PC Guild War Nightfall (CD-ROM)
By NCsoft


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Intel is feeling mighty generous this holiday season, not only are they running the “What’s Inside You” contest we told you guys about last week, they are also holding a few other contests.

The second contest is easy-peasy, just guess the number of reinvented transistors Intel has shipped since the beginning of the year. The closest guess wins a $500 Amazon gift certificate.

The third contest is a collaboration with Ubisoft. The two companies have teamed up to give you the chance to win one of 50 Far Cry 2 PC games and one CoreTM i7-965 Extreme Edition each day from now until December 31st.

Sid Meier's Civilization IV (CD-ROM)
By 2K Games


Buy new: $29.99
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Sim Earth the Living Planet Classics (Paperback)


9 used and new from $3.35

First tagged "video games" by Walter F. Croft
Customer tags: video games(2), games, pc game, strategy, simulation, simcity




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Ranch Rush (CD-ROM)
By Mumbo Jumbo


Buy new: $19.99
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Customer tags: fun game, pc game, video games




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Baldur's Gate 2 - The Collection (CD-ROM)
By Interplay


Buy new: $19.99
12 used and new from $5.45
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Customer tags: forgotten realms(5), pc game(4), rpg(3), dungeons and dragons(2), dungeons and dragons computer games(2), video games(2), games, computer rpg, baldurs gate, mmorpg, fantasy computer games, fantasy




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pFiled under: a href="http://www.joystiq.com/category/pc/" rel="tag"PC/a/pdiv align="center"a href="http://ih8evilstuff.livejournal.com/16992.html"img width="489" vspace="4" hspace="0" height="366" border="1" align="middle" alt="" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.joystiq.com/media/2008/12/gabe-sez-ur-dumb.png" //abr //div Not everyone knows this but, here at Joystiq we're not just a gaming blog - bringing you all the latest, breaking news on stuff like Mario boxer shorts - we're also a world-class PC gaming consultancy. Yup. PC gaming publishers come to us and say, "Joystiq, how do we - the titans of video game publishing - compete in the piracy-laden graveyard of PC gaming?" And we respond simply; "Copy Valve."br /br /We don't mean make a product that's sort of like Steam, or is influenced by Steam - we mean emmake Steam/em! Change one letter. Stream? Steem? Whatever, just make it. Bonus points if you change your company's name to Valfe or perhaps Varing;lve. While most PC gaming companies - except a href="http://www.joystiq.com/tag/stardock/"a few notable exceptions/a - continue to flail in the face of technological progress (read: the internet), Valve continues making a href="http://www.joystiq.com/2008/01/01/game-of-the-year-portal/"amazing/a a href="http://www.joystiq.com/tag/Left-4-Dead/"games/a, releasing an a href="http://www.joystiq.com/tag/Steam/"incredible platform/a, and bundling many of their technologies a href="http://www.joystiq.com/tag/Steamworks/"together/a for competing developers ... for free.br /br /So when Valve chieftain Gabe Newell addresses the kingdom, it's customary for us to take notes (remember: we'll sell these notes later). In response to a customer email inquiring as to the extent of Valve's relationship with EA (and, by proxy, validating EA's continued use of onerous DRM on PC games), Newell responded, "As far as DRM goes, most DRM strategies are just dumb." Incredible, no? There's no equivocation; no hesitation. DRM=dumb. Ah, but notice that qualifier: "most." Of course, Valve's very own Steam client is rife with DRM which Newell puts this way: "The goal should be to create greater value for customers through service value (make it easy for me to play my games whenever and wherever I want to)." When's the last time you heard someone complain about Steam's DRM? And when was the last time you pirated a game over Steam? Bill's in the mail, folks. br /br /[Via a href="http://www.gamepolitics.com/2008/12/02/report-valve039s-gabe-newell-disses-drm"GamePolitics/a]p style="padding:5px;background:#ddd;border:1px solid #ccc;clear:both;"a href="http://www.joystiq.com/2008/12/03/shocker-valves-gabe-newell-says-most-drm-is-dumb/"Shocker: Valve's Gabe Newell says most DRM is 'dumb'/a originally appeared on a href="http://www.joystiq.com"Joystiq/a on Wed, 03 Dec 2008 19:45:00 EST. Please see our a href="http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/"terms for use of feeds/a./pp style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"nbsp;/ppa href=http://ih8evilstuff.livejournal.com/16992.htmlRead/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.joystiq.com/2008/12/03/shocker-valves-gabe-newell-says-most-drm-is-dumb/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry"Permalink/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.joystiq.com/forward/1390306/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email"Email this/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.joystiq.com/2008/12/03/shocker-valves-gabe-newell-says-most-drm-is-dumb/#comments" title="View reader comments on this entry"Comments/a/p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/26DUM3PrVWMXm2eSbIJLiZp9Uq4/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/26DUM3PrVWMXm2eSbIJLiZp9Uq4/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/joystiq?a=nWZvEWSo"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/joystiq?i=nWZvEWSo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/joystiq?a=DgLIPFHw"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/joystiq?i=DgLIPFHw" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/weblogsinc/joystiq/~4/wyxtsXQxsiU" height="1" width="1"/

