HLF News

Mega 64: The Beatles Rock Band

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:25:15 +0000

I'm not even going to attempt to explain this. I'll just let the video speak for itself.

Kingdoms Collide Beta Released

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 23:32:48 +0000

Kingdoms Collide, a fantasy themed, third-person total conversion for the Orange Box engine, has revealed its first public beta release!

For more information as well as a list of download links, check out the official Kingdoms Collide site here.

Sven Co-op Contest Map Pack Released

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 09:51:26 +0000

The Sven Co-op Contest Map Pack is finally here! It contains 10 unique and high-quality maps for SC4.07 -- all but one of those entered into the contest.

See the Sven Co-op site for full details and download links.

Gabe Newell Receives Pioneer Award and BSOD

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:29:40 +0000

On March 11th, Gabe Newell took the stage at The Game Developers Choice Awards to accept his Pioneer Award which "celebrates those individuals who developed a breakthrough technology, game concept or gameplay design at a crucial juncture in video game history." In the final part of his speech, Gabe Newell begins to talking about the latest ARG with Portal and the faithful legion of fans...

What cannot be seen though is the error given by the BSOD, courtesy of the always friendly GLaDOS. The error code given by GLaDOS was a code that has now been deciphered. It looks like fans anxiously awaiting Portal 2 may have to wait until E3. If you want to see what the BSOD said, head on over to Kotaku to see the message.

Valve & Epic Games Sign Steamworks Deal!

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 23:49:33 +0000

According to Gamespy.com Valve and Epic have done up a Steamworks deal!

So click here for the full scoop. Special thanks to HLFallout member neva- for the heads up!

Exclusive Interview with Hal Robins (Dr. Kleiner)

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:49:05 +0000

HLFallout.net has had the honor of interviewing the voice actor of Dr. Kleiner; Hal Robins.

Quote

HLFallout.net: Are you looking forward to working on the next Half-Life title?

Hal: Naturally—it's always a supremely enjoyable and satisfying experience as a voice actor.

HLFallout.net: Is there anything you can tell us about your work on Episode 3, have you done any work on it at this point?...... view the full interview for all the Q&As

You can view the full interview here:

Click to view the interview, here.

Digg this!
http://digg.com/gaming_news/Exclusive_Interview_with_Hal_Robins_Dr_Kleiner

Hal Robins interview contest

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:01:13 +0000

In parallel with the wonderful interview of the wonderful Hal Robins, HLFallout is holding a (wonderful) contest! Isn't it wonderful?

The picture Hal kindly sent us to use for this interview is truly majestic!

And since imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, we ask you to use whatever means at your disposal, be it fingerpainting, Photoshop, MSpaint, Garry's mod, etc. or a combination thereof to make a copy of that picture.

Only few rules apply:

The contest is open to all members (excluding us staffies of course), if you're not a member yet, feel free to register and introduce yourself here.
Thou shalt post your submission in this very thread before Tuesday, March 16th at 24:00 o'clock UTC/GMT.
Thou shalt not use the original image or even parts of it.
Thou doth not need make a carbon copy of the original picture, creativity is allowed and well regarded, as long as thou stayeth on topic.

Now, here are a few examples on what to do, and what not to do:

You're doing it wrong!

Acceptable, at least you tried.

Now here's something we wouldn't ashamed of showing Hal himself!

The happy winner, chosen by Staff behind closed doors, in a seemingly democratic but ultimately totalitarian way, will receive any game(s) of his choosing available on Steam up to a total value of 50 US Dollars.

All other entrants will be awarded a medal, made out of pixels, that they can print out and wear proudly on their chest.(paper, printer, ink and cutting device not included)

Steam for the Macintosh

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 18:09:36 +0000

That's right ladies and gentlemen, your favorite series along with its counterparts are coming to Mac. As many had speculated, the new WebKit as well as OpenGL was a step in the towards building support for Mac. Don't worry, both Mac and PC will be able to join the same servers and share the same online experience together. The first side by side launch for PC and Mac? You guessed it, Portal 2. Check out the official word below or from Steampowered.

