Reflections of '08

The older we get the faster time goes by, I discovered that today as I searched through the news archives and saw just how much has gone on this year. 2008 has been a very busy year in the Half-Life universe with many new mods having been released, the acquisition of Turtle Rock Studios by Valve Software and the subsequent release of Left 4 Dead, further expansion on Team Fortress 2, and of course lots of drama with our old friend Jack Thompson.

Take a look back and see just how great this year has been and prepare yourself for what 2009 is going to bring us!

January 1, 2008: 2008 starts. That's a significant event for '08, isn't it? (Original Posting)

January 9, 2008: With the findings of a hardware survey, it became apparent that a large majority of Steam users are using nVidia-based hardware. As such, Valve and nVidia announced that they would work much closer together to ensure that all Valve titles not only work well with nVidia hardware, but actually exceed just basic performance. As a way to kick things off, Valve also released Portal: First Slice, an extended version of the Portal demo exclusively for nVidia users. Users need only do a hardware scan to prove they're indeed running nVidia hardware and they get their hands on the extended demo as well as Half-Life 2: Deathmatch, Half-Life 2: Lost Coast, and even (for some reason) Peggle Extreme! (Original Posting)

January 10, 2008: Valve acquired Turtle Rock Studios. With this acquisition, Valve takes complete control of the entire California-based developer which is renamed Valve South and the development of Left 4 Dead becomes a Valve venture. With this, the still in-development Left 4 Dead gets a major face lift with the seemingly endless resources of Valve. Turtle Rock Studios was also responsible for the development of the Xbox version of Counter-Strike, Counter-Strike: Condition Zero, and Counter-Strike: Source as well, all of which is now official property of Valve Software. (Original Posting)

January 12, 2008: Since the release of Half-Life in 1998, Valve has achieved the reputation of being slow to release games due to delays (often referred to as "Valve Time"). Only two days after taking over the development of Left 4 Dead comes the first announcement that the game will be delayed, although comes as little surprise to eagerly awaiting fans. The game was slated for a Q1 release in 2008 but was announced that it would be released in the "late summer" of 2008. This rough date too was missed and Left 4 Dead ended up being released in conjunction with the 10th anniversary of the Half-Life release in November of 2008. The delay was due largely to Valve's decision to revamp the graphics and add further Source engine enhancements to the game making it the most visually attractive Source-based game to date. (Original Posting)

January 21, 2008: "Gordon Freeman" gives a call into Coast to Coast AM, a popular paranormal-themed radio show. This elaborate prank call to host George Noory got more than its share of laughs from Half-Life fans when the caller, posing as Gordon Freeman, began ranting about an "annoying middle aged man who carries a briefcase" that can often be seen at the research facility where he works. (Original Posting)

January 21, 2008: We seem them all the time on the 'Net, people who've designed amazing custom-designed PC cases that blow anything factory-built far out of the water. Well it was only a matter of time before somebody turned the beloved companion cube from Portal into a functioning PC, and someone did just that. An extensive guide was posted showing the average PC enthusiast how to build virtually from scratch a compact companion cube PC case. With a little ingenuity and some hard work, you can have your very own companion cube! (Original Posting)

January 25, 2008: With the engine upgrades from the release of The Orange Box, modders were eagerly awaiting the release of the new SDK to make their mods as beautiful as Half-Life 2: Episode Two. It took a few months, but the first beta of the new Source SDK was released to those eagerly awaiting modders (known as "The Orange Box Engine") and has produced the most beautiful fan-made mods out there. (Original Posting)

January 29, 2008: Project Valkyrie was released exclusively to us here at Planet Half-Life and the IGN Network. This fast-paced and simple futuristic mod took only three months from conception to release, a feat that an extreme few development teams have been able to accomplish in the history of amateur game development. Unfortunately, and for reasons beyond my knowledge, Project Valkyrie fell between the cracks despite heavy promotion across the network and other websites and goes largely unplayed today, perhaps due to its simple first release, it's hard to say. Either way, the mod is simple and fun with some unique twists and warrants a download to your PC. (Original Posting)

