Comments

Checked out the rest of your media, looks fairly promising.
You should seriously consider collabing with BM:S, most of their resources you could easily utilize and finish things up much quicker/easier. :>

Played it, very short overall and nothing that special in it. You should add some logic/puzzle elements as to why you should be pressing that specific button. Random guessing = not really entertaining.

Couldn't open pl.wad
Include your custom textures.

A comic is more something like: https://vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=0

This is a comedy short, if you can call it that and it's a pretty weak one.
Missing .wad files, too. ;<

Also, this is no example map. Moved to Unfinished Stuff for now, feel free to move it to Finished if you feel it belongs there.

Tracked down & fix'd links. :>

Tracked down & fix'd links. :>

Wow, hope nothing happens to the house, good luck resolving any problems the fire might cause.
Some rather awesome pics there though.

Review

Maps, as observed by the community, are wild creatures, often seen dwelling various areas of the Vault, such as Problem Swamp, Unfinished Plains, Completed Valley, etc. depending on their habitat and type (killbox, hollow cube, hollow cube spammed with prefabs, etc). Maps are bred by so-called "mappers" ("ten-year-olds" if the map can be specified as "killbox"), a special kind of Homo Sapiens obsessed with valves and hammers, declaring they are in possession of ancient powers called "hax". Recently, a certain "pack" consisting of thirty maps has been spotted in the valley, displaying a surprisingly great amount of overall quality. And even though many expected no less than close to perfect from map breeders like CampaignJunkie or Kol, the "pack" still managed to strike most with sheer unexpected awe. It was epic. It was Reissues. The people rejoiced.Reissues is a compilation of nine incoherent campaigns, all tied together by a single hub room and epic intro/ending sequences. Even though there is a lack of a more sufficient overall background story, that is forgivable, as pretty much anything tying together a variety of themes and events that diverse wouldn't end up making too much sense. For the same reasons, this review will also be separated into segments for each campaign. First things first. The intro. For the most part, it's kind of a buffed/more surreal version of the original Half-Life ending with Gman giving you a nice tour of various areas in Earth/Xen. The extra stopped-time twist worked excellent and did a great job showing off his powers, too. The only nitpick I could latch on to was in the tram where even though time had evidently stopped, the warp outside was still moving, making the scene look a bit odd. Overall, one of the best opening sequences I've seen in a HL1 map/mod in a very long time - short, sweet and beautiful. Moving on to the actual campaigns, the first one I played was Echo Transit by Snotball & Sjakal. And oh man, was it a bad start. Even if mostly adequate visually, it suffered from various poor design choices in gameplay. Utilizing vast enemy spam, annoying quicktime events and lack of proper direction at times, it is one hard fucker making you hog the quickload button more than a fat CS geek hogs his W key. For example, at one point you're supposed to destroy a rocket-firing enemy APC before it blows up this large crane. A normal sequence, however, to make things more fun, you're told you have to backtrack to the opposite end of a large storage yard to get an RPG and then run back to another area for its ammo. All that, low HP, waves of soldiers and the APC? Well why stop there? Give the player a rubik's cube to solve while he's at it. I can understand the authors trying to give their battles a more epic feel, but that was going over the top. There was a significant lack in originality too, as the main story was mostly a re-creation of Blue Shift's final chapters. Finally, what really nailed it, was the final showdown in the teleporter room. Unlike BS, where the teleporter takes you to a they-lived-happily-ever-after kind of ending once entered, the one in this campaign can actually gib you for no reason if you dare to not stand exactly at the right spot! One hell of a reward for all your hard work, eh? I guess this is a bit harsh, as there is plenty of potential in all those scenarios. They just need to be better-executed. Some more player guidance (finding some specific building in a maze of containers during a firefight was really hard during first playthroughs.), less pesky quicktime events and more creative enemy choice/placement instead of spam (a well-placed alien grunt can do wonders; hgrunts DO NOT come in containers!) would have more-or-less saved the gameplay. Contrary to how it played, Echo Transit looked fairly well for the most part. Architecture had a fair amount of detail and was adequate. Buildings outside looked believable and re-created the Black-Mesa-ish feel quite well. My favourite location was probably the teleporter room though - it had some very neat architecture and combined with nice lighting and ambience, definitely made the final sequence less painful. My only real complaint for the architecture department would be the underground train tunnels being too short to be divided by blast doors like that. Making each segment 3x longer or so would remove the