MINERVA: Episodic, Single-Player Half-Life 2
Infuriating the Public for Fun and ... More Fun - posted by Cargo Cult on Saturday April 1 2006
The vaguely observant of you might have noticed the countdown timer on top of every page on the main MINERVA site. The slightly more observant will have noticed the timer reached zero, and things changed. The particularly observant among you will have realised that yes, it's April 1st - and those with eyes of hawks will have realised that the joke pages are randomly selected from a pool of five. (Direct, non-randomised links: 1, 2, 3 and 4. Page five is ... low probability. Very much so...)
While not trolling the gaming public (give someone a timer and they'll immediately believe it's for something amazing, even if it's counting down to this notorious date) - I've been doing some slightly more useful things. One is a fancy new repackaged version of Someplace Else, with full Steam compatibility, detail textures (for subtly improved visuals), a nice new splash-screen, and (best of all) a lovely little 16x16 icon for the Steam games list.
On the MINERVA front, there's a nice Metastasis 2 review at Press Start Online - best of all, it contains constructive criticism so I have an even better idea of what to concentrate on in future... ;-)
Metastasis 2 was my third released map for the Half-Life series. I hope I'm improving.
Article Comments (now closed)
2. Moo
Posted by xbskid at 12:37PM, Sunday April 2 2006
Let me have a crack at those questions.
1) It's a MIDI version of "Ride the Lightning" by Metallica. I, too, found it familiar, and yet unlistenable.
2) Yes, Someplace Else is for Half-Life 1. If you don't already have it, $10 at Walmart. Gogogo. It's worth it.
3) Unfortunately I can't answer this. I can, however, urge Adam to hurry up and release it, because it's the best singleplayer mod available and WE NEED MORE CONTENT *twitch/drool*
3. Answers? Maybe
Posted by Cargo Cult at 11:34PM, Sunday April 2 2006
1) It is indeed a Metallica MIDI file. I decided Mr. GiGaDeTh2000 must have an absolutely dire taste in music, so quickly Googled for 'metallica midi'. That was the result. Truly awful, isn't it?
2) Certainly possible to convert to Half-Life: Source, but I'd inevitably want to update all textures, sounds etc. to take full advantage of Source. Only to find that the monsters and weapons models looked a bit naff by comparison. But still, wouldn't you rather play something ... *new*... ;-)
3) Slight mapper's block again. I'll try to work things free this afternoon, anyhow. Probably at least a month or two away if things go well, anyhow - maps 3 and 4 are more maps 3a and 3b, due to the sheer ENORMITY of it all. 3b is near-complete.
With that, Metastasis will be complete. Still not decided on the title for the next ... chapter thingy, but it *might* be 'MINERVA: Chronoclasm'. And shall include some freakish gameplay additions...
4. Fell for it...
Posted by gaminghobo at 1:53AM, Monday April 3 2006
Yup. Fell for it hook line and sinker. Thought you were releasing number 3! In my defence I had been awake for about 30 hours at the time. April, officially my least favourite month.
5. Forgot to mention...
Posted by Cargo Cult at 3:49AM, Monday April 3 2006
If anyone felt the automatic page redirects to be just a little more suspenseful than they should have been - it's do do with timings. First one says '20 seconds', but waits 30, then the next says '30 seconds' and waits 45 before loading the final page.
I think I might use that trick in a map at some point - it's EVIL!
6. April Fools Jokes
Posted by Irishsmealey at 9:58AM, Monday April 3 2006
Yeah I fell for them really badly, I thought there might have been something new up but I see that I was mistaken. I love your maps and the wonderful story that is contained within them, looking forward to more from you!
7. Taken in
Posted by Omnivore at 1:06AM, Tuesday April 4 2006
Yah, very fun -- I bought it, too.
In our (States-side) defense, this "April Fool's Day" joke hit on the afternoon of March 31, well before we could get the shields up. England, 1; US, 0.
8. Old news
Posted by xbskid at 2:51AM, Wednesday April 5 2006
Adam: Are you going to go back to the Carcinogenesis level and fix the skybox? Or are you completely done with levels as you release them (Except for major issues)?
9. Skybox
Posted by Cargo Cult at 8:05AM, Thursday April 6 2006
I thought I'd fixed that skybox problem on multiple occasions already - I'll *definitely* have it fixed for the version released with Metastasis 3.
I hope...
10. Hmm
Posted by Lightning Blue at 5:49PM, Thursday April 6 2006
Actually the BGM on page 3 sounded very much out of one of the doom episodes.
Anyway, keep up the good work, I await episode 3!
11. What about no5?
Posted by Metastasasasasis at 7:08AM, Tuesday April 18 2006
What do you mean by that comment about page 5? I'm confuzzled :(
12. hmm
Posted by Malice at 10:10PM, Tuesday May 2 2006
Uno) Loved everything released so far, gave me something to do, and definitely enjoyed the theming, and the link of sorts to someplace else
dos) is there a link to this fabled fifth page which I can only guess is abominable >_>?...curiosity will kill the cat if given a chance
Article is now closed for commenting.
1. 3 questions
Posted by Naurgul at 9:46AM, Sunday April 2 2006
That's great and all but I have 3 questions to ask:
1) What's that song in the 3rd link? It reminds me of something but I can't quite remember. Or is it Minerva playing games with my mind again?
2) Let me guess: "Someplace Else" is for "Half-Life", not "Half-Life: Source". If that's the case, may I ask you to *please* make a version for the rest of us? Is that even possible?
3) What about the third episode of "Minerva:Metastasis"? Since you once had taken the rather interesting decision of working on the third map instead of the second one, does that mean that we won't wait another six months for that?
Also: Will the third map conclude "Minerva:Metastasis"?If so, will the fourth Metastasis map be part of "Minerva:???"? If that's correct too, how will that be called?(that's too much speculation but anyway)
Too many questions, too many question marks. I'm rather resourcefull in using that particular key. ;)