twmac

Half Life 2: I'm really missing the point

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Yeah, but Alyx is the closest thing Half-Life has to a personality... For me it wouldn't be an emotional reaction at the loss of Alyx as much as being terrified of going back to having only Gordon Freeman as company. (Plus, Alyx had such a large amount of personality that she almost made up for the soul-sucking vacuum of Freeman.)

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If they did, and it was for that reason, then they're stupid. Anything that brings out a sincere emotional reaction in your audience is a good thing. If it's a sad reaction, it usually means it's bittersweet. Team Ico's games are proof of that.

I see your point, but I think you don't want to write your characters out of the plot if they're so popular. I don't know how serious this accident was supposed to be...

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Yeah, but Alyx is the closest thing Half-Life has to a personality... For me it wouldn't be an emotional reaction at the loss of Alyx as much as being terrified of going back to having only Gordon Freeman as company. (Plus, Alyx had such a large amount of personality that she almost made up for the soul-sucking vacuum of Freeman.)

Maybe back then, but after Episode 2 I think it's not so much the case anymore.

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I don't think

suggests anything more calamitous than what actually happens in Episode 2.

In the trailer:

  • Alyx falls off a bridge (probably) and is grievously wounded.
  • A Vortigaunt carries her body.
  • She's either dead, or Gordon will have to do something to save her!

In the actual episode:

  • Alyx is attacked by a Hunter and is grievously wounded.
  • A Vortigaunt carries her body.
  • Gordon must find some Antlion larval extract to save her!

This change was probably made for plot reasons, rather than to mollify fans. Alyx falling would have to happen almost immediately at the start of Episode Two, presuming it's in reaction to the explosion at the end of Episode One. That means---right away---there would be no one to tell Gordon what to do. Being alone isn't terrible, but Gordon needs direction. Otherwise he would be alone in the middle of the woods jumping up and down, pressing "E" on everything.

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More to the point, it's OK to dislike Half-Life, though it's really good at what it does.

I feel bad because I don't see anything I like about Killzone 2 or Uncharted 2, even though they are praised as two of the most perfect games of all time.

Killzone 2 seems to be "shoot a ton of guys and do a turret sequence"---but a really good version of that. Uncharted 2 seems to be a similarly exemplary "shoot a ton of guys and sometimes solve a puzzle" game.

Considering Half-Life 2 can be summed up as "shoot a ton of guys and often solve a puzzle," I'm likely just too finicky.

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Yeah, but Alyx is the closest thing Half-Life has to a personality... For me it wouldn't be an emotional reaction at the loss of Alyx as much as being terrified of going back to having only Gordon Freeman as company. (Plus, Alyx had such a large amount of personality that she almost made up for the soul-sucking vacuum of Freeman.)

I felt kind of the opposite about Alyx. Her budding 'relationship' with Gordon only highlighted for me just how hollow a cypher he really is, and it made her seem kinda crazy too.

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I felt kind of the opposite about Alyx. Her budding 'relationship' with Gordon only highlighted for me just how hollow a cypher he really is, and it made her seem kinda crazy too.

Well, either way, Gordon Freeman blows :)

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I feel bad because I don't see anything I like about Killzone 2 or Uncharted 2, even though they are praised as two of the most perfect games of all time.

Is Killzone 2 really that highly regarded? From what I gather it was well-crafted but utterly uninspired.

Psych, if you look at it as Alyx's relationship to 'Gordon', then yes it will seem odd. But really Alyx is talking to you, not 'Gordon' as a third person.

If you can commit to that level of self-immersion, then she works very well indeed.

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I feel bad because I don't see anything I like about Killzone 2 .... even though they are praised as two of the most perfect games of all time.

Lol what? Who ever said that about Killzone 2 apart from the Citizen Kane of Video Games guy (or the letter to EDGE magazine).

I kind of enjoyed Uncharted 2 in a similar way I did HL2. Very different story telling technique but still a directed rollercoaster ride. Which is what HL2 is, even though I think it is more effective narrative wise. Even though what you get up to is very cinematic, it doesn't feel like a film, it feels like that stuff is really happening. That's probably in large part to the realtime nature of it and the lack of traditional cutscenes.

What an amazing game. Actually HL2 is my favorite, I just love the epic journey to Mordor feel of it. When it first came out I only played up to Ravenholm and I found it too nervewracking to continue. I didnt particularly like that first part then but when I went back to it and played it all through this summer, I LOVED it. Its now my favorite game.

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But really Alyx is talking to you, not 'Gordon' as a third person.

If you can commit to that level of self-immersion, then she works very well indeed.

I spend most of my time during HL2 'cutscenes' by moving the mouse up and down or left and right to nod in agreement or shake my head in dismay... it's a way of using the agency they allow you during cutscenes to increase the immersion... before I started doing that I spent most of my time during these cutscenes either trying to jump to an attainable 'high point' in the room or zooming in on Alyx' bum with my binos... both cases of agency breaking the proverbial 'magic cirlce'

...like you never zoomed in on her bum!