awkward look. Pretty much like architecture, the texturing was all stock Half-Life textures, yet it looked right and did its job fine. Lighting was also adequate and even if not showing any special, looked quite realistic and well-tuned for the location. Ambience was great and even if not utilizing its full potential (env_sound for e.g.?), had some neat variety and nice little randomly triggered background sounds. Voice acting is also worth a mention here, as this campaign used it quite a bit. Even if a bit crude and lacking originality at times, it did a good job replacing the usual text messages or briefings. To sum things up, Echo transit looks good, has potential, however isn't quite up to snuff with the others due to poor gameplay. Starlabs: Satellite Trouble by SEThorian was the second one I played through. In it you are placed in the role of Carlos Freeman all of a sudden and have to infiltrate a science facility to set up a satellite uplink for Black Mesa (so much for originality once again - Half-Life: Uplink, anyone?) Gameplay-wise, this played well enough and was balanced, yet still had some issues. First, some of the sequences like grunts blowing up the weapon storage door wouldn't work sometimes, causing loads of fruitless backtracking and searching during my first playthrough. Something less random would have worked better in my opinion. Also, corridors caving in during the final scenes should have been done with more clarity for the player, as right now it was all trial and error. They did it fine in Half-Life's Forget About Freeman with some cracks and harmless debris to show you which part is going to collapse before dropping it on the player, so why not utilize something similar? However, even if these ending parts had issues, the ending itself was very little short of epic. Buffing you up with loads of gear, giving you a nice huge arena to fight in and sending in the meat can never be wrong in a finale, and even if you were somewhat overpowered, it was immense fun. The visuals department in Starlabs wasn't too shabby either with some nice custom textures used throughout its maps. Lighting served its purpose well and had some colour variation, yet most areas like hallways ended up being lit in an extremely boring, dull yellow. Ambience was rich enough and did a great job bringing the campaign to life and made good use of env_sounds in some places. Architecture was less impressive with fewer detail in some areas (uplink beam room, control chamber), however it was perfectly adequate and showed some creativity (crystal storage chamber, final fight room, caverns in the beginning). Overall I enjoyed this chapter and even if not too special, it certainly had the right gameplay formula for a HL map pack. I just wish it were a bit stronger on the visual side - textures alone just don't cut it anymore. Next up - The Scepter of Ra by Firebinder, which definitely gets my nearly-complete approval. First thing to catch your eye is the vast amount of custom content. New, beautifully crafted and animated models for scientists and monsters, excellent custom textures complimenting the neat new locations and of course some really funny custom dialogue lines. The whole experience has this lovely cheesy-ish retro action movie feel and getting a chance to play through your favourite Indiana Jones flicks with some extra cheese in the mix is absolutely adorable. Gameplay is well-balanced and fun with plenty of beautiful scripted sequences (loved the sarcophagus one), some great re-creations of famous Indy movie moments (running away from the huge boulder for e.g) and puzzles. My only real complaint is that the whole thing was too short to properly appreciate the new content - I would have gladly played through another couple of maps with that stuff. The visuals were mostly bang-on as well, from the cluttered (in a good, realistic way) offices to the beautiful tombs. Architecture was rich with detail, while the nice custom textures complimented it in a great way. Some cool destruction sequences added a lot to it and made the environment feel more alive than ever. The only area I found lacking was the landing yard in Malta, which looked fairly flat and boring. Some destruction (crater, more debris?) would have fixed that. Moving on, lighting was quite realistic and the emergency lights touch in the office after the zombies came in was a very nice touch. The tomb was lit in a realistic way, however, some more contrast would have helped there. Ambience was great as well with sounds accompanying every event ingame, making all of them feel realistic and complete. Some env_sound, however, would have worked really well in areas like the tomb. In conclusion, the Scepter was one sweet and extremely fresh experience. I demand a sequel so that I could "not kill everyone" again! Onward with the good stuff - Coil by our very own Kol (word play? ;> ), which could arguably be dubbed as the very best Reissues has to offer. I really can't think of any real criticism for it, it's just staggeringly damn good from start to finish. Gameplay is near perfect with each encounter being well planned-out and balanced. Enemy placement and scripting is executed beautifully with great precision, respect to logic and full utilization of what the environment can offer. Another thing making Coil great is complete non-linearity in layout. You're