The great Valve re-play

[Jayel]

Yeah... "no loading screen" is a bit misleading. And come to think of it, the way portal 2 did it isn't really that bothersome since you can't really get lost after a loading screen (either you get out of the elevator or you don't). Deus Ex did it horribly - it had half-life thing going on, but the camera position and orientation didn't carry over from one section to another, so the first time I encountered the loading screen (entering the unatco headquaters on liberty island) I got confused and walked right back out.

[Wrestlevania]

Yeah, y'know, after playing Portal I was tempted to replay through Half Life 2 but decided I couldn't be bothered. But this topic makes me want to. Orvidos slagged the pistol earlier, but I loved it purely because of the first gunfight - the long build-up to it with the non-armed then crowbar-only start to the game, and then that fantastic shootout in the canals with the combine, the crack of your pistol echoing off the concrete walls as you break cover to sharpshoot the soldiers and watch them tumble in the distance to the sound of their forlorn radio bleeps. Can't wait to do that again!

Yep, like toblix, you've sold me with this too. I've finally upgraded my ancient PC, so the Source engine seems as good a test as any for my new* speedy components.

For what it's worth, I like the gunplay in Half-Life 2. The balance and distinct differences between each of the weapons feels like there's a huge range to choose from. Yes, the pistol might feel and sound weak compared to the sort of hand-cannons you find in some other shooters. But I like that it's accurate and you can still make mischief with it.

I also like having all this shit clonking around on my virtual gun belt. The whole "only two weapons" thing..? Nah.

* The headlines are an AMD Phenom II X4 3.2GHz and a Radeon 5870. 8 years since I last bought bespoke components - I'm still running a P4 2.6GHz HT right now - so I'm very, very excited!

[Orv]

I think it's worth mentioning (though I hesitate to continue harping on it) that I don't like the gunplay in most FPS. Most are adequate to get me to focus on shooting men, and not that my gun sounds/handles/floats like a Tonka Toy. I maintain that the Half-Life 2 weaponry is one of the biggest offenders I've run across however. For reference, the games I've felt have done weaponry correctly;

- Homefront (some exceptions apply)

- Call of Duty 2

- Ghost Recon, Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter

- Rainbow Six Vegas (1)

- Battlefield Bad Company 2 (only some things. primary stand-outs are sniper rifles and SMGs.)

- Killing Floor (pistol only)

As you can see, I am one picky motherfucker.

As for the sound of weaponry, don't get me started. But, I agree that the fight in the canals had astounding acoustics. As for the perfect FPS game sound, see BFBC2s War Tapes sound mode.

[miffy495]

I had a fucking fantastic month and a bit of gaming doing this, so I hope you enjoy yourself!

[Ben X]

As you may have noticed from my signature, I've been 'playing' HL2 (and Broken Sword) for an awfully long time now. I haven't actually played either of them for a while, due to lack of time and motivation. Specifically with HL2, I've got to a bit where Alyx takes one shot and dies every time. It's just after I meet her at the start of Nova Prospekt and she uses a terminal to send her dad's pod down. We get in a lift and kill a couple of guys just fine, but then we have to go up some stairs and she legs it ahead of me, takes one shot and dies. Did anyone else get this? I can't find a console cheat to make her invulnerable. Next time I load it up, I'll try the 'use' button on her, see if I can order her to stay where she is, but I don't think this'll work. It's completely breaking the game for me!

EDIT: just in case anyone on the internet has the same problem, I went back to an earlier savegame, then changed the difficulty down to easy and continued to the problem point, and got through it. I'm damn sure I'd tried changing the difficulty within the latest savegame so maybe it wasn't registering. In fact, if I'd done that and then quicksaved again immediately, it probably would have sorted it. But when it quickloads, it reverts to the setting you had on when you quicksaved even if you've altered it since then. However, it may have been too late for the change to affect that encounter, so going back to an earlier save was the safest option.

Edited January 17, 2012 by Ben X

[Sno]

So i started playing through Half-Life again on a whim and ended up finishing it, and now i'm playing through HL2, and i'm pretty sure i'm probably going to go and play through the episodes too. (I'm not sure if i should give the Gearbox add-ons another go, but since i'm already onto HL2, i probably won't. I remember Opposing Force being a stupendous add-on though.)

So Half-Life 2. It is almost disgusting to me how well Half-Life 2 has aged, this game does not feel like it is ten years old. It's unfair to other games. It's still so fucking stylish, and its characters are so well animated, backed with such great voice acting.

 

I'm doing the road trip that happens about half way through the game, and i still think it's just such an absolutely stellar sequence. The somber exploration of this world's quiet apocalypse, it's fantastic.

The physics puzzles feel a little kitschy, but when i got to this point where i was clearing a bunch of wrecked cars off a road, i had to pause at the realization of how much more fluid the world of Half-Life 2 felt than those of many other shooters i've been playing recently, all with their beautiful environments that are completely sterile and static, it was very disappointing to realize that was the direction things have gone in. I remember having high hopes for what the