D3pth Charge from Planet Halflife interviewed us recently. Check it out here so that you can learn some new tidbits about gameplay, how we design the game, and Swat's obsession with Barbie Horse Adventures.

But wait, there's more! We hooked D3pth and PHL up with some exclusive renders. Enjoy!

Hey guys, thought you might like to know what's going on.

The most important item is all the new recruits that've blessed our team over the past few months. There's Bob "Imatard" Chatman, of course, who's doing coding with Olah. On the 2D Art side of things, there's Kyle "Maddog" McHenry and Tres "Chandler" Walsh doing mockups and design work, with Todd "Tweaked Designs" Klicman doing skinning. For 3D modeling, we've been joined by Andrew "AGP1183" Parker, Elliot "Kage" Levi, and Igor Kattar. A nice guy by the name of Blindshooter has also offered to do contribution work for modeling and skinning. If you see them around on the forums, be sure to thank them for their help.

Despite their appearances, we're always looking for new folks with equal parts skill and insanity. If you're handy with unwrapping, skinning, or animating, yes, we're interested. Please drop us a line.

Also, Swatjester and Imatard will be joining me as news posters on the main page here. Swat will be handling more of our PR duties and Imatard has long since run his own blog, GNEU.

Also, our very own Scavenger is currently experimenting with VB Advanced so we can modify the main page and our news posting. If you suddenly see a face lift on the main page, don't panic! It doesn't mean the intertron has come crashing down. We're just doing a little bit of house cleaning is all.

Stay tuned for an honest-to-god render & screenshot update in the near future!

From all of us here at the World at War Team, we wish you a Merry Christmas. Eat, drink, and be merry!

UPDATE: WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 6
So, um, I don't know where our interviewers are. Probably no interview for tonight. I'll keep you posted.

Gamers United Radio interviewed us tonight (11/29) on the BlueWolf72 Radio program. Aaron and Combat Wombat were great hosts, Swat was awesome as the co-guest and military adviser, and overall I had a blast. For those of you who didn't catch the interview, it's been uploaded. Initially the audio level of my mike is horrible (the background music kind of obscured me), but I *think* it gets better towards the end.

ZIP of mp3 file: FileFront Download

I'll have an uploaded WMA of the interview for streaming in a bit.

The World at War team continues to make massive strides towards our beta release candidate. However, there is still much that has to be done.



EDIT: Credit where credit is due. Most of the vehicles in that render were modelled by Greenbird. The exceptions are the A10 and SU39, which were modelled by Sulsa, and the BMP3 and Ural, which were modelled by RageUnleashed. All skins shown were done by Sulsa.

As for the weaponry, almost every weapon shown was modelled by our Russian dynamo, Sirrus. The exceptions are the M14 and Kabar knife, which were modelled by Cheesesteak Jim, and the M18 smoke grenade, which was done by yours truly.

As you can see, we've got a lot of great meshes on hand. Some of them are unwrapped and skinned and ingame, while many of them are not. Our 2D/3D pipeline is hindered due to the fact that we have very few team members dedicated to just one position. All of our skinners serve as modellers and unwrappers, and vice versa. And, of course, there's the intrusion of real life obligations. While there are a great many talented people helping us out, we're still looking for more recruits in specific areas.

*Skinners
*Unwrappers
*Modellers

We need skinners primarily for weapon and vehicle models, although player models and map props are on standby as well.

We are also looking for unwrappers. With the exception of the AK74 and the M18 smoke grenade on the weapon render, none of those guns are unwrapped. Once unwrapped, a gun can be animated and implemented ingame , even while a skin is in-progress. So, any unwrappers' talents would be greatly appreciated.

As you can see, our modellers have accomplished alot. However, there's still more to be done. Absent from the renders are such notable weaponry as the American light machineguns (M249 and M240), Soviet sniper rifles (SV98 and OSV96), and more, including attachment addons for various weapons. To round these out, we're still looking for modellers to come onboard.

