A public beta of Smashball, a fast-paced sports modification for Half-Life 2, has been released - here's some info:

Smashball is a fast-paced, ultraviolent first-person sports shooter. Two teams use superhuman maneuvers, a real-physics grappling hook, and high-powered weaponry to try to get a single ball into their opponent’s goal.

* INCREDIBLE MOBILITY! Smashball players can use their Turbo Moves to amp up their speed. The Grappling Hook can be used to swing across open areas and wrap around corners. Combining the two allows for supreme feats of acrobatics.

* INTENSE ACTION! Play is focused on The Ball. Every second has to be used to score Runs or Shots on the enemy goal. Players in four different Positions run plays with trick Passing while trying to knock each other out. All weapons have infinite ammo, and players Regenerate Health. A brutal Charging is the best way to knock out or kill a player.

* CHARACTER CUSTOMIZATION! Players get XP for playing, and can buy special Skills when they gain Levels. Skills are used in-game to tailor your character’s capabilities for specific roles. There is an entire dimension of strategy in picking the right combination of skills.

Can't see any screenshots on the official site, but it sounds intriguing on paper at least. You can download the mod locally from AusGamers.

*calling chub*

Some screenshots over on Mod-DB http://www.moddb.com/mods/smashball/news/smashball-beta-released

sigh why does everyon f***ing fps have 'level ups via xp' bulls*** now. first Battlefield then tf2... its pathetic.

Still looks like a great game once the xp system is turned off. Keen to give it a go. Will download ready for trog to make some servers...

grapple hook Quake styles! Looks fast. Might give it a go at some point.

That looks like a pile of s*** visually... pink and yellow guys running around with neon grapple ropes swinging off the roof?

Fun for maybe half an hour.

*calling chub*

Hah, I found my Quake 2 disc :O

Qpong battle next lan, this one doesn't look as fun.

it's s***.

Nah TF2 has better weapons by achievements. Thats not XP as a gameplay mechanic and its not the same thing either. Also TF2 gives you the option of just achieving it in a server or a modified one.

The gameplay/highlight video thing on their site made it look terrible...

Hey, thank you everyone who has checked us out. Just a couple of notes:

* The colors you see in some of the pictures are actually custom colors. We've made it so all the colors -- models, maps, etc. -- change based on what team is in the match. Our default teams are red and blue. The two teams you see in some of the pictures are custom teams made by some of our alpha playtesters.

* The XP system is not as ugly as a lot of people think. I will update our player's guide to explain how it works. It doesn't give you any major advantages, just more flexibility in-game.

sigh why does everyon f***ing fps have 'level ups via xp' bulls*** now. first Battlefield then tf2... its pathetic.

The new weapons in TF2 aren't necessarily "better" than the standard ones, just different. They lend themselves to different situations, but aren't any better or worse than the guns you have from the beginning, so it's not really accurate to call them a "level up" (with the possible exception of the melee upgrades. I don't think I'd ever use any of the default melee weapons).

We play Qpong for Q3 at work... love it... if anyone wants a game of q3 just pm me and ill make a server :)

sigh why does everyon f***ing fps have 'level ups via xp' bulls*** now. first Battlefield then tf2... its pathetic.

a brilliant loophole was found in cod:waw - rank up servers. continuous play servers where each kill gets 4000 xp instead of 50. i ranked up to level 65 in about 15 mins. now thats how they should do it because we just want to get the good guns! xD

it's all pointless. xp belongs in role playing games not f***ing fps's. fps's are for those people who want all the tools the second they get into the game so all that seperates them from the next guy is skill imo.