Half-life has been released in 1998. That means it's over 5 years old. And this means most gamers had 5 years of looking at the same old Half-life textures over and over again, so I can imaging that most gamers rather see a new set of textures in a map. Because it's not easy finding a good set of textures for the map you are planning to make, (unless you are an texture artist too) you could try and find a new way off using the old Half-life textures. This guide shows you how.

Flip 'm!
Yes, instead of using them in the regular way, turn around textures 90 or 180 degrees to get a whole new look on your map. Rotating a texture 90 degrees would make them usable for pillars. Check the following example :

Combine Textures
Instead of using just 1 texture on a wall, you could combine 2 or more textures for one wall. On the next pic you can see how it's been done. I`ve used 3 different textures in 4 layers to create this wall. On the other wall I used 2 flipped wedges in the middle to give the player a different look on the texture. Notice the floor texture too ? It's a part of a "tnnl" texture.. More on that way of using textures in the next topic.

Using parts of textures
You have allready seen it in the last picture. I've used a half of the "tnnl" texture to create a floor texture for that passage. Another way is to create a new object with a totally different texture. In the next picture I`ve created a new box, instead of using one of the (way to over-used) wooden crate texture, of a microwave.

Working out textures
Many HL textures are rather flat. Often they have many forms but they are only drawn out on the texture. It's time to pull out these forms out of the texture and make them real 3D. I've taken a lab door with potentional to have a nice 3D look. I've build up the frame and put in some glass. (To make sure it doesn't look boring again, I didn't use the normal glass texture but the more rare texture with the metal bars in it). Now notice the difference :

I hope this guide gave you some idea on how to create a new texture feeling in your map.