I finally got my time machine to work again, that flux-capacitor really needs to be overhauled, and managed to sit down and chat with Half-Rats, the creator of Half-Rats – A Fever Dream.

We chat for just under the hour about the making of the mod.

You can listen via this page or download it to your HDD.

The man character, Carter Grok together with a squad of rebels, has received new orders.

They are to reach City-S where more rebels are located.

To reach the city, the player’s squad is sent through the mines in an attempt to avoid the main Combine forces.

Once in the mine, the squad is separated and the player finds himself alone.

That’s only the beginning of his troubles.

Update: MapTap has been replaced by Gauge.

Alex and I are pleased to announce that MapTap 2.6.0 is now available for download and use.

Current MapTap users should get a message the first or second time the run the application telling them a new package is available. If not, just visit the MapTap page and choose between the Update (smaller download) or the full version.

Can’t believe that it’s been two weeks since the last WTH. Time flies when you are waiting for Half-Life 3 – NOT.

Let’s see what the HL community has for us in this episode.

If you don’t know what this podcast is about, please read the What The Headcrab: Introduction.

It was pointed out to me this week that I missed some areas in Uncertainty Principle in my video playthrough, which is always a possibility when doing live playthroughs as you don’t want to bore the viewers too much.

Anyway, I am sure there have been plenty of mods released with hidden areas and secrets etc. The question is whether a mod author should eventually tell people about them. I feel they should but not necessarily in a readme.txt file or in the credits. I do feel that a player should be told exactly how many secrets there are though, as that encourages players to replay mods.

If my memory serves me correctly, The Citizen Returns had a system of 15 EEs to collect or maybe it was the first release. Anybody remember? I like that idea a lot, although it needs to be implemented really well to ensure it’s not frustrating. For example, letting a player know when the are about to leave an area that can not be returned to that has an EE they missed.

I’d love to hear mod authors’ point of view on this, as well as players of course.

So, I have been thinking about the next mapping challenge and one thing that I need to decide on is the date and deadline.

I know people get busy around Christmas time, but I also know that many people have free time.

I would like to know what sort of schedule potential entrants would be interested in.

Please tell me your preferred dates and I will take into account all the responses.

I haven’t decided on a theme yet, so let me have your ideas on that also. I have one idea but I am not convinced it’s right.

Also, this time the prize won’t be games, at least not the first prize, but a set of three HL/Portal inspired prints. The winner will have to buy the frames, but I think it’s a better prize than just a game.

July the fourteenth, 1883: Being rather rudely awakened after a night of drunken revelry; Half-Rats is thrust into a rather dire situation.

Utter calamity has erupted in the streets outside of the general store which he calls home – calamity of the most unnatural and horrific kind, that is.

Now he and the shop keeper, Mr. Trask, must hold out against this infernal host of creatures together. Will they survive the night?

This mod continues the story where Half-Life 2 finished and offers one possible scenario.

After the big explosion you fall to the ground and are very badly injured.

Some people find you and take you home to a small village outside the city where the citadel was built.

After 3 months you’re strong again and want to fight on.

I have added this to the frontpage because there has been a patch released that addresses issues that have been casuing this mod to crash. I have also been live streaming it. – Phillip

Those readers/viewers who have been following or watching my recent playthrough of Coastline to Atmosphere: Phillip Sings Badly (Yes, the series is called Phillip Plays Badly, but if you watch the video for long enough, you will understand why) may have noticed I cheated on a particular section. In fact, I “cheated” twice.

The first time was because of what I believe is a design error – I left the buggy and progressed forward, only to come back and find the buggy behind a gate that had risen.

Now you could argue that I left the buggy in the wrong place but I argue “How is the player supposed to know?!”. In this case I used impulse 82 to spawn a new buggy. There was no way I was going to replay that whole section again.

The second time, linked to above, seems an absolutely unbeatable section. Every single time, I was instantly killed by a strider, even though I had 100 health points. That seems totally unfair.

Now because I was live on Twitch, I kept playing for a while and eventually used BUDDHA mode and continued. If I had been playing alone, I might have kept trying.

However, yesterday, I reloaded the section from the beginning and replayed it. I finished it in a few moments and felt cheated.

I felt cheated because it was very easy to do but not from where I tried last time. Yes, I know that might not make sense, so just watch the video if you can bear it.

This weeks question was formed from that exact experience. Often you just need to approach a situation with a different tactic and stopping playing and coming back another day is all it needs.

If somebody asked me “Did you cheat when play CtA? I’m not sure what I should say. Technically, I did cheat, but I also beat the section without cheating too.

Thoughts?

Oh, if anybody wants my save file to see if they can pass that section from my exact situation, just le me know. In fact, I might make a mini-challenge from it.