Back Issue 9 - 13th Nov to 20th Nov 1998
New Background
DTang sent us in a new Half-Life wallpaper so depending on your screen resolution download it for 640 by 480 or 800 by 600.
Half-Life Support page
I saw over on Bluesnews that Sierra has launched their Half-Life Support Page, so if any of you lucky critter has had any trouble head over there and hopefully your woes will be over.
Half-Life Editing resource Center
Also the Half-Life Editing Resource Center has opened on Rust. The website looks really cool, its certainly going to be the one-stop-shop for the latest utilities and extras for Worldcraft and other bits of HL editing.
USA Stores soon...
I guess most of you guys already know this, but Half-Life should be at a store near you sooner than soon!
UK & Europe Still Waiting...
Oh well, for those of us in the good ole UK or Europe then we still have to wait for Half-Life. Bummer hey. :-( Apparently Game UK has a date of Friday 27th Nov. According to inside sources the've ordered a whole heap of copies, they know the're onto a winner!
Update by Alex - 20 November 1998 19:46:41
GameRush HL Review
Go and pull up a pew at Gamerush has a new review of Half-Life where they give it 100%!! There is also news of a GameRush HL Launch Party tres cool. :)
Server CVARs
The The Dark Requiem website has a list of commands and cvars which they teefed from the HL client released with the primary server (makes no sense looking unless you run a server I guess). Oh and the press prelease about that is here.
Multiplayer Screenies
Saw that Frost over at HalfLife.net has posted a bunch of multiplayer screenshots. Take a look here and also here.
Update by Alex - 17 November 1998 19:47:37
IRC log all pretty now
I spent a while re-formatting the messy IRC party log and now you can see the questions asked and the answers that correspond. Take a look (please)
Update by Dann - 15 November 1998 23:16:19
Half-Life High End Server Download
If you've got a connection equating to a cable modem or higher then head over to Won.net and directly to this page where you can download the server software.
Update by Alex - 15 November 1998 17:35:59
TeamFortress II Preview
Woah! It seems today is the day for news! eh? The official teamfortress website TeamFortress.com has now added a new preview of TFII including three new screenshots of TFII. Very cool! There is also an extra enhancement called Parametric Animation to the game engine within TFII, here is the blurb.
For example, while Half-Life was the first game to use skeletal animation for realistic character movement, Team Fortress pushes the envelope even further with Parametric Animation. This technology gives characters completely lifelike moves, such as heads that turn in the direction they are looking and leg strides that adjust depending on stance and condition.
Update by Alex - 15 November 1998 17:09:13
Screenshots at Firing Squad
The The Firing Squad has a whole load of new screenshots of multiplayer Half-Life. Absolutely stunning! Nuff said.
OEM Preview at 3D Map Realm
The 3D Map Realm has posted a preview of Half-Life based on the OEM version of the game. I also had a good look at Rust whilst I was surfing... jeez those guys really know how to design websites, the previous Rust was pretty damned cool now it just gets better!
Update by Alex - 15 November 1998 12:22:34
Gunman TC. The TC to beat!
Fahrenheit from Betterhalf has posted what he calls a 'preview' of the Gunman TC, but really I think its a collection of interviews with the people that are working on it. But anyways, there is plenty of Gunman information scattered thoughout. And in fact it is a really damned ace read! Well done to Fahrenheit for asking the right questions! Check out the 'Preview'.
There are also some new movies and a peice of music in mp3 format over on the Betterhalf Gunman TC preview pages.
Gabe N. on muliplayer HL
Gabe Newall cleared up some questions on the limited release release of the multiplayer dedicated server and client which will be released prior to when the game hits the shelves. Apparently Valve want to be sure there are adequate game servers running before the game gets into our hands. Cant be bad. eh?
Also here is something snagged off Bluesnews, which is in regard to questions e-mailed by Stephen Sopp which give a little more information on the server software.
Stephen: Having a LAN party for the release of Half Life, about 16 people or so, and I believe some of these people won't have half life by the time of the party. But 3/4 of the people should. My question is can a CD be used for multiple mutliplayer installs for the remaining people, just for LAN play? Don't know what your guys policy or security is on this, and I want to plan ahead for this contingency.
Gabe: If your Half-Life server doesn't authenticate (in other words it doesn't have an IP connection to WON's authentication servers), you can play up to 5 clients sharing a single CD key. If the server can authenticate itself via WON, then it insists that all of the clients have a unique CD key. This basically differentiates LAN games from Internet games.
Stephen: And second, I read in the chat, that you guys were releasing the server software early. how can someone get this? We have a box sitting on a partial T3 just ready to run a dedicated server.
Gabe: The details of the server program will get announced tomorrow. There will be a qualifying questionnaire, and once you get a server up that can be connected to, you'll be sent a multiplayer client and a CD key. There will be a limited number of people who can participate in the program.
Update by Alex - 15 November 1998 10:57:15
Dario Casali Interview
For those of us lucky enough to live in the UK ;-) There is a big interview with Dario Casali in PC Zone magazine, UK edition. About maps, mapping & Valve. Cheers to Max Galvin for that.
Update by Alex - 14 November 1998 23:10:14
Party Afters...
The full log of the bigass interview/rave is up, cheers Dann for recording it, just a shame I couldnt keep my eyes open to be there (it was past midnight in the UK ok!).
In the 'Other Titbits' section of the news today we have, Rust the former game editing site at Planetquake which is now offering to run a free Half-Life editing mailing list, just send an e-mail to listar@middleearth.telefragged.com with a subject of subscribe halflife_editing and you're added... cool :)
Update by Alex - 14 November 1998 20:19:04
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