Source: Half-Life Radio

November 2, 2004 - Here it is election day and it's STILL too close to call. But HERE's something that is never too close to call...it's a homerun every time. It's GameSHOUT Radio Live and ON THE AIR...Wednesday night, November 3rd for a SPECIAL 4-HOUR SHOW starting at 7:00PM EST!!!

We will bring you the latest information during our Very Own, Wacky News From Around The World with Capt. Maverick, with the Fact of the Day with FatalX and Louis Cyphier's Tunes from the Crypt! Then shift gears as we take off into the PC Playground where we will be discussing the latest PC Game Reviews and then REV up for the Demo of the Week, Richard Burns Rally...and YOU can download it and join in the fun...just click HERE go to their site.

Next, take a walk on the WILD SIDE with SexyJosh and the Gamepad Gamers console gaming reviews. Tonight we have a BIG SHOW!!! We have a VERY special guest, Raymond Herrera, the drummer of Fear Factory as Raymond, Josh, and Louis REVIEW HALO2!!! That's right folks...we have an EXCLUSIVE REVIEW for you!!! Tune in for all the excitement!! And then join in on the FUN as YOU join the GameSHOUT Radio Round-table discussion! Tonight's Topic: Part 2 of the THRILLER, Half-Life 2 vs. HALO2!!! Get in on the debate and join us LIVE!!! Wednesday Night, starting at 7:00PM EST, 12:00AM GMT, right here!!! We ARE YOUR Game-Talk Station!

Source: Curse

Beta testing is a must for every project. People may look down apon them, but if it was not for beta testing, mods could not be where they are at this time. So, the time has come for Curse to seek the cluster of devote fans.

If you are interested in become a beta tester for Curse, please email me (hizzeh@gmail.com), or reply in this thread. Be sure to answer these following questions:

-Nickname:
-Location:
-Do you have massive school/work/social obligations right now?
-How do you view Curse and the developement team?
-Do you have any skills that could help further the developement of Curse?
-What is your internet connection speed?
-Do you have a microphone for online communication?
-What is one thing you look forward to Curse, or would like to see implimented?
-Anything else you might want to add?

And be sure to idle in our mIRC channel: #Curse on irc.gamesurge.net!
When we will be selecting beta testers (which will probably consist of around ten to twenty fans), we will more likely pick someone that we know from talking on mIRC, since we will get to know each others personality and so on. So be sure to visit our mIRC channel, and head on over to http://www.Cursemod.com!

Source: PlanetHalfLIfe
Related: MechMod

MechMod has been given the Mod of the Month award over at ModDB. As part of the award, ModDB has put online a great article about the mod and a great interview, of which this is part:

modDB: One thing highly known about Mechmod is it's unique artistic style. One example would be the shaders and lightings that were Programmed for the mod. What brought the team into making these additions? Are there more graphical additions we have not seen yet?

gr00vy: Well the entire credit for this goes to one of our programmers named Jason. His love for 3D graphics programming has helped the mod reach new levels of virtual reality. Infact, we have received quite a lot of criticism from people stating how the effects we produce aren't possible with the Half-Life engine. We have also succesfully countered this criticism with screenshots and videos at optimum FPS. In other words, our aim is to COMPLETELY modify the game and make it 'feel' like a new game, in terms of both control and aesthetics.

For more check out the MechMod site and the MechMod ModDB Profile.

Source: HL2Files.com

The site of Counter-Strike: RE-Source is now hosted over at HL2Files.com. Counter-Strike: RE-Source is the place to be for Counter-Strike: Source re-colors and skins:

M4DP1X3Ldesigns presents Counter-Strike: RE-Source, now hosted at HL2Files.com a personal archive of M4DP1X3L's skins for Counter-Strike: Source. What began as a simple experiment by creating a bloody knife, soon became a skinning frenzy. M4DP1X3L began releasing 4-10 skins per day and soon got publicized by CS-Nation. Now hosted here at HL2Files.com, he continues to release new skins daily and welcomes comments and suggestions both positive and negative!