January 29, 2008: SteamWorks is officially announced. This new tool developed by Valve ushers in a whole new era of accessibility for game developers, specifically independent game developers, and would lead to a series of Source-based modifications being released directly over Steam with support being added for even more. SteamWorks allows games and modifications to be distributed via Steam the same as as official Valve titles are and includes all the same benefits such as automatic updates, achievement lists, stats tracking, and so forth. (Original Posting)

February 7, 2008: Steam officially reaches 15 million subscribers. That's to say that 15 million individual people have bought and registered games (largely those developed by Valve) over the Steam platform and login to play them, which is more than World of Warcraft in fact. This is an impressive benchmark for something that was originally intended simply to keep Valve titles, specifically Half-Life 2, easily up-to-date. Steam has grown from a buggy and slow program in 2004 to a feature-packed digital distribution platform, social networking service, and game management program all rolled into one with more and more features constantly being added and tweaked. (Original Posting)

February 14, 2008: A massive update for Team Fortress 2 was released. This update included the popular release of the "Badlands" map along with many fixes to the existing game itself. Also released along with the Team Fortress 2 update was an update for the Source engine that addressed some bugs and performance issues on certain hardware configurations as well. (Original Posting)

February 29, 2008: Another significant update for the popular Team Fortress 2 was released that primarily changed the loadout of ammunition for the Soldier and Demoman, giving them both less primary ammunition. For many this was a good update as a large majority of people thought these classes too over-powered, although those who used these classes who enjoyed not having to stock up on rockets and sticky bombs were less than fans of the change. Also released was the "Custom" tab in the server browser and the "Tournament Mode" that was developed for clan play. (Original Posting)

March 7, 2008: Die in Pain, Rest in Peace is released to the public under the flag of a "demo." This mod brings a Twisted Metal form of vehicular combat with dirty, gritty, and scary looking vehicles in a destructible world with power-ups and weapons to be used as the player sees fit. DIPRIP was one of the original five modifications chosen by Valve to use SteamWorks and be distributed via the Steam Store later in the year. (Original Posting)

March 14, 2008: Despite getting Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode One completely free with The Orange Box package, many people (who had trouble doing basic math) thought that they were getting majorly ripped off with TOB if they already owned the two previously mentioned games and refused to buy it until the games were individually released, which happened on this day. Half-Life 2: Episode Pack, Team Fortress 2, and Portal were released as individual boxed copies that cost $29.99, $29.99, and $19.99 respectively coming to a total value of $79.97. In retrospect, The Orange Box only cost $49.99. See what I mean when I say "basic math?" (Original Posting)

March 14, 2008: The Cyberathlete Professional League, the first professional tournament league, closes its doors. The CPL played host to over a decade of Counter-Strike and other tournaments with big cash prizes. The remnants of the company were eventually purchased by an investor in the United Arab Emirates in August of this year. (Original Posting)

March 30, 2008: International Online Soccer: Source releases to the public. This Source-based sequel to the original GoldSrc version is the only soccer modification for the game and has a die-hard community following it. (Original Posting)

March 30, 2008: Ballmen is simultaneously announced and released as a fast-paced team and individual combat modification. Unfortunately, this mod too falls through the cracks and is largely forgotten but still definitely deserves your attention. (Original Posting)

April 1, 2008: The popular Portal theme song, "Still Alive" by Jonathan Coulton, is released for Rock Band as a free download on the Xbox 360 and later the Playstation 3. (Original Posting)

April 14, 2008: A Steam group known as Rest of World is formed to bring light to Valve and companies using Steam to distribute their titles the unfair balance of international prices in the Steam store. More than 10,000 individuals have joined the group to date to try and enact change with the unfairness in prices, localized versions, and even the inability to buy games in certain regions of the world. (Original Posting)

