Valve has updated the first trailer for Episode Two. This trailer shows you a little bit more than the first one did.

Just wow…..

Valve has released today the trailer for Portal. Portal was announced at E3. (For the press release look at this post)

Valve made two press releases about this. Here they are….

“Bellevue, WA, July 14, 2006 – Valve®, developer of the blockbuster series Half-Life® and Counter-StrikeTM, unveiled Team Fortress® 2 and Portal, two new games to be included in its next release, Half-Life® 2: Episode Two. In addition, the studio announced its plans to deliver these products, plus enhanced versions of Half-Life 2 and Episode One, in one tremendous package for the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

“By evolving our development process to an episodic approach, we’re able to reduce risk from things such as schedule and funding and invest more in new types of gameplay,” said Gabe Newell, president and co-founder of Valve. “This allows us to produce innovative titles such as Portal and Team Fortress 2 and deliver them in a timely fashion to customers along with Episode Two.”

Episode Two advances the 16-million unit selling franchise, as Valve’s trilogy of episodic single player releases continues the award-winning story of Half-Life 2. Armed with new weaponry and vehicles, Dr. Gordon Freeman must race through a countryside riddled with an increasingly feirce Combine threat.

Team Fortress 2, an all-new version of the title that spawned team based multiplayer action games, features the most advanced graphics of any Source-based game released to date. Players choose from a range of unique character classes such as medic, spy, sniper, or engineer and must work together to complete a variety of tactical objectives.

Portal is a new type of single player game that changes how players approach, manipulate, and surmise the possibilities in a given environment in a manner similar to how the Gravity Gun changed our approach to how an object may be leveraged in any given situation.

Team Fortress 2 and Portal will be included with all retail and Steam versions of Episode Two for the PC. In addition, these products plus Half-Life 2 and Episode One will be available in one tremendous offering for the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. New videos from Episode Two, Portal, and Team Fortress 2 will be released next week.

About Half-Life 2

Half-Life 2 has been named Game of the Year by over 35 organizations and sold over four million copies worldwide. The intense, real-time gameplay delivered in the Half-Life 2 games and Team Fortress 2 is made possible only by Source, Valve’s proprietary engine technology.

About Valve

Valve is an entertainment software and technology company founded in 1996 and based in Bellevue, Washington. The company’s portfolio of entertainment properties includes Half-Life®, Counter-StrikeTM, Day of Defeat®, Team Fortress® and Portal. Valve’s catalog of products accounts for over 20 million retail units sold worldwide, and over 80% of PC online action gameplay. In addition, Valve is a developer of leading-edge technologies, such as the Source game engine and Steam, a broadband platform for the delivery and management of digital content. For more information, please visit www.valvesoftware.com”

Then here is the seccond one….

“Includes Team Fortress 2 and Portal, Heading To PC and Next Gen Console

Bellevue, WA, July 14, 2006 – Valve®, developer of the blockbuster series Half-Life® and Counter-StrikeTM, unveiled Team Fortress® 2 and Portal, two new games to be included in its next release, Half-Life® 2: Episode Two. In addition, the studio announced its plans to deliver these products, plus enhanced versions of Half-Life 2 and Episode One, in one tremendous package for the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

“By evolving our development process to an episodic approach, we’re able to reduce risk from things such as schedule and funding and invest more in new types of gameplay,” said Gabe Newell, president and co-founder of Valve. “This allows us to produce innovative titles such as Portal and Team Fortress 2 and deliver them in a timely fashion to customers along with Episode Two.”

Episode Two advances the 16-million unit selling franchise, as Valve’s trilogy of episodic single player releases continues the award-winning story of Half-Life 2. Armed with new weaponry and vehicles, Dr. Gordon Freeman must race through a countryside riddled with an increasingly fierce Combine threat.

Team Fortress 2, an all-new version of the title that spawned team based multiplayer action games, features the most advanced graphics of any Source-based game released to date. Players choose from a range of unique character classes such as medic, spy, sniper, or engineer and must work together to complete a variety of tactical objectives.

Portal is a new type of single player game that changes how players approach, manipulate, and surmise the possibilities in a given environment in a manner similar to how the Gravity Gun changed our approach to how an object may be leveraged in any given situation.

Team Fortress 2 and Portal will be included with all retail and Steam versions of Episode Two for the PC. In addition, these products plus Half-Life 2 and Episode One will be available in one tremendous offering for the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. New videos from Episode Two, Portal, and Team Fortress 2 will be released next week.”

I know I havn’t updated the blog in a while. I have been working on getting Vista Blog off the ground. Well anyway, The Map Pack, which arrives just before DoD: Source’s 1st birthday, introduces a new gameplay style, Detonation, in two brand new missions (Jagd, Colmar). In addition to the new missions and gameplay style, the Summer 2006 Update also introduces new technical features and gameplay enhancements to Day of Defeat: Source. Some of the new gameplay enhancements – such as spawn clip adjustments, improved hit location detection, and weapon balancing – were made after reviewing the player statistics gathered since the stats feature was added to DoD: Source earlier this year.