Check out Counter-Strike: RE-Source for all you skinning needs.

Source: HL2Files.com
Related: Kingdom Lost

Kingdom Lost has changed the servers for their IRC Channel:

We have moved our IRC channel to GameSurge IRC. This is because many of our fellow mod teams and friends are on GameSurge, and we'd like to be close to the community who will also be developing games with the Half-Life 2 Engine.

Our channel is #kingdomlost - Team members check your email inbox for the name and password of the private channel.

Update your IRC Clients! The IRC address is irc://irc.gamesurge.net

You can find information about gamesurge at http://www.gamesurge.net

If you don't have an IRC client, download mIRC @ http://www.mirc.com

Check out the Kingdom Lost site for more information.

Source: HalfLife2.net

IGN posted the news that Taito, a Japanese company, will be bringing Half-Life 2 to the Arcades in Japan. Here a small sample:

Taito's Type-X arcade board will be getting some big-name support shortly. The arcade manufacturer revealed today plans to bring Half-Life 2 to arcades on the new board. The game is set for distribution in Japan in the Summer of 2005.

The full article, which also mentions a DM and Co-Op mode, can be found here.

Source: Dracten

The Half-life 2 mod Dracten is currently looking for dedicated modelers, mappers, and concept artists as well as anyone else willing to devote themselves to this great mod.

Dracten is a mod centered around co-op multiplayer set in the unique futuristic "Dracten" universe. You will be able to choose from 5 different races to play, each with their own fighting style, and experience the atmospheric story of Dracten, fighting alongside your friends or NPCs. The team has quite a few original ideas for the mod that we will keep under wraps for the time being. The mod is currently well on its way to production. Here are a few pieces of art to tide you over.

Source: HalfLife2.net

Prima Games has put online two Look Inside features for their upcoming Half-Life 2 books, namely the Half-Life 2: Official Game Guide and Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar. Do note that the previews of both the books can contain Spoilers for some, so if you would like to play the game as spoiler free as possible then don't view the content linked below:

Both the files are in .pdf format which means you will need to have Adobe Acrobat (Reader) installed.

'Look Inside' Half-Life 2: Official Game Guide
'Look Inside' Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar

As soon as both the books are in I'll put online a small review of them.

Source: HL2Files.com
Related: Spatial Fear

UberSoldat from ModDB has interviewed Alex from the team of the mod Spatial Fear. Here some words:

Brad: What was your original plan for the Spatial Fear series?

Alex: Our original plan was to make a full-fledged mod, a Total Conversion. Once we got started though, we realized the project was much too big for a first-time team. So I decided to trim it down and just make the first part and call it a prologue. This would serve as sort of an introduction to the game and we would then release the second part later.

That all went out the window after we started and I realized how inexperienced I was. A lot was changed and shortened and scaled down. By the time we released SF: P, the UT engine was phased out. We would have to switch to the UT2k3 engine, but that proved to be tough because it doesn’t naturally support SP mods and gameplay.

The full interview can be found here at ModDB.

Source: ModDB
Related: Shores of Victory

The team of the mod Shores of Victory has released 3 great ingame movies showing you several great effects that we will be able to witness in the final game:

Grab Some Popcorn And Sit Down

I really am no good at titles. Anyway, I've grabbed three vids of the SoV graphic effects I've been whippng up lately. This really is just the "icing on the cake" for the main game, which is being tested as we speak. The first is the water explosion effects (if your confused, I've hidden the grenade handmodel because we are still needing to implement ours). The second is the dirt explosion (note the dirt clump flying through the air at the end, I only just managed to capture it ). And the third is debris when shooting objects.

And all was done without the aid of a particle engine!

Water explosion
Dirt explosion
Gunshot debris

PS Viewing will require DivX 5.1 or later and note there is no sound.

For more head on over to the site of Shores of Victory.