Note: Nearly two years after HL2's release, we understand that most of the best and willing artists are already busy on other mods. We want to recruit full-time contributors on the World at War team, but it's understandable that many artists would feel allegiance to only one mod. So, for anyone who's willing, we'd love to have contributing artists, people who would work on single-project contracts. They wouldn't have to join the team, but would be able to do minor projects on the side for us. All contributors would get full and complete credit for their work, not to mention our thanks.

However, due to security concerns, contributors will not get access to our SVN concurrent versioning system. (You guys have heard plenty about what's happened with the WaW team, so I don't need to elaborate.) Full team members do get SVN access.


Other positions: The World at War team is also looking for:

*Coders
*2D artists

Our lead coder, Johnny "Olah" Salazar, has done great work with our code thus far. However, the coding department would be more effective if we had more than, y'know... just the one guy. If anyone with experience with coding and the HL2 SDK is interested, please let us know.

Also, we are looking for 2D artists to do work primarily on our HUD and VGUI systems. The main skill needed for this would be Photoshop or a similar program. No experience with skinning is necessary.


Contact: If anyone is interested, please post in this thread and/or email me at AlejandroDaJ at Gmail dot com (I'm not sure if spelling that out will be sufficient to defeat those email scroungers, but here's hoping). I've entered the world of 9-to-5 slavery, so I won't be able to view the website or forums between those times, thanks to an overtly-effective office website blocking tool. However, I can check my Gmail whenever I want, so I can respond ASAP to email. I can also be found as "@Alex" in #worldatwar on Gamesurge.net on IRC.

-
Alex "AlejandroDaJ" Jordan
World at War Team Lead

Hey, guys. The forums are down temporarily for template/code changes and revisions and fun stuff like that. I'll update this post when they're back up so that you guys don't have to start planning for the Apocalypse.

Or Apocalypse himself, En Sabah Nur. He's terrifying.

EDIT: The forums are open. Sorry for taking so long to update!

Just a few bits of random info today.

A while ago, we hired Jason "Buttered Biscuits" Daigneault as a skinner/modeller. Everyone say "Hi!" to Biscuits. He hails from Canada, that earnest and polite neighbor to the north. Notable exports from Canada include wood, cold fronts, people who where socks and sandles, moose, and comedians. That concludes this public service announcement.

Olah recently ported us over to the latest SDK code base, which means we get to play around with HDR lighting. Our usage of HDR is still very much a work in progress, but we've already made test runs of HDR lighting for the Sava River Valley map and, even as I type this, I'm playing around with HDR lighting falloff and color correction for Belgrade. I'll regale you with screenshots of it at a later date.

Sulsa's been working on two projects as of late. One of them is our Bradley, which is looking pretty cool and will be the cornerstone of the APC/tank system that Olah and the rest of us will be working on. The other is a new personal business that he's opened, known as Scent Design. With Scent Design, you can create custom fragrances using a vast amount of options and scents. Sulsa got the idea for this website when he was a useless freeloading hippie out in California, double-majoring in Emitting Strange Odors and Never Cutting His Hair, Ever. (He minored in Loving John Romero. To this day, we have no idea why.) Anywho, check out his website and make an order if you're so inclined. I already sent an Apple/Cinnamon/Cedar fragrance to my home in Rhode Island that my parents really enjoyed.

So, yup, that wraps things up for today. The usual amount of teasing information. It's foreplay for our fans out there, and you know there will be more to come. Stay tuned.

I had intended for this update to be small, and for it to be single-themed. It's neither.

Unleash: the cargo choppers! They were modelled by Patrick "Greenbird" Jones and skinned by Sulsa.



Can you guess the theme? No? Okay, here's some more hints.




Yes, our chopper delivery system is up and running. You can now call in a helicopter dragging a vehicle, either a CH47 Chinook for the Americans or a Mi26 Halo for the Soviets. They roar over the terrain, whipping up dust and spray, towing a vehicle behind them. Currently, both nationalities' choppers are hauling a Humvee. Unfortunately, the GAZ Vodnik was not ready for active usage with the vehicle delivery system when we started work on this news update. Fortunately, the model itself was ready. So, I built you guys a mockup of a Vodnik delivery.