allowed to wander around this huge at-first-sight bewildering, yet very thoughtfully crafted complex, accomplishing the goals required for success in your own succession. That's the very first time I've seen non-linearity, the very opposite of what made Half-Life, work that well in a map pack for the game. Not only does that create a level of never-before-seen immersion, but it also gives loads of replayability potential. Even though no background story is given, the various scripted sequences you come across and the environment itself tell you little, but more than you need to know about what's going on. Accompanying gameplay, the visuals are just as amazing. Kol did a beautiful job creating a grim, hostile environment with a palette of fitting cold concrete textures and lighting. Architecture complimented both well with vast amounts of detail in every area and some great both model and brush-based props. Speaking of detail, a great deal of work went to crafting a realistic complex where few doors are closed and many can lead the curious exploring player to, even it gameplay/story-wise unimportant, yet well-made extra storage rooms, hallways, abandoned offices and so on, while not adding any confusion to the layout. Plenty of functional gadgets or panels you can turn on/off, open and search were a great addition as well. All that did a lot improving Coil's immersion. Ambience was just as good with a great variety of sounds, as well as extra env_sound effects utilized. I guess it's fair to say Coil alone makes Reissues worth a download and I will definitely be playing it again in the future. It's just beautiful, ten thumbs up, and a pat on the back - bravo. Next, It's Safer Here by tottmaster_c, the infamous 3D skybox campaign. Among the shortest in Reissues, this one proved to be surprisingly average. Gameplay was fairly simplistic offering little to no challenges at all. There was little variety in monsters as well, making most encounters predictable and boring. This is mostly because the chapter is supposed to be set in the Half-Life 2 universe, strongly narrowing the amount of HL1 monsters you can use. The final area with the machinegun wasn't as hard as others have claimed it to be in my case either, as long as you had some .357 ammo left. Visually, the only thing making It's Safer stand out was the skybox. Quite impressive for GoldSource, I agree, but it just wasn't enough. Architecture was fairly blocky and boring throughout, as well as texturing and lighting. The extra custom HL2 models were a nice touch, as well as the barnacle base goo, although the overall level of detail in the environment was definitely lacking. Ambience also was more-or-less a letdown, considering how rich HL2 was in that department. Overall, It's Safer Here could have done better re-making a Half-Life 2 environment. Some more ripped content like sounds, textures or props (or better brush-based copies of them) would have instantly made it work better, because right now, this is just pure average wrapped in a shiny skybox. Moving on, more sci-fi complexes and laboratories in Half-LifeManiac's Cyan. While starting off promising and ending a tad flat, it was alright to play through, but not quite there yet. Monster/item placement was good with some decent balance and the extra stuff to help like ceiling turrets was definitely useful, however it's the backtracking/NPC escorting combined with lack of story/explanation that ruined the potentially fun gameplay. First of all, if you're going to make us bring those annoying scientitst/barneys with us, at least make it easier for them to navigate their environment! Button-controlled doors, weird hallways (the science/medical lab ones), level transitions, elevators - all that makes it really hard to get those fuckers to follow you. I remember it taking as long as ten minutes to get those two scientists from their encampment to the fire door. Trust me, ten minutes of "I refuse to go another step!" are not what any sane person would consider entertaining (unless you're Jack Thompson.) Furthermore, it was unclear how long you're supposed to keep the suckers by your side. The two scientists, for example, were only needed to open a single door, while I kept them with me thinking there's more they'll need to do right until the final areas. Some kind of way letting you know you have to let them go (a dose of vent-crawling always works) would save everyone quite some time. Even though annoying in gameplay, Cyan's looks were nearly flawless. Combining some nice and highly detailed architecture, great custom textures and awesome lighting, it was definitely impressive. Worth mentioning are the custom suit and health chargers (loved the battery charger, epic care for detail). Turning on a light as the player approaches was also a great addition. Just like the visuals, ambience wasn't overlooked either with some great subtle & realistic sounds accompanying most areas. Getting that right requires quite some fine-tuning, so kudos to the author for the effort. In conclusion, this is one great-looking and sounding campaign, my only wish is that it were more fast paced and less centered around escorting NPCs. Great effort nonetheless, good job. Ansith's Labcoats Required, a short Black Mesa-themed campaign came next. Not much to say about this one, a simple scenario, no significant story or