If you’re a fan of Half Life – and if you’re not, go play it and the sequel (and corresponding episodes) right now while re-evaluating the state of FPS gaming – then you’ve no doubt heard of Black Mesa. This was essentially a remake of the first game which not only gave it a brand new coat of paint, bringing the graphics up to date with the Source engine, but also added several new elements to the gameplay including a cameo by Eli Vance.

That being sad, we haven’t heard a whole lot about Black Mesa since its release more than two years ago. Thankfully, Tyler of the Valve News Network offers some new information on the game’s updates including some of the odder elements including the Pizza Code Mystery ARG.

Would you like to see the remaining gameplay for the original Half Life completed? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Respawn Entertainment’s Titanfall may have been built using Source, but in the early prototyping days, the studio experimented on several engines including Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time’s Luma Engine. Other options include Unreal Engine and Pandemic’s Zero engine, the former rejected due to fears of not being able to hit 60 FPS.

This was revealed in The Final Hours of Titanfall. Insomniac CEO Ted Price was friends with Respawn CEO Vince Zampella and lent the technology to him free of charge. Titanfall was prototyped for a year on Luma before an official decision was made.

The last-generation Source Engine achieved some fairly strong results, even if Titanfall isn’t the prettiest shooter or one that managed to hit 1080p on the Xbox One. What are your thoughts on the game thus far? Let us know in the comments below. Currently, the game will be receiving its first DLC, “Expedition”, in May which adds three new maps.

As Titanfall proves in its harrowing multiplayer matches, there indeed is.

"Regardless, the focus of the game isn’t on the campaign. It’s about knowing who you are, knowing how you’d approach situations, and outsmarting your opponents in the process."

Titanfall follows the story of the IMC and Militia, two factions at war in the Frontier. The main plot centres on former IMC pilot James McCallan seeking to bring down the IMC in the Frontier and in the process, butting heads with IMC Vice Admiral Graves. The campaign sees six players assuming one side as they do battle against six players on the opposing side. Audio logs, pre-match cinematics and short picture-in-picture clips during missions help progress the story but there’s never any real feeling of character or plot development.

On the one hand, this allows for players to immerse themselves in the game’s mechanics and maps before freeform multiplayer. On the other hand, some elements feel like they could have used a bit more exposition. What is Sara’s motivation? What exactly happened to McCallan to have him rebel? When you encounter various creatures and technologies, including the Titans themselves, you can’t help but want to know more.

Regardless, the focus of the game isn’t on the campaign. It’s about knowing who you are, knowing how you’d approach situations, and outsmarting your opponents in the process.

The movement system is perhaps Titanfall’s biggest triumph, equipping you with a jetpack that lets you wall run, double jump and scale rooftops effortlessly. Most players will be motivated to run and gun on the ground in the beginning but the real magic happens when you choose to wall run and traverse levels quickly.

"The Titans themselves are walking machines of war but they’re by no means invincible – a duo of Titans can easily pick you apart if you’re not careful."

You’ll be able to choose from three standard load outs in the beginning but as you level up, you’ll be able to customize your own skill set and tactical abilities. Do you opt for the run-and-gun approach of the C.A.R. SMG, combined with Deadman’s Trigger to activate Satchel Charges on your death? Do you choose the Smart Pistol and hang off of walls cloaked in order to surprise enemies? Do you parkour to the tallest spot on the map and proceed to snipe enemies from it?

When you mix in AI Grunts and Titans, the possibilities for tactics only become ever more complex. You can hack Spectres to fight for you, but even the typical Grunts will provide enough cover fodder to effectively kill opposing Pilots while they’re distracted. The Titans themselves are walking machines of war but they’re by no means invincible – a duo of Titans can easily pick you apart if you’re not careful.

In modes like Attrition, wherein you must gather a certain point total to win, it’s not usually necessary to tackle Titans head-on. You can spend the entire match playing “keep away” while stomping on Grunts and Spectres, not to mention other Pilots, to build up your score. In Hardpoint Domination, where you must capture and hold three locations for points, you can keep your Titan in Guard or Follow mode, using it to either tackle hostile Pilots or alert you to their presence.