Liberty City is sprawling over the landscape. It is spreading from your third generation consoles to your PC and there is no escape in this dark, glamourous and decadent city.

Invite a partner to join in your mini crime syndicate, with a multi-player mode and a highly sophisticated matching system, you are ready to roam the city and engage in all forms of anti-social behaviour that you know you can only get away with in Liberty City.

From the publisher: What does the American dream mean today?

For Niko Bellic fresh off the boat from Europe, it is the hope he can escape from his past. For his cousin, Roman, it is the vision that together they can find fortune in Liberty City, gateway to the land of opportunity.

As they slip into debt and get dragged into a criminal underworld by a series of shysters, thieves and sociopaths, they discover that the reality is very different from the dream in a city that worships money and status, and is heaven for those who have them and a living nightmare for those who don't.

PC Game Features:


New high resolution technology brings Liberty City to life with even more stunning graphical detail
Expanded multiplayer will require even more strategy and skill to come out on top
Match Filtering allows you to pick your favorite multiplayer options and then instantly find online matches that fit
Record gameplay clips and edit them together with a variety of options using the Video Editor and upload via the Rockstar Social Club



(The images are taken from the PlayStation3 version)

The PC game is released in English versions and a Chinese version which includes English voices, with in-game menus and package manuals in simplified Chinese.

Grand Theft Auto IV (DVD-ROM) ASIA US$ 44.90
Grand Theft Auto IV (DVD-ROM) US US$ 54.90
Grand Theft Auto IV (Simplified Chinese Version) (DVD-ROM) ASIA US$ 29.90
Grand Theft Auto IV (Traditional Chinese Version) (DVD-ROM) ASIA US$ 34.90

December is a very busy month. The Asian English version has arrived while the US versions are on its way. The Simplified Chinese version is available on 5th of December. The newly confirmed Traditional Chinese release will be available on 9th of December.

http://www.play-asia.com/SOap-23-83-...9-en-84-n.html

p iSeoul, South Korea/i - Video game publisher Electronic Arts a href="http://finance.dmwmedia.com/dmwmedia?Page=QUOTEamp;Ticker=ERTS" target="_blank"(NASD: ERTS)/a announced on Wednesday that it has acquired Korean PC game developer J2MSoft for an undisclosed sum.pa href="http://www.dmwmedia.com/news/2008/12/03/electronic-arts-buys-korean-pc-game-developer-j2msoft"read more/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/dmwmedia?a=CBT9O"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/dmwmedia?i=CBT9O" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/dmwmedia?a=hDO9o"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/dmwmedia?i=hDO9o" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/dmwmedia?a=uEXXo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/dmwmedia?i=uEXXo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/dmwmedia?a=e0JMO"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/dmwmedia?i=e0JMO" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/dmwmedia?a=tBKNo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/dmwmedia?i=tBKNo" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/dmwmedia/~4/473958399" height="1" width="1"/

Star Trek The Next Generation A Final Unity (CD-ROM)
By Spectrum Holobyte


36 used and new from $2.24
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Baldur's Gate 2 - The Collection (CD-ROM)
By Interplay


Buy new: $39.95
$19.99
12 used and new from $5.85
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First tagged "video games" by Tammy L. Hamil "Moonlitblkkitty"
Customer tags: forgotten realms(5), pc game(4), rpg(3), dungeons and dragons(2), dungeons and dragons computer games(2), games, computer rpg, baldurs gate, role-palying computer games, mmorpg, fantasy computer games, fantasy




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Strategy Informer is reporting that Paradox Interactive Executive Vice President Fredrik Wester has confirmed that PC game "Majesty 2: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim" is also being developed for the Xbox 360. "Yes, we are currently developing the game on consoles. This is a new experience to us so we can't go into details yet." said Wester. "The Xbox360 is the console we have in mind at the moment, hopefully we will have something for at least one handheld console as well." Check the forums or read more for a trailer of the game.