characters. Just a linear journey from point A to B with some shooting - nothing too impressive. What I missed the most in it were the good old puzzles you usually come across in Black Mesa themed maps. That alone would have improved the otherwise bland-ish gameplay. Architecture was probably the most lacking visual aspect with poor detail and general blockiness in some areas, specifically the larger chambers. Texturing was fairly crude and lacked originality with only the basic Half-Life content used. Ambience and lighting seemed rushed and lacking as well with dark and perfectly silent areas. Knowing Ansith's mapping potential, this was quite a letdown in the end. Just another generic and boring trip to Black Mesa failing to show anything even remotely new. Dred_Furst's Encamped was another short chapter and while definitely better than Labcoats Required, it still proved to be full of holes in most cases. The first thing to strike me as weird was the lack of coherence and logic in and between most areas. The starting lobby, for example had only two major exits: one to an elevator and another to a weird room stacked with weapons and weird glowing holes in the wall. Other areas suffered from this too, as the distance between key facility locations was often as little as a two-minute run, which feels unlogical and makes the whole thing look rushed. Architecture ranged from average to lacking in most places, while texturing seemed rushed and due to a mix of sharp custom and old stock Half-Life textures, looked rather awkward. Ambience was sparse, but seemed to do its job correctly. Lighting, on the other hand, was horrible. With lights spammed everywhere, most rooms ended up looking nearly fullbright. It wasn't all bad, though, some locations like the generator room or the cavern behind it were alright and even had some more logical light placement. The teleporter beams in the final sequence, accompanied with nice particle effects looked very well too. When it came to playing this, however, Encamped did try to introduce us to something rather new for a Half-Life map pack, yet failed at that very badly. The idea of killing a controller monster in order to turn your foes against each other seems fine, yet in this campaign it just doesn't seem to bloody work. Shooting the monster does nothing and if you do it too soon, it can bugger up any scripted attack sequences, rendering your shots futile and thus wasting your ammo. Enemy spam also wasn't forgotten with the final battle being a prime example. Six alien grunts in a single room, little ammo, HP and no explosives left after taking care of a wave of human grunts and alien slaves. At least you're given a chance to just make a run for it, otherwise the ending would be downright freaking impossible. Apart from these flaws, I did like the way scientists communicate with you via realistically rushed text messages. It's always fun 2 c sum1 as smrt as einstein wr8 lke tht. Overall, an interesting concept, yet the execution really should have been much better. Finally, we come to Second Wind by the infamous CampaignJunkie. Just like MastaKilla, I left the best for last. And good god, was it good. I have not played any Half-Life map pack as close to my vision of perfection as this before. For starters, the story. Simple, yet immersive, told with finesse and style - it was simply beautiful. The simple, yet amazingly executed introduction sequence gave you more reason for your crusade than any cruddy text-based briefing. Once that was done, I was greeted with stupendous visuals for the GoldSource engine, showing insane mapping skills of the author. From crisp custom textures, the vast open areas with clean & detailed architecture to the lighting, everything was absolutely stunning. Each larger section of the map was a vista on its own and combined with a unique arabic mansion theme and a large variety of diverse, yet coherent areas - Second Wind looked so great it had me stopping every five minutes or so to just soak in the view. My absolute favourites would have to be the inner courtyard where you fight the apache (amazing lighting & shadows on the tower there) and the portal at the top of the tower (epic surrealism.) To imagine the scale of the sheer epicness of this mappack, you'd have to take HL2's Lost Coast, build a huge mansion into its cliff, change the time of day to gloomy evening and port it all to GoldSource. At perfectly playable framerates. When it comes to gameplay, this campaign plays no worse than it looks. Driven by the aforementioned awesome story, you visit a large variety of locations, all of which have plenty of different friends and foes. Even though combat was perfectly balanced, the main thing making Second Wind shine were the puzzles. With some of the most creative mind-bending stuff I've seen done in GoldSource, they made up a huge part of what makes Second Wind such a blast to play. My only complaint would be a somewhat lackluster ending combat-wise, however its sequence more than made up for that. In conclusion, I've only one thing to say: If you think you've seen it all without having played through this, I lack the words to prove you wrong. Doesn't matter what you like or not like, you simply have absolutely no excuse. Play.This.Now. I will eat my glasses and drink them down with motor oil if I ever play anything as epic as this for GoldSource.