April 25, 2008: Jack Thompson hates your mom. No really, he does. In one of his most bold moves to date, Thompson went as far as to send the mother of Take Two Interactive's (developer of the Grand Theft Auto series) CEO Strauss Zelnick's mother a very strongly-worded letter accusing her to have birthed a "murderer" and on multiple occasions had called her a "bad mother." This caused a major ripple in the gaming community and served to do nothing but make Thompson look like a complete and total #$%hole. You just don't mess with someone's mom, seriously. (Original Posting)

April 25, 2008: Despite hope and speculation, Valve announced that Portal 2 would not be made available in 2008. Good things are worth the wait though! (Original Posting)

April 29, 2008: The "Goldrush Update" for Team Fortress 2 is released bringing the first payload map, pl_goldrush. Along with the new (and now extremely popular) gameplay mode and map comes 36 achievements for the medic and 3 new unlockable weapons for the Medic class to achieve. Naturally for the first week or two the servers were immensely populated with medics as everyone wanted to get the achievements first and get all of the unlockable weapons. This was the first in a series of updates that would bring new weapons and achievements to each individual class. (Original Posting)

May 3, 2008: Prices on many of Valve's titles drop, including the newer titles such as Team Fortress 2 and The Orange Box itself. Also with the price drops are two new value packages for people looking to get the most bang for their buck. (Original Posting)

May 8, 2008: The popular Flash Portal, a web-browser-based Portal game done in Flash, was remade into a complete map pack for Portal itself. This pack was the first large Portal custom content released and contains an amazing 40 levels (with bonus chambers) equaling to almost four hours of gameplay. (Original Posting)

May 17, 2008: This was a busy period with lots of Left 4 Dead coverage and interviews. In one of those interviews, Valve's Marketing Director Doug Lombardi announced that there would be no pre-release playable demo citing "Valve tradition" and their desire to get the game out faster. This decision was later reversed and a playable demo was indeed released, although once Left 4 Dead hit shelves the demo was removed (to prevent hackers/enthusiasts from expanding on it). (Original Posting)

May 18, 2008: Massachusetts state representative William Lantigua (D) proposes new legislature that would legally ban the sale of violent video games to minors. The proposal arose from the record-breaking release of Grand Theft Auto IV which grossed $500 million in the first week of sales alone. Several other states have successfully passed such bans, but all have later had the legislature changed again in the courts. This has always been a highly controversial topic with many citing video games as a huge propagator of youth violence while the other side says the decision should be in the hands of the parents and not delegated to government bans and restrictions. (Original Posting)

May 23, 2008: Day of Defeat: Source became largely ignored after a few months of its initial development with few updates and even less content, so it was a surprise that it was the first back-catalog Valve game to feature SteamWorks, the Steam-based tool that gives game achievements, integration with the Friends network, and so forth. The beta also updated the game to the latest Source engine build and even a new map, dod_Palermo, a tweaked version of a popular community map. (Original Posting)

May 30, 2008: While Steam had a rocky and less-than-popular start, by this point in time it had become reliable and feature-filled, and now yet another feature was being added: SteamCloud. This latest feature automatically stores users' save games to their online account so they are always available across any computer at any time, very useful to people who use multiple PCs. SteamCloud also saves configurations and key combinations so once you've set your game up once, it remains that way indefinitely, even if the game is uninstalled and reinstalled. In the collection of interviews where this was announced, there were several more features announced as well that makes Steam even more user-friendly and allows for hassle-free gaming. (Original Posting)

June 4, 2008: Jack Thompson continued to push the boundaries of acceptable practice all throughout 2008. By this point, the Florida State Bar was deliberating on whether or not to revoke Thompson's license to practice law, and in a 4,500 word objection letter, Thompson goes as far as to insult the very Judge who holds his career in her hands, Judge Dava Tunis, arrogant and incompetent and went so far as to threaten actions to have her removed from her position. It wouldn't be until September when her report would be finalized. (Original Posting)

June 10, 2008: Savvy fans noticed a job advertisement for a voice actor related to the upcoming and much-anticipated Portal 2, the prequel to the original. The advertisement goes into details about "Cave Johnson," and to avoid giving any spoilers here, we'll leave it at that. Check out the original source to get a sneak peek at Portal's newest character. (Original Posting)

