There’s a dead end junction, late in Half-Life 2’s airboat segment, that’s fairly easy to miss. It’s nothing special to look at. A concrete run-off with a few shanty houses and a handful of zombies. But this corner, with its distant chirping of crickets and the sunset baking the paneled walls in just the right way, is special enough that I always stop by for a visit when returning to the game. It’s a corner that perfectly captures the fleeting, uniquely melancholy beauty of Valve’s Source Engine.
The Source Engine, the software that drove all of Valve’s games from Half-Life 2 through Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, came at a uniquely transitory moment in game development. It was the mid-2000s, and 3D games were starting to look pretty damn good. Ten years earlier, and games were merely suggesting spaces through blocky corridors. A decade later, and we’re looking at games that are near photorealistic.
Source bridged that gap. It’s at once the last gasp of things like BSP-based terrain, baked lighting, and the entire field of level design, and a peek at the lush, living words of games to come. Over the past ten years, developers have gotten good at wringing spectacular landscapes out of the engine—but they’re doing so with a level editor built-in 1997, using limitations laid down in 2004.
It’s a bizarre tension, but one that gives Source maps a strange, almost haunted feeling. There’s an intangible quality to the way Source levels are lit. Sounds all echo just a little more than you think they should. Hop into an empty Garry’s Mod map, and the sense of isolation is overbearing.
LEVEL WITH ME
Denne historien er fra July 2021-utgaven av PC Gamer US Edition.
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Denne historien er fra July 2021-utgaven av PC Gamer US Edition.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Special Report- Stacked Deck - Monster Train, a deckbuilding roguelike that firmly entrenched itself as the crown prince to the kingly Slay the Spire back in 2020, was the kind of smash success you might call Champagne Big.
Monster Train, a deckbuilding roguelike that firmly entrenched itself as the crown prince to the kingly Slay the Spire back in 2020, was the kind of smash success you might call Champagne Big. Four years later, its successor Inkbound’s launch from Early Access was looking more like Sandwich Big.I’m not just saying that because of the mountain of lamb and eggplants I ate while meeting with developer Shiny Shoe over lunch, to feel out what the aftermath of releasing a game looks like in 2024. I mean, have I thought about that sandwich every day since? Yes. But also, the indie team talked frankly about the struggle of luring Monster Train’s audience on board for its next game.
SCREENBOUND
How a 5D platformer went viral two months into development
OLED GAMING MONITORS
A fresh wave of OLED panels brings fresh options, greater resolutions and makes for even more impressive gaming monitors
CRYSIS 2
A cinematic FPS with tour de force visuals.
PLOD OF WAR
SENUA’S SAGA: HELLBLADE 2 fails to find a new path for its hero
GALAXY QUEST
HOMEWORLD 3 is a flashy, ambitious RTS, but some of the original magic is missing
FAR REACHING
Twenty years ago, FAR CRY changed the landscape of PC gaming forever.
THY KINGDOM COME
SHADOW OF THE ERDTREE is the culmination of decades of FromSoftware RPGs, and a gargantuan finale for ELDEN RING
KILLING FLOOR 3
Tripwire Interactive's creature feature is back
IMPERFECTLY BALANCED
Arrowhead says HELLDIVERS 2 balancing patches have 'gone too far'