Both G-Mod 9.0 and Lost Coast are out.  I've played Lost Coast and it's great, if a bit short.  It was nice to actually play some Half-Life 2 again... I really don't play it apart from shooting the occasional metrocop after a comic-posing session.

Haven't downloaded G-Mod 9.0 yet -- the G-Mod releases tend to be a bit buggy at first, so I may wait a week or so for the inevitable problems to be ironed out.  Most of the changes and adds affect online play, anyway, and I don't really use G-Mod online very often. 

10/25/05:  G-Mod and Lost Coast
Well, we've apparently got two impending releases to look forward to.  Garry's Mod 9 is due out this Friday, and looks to have some neat new features.  And we're finally, finally, FINALLY supposed to get Lost Coast from Valve before the end of the month.  Finally.  Can't wait.

10/10/05:  Speaking of Comics...
...there's a new mod nearing completion that will transform Counter-Strike: Source into a living comic book.  Definitely looks interesting.

9/17/05:  Day of Defeat: Source
DoD Source is now available for free preloading (if you purchased the Gold or Silver editions of HL2).  It'll be playable on September 26.

9/11/05:  F.E.A.R. Demo
I downloaded and played the F.E.A.R. single-player demo today (available here), and I'm pretty impressed.  I've been looking forward to this game since they released a gameplay trailer a while back, and it definitely looks like it has the potential to be a great shooter.  Graphics-wise, it's closer to Doom 3 than Half-Life 2, so everything looks very nice and slick, if not particularly real.  What stands out the most is the A.I., which appears to be extremely competent.  The enemy is very good at using cover and navigating their surroundings; each time I played the demo they varied their attacks.  Some even dove through windows to either avoid me or flank me.  The weapons seem like a lot of fun, the only downside being that you can't carry them all at once -- you have to discard one weapon to pick up another once you have three in your inventory.

Some other nice touches: You can look down and see your own legs, you cast a shadow (which can startle you at times if you're not expecting it), and ladder climbing is easy and nicely done; you even see your hands grabbing the rails as you climb. It'd be nice if these three things made their way into future Half-Life games.

Clichés abound, of course, but when done well, even recycled material can work.  The creepy little girl ghost is indeed creepy, and the Matrix-esque "bullet-time" ability your character has is nicely done and extremely useful in the chaos of a fire-fight.

Couple things bugged me: walking over a dead enemy would cause his body to shift with a sound like a sack of softballs dropped from a 3-story crane: WHUMMPFF. Jolting at first and then just annoying.  Can't my commando step over bodies instead of walking directly on them? And even if he can't, does the noise of stepping on a dead man have to be that loud?  Stepping on a live man, unless that live man is Gilbert Gottfried, isn't even that loud. 

The voice acting is resoundingly "eh".  Evil guy with growly, fake British accent, boss with gruff, fake Chicago accent, etc.  

Overall, though, I'm excited about the game's release.  Looks like a great blend of horror and action.

9/05/05:  High Res Skins
An old-skool reader (An NMD fan, in other words) named Max pointed me to some new high resolution skins someone made, that replace the models from HL2 with more realistic-looking ones. In some cases, they're a little creepy, but definitely neat.  I'll have to see if I can find some way to use them in the comic. Check them out here.  Frohman sure looks old, and while I have no plans on allowing him to live quite so long, maybe I'll be able to use this skin at some point. Thanks, Max!

9/05/05:  Minerva Mod: Metastasis
Just finished playing a very slick, well-designed single-player map for HL2, the first episode of the Minerva Mod called Metastasis 1, in which you infiltrate a Combine-controlled island to determine exactly what the alien invaders are up to. Definitely good for a few play-throughs, and the gameplay and mysterious tone of the map sets the stage nicely for some sequels.  Download the zip file or bittorrent here and give it a try.

9/02/05 -- Massive goodness at 1up.com this week, with a bunch of articles about HL 1 & 2, Aftermath and Lost Coast, Valve, Steam, X-Box, Mods, and anything else you can name that's Half-Life related. Check it out while it's free to access.

8/22/05 -- So, no new comics until Monday, August 29.  I've gotta figure out why HL2 is so suddenly crashing every few minutes (I don't think it's G-Mod doing it, since it crashes when I play Deathmatch as well).  This may not take until Monday to figure out, but I could honestly use a couple days off anyway to try to build up a bit of a backlog.

In the meantime, something fun to check out: This Spartan Life.  It's a talk show, complete with guests, music, and dancers, all done within an online game of Halo 2.  Neat idea along the lines of Red vs. Blue (which I link to so everyone won't send me e-mail saying "Have you seen Red vs. Blue?), and hilarious when the host must fend off snipers while his guest is talking (it's done on an open server, and other players aren't aware there's a talk show in progress).  If you click on "Episodes" and check out the Bob Stein interview, you'll see what I mean (sizable download, but well worth it).

8/11/05 -- Woo.  Hoo.  A teaser for Half-Life 2: Aftermath, the first expansion for HL2, has appeared.  You can stream it here without an account, or download it here.

I daresay I'm excited.

8/5/05 -- Another amusing video made with HL2, this time using audio from the film "Liar, Liar".

8/3/05 -- Thought I might start a dinky little News column since there's always lots of stuff going on with the HL2 community.

For instance, I'm not sure how long this has been around, but I only just saw it for the first time last week.  This guy has taken the climactic scene from "A Few Good Men" and recreated it using Half-Life 2.  It's brilliant.  The animation is fantastic, the gestures, facial expressions, even the movement of the characters eyes is well done and perfectly mimics the actual scene from the movie.  Even the casting is perfect!  Enjoy it if you haven't seen it yet.

Of course, this has been around a while, but always deserves another look:  Still Seeing Breen.

I still have no idea how people do this stuff, but it's amazing.

LEFTOVERS There's a German site, hlportal.de, and one of their editors, a very nice fellow named Paul, asked me to do a comic to help them celebrate being online for one year. So, here's the birthday comic I made them. The graphic I used to announce that Concerned was moving to its own domain is here. This graphic I used to announce that Concerned was switching webhosts. The graphic I used to announce that Concerned would be down a few days due to technical problems is here. FAN ART 11/20/05: A cool Frohman comic by The Rav3n called "Frohman Does it Again!" I don't want to spoil it, but in the comic, Frohman does, in fact, do it again. And, a great picture from Trollax, where Frohman take care of business in a way that high suggests he is dreaming. Thanks for the great art! 11/2/05: Some more great fan art! We've got G-Man's magical hovercraft (from comic #70), beautifully brought to life by Cathal. From Ian, here's Frohman getting some good-natured revenge on a metrocop with a classic wedgie. And, from Dan, who has thought about the implications of Combine surgery more than I have, this little speculative comic. 10/14/05: More Fan art! This is from Edward, and depicts what the cast of Concerned does on their days off. 10/9/05: Fan art! From Christopher Morris, Frohman in some new digs. From Jacob, an accurate shot of me after a few hours of trying to get ragdolls to cooperate. From Sam, some shots of Frohman keeping busy at an inopportune time.  From a reader called "Flavius", my first instance of G-Mod fan art!. Thanks, Flavius!