I’m a fan of machinima productions, from the high quality like Red vs. Blue and the “Still Seeing Breen” music video to the Neverending Nights series, its amazing what a few creative gamers and cinematographers can come up with using video games as their tools. Well stumbling around the net I found an interesting article at LowPings.net featuring a number of interesting Half-Life 2 machinima that I’d previously not seen before that feel more like professional cinema productions than fan films.

The post includes some roughs and I found Combine Nation, which is like Combine Cops, and Ignis Solus which is like an existential art piece with flamethrowers. We keep having this debate as games not being or creating art.. but these cinema pieces definitely show that while you may debate the merits of games themselves, as tools of creation they can be something quite a bit more.

The post also links to some interesting series like Maintenance Man, Freeman’s Mind and Escape from City 17, a live action production I mentioned a few months back.

Here’s a quick reminder of how awesome video editing can make HL2 a tool for movie creation:

Any way you cut it the convergence of games and cinema is here.. lucky us, we just get to sit back and enjoy the results. I’m always on the look out for new series or shorts, feel free to share your favorites in the discussion boards in this post and maybe we’ll highlight them in a future article.

Valve has been hard at work on a new Team Fortress 2 patch, which should be going live within a few days time. This is not only good news for PC users, but for those who purchased The Orange Box for the Xbox 360 as well because Valve is also working on an update which will include all the goodies that were included with the PC version.

The patch for the PC will see the Teleporters being able to be leveled to 3 with the cool down decreasing as the character levels. Spies will be have the ability to recharge their cloaking skill when they pick ammo up off of the ground. Dispensers will also be able to level up to 3 and will not only heal faster, but generate metal faster as they level. Valve has also added a particle system and has upgraded the HUD to show stats such as death by critical hits, players that are over healed, and providing more information to medics when they are being hailed by other players.

In addition to these new changes and additions, gamers who have not had the opportunity to play Team Fortress 2 can now get the game for $10.00 over on Steam. If you have loads of money to burn, you can also get the complete Valve package for $99.99 which includes: Counter-Strike, Team Fortress Classic, Day of Defeat, Deathmatch Classic, Half-Life: Opposing Force, Ricochet, Half-Life, Counter-Strike: Condition Zero, Half-Life: Blue Shift, Half-Life 2, Counter-Strike: Source, Half-Life: Source, Day of Defeat: Source, Half-Life 2: Deathmatch, Half-Life 2: Lost Coast, Half-Life Deathmatch: Source, Half-Life 2: Episode One, Portal, Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead, and Peggle Extreme.

Left 4 Dead will already run you $49.99 so spend the extra $50 and get not only a good deal but a enough games to max out the memory on your PC.

We will be sure to let you know when the patches for both versions of Team Fortress 2 are to be make available, so you may wanna check back with us.

(Thanks VG247)

After a renewed start we had an interruption these last few weeks but rest assured Filefront is still hosting and promoting all the great user created and hosted content contributed to us. We return with a double length post highlighting some great mods and files for quite a few outstanding games including usual suspects like Half-Life 2, the Battlefield games and of course one of my favorite series “that I am really no good at yet still enjoy” - Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War

Highlights from this week’s column include mods for:

• Doom III - Wrathchild Act I (not ROE compatible), Revised Alphalabs
• Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - A Provost of the Nine Divines, More Nord Beards
• Battlefield 2 - Operation Peacekeeper, Allies Intent Extended
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R - Ballistics Mod
• Far Cry 2 - new maps: MP_Surf & Gold Rush

There are also links to other maps, mods and patches for many of your favorite PC modifiable games. Be sure to check it all out after the jump.

Read the full article »

Valve has always had pretty popular games, and if their recent release of sales figures over the past ten years are any indication of the company’ success, well then they will have nothing to worry about for a very long time. Well, that’s barring some unforeseen gaming or spending catastrophe like a Superman 64 or a very bad heroine addiction.

Here are the numbers reported to Game Informer, then posted on Gamasutra and broken down in a pretty list by VG247:

• Half-Life - 9.3 million
• Half-Life: Opposing Force - 1.1 million
• Half-Life: Blue Shift - 800,000
• Half-Life 2 - 6.5 million
• Half-Life 2: Episode One - 1.4 million
• The Orange Box - 3 million
• Counter-Strike - 4.2 million
• Counter-Strike: Condition Zero - 2.9 million
• Counter-Strike: Source - 2.1 million
• Counter-Strike (Xbox) - 1.5 million
• Left 4 Dead (projected) - 3.6 - 3.9 million

The figures add up to a total retail amount of  32.8 million and if you include the projected Left 4 Dead numbers, it increases to 36.4 - 36.7 million. These figures also do not include digital sales of their products through Steam, which Valve is currently keeping under wraps for some reason or another. Be that as it may, the numbers speak for themselves, and whether you are a Valve fan or not, they are nothing to sneeze at by any means.