"What’s most amazing about Titanfall isn’t its deceptive depth but how easy it is for everyone to find a role in the game. You don’t have to be the best shooter or the highest ranked player to stand a chance."

There are three types of Titans in the game: The hulking Ogre, the speedy Strider and the all-rounder Atlas. Neither type is inherently superior to the other – it all depends on the kind of player you want to be. Some maps are better suited to certain types – the open fields of Fracture benefit Striders more while the narrow streets of Angel City can either make it easier to flank enemy Titans or difficult to reach them, as your army travels down the straight and narrow paths.

Pilots aren’t necessarily defenseless against Titans. You can rodeo on the back of the hulking beasts and shoot ‘em up, or lay down Satchel Charges for when the Pilot emerges to deal with you. Just don’t try and jump on Titans from the front if you don’t want to be crushed. You also have anti-Titan weapons like the MAG Launcher and Charge Rifle which are supremely useful against Spectres and Pilots as well.

Factor in Burn Cards – disposable Perks which last for a single life but offer you an incredible advantage in the form of stronger Tactical Abilities, amped weapons, replacement Titans and double XP – and the possibilities are nearly endless.

What’s most amazing about Titanfall isn’t its deceptive depth but how easy it is for everyone to find a role in the game. You don’t have to be the best shooter or the highest ranked player to stand a chance – Titanfall encourages team work and rewards you for playing smart. It’s here where your unforgettable moments are crafted.

"Even if you aren’t a die-hard multiplayer fan, especially with regards to first person shooters, Titanfall is an experience you won’t want to miss."

Whether it’s killing three unsuspecting Pilots clumped together using the Smart Pistol, running around a narrow walkway to eliminate five Titans with a MAG launcher or even dooming a Titan and launching into the air with the Pilot on detonation to kill him or her as you’re falling. Titanfall’s biggest strength is in giving you the tools to get creative with your killing without unbalancing the game for everyone else.

That being said, there are a few problems. It will take some players a bit of time to get used to the parkouring mechanics and there will be plenty of instances wherein you just can’t seem to get through that open window or reach that secluded rooftop. The graphics also aren’t the best – those expecting details on the level of Battlefield 4, especially in terms of destructibility, will be a tad disappointed.

Titanfall still looks fairly amazing at 1080p and cruising at 60 FPS. The Source Engine allows it to be easily scalable across multiple platforms so even your paltry mobile GPU will be able to get in on the competition. It’s a shame that some glitches – such as the audio cutting out during excessively chaotic scenes with Cluster Missiles only to return a minute later – still persist but Respawn has delivered a successfully stable release out of the gate.

Titanfall presents itself as a coherently constructed set of ideas that play off each other amazingly well. It’s the multiplayer experience of the year and one that is continuously evolving in the minds and tactics of its players. Even if you aren’t a die-hard multiplayer fan, especially with regards to first person shooters, Titanfall is an experience you won’t want to miss.

This game was reviewed on PC.

Of course, the goal with Portal 2 was to take it beyond the confines of a simple puzzlers into a full-fledged video game. With that objective complete, what could be next? This seems to be the issue with Half Life 3 – the second game introduced open world elements, vehicles, an epic scale, a sprawling narrative with memorable side-characters, new mechanics especially in the area of video game physics and much more. What could possibly be next for that game?

Both games may be wanting for a direction but at this point it boils down to which one would be more feasible. Do you expect Valve to bring out Portal 3? Or do you desperately want Half Life 3, even it means waiting for who knows how much longer? Let us know in the comments below…though at this rate, we might as well start asking for Left 4 Dead 3.

Now here’s where it get’s interesting: Apparently, according to sources, Titan will only be running on Microsoft hardware and that means only coming to the Xbox. The game is apparently running on a modified Source engine (the same engine Valve uses), and though it looks good, can’t quite compare to EA’s Battlefield 4.

As of now, it seems that Respawn is working on an Xbox 720 version of the game and is looking for a studio to developer the Xbox 360 edition.

