I recently learned that Neil Manke, famed designer of the mods USS Darkstar and the They Hunger series of zombie-slaying mods for the original Half Life, is at work on a new mod for Source called They Hunger: Lost Souls. There are some screens up, but to be honest they don’t look that different from the Ravenholm sequence in Half-Life 2. One thing I remember about They Hunger is the difficulty – like the original Resident Evil, you’d be screaming at yourself for wasting bullets while zombies continue to shamble towards you. It was also clear that Manke spent a lot of time developing a tangible feeling of dread behind his well-designed maps. In a Q&A following the new mod’s official announcement, Manke assures gamers that this isn’t a continuation of the trilogy, but a brand new game that takes advantage of the unique gameplay aspects that have become available by using the Source engine. It will likely be offered as a paid product through Steam, adding to the growing number of independently developed modifications for Half Life 2.