Now you can see why the single-theme idea broke down.

We decided to show off a bit more than the helicopters. The map in the latter screenshots is an early version of Belgrade, created by some guy named AlejandroDaJ. It's an urban map based (loosely, mind you) on the capital of Serbia. These screenshots depict the area around King Milan Square in downtown Belgrade, with such monuments as the National Theater having worked their way into the setup.

It, um, (cough) also makes a nice change from the sunset/sunrise themed maps that Prowl and I have been obsessing over. Manly men like the color pink... what can I say?

And, as you've noticed, we've got some ingame weaponry that we wanted to show you. The M82 sniper rifle in the Sava River Valley pictures was modelled and skinned by Saruman. The Colt 1911 was modelled by Cheesesteak Jim and skinned by Sulsa. And finally, the Beretta M9 (aka the 92F for you Firearms fans) was modelled and skinned by one of our latest recruits, Greg "El Diablo" Ditson. Everyone say "hi!" and "thank you!" in that order. And, tying everything together, we've got the lovely hands modelled, skinned, and normal-mapped by RageUnleashed.

Thanks to a bit of coding work by Olah and a bit of animating work by yours truly, our Iron Sights system is up and running as well, exemplified by the Colt 1911 screenshot below.

Alright, here are the rest of the pics from the batch. Enjoy!




I'd also like to point out that in the Iron Sights picture, you - the humble viewer - are looking at a Yugoslav flag. Control Point states are shown by either the American flag or Soviet flag based on who captures them, obviously... but what of uncaptured CPs? We decided to use the now-defunct Yugoslav flag to signify "default" territory. After all, the territory would default to Yugoslavia, right?

This isn't just regular Wikipedia, mind you. It's Wikipedia with l'accent aigu! Awhile ago, we attracted the attention of a young Frenchman using the handle "Seb." He was gracious enough to make a francophone Wikipedia article about our mod.

World at War in Wikipedia

For any of you French speakers out there, enjoy! And thanks again, Seb.

EDIT: I initially wrote this post with judicious use of the accent aigu (the e with the accent mark over it). However, whatever Communist font Steve put on the main page is lacking in accented letters. So we'll all have to band together and pretend that the first "e" in Wikipedia has an accent mark. Le sigh.

We have a new addition to the team to celebrate. Everyone please welcome our latest modelling talent, Prowler! Prowler is not to be confused with "Prowl," our Lead Mapper who is now beset on two fronts: he and I share a first name, and now he has to share the first five letters of his handle. It is a malevolent world we live in.

Unfortunately, I'm not dishing out renders or screenshots in this post. Our work will be presented when we're good and ready. However, readers will be pleased to know that we've been making massive inroads on several categories, including (but not limited to): one or two new maps; the cargo choppers; half a dozen weapon models; assorted skins and animations; and the U.S. player model. All are currently works-in-progress, and will be shown exactly one day before my nanobots report that you, the Devoted Reader, are within a few hours of exploding from impatience.

I am nothing if not a coldly calculating modder/manufacturer of nano technology.

Oops! Sorry, I didn't realize that everyone had gone so long without an update. I'll be brief.

Usually, the Source engine can handle up to 65,535 detail props, i.e. the entities which display tufts of grass and bushes in maps. Used sparingly in a typical half-mile by half-mile Source map, that number is plenty. However, our WaW maps are quite a bit larger and much less urban than those found in Half-Life 2, so 65k simply didn't cut it. Thankfully, Olah came to the rescue and whipped up a brand new grass emitter system. We're still playing around with it, but it looks to be able to deliver very dense amounts of grass for our largish landscapes.

Aaaaaaaand we have a new team member to introduce. Sirrus, a citizen of good ole Mother Russia, is joining us as a weapon modeller. Everyone be sure to wish him a fond "Hello!"

That's all for now. Stay tuned for more.

I guess it's that time of the year, huh?







The first trio of screenshots is from Prowl's map of the Bajina Basta hydroelectric power plant and dam near Perućac. Teams will face linear battles on each bank of the river, intersected by bridges where men and equipment can safely cross.