These are all rumours, remember, just like the always online nature of the Xbox 720. Microsoft will reveal more on May 21st but we may not see hints of game announcements until E3 2013. Heck, maybe even later. But Respawn’s Titan will definitely be at at E3 2013.

Modders on PC have mostly delivered when it comes to ambitious projects, even though they rarely get the funds or support from game companies, however, all they require is for the studios to make their games moddable and provide proper documentation so that they can do a lot of cool things.

There are companies like Crytek, Valve and others who have allowed people to build unique things with their engine, and we recently saw the Black Mesa mod for Half-Life which overhauled the entire game and made the decade old game worth playing again.

We have a new mod for Half-Life 2 which is the Jurassic Park mod which allows you to play in a tropical environment filled with Dinosaurs, and it has been modified from Half-Life 2’s environments. The game mod is still under development but we have a cool trailer, and they are also hiring for some people. If you think you can help them head over here.

“In this adventure, you are Robert Muldoon, the person in charge of the safety of the park. The game will proceed in a relatively linear but intense way with Resident Evil inspired management of the stress,” the mod’s page reads.

According to these findings, Valve could be developing a next generation Source 2 engine. References to the same have been found within the Source Film-maker, recently released by Valve.

The Paste bin and file path read as the following:

…/SourceFilmmaker/game/sdktools/python/global/lib/site-packages/vproj/vproj.py”

Line 1387:

”’Return an str with the current engine version.
If key doesn’t doesn’t exist, assume ‘Source’, otherwise invalid — assume next-gen ‘Source 2′.”’

This is one of apparently 60+ references. There are also references to Source, Hybrid, and Source 2, speculation being that Hybrid is the base for Source 2.

No news on how this affects, say, Half Life 2: Episode 3, but investigations are on-going. Another user has reported finding Source 2 tools within Source Film-maker.

Valve hasn’t officially confirmed or denied anything, but they have said Source is “about to get even better” at one point. Stay tuned for more.

Nuclear Dawn is a breath of fresh air for the genre. I was very impressed when I played a few games, as it really showed glimpses of brilliance. There are a few faults and some niggling issues here and there, though. First of all, Nuclear Dawn is a FPS + RTS hybrid that plays really well. The developers knew what they were doing here and it shows. You really won’t have any problem with the gameplay mechanics on offer as it is quite straightforward. The game is a multiplayer only shooter, so there if you need a comprehensive package, you won’t find it here but what you’ll find is a well-made squad based multiplayer experience that works quite well.

The game runs on the Source Engine and doesn’t really require any high-end computer to run, as you would expect with that engine. Also, the thing that is baffling is that you don’t really have many options to play with either. The commander is the central figure in the game, who can build structures and manage the other things that are so essential in a RTS game. People who are not fortunate enough to be the commander go head-to-head in battle in the classic first-person shooter style. You can do a vote kick against the commander if you feel he isn’t doing a good job. It’s all well implemented here.

There are two factions, namely the Consortium and the Empire. They really don’t feel all that different from each other except the colors. You can pick any faction or one of the four classes in-game when you die. It’s a game of controlling the territory and aggressively pushing forward and defending your base against an onslaught as well. Once you push into the heart of the enemy base and destroy the bunker the game is yours. The game supports 32 players so it really feels busy at times, as if you are in a real battlefield. Of course, graphically you can’t expect a lot here but still, it looks great considering it is running on an old Source Engine.

There are a lot of weapons to choose from here. I liked the Sniper implementation as it reminded me of the Killzone 2/3 Sniper who has the ability to cloak. Here it is more pronounced as you can really miss someone camping while cloaking. The weapons range from SMGs to Assault Rifles to the damn Chaingun as well. I really hate this gun in this game, as it feels very powerful to me combined with an insane range. If you end up anywhere close to a guy with a Chaingun, you won’t make it out of the battle in most situations. Other than this, the game feels quite balanced and all the weapons pack a punch. Destroying structures with weapons other than RPGs rarely works though and is very time consuming.

