Category: Creations

“MINERVA: Metastasis” Finally Polished Up, Re-Metastasized And Re-Released For Free Via Steamworks

May 1st, 2013 · By Vic · 14 Comments

The year was 2005 (you know it’s gotten bad when even 2005 has a quaint and nostalgic ring to it), and the first episode of a little Half-Life 2 mod series charmingly titled MINERVA: Metastasis was released. Metastasis itself only represented the first chapter in a planned MINERVA trilogy (the next chapter, Out of Time, never materialized, though creator Adam Foster isn’t afraid to hint at a possible return in the future), and it was a sequel to Foster’s earlier Half-Life 1 release, Someplace Else. Through exceptional level design, an intriguing narrative and remarkably well-paced gameplay, MINERVA was universally acclaimed and praised not just within the Half-Life community, but all around the greater gaming world.

The Metastasis “trilogy within a trilogy” concluded with the release of the last two episodes in October of 2007, and a year later, Foster began working at Valve, on a strange little game we used to call Half-Life 2: Episode Three. Since then, he’s done significant design work on Portal 2 (and god knows what that means about the aforementioned title), and presumably neglected little old MINERVA, which like many other HL2 mods, did not survive Valve’s May 2010 update for Mac support. Neglected, that is… until now!

“The Freeman Chronicles” – The Fanmade Half-Life Miniseries That Needs Your Help To Get Off The Ground

April 2nd, 2013 · By Vic · 12 Comments

We’ve seen a lot of amazing fanmade Half-Life live-action films in the community over the years, but for the most part, these have been shorter, smaller creations developed on budgets ranging from “tiny” to “zero”. And while they mostly hit all the right notes even with these minimal resources, one just can’t help but wonder… what if a few of the community’s biggest and bestest filmmakers decided to aim higher than the rest–namely, by putting together a more sizeable budget–offering the fans a more substantial fanfilm than we’ve ever seen before?

Well, it seems the wheels are finally turning on a non-profit, fan-funded Half-Life webseries that might just give us what we’ve been clamoring for: 40 minutes of Gordon Freeman, fighting aliens and spec-ops soldiers on the surface of the Black Mesa complex! And no sword fights.

Happy Holidays From LambdaGeneration!

December 25th, 2012 · By Vic · 12 Comments

We here at LambdaGeneration would like to wish you season’s greetings, and very happy holidays! Best wishes, tidings of joy, peace on Earth… and maybe a copy of Half-Life 3.

Which reminds me – what would Christmas be without a celebratory LambdaGeneration Christmas short? Did you answer “probably just Christmas“? Then you’d probably be right. Except we won’t let it be just Christmas! So like we did last year, we have concocted a heart-warming holiday special for that express purpose. It’s animated and directed by our very own Jeff – if you’re interested in seeing some more of his work, hit up his production blog on Tumblr.

Enough with all the words! Let’s take a look, shall we?

Don’t forget to check out our retrospective look at the events of December 2011, when a single T-shirt drove us all mad.

Voting Goes Live For Team Fortress 2′s Second Annual Saxxy Awards!

November 16th, 2012 · By Vic · 7 Comments

The only time voting has ever been exciting, terrifying, and completely nerve-wracking, (all at the same time) in the history of humankind… was probably when Valve had us shooting the hell out of each other like never before, then patiently re-editing the footage into a cinema masterpiece (also like never before), all in the name of attaining a foot-high Australium bust of Saxton Hale. Evidently, I’m referring to TF2′s First Annual Saxxy Awards, which took place in May of 2011.

Well, I hope you’ve been keeping your voting finger in good shape, for it’s all going to come rushing back very soon. And by “very soon“, I mean “literally right now“.

7 Years On, A Half-Life Modding Classic Is Finally Getting A Sequel: “Time’s End”

October 1st, 2012 · By Vic · 6 Comments

Way back in June of 2005, a mere 7 months after the long-awaited release of Half-Life 2, Daniel Squire released his first ever mod: Life’s End, a 35-map Half-Life 1 modification (more of a mappack episode than a total conversion, though), in which the player took on the role of Luther Johnson, your average Black Mesa scientist caught in the middle of the Black Mesa Incident, who happens to stumble onto a Mark IV HEV suit (and if you took HL1 mods’ word for it, HEV suits are just about the easiest thing to find in Black Mesa) and thus becomes a part of the subsequent inter-dimensional conflict.

Nearly a decade later, it’s become a cult classic of Half-Life 1 modding, having garnered an aggregate rating of 4.77 out of 5 on PlanetPhillip. A sequel titled Time’s End (picking up where Life’s End left off, but with a brand new janitor protagonist) has been in the works for at least 3 years, but development has been fairly quiet, and the project has undergone a couple of delays. But now, it seems like it’s coming together very well for its upcoming release, early next year. Check out the trailer, after the jump!

Analyzing the Pros and Cons of Black Mesa: Source

September 25th, 2012 · By Mimaz · 35 Comments

This is a review/critique of Black Mesa: Source (a free fan-made remake of Half-Life), co-written by Mimaz (editor here at LambdaGeneration, and former co-host of the Steamcast Podcast) and Vic (lead editor here at LambdaGeneration).

Black Mesa is a difficult game to judge.

Left 4 Dead 2 To Get Steam Workshop Integration, And Steam Linux Support Next Month, In Mid-October

September 21st, 2012 · By Vic · 8 Comments

An interesting move! To be honest, I figured most of Valve had simply forgotten L4D existed.

Podcast 17′s Let’s Play of Black Mesa: Source

September 18th, 2012 · By Vic · 16 Comments

Things have been a little quiet here – and I am sorry for that! Rest assured that I have been doing far more than simply playing Black Mesa during this time – together with my colleagues Mimaz and David, I am working on both an in-depth essay/review of BM:S, as well as a comprehensive video comparison between the original Half-Life and Black Mesa. And as Gabe Newell once said, these things take time (on a related note, work continues on that review of CS:GO, despite all the more important stuff getting in the way).

However, I won’t leave you guys hanging in the interim. As a matter of fact, I’d recommend you check out Podcast 17′s Let’s Play series of Black Mesa, on YouTube. While I am a part of the podcast staff, I haven’t participated in its creation, but I’ve got to say that it’s probably one of the best Let’s Plays of BM that I’ve seen thus far, since release. William has been a part of this community for a very long time, and is very much a Half-Life historian of sorts – and so, his commentary is constructive, positive, insightful and most importantly, very entertaining. He also demonstrates a lot of unique dialogue and environmental detail that I hadn’t actually picked up on.

Oh, and yes – as he had promised to do when Black Mesa is released, William is actually going to eat part of his beard, and he will do so on the next live episode: #206. I won’t be eating any of my facial hair – no, I’m saving that for when Gunman Chronicles 2 gets released. That’s a bet I can never possibly lose… unless someone at Valve somehow has a grudge on me. But apparently, they do visit once in a while, so let’s hope I’ve not sealed my doom (or rather, the doom of my facial hair) just now.

But if you’re looking for something to tide you over until I tell you all about our thoughts on the mod, then I highly recommend you read CVG’s review, Eurogamer’s, as well as BeefJack’s. They are all quite well-written, balanced, and insightful. And again, rest assured that our review is also on the way, and should drop relatively soon (yes, really)!

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