Bottom Line

So there you have it. To sum things up, even though Reissues does have a bunch of average stuff, it is also bundled with some of the most epic scenarios you'll ever play on GoldSource. Even though my overall score is fairly low due to lower-quality campaigns outnumbering the good ones, it's still more than worth your time. Oh, and the ending? I'm not going to spoil anything but, the way it's tied to the Half-Life saga is absolutely freaking perfect. That concludes this horrible review. If you actually had the patience to read through this monstrosity, take a deep breath, go out for a walk and play through Reissues when you're back. It's worth it.

Heh. Wait till' August or September? Chances are, we won't even be seeing it this year. Hell, they started playing I'm Not There only recently here.

Great stuff. Well-deserved MotM winner! :>

Lookin' good.

Amazing. Stupendous size & detail, even for Source. Plays nice, too.

You sound pretty busy.
Keep us posted on those projects. :>

Lookin' good so far. The crosshair could be a tad smaller/cooler-looking, though. ;>

...
Get the hell to playing it and don't come back after the part where they show how Nihilanth gives birth to Gman.

Heh, so I'm not the only one who started using this. Weird it's never been documented before..

As for screenies - I really don't have anything I can show off. Example maps show the effect right, though aren't that sexy.

Hahah.
"This is the epiphany of un-holliness in the mapping scale of "No."
Well-said. Nice stuff.

http://img28.picoodle.com/img/img28/4/5/22/f_1m_e6a1aa2.jpg
That Airflow Control sign sticking out in the void doesn't look too realistic. Move it down a bit so that it's fully inside the walkway.

Lookin' good so far. Submerged.wad textures, I presume? ;>

I think the outside walls could use more gadgets spammed around them. Go for pipes/wires/vents, etc.

The new sky looks far better, too.
I'd suggest removing those 3 useless pictures at the bottom of your post; they just make scrolling down take longer.

Ooh, kz_!
Looks way better than the usual ugly-as-shit stuff too. Looking forward to this. ;>

Happy b-day. :>

Leak battle*
The war's not over untill you release it.

This is by far the most commented on journal post in TWHL.. And look at the subject. D:

Heh, listened to some of your stuff, pretty decent, sounds somewhat like early Tool, only less progressive. Actually, the vocalist sounds a bit like Maynard. ^^

Aww. Time flies. :<

Kickass, congrats!
Slash your way to fame and fortune and plz don't turn into another emo failband once you're at the top, kthx? ;>

does the same as Madcow
Anywho - apart from some formatting problems in previews and compare windows, looks great. :>

