Archive for May 2018


RTSL game coming to Steam!

Right, so I suspect you are A: pretty excited and B: a little confused by the title. Hopefully, after you have finished reading this post you will still be excited but not confused.

I will explain as much as I can, but please bear in mind, that some things will remain secret for various reasons.

Essentially, near the end of this year or the beginning of next year, we will be releasing a compilation of the best maps entered for the mapping challenges over the last few years.

Let me address the use of the word “Game”, it seems that currently the release will be a game in the sense that it will not require the purchase or installation of ANY other Half-Life game.


26th May 2018 14 Comments

A Place in the West – An Interview with Ross and Michael.

The range of creations based on the Half-Life series never ceases to amaze me. Of course, that’s probably true of many IP franchises but Half-Life is the only one I am interested in.

I can’t say I have always been a fan of comics and am a little embarrassed to say that the movie “Unbreakable” was the first time I had really thought about their societal impact and influence.

Even as a child, I never really bought comics, so it was with some trepidation that I started to read A Place in the West. I won’t lie – it took a while for me to become interested and I did find it tough going at times, but I will say that I enjoyed what I read, even if I didn’t agree with all the creative choices.

I actually printed all the chapters and read them like a tradition comic and I actually liked that more than reading them on-screen (call me old-fashioned if you want).

That said, I have absolutely no hesitation at all in recommending reading the comic. The first chapter is free but the following ones are much better and at a very fair price of 1.99 Euros.

Below is a brief interview I conducted with the creators of the comic and I would like to thank them for taking the time to reply to my questions.

All the images below are taken from the first chapter.

So, either before or after reading the interview, go visit the A Place in the West Steam page and get reading.


26th May 2018 No Comments

Multi-hour Fund Raising Stream This Saturday

This Saturday, the 19th May, I will be doing a multi-hour livestream to raise money for the 2-018 Prize Fund.

Hunt Down the Freeman will be started and maybe even finished, Mapping will also feature as well as a couple of Half-Life 1 mods.

Start time is 12pm Central European Time and it will be on the RTSL YouTube channel: https://gaming.youtube.com/c/Planetphillipcom/live

I’ll be regularly asking for your hard-earned money, but know that it doesn’t go to me but to the entrants of the mapping challenges.

There will be game giveaways at least every hour, including some HDtF Steam keys.

Let me know if you have any questions and I hope to see you there.


17th May 2018 2 Comments

Site Feature: Collections

I am pleased to announce a new feature on the site.

It is called Collections and are user-created lists of releases.

I have created a video explaining how they work, which you can see below.

Collections can be viewed via the EXPLORE menu item and full details can be found on the ABOUT Page.

In summary, only registered and logged in users can create Collections but every visitor can see them.

As always, if you have any questions or feedback, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

My thanks go to Jan for coding the feature and Koneko for testing it.


13th May 2018 5 Comments

May 2018 – General Chat

As I was lying in bed this morning, thinking about getting up or thinking about staying, a new feature for the site popped into my head.

I’m going to call it “Reference Gallery” and it will contain reference images from HL1 mods. I’ll split it into a few sub-galleries: Ceilings, Corridors, Large Arenas, Set Pieces and Science Baby!

I’ll start building the framework pages this week and slowly add images to each section. Let me know if you feel I should have other sub-galleries. I did consider creating an account on an external social media site just for this but want to keep everything hosted on RTSL.

Anywho….

Here we are. Getting closer to summer. I still haven’t finished Wolfenstein The New Order – shame on me. Who knows, MAYBE I will this month.

Found a mod I have been meaning to play for ages, so that takes presidents (Thank Mr. Trump for that spelling), plus a bunch of other stuff related to the site.

What about you? Got any big plans for the month of possibilities?

BTW, the image is taken from Dark Interval – Canals


1st May 2018 15 Comments

Special Quiz Giveaway 2018

In the past I was pretty bad about keeping records of which games I had been given and which games I had given away. I do things differently now, but I have a file with a list of games that may, and this is REALLY important, MAY have been given away.

The only way to find out is to actually put the codes into Steam (some in Origin) and see what happens.

Therefore, this quiz giveaway is held on the basis that all or possibly none of the keys I have will work. By entering, you accept that possibility. No subsitute games will be offered even if none of the keys work.

Yes, this is pretty cheeky or me and yes, if they don’t work, that’s pretty shitty on the winner – but as Gordon says “”.

Here are the games:


1st May 2018 1 Comment