The first name for me in online gaming is Steam. Steam being the game deployment system introduced by Valve created in order to help get games into the hands of gamers quickly and combat piracy. I hated it at first, however now, I really like it. It's smooth, it is good, not my point however. My point is there is lots of fun and free a stuff on Steam. If you have Half Life 2, you ought consider some of the current game mods as well as what is coming to the future.
Current important title of the moment right now is, Left 4 Dead the zombie shooter. I haven't played it yet, this seems to be Valves' most hyped game to date. With Valves' high quality and production the FPS genre as a whole tends to change with almost every release.
Counter-Strike was a mod too before it was a purchase product. This game was hugely successful with a rabid online following. Many say that Counter-Strike 1.6 is the finest version of Counter Strike. Some online players still play 1.6 considering this version to be the games' finest form.
Counter-Strike however was based on something too. The game mechanics were a mod Team Fortress, which was a mod included with the original Half-Life. However that game was spawned from an early mod of Quake, known as Quake Team Fortress. This game first presented players 2 player team combat with what are considered standard character choices in online FPS.
So where does Left 4 Dead come from? Based on free mod Zombie Panic, this multiplayer challenge introduces survivor vs zombie game play which means new multiplayer game rules and tactics. The mod was originally made for Half-Life 1, and has now been made for the Half-Life 2 engine called Zombie Panic: Source.
Zombie Panic: Source won several players choice awards for mod of the year and was featured in the March 2007 issue of PC Gamer. Frantic game play The following is a 7 min short on how the game is played. Watch out for Whitey!
What else is there? What else is interesting? What was ten years ago last month, besides a younger more spry and full of hope Charles Francis Nasty? Believe it or not Half-Life was first released to PC, way back in November of 1998. A lot has happened in 10 years. To show the change, go back and play Half-Life: Source. The physics is there, but the graphics quite dated in comparison to todays' standards.
So what are we getting hopefully early next year? Blackmesa: Source, which is a total reskinning of Half-Life: Source.
Making it look nicer. Honestly, the game is brilliant and I think what they have done looks amazing.