Review

2D games, especially platformers are indisputably an undying genre - a respected fatherly figure in gaming nowadays. Be it an emulated NES version of Super Mario Bros, the adventures of Sam & Max, or plain simple tetris - playing them gives you that warm nostalgic feeling you'd get as a six-year-old mashing your game pad like there's no tomorrow and hoping the gaming time limit set by your parents won't run out anytime soon. Flat-Life brings you back to just those childhood times and by combining them with a bit of crowbar, shotgun & headcrabs provides you with one of the most enjoyable and fresh Half-Life experiences ever.Obviously, the main thing making this mod so darn awesome is gameplay. Now there's no new monsters or vehicles or an egon gun that pierces walls, derives its targets of their flesh leaving nothing but bones and also has the powers of the gravity gun (write this one down, ChickenFist!). Actually, your arsenal, friends and foes haven't changed a bit. It's the way you see and interact with your environment which has, and that's right where the fun begins. Even if at first something as simple as a change in perspective doesn't sound too impressive, sticking with Half-Life's 3D renderer and putting the player in a 2-D perspective side-scroller or a top-down view shooter turns Flat-Life into something really special.Sadly, some problems are there to ruin the fun. First of all, there are multiple stability issues, especially in multiplayer games. Sometimes the only way to successfully start or join a game is when you're already in-game, meaning you have to load a random map in singleplayer before you can connect to any server. Loading saved games is also sometimes a bitch, causing crashes and other problems. Also, .mid music playback seems to have problems working after a mapchange or load. However, the vast majority of these issues is fixed on version 1.3, which will hopefully be released depending on the author's laziness. Stability aside, there are some other problems as well. The main thing eating my donuts and overcooking my casseroles is the crosshair in side-view, inaccurate and static. Even if its position would represent the trajectory of the bullet perfectly, it would still be pretty hard to aim, as it's always placed three steps from the player, making it very hard to predict whether you'll miss or not at longer range. Something like the RPG laser spot, showing you exactly what your bullet is going to end up in would be a real savior in this case. Somewhat dodgy player movement in some cases can also be a problem, especially when navigating through the various jumping puzzles most FL maps are full of. Even though tampering with Half-Life's physics system is annoying, some alterations in player velocity control to make it more responsive and precise should be considered.Beneath these issues, however, lie the various neat extra additions to the overall experience. Stuff like extra gibs/gore add some nice slapstick humour, the aforementioned buggy, yet nostalgia-inducing chiptone playback give it the right sound, while the neat shader water effects provide the eye candy. And of course, the very main thing making me forget any instability or singleplayer issues described earlier is the multiplayer. It's like you're in control of this special magnifying glass that instead of concentrated heat emits tiny lead showers, explosives and wee little crowbar bruises. Burning those pesky ants trying to capture your flag has never been so fun. Having spent a bit over an hour playing with my co-reviewers, I can't help but praise the multiplayer (which is why my final gameplay score is fairly buffed) and feel sad about the lack of suitable quality maps. With three different game modes (plain/team deathmatch and ctf) and a variety of powerups, there's plenty of unused mapping potential there. Hell, there's even some primitive custom-made bots for you to test things with.From a mapping perspective, the initial mod package doesn't feature any of the more impressive works released by the community, making impressions and variety feel a tad weak at first. In both singleplayer and multiplayer, most maps are fairly crude and dull, showing little of what Flat-Life has to offer. Visual aspects such as architecture, texturing or lighting were mostly functional, rarely showing anything more impressive. The only stock singleplayer map to display something more interesting seemed to be Operation Iceflow, yet in the end it proved nothing more than average both in aesthetics and ambience. The only exception to this was the infamous Tetrisitus, featuring a rather unique theme, however it was weak in every other field and overall frustrating to play due to the limited player view distance. Multiplayer maps were mostly nothing more than functional arenas with little attention paid to visuals (the only exception being ctf_egypt).

Bottom Line

Even with its multiple issues, this is one unique bundle of fun you should definitely give a shot. There's plenty of community-made content of higher quality to try out and if you're capable of gathering 3-6 people willing to go multiplayer, you have absolutely no excuse to miss out on the immense oldschool fun Flat-Life can provide.

Nothing like a random engrish-filled email to enlighten your fatigue-filled day. ;>

Checked the site, trailers, screenies, etc. Looks indeed a lot like a TF2 ripoff, though I'll refrain from judging untill I've actually played it.
As for now, judging from what I saw, I have to say it didn't impress me that much.

Heh, welcome back. :>

Shhh!

Double-post. D:

Glad you enjoyed it.
SR3 plz kthx?

Photos indeed. ;>

It guessed I was thinking of Anders Friden after 19 questions!
Pretty damn kickass. ;o

Finally posted that MotM. ;>
Congrats!