The second trio of screenshots are also the work of Prowl. These screenies depict the Danube River Valley, where American and Soviet forces will fight their first battle of the war. How will it start? How will it escalate? Who's to blame? Keep watching the War Stories section for some good ole World at War fiction.

The final three screenshots are of the Sava River Valley (gee, we really enjoy our rivers and our valleys, don't we?) I premiered this map several months ago, and since then it has been expanded and revamped. New foliage and more props have improved the landscape.

For anyone who's interested, you can get a semi-3D sneak peak of what our maps will look like in game, courtesy of these panorama shots:

Bajina Basta
Danube Valley
Sava River Valley

It's been awhile since our last press release, soooo... let the hits keep on coming! Would a new desktop wallpaper from Steve "Sulsa" Jackson help rectify things?



And one last tidbit of information. Sulsa has been fiddling around with some methods of creating photorealistic faces for our player models. The concept of photorealistic faces dates back to Max Payne, but the execution has never quite flown. Half-Life 2 did a very good job, whereas recent games like Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion opt away from photorealistic faces. Well, Sulsa used profile pictures provided by himself, my roommate Brian, and my own stunning visage to render some 3D prototype faces. These are works-in-progress, but please take a gander anyway:



You'll have to forgive the render of Sulsa's own face: all he had available was a webcam. But don't worry, we'll just stick it on the pasty, sun-starved complexions of the Soviet soldiers. Problem solved.

Well, hope you enjoy!

Prowl recently mentioned in a thread in our main forum that our design doc was complete and that we were pretty much at feature lock. He was actually being disengenuous by my request. We have a few more features to announce that have not been mentioned in the forums, official interviews, or anywhere else on our web page.

Due to the panoply of arcade-like or even semi-realistic games on the market, we have pushed World at War into a niche of strict realism. Yes, I know we're on the record as saying that we didn't want WaW's legacy to be one of "realism," but we've decided to make some changes. Although the latest iteration of our design doc is still going through revisions, the department leaders and I have decided to share the current changes in a series of main page updates. The first such update is "Player Metabolic Behavior." Stay tuned for more!

Player Metabolic Behavior

• Eating: Players must eat on the field of battle to regain health and stay nourished. Players that do not eat will eventually grow thinner and slower. Maximum movement speed will drop, and Sulsa has created a lovely bump map for visible rib cages on bare chests.
• Players must replenish and equip Meals Ready to Eat (MREs) from ammoboxes. MREs come in two styles: powdered chicken and powdered pork. MREs can be traded with other players based on eating preferences or religious affiliation.
• Players can also buy bottles of Gatorade or Camelbak packs from ammoboxes if they can afford the Resource Points. Both provide necessary liquid nourishment and rehydration. If the Camelbak is shot, water will squirt out of the back of it in real time. It's super awesome, it looks like the bag is totally peeing.
• Relief: Upon successfully eating a meal, players must relieve themselves. Olah has programmed a new "Player Relief" VGUI that opens when it is time for a bathroom break.
• Urinating: Selecting "#1" on the VGUI will open up a new minigame where the player must jiggle the mouse up and down to simulate lowering a zipper. There's a random chance that the zipper may be folded up and stuck under the flap of cloth at the top of the fly. I fucking hate it when that happens, it takes me like forty minutes to undo the goddamn zipper and by then I've either pissed myself or had my kidney explode and turn septic. My insurance carrier fucking hates me. Ain't that some shit?
• Defecating: Selecting "#2" on the VGUI will cause the player to drop his drawers. A random timer chooses the length it takes to defecate; the current values we're working with are anywhere from 30 seconds to 20 minutes and 10 pages of "Teen People Magazine." After successfully defecating, be sure to check your stool for blood or corn. If you see blood, leave the field of battle and report to the Battalion Surgeon. If you see corn, that's gross, I don't need to know about that.
• Physical behavior: The team has also agreed on a variety of methods for simulating players' physical responses to various stimuli and situations.
• Lactic acid builds up in muscles when a player has been running or exerting themselves over an extended period of time. Once the lactic acid reaches critical levels, the player will slow down. At the same time, an electronic shock will be sent through our patended LacticSimulator USB Connector (available at your local Circuit City) to the most vulnerable parts of the body.
• Even if you manage your lactic acid levels, the player must still worry about cramping. Cramping occurs randomly while running over intermediate or long distances. When a cramp occurs, your player stops instantly, and you must Defecate (see above). The standard defecation is then accompanied by a long, shrill passing of gas that is so violent that the player (both the player model and you, the actual game player) has their hair turn white from the sheer horrid shock of the experience.
• The World at War team promises to be the first team to allow the player to properly experience what it's like to be shot. Instead of simulating the effects of bullet impacts, we've opted for an approximate level of similar pain. When you are shot, one of those really weird-ass Escher spinning thingamy-whatsits appears on the screen to hyptnotize you. Then, a combination of post-hypnotic suggestions and subliminal messages will instruct the player to open his CD drive, insert his penis into the tray, and close the drive again. Since CD drive ejections can be opened and closed by software functions, this only needs to be done once. After that, the World at War code will handle it automatically. Note: Due to a bug in Olah's current dlls, close/eject messages are sent to the CD drive whenever network traffic is sent to the server.

