The Purchase Brothers have just dropped the first episode of their short film series based on the Half-Life series of games onto the internet. Firstly, it looks very, very impressive when you consider the following:
Filmed guerilla style with no money, no time, no crew, no script, the first two episodes were made from beginning to end on a budget of $500
I’m looking forward to the rest of the series after watching this. I do hope the acting improves and there’s a bit more action, that doesn’t just involve running around. But, it’s very impressive stuff all the same.
I hope they will get a lot more money to show what they can really do with some original material or a remake/comic book adaptation as is currently the de facto standard in today’s Hollywood.
10 years ago Valve software released Half-Life on the PC. They’ve not done bad since! Happy birthday Half-Life, and thanks for the memories…and all the lovely games Valve has made since…and Left 4 Dead (out now!).
To celebrate the release of the free Pyro update, Valve Software are making Team Fortress 2 (TF2) free to play for a whole weekend. So from 20th – 22nd June 08 anyone can log onto Steam and play TF2.
Since it’s release last year Valve have already enhanced the Medic class with new weapons and achievements. Now Valve have decided to tweak the Pyro class. This tweaking involves 3 new toys (flare gun, the backburner and the axtinguisher) and 35 new achievements. These new weapons can be unlocked by earning 15, 20 and 25 of the new achievements respectively. These sound like fun:
Dance Dance Immolation – Kill 3 enemies while they’re taunting
OMGWTFBBQ – Kill an enemy with a taunt
Makin’ Bacon – Kill 50 Heavies with your flamethrower
Next of Kindling: – Ignite an enemy, and the Medic healing him
If this wasn’t enough, Valve are also releasing 2 new user-created maps for lots of flamy fun:
CP_Fastlane – A 5 control point make in the style of Badlands
CTF_Turbine – A capture the flag map set inside a large industrial compound
Both these maps were built using the Source Engine SDK. If you fancy building some awesome maps simply follow the TF2 level creation guides contained in the Valve Software developer Wiki.
See you all at the TF2 bbq this weekend!
Update 22nd Jun 08: Valee have launched a Team Fortress 2 blog. It’s a bit post lite at the moment. Valve say they intend to update the blog with information about the state of the game and the reasoning behind development decisions. This could prove to be an interesting portal into how Valve is evolving TF2.
The Purchase Brothers have just dropped the first episode of their short film series based on the Half-Life series of games onto the internet. Firstly, it looks very, very impressive when you consider the following:
To celebrate the release of the free 
