Solving The Equation

Released 15.04.2025
THEME: A Half-Life 2 mod

  Every so often, when we get bored of the games we play, we might come back to something we've played before. Like have you heard about a "Minecraft phase"? In a sense you'll get a spike of dopamine to play that game, but after a bit of playing, the excitement wears off and you'll go back to playing something else. That is my relationship with Half-Life. Every so often I find some kind of a cool mod, that just catches my attention and reels me in and recently I've finished one I think you might find interesting.



  The name of the mod is The Burton Equation. You take the role of a detective called Zachary Burton, who one day gets a visit by a strange lady, asking him to get all of the combine off the streets. After you take care of the boss a strange glow envelopes you. And before you know it, you're dragged yet into another war... The Great War. The chapters (cases, as the game calls them) take you to all sorts of eras and styles. You got the black and white noir Chicago, the worn out brown sepia WW1 and the neon Miami. As the developers said it, it was a real labor of love and it shows. One of my complaints though, is that it feels more like a shoot em up, just like the other half of Half-Life 2, but I think the comic sections after every loading screens are worth it.



  Overall, I think this mod is nicely made. The maps don't go on forever and are well thought out, they make you feel like you're in the actual settings they want you to be in and even though it's sometimes quite easy to check a bit over the fence and see some missing floor, I don't think it breaks the game... though there was that one part in the trenches, where I accidentally soft locked myself... Eh, It's a valve game, I just nocliped back, so no big deal. You can generally complete the whole game in 2-3 hours from what I've heard. I played on the hardest dificulty, but It generally took me about 45 minutes to complete each chapter so it is in no way a long game. For the 10 GBs it's worth, I think you might have fun with this one. Just as palate cleanser, to change your game line up for a bit.

The Offshore community event of TF2

Released 12.04.2025
THEME: TF2 community event

  Throughout my years on the internet I've always enjoyed the whacky and creative creations people came up with. It might not have been this way though, if it wasn't for a game called Team Fortress 2. I basically grew up with it since I was... 6? Maybe 7? Something around that time. I remember seeing Meet The Team videos thanks to my brother and it sparked my obsession for the series. Mainly just the Garry's mod machinama's and animations though, gameplay came afterwards lol. I always look foward to what the community comes up with and some time ago I learned there is currently a whole new event just coming up!

  The Offshore community project mainly aims to capture the feeling of the industrialized sea. As the other events made in the past, any type of content from war paints and hats to maps and concept art is accepted. We've had themes of lands in the sea, but what about oil rigs? Or underwater bases??? Okay, maybe we have those space maps (like breadspace) where its a base under a glass dome, but still... WAS THERE ANY WATER SURROUNDING IT? I personally like how varied these events are even though it doesn't fit the TF2 aesthetic sometimes. It's cool though to see how many talented people take these concepts and make them work. The event was set to release at the start of the next month, however when the organizers saw, that the community was already posting their creations on the internet, the deadline was scrapped and now you might start seeing Offshore content mainly on the steam workshop. If you'd like though, there's also an option to check out their discord server.

  Every time I see an event like this it makes my day a bit. To see such an old game recieve still so much love and attention might seem like a hard task and it is. This game manages it though and even though I'm slowly getting to other videogames and projects, TF2 will always have a special place from me. I even wanted to join the event myself, though the map I am/was making might not really be fully made to completion. Whenever you're a fan of TF2 or not, I atleast recomend checking out their website (highlighted earlier in the second paragraph).