img src="http://www.edge-online.com/files/imagecache/article_homepage_large_144x108/EA.jpg" alt="EA Takes Korean Studio" title="EA Takes Korean Studio" class="imagecache imagecache-article_homepage_large_144x108" /br /!--paging_filter--strongEA has purchased Korean developer J2M games, an outfit which specializes in free-to-play online PC games, for an undisclosed fee. /strongbr /br /The deal is part of EArsquo;s continued commitment to tap into the highly-lucrative Asian market. quot;J2M is an experienced team of developers and we can't wait to have them start creating online games based on new properties and powerful EA franchises,rdquo; said Jon Niermann, President of EA Asia. quot;This is a significant step in EA's strategic plan for online games in Asia.rdquo; br /pa href="http://www.edge-online.com/news/ea-takes-korean-studio"read more/a/p

a href="http://img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module/126962/launcher-2_qjgenth.jpg?761390" rel="lightbox[article126962]" title="Homebrew 20- 20Wii 20Homebrew 20Launcher 200.11 20- 20Image 201 20 26nbsp 3B 20 20 26nbsp 3B 20 3Ca 20href 3D 22http 3A//img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module/126962/launcher-2.jpg 3F761390 22 20target 3D 22_blank 22 3E 3Cimg 20src 3D 22/img/newwindow.png 22 20title 3D 22Open 20in 20new 20window 22 20border 3D 220 22 3E 3C/a 3E"img style="margin-bottom: 3px; margin-left: 3px;" alt="Homebrew - Wii Homebrew Launcher 0.11 - Image 1" title="Homebrew - Wii Homebrew Launcher 0.11 - Image 1" src="http://img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module/126962/launcher-2_qjgenth.jpg?761390" align="right" border="0"/aWii developer Hell Hibou has released the latest version of Wii Homebrew Launcher, which sports several new features and a couple of bug fixes.brbrWii Homebrew Launcher is basically a Wii Menu-like GUI for organizing your homebrew.brbrThis version now also allows you to sort your channels by category, and also to enter Lite Mode, which the dev describes as a kind of "safe mode." Here's the full change log from Hell Hibou:brulliUse the Power button works properly./liliFixed a bug in the string 'Wii Channels' in/liliThe use of a theme. Various changes of images of the main theme by a href="http://wii.qj.net/tags/cashman/15704" id="tag" title="Wiibrew developer"Cashman/a./liliAdded display of error messages./liliAdd ColorMessageBox parameter to determine the color of the text of error messages./liliAdd file MsgBox.png / bmp and Dir.png / bmp in the themes./liliAdded variables Press, InvalidExe, ReceptInProgress, ConnexionError and NoFilesFound in the translation file (LANG.INI)./liliAdd support for wiiload (DOL send a file or ELF TCP / IP)./liliAbility to turn off the Wii with the power button of the a href="http://wii.qj.net/tags/wiimote/243" id="tag" title="Wii controller"Wiimote/a./liliFixed a bug displaying some channels several times when we move to the next screen./liliSorts Wii Channel (Wiiwaire strings and VC appear first, the chain in several versions are displayed side by side)./liliAdd a 'Lite mode using the ISO9 and accessible from DVD' autoboot ', certain features are disabled in this mode./liliAcceleration readings from SD cards./liliImproving access time of the DVD by using buffers./liliThe use of USB-flash works./liliVarious changes in the management of front-SD, SD-gecko and USB-flash./liliCan be sub-folders to sort the homebrew and Roma (max. 8 nested subfolders)./liliAbility to assign icons to sub-directories by putting a file title.png or title.bmp (132x95 pixels)./liliAccented characters appear correctly in the channels using names of folders and files./liliPossibility of using icons with a lower size 132x95 and icons' slideshoot 'in the chain Emulators./liliSome changes in the passage of parameters homberews./liliNo need to press (1) or (Z) for the homebrew from a DVD (it is possible to select a channel in the 1st screen even if the load is not finished)./liliVarious internal changes./li/ulspan style="font-weight: bold;"Notes:/spanbrulliAs stated above if, one of the main novelty is the ability to sort by category homebrew. Know any time some homebrew will not work if you put them in a subdirectory or folder in a folder other than APPS (Wiidom, a href="http://wii.qj.net/tags/quake/2595" id="tag" title="popular PC game ported to different consoles"Quake/a eg.)/liliIt also noted the presence of a Lite, a kind of safe mode. To start this mode, you need a chip and a Wii version of a href="http://wii.qj.net/tags/zelda/1565" id="tag" title="classic and popular Nintendo game franchise"Zelda/a changed to autoboot. Simply copy the file boot.ELF on the SD card and start the Wii with the game changed. This method uses IOS9 and does not use DVDx, which is expected to use in case of semi-brick (if you get a start Zelda)./li/ul Download: a title="Wii Homebrew Launcher 0.11" href="http://dl.qj.net/Wii-Homebrew-Launcher-0.11-Wii-Homebrew/pg/12/fid/25123/catid/526"span style="font-weight: bold;"Wii Homebrew Launcher v0.11/span/abrbrhr style="width: 100 ; height: 2px;"br style="font-weight: bold;"span style="font-weight: bold;"Previous Version:/spanbrullia title="Wii Homebrew Launcher v0.9: external data storage support" href="http://wii.qj.net/Wii-Homebrew-Launcher-v0-9-external-data-storage-support/pg/49/aid/124880"span title="Wii Homebrew Launcher v0.9: external data storage support" style="font-style: italic;"Wii Homebrew Launcher v0.9: external data storage support/span/a/li/ulbrbrdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/qj/wii?a=DC9ks9Sj"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/qj/wii?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/qj/wii?a=FZwBDFJV"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/qj/wii?d=43" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/qj/wii?a=BZHckFMX"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/qj/wii?d=50" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/qj/wii/~4/zjY39EqxeR0" height="1" width="1"/