When I try to explain the appeal of HL2 I always come back to it being an excellently authored experience that is extremely linear but that the linearity is veiled by the excellent design.

If you look at map design proper, from an environmental art standpoint, you create the level, with all of it's limitations, but then you surround that level with a 3-d skybox which gives a limitless sense to the space... even in the blocked-in combat arenas of TF2 you can look over a ridge, or past a fence and see industrial or pastoral landscapes in the background. Places you can't get to but can experience in a secondary way...

the linear design in HL2 seems to have a similar effects, there are paths you can't actually take, but you can still be made to feel like you had a choice, and were lucky enough to take the right one

In HL2 I almost never feel like I am being forced down a path. I think back to when I first played the game, the first level's sequence where you are hustled through an apartment complex and up onto rooftops. I ran through the exact path without ever questionning which doors could or couldn't be opened. I just played the experience, and because of the excellent design I arrived at the rooftops as I should have. After saving my game I reloaded to go back and 'explore other routes or look for easter eggs in closets etc...', but there was none of that to be done... Beautiful!

Also, for the time, the physics are pretty bonkers in that game... I recall standing on a rooftop and shooting a dead civilian, hanging from a fire escape, and watching how he would swing and sway differently depending on what part of his body I shot at...

:clap:

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Psych, if you look at it as Alyx's relationship to 'Gordon', then yes it will seem odd. But really Alyx is talking to you, not 'Gordon' as a third person.

If I try that I just get mad that no one listens to me.

I my opinion the best thing about Half-Life 2 was and shall always be Concerned.

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Right I've made it to the Water Hazard section. The furthest in the game that I have ever gotten... Apparently this is the weakest part of the game and it is about to get really awesome.

One thing I must say that I appreciate more this time round is the feel of the game. I feel like I'm desperately trying to get out of an awful situation in the City and that everything really is falling down around me.

What I don't like are the constant loading screens. Really knocks me out of my flow every time one appears and reminds me that I'm just playing a game. The level design is nice but again it suffers from being very blocky, the same problem I noticed with Left 4 Dead.

Anyways, I'm struggling so I played some Brutal Legend and Tomb Raider for a bit afterwards. I promised The Kenty that I would, at least, get to some place called Raven's loft or Home or something.

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Ravenholme. That scars the soul, right there :tup:

It's even better if you only use the gravity gun!

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I promised The Kenty that I would, at least, get to some place called Raven's loft or Home or something.

That's just where I'm up to... I hate games that have things leaping out at me, and I could sense that that's what was coming, so I stopped playing. I do intend to go back, though.

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Yes, that's a feeling I can relate to. Half-Life 2 is the best game ever that I don't want to play again ever :tup: Or actually, I do. But I don't.

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You big girls blouses. Also the best parts of HL2 come after Ravenholm so you really need to get that shit played. ;

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That's just where I'm up to... I hate games that have things leaping out at me, and I could sense that that's what was coming, so I stopped playing. I do intend to go back, though.

I never found that stuff jumped out of you, more that there was a scarcity of ammo or even stuff to throw with the gravity gun. It to me is some of the best horror in any game, along with Resident Evil 4, where you have the same scarcity.

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Right so I made it to Ravenholme. After the cheesiest bit of exposition I've seen since the last Indiana Jones film: 'That goes to Ravenholme, we don't go there.'

Really? I wonder where I'm go- Oh how convenient.

After the utter drag that was Water hazard (I have no guns, 18 health and the guys are firing homing missiles at my straw bucket on water with my last autosave seconds behind me and my last manual save being sometime last week) I can see why PC guys love their quick save feature.

Well, after I've dallied with Bayonetta some more I'll get back to this.

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Right so I made it to Ravenholme. After the cheesiest bit of exposition I've seen since the last Indiana Jones film: 'That goes to Ravenholme, we don't go there.'

Yeah, that part was a bit of a groan. As soon as Alyx said that, my immediate thought was, "I wonder how long I'll be kept here until I'm forced to go through Ravenholm?"

That said, by getting past Water Hazard, you're clear of the major hump in the game, and Ravenholm is an awesome part. It really does a good job of conveying the inhumanity of the Combine.

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I'm not entirely convinced. I didn't read it thoroughly, but there was something about the guy trying to decompile the Xbox 360 maps from an ISO, but having to do the "improvements" by hand because everything crashed?

To me it looks more like someone went through and just changed a bunch of stuff, rather than doing an objective improvement. For example, the new vortigaunt healing things were lame.

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I watched the video (I wouldn't if you've yet to play it) and the only particularly striking difference I noticed was the addition of HDR. Due to the way Source works he would have had to have gone through and manually determined the HDR settings for each and every area which is an enormous amount of work, but the results do look pretty Valve-standard.

The only other thing I noticed was the weird Vortigaunt effect. Was that changed in the later chapters too, or has he randomly thrown that in?

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The only other thing I noticed was the weird Vortigaunt effect. Was that changed in the later chapters too, or has he randomly thrown that in?

The Vort effects were changed when they revamped the particle system for Episode 2, but I think that the healing pulse that was shown may have been his own creation.

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