Journals

Last year(s) I haven't been gaming much. It has lost my interest. However, I recently went through the list of games I had obtained over the many years. It was a boring sunday, matter of fact, so I couldn't help but to try some Half-life. I did the training course and then I did some matches online. Before I knew it I opened Counter-Strike and later on I tried some Ricochet. All kinds of vague memories started to pop up. In a hurry I visited TWHL and raided the map vault. Heck, after more than a year of absence I could still remember my password. To make things worse, I actually downloaded Deathmatch Classic just so that I could playtest a map. After this rush of happenings on just a lazy sunday I haven't done anything game-related, but the idea of making a map is itching. I'm doing university now, so my time is scarce, but it only seems so obvious I can't kick the habit. It's funny to see something so worthless as gaming had such an impact on my life. I have other interests now, but the memories remain. Sad? Perhaps, but the memories are ever so sweet.

Jailbreak: Source is coming close to release and recently they've blessed us with some new screenshots and the announcement of a new gamemode, I quote;

"The concept of Deathball is simple, when the ball is in the goal, the enemy jail is locked. So keep the ball in the goal, and kill off the enemy team! If the ball is out of the goal, the enemy can let themselves straight out! And if the ball is in your goal, you best get it out quick, otherwise you're going to very rapidly find yourself on your own, or vapourised!"

I, being a beta-tester, can say that it's really fun to play and quite well polished.
So when it hits the 0.5 go download that mod; support the scene! Vote!

Today is a historic day in the world of gaming, because exactly 10 years ago on the 19th of November (1998) Half-Life 1 was released. I was a young kid back then, but I still have so many great memories about my first gaming experiences that were HL1 and its respected mods; vague but sweet memories. When my brother first gave me the chance to let me play HL1 and CS/TFC I was instantly hooked. Especially TFC got me hooked, but also notable mods like Firearms and Vampire Slayer.

Anyways, I would just like to thank Valve for making such a great game.
I'll quit now before my nostalgic feelings truelly take over!

Late, I know, but whatever; I think Valve is really making an great effort to put the source modding community on spot like it once was with goldsource, yet they stimulate the current development of modding which I think is a somewhat negative development. For the simple fact they give mods a oppertunity to be hosted on steam and so opening them for a larger audience than they would have had when they weren't hosted I give them my thumbs up. However, the mods (5 atm, 5 more to come and perhaps more) that get hosted are big, populair and mostly total conversion mods with well-known concepts done so much before. That raises the modding standard once again which, for me, is a negative development. In the 'modding scene' there has been created this feeling of releasing a total conversion mod at first release. This is stimulated by gamers. Mods with a great concept but with stock HL2 enviroment won't be played anymore (unless it's something revolutionary), no, everything has to be custom at start, only then it is worth a play.... that's basicly the thought nowadays. This somewhat dissapoints me, because this puts many great ideas to sleep. Don't get me wrong, I like all those incredibly custom mods that get released (well, a lot I don't like actually, to name 2.... Insurgency is again a releastic middle-east shooter, Zombie Panic is sigh yet another Zombie game - I swear that people are fascinated with zombies) but I miss all those wacky smalltime mods people all gave a try back in the goldsource days. So yeh, i'm on a bit of hate-love feeling about the hosting of mods on Steam.

On a other note, Jailbreak! released a bunch of media from 0.5 - it is now a total conversion. Dinosaurs versus Robots, how random and brilliant is that! I'm a beta tester (woot, in one of the screenshots I make a comment in chat under 'Freshy Fresh' - LULZ, I R FAMOUS BIATCHES!) and I saw the mod grow. There have been quite a bunch of gameplay changes aswell, but all for the better i'd say. Personally, i'm a big fan of this mod (simply for the arcadish lulz supported by solid competitive gameplay) and hopefully it will be one of the next 5 mods to be hosted on steam. Anyhows anyways, you guys should give it a try when 0.5 releases. The community is very friendly and always welcoming newcomers. http://www.jailbreaksource.com/Hehe, I think this has to be one of my longest posts on TWHL ever.

I miss those fun wacky mods from HL1 in the source modding community. Nowadays the standards to create a mod are set too high. The 'fun' aspect of modding seems gone in source; so many source mods die - simply because they want to release their mod like it's a commercial game. This sorta resulted in gamers aspecting this aswell. Luckyly i'm always searching for new mods and came across a new mod from one of my fav. developers Brendon Chung;

http://blended.planethalflife.gamespy.com/barista4/

Yes, fileplanet.. I know I know, but it's worth it. It's a really small (done in ~10 min) and random mod, but totally awesome anyway. You have to play it.

Strider fails the interwebs. Ok, so it is his IRC nickname... fair enough.Never mind..

I am bored. Anyone else?

Battefield Heroes beta on may 6th, yay!
I'm really looking forward to this game.
Why? Cuz' it has the 3 F's darn it!!

1. Free
2. Funny
3. Fantastic

Since I kinda gave up on mapping, i'm spending more time into the HL1/HL2 gaming community itself. I recently played the new HL2 third-party made mod D.I.P.R.I.P; Die in Pain, Rest in Peace. It's a race-shooter game, much in the spirit of Twisted Metal. It looks and plays awesome. Sadly I got a bit of FPS problems. But that's the problem of my crappy computer..

On a other note, if you want me to review your map, give me a PM and i'll be happy to review it for you. I don't give away 5 stars easyly, so be warned if you do. I do not review CS/TF2/Portal maps.

?I laugh, I love, I hope, I try, I hurt, I need, I fear, I cry. And I know you do the same things too, so we're really not that different, me and you.?

So simple said, yet, so true.

The impossible is possible. I got proof:

It's a sad fact that a lot of people have no respect for music styles they don't listin to.

If they don't like it, it sucks..