div class="rxbodyfield"p class="ArticleBody" page="1"Everyone knows that techies love "Dungeons amp; Dragons," where they can prowl the bowels of a castle and cast spells on clueless managers, er, mages. After all, it's just a game./pp align="right"a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/idg.us.info.rss/news;pos=imu;tile=6;sz=336x280;skey=patch_management;pkey=security;ord=123456789?" target="_blank" /img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/idg.us.info.rss/news;pos=imu;tile=6;sz=336x280;skey=patch_management;pkey=security;ord=123456789?" width="336" height="280" border="0" alt="" align="right"//a/pp class="ArticleBody" page="1"Or is it? Many tech staffers are also hard-core PC gamers. For good reason: In virtual worlds like "a href="http://www.gamepro.com/games/pc/135523/world-of-warcraft-wrath-of-the-lich-king/" target="_blank" class="regularArticleU"World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King/a" and "a href="http://www.gamepro.com/games/pc/109782/civilization-iv/" target="_blank" class="regularArticleU"Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword/a," you can show off your awesome mental powers and flex the most feared fingers in the universe. You can hone the problem-solving skills that make you good at IT, take out frustrations from your day-to-day work, and celebrate the technology that you so love./pp class="ArticleBody" page="1"b[ Check/b bout InfoWorld's slideshow of the a href="http://www.infoworld.com/slideshow/2008/12/188-infoworld_s_per-1.html?source=fssr" class="regularArticleU"six perfect PC games for IT/a. | Looking for other cool techie stuff? Peruse our a href="http://www.infoworld.com/slideshow/2008/11/185-2008_geek_gadge-1.html?source=fssr" class="regularArticleU"2008 geek gadget gift guide/a. ]/b/pp class="ArticleBody" page="1"So what, exactly, does a kick-ass shooter game like "a href="http://www.gamepro.com/games/pc/132121/call-of-duty-4-modern-warfare/" target="_blank" class="regularArticleU"Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare/a" or the beautifully rendered role-playing game "a href="http://www.gamepro.com/games/pc/109692/fallout-3/" target="_blank" class="regularArticleU"Fallout 3/a" really say about tech life? Well, saddle up your Mechano-strider and watch as the Blade of Vaulted Secrets carves deeply into the tech-worker psyche./pp class="ArticleBody" page="1"bThe techie-gamer relationship is rooted in "Civilization"br/ /bAh, the early days of "Civilization," or "Civ" in tech-speak. This classic Sid Meier game ran on PC DOS -- no games ran on Windows 3 in the early 1990s -- which basically locked out mere mortals from playing it./pp class="ArticleBody" page="1"That is, you needed to know how to reconfigure autoexec.bat and config.sys to load extended memory and mouse drivers so that "Civ" could run. "You had to know technology to even play games," says George Jones, editorial director of a href="http://www.gamepro.com/" target="_blank" class="regularArticleU"GamePro/a, an InfoWorld sister publication. "Back then there was no Internet resource to help you, and so you had had to figure it out on your own. It was crazy."/pp class="ArticleBody" page="1"When PC games finally reached the masses, thanks largely to Windows 95, techies were already masters of "Doom," "Quake," "Counterstrike," and "World of Warcraft." (Let the jocks play "Madden NFL" -- why throw a football for a touchdown when you can toss a flash grenade through a window and storm the door for a beat-down?)/pp class="ArticleBody" page="1"Today, Jones figures more than half of all hard-core PC gamers work in tech. Jerald Block, a psychiatrist specializing in the gamer lifestyle, agrees: "There's a large overlay between people who game and people who chose technology for work," he says, adding, "Some people can read people, others can understand ? a computer."