June 20, 2008: The newest class update, the Pyro, was released for Team Fortress 2. As with the Medic update, the Pyro update gives the class unique achievements and three new unlockable weapons and new maps as well. Again, servers are plagued with countless players trying to unlock the new weapons, and for a few weeks in the end of June, TF2 servers were literally burning from the inside. Along with the Pyro update, and in fact to promote it, is the introduction of the official TF2 Blog which is updated by the developers themselves. The blog goes into detail the development and design procedures and gives updates on the game's progress giving players accurate, reliable, and entertaining information on this ever-expanding title. (Original Posting)

June 25, 2008: In January, we had the chance to try out the Novint Falcon, a revolutionary 3D controller that allows you to experience touch in games, that is to say the 3D controller (3 axis of movement) reacts to textured surfaces (rough, smooth, sticky, pointy, etc.) and replicates gun recoil and movement. Unfortunately, the only way to use a Falcon with Half-Life 2 is by downloading a modification that plays only the Half-Life 2 campaign and nothing more, and this is why Valve and Novint decided to team up to give the Source engine full support for this amazing controller. Support was due out in Q4 of 2008, but hasn't shown up yet unfortunately, but is still on their release schedule. (Original Posting)

July 1, 2008: "MaddoxX," a hacker who had hacked a third-party website that handled Steam account information for Cyber Cafe's, was arrested in Holland. With the information that the twenty-year-old obtained from his cyber crime, he managed to create fake Cyber Cafe accounts and had full access to all financial records. Apart from this crime, he also is responsible for the theft of 50,000 credit card numbers and spent a staggering 13 million Euros from the cards. (Original Posting)

July 3, 2008: The Day of Defeat: Source beta comes to a close with the official launch of the updated game itself. The update includes SteamWorks intergration (in-game avatars, stats, achievements, etc.) and an update to the latest Source engine with a few other tweaks as well. Other than a handful of bug patches, this was the last update to hit DoD:S to date. (Original Posting)

July 4, 2008: With the original version being such a cult classic amongst Half-Life gamers, developers went ahead and released the first early Alpha version of Science & Industry 2, although due to the high expectations of the mod community, the game received generally poor reviews. Development has sadly halted due to "several contributing factors," and this indeed is a sad death of a great series of mods. (Original Posting)

July 5, 2008: With tough competition from similarly-themed mods, Stargate TC 2 is the first Stargate modification to hit the Internet. As with many mods released this year, the players simply expect far too much from these part-time amateur developers and thus the mod was generally overlooked. It's with this that the core developers have restructured the team and are working hard to overhaul their mod. (Original Posting)

July 11, 2008: Valve has been very tight-lipped about the development of Half-Life 2: Episode Three and has disclosed little, if any, information on how the end of Half-Life 2 and the series itself will be. The only media released thus far was done on this day and is a single piece of concept art depicting a mobile "Advisor" in a large Citadel-like setting. The piece was created by Valve artists Ted Backman, Jeremy Bennett, and Tristan Reidford using Photoshop, Maya, and Zbrush. (Original Posting)

July 17, 2008: Adam Foster, sole creator of the popular Minerva modification, is a true success story. Foster's work caught the eye of Valve and they were so impressed that they offered him a job. From a modder to working on the game he got his start on, Adam Foster really made his talents work for him and is an inspiration to all young developers who hope to make it big in the world of game development. Congratulations, Adam! (Original Posting)

July 28, 2008: Half-Life: Opposing Force is the first expansion for Half-Life and is still played heavily today, and as such the first release of Opposing Force Co-Op. Play this great game with friends together and try and clear up the mess at Black Mesa. (Original Posting)

July 31, 2008: Graphics aren't everything, and sometimes developers will throw pixelation in just to get a laugh, and that's just what Perfect Stride Continuum. Built on the Source engine, you must navigate through a frictionless maze collecting as many orbs as you can. It's a game of skill and might even help you do well in other games with the movement practice you'll get! (Original Posting)

