Firearms: Source Memorial Day Update news

Before I get to the main update, I'd like to take a minute to thank our veterans and service members. While those of us in America are enjoying a 3-day weekend, there are many of us who aren't so fortunate. They are deployed throughout the world, from the middle east to hotspots in Asia, standing guard against those would threaten our way of life. Some will end up paying the ultimate sacrifice, far away from family, friends and country. Let's not forget the thousands of men and women, from the many free nations of the earth, who have paid the ultimate price on our behalf.

Alpha Testing is coming along quite well, though we recently had a setback with the servers (since corrected). We've knocked out a host of small bugs since the last update and continue to polish up the current version of the game in preparation for release. Updates to Rubble, Forest, Durandal and Juarez have been made based on observations from large-scale gameplay testing, and weapons continue to be tweaked. Speaking of weapons, we've hit a milestone; the 33rd weapon went into the game a few builds ago and we still have plenty more to throw in. Thanks to a trio of skilled weapon modelers, the addition of a skinner and of course, our expert animator thisismyname09, we're on track to make sure FAS includes more weaponry than almost any other shooter on the market.

We're also working hard on maps. A lot of our Firearms: Half-Life fans are looking forward to seeing their favorite levels ported, and we're not going to disappoint. There's actually quite a few maps, both new and old, that are in the works but haven't yet been revealed to the public. At last count, we included 14 levels in our latest alpha build and that doesn't include test maps or maps that are still under construction. You can see more screenshots on our Screenshots Page, which was recently updated with images of our latest build. (Although everything you see is still a WIP and subject to change.)

The team hopes to be presenting these updates and more in the coming weeks and months as specific news items.

Here's where I post the help-wanted section. :-) We're making great progress, but new team members are always welcomed aboard. We still need modelers of any kind, texture artists, and animators - especially ones who can do character animation or character modeling. Mappers would be welcomed too. If you think you have anything you can contribute, don't hesitate to drop us a line.

What do you think of our update today? Do you have suggestions as to what new weapons we should add beyond the 33rd weapon mentioned above? What maps would you like to see ported from the original Firearms, and what new map concepts would you like to see included? Please post a comment and share your thoughts!