• Ego-tripping: The bigger your K:D ratio, the bigger your player's penis gets. Sulsa and Olah have implemented mesh deformation so that Wangular Bigification occurs in realtime. Multipliers are awarded for anyone with a clanner tag, thanks to Olah's patended Ego Sensor.

Update? Yes please.

Just a brief one, mind you. Olah's done quite a bit of progress on the coding front. Like just about every other HL2 mod out there, yes, we enabled parallax mapping. Olah humored me on that. Also, he's got the multipassenger vehicle code up and running. Preliminary tests show that the vehicle lag that was so prevalent in Empires Mod seems to be greatly lessened or nonexistent, although we plan on stress testing it further.

I know I've been hinting at some forthcoming content from Prowl and I. Don't you fret, it's still on track. Keep your eyes peeled.

Hello! Sorry for the nearly month-long delay between news posts. We've been working on a variety of models, maps, and code segments that I'll be expanding on at a later date. In particular, Prowl and I have been upgrading the cosmetic standards of our maps, and we hope to show you our progress in an update in the near future. 'Til then, sit tight.

Rustvaar from Interlopers has recently interviewed Sulsa, Prowl, Swatjester, and myself about some aspects of World at War's development. Be sure to head on over to their site and check it out.

Everyone give a hearty "Hello!" to Skjalg Mæhre. Skjalg is also a member of the forthcoming Kingdom Lost mod, and will be helping us out as a mapper. As far as I know, he doesn't have a handle. That means, yes, we have to go through all the trouble of spelling out his first name. Be sure to chat Skjalg up if you see him around the forums or IRC.

Perhaps everyone is curious about what our modelling team has been up to.







The two ground vehicles are the American Humvee and the Soviet GAZ Vodnik. They will be the cheapest and, as a result, primary mode of vehicular transportation for each team. The Resource Point cost of these vehicles will be much lower than that of an APC or main battle tank. Humvees and Vodniks will be quick and agile, but lightly armored. Remember what happened to Sonny in The Godfather? Don't let that happen to you.

The two aircraft are the American A-10 "Warthog" Thunderbolt and the Soviet SU-39 Frogfoot, a variant on the SU-25. Although players will not be able to pilot aircraft, they will be far more than mere bits of eye candy. You will be able to call in these jets for Close Air Support (CAS). Players can call in airstrikes in various ways, and can choose a variety of munitions for the aircraft to drop... all depending on how many Resource Points you want to spend. Mortar and artillery fire will also be available in World at War.

We were hoping to have some ingame shots of these vehicles for you today, but the latest Source SDK update from Valve has actually messed up Prowl's ability to compile maps. That is incredibly unfortunate for our fans out there, since Olah has already scripted bombing runs into World at War. So keep a lookout on the main page, as we'll post some screenshots (and possibly a movie) of the vehicles in action when the situation is resolved.