August 9, 2008: Even though this years' E3 Summit was less than spectacular, it did feature Left 4 Dead and it did make an impression on the Game Critics Awards. Left 4 Dead walked away with the title of Best Online Multplayer E3 2008, and they were definitely right in making that judgment. (Original Posting)

August 20, 2008: The third and latest class-based update arrives for Team Fortress 2, that being "A Heavy Update." The update gives the Heavy player class three new unlockable weapons, a list of personal achievements, and brings in new maps and a completely new style of gameplay (Arena Mode) and another new control point map, cp_Steel. Once again the servers were filled with players trying to get themselves a delicious sandvich (one of the Heavy's unlockables). The new "Arena" maps were developed specifically for smaller servers and lets each class shine with the new style of maps which also includes a completely new setting. (Original Posting)

August 24, 2008: Team Fortress Day! It was on this day in 1996 when Robin Walker, John Cook, and Caughley created the original Team Fortress modification for Quake. It's this game that launched their individual careers and created one of the most enjoyable game franchises available on the market. Team Fortress 2 servers were abound with party hats and balloons to celebrate, and as a birthday gift to the game itself, Valve even released a few bug fixes as well. In another update, Doug Lombardi of Valve Software informed the world that the Xbox 360 edition of Team Fortress 2 would indeed be receiving the updates that the PC users had already experienced, but due to Microsoft's setup, the downloadable content will cost $10 USD. (Original Posting)

August 31, 2008: The first Valve back-catalog product to receive SteamWorks integration was Day of Defeat: Source, the second is the still insanely popular Counter-Strike 1.6. The beta brings the same community integration into CS and gives a little bit of new life to the game. (Original Posting)

September 25, 2008: Jack Thompson is officially disbarred from practicing law! While it seemed that Thompson would only receive a 10-year "enhanced disbarment," it would appear that his offensive actions towards the Florida Judicial System pushed the decision to a full permanent disbarment. Throughout his crusade to ban video games, Thompson has gone beyond simply stating his views and went to the point where he would even offend people who support him due to his actions. What happens next in the life of Jack Thompson is a question nobody can answer, but it's more than clear that this won't be the last we hear of him. (Original Posting)

October 3, 2008: Five of the most popular modifications for the Source engine are released with full SteamWorks support. With perhaps the "Make something Unreal" contest that gave the popular Unreal modification Red Orchestra being the only exception, this move proves to be the heaviest support of any modding community in gaming history. Not only do these mods get access to in-game avatars, stats, achievements, and so forth, but the mods themselves are released (free of charge, of course) through the Steam store. No more downloading installers from questionable mirrors or checking websites for patch information, everything is treated like any game you've purchased via Steam, it's all done automatically through the client. A slew of other well-done modifications have been granted access to these great tools, and coming 2009 we'll see a lot more of our favorite mods coming right from Steam itself. (Original Posting)

October 4, 2008: In an interview with CVG.com, Valve Marketing Director Doug Lombardi announced that Half-Life 2: Episode Three would "wrap it all up" in regards to the Half-Life story. The announcement comes as a massive shock to some, but as somewhat expected to others as Valve has been working to expand their horizons and not be labeled as simply "the guys who made Half-Life." Little information on Half-Life 2: Episode Three has been released, but with the time and effort being put into it, we can expect the series finale to be far beyond our expectations. (Original Posting)

October 8, 2008: A day before the official launch, the highly anticipated unofficial sequel to Portal, Portal: Prelude, launches exclusively here at Planet Half-Life. The mod exploded in popularity when it was announced not long before the release with its extensive gameplay and well-done test chambers, but upon release many found the hype not to be warranted. (Original Posting)

November 11, 2008: The Left 4 Dead demo becomes available to the eagerly awaiting general public. For those who pre-ordered the game, the demo was available since the 6th of November and was plagued with bugs and a borderline unusable "Matchmaking service," the service that finds available games to be played online comparable to online console games. The demo essentially acts like an open beta allowing Valve to greatly improve the service and the myriad of other bugs and exploits that a smaller dedicated beta team couldn't have found. It's with the Left 4 Dead demo that SteamCloud is released as well, a tool that saves all configuration and saved games to the Steam servers to be used across as many computers as you use your Steam account on. Never again will you lose how far you've gotten in Half-Life 2 or have to reconfigure your Team Fortress 2 controls, it's all simply remembered. (Original Posting)

