177w ago - Below is a video from GossipGamers.com (linked above) of what appears to be leaked XBox 360 footage of Half-Life 2 being played on Microsoft's upcoming system Project Natal.

It comes courtesy of nutcrackr via YouTube, as it seems someone secretly leaked out the clip.

This is most likely early footage of the beta testing for a FPS game on the Natal and of course, there is no confirmed source where the video came from so take it as you like.

To quote from the video's caption: "Brief clip of Project Natal for Half-Life 2. Situated in Isaac Kleiner's Lab, it shows some movement and turning with hand gestures and also some interaction with the teleporters.

This video looks to be in the alpha stage."

Check it out below!

198w ago - Valve's Gabe Newell appears to have recently conducted a focus group with deaf individuals in order to learn more about sign language and how it can be applied to games, notably the upcoming Half-Life 2: Episode 3.

Why? To help develop Alyx's character, and further the animation technology implemented in the Half-Life games.

Newell explains, to quote: "[Alyx] had a crush on someone who was hearing impaired, so she taught Dog how to sign so she could practice. Something happened, maybe, the person is off fighting the Combine someplace else, but that's why she and Dog would start signing with each other when they wanted to communicate without making noise, or communicate without other people knowing ... It gave us the excuse to build the technology for signing."

The focus group responds by noting the importance of facial expression whilst signing. While the Half-Life franchise has been known for its believable facial animation, it might take even more to fully realize the nuances necessary for authentic signing. It'll be interesting to see if Valve is up to the challenge.

198w ago - The infamous Half-Life 2 mod Cinematic Mod 10 is getting into Beta 3 stage. The most important changes: The Adriana Lima style Alyx model is now revised and looking even more realistic.

Modder Fakefactory has released the third Beta of the Cinematic Mod 10. The modification for Half-Life 2 offers several improvements.

The most important changes applied with Cienmtaic Mod 10 Beta 3:

• Certain maps in Half-Life 2, episode 1 and Episode 2 have been overhauled in order to increase the visual quality as well as the performance
• Some new textures
• New HD model V50 of Alyx (Adriana Lima based)
• New dialogues for citizens

202w ago - The NT team has announced the release of their FPS Neotokyo, now available for download.

The game is a Half-Life 2 standalone mod that offers "a visceral & realistic combat experience in a rich futuristic setting."

The title is said to be heavily influenced by Ghost in the Shell and Akira.

The client and server downloads are available via the game's official site, you'll need Steam along with The Orange Box, Half-Life 2 or any other game that includes the Source SDK.

To quote, from the description: NEOTOKYO is a first person shooter that provides a visceral & realistic combat experience in a rich futuristic setting.

It is greatly influenced by our admiration for Masamune Shirow (GHOST IN THE SHELL) and Katsuhiro Otomo (AKIRA), and has been in production since October 2004.

To play NEOTOKYO you will need to have a STEAM account, and own the game HALFLIFE 2 or any game that gives you the Source SDK.

236w ago - After the secret source code for its then-unreleased shooter Half Life 2 showed up on file sharing services in 2003, game-maker Valve Software cooked up an elaborate ruse with the FBI targeting the German hacker suspected in the leak, even setting up a fake job interview in an effort to lure him to the United States for arrest.

The gambit ultimately failed, and Axel "Ago" Gembe remained safely in Germany. He was indicted last month in Los Angeles on new charges of creating the Agobot malware, and sharing it with a crew of U.S. hackers who used it to stage denial-of-service attacks in 2003.

In September 2003, the source code for the much-anticipated Half Life 2 game turned up online, and Valve's managing director, Gabe Newell, revealed that the company's network had been breached. In a post to the company's Web forum, Newell asked for gamer's assistance in finding the hackers responsible.

"If you have information about ... the infiltration of our network, please send the details," Newell wrote. "There are some pretty obvious places to start with the posts and records in IRC, so if you can point us in the right direction, that would be great."

Two anonymous sources who'd seen the hack discussed in IRC channels came forward and began feeding the FBI chat transcripts pertaining...