This is the Read category

A collection of text posts, including Poll Questions, Text Interviews with moddersand Phillip’s Blog. All posts are written to encourage friendly debate and discussion.

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Classic of the Month Stream – Year Long Alarm – December 2020

The end of 2020, at last. We can only hope for a better 2021. But before the year goes, one more Classic of the Month. This time I picked one from the Half-Life 2 side of the tracks – Year Long Alarm by Chuck Wilson, which somewhat recently got a Steam release.

I’ll be streaming this Sunday December 27th, about 12pm (noon) Eastern US Time (5pm in the UK, 6pm Central Europe).

Twitch is again the streaming platform! The stream will be on the RunThinkShootLive Twitch Channel.

Check the Time & Date.Com website for your local time. See you there!

23rd December 2020 9 Comments

Classic of the Month Stream – Echoes – November 2020

November, already! Or, at last, if you’re in the U.S. Anyway, time for another Classic of the Month stream. This time it’s a relatively recent release from 2018: the superb Half-Life: Echoes by James ‘MrGnang’ Coburn. It’s one of the best-looking HL mods out there, thanks in no small part to the excellent Nightwatch textures. And it’s been a little while since I’ve picked a true classic Half-Life mod to play, but Echoes certainly qualifies.

I’ll be streaming this Saturday November 21st, about 12pm (noon) Eastern US Time (5pm in the UK, 6pm Central Europe).

Twitch is again the streaming platform! The stream will be on the RunThinkShootLive Twitch Channel.

Check the Time & Date.Com website for your local time. See you there!

18th November 2020 1 Comment

Classic of the Month Stream – Help Wanted – October 2020

The next Classic of the Month stream will be Help Wanted by Bryan ‘Zouave’ Dillow. A map pack set in the classic BMRF, placing you as a sanitation engineer with some cleaning up to do, of course…

I’ll be streaming Saturday October 24th, about 12pm (noon) Eastern US Time (5pm in the UK, 6pm Central Europe).

Please note: I’ve switched back to Twitch as the streaming platform! The stream will be on the RunThinkShootLive Twitch Channel.

Check the Time & Date.Com website for your local time. See you there!

22nd October 2020 3 Comments

Classic of the Month Stream – The Xeno Project 2 – September 2020

The next Classic of the Month stream will be The Xeno Project 2. I streamed its predecessor The Xeno Project just about 4 years ago, and if you recall at the conclusion I had successfully launched myself into orbit (thankfully in a rocket). However, my capsule was promptly captured by the G-man and his army, with the promise that the story was “To be continued…”

Avid viewers may remember I didn’t exactly let them take me alive. But I’ll pick up where I was supposed to leave off anyway!

I’ll be streaming Sunday September 27th, about 12pm (noon) Eastern US Time (5pm in the UK, 6pm Central Europe).

Please note: I’ve switched back to Twitch as the streaming platform! The stream will be on the RunThinkShootLive Twitch Channel.

Check the Time & Date.Com website for your local time. See you there!

22nd September 2020 No Comments

FusionVille 2 – Map Labs #10 Mapping Challenge Announcement

You’ve wanted it! We’ve wanted to do it! Perhaps the best Ville challenge ever finally returns!

FusionVille 2 is the next full Map Labs mapping challenge and it starts now! FusionVille 2 runs through Monday, August 31st. Get mapping!

Theme Details

The original FusionVille required mappers to combine 3 of 8 given themes from previous challenges. Same thing for FusionVille 2 but with a twist – you must pick 3 of the 10 given themes and fuse them together… drawn from past Villes and from past Map Labs!

  • Bridge
  • Toxic
  • Teleport
  • Liberation
  • Vertical
  • Episode One
  • Two Rooms
  • Think Tank
  • Companion Piece
  • Back on Track

Here’s the official announcement (click for full version):

FusionVille 2 Announcement

Deadline

The deadline for submission is Monday 31st August 2020. With an extra 3 days after that for bonus (non-judged) maps.

31st July 2020 12 Comments

Classic of the Month Stream – FusionVille – August 2020

Well, we just finished the Classic of the Month for July, coming back from a long hiatus. But guess what? This weekend is August already, and I’ve decided to move up the schedule a few weeks to coincide with the announcement of FusionVille 2 as the next Maps Labs challenge [selection of themes yet to be revealed]!

FusionVille was the final challenge of the 2017 Hammer Cup, and is August’s Classic of the Month. It was one of the best challenges we’ve had here at RunThinkShootLive, and there have been a ton of them (68, believe it or not!) and it’s certainly worthy of classic and Hall of Fame status.

