Released last month, The Citizen Returns is the long awaited sequel to 2008’s Episode 2 mod The Citizen. As the name might suggest, we take on the role of just another resistance fighter in the battle against the Combine and the story (which is expanded from an earlier release known as The Citizen II) gives us several different missions to that end.

It’s finally here! Once again, PlanetPhillip has brought us relief from the mod drought, by releasing AssassinateVille, the latest in a long line of mapping competitions.

Planetphillip is kicking off 2014 with a bang! The site is planning many mapping competitions over the course of the year and the first has just been announced : Assassinateville.

You have received a message from your “employer”. One particular person is proving “troublesome” and must be eliminated. You will not be told exactly who this is until you are sent to the area.

Use any method necessary to assassinate this person.

Specific instructions may given at the time of learning of the person.

The competition is running from today until 6am GMT on the 3rd of February so open that editor and start laying those brushes!

Full details about the competition including all the rules and regulations can be found over on PlanetPhillip.com

There has been a lot of impressive Valve-related art over the years, from the Team Fortress 2 propaganda contest to WillHelmKranz’s works on DeviantArt, and among them, Chemical Alia’s paintings have to be some of the most impressive pieces of fanart we’ve seen. In this community spotlight, editors ThePerson5 and Jeff share and discuss their favourite pieces of Chemical Alia’s artwork, and present an interview with her.

This is an editorial by Lilgreenman which discusses the involvement of humour and comedic elements in Valve’s more recent games. All views expressed in this article are his own.

With all the noise Valve makes about Team Fortress 2 being “The world’s number 1 hat simulator”, their creative staff seem to have neglected a grounding in hat-based literature. Specifically, it seems they’ve never picked up a copy of the best selling hat-based book of all time (eat it, Oliver Sacks!), Dr. Seuss’ 1957 classic The Cat in the Hat.

Spoilers ahead for those who haven’t read C-I-T-H: The moral of the book is related to the two young protagonists by the titular feline, after he helps them clean up after a rowdy playtime session; “It’s fun to have fun, but you have to know how.” Which brings me, in my roundabout way, to my point. Valve’s top writers – internet comedy alumni Erik Wolpaw, Chet Faliszek and Jay Pinkerton – don’t seem to know how to have fun.

There is truly no time to rest in the world of Half-Life 2 custom maps at the moment. The first 3×10 mapping competition (Ambushville) yielded nine levels for your enjoyment, now Defendville ups that number to ten!

The theme was again simple but with plenty of room for interpretation. Create a level in 10 days where the player defends a location, with a short prep time before the assault begins. Enjoy!

Defendville can be downloaded from PlanetPhillip right now for the cost of 60.4 Earth megabytes.

Like any story with its depth and complexity, the Half-Life series leaves a lot to the imagination. In fact, considering the latest installment’s cliffhanger, it leaves more to the imagination than anyone wants.

As many of you may be aware, PlanetPhillip.com recently held the first of three planned mapping competitions, which would require level designers to create a map in ten days and feature the player being ambushed by enemy forces as the main attraction. “Build a map in ten days? How hard can that really be?” I naively asked myself. As it turns out it’s pretty damn hard! Let me tell you a story…

Isn’t it always the way – you have no Half-Life 2 maps to play and then nine come along all at once!

A new blog, ‘Things we got before Half Life 3‘ has been created to remind us all of everything that man has accomplished in the absence of Half-Life 3.