Mod Analysis: Thunders Leaves - Become A Living Tesla Coil

Jarek Gaming reviews a cool Halflife 2 mod - "Thunder's Leaves" that adds new weapons, NPC's, and gameplay elements.

TODO LIST: HL2 maps and an L4d2 campaign

I used to be obsessed with playing every single HL2 map, but now I realize a lot of them are garbage.  The ones that I do plan on downloading to be at least 50mb and have high ratings *OR* have some kind of unique look about them before I even consider downloading them.  These few have caught my eye on PlanetPhillip recently and have been taking space on my browser tabs, so I might as well put them here.

HellSound Dreams
Size : 829MB
Horror type map.  Recommended for fans of "Cry of Fear" and "Afraid of Monsters."

DoomED
Size : 91.60MB
I only put this here because I remember playing this a long time ago and it recently appeared again on PlanetPhillip.  It's a non-action map that starts out in a London train station during WW2.  There's walking, exploring, and puzzles.

HuntDownTheFreeman - 24 Hour Remake
Size : 13.80MB
It's a parody mod and only 13mb, but it's just for a laugh.  The author that made this loved "Hunt Down The Freeman" so much he remade the campaign in less than 24 hours.  From the description: "To sum up, play this if you want a laugh and a wry smile, but don’t go looking for fun gameplay or cool situations."

The Transformation
Size : 10.3MB
Low file size but PlanetPhillip got 25 minutes of playtime out of it and I like "Rats"-style shrinking maps.

L4D2 - Crash Bandicoot Return of DR Cortex
Size : 160MB
This looks so goofy but interesting.  I never played the Crash games, so I can only comment that if you like weird, funny, low poly maps that gets straight to the point then play this.  And maybe if you're feeling nostalgic.  Video playthrough here.

HL2 - "Hunt Down The Freeman"

Really bad commercialized Halflife 2 mod: "Hunt Down the Freeman".  It costs $30 $17, but from what I read, it seems there are better Halflife 2 mods out there.  Why does VALVe and Steam allow their IP to be raped and humiliated like this?  Oh yeah, because money lol.  You can buy it here.  I will personally buy it when the price goes below $4, which I feel will happen in the next Christmas sale.

Also playthrough video which I have not bothered watching:

HL2 Mod Review: ICE Expansion - IT HAS PENGUINS!

Jarek4GamingDragon reviews HL2 mod "ICE Expansion."

Wolfenstein3d Source and Halflife 2 de-make

A remake and de-make...

ReWolfenstein 3d - A source mod

Halflife 2 - a "De-make" on GoldSource

Blackmesa Fallback

This is a pretty neat mod.  It takes place in Black Mesa and puts you in the role of the soldiers sent to kill some scientists.  There's a mixture of new content along with textures from Halflife and models from Counterstrike Source.

A friendly chopper attacking hostiles.

The first third of the game has you entering various areas with your fellow squadmates.  There are no puzzles in this section of the game.  It mostly consists of 'missions' that have you opening a door to a building, clearing out an area of enemies, and heading back to your vehicle to proceed to the next area.  There are about five of these missions and I thought they were quite boring, and I was about to quit.  Then the real fun part of the game begins.  It plays quite a bit like Opposing Force, with exploration, puzzles, and fighting new enemies.

PlanetPhillip drama

I can't tell if this is all in good fun or if Phillip is really outraged, but it's still funny.

http://www.planetphillip.com/phillyversusbilly/

Two quick HL2 mod reviews

I just played two HL2 mods that I think are worth mentioning despite my rants about them.

The first was was called "Final Project Diary", by Leon.  The mappack is long, contains new weapons, sound and music, and a fresh storyline.  The plot is interesting, in that there really isn't one, except you're an addicted HL2 fan making a map pack play-testing the maps you built, with levels ranging from haunted houses, to zombie infestations, to wierd hallucination scenarios, to skyscrapers.  Some maps look good, a few look awful, but overall, a good mappack.

It suffers from the usual disease "Leon-itus," that is, a bunch of obvious invisible walls, cutscenes that freeze the player and make you die, and annoying 'stealth' section.  You'll lose count how many times you have your weapons taken away only to have to re-acquire them.

One thing I liked was the option to choose an 'easy' or 'hard' path at the beginning of each section. The ending was funny and nonsensical, and I'm glad the author chose not to take the mod seriously, because I was starting to get really irritated towards the end due the faults mentioned above.