This new trailer has been making the rounds on the internet today, and if I didn’t know better, I would swear this came directly from Valve. Instead this comes from the team behind Black Mesa, a full-conversion mod using Half-Life 2’s Source engine to recreate the original Half-Life. Sure, Valve released their own Half-Life: Source long ago, but that wasn’t exactly the modern re-imagining that fans were hoping for (more of a cut/paste job). But that’s exactly what’s fueling the developers of this mod to give the first game a true update. From the looks of this trailer, I’d say they’re definitely on the right track.

The Open File, Gaming Today’s feature piece on the news and interests of the FIleFront network of file sites returns this week after a long hiatus. In the spirit of great cooperation we’ve aligned with the producer of the Filefront Network Insider to provide user submitted news blogs and links to recently updated modification files and maps hosted among the various file communities.

Read the full article »

And I thought finding Tabula Rasa for a buck was strange.

Valve has announced that the original Half-Life is officially 10 years old today. In honor of the game that essentially drove them to their status as one of the most dependable developers around, they’ve decided to drop its price down to 98¢. Of course, this offer is only available on their video game download service, Steam, and it will only last until Friday. But now anyone can check out the game that continues to top numerous “Best of” lists even to this day. Unless you’re really hungry for a Double Cheeseburger, that is.

Arguably the greatest advantage of PC gaming is the world of mods. Limitless replay can be gained by purchasing a single game with a dedicated mod community — ask anyone who has ever picked up a Source game (the engine powering many of Valve’s games, including Half-Life 2 and Team Fortress 2) or any entry in the Unreal Tournament series.

The problem, however, is keeping track of all of the mods you use and keeping them up to date. As seems to increasingly be the case, Valve has once again stepped up with Steam to cure a woe of PC gaming by hosting mods through Steam — all of which will automatically be kept up-to-date like any game purchased through Steam.

The first batch of mods to be released include Age of Chivalry, D.I.P.R.I.P., Insurgency, Zombie Panic, and Synergy. You can also expect to see features from Steamworks implemented, although the announcement didn’t go into the breadth of that functionality (e.g. if we’ll be seeing Achievements and the like). The only requirement to play any of the mods will be that you own a Source game, which is exactly how things work currently.

Perhaps offering these mods through Steam will help legitimize the mod scene in the eyes of people who are still concerned with downloading and installing things from websites they aren’t familiar with. (Are these types of people still out there?) Regardless, props to Valve for once again helping to champion the PC as a gaming platform.

Not too long ago, a creepy fan video appeared online depicting an interview with one of Half-Life 2’s Combine soldiers, which was based on the creepy Scientology interviews with Tom Cruise. Oddly enough, it was actually a well-made video, complete with authentic-looking costumes and some pretty good camera work. Well, if you’re still in the market for a Halloween costume, you may be interested to know that the creator of that video has now put the Combine costume up on eBay. Even in bright lighting and without some eerie voice over, the uniform still looks creepy. Apparently, the mask was created using an actual Russian gas mask, and it comes with a built-in voice changer. That should definitely help you stand out from all the Heath Ledger Jokers wandering around this Halloween (seriously, I’m predicting at least two of them at every party this year). Me, I’ll still be dressing in the same costume I do every year: “obnoxious drunk guy at the party.” Woo!

Via eBay

It should come as no surprise that WoW would be number one in sales on the PC charts, but for one company to have five titles in the Top 10? That is a testament to the popularity of the games it creates. Blizzard is no stranger to being the dominant company in the NPD charts though, and as you can see below, the week of August 17-23 was no exception:

• 1. World of Warcraft: Battle Chest
• 2. The Sims 2: Double Deluxe
• 3. World of Warcraft
• 4. Spore Creature Creator
• 5. World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
• 6. The Diablo Battle Chest
• 7. Nancy Drew: The Phantom of Venice
• 8. Call of Duty 4
• 9. The Orange Box
• 10. The Warcraft III Battle Chest

It is also no surprise that the Spore Creature Creator is up there, nor CoD4 or even The Sims 2 for that matter. I have even stopped batting an eye at the Nancy Drew game because despite what we choose to believe, even little girls like PC games too. However, what is shocking to me is that The Orange Box is still in the Top 10 after all this time- maybe this is because of all the Team Fortress updates and the like, because I would think that Portal and Half-Life 2 would be old hat by now.