Posted: 15-05-05 In: Editorials By: Munro | (0) comments | Add your comments

Valve, Steam, Source all words that trigger a frenzy of mixed emotions into my head; delays, lawsuits, stolen source code, Counter-Strike, and most importantly - fun. Whether it is negative or positive it seems Valve and its Half-Life franchise can't avoid getting itself on the front pages of the gaming press.

My respect for Valve blossomed when I must have been just about 8 years old in a now long evicted LAN centre when I spotted an attractive orange fold out box with a curious looking Greek lambda sign on the binding. I pulled out the box and saw Half-Life printed in a very sci-fi reminiscent font on the cover. I folded out the cover to see a mural of the future of PC gaming sprawled out before me. I look back to that day and remember tugging on my dads pant leg begging him to let me buy this kick-ass looking M-rated game with zombies only to hear, "Are you sure this wont give you nightmares like Raiders of the Lost Ark did". As you can imagine I laughed at this ridiculous assumption, blowing it off remarking video games could never scare anyone (keep in mind this was before games like Doom III and Resident Evil).

I never imagined that today I'd be checking a forum for news on its sequel daily and browsing forums for little tidbits of info on Source technology. The reason why I am so excited for Source would take a 5 page essay for me to explain in full, but I can try in as few words as possible to explain my fascination, fixation and utter allure for anything with the name Half-Life attached to it, but first let me rewind a tad bit. At 10 years of age I finally buy (and complete) Half-Life and for the first time in my budding gaming life I experienced a game that had achieved novelistic proportions.

I worked through every level examining every alien life-form, every plot facet, and replaying every awesome scripted moment feeling surprised and anxious each time. I crept quietly like a frightened newborn puppy through "Anomalous Materials" jumping as the creatures of the strange alien planet of Xen unleashed hell upon Black Mesa, and like any angst ridden pre-teen, crowbarred a few innocent Barneys' and scientists. I jumped at every zombie and scripted sequence in "Office Complex" and blasted my way gung-ho through the famous “We've got Hostiles". The rest of the game was the most memorable experience I would ever have in gaming as I went into the mysterious planet of Xen and encountered the mysterious G-Man and his persuasive offer.

Utter infatuation could only describe my attitude towards PC gaming after the time I first completed Half-Life, before then I thought games were just for fun , never a novel you act inside where every action can have a consequence and every missed ammo deposit could mean a certain death in the near future. After this point I knew I had to know what ingenious force was behind Half-Life.

After playing Half-Life to death and having no broadband connection (just a measly 28.8k modem) I soon was forced to move on and play other single player games (such as the Final Fantasy games for PlayStation).

After many years of soul searching and begging day in and day out on my beloved 13th birthday I was given the gift any teenager would sell his left testicle for; cable internet. At last I could follow my favourite hobby to its fullest. After receiving broadband my life became a swarm of knowledge gaining and PC game developer research. I became part of any Half-Life community I could, and of course, inevitably, discovered what would become the most popular online shooter of all time: Counter-Strike.

In the 5th grade I have memories of days I called myself in sick for a full day of Counter-Striking on WON. I soon realized just how flexible the Half-Life technology was and with the help of a beast of a mod community it was developing, among my favourite mods included Science and Industry, Team Fortress Classic, and of course good old Counter-Strike. Half-Life was to me a god-send; the best spent 50 dollars of my entire life, 25 games for the price of one. Half-Life engine gaming was my fixation for about 5 years of my life until I eventually became part of the Natural-Selection community in which I learned the comradery of an tightly knit gaming clan.

All of this ultimately brought me here- explaining to you, my readers, how I got so infatuated with anything Valve lays its hands on. Despite leaks, controversy over Steam, or legal battles with their publisher I know when Half-Life 2 is finally upon us all, and Source is unleashed to the throngs of Half-Life fans that the game will go down in history like Half-Life before it. If not by the likes of Valve, by the massive and still growing community filled with everything from rabid fans to experienced coders and even malicious hackers.

Nothing can stop Valve or Half-Life 2 from going down in history for gamers like me or any other member of the PC gaming community, whether your reason for becoming involved in Half-Life 2 and the Source Engine is technology, flexibility, mod-ability, or just another thrilling experience like Half-Life before it, Half-Life 2 will set the standard for the story driven FPS once again, and when it finally does decide to roll along, we will, as a community, rejoice in the new dawn of PC gaming.