The next is a mod called "1187".  It's a total conversion that's made like a sequel to Halflife 1 with seemingly little reguard to HL2 (which is a nice, fresh idea, in my opinion).  You start out in an apartment (seriously people, apartments and jail cells are the two most cliched map starts in mod history) and meet a new friend named John.  He is more annoying than Alyx, complains alot, has an annoying voice, and is really worthless.  He isn't Urkle-annoying, but I hope in 1187: Episode 2 they tone down his chatter.

E.Y.E - A new Source game coming soon?

Check this out.  A source engine first-person RPG.  Watch the video on the main page, it looks pretty awesome.

School Shooter North American Tour 2012

How about a school shooting mod?  Seems lame they'd do something like this for the sole purpose of getting attention, but I guess any publicity is good publicity in the world of videogame mods.

http://www.moddb.com/mods/school-shooter-north-american-tour-2012

It's been done before, anyways.  Anyone remember Pupils of Cyberdemon's School Doom 2?  It was a pretty enjoyable Doom 2 total conversion, and it was made a few years before Columine.

Another MustPlay map for HalfLife, Episode 2

http://www.planetphillip.com/posts/research-and-development-half-life-2-ep2/

Research and Development is a puzzle-centric mod for Half-Life 2: Episode Two featuring an unarmed player but plenty of violent mayhem.

 

The player has NO weapons and there is no shooting at all. However that doesn’t mean you can’t kill things, but 95% of the mod is about solving the puzzles that are presented to you in a very natural way.

Level design is Valve-style quality, clever puzzles, and interesting combat with no guns.  Very good use of scripting and a fun blend of humor to top it off.  This could be map of the year.

"Carbon Stars..."

Tom Kranis recently released his mappack containing rejected levels and cutscenes.  I was first made aware of Tom Kranis when he released his very interesting Halflife 2 map entitled "A Dog Was Hit In The Head With An Ax".  Of the cutscenes, included are scenes of Dog getting hit in the head with a BSP-designed axe, Dr. Breen giving his famous 'Carbon Stars' speech in various locales, and lots of other stuff.  If anything, I'd say that 90 percent of the mappack is rubbish, but it's definitely worth checking out if you're into mapping as there are really cool effects, gameplay concepts and ideas that have not been seen in any other Halflife 2 mod (remote controlled scientists, an automatic oil drum launcher, npc who follows you and wears a machinegun on his head that you can control, just to name a few) in addition to humourous cinematography (most of which I've recorded so you don't have to go through them).

Be sure to watch this video walkthrough of "A Dog Was Hit In The Head With An Axe."  Worth checking out if you can't bring yourself to finish the map all the way through.

Humorous Garry's Mod parody

JBMod was originally made because the nerds on HL2World wanted to get back to making sexual poses with the ragdolls in Half-Life 2, which they weren't able to do anymore since the physgun had been removed from the final game. Both prior to the release of Half-Life 2, and after the release of JBMod, just about every screenshot involved Alyx Vance.

http://www.jbmod.com/

If you're still playing that oudated Garry's mod 10, then you truly are not living life to its fullest. Become a man and grow a sack, comb your pubic hair, have lumber for breakfast and download JBMod TODAY!!

It will bring pride to your family name!

Gateways + The Great Forever Tommorrow

I am not sure how I missed these two great mods, but they're really fun :D  It's very Doom-like in that you have to kill tons of enemies but the levels in the first one are very basic.  I recommend you play 'Gateways' before The Great Forever Tommorrow.

“This is a single player Half Life 2 mod, set entirely outside of City 17. It features6 levels of action, exploring a range of locations (from an underground facility to fighting alongside the Combine on an alien world to floating color-coordinated cubes), non-linear level progression (you start near a nexus of gateways, and may choose the order in which to progress through the levels), a musical score (a total of 8 tracks), some new abstract textures and challenging gameplay. This mod is meant for those who have already completed Half Life 2″
http://www.planetphillip.com/posts/gateways-half-life-2/

What I find most interesting is the "Nexus" map.  It consists of a center with power-ups and health, with portals that lead to other themed maps.  When you complete a theme level you are warped back to the center of the nexus until all levels are beaten which unlocks the final level.  The music is really catchy.  One of my all time favorites.

After you play that, play the sequel, The Great Forever Tommorrow.  It's more linear but the graphics, levels, and presentation are improved.  There are new weapons, more colorful levels, and slightly deeper plot:
http://www.planetphillip.com/posts/the-great-forever-tomorrow-half-life-2-ep2/

Both mods were developed by Kiwi Productions.