The Real World Brands of Half-Life 2 by Jason Gimba

Half-Life 2 has a lot of props, from benches in the train station to Chinese take-out boxes. As a mapper, you become familiar with them over time and develop a mental index of the different models, names, sizes and your own practices for how and when you use them.

One thing I’ve noticed is that some of the textures on these props are based on real world brands. Sometimes Valve altered them, such as the detergent bottles of “606” (instead of Formula 409), but some escaped that treatment or may have been left intentionally. Because we can zoom so closely to the props in Hammer Editor, we can view some of these details that are difficult to see in-game.

Let’s take a look at some of them!


4th May 2015 11 Comments

We Want Your Content

The change from PlanetPhillip.com to RunThinkShootLive.com was all about changing the idea that the site is about one person. Yes, I still run it and contribute 95% of the content, but I want that to change.

I would like the site to be seen as the centre or hub for Half-Life SP content and not just maps and mods.

The site could easily host much more content and a perfect example is Jason Gimba’s article The Real World Brands of Half-Life 2.

Original content would be posted on RTSL first and then after a month could be posted to the creator’s own website if he or she has one.

So this post is to encourage readers to submit content in either articles or videos. Article would be posted on the site under a new category and videos would be hosted on the RTSL YouTube channel (not simply linked to). I want the YouTube channel to start to contain much more content created by other people.

While I am talking about readers contributing, please feel free to suggest new live streaming events. In fact, I will be starting a new series soon, but I can’t say any more than that because it’s still at the planning stage.

The same goes for article or video ideas.

PP and RTSL have a history of helping new maps and mods be created via the Mapping Challenges and it’s time for some of the energy to be put into other types of content creation.


27th September 2015 21 Comments

One Per Day – Have Your Say

Today in this month’s General Chat post, Jim, he of Critical Jim fame, said “Does anyone else feel that the one map per day initiative is cluttering this site with awful maps?” and it’s certainly a valid question.

I understand that some regular users, Jason Gimba included, don’t like it and I will stop if that’s the general consensus.

I would like to explain why I’m doing and then I’ll open it up to debate. I won’t make a poll though because the numbers involved are less important that your opinions.


3rd June 2015 23 Comments

Poll Question 313 – What is your Black Mesa purchase plan?

Unless you have been hiding away, you will no doubt have heard about the release of Black Mesa on Steam. It has received a lot of in-community attention and probably deservedly so.

I don’t have any problem with the team behind it selling their work and as a side note it would be interesting to know how many of the people who said that they wouldn’t buy mods have purchased it. It started as a mod but I digress.

Like some other RTSL readers I was a little disappointed by the price of 19.99 Euros but as Jason Gimba has said if releases like Stanley Parable sell for 11.99 Euros then it doesn’t seem too unjust. However, compared to Episode Two it doesn’t seem such good value.

I haven’t bought it yet for a variety of reasons but the main one is the lack of Xen. I won’t play it until I can play the whole game through and there’s no reason to buy it now. What are your thoughts on the pricing and your purchasing plan?


9th May 2015 34 Comments

CrossoverVille 2 – Map Labs #18

for Half-Life 2: Episode Two

CrossoverVille 2, in partnership with Map Labs as usual, is the sequel to 2015’s CrossoverVille. While the original asked mappers to merge Half-Life with another game, CrossoverVille 2 was more wide open, allowing entrants to cross over to any other form of media in their maps.

This is the second challenge of three in the Hammer Cup 2022.

As always, if you’re interested in learning more about Map Labs and maybe even participate in their upcoming challenges, visit the Map Labs Discord.

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Total Downloads: 1,9289th May 2022
11 Comments and 6 recommendations, most say "Play It Now!"

DeceptionVille – Map Labs Test Tube #17

for Half-Life 2: Episode Two

Out of the grave comes this never-used Ville theme! Once again I’m glad to partner with Map Labs to bring these new mapping challenges to life.

Here is DeceptionVille, where the mappers were challenged to make a map wherein something isn’t what it first seems.

This is the first challenge of three in the Hammer Cup 2022 – stay tuned to see the standings and the results of the next 2 challenges!

As always, if you’re interested in learning more about Map Labs and maybe even participate in their upcoming challenges, visit the Map Labs Discord.

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Total Downloads: 2,20323rd March 2022
20 Comments and 6 recommendations, most say "Play It Now!"

PhaseVille

for Half-Life 2: Episode Two

Video games always feature various styles of gameplay. In this challenge we asked mappers to create a map that flowed through 3 phases. See the Theme Details section below for full details.

The resulting maps range from average to fantastic and the different interpretations of each phase is fascinating.

Get ready to play through 15 new maps!

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Total Downloads: 5,71713th October 2018
31 Comments and 9 recommendations, most say "Play It Now!"