Minerva Release, Orange Box Tops Rental Lists and Portal Preload.

[Sloth]

Minerva is finally over. Cargo Cult, or Adam Foster, has been working hard the past two years in a one man modding team that has produced some of the most stunning single player maps ever seen in a mod. The third chapter has hit the 'tubes, via a 150mb download that needs Half Life Episode 1 to play.[br]

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[br]To download simply visit the Minerva website, in the section titled phosphenes. Enjoy.[br]
In other news; The Orange Box edges close to Halo 3, fetching the 2nd most rental requested game at Gamefly for the week ending October 1st. To read more simply click here. [br]
Finally for those of you who have pre-ordered the Orange Box, the Portal Pre-Load has began. We have not received any official word, but it seems to be working. And remember, the Cake is a Lie.

 

[BabyHeadCrab]

Some of the best (if not the absolute best) HL2 SP modding I've yet to see. Can't wait to play the final episode.

 

[stereoxide]

probably the best SP mod Ive seen for HL2.

 

[soulslicer]

DO I NEED half life 2 to play this? I have ep1

 

[Sloth]

I think its only Epi 1 - most of the stuff in HL2 is in Epi 1 anyway.

 

[diluted]

Absolutely a must-play mod. The level design/scripting here is on-par with Valve, possibly exceeding it in some parts.

Spoiler

The part with the dropships flying out of the portal was ****ing awesome!

 

[Intamin]

Fantastic stuff.

 

[leib10]

Heh,

Steam servers are too busy to handle any more preloads of Portal. Please try again in a few hours.

10Char

 

[soulslicer]

100 kbps exactly..

 

[Asuka]

Nice, really was looking forward to finishing this mod. And Valve take ****ing Halo 3 out of the park PLEASE! YOUR SO CLOSE!

 

[Chabo]

Pardon me if I'm wrong, but I thought that this was merely the last installment in "MINERVA: Metastasis". I thought his plan was to release more chapters in the story.

Regardless, it's by far the best single-player third-party mod out there, and the developer is awesome. He posts on Slashdot in defense of Valve whenever anyone is like "omg it only takes 2 seconds to make a map valve should make an episode per week!!!1"

Stupid noobs...

Can't wait to play... stupid homework...

 

[ThrasherX9]

Anyone else getting weird textures with ERROR and bright purple or red glowing ones too? Maybe I need to reinstall?

 

[slashandburn]

Anyone else getting weird textures with ERROR and bright purple or red glowing ones too? Maybe I need to reinstall?

Do you have HL2 EP1?

 

[Atomic_Piggy]

I will definatly be downloading this tonight. Minerva rules.

 

[jonesey2k]

*The* Best HL2 mod I've ever played.
I was actually playing slowly because I didn't want it to end!

 

[soulslicer]

THIS MOD WAS AWESOME!!! The new level that is.

Spoiler

As you know, this facility is a headcrab production and experimental facility, and when you bow it up, what do you get? Zombies and Zombines of course. The new level was just about that. It was pure madness, you are actually trying to escape the facility slowly moving upwards, and it's pure madness. You do see quite a few scenes of soldiers battling the zombies also.

 

[DEATH eVADER]

omg it only takes 2 seconds to make a map valve should make an episode per week!!!1"

The people who write this shit are those people who produce maps for CSS, and barely scrapes the 1/10 rating for map playability. Seriously half of those maps look worse than the best levels for Halo 1/2 (The games are down in my book for worsed maps ever)

We have not received any official word, but it seems to be working.

Could someone clarify. does this mean once the pre-load is complete, you can play it?

 

[wlodi]

Now, these are exciting news! What a surprise about Minverva - I can't wait to play it, it's a surely one of the best SP mods out there. The previous releases were extremely exciting and it seems it's based on HL2EP1 engine so it should be even better!

It's also amazing news that Orange Box may be another hit! I keep my fingers crossed for that, but, hey, Valve deserves that after all!

