Category: Site News

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.

Two Years of LambdaGeneration

July 30th, 2012 · By Vic · 29 Comments

Yes, that’s right – two years ago, on the 30th of July in 2010, LambdaGeneration went live, after a couple of months in development. Since then, we’ve been your number 1 stop for insightful and comprehensive reports on all Valve-related and community-related news.

Sure, some topics slip through our fingers every now and then, but we like to think that, in the long run, we more than make up for it, with diverse and interesting commentary on Valve’s activities, and on the Valve community’s creations. And we want to thank all of you for sticking with us, providing everyone with interesting discourse simply by commenting on our articles, and generally spreading the word. So it’s as much a happy birthday to us, as it is a happy birthday to you: the lifeblood of LambdaGen.

And this upcoming year will be a testament to our commitment to show you guys lots of cool stuff. Relatively soon, we’ll be debuting our new site redesign update – we figured that it’s high time to get that done and offer you a “LambdaGeneration 2.0“, so to speak. And from what I’ve seen thus far? You’ll be in for a spectacular treat!

Right around the same time, we’ll be bringing in our new writing team (the one you’ve been hearing about since the call for writers went out last September), which means you’ll be getting even more high-quality news, from some really great writers – as a matter of fact, at least one of those guys is at least fifty times cooler than me, but… well, you’ll just have to figure out who it is!

So if you think you’ve seen it all in these past two years of LambdaGeneration, then think again, because we’re only just getting started – stay tuned!

New Monthly Mini-Poll – Who Is Your Favorite Half-Life Character?

July 22nd, 2012 · By Vic · 37 Comments

As they say, better late than never!

Monthly Mini-Poll: Graphics In Games!

June 6th, 2012 · By Vic · 12 Comments

First off, we’d like to apologize for what happened with the previous Mini-Poll, which accidentally overstayed its welcome by one month. Believe it or not, we got so wrapped up in site work and external work (including the exam craze that many of us are currently embroiled in) that we more or less forgot about the poll completely. The good thing is we weren’t the only ones who did. So… surprise!

But we’ve now taken care of that, and we’ve got a new poll for you guys! Read on if you’re interested in advancing the cause of science by even more than two centuries. No mantis DNA included - we’ll leave that for our scientific journal mini-polls.

“Fresh Meat!”

May 4th, 2012 · By Vic · 9 Comments

Today we’re pleased to announce that we have brought in two new writers: Crash-Override, a veteran writer and Source level designer; and Mimaz, co-host of the Steamcast podcast, former regular on the Steam Forums, and a fine writer. They won’t be doing news – instead, they’ll be doing some lovely original editorial content, which I think you guys are going to love.

That said, Crash and Mimaz’s arrival is unrelated to the call for writers that we did last September. Speaking of which - that call for writers was a huge success after all, and we’ll be bringing the 7 new staff writers we accepted from that soon, probably around summer time.

As a matter of fact, Mimaz’s first article will be released tomorrow, and it will be the first in a series of in-depth pieces that we’ve dubbed “The Half-Life Dissertation“. I think you guys will enjoy it!

Vic’s Thoughts On: The Portal 2′s Perpetual Testing Initiative DLC; Or Why Portal 2′s Future Is Looking Very Bright

May 2nd, 2012 · By Vic · 27 Comments

As you may or may not know, I wasn’t exactly pleased with Portal 2′s first DLC outing – “Peer Review“. While the Challenge Mode added much-needed replay value to the game, it really should have been in the game from launch. The only other bit of content in there, the new ”Art Therapy” co-op course, was rather disappointing, with poor writing and plot, as well as some meager and poorly balanced gameplay offerings.

I don’t subscribe to the school of thought that all free DLC is automatically good – you have to draw the line somewhere. And solid feedback will help make future releases better. For instance, the poor reactions to L4D1′s underwhelming ”Crash Course” almost certainly helped Valve build better L4D DLC in the form of L4D2′s “The Passing” (although later on they did let us down again with “The Sacrifice“). So we needn’t be afraid to voice our opinions.

But enough about all that. Here we are, with Portal 2′s second, and perhaps final DLC release almost upon us. The Perpetual Testing Initiative promises to turn Portal 2 into a never-ending house of pure science, providing it with enough replayability and content to feed 5 full-priced Call of Duty games. But does it fulfill that promise?

LambdaGeneration’s Nuclear Dawn Giveaway

March 7th, 2012 · By Vic · 8 Comments

It’s time for our first ever giveaway! And let me tell you this, it’s a big one! Like… post-apocalyptic big!

The Evolution of DE_Train

March 7th, 2012 · By Vic · 12 Comments

Who won the Oscars this year? I don’t remember, but what I do know is: if these guys would have just waited a week or two for us to finish our second entry in the Evolution of Counter-Strike series, we’d have probably won it. Hands down. We just released it, though. I’m waiting on my Oscar, AMPAS - send it over to 250 52nd Street.

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