science AND encourages you to shoot zombies. Worth a look for curiosity's sake.

laughed on the FAQ


I love you guys,



and that's saying a lot, since Im french and thus am genetically coded to loath brits

cargocult - great work, just trying to work out how many years nine parts could take to finish!! but tbh i have roughly the same amount of anticipation for each part of minerva as i do for each "episode" of HL which is a lot by the way.

cheers:)

Very nice round-up. They may not be 'new' (although I'd say that Insurgency is pretty damn recent) but they're definitely interesting and representative of the variety in HL2 modding.

I've just finished Minerva part four. And one hell of a ride it was. Outstanding.

Overall scope and beauty are comparable to Matto 2 or 4. Less vast level design than Matto 2, but more intense. Less new elements than Matto 4, but even more polished. Matto mods are genuinely funny at times, which I love, Minerva has a more believable story.

Alec Meer wrote:
> We don't play first-person shooters because we enjoy looking for doors

So what do "we" enjoy in FPS? FPS are works of art, and I actually enjoy the looking, even for doors, more than the shooting. Opponents mostly make the looking more suspenseful and rewarding. If possible, I try to get by without violence, for example using stealth or speed. In Minerva, this is impossible. If someone added a stealth route to Minerva, I'd pay 25 Euro for it, even though I've already finished it.

> dialogue isn't as clever as its writer probably thinks it is, and it's hard to conceive of a satisfying pay-off to all this Lost-esque riddling.

The dialogue /is/ clever, and the payoff is satisfying. Read it again, in sequence, at "Steam/SteamApps/SourceMods/metastasis/scripts/titles.txt". Keep in mind that at the beginning, Minerva herself does not know the facility's purpose.

Hwhatwhatwhat!? No SMOD?