Happy belated New Year, everyone!

The third edition of Brain Droppings has been posted in the forums. This one discusses my motivation for working on World at War and modding in general, and several of my team members have shared their opinions as well.

Also, please welcome AfroJoe and Nojmaster to the team! AfroJoe will be rigging and animating for us, and Nojmaster has come onboard as a modeler.

Hmm, what else, let's see... Olah has our Resource Point system up and running, for one. The modeling department is working on some new foliage for our maps. And, best of all, an honest-to-God PR screenshot news post will be coming soon.

Stay tuned!

To our family and friends and faithful community:
Please have a fun and safe holiday, wherever your travels take you. We hope that you are all fortunate enough to be able to spend this time with the people you love and who matter the most in your lives. We also hope you get a butt load of loot from the big dude in red... ;)

Merry Christmas, from all of us on the World at War mod team, to all of you.

More fun news in the same vein as my last post. I have three new team members to announce the arrival of. Actually, I'm lying. One new and two old team members, to be precise.

Elliotte "RageUnleashed" Bagg has joined us as a modeler, texturer/skinner, rigger, and animator. Whew! He's quite the Renaissance Man, and be sure to give him a polite "Hello!" if you see him on IRC or around the forums.

The two returning team members need scant introduction. Both Ben "Ninja Menkey" Irwin (he hates it when I use his handle) and Stephen "Chazums" Charman are back on the team. They will be accepting some modelling and coding responsibilities, respectively. They're only back in a limited capacity for the time-being (damn you, real life!) but their oldskool presence is nonetheless welcome.

There's been several debates on the topic of what subject matter news posts should cover in the interest of expressing progress. The issue has always been whether or not people would bother paying attention to the mundane over flashy PR pictures. Well, let me give you a brief heads up anyway:

Olah has done a smashing job in implementing the map-based Control Point stuff, which is ingame and running. Also, zen master that he is, he also has our Morale system up and running and tied into the CP system. Competing with him for PR purposes is Marty and Rob. Marty's pounding out our squad and class system, while Rob is finishing the weaponry code. I hope this tidbit qualifies as an acceptable nugget of information for you fans out there.

Well, that's it for today. Stay tuned for more announcements on new team members and upcoming media releases. And, as always, if you're a talented mapper, modeler, skinner, animator, or coder, feel free to drop us a line. We're always excited by new faces, and the more the merrier.

The World at War team is proud to announce the hiring of a new coder. Johnny "Olah" Salazar, formerly of the Cold War: Melting Point team, has joined our ranks. He'll be working closely with Rob and Marty, our other two coders. Furthermore, I must state, as per his request, that he is a God. I will not dispute that fact. Everyone give him a polite welcome if you see him hanging around on IRC or in the forums!

Olah is just the first of many talented individuals that will be joining us over the next few weeks and months. Expect to see news posts announcing the returns of old friends and the arrival of new blood.

As always, if you're interested in helping WaW out, give us a holler. Contact instructions can be found on our Contact page.

Happy Halloween from the World at War team!

A far more complete news update will be coming soon, most likely addressing our latest additions to the team and a few other odds and ends. In the meantime, enjoy the... uh... extra hour of darkness? Damn you, equinox.

Guess you guys want some non-teasers, huh?

Welcome to Yugoslavia, the first campaign to be featured in World at War (if you're wondering what "Yugoslavia" is doing in our mod years upon years after it broke apart, read about our alternate reality on our webpage). The American Army is trying to avoid Soviet armored units defending the road to Belgrade. In a flanking move, American recon forces have reached the Sava River valley to the west of Belgrade and plan to force a crossing. However, the Soviets are wise to the end-run and are rushing reinforcements into the area.







