The reason I've disappeared [not that any of you were concerned or even noticed ] is because I've been playing one of the best mods for HL2 I've seen in a LONG time.

It's called empiresmod, some of you might have heard of it, for those that haven't.
Empiresmod is a hybrid between FPS and RTS, similar to Natural Selection, but Empires is on the source engine, and Empiresmod has a more open feel to it.
You play as one of two factions, each with a distinct style, but both virtually the same balance wise [sadly]
There's 6 different vehicle chassis to choose from which can be purchased and driven for each faction, as well as a command vehicle which gives access to the command view where you can oversee and direct the battle as though it were an RTS.


The Northern Faction Vehicles
Commander - Jeep - APC - Light Tank - Medium Tank - Heavy Tank - Artillery Tank


The Brenodi Empire Vehicles
Artillery Tank - Heavy Tank - Tank - AFV - APC - Jeep - Commander

Each vehicle chassis can be customised with about 7 or 8 armors and engines, and something well over 20 different weapons

It features fairly nice graphics, and is currently in version 2.12, the next version will be on the Orange Box engine.
Gameplay revolves around capturing resource nodes and eventually destroying the enemy commander, but there are other ways to win, such as annihilating the enemy team Natural Selection style, or capturing flags on certain maps.

It has a steep learning curve, but once you figure out how everything works, you'll be on top of the world.
It's well worth the 700MB download.

URL: www.empiresmod.com
Forum: forums.empiresmod.com

PS. I'm a tester for 2.2
Yay!

I played it a bit when it first came out, along with Iron Grip (RTS general vs FPS guerrillas), Dystopia (FPS & Cyberspace), Eternal Silence (Spacefighter Combat & FPS aboard capital ships and bases), among others. Good stuff.

The graphics indeed look quite amusing.