The website for Half-Life 2: Episode One went live today. HL2:EP1 picks up where Half-Life 2 left off (reactor explosion going off and Gordon and Alyx being taken away or whatever by the G-Man).

Consciousness returns. Gordon and Alyx discover they’ve somehow escaped both the reactor explosion and the G-Man’s malevolent grasp. Before they can ponder their miraculous survival, the crippled Citadel lurches back to life just long enough to initiate a self-destruct sequence. With Alyx at his side, Gordon must flee a city in chaos before the Citadel’s final detonation turns City 17 into a toxic, mutant-infested crater.

I’m soooo pre-ordering this as soon as I can. :D

About a month and a half ago, this video was leaked onto the Internet:

It was claimed to be the next Battlefield title from DICE, but most people, including me, figured it to be a non-BF title. Oh how we were wrong, as shown by this video released yesterday:

EA also posted a community update today confirming the project.

While I really enjoy modern combat (i.e. Battlefield 2), Battlefield 2142 definetly looks interesting and like a lot of fun. :)

Haha, this is great:

It’s official: two per cent of gamers are neither male nor female, leading us to believe that this small yet significant section of the gaming demographic is either hermaphrodite, represents a species further down the evolutionary pyramid or is perhaps of silicon-based extraterrestrial origin.

That’s according to the ESA (Entertainment Software Association) 2005 report into the state of the industry - enticingly entitled “ESA’S 2005 Essential Facts About the Computer and Video Game Industry” - which is available right here (PDF):

That’s right - page five blows the lid on the astounding truth. We look forward to more ESA revelations in the future, including the earth-shattering insight that 37 per cent of analysts cannot operate an electronic calculator, 41 per cent cannot successfully proofread a document and the remaining 24 per cent are concealing the chilling truth that the lower mammalian orders have developed a penchant for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Fascinating stuff.

Bootnote

Thanks to reader Matt for giving it 110 per cent in finding this statistical gem.

Source: http://www.theregister.com/2005/10/17/gaming_shocker/

Woo, an alpha of Goldeneye Source, a Half-Life 2 mod, has been released! I’m downloading it now and can’t wait. I played a Goldeneye mod for the first Half-Life and it was fun and I’m told this one is as well.

The PC demo for Need for Speed: Most Wanted was released a few hours ago. You can download it by clicking here.

It’s a pretty kickass game and one of the best of the Need for Speed titles, second probably only to Porche Unleashed. It takes the best of NFS: Hot Pursuit 2 (supercars, exotics, cops, etc.) and mixes it with the NFS: Underground 1 & 2 features like freeroam and customization. I’ll be buying this game for sure! Check out some screenshots I made in this thread on my forums.

Valve, the makers of Half-Life 2, have released “Lost Coast”, a mini-level designed to showcase their new HDR (High-Dyanmic Range) system. If you own Half-Life 2, just restart Steam (if you have it open right now that is) and then right-click HL2:LC and install it. :)

Oh, and here’s HDR off vs. on:

(ignore the orange and white talk bubble thing - it’s used to activate commentary in the level)

It may not seem like much, but you really notice it in-game. When you’re in a dark area and then go outside, everything is really bright and over the matter of a few seconds, your virtual eyes adjust and all is good. Oh, and yes, I realize HDR is in Day of Defeat: Source meaning many of you have still seen it, but Lost Coast is still cool as it features commentary from the makers. :D

Oh, and here’s another prettiness screenshot. :)

Yep, that’s right, a completely new version of the Steam client was just released. Here’s a small screenshot to give you an idea.

Just restart Steam and the update will be applied automatically! :)

What’s new:

You’ll notice some changes in the way Steam looks since the last update. Right now we’re working on what we call Steam 3 — a collection of new features that covers everything from server robustness to support for third-party games. The first major piece we’ve updated is the organization of the games list and the Steam store. One of our primary goals with this change is to accommodate a larger and more varied collection of games. We hope everyone likes the newer look and feel of Steam.

The next area we’re going to be focusing on is the Friends system. As such, Friends will not be available until the overhauled version is released. We will keep you informed of its progress.

Steam, like our games, is something we’re always working to evolve. This is the first step in what should be a fun year or so for Steam and the community.

Yay! The friends system will finally work! lol

A new patch for Battlefield 2 has been released. New things include a new version of the classic Wake map (Wake 2007) as well as lots of bug fixes. Of course since we’re talking about EA and DICE here, they’ve also introduced lots of new bugs.

The biggest new one is that if you use the new name prefix system (meant for allowing players to add a clan tag), you can’t set it to blank, you can only change it to something else. So, don’t use the new prefix system! [edit] Fixed it. If you type some text into the prefix box and then delete it out via backspace, it seems to go away. [/edit]

Anyway, you can go download it here: http://files.filefront.com/Battlefield_2_v103_Patch/;4213295;;/fileinfo.html

So after playing Live for Speed S1 a lot with a bunch of guys from my forums, I bought Live for Speed S2. LFS is a kickass racing sim and while I usually stay away from sims ’cause I find arcade racing games more fun, I gotta admit, LFS is pretty damn fun.

Here’s a screenshot to give you an idea of the graphics: (click the image for more)

As for the physics, they are some of the best racing physics in any game I’ve ever played. No joke.

If you haven’t checked it out, I really suggest you do. You can get the demo right here.

I ran across a “guide” for Battlefield 2 for new people to the game that I think everyone should take the time to read: http://www.somethingawful.com/articles.php?a=3097

In all seriousness, it’s very funny and definetly worth the read, even if you don’t play Battlefield. :)