Review

After finally getting my hands on Team Fortress 2 with the Orange Box somewhere in mid-December last year, it has quickly become my absolute favorite multiplayer timewaster, beating games like Counter-Strike and StarCraft. No wonder I was quite delighted to see cp_goldfinger, the community's first custom TF2 map hit our Map Vault, not to mention getting a chance to review it shortly afterwards.Gameplay-wise, goldfinger is a small, sometimes slightly cramped, fast-paced two-control point map where both points can be captured simoultaneously and are never locked. This gives way to some awesome and frantic gameplay, although it could have been executed better.One of the main problems I encountered was the absolute lack of vertical combat. Apart from 100% of the map being completely linear with the exception of a few props you can jump on and a few roof support beams in the train depot right near RED spawn, any positions you'd expect to be accessible via rocket/pipebomb/double-jumping are clipped away, making the aforementioned abilities used to gain a better shooting/ambush position perfectly useless in goldfinger. Another weird design choice was giving no more than 45 seconds of additional time when a point is captured. Of course, it's safe to assume points would end up being captured/re-captured a multitude of times in a map that small, however, the current amounts given are too small even with that in mind. Something between one an two minutes would work much better in my opinion. Also, due to the fact that setup time was barely long enough for you to reach the control points, it's very tough for engineers to set up their sentries/dispensers before before getting raped from all four directions. Same goes for medics when preparing ?bercharges.Issues aside, gameplay was fairly enjoyable. With the time it takes you to get to any of the chokepoints is never above 20 seconds, "fragfest" or "meat grinder on XTC" would be the best terms to describe how fast things get in goldfinger, making the map great fun when playing as classes relying more on firepower/agility, not tactical advantage. Unlike gameplay, visuals were really nothing special. Architecture had no direct flaws and was clean overall, not presenting anything too new or original. Thanks to scenery, all those small control points felt somewhat bigger and more open, which is a great achievement in a map as small as this. Detail props were also ample, making the environment much more realistic and believable. Inaccessible security booths with blood splattered all over them were a nice addition and gave the map at least some background story.My only complaints for architecture would be that huge pile of containers in control point 1, which looks weird even with TF2's cartoony style, and the truck in control point 2, looking out of place due to there being no roads/passages big enough for a vehicle to pass through in the area.Texturing was average as well. With a default TF2 industrial theme chosen, there was pretty much nothing making it stand out. Can't say anything negative about it, though it gets a bit redundant when 9/10 custom TF2 maps utilize the exact same array of textures. Some custom content would really work well here.Another passenger aboard SS Average, lighting, was adequate with nothing to make it stand out. Yellow and white lights kept the map bright enough for any crazed individuals to refrain from accusing the map of being too dark and thus blaming that for their poor performance. While not really bland, some reddish/greenish lights would've accompanied the theme right, as well as spiced things up.A bit beter than the others, ambience, was overall well-executed, yet still somewhat lacking. Excessive use of soundscapes gave every area a distinct sound and even without anything custom, worked pretty good in the map. However, it's the distinct sounds that were missing. I mean stuff to go with the things surrounding you, like a motor sound for the truck, a pneumatic hammer pounding on the processing line behind those factory walls in the distance, steam running through pipes, hell, maybe a crow or two passing over the control point. These sounds, even if mostly overwhelmed by intense gunfire, screams, taunts and explosions, are not something you should overlook. After all, when you've just slayed 6 opponents, are standing alone over that precious control point, enjoying a moment of peace and waiting for either your teammates or another ambush, it's pretty nice to find out that territory you're fighting over is much livelier than you've imagined.

Bottom line

If I were to describe this map in one sentence, I'd say it's like the iceworld of Team Fortress 2 minus custom textures, much better-looking, better-sounding and overall way more pleasant. So if it's a nice and simple fast-paced slaughterhouse you're looking for, give cp_goldfinger a try.

The trim aswell?
Those ugly edges show up because of off-grid vertices. Try giving your pipes a more standard diameter (64, 128, etc.) and re-make them. That might fix those.

Use arches.

As for rounding everything up, it may look somewhat more detailed, however, you'd never see that in real life. Brick walls always end up blocky; if you want to spice that area up - try concrete trims or something like that. Also, those pipes could use a more fitting texture (rustier, less colorful metal).