Quote

Steam and Valve's library of games including Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike, Portal, and the Half-Life series will be available in April.

"As we transition from entertainment as a product to entertainment as a service, customers and developers need open, high-quality Internet clients," said Gabe Newell, President of Valve. "The Mac is a great platform for entertainment services."

"Our Steam partners, who are delivering over a thousand games to 25 million Steam clients, are very excited about adding support for the Mac," said Jason Holtman, Director of Business Development at Valve. "Steamworks for the Mac supports all of the Steamworks APIs, and we have added a new feature, called Steam Play, which allows customers who purchase the product for the Mac or Windows to play on the other platform free of charge. For example, Steam Play, in combination with the Steam Cloud, allows a gamer playing on their work PC to go home and pick up playing the same game at the same point on their home Mac. We expect most developers and publishers to take advantage of Steam Play."

"We looked at a variety of methods to get our games onto the Mac and in the end decided to go with native versions rather than emulation," said John Cook, Director of Steam Development. "The inclusion of WebKit into Steam, and of OpenGL into Source gives us a lot of flexibility in how we move these technologies forward. We are treating the Mac as a tier-1 platform so all of our future games will release simultaneously on Windows, Mac, and the Xbox 360. Updates for the Mac will be available simultaneously with the Windows updates. Furthermore, Mac and Windows players will be part of the same multiplayer universe, sharing servers, lobbies, and so forth. We fully support a heterogeneous mix of servers and clients. The first Mac Steam client will be the new generation currently in beta testing on Windows."

Portal 2 will be Valve's first simultaneous release for Mac and Windows. "Checking in code produces a PC build and Mac build at the same time, automatically, so the two platforms are perfectly in lock-step," said Josh Weier, Portal 2 Project Lead. "We're always playing a native version on the Mac right alongside the PC. This makes it very easy for us and for anyone using Source to do game development for the Mac."

Portal 2 details

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 06:45:48 +0000

Right on the heels of the announcement, information from Game Informer's Portal 2 cover story is beginning to trickle onto the interwebs, and some of it is quite surprising!

A lot of time has passed since the events of the last trip to Aperture Science. So much time, in fact, one might call it hundreds of years. You read that correctly! More than a century has passed since the events of Portal, and much has changed. The labs are overgrown with foliage, a striking green contrasting against the clinical whites. Chell somehow returns as the protagonist, and the always delightful murderous AI GlaDOS returns as the antagonist.

Where Portal was seen as a 'test', Portal 2 is seen as a 'game', with all new mechanics introduced to keep things fresh. While the portal gun remains unchanged, the game world introduces a number of new ideas; reflection cubes will reflect lasers, special paint splatter will trigger special reactions (such as making surfaces bouncy), and physics will now play a stronger part in portal challenges. Placing a portal near an air vent sucking in air will allow you to direct that pressure, and physical reaction, to other areas of the level via the secondary portal.

Co-op now confirmed, players will find themselves not in the shoes of mere humans, but instead bipedal robots. Each robot will possess a portal gun and work together to solve devious puzzles in their own separate campaign. Communication being the key, Valve have focused on enhancing feedback; those playing on PC will be able to use a picture-in-picture box to see what the other player is doing, and players will be able to place information icons around levels to quickly direct each other to do the right thing at the right time.

Exciting times ahead! Keep your eyes peeled to Half-Life Fallout for more information as it breaks.

Portal 2 announced!

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 17:51:44 +0000

Finally! the highly expected announcement has been made officialy, Portal 2 is coming!
Now is the time to flail your arms wildly and weep with joy.

Quote

Valve, creators of best-selling game franchises (such as Left 4 Dead, Counter-Strike and Half-Life) and leading technologies (such as Steam and Source), today announced Portal 2 for shipment this coming holiday season.

Portal 2 is the sequel to 2007's Portal, which won 70 industry achievement awards.

(notice the crypitc underlined letters in the above press release)

Gameinformer is also teasing us with new images every few days

Thanks be extended to the-fox and neva- for their massive ~~sexiness~~ informative nature.