Playback.dem

This was May 2025 in a nutshell.

Site Updates

• Data oriented redesign. Most bits of information from games came from a single sheet of HTML - now the individual header categories are dynamically put together from multiple sources of data.
• We have started adding notes to certain games. Like on the page for Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2, you can read bits specific to the PC version. It’s like trivia, but often more technical.

Game News

Giant Bomb Goes Independent

This was quite a saga. We’ve watched the transition of ownership of the legendary videogame site Giant Bomb a few times.

It was previously owned by Fandom, but had now found independence. After fans and staff made it clear that recent changes at companies run by Fandom would effectively kill the site, the people in charge were kind enough to sell the business.

This means that no one is funding Giant Bomb now, except for people like us.

They have a vault of great video content, including some high quality game tape rips. If you sign up for Giant Bomb Premium you’re allowed to download it all too.

R1Delta released

Sales of Titanfall were halted back in 2021, leaving the game abandoned by its developer and publisher. While some of the infrastructure is still up, no one is really playing due to the threats constantly ruining the game.

Now, there’s an answer to your worries - and that is R1Delta. With its full guts on display over on GitHub it promises an open source, custom server framework for Titanfall. It allows you to host dedicated servers and modded servers as well. You can even view a list of games active at any given time.

Great work on preserving one kickass multiplayer game. Our hats off to our friends at R1Delta.

Overturn Network Test

As reported earlier, a playtest event took place that tested the network performance of Overturn. We were debugging some network anomalies where also seeing how the elaborate entity work performed over the network. You can also still download and play Overturn: Operation Deathmatch Test and see what all the fuss was about.

One of the maps had lots of visual effects, like beam type entities (and lightstyle color switches) for the King of the Hill mode that we were worried about might be heavy on the networking. We had some issues with client-side state/prediction misses, but nothing that detracted from the fun. We thank everyone again for their participation - and I have word from the core development team at Bloodbath Software that an update will be out this June (or July, at the latest). As there’s lots of things going on in the industry this time of the year, some of our staff will be extraordinarily busy too.

Valve Stops Counter-Strike: Classic Offensive

After years of waiting, the Classic Offensive mod for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive had announced that their project is not allowed to be distributed. Watch the video by ESCalation for the direct source.

Valve was blocking them from releasing it, unless they rebase it on top of Counter-Strike 2 or on top of the older (but still supported) Source Base 2013. On a technical level this was understandable because the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive branch was no longer being maintained and thus no longer receives security updates. Valve would only make themselves more work by endorsing it in the long run by letting them use it.

Unfortunately, when you agree to the SDK license agreement put forth by Valve you are at their mercy. Maybe we’ll see a port to Counter-Strike 2, but it seems morale had hit rock bottom. We are hoping for an eventual happy ending to this saga.

You can see the credits and development timeline here.

The Tekken Waffle House Saga

Waffle House has been ghosting Tekken 8 lead Katsuhiro Harada. Fans of the franchise want to be able to fight inside a Waffle House franchise but they won’t seem to get it.

IGN reports this passionate cry for a cross over.

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That is it for our AAA game industry coverage for the month.

The Golden Parrot: Against All Flags v2.2 released

Probably one of the most creative modifications for Wolfenstein 3D is made by fraggeur and it’s titled The Golded Parrot: Against All Flags. This sequel to The Golden Parrot continues the mix of of action and role-playing game.

With an all new episode in this update, you’ll find plenty to plunder on this adventure. Even if you’ve played an older version, you might want to replay it with the newly added skills.

Read the release announcement on ModDB.

Holocron Challenges v2.0 released

Love duels? Love Star Wars? The PvE mod Holocron Challenges for Jedi Academy adds a new game type for you duel/tournament lovers:

Masters of Tera Kasi

Fight 8 enemies across 8 stages in this ladder mode, before meeting a boss character you need to fight. Every time you play it’s different, as it’s all randomized.

Basically, if you crave variety and want something you can pick up and play? Look no further than this mod by Plasma89. No need to choose a map every time, this mod just picks some variety for you.

Half-Life Dreamcast Manual, Correcting Misinformation

The SEGA Dreamcast Info site by Comby Laurent had posted a full scan of the manual of the cancelled Half-Life on Dreamcast as well as inserts for the case from an authentic copy.

Staff of Frag-Net preserved the authentic Half-Life Dreamcast box many years ago already. Combined, we are all able to see what Half-Life Dreamcast would have been like on our game shelves.

Another rumor and bit of misinformation was being put to rest, and we could now confirm that the original scene release of Half-Life on Dreamcast was not modified.

HRPG v3.0 released

This is Heretic but with more RPG elements! With adjusting monster spawns, new classes and powerups this is a fresh new way to experience Heretic on GZDoom. Made by ThePunKing.

Download for v3.0 on ModDB

Tiberium Resonance v0.2 released

This mod by Nozuki_Guardian17 is an attempt to remake Command & Conquer 4 on top of Command & Conquer 3. You will also need the expansion pack Command & Conquer 3: Kane’s Wrath in order to play this mod. Grab the latest full version on ModDB.

You should definitely also check Tiberium Chaos if you’re into some chaotic, unbalanced, feature-filled skirmish for the same game, by the same mod author.

Clone Wars Era Mod v2.5 released

Listen up, Star Wars: Battlefront II players: The full version of Clone Wars Era Mod v2.5 by Benoz was released.

reTHAWed v4.3 released

Of course there’s always more reTHAWed. There’s so much we have a dedicated mod page now for reTHAWed. We also added one for THUG PRO.

The launch trailer for reTHAWED 4.3 shows off that they’ve indeed ported the entire set of levels from Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4 into it, complete with details such as cutscenes attempting to be preserved.

As always, lots of customization had been added too. Hats off to the folks at 10K Rising.

Forgotten Hope: Secret Weapon v0.73 released

A new full release of this fan-continuation of Forgotten Hope for Battlefield 1942 had been released.

See the full versions of the above renders on this release article for Forgotten Hope: Secret Weapon v0.73.

Tech News

SteamOS Kicks Ass On The Legion Go S

If you have a Lenovo Legion Go S and want to install Windows on it you’ll come to shoot yourself in the foot. The benchmarks “destroy Windows in peformance and battery life” according to GamingOnLinux and Dave2D. Read all about SteamOS on the Lenovo Legion Go S here.

Waffle House Index getting DMCA’d

Yes, we have to keep talking about Waffle House this month, but it’s serious this time. The Waffle House Index had received a Cease and Desist order.

What is the Waffle House Index?

“If you’ve never heard of the Waffle House Index, you’re in for a bit of weirdly fascinating disaster response lore. The Waffle House Index is an (incredibly) unofficial tool used by FEMA to gauge the severity of natural disasters. Why Waffle House? Because they’re infamous for not closing even during the worst of storms. If the House is closed, that means things are getting real.” – Jack LaFond

So Mr. LaFond set up a site for displaying his scraping of that data, in order to help people. Of course, Waffle House did not like their trademark being used like that and shut it down. We hope for the safe return of the Waffle House Index.

Over & out

And that’s it!