Considering the Ville mapping challenges, there are some real gems among them – but none of them have been Classic of the Month, and none are in the RTSL Hall of Fame. Both change now!

Please note: I’ve switched back to Twitch as the streaming platform! The stream will be on the RunThinkShootLive Twitch Channel.

I’ll be streaming Saturday August 1st, about 12pm (noon) Eastern US Time (5pm in the UK, 6pm Central Europe). FusionVille’s a big pack so I might have to continue the playthrough on Sunday at the same time.

Check the Time & Date.Com website for your local time. See you there!

29th July 2020 No Comments

Classic of the Month is back!

At long last, the hiatus ends. Classic of the Month returns!

As you may have guessed, Half-Life: C.A.G.E.D. is July’s Classic of the Month. Cayle George reworked and greatly expanded his original map from Project: Quantum Leap into an instant classic. Polished, quirky, and jamming to the synthwave soundtrack by Lazerhawk. I’ll be going after the secrets, including the special bonus map, and will do a comparison to the original Caged too!

Please note: I’ve switched back to Twitch as the streaming platform! The stream will be on the RunThinkShootLive Twitch Channel.

I’ll be streaming Saturday the 25th, about 12pm (noon) Eastern US Time (5pm in the UK, 6pm Central Europe).

Check the Time & Date.Com website for your local time. See you there!

22nd July 2020 5 Comments

2020 General Chat

Well, it’s been a long time since we’ve posted a General Chat. For a while it was monthly but then it kind of fell away shortly before Phillip left.

So here’s a catchall post to chat about anything Half-Life or Valve related, or questions/issues about the site. Or gaming in general! Or just about anything!

It’s really a great time in the Half-Life world. Black Mesa just officially left Early Access with their 1.0 release. The Map Labs mapping challenges keep on rolling. And of course, Half-Life: Alyx, the first Valve Half-Life game in almost 13 years, is right around the corner!

What are you playing? What are you making? What are you looking forward to?

7th March 2020 75 Comments

CromulentVille 2 – Map Labs Test Tube #7 Mapping Challenge Announcement

The most infamous Ville returns! The next Map Labs Test Tube (6-day) mapping challenge starts now! CromulentVille 2 starts now and runs through Monday, February 23rd. Get mapping! (You get an extra day on the front end cause the theme was guessed correctly in the Map Labs Discord!).

Theme Details

Just like in the original CromulentVille, mappers must create a weird, silly, strange, bizarre, surreal, peculiar, etc. map. That is, a perfectly cromulent map.

Here’s the official announcement (click for full version):

CromulentVille2 Announcement

Note the optional Bonus Challenges, just to add even more cromulentness to the maps.

Deadline

The deadline for submission is Sunday 23rd February 2020. A whole week this time!

16th February 2020 6 Comments

RunThinkShootLiveVille 2 – Map Labs #3 Mapping Challenge Announcement

Hey, you didn’t really think we’d never have another Ville challenge, right? Geez Louise!

Chris & Toki (the Map Labs folks) have really stepped up, filling the void that RTSL left once we started to wind things down late last year. This is the third “full” Map Labs Challenge – though they’ve run a couple of Test Tube (smaller) challenges in the vein of the Experimental Mapping Challenges here. Most of them are available right here on RTSL, and all are on the Map Labs ModDB page.

I’m happy to partner up with Map Labs for this challenge. May they keep the cool Half-Life challenges going! Perhaps there will be more crossovers like this in the distant future…

The Map Labs Discord just opened up for business. Head there to keep up with Map Labs, find out about new challenges, and maybe volunteer as a beta tester!

Theme Details

Just like in the original RunThinkShootLiveVille, mappers must create a map linking 4 distinct sections:

Section 1: RUN
Section 2: THINK
Section 3: SHOOT
Section 4: LIVE

They’re pretty self-explanatory, but we’ll let the official announcement fill in the details (click for full version):

RunThinkShootLiveVille2 Announcement

Note the optional Bonus Challenges, just to add some spice to the maps.

Deadline

The deadline for submission was Monday 8th April 2019

Prize

Map Labs typically doesn’t have prizes for the challenges, other than special roles on the Discord server for placing in the top 3. But I happened to have a spare copy of Raising the Bar in decent shape kicking around, so I’m offering it up to the winner.

Raising the Bar

8th March 2019 13 Comments