Gaming News

Valve have announced that they will be re-releasing HalfLife, along with all official mods, using the new Source engine. Mods included are CounterStrike, Team Fortress Classic, Opposing Force and Blue Shift.

It will not be a free download, but if they bundle it all together for a reasonable price, like they did with the original Generations pack, then I can see it doing well. QuakeWorld next I wonder? :)

Thanks to Pup, we now have some piccies from the Easter 2003 LAN at Bob's. You can view them in our Photo Gallery.

We are still missing some LANs though, so have a dig into your archives and see if you find any. We need piccies from:

• Nov 2000
• Apr 2001
• Nov 2001
• Nov 2003

We also do not have any photos at all from the great LANs we had up at Reubs' place. I know digital cameras were not around then, but I do remember a few legacy cameras about the place. It shouldn't take long to scan a few in :)

PC Zone have an put up an interview with the developers of the expansion to the excellent WWII game Call of Duty. As with the original game, the single player campaign will take you through missions as British, American and Russian. The Wolfenstein developers have a hand in United Offensive, with the addition of the flame thrower being a good result of that :)

They have also done a lot of work on adding depth to the multiplayer game. New multiplayer gametypes include Capture the Flag, Tank Battle and Domination. CoD was the natural successor to Medal of Honor, so it will be interesting to see how much they have gone towards the gameplay of BF1942 this time.

Over the last week, there have been a couple of Steam updates, mostly aimed at Counter-Strike Condition Zero. The updates include the following enhancements to CZ:

• New high-definition player models
• New high-definition weapon models
• New high-definition sound effects
• New Buy Package system
• Custom Mission Pack support

There are other enhancements too - read the article on the Steam News page for the full details.

More info on the sequel to MOHAA has started to emerge. PC Zone interviewed lead designer Dave Nash to get the latest news on the game, hopefully due out later this year.

From the sounds of it, the game is set to be a big improvement on Allied Assault, including better AI, more driveable vehicles, new weapons and greater squad-based missions.

You can read the full interview here on PC Zone.

Some retro photos from GaZ's collection are now available for viewing. It's been many a year since we were able to run around and be generally active, so these are pictures to treasure.

Check them out in our Easter 2000 gallery.

This time from the Easter LAN of 2002, courtesy of Gren. If anyone has any other old LAN photos lying around, zip em up and mail em to me. No more of Wij's arse crack tho plz :/

Uploading of avatars to your DFC Forum profile should now work. Click on Profile at the top of the forums page, and near the bottom you can browse to an avatar on your local machine. Avatars should be 80x80 pixels and no more than 6KB in size.

Some photos from last weekend's LAN are up in the DFC Gallery. Thanks to Trebz for being cameraman, and apologies on Wij's behalf :/

Another great DFC LAN event came to a close today. Thanks to DF-Lynx for playing host once again - top job as usual :)

This LAN saw a few new games in action - Battlefield Vietnam was a firm favourite, and Unreal Tournament 2004 proved popular for CTF and Assault games. Call of Duty made an appearance in place of Medal of Honour. We had a few rounds of Desert Combat, however after experiencing the improved gameplay of Vietnam, DC didn't seem quite the same.

Season 3 of the Ladder got off to a start, although there wasn't the same number of games as in previous LANs. The popadum eating contest between Trebz and Gobbers was class tho :)

The DFC affiliates fund raised £30 towards the total cost of the LAN. We are well on the way to earning the same again for next time round, so get buying.

The DFC Ladder season 2 has come to an end and season 3 started in time for the LAN. Congratulations to DF-Lynx for coming top in season 2's ladder. How about a TFT bezel match to get season 3 off to a start? :p

Don't forget that the LAN starts tomorrow evening chez Bob. Check the forums for the latest discussions regarding games, ladders etc.

The official Battlefield 1942 web site has published some of the maps in their recent map making contest.

You can download the maps individually, or you can scroll right to the bottom to be offered them all in a single 140MB map pack.

A Steam update was released a couple of days ago. The update relates to Condition Zero, fixing a few minor bugs. If you haven't played the game online ever, then you should not automatically receive the update.

An RSS feed has been added to support the DFC Forums. Point your Newsgator or Firefox plugin at https://www.desertfoxclan.com/forumrss to receive new forum posts delivered to your desktop.

A page has been added which also lists all the feeds we provide.

After quite a lengthy wait, the single player version of Counter-Strike is out today. The game will be familiar to all online CS regulars, however there are a few subtle differences in order to make it work in a single player mission-based model.

The progress through the game has a bit of a PGR feel to it, as you earn points and unlock maps by completing objectives, and you spend your points on buying better team mates in the next round.

There are a few new weapons, in fact you may be forgiven for thinking that all the weapons are new. In fact, they have renamed all the old CS weapons for some political correctness reason. The first map you will encounter is Dust.

The tactical elements of the enemy and team AI is excellent. The coders have clearly observed a lot of online play and got most things right. The only weakness is a lack of awareness of what's going on behind them - human players constantly check all around to make sure nobody is sneaking up behind them. The AI doesn't do this too well, although it does pick its camping spots well :/

All in all, a great game.

Just a reminder that BOBLAN 2004 is on the cards for this Easter. The weekend begins on the evening of Thursday 8th April and goes on until Sunday 11th. Hopefully there will be a good turn out for the weekend.

Have your say on what we play on the DFC Forums.

A major Steam client update is due shortly. Here are the highlights:

• Offline Play
• Account validation (via e-mail)
• A new Half-Life 2 hardware survey
• Support for purchasing games through Steam

Update - this will take place on Weds 3rd March.

EA have put up a site for the forthcoming Battlefield 1942 mod Vietnam. Here's a brief snippet from the site:

The Battlefield franchise enters a new era equipped with more firepower, modernized weaponry and vehicles, and a deeper infantry experience from the jungles to the beaches of Vietnam. From villages on the Ho Chi Minh Trail to the city streets of Hue wage modern warfare as the United States or North Vietnamese Army (NVA).

It is hoped that Vietnam will be out prior to the LAN at Easter :)

DFC have received their first payout from the affiliates scheme :) This should get the kitty off to a nice start at the LAN in a couple of months time.

Thanks to all who bought using the Affiliates page - it really does make a difference.