/pp class="ArticleBody" page="2"bStupid users are lost in the virtual worldbr/ /bThe single experience nearly every tech worker shares is that, at some point in their career, they've had to deal with a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/04/13/77021_16FEusergoofs_1.html" class="regularArticleU"stupid users/a, a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/05/07/19FEuserintro_1.html" class="regularArticleU"more stupid users/a, and a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/06/16/25FE-stupid-users-part-3-admins_1.html" class="regularArticleU"even more stupid users/a. These users rarely respect the unsung tech worker -- and PC games can provide an opportunity for a little payback./pp class="ArticleBody" page="2"Let's face it: There's a tinge of happiness when one of these smug users creeps around the corner and right into your sniper crosshairs. It's your "Call of Duty" to put the poor sap out of his misery. Even better, the next day you can chuckle at him in the cafeteria line./pp class="ArticleBody" page="2"Indeed, users should thank techies for creating an industry of sophisticated games. When users look at a game screen, they probably wouldn't notice poorly overlapping 3-D images if a Hammer of Judgment hit them over the head./pp class="ArticleBody" page="2"But best-selling games such as "Fallout 3" don't have shoddy graphics rendering or crude artificial intelligence because "top game developers know their work will be scrutinized by trained eyes," explains Jones. "You can't fool them."/pp class="ArticleBody" page="2"bSolving problems with bloody executionbr/ /bMany tech workers are fervent problem solvers. Some are strategic, some tactical. Some solve problems through reverse engineering, others by invention, and a few by sheer luck. PC games play smartly into the many aspects of this problem-solving passion./pp class="ArticleBody" page="2"In "a href="http://www.gamepro.com/games/pc/109782/civilization-iv/" target="_blank" class="regularArticleU"Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword/a," a player spends days, weeks, or maybe months shaping a civilization from the beginning of time to the modern era. The goal is to emerge as the leader, and there's not just one solution or path to success. "It's the ultimate problem-solving experience," Jones says, "and epitomizes the mind frame of the tech worker."/pp class="ArticleBody" page="2"Of course, many tech workers don't have weeks or even hours to solve a problem. That's where "StarCraft" i/comes in. In this game, you're a military leader of an alien species. The game calls for quick thinking and some serious team management during short missions./pp class="ArticleBody" page="2""StarCraft" perhaps best mirrors the challenges and successes of life in IT. "'StarCraft' i/is firefighting," says Jones. "Things are crumbling, and you have to figure out how to fix it in 25 minutes. It's the nature of IT work." (FYI, "a href="http://www.gamepro.com/games/pc/131341/starcraft-ii/" target="_blank" class="regularArticleU"StarCraft II/a" is planned for release next year.)/pp class="ArticleBody" page="2"bPerfect PC games for ITbr/ /bOK, now that it's clear why techies and gaming go so well together, which games are the ideal fit for IT? InfoWorld has picked the ideal game for six kinds of tech staffers. Check them out in our a href="http://www.infoworld.com/slideshow/2008/12/188-infoworld_s_per-1.html" class="regularArticleU""Perfect techie games" slideshow/a./p/divbr style=clear: both;/ a href=http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=efb778efbd7d728fdea775b87bbdd901p=1img alt= style=border: 0; border=0 src=http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=efb778efbd7d728fdea775b87bbdd901p=1//a img src=http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=efb778efbd7d728fdea775b87bbdd901 style=display: none; border=0 height=1 width=1 alt=/

Black Mesa (formerly Black Mesa: Source) is a Half-Life 2 total conversion remaking VALVe Software's award-winning PC game, Half-Life. Utilizing the Source engine, Black Mesa will reintroduce the player as Doctor Gordon Freeman, along with the original cast of memorable characters and environments seen in Half-Life.