Many gamers probably didn't play the Gearbox Studios-developed PlayStation 2 port of "Half-Life."
In addition to bringing Valve's classic first-person shooter to Sony's home console, Gearbox engineered a brand-new co-op mission -- a first for the series -- called "Decay."
For roughly three years, a group of modders have been independently porting the Decay mode to the PC "Half-Life." Their work was recently completed. But their project seemed to tip-toe on the possibility of someone calling foul and shutting the whole thing down.
MTV Multiplayer reached out to Gearbox president Randy Pitchford for his thoughts on the matter. And you know what? He loves what they've done.
"This [Decay] is great content with some really inventive cooperative game play that I think was way ahead of its time," said Pitchford over e-mail. "I think it’s really great that some folks who loved the game have put so much effort into figuring out how to get it running on the PC and releasing it. I’m sure there were several 'gotchas' in the effort that would’ve stopped most mod teams cold. But these guys plowed on and found a way - and now they’re able to release it!"
That's a pretty enthusiastic approval. But even Pitchford noted the final word comes from Valve. But it's been so far, so good!
"Perhaps instead of shutting them down," proposed Pitchford, "Valve can instead spare some cycles to help these guys get the stuff onto Steam."
Considering Valve recently rolled out plans to start distributing user-made modifications through their Steam service, this isn't out of the realm of possibility. And for now, the Decay project remains alive and well.
The persistence of the team impressed Pitchford greatly. So much so, in fact…
"Perhaps we should offer these guys a job," he joked.
There are worse ways to build a resume.
Related Posts
Valve: Rumors of Google Buy-Out Are ‘Complete Fabrication’
Valve Teases ‘Team Fortress 2? Update On Consoles