The Nerd Next Door

Turns out one article wasn't enough to satisfy my Half-Life kick, because when I was choosing to play Half-Life 1 I had two options, Half-Life 1 or the remake Black Mesa. And while I chose Half-Life 1 I was fascinated by Black Mesa, a fan remake of Half-Life 1 that Valve allowed to sell for a profit on Steam.  And it got me thinking about fan games and how they're important to most gaming companies... except one. I'm a Nintendo fan and Nintendo's logic on fan-games is that if you do any fan game and it gains traction you will be automatically shut down. They have the right to do so mind you, but I feel it's a net negative on fandoms in general. Fan works are important and I feel that if developers support fan works in a healthy way it can create a sense of camaraderie and love for a company that would allow it to, in the eyes of the public, elude a lot of criticism. The biggest example of supporting fans is Valve. Ever since the release of Half-Life, Valve has suppo...

We're not exactly done yet, if you haven't noticed I didn't talk about Halo's mobile spinoffs, remasters, ports, and fan games. Well I was saving this for an all in one encompassing look at all the other ways to play Halo beyond the games that defined the series' legacy. The mobile games, fan works, ports, and remasters that tend to follow a series as storied as Halo , let's have a chat about it. Ports First up is Halo 1 on PC, released two years after Halo 1 on Xbox and oh boy this one is special. On one hand the game's visuals are butchered with various effects that helped pretty up the game missing, leading to a worse experience overall compared to the Xbox version. On the other hand this version has online multiplayer and mod support along with having all of the engine tools released for Halo 1 . This has in turn inspired some magical works we'll mention later. So if I were to recommend this game, it would probably be for the mod support ...