A Collection of Resources and Curiosities

27th July 2012

Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3

This page is now online. It doesn’t have much content but that will change over time: Resources and Curiosities.

Please send me anything you think might be suitable.

Thanks.

Original Post

Imagine for a moment that you are completely new to Half-Life gaming. Some how you have acquired the game, perhaps it was a present.

You play it and like most people reading this post loved it and want to delve deeper into its world.

Where do you start looking? Of course, you perform a web search and find some of the bigger sites and perhaps you stumble upon this site. I have written a guide to various aspects of gaming for the newbie but feel there is still a lot of resources that are missing.

Now, when I say resources, I am not thinking of websites. I feel my Links has the best collection of good websites around. Yes, there are other websites but not ones I believe are that useful. What I am thinking of is more subtle than that, things that get mentioned in forums or on podcasts and then forgotten.

As seasoned players, we have seen these things come and go and enjoy them when we find them but for newbies they may never get to see these things because they are spread out around the net.

Here’s an example. I got an email last year from somebody new to the Half-Life community. He contacted to tell me about a great new comic he had found called “Concerned”. Since it was new he said he wanted to tell me, so I could tell other people. I had to break it to him gently that “Concerned” wasn’t new, in fact it was pretty old.

What I would like to do is create a list of “resources” that we feel all newbies should have access to. Perhaps Concerned should be listed as proper website but there must be plenty of other stuff that doesn’t need to be.

Perhaps “resource” is too strong a description for some of the things, maybe “curiosity” is a better description. Things like really intersting threads on forum threads (like this one), images, applications, sections of websites etc.

A good example is GooseGoose’s video playthroughs, which are very interesting and provide some great commentary on the games. Another is Steam Sauce, which allows players to set global settings on all their games and mods.

Of course, when a newbie comes into our community, it’s easy for us to send him or her to CombineOverWiki, so they can learn the deeper elements of the universe our games reside in, but I’m not really talking about factual information so much.

so, what I would like you to do, si post or send me your favourite “resources” or “Curiosities” and I will check them out and decide how best to add them to the list.

Please note, I am thinking about resources for PLAYERS not modders or developers.

Then, when I have enough, I will create a page with all the links, sorted into various categories, which will them fit smoothly into my “guides” pages.

18 Comments

  1. MikeS

    Excellent idea. I think most of us like trivia (and I don’t use that word in a negative sense). Stuff like the “combine holding child” graffiti is a good example of what I’d like to see more of. Things I might have overlooked, things that provoke discussion.

    Concerned! *clicks fingers* I was trying to recall the name of that comic a few days ago. Loved that strip. It’s a shame the guy responsible couldn’t be persuaded to continue with Lost Coast, Ep 1 and Ep 2.

  2. andyb

    When playing some older mods and even a few new ones sometimes,I find things that should work but dont and its needed to continue.Could be a new weapon but its location is just out of reach for some reason or in portal maps a cube falls into the water but the spawner decides to quit.

    So what to do.Well I just enable cheats but I can never remember what code to put in to say spawn a new cube or weapon so I need to look it up.This is where I go to look

    http://www.gamefaqs.com/

    I know you said “not websites” but I didnt want to post a link to each “code” page for each valve game.I use this site often as I have a terrible memory and if I was new to valve games/mods and needed to input something to make it continue to work I would find this handy

  3. bobdog

    I hate to toot my own horn, but I actually am pretty proud of the mini-reviews that I post at http://forums.starfoxweb.com/index.php?topic=387.0 — it’s a good collection of HL2 maps and mods in one location, with some short commentary and a scoring structure.

    1. Jim P

      Agreed! They are fantastic!

  4. SMOD to enhance the original HL2 game experience?

    1. I’m not going to be adding mods to the list.

  5. Unq

    Not sure if this is the type of thing you’re looking for, but I’ve always liked the Black Mesa overview picture: http://www.nextdimension.org/bmrf/

  6. Unq

    OK, also I recommend the relatively recent Half-Life trailer video, which is fun if you’re a fan of the first game: http://youtu.be/wtIp8jOo8_o

  7. Not sure if this is the right area to post this but its under my personal “curiosities” . I’ve been playing HL for along time but still I am a noobie at some of the secrets and intricacies of all the HL series. Is there a category or post /comments area that deals with the explanations of some of the things found during gameplay. I’m speaking about things such as the Gnome ( which I just now found out about its purpose in white forest(carrying to the end and placing in rocket). how about the briefcases laying around, the babydolls and other common props. Do any of these have “secret” purposes? Thanks All

  8. Hec

    Lol, this is definitely a classic, and one of my favourites! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slRsexrhbG8 Blah blah blah Mr. Freman. 🙂

    1. Hec

      Wow, I loved this video thanks for sharing it!!, indeed that’s a mistery if the CMB withdrawn from earth, maybe some advanced intelligent Antlions breed could invade the planet??, taht would be a could trama for further HL saga but probably in the next 40 years lol!!

  9. This page is now online. It doesn’t have much content but that will change over time: Resources and Curiosities.

    Please send me anything you think might be suitable.

    Thanks.

  10. Damn, I wanted to send you the pic you used a thumbnail for this topic, but now it seems inapprociate hehe, anyhow nice idea I’ll check what I can find and post next week, being busy today and it’s sooooooo hot over here these days! Have a nice time people!

    P.S. Don’t forget to update the TREE page with players times etc. Phillip, just mentioning it 😉

    1. It’s not inappropriate – I can’t remember where I found it or what it is, so please send it to me.

      The TREE page will be updated soon.

      1. Your wish is my command, sent! 🙂

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