November 18, 2008: Left 4 Dead becomes commercially available throughout North America! One of the most anticipated game releases of the year and one of Valve's biggest successes is released to 95% more people who pre-ordered The Orange Box and to everyone waiting for the stores to open in the morning to grab their copies off of the shelf. The Left 4 Dead demo is removed to prevent people from copying content over from the game itself with a last string of bug fixes being released to ensure the game itself runs smooth as silk. Left 4 Dead would become available on November 21 to the rest of the world. The release of Left 4 Dead was chosen specifically to coincide with the anniversary of Half-Life. (Original Posting)

November 19, 2008: It's hard to believe, but on this day our beloved Half-Life celebrates its tenth anniversary. An entire decade has gone by since the release with the most heavily played online FPS still running the engine that launched a company (that being Counter-Strike). To celebrate, Valve puts Half-Life on sale for only $0.98 giving people virtually no reason at all they can't buy this great game for their collection. (Original Posting)

December 1, 2008: Game and mod trailers are a dime a dozen these days, but no trailer this year has caused quite as much excitement as that of Black Mesa. This remake of the original Half-Life, which is still in development, has caused such excitement that it received over half a million hits on YouTube alone, not counting all of the other video hosts (Planet Half-Life included) who uploaded this trailer. This sparked a whole new interest in the mod with the release coming sometime in 2009. (Original Posting)

December 1, 2008: Sometimes the most simple mods are the most enjoyable, and that's definitely the case with Suicide Survival, a simple mod that pits you as either an exploding plant or a gardener with only a gardening book as defense. The mod was developed by a single individual as a part of a school project and he, Tobias Baumann, will further develop the mod for the public to enjoy. (Original Posting)

December 4, 2008: Valve releases its lifetime sales records for retail (brick and mortar shops) sales showing intensely strong sales for their entire catalog. For example, taking into account only retail sales, almost ten million individuals own Half-Life while The Orange Box sold over three million copies in just over a year of its release. Valve didn't include the amount of sales from the Steam Store, but Valve estimates that Steam sales will in fact exceed that of retail sales. (Original Posting)

December 17, 2008: The ultra-violent futuristic sports mod Smashball is publicly released. Players use super-human movements, a real-physics grappling hook, and high-powered weaponry to try to get a single ball into their opponent’s goal and can participate in an official league on the mod's website. (Original Posting)

December 17, 2008: Calamity Fuse, a fantasy modification that combines melee combat, magic, and firearms in an online setting. The team has big ambitions of becoming a commercial game, but as it stands now it's still a free Source-based modification. (Original Posting)

December 20, 2008: Ragnarok Arena Remaster is released, the Source version of the original Ragarok Arena for Half-Life. This mod takes the classic 2D platform shooters of yester-year and brings it to the beautiful Source engine with twenty weapons, both unique and familiar faces throughout the history of gaming, and is aimed solely at having fun. (Original Posting)

December 24, 2008: After and endless development schedule, the immensely popular Sven Co-Op Beta 4.0 is released to a very eagerly awaiting public. The mod was released with known bugs, hence the marketing as a Beta, but still proves to be a fun and entertaining gaming experience. With Sven Co-Op Beta 4.0 comes They Hunger Co-Op, a co-op version of the classic Half-Life horror mod They Hunger. Developers continue to work on ironing out the bugs and expanding even further on this classic gem of the Half-Life universe, and as such fans will continue to have new versions to look forward to. (Original Posting)

Editor's Note: You'll notice that we didn't include any mod releases that weren't initial releases (patches, benchmark releases, etc.). Had we included these events this article would be at least twice this size and would be on the monotonous side, and that's not very fun to read, is it?

If you notice an event we should have included, then feel free to e-mail me with the event and the exact date it happened and I'll amend the article. Happy New Years!