From Earth is a new sci-fi themed Source engine modification. The game recently came out on Steam as a free mod for Half-Life 2, and so far, it has received a positive response from the community.

This article is an opinion piece written by video game critic and Half-Life mapper David Will, creator of the popular @dot_bsp Twitter account.

In this article David examines the strengths of Half-Life’s weapon system in relation to the Opposing Force expansion pack. All views expressed in this article are his own.

The popular “XboxAhoy” YouTube channel, which is a member of the Machinima.com gaming network, just uploaded an excellent retrospective video analysis that explores Valve’s success with the original Half-Life.

Written by Stuart Brown, the video analysis highlights the early influences of Half-Life, such as Quake as well as the affect that Half-Life’s release had upon the FPS in genre, including the modding scene as well as Valve’s later developments with Team Fortress, Steam and the Source engine.

If you have a spare 20 minuets, it’s well worth a watch!

15 Years ago, on November 19th 1998, Valve released Half-Life.

What followed was an entire revolution in the gaming industry.

Half-Life redefined the FPS genre, it implemented rich storytelling, introduced new technologies and catalysed an entire platform for user-created content, all in one package.

A new generation of gaming was born.

It’s no secret that I am terrible at multiplayer games. Whether it’s Counter-Strike or Team Fortress, I’m often that noob at the bottom of the scoreboard, so it should be no surprise that I stick to the single player side of modding. I occasionally make an exception to that rule though, and I’m glad I did for this mod – because Pirates, Vikings and Knights II is a lot of fun.