Many of you will remember Pirates, Vikings and Knights II, a creative little mod for Half-Life 2.

Since the launch of their v1.1 beta back in January, the devs have been hard at work to craft a release they hope will be even bigger and better! They've been concentrating on the new classes and weapons, and overhauling the combat and movement systems of the game.

We've got news for you about the new systems - and an introduction to three new classes!

Firstly - the new melee combat system:

Blocking now will consist of four directions to coincide with the four directions of attack your opponent can deal. By successfully blocking an opponent with the correct directional combination, the attacker will be stunned for a moment and a quick counter attack will be possible. Don't be worried about this being too difficult though, blocking in the wrong direction won't necessarily get you killed it just won't be as rewarding or effective.

These screens are taken from a brand new map from YeeHaa - Colloseum, just one of a number of maps currently in development. One of these new maps - pvk_town - will introduce a new gamemode for PVKII!


In case all that wasn't enough, jRocket has been hard at work animating weapons and classes... and while any normal person would be content with just putting the characters ingame, he's gone one step further and given the berserker a brand new (pre-used) Big Axe.

No matter how much we throw at you, what you gamers really want is "more" though, right? Well, here's some more for you - three brand new playable character classes, in fact! These new options will add more variety to the game, as well as introducing still more chaotic aspects while maintaining the level of intensity and fun you've come to love from PVKII!

Pirate Captain This grizzled old seadog is a veteran of sending unfortunate landlubbers to Davy Jones' locker. Armed with a powder-packed blunderbuss rifle, he's not afraid to get up close and blow away whoever or whatever stands in his way. As if that's not enough, his vicious man-eating attack parrot is more than willing to peck the eyes out of the nearest bilge rat. For close quarters combat he carries a rusty old cutlass that may not be as effective as the other instruments of destruction, but it sure can cause a bad case of tetanus.

Huscarl Viking Big, bulky, and wrapped in the latest chainmail fashion, the Huscarl is part of elite class of Viking warriors. In addition to carrying an axe capable of splitting a man in half, he has several throwing axes, a sword, and a big wooden round shield. His chain shirt and engraved headpiece are not only the envy of the other vikings, they're also practical!

Knightly Archer The archer carries the most effective missile weapon in the game. Able to target an eyeball at 100 yards, the longbow is deadly accurate in the hands of an experienced bowman. He had better keep from the melee though, as his wimpy little short sword isn't going to protect him from that horde of angry Vikings. That is, unless his special meter is powered up and he fires a volley of arrows in one notch.

While there's still no timeframe as yet on the release of Beta II, they have begun closed beta testing and we have a pile of screenshots in the File Library from some of those tests!


Don't forget, if you want to get in on some modded Source action - we have a PVKII server!