would make the environment more convincing in HL2, but I guess the tech is limited:
http://www.planetphillip.com/siteimages/half-life-2/leons-cta/med-leons-cta-image-46.jpg
http://www.planetphillip.com/siteimages/half-life-2/leons-cta/med-leons-cta-image-15.jpg
http://www.planetphillip.com/siteimages/half-life-2/leons-cta/med-leons-cta-image-11.jpg 

I can't even get past the first lot of combine. Even the sea got me a couple of times. I have to wonder if it's actually worth my time cracking on with it. 

You could do better arches than that in quake, what's the tech got to do with it? 

You could do better arches than that in quake ?

Yes, it is possible, at least with QuArK: there is a arch_builder function that allows to generate arches with a defined amount of "faces" (within the arch): the more you have, the more it looks curved, but the worst it is for vis processing... Trade-off is necessary ;P 

i thought HL2 supported patches like q3?

also, there are a couple of screenshots with some rather shoddy texturing. :( 

Has an arch tool, albeit not a very good one. Also, you can do better arches by just using like czg's curve style. So there is no excuse for such a shitty looking arch.

I might give this a run some day soon...I am highly suspicious of the quality considering there are apparently 15 levels 

I got maybe 2 or 3 maps into this before I stopped and deleted it. The quality just isn't there I am sad to report.

Gotta give props to the guy for making so much stuff though, shame it isn't all good. If it was even JUST 2 or 3 maps but with a much higher quality level this would have been a much better release. 

make the curved part of the arch a func and it will help with vis time. Depending on the size of the arch, it could affect the lighting noticeably though.

I haven't even bothered to play metastasis 2 yet. I have it installed, know it'll be good, but HL2 isn't that interesting any more. I probably still buy ep1 though, but I'd like to find out what new enemies are in it first.

Fighting endless combine does not sound like fun, so I won't bother with this. The screens don't look great either. A few look nice (the buggy section) but the rest looks kinda average. 

I already know that ;) 

of hardware accelerated game engines 96-02 or so,
pretty much left all of the texture processing to the Opengl or Direct3d pipeline resulting in generic stretched over geometry appearance in the games of that time; Sw based Quake does have a better volumetric feel to it than the majority of games from this time period. 

I was answering Jago in the general abuse thread. How did I get here? 

you just had a headthump? 

I had a second func-board window open and pasted the text to the wrong screen. 

when i said the gameplay was "somewhat flawed" i meant "totally fucked up". horde combat just does not work for half-life. so i played the last few maps with god mode. a pity, since most of the maps looked nice (apart from some plain areas).
this mod could have needed some proper beta-testing! one time i had to cheat me the gravity gun, because i must have forgotten to take it somewhere; some other times i used noclip out of confusion/bordom.

if the gameplay was not so blatantly annoying (aka if there were far less enemies), this mod would have been quite impressing (minor bugs aside), especially due to the fact that it is mostly a one-man project... 

...and it's great fun. I don't see the hoards as a problem and they are needed: you don't guard secret installations with one soldier, do you? The object of the exercise surely is to move through the map killing everything (or at least anything you need to) as you go. You can pick them of singly with the crossbow, and it IS fun to watch their mates reaction as a buddy drops dead in front of them for no apparent reason! (Ugh, WTF!) You can grenade bunches of them. You can dodge and shoot, hide and shoot, or sneak past.

Run in with guns blazing and you're gonna get dead real quick. And I must admit that if you are a non quick-save player, dying would probably become a bore.

The quality (for a free map) is fine. Sure, there are a few minor flaws here and there (just like in everyother game) but this is a very playable set of levels.

There are plenty of changes of scenery - inddors, outside, underground, city, country, rural, hi-tech etc; use of vehicles, a couple of puzzles, and some interesting ideas like the halucinogenic gas scenes.

Ammo and weapons are fine, with enough health and shield scattered around, albeit that you have to look for it i.e. explore.

Personally, I didn't have time to stop and consider whether or not an arch could have been improved. I was too busy running for cover and thinking about how best to avoid being killed.

When you play these games you have to play the game, live the life, get the girl. Think about bath time... immerse yourself, don't just stick a toe in the water. I'm sure that you'll enjoy it more.

More from this author please.