Portal Preload? Thanks for notifying! I'm doing it right away.

 

[anamnesis]

I don't post here much, but I just wanted to say that Minerva is awesome and I've been waiting to play the next episode of it for ages. The fact that it came out a week prior to Ep. 2 is superb.

I'd also like to say that I finished my Portal preload and that I'm looking forward to the time I'll spend staring at the little window that says "Preload complete - when the game is released, you'll be able to play it immediately". Steam is the biggest cocktease I've ever met.

 

[Lh'owon]

Oh the awesome.

<3 Minerva

 

[Naudian]

I just played all of Minerva: Metastasis in one go...

****ing wow.

There's too much awesome to talk about. Just wow. Nice timing for release too

I'm gonna be replaying this one many times...

 

[Lobster]

Given the wide branching nature of the half-life universe, I would happily embrace this as part of it, its so frigging good.

 

[Kadayi]

Could someone clarify. does this mean once the pre-load is complete, you can play it?

No it just means the files are pre-loading so you'll be in a position to play come the 10th (assuming Valves servers don't throw a wobbly like they did for the TF2 beta...).

One thing I'm really interested in is exactly how well TF2 does on the 360. If it plays anything like the PC version I suspect it's going to become very popular. I know that there are issues with the low number of maps in the release, but it's such a lovingly crafted and balanced MP affair and so easy to get to grips with it it can't but succeed at drawing converts.

Quite fascinated to see what EDGE give it ratings wise after they adjudged Halo 3 10 worthy...

 

[Kester^]

Steam is the biggest cocktease I've ever met.

You've obviously never met my girlfriend then (although that is probably a good thing).

 

[soulslicer]

lol at gamasutra..

 

[Apocalypse89]

Preloading Portal as we speak...will DL Minerva later on...

BTW, I thought Minerva was going to consist of several "chapters" with Metastasis being the first? I didn't know that this was the end.

 

[Narvi]

How do you "rent" Steam games anyway?

Do they give you the account details for a little while?

 

[Naurgul]

It was great. Not perfect in every way possible, but close enough to that (I got a little tired of repeating this over all the forums I visit but it's true so I don't care).

 

[Ennui]

A big thumbs up to Adam Foster and an indication of my skyrocketing hype level for Orange Box.

 

[dcxs]

Why am I seeing alot or ERROR signs and black and purple textures in Minerva? Anyone know?

 

[Narvi]

You don't have Episode 1.

 

[scotland1]

DLing Minerva and portal. I can't wait! This is the last week of school for me so I will have a month to play the OB :bounce:

 

[-Psy-]

Why am I seeing alot or ERROR signs and black and purple textures in Minerva? Anyone know?

Do you own EP1?

 

[wlodi]

Why am I seeing alot or ERROR signs and black and purple textures in Minerva? Anyone know?

Try re-installing it.. or maybe you haven't got Half-Life 2: Episode One that is needed to play it? Everything works well on my computer.

 

[scotland1]

I have HL2 and EP1 and there are errors everywhere.

 

[Cargo Cult]

Try starting Episode One up, to make sure it's fully updated and various things have been copied from its GCFs?

 

[Reginald]

My new computer can't come soon enough. I love MINERVA oh so much.

 

[dogboy73]

Excellent news. This is by far & away the best SP mod for HL2 (what the hell happened to They Hunger - Lost Souls). Looking forward to playing the 3rd (and final) instalment of Minerva.

 

[anamnesis]

I'm getting the flashing ERROR signs throughout the last part of the game also, mostly in the lower levels of the underground base structure near the end of the game. I'm also getting the black and purple checkerboard textures appearing on many things as well. Like the others claiming to have this problem, I've got HL2 and Ep1 installed and updated also ... I just played through Ep1 a few days ago.

Why is this happening?

 

[586FAC75]

An amazing piece of work, almost feels like an official Half-Life title merged with System Shock 2. I wouldn't be surprised if Gabe offered the man a job.