Since its original release in the fall of last year, Valve has introduced a number of new features, missions, and enhancements for the game – following in the company’s long tradition of ongoing development for its online properties. Below is a summary of the new missions and features added to Day of Defeat: Source since the initial launch:

New Missions Added:

Colmar (June 2006) — Set in Northern France, Colmar introduces Day of Defeat’s Detonation style of gameplay. Marred with cold weather conditions, Colmar’s Detonation objectives drive successful teams to attack target areas in unison.

Jagd (June 2006) – Jagd challenges teams to a more advanced urban Detonation mission, one that must be completed in a limited amount of time and is therefore unforgiving to unorganized offensive attacks.

Kalt (February 2006) – The narrow city streets, wheelhouse, and center bridge on which Kalt is fought challenge Axis and Allied forces to disperse and hold multiple points. As such, surging attacks and sudden changes in momentum may be common.

Argentan (January 2006) – The first new mission introduced after the initial launch of Day of Defeat: Source is set alongside the rolling hills of a French trainway. It’s hillsides and country structures provide the setting for punishing sniper and machine gunner standoffs.

Technology Updates:

• Color Correction
• Film grain
• New Shaders:
  • Image-based texture blending
  • Light warping
  • Phong Shading/Rim Lighting on player models Improved Animations Support for Bloom on DX8 level GPUs Prop Vertex Lighting Engine Optimizations

Gameplay Enhancements:

• Spawn Clip adjustments
• Improved Hit location detection
• Weapon balancing
• Detonation Gameplay Introduced
• Player Statistics

The following video highlights the Detonation style gameplay featured in the Jagd map, one of two new maps offered in the free Day of Defeat: Source Summer Update coming this Wednesday.
view the DoD Jagd Trailer

All this will be ready to download on Steam on 6/28/06.

Half-Life 2: Episode 1 has been released! Stay tuned for a trailer for Half-Life 2: Episode 2

Half-Life 2: Episode One release is getting close now. Only one more day! With that Steam has released a 3rd launch trailer. Here it is!

If you want to look at the other trailers look at the post below.
If you want to know what Half-Life 2: Episode One is all about then go to this post.
If you want to know what time it will unlock in your time zone look at this post.

Just a reminder that Half-Life 2: Episode One releases in two days! If you missed the trailers here they are.

If you want to know what time it will unlock in your time zone look at the post below.
If you want to know what Half-Life 2: Episode One is all about then go to this post

Thanks goes to Smash over at the Steam forums for this!…

"HL2:EP1 Set to Release Same Time Across the Globe

quote:

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Half-Life 2: Episode One advances the 15-million unit selling franchise and launches the first in a new, three-part series that leads far beyond City 17. Half-Life 2: Episode One does not require Half-Life 2 to play, and will be available via Steam® and at retail stores in North America for just $19.95 on June 1st. Also included in Episode One is a first look at Episode Two, which will ship by year's end.
Source

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Ok, VALVe's timezone is -8GMT or Pacific Time. They're located in the state of Washington.

• It's 9:49AM, May 28th -8GMT. (At the time of this post…)
• Episode One Will not be playable until June 1st 10:00AM
  -8GMT Time (That's Pacific Time in the US)

Figure out which GMT Timezone 1 2 you're in to understand when YOU should be able to play Episode One.

Use the Search feature instead of spamming.

(Times are estimates)

Here are the timezones w/ the provided release time & date:

• -12GMT || 6:00AM (June 1st)
• -11GMT || 7:00AM (June 1st)
• -10GMT || 8:00AM (June 1st)
• -9GMT || 9:00AM (June 1st)
• -8GMT || 10:00AM (June 1st) (VALVe's Time)
• -7GMT || 11:00AM (June 1st)
• -6GMT || 12:00PM (June 1st)
• -5GMT || 1:00PM (June 1st)
• -4GMT || 2:00PM (June 1st)
• -3GMT || 3:00PM (June 1st)
• -2GMT || 4:00PM (June 1st)
• -1GMT || 5:00PM (June 1st)
• GMT || 6:00PM (June 1st)
• +1GMT || 7:00PM (June 1st)
• +2GMT || 8:00PM (June 1st)
• +3GMT || 9:00PM (June 1st)
• +4GMT || 10:00PM (June 1st)
• +5GMT || 11:00PM (June 1st)
• +6GMT || 12:00AM (June 2nd)
• +7GMT || 1:00AM (June 2nd)
• +8GMT || 2:00AM (June 2nd)
• +9GMT || 3:00AM (June 2nd)
• +10GMT || 4:00AM (June 2nd)
• +11GMT || 5:00AM (June 2nd)
• +12GMT || 6:00AM (June 2nd)

*Note DayLight Savings: For those South of the Equator – your GMT time will be an hour behind. So if your GMT Zone is listed 6 on here, then it will be released an hour behind, or 5 in this example.

Times are subject to change.

Official Countdown Clock! "

Links
Source

I was bored today so I decided to look around on youtube for some killer videos. I found this one guy named Robbie (youtube name: HawkEyesUK) that has made some killer videos using the GMod.