Although I'm not one for hyperbole, the size of our WaW maps will be revolutionary. Not necessarily for computer games in general, mind you... Unreal, Battlefield, and Far Cry have long since had large outdoor maps. However, the Source engine is built around the same lines as the HL1 engine and the Quake engines... corridor-style mapping is still the norm. Each large outdoor area on Source that you stumble on to, like the wide-open lake in the Water Hazard section of HL2, is just an overlarge room. So how did we get around this?

Although I prefer to remain secretive about our mapping techniques, we haven't really done anything special. Using tools and procedures built into the Source engine as well as judicious rescaling, we've created maps that can be up to 2 miles by 2 miles, versus Source's standard half-mile by half-mile max dimensions. Although we maintain the ability to do corridor mapping (our urban maps could make good use of it), our countryside maps can be huge. You won't see any corners or corridors, and only the map boundaries will be the limits of your exploration.

There's even better news. I'm thankful to have Marty Olson as one of our coders. You may remember him as marty4286, an avid third-party mapper for Firearms, who pumped out tons of high-quality urban maps based on the Saving Private Ryan village of Ramelle. Marty recently teamed up with another one of our mappers, Alex "Prowl" Fenton, to see how expansive our urban maps could be. Their resulting test map was large, developed, immersive, and ran perfectly without any FPS loss. Keep a close eye on this news page, since we plan on applying this style to our forthcoming maps of Belgrade (being built by yours truly) and Sarajevo, the brainchild of Steve "Sulsa" Jackson.

Enjoy!

I get an endless amount of satisfaction from the fact that a fansite actually predated our own website. WaWConsole is run by Harry "Grunt" Slyman, a devoted fan who has been ceaselessly gathering info on World at War for several months now.

He recently interviewed us, and it's available to read on his website. Hopefully we've answered some questions that you guys are interested in, and keep an eye peeled for future content that we hook Grunt up with.

Most forumgoers are already familiar with the fact that, every few weeks, I try to post about an interesting topic that's on my mind that I wish to share with the public. I tend to call them "Brain Droppings". So, I figure I should let anyone reading our news in on the secret.

My latest Brain Droppings refers to similarities that WaW will have with other contemporary games, as well as where it differs wildly, and what we're aiming for.

For any Firearms Half-Life oldskoolers that haven't been brought up to speed on the sudden arrival of the WaW website/forums/IRC channel, you can read up on my first Brain Droppings about WaW and FA's legacy here. Warning: for a few people, it might prove controversial.

Finally, let us reflect somberly and soberly upon the fourth anniversary of September 11. Never forget.

Without further ado, I give you the World at War website, courtesy of Steve "Sulsa" Jackson and Tim Rice.

There has been alot of speculation as to what, exactly, WaW is about. For us, the WaW team, it began when the Firearms Half-Life team decided to create a new mod that would combine tactical infantry combat with real-time strategy aspects to create an intriguing and appealing spin on the FPS genre.

But for the world that this game takes place in, the real story began sixteen years ago...

... and the end result of that story might look something like this or this...

In addition to compelling gameplay, World at War will seek to immerse the player in a time vastly different from our own. What if the Cold War never ended? What if the Soviet Union endured, even prospered? And what if, suddenly, battles blazed that took the world inexorably towards global war? You the player will be thrust into the middle of this alternate reality, and your experiences will be complimented by Global News Wire updates, battle stories, and real-world weaponry, environs, and theaters of combat.

You will also be immersed in detail. Mappers have been building their maps at not only sixteen times the possible size of normal Source engine maps, but using as many reference photos as possible to reconstruct places that actually exist. Modellers have been working closely with our military advisor, military researcher, and two weaponry advisors to get every detail right. And our coders are working together to streamline the HL2 code and maximize our potential.

On a more somber note: due to events that were largely out of the WaW/FA team's control, the WaW forums, IRC channel, and now the website have been released sooner than we would like. You might notice that certain pages on the site are still unavailable and will be released at a later date. As such, this is not so much an official announcement of our hard work as it is a reward for our fans' patience and interest. Although much work has been done on our mod, count on us to let loose with a barrage of pictures and screenshots when the time is appropriate. But in the meantime, enjoy the website, learn what we're up to, and remember...

... World War III is closer than you think.