http://iterationgames.com/indev.html

Small game, where you place turrets in a 2d world to fight off red triangles. The idea is neat and the graphics are a good fit. Too bad the controls are laid out in a weird way and the player ship is a tad slow. Also, this seems like an alpha. Runs slow, too.

3/10 

http://www.yoyogames.com/games/show/2745

Basically a (commercial?) uninspired Line Rider clone. It has obstacles, stars to collect, speed boosters in free mode. Oh, and a roller coaster instead of a sled.

4/10 

http://www.datarealms.com/devlog/category/cortex-command/

Wow, this is weird.

Think Worms with bunker building in real-time. Has a great graphics style. Sadly, i couldn't figure out how to actually play the game once i built my base and bought robots and stuff... this is still in dev though.

?/10 cause i couldn't really figure out how to play it. 

I tried Cortex Command but it refused to start - 'the application or dll is not a valid windows image'.

I guess its because I'm on XP spanish, maybe, although it'll be the first time its caused a problem. It was with the latest build 18. I'll try it on XP english at work and send them an email, unless you know what caused this?

The error message I translated from Spanish, so it might be innaccurate. 

http://www.freewebarcade.com/game/the-last-stand/

Neat flash game, where you have to defend your base from hordes of zombies. you can try to find weapons and or survivors. Loads of fun :)

7/10 

no idea really, worked fine here :( 

the language thing - it'd be something to be cleaned up for a release version, most likely. Wouldn't be suprised if it was looking for my programs / documents or something. Of course, I have mis documentos and archivo de programas.

Looks interesting though, I'll definately give it a look. Last stand sounds good as well. 

Anyone seen this before? Any ideas as to what causes it?

http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/8942/poxycrashxh2.jpg

It does this at the end of the loading screen. I am playing the game (trying to) with Steam off-line.

Ho hum... 

To keep Riot Act installer small, they did not include some sound files. These are compiled on engine first launch. I did it with Steam online and got no problem.

Very good mod! Comes close to Minerva, I'd say... 

I tried Steam on-line with and without HL2 on-line, but no joy.

I can get it to work if I run it in a window. 

With Episode One, and I had to physically carry my computer into my fathers office (from my house, a street away), and plug it in to the internet just to get it to work. And then my dad came in and said 'what are you doing to my computer!!!'. So I explained how the bastards at Valve mad a game which you have to connect to the internet atleast once even if you dont want to play online.

Then I installed Roit Act (among other things) and it wouldnt let me play it for the same reason.

Thats whay I'll stick to my 360 for HL games, although I know I'm losing out on all the custom stuff!

Shame really, I should go and get broadband installed at my house!! 

Very nice. Felt better and longer than Episode 1. I hope they expand on the (somewhat) nonlinear elements, namely the valley fight. The hint at the microwave casseroll incident made me laugh. Looking forward to Episode 3 and it would be cool if it included a return to the Black Mesa facilities..

Barney isn't there for obvious reasons: he died in the explosion of City 17 - that's what he got for being foolish enough to attempt rescuing survivers. Sorry czg :/ 

 

[SPOILERS]


it would be cool if it included a return to the Black Mesa facilities..

Black Mesa was nuked by the warhead at the end of Opposing Force. Also: no, it wouldn't be cool. Stories should not run backwards.
Also: Ep3 is to be set in the Arctic, on the trail of the legendary Borealis and the Aperture Science tech on board.


Actually, this leads me to something I've been thinking about a lot since completing Ep2.

It seems clear to me that there is a 'seasonal' cycle being played out in the design of HL2.
Going by screenshots of the Ep2 trailers on its Wikipedia page, Ep2 received something of a chilly misty facelift after the first trailer was made. The pine forest setting was already there, but Valve deliberately made it more cold and....autumnal. And Ep3 is to take place above the Arctic circle in what one can only assume will be snowy terrain maps.

So lets run through this from the start...

Half-Life: Black Mesa, New Mexico desert. Hot. Bright. Sun-drenched. Summer

Half-Life 2 -> Ep1: Eastern Europe. In the City. While a variety of day/night times are used, sunsets are prominent and one of the developer commentaries even mentions an 'autumnal' coloring for the streets in Ep1. Summer gives way to Autumn

Ep2: Europe. Out of the City. Mist. Cold blues and greens positively saturate the Ep2 color palette. Autumn gives way to the ominous onset of Winter

Ep3: Almost immediately following the brutal death of a key character, our heroes must travel north, above the Arctic circle into cold. And probably dark. Winter

Half-Life 3 ???: The worst to befall humanity yet, the darkest hour etc. The final battle to permanently liberate Earth of the invaders.
Humanity travels out of the dark Winter into a new beginning...Spring


I maybe spend a tad much time thinking about flavour text and the like, but it's hard to deny the deliberate design choice of ambience in Ep2 and the likelihood of Ep3 taking place in an even colder, snowy environment as already seen in the Mossman communication.

And this is exactly the sort of mature design approach typical of Valve.

So I just want it on record that I called it :P 

Barney isn't there for obvious reasons: he died in the explosion of City 17

You are a bad, bad person and you are going to android hell.



There won't be any cake. 

You smoke beetles and it's going to piss down in HL3. 

since everyone's being positive, i feel i should mention this:

most of the cave levels blew. :( 

pretty cool, even though for some reason it looks very jaggy despite me having 8xSAA on.

Movement feels shit but once you get used to that, all the different combat possibilities are great. 

http://www.gamedesign.jp/flash/chatnoir/chatnoir.html 

that is so cool. 

Heh, fun, it's strange it kinda feels like playing a very basic version of Go. 

I have a boardgame quite similar to that, just that it's on a rectangular grid and you can build towers. once two towers stand in a combination like the horse in chess, you can build a wall between them. Goal is to reach the other side of the board. 

is AWESOME

Such cool design, doesn't need any instructions or words at any point... seems impossible for a while but then you I got the hang of it and it's very satisfying. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TwixT 

since everyone's being positive, i feel i should mention this:

most of the cave levels blew. :(


I'm not entirely positive about Ep2. I agree with czg; while it isn't bad, I wasn't blown away by it the way I was by HL2 and Ep1.

What was it though about the cave levels that "blew"?

I thought the actual sculpting was superb, really the first cave map to actually be shaped exactly the way real caves are. I wondered if it had been made as a model in max or maya and then imported, until I played with commentary and discovered it was done with Hammer's 'displacements'. I've heard of this before, but I have no idea how it works.

I also thought the custom shader written specifically to render the look of a flashlight casting long shadows off every little protrusion on the surface was the first use of bump mapping I've seen that added something useful to the experience.

The colors otoh I was less impressed with. The same green and blue the Valve team apparently decided to make the signature palette of Ep2. Kinda bleh, and gray/brown would have been fine

The Larval Essence was also a disappointment. As an item significant for being both:
1) the key to saving Alyx's life
2) the goal of a sizeable chunk of stylised mapping in the episode
it should have had a unique model, placed in the center of a spiral-like cavern path.
Instead, I wanted to ask the Vort why we couldn't have just got some from the identical honeycombs I'd been fighting my way past for the last quarter of a mile.

But I still found the caves a cool place to be, and the combat fortunately wasn't tediously hard, unlike when you are later bludgeoned with the Hunters.

So what blew?