Omnfg liek mah first journal post! ;o
Time flies.. ^^

Looks cool! Keep us posted. :>

Heh, no unmissable exams here, 11th grade FTW. Going there mostly for In Flames, Opeth, Metallica and RatM. The first three could be considered my absolutely favorite bands of all time with RatM falling a wee bit behind them. Dimmu Borgir, Queens of the Stone Age, Incubus and Motorhead are bands to look forward to aswell. :>

Strideh: So staff members can win the IRL prizes after all? ;o

Review

"Hey, Mr.Freeman. I.. had a bunch of messages for you, but we had a system crash about 20 minutes ago and I'm still trying to.."Upon hearing Barney's famous greeting, you'll already have made your first steps into the first "real" part of Half-Life. Anomalous Materials, of all chapters in the game, was definitely the one I've re-played, explored and analyzed the most. Not exactly sure why, though I think mainly because it wasn't anything more than a large playground, much like an extension of the Hazard Course, where you could first admire HL's interactivity, detail and sheer beauty at point-blanc range, where you could jerk around endlessly pressing the wrong buttons, annoying your colleagues without getting lead chuffed in your face, a place where, unlike the rest of the game, nothing could go wrong.Ansith's map isn't simply the aforementioned c1a0 (the first map in Anomalous Materials) on steroids. Inspired by a screenshot of the same area in Black Mesa Source, a highly anticipated remake of the whole Half-Life 1 experience in the Source Engine, it's, like Hunter said, a remake of a screenshot of a remake. Long-winded introductions aside, let's get on with the actual review. Upon spawning in the map - you'll probably first notice the new added objects/rooms to the original lobby area. Most of them, like the nicely detailed benches, the large wall panel with monitors on it over the reception desk, more gadgets here and there, or just extra office stuff lying around really work right in the map and give it more depth/realism. However, there are some plain logic faults and other nitpicks amongst the new additions. Take both new security rooms (one with a scientist opening the doors for you in the room where you spawn, another with barney in it next to the security override switch), for instance: There's no entrances/passages leading to them in the area, despite both having exit doors. You could of course say there's no entrance in the lobby, though placing it somewhere far away from the room you need to access sounds pretty pointless and inefficient. Another small flaw, often overlooked by level designers, is adding extra-fine details in only some parts of the map, while leaving other areas much less detailed. For example, some of the new pipes or small wires could've been extended through walls/ceilings in the whole map to give them more credibility, as well as up the overall detail level.New things aside, most of the old stuff was also fairly pumped up. Nothing more than some extra curves on corners, bevels in walls and more detail in gadgets/furniture, yet it all looked the way it's supposed to be, added some nice detail and didn't deviate too far from the original.Texturing also hasn't changed much, in fact, it's pretty much the same as in the old c1a0. Nothing special, though overall well-fitting and without any bigger faults. Plus, I think texturing was probably the main thing tieing this remake with the original, so any bigger changes would've ruined that essential link. Another thing linking the remake to the original was ambience. Mostly adequate, it was all original HL sounds, placed near every sound source possible. The map also had ample env_sounds, which, if I recall correctly, were overlooked in the original lobby. A nice addition, commonly left out by other mappers.Much like other aspects, lighting was pretty decent. A bit dimmer and more atmospheric, it worked quite well in my opinion. Some extra lights pointing out the new additions, like the ones at the ceiling near the vents, worked very well. Overall - it, again, wasn't anything special, though it improved original lighting quite a lot. My only complaint for this department was adding too many random switched off lights. Now there's no problem in a bit of variation, though when every third light in your science facility is borked, no wonder serious problems like resonance cascades occur. Some of the switched off lights could be replaced by flickering ones, for e.g.The only real bigger problem (if you can call it that), however, occurred in gameplay. Even if the original wasn't an immense fragfest, it had all those nice scripted sequences you could trigger and play around with. In this map, though, apart from the Security Override button, none of the old ones were included. Enhancing the old sequences and adding them would've definitely made the map feel even fresher. Apart from those, the only other area with some action was the secret zombie room. A nice thing to add, though I'd prefer a secret button, which'd spawn zombies/monsters in the level, while instantly equipping you with the Egon. ^^

Bottom Line

Now I know you'd probably never point out the flaws I picked on when reviewing a normal map, though since this is a fairly small winner, guess I can allow myself to pick it all to the bone. So, in conclusion, I'd say it's a decent attempt at bringing some life into the old-as-hell original Black Mesa Lobby. Black Mesa Lobby Remake is something fresh, yet nostalgic and even with some smallest flaws, it's really something you should try while waiting for BM:S to come outI swear, I've never given any remake a rating this high. D:

Thanks! :>
As for the neon sound - make sure it's placed in your sound/ambience folder.