There can be a lot of tactical gameplay on offer here if you are pit against a good team and if you are in a team with people who know what they are doing, especially the commander. The spawn system is pretty decent as you don’t have to wait a lot of time to get into the action. I love the maps in the game, they really promote some good close quarters combat and long range action. Some of the map design is just brilliant. There are quite a few available at your disposal here. I am really fond of the abandoned Arab map, which gives a feeling of loneliness. There are six maps here and they are all well created. if your teammates are aggressive, you can win any games easily but it also depends on the opponent.

The learning curve is slightly high here, as I mentioned before due the lack of a single player component. Even a decent tutorial would have helped as mostly you have to learn through trial and error. The server browser is pretty decent and you can join games quickly. I haven’t encountered any lag in this game and it seems like the developers really put an effort into the netcode. It’s one of the main reasons why the game is so much enjoyable if you find a good game. There are a lot of options to communicate with your teammates especially with voice chat and the classic press ‘T’ to chat that makes PC online gameplay a lot of fun for people who are unable to voice chat due to the lack of a mic.

Nuclear Dawn is a simple straightforward game. You need to learn all the gameplay mechanics before you can become competent at the game, and it will take a while and if you do it will reward you with some find tactical FPS and RTS goodness. The game runs well, and the visions of the designers are realized here as it doesn’t get too much annoying. I would have liked a single player component though, as it would have served two purpose – making people familiar with the game and also giving them less competitive gameplay to hone their skills. As it stands now, the game is still well worth buying if you are looking for a different yet fun multiplayer game on the PC.

This game was reviewed on the PC.

Check out a new tutorial for the upcoming game Nuclear Dawn. The game looks amazing and reminds me of a lot of games. The guns are beautifully detailed and the gameplay looks smooth. I have the game with me right now, so stay tuned for the complete preview of it in a few days.

Nuclear Dawn is a Source engine based Multiplayer game that combines the visceral action of a First Person Shooter with the deep branching gameplay of a Real Time Strategy title. Forge your own destiny on the field of battle with every tactical decision, and ensure your faction’s survival with each headshot, capture buildings and bring the fight to your enemies’ strongholds riding the future’s machines of destruction.

Many of you probably don’t know what Nuclear Dawn is, and that’s because the game came out of nowhere. It really looks good so tell us what you think in the comments section below.

Valve has just revealed that they have over 35 million active customers on Steam. If you remember they said there were approximately 30 million last year. So it’s definitely a good bump for them in one year. Steam also hit 4 million concurrent users online this month.

Steam is now available in 237 countries and in 21 languages, and for a platform that had a really slow start in 2004, this is simply phenomenal.

Valve says,

Steam is our direct pipeline to customers. It began as a little sleeper project—a handy tool to update Counter-Strike—and morphed pretty quickly into the world’s largest online gaming platform. Steam guarantees instant access to more than 1,800 game titles and connects its 35 million active users to each other—and to us. Through Steam, fans can easily buy, play, share, modify, and build communities around Valve products as well as titles from other independent game studios. Steam is available in 237 countries and 21 different languages.

Gabe Newell mentions that to handle the growth of Steam, they have upgraded their infrastructure. For 6 million unique users logging on the platform per day, the infrastructure has to be solid, and Valve realizes the importance of this.

Newell says, “To meet this demand, the Steam infrastructure has been increased and now has ability to run at 400Gps, enough bandwidth to ship a digitized version of the Oxford English Dictionary 92.6 times per second.”

Then they hint about the improved Source engine.

In addition to Steam, there is Source, our own state-of-the-art game engine. Its sophisticated character animation, advanced AI, real-world physics, shader-based rendering, and super extensibility have helped us create some of the most popular and good-looking games on the market for computer and consoles. We don’t like to brag, but Source is considered the most flexible, comprehensive, and powerful game development environment out there. And it’s about to get even better.

It can only mean one thing – yeah you know what. But let us know what you think in the comments section below. Is Valve going to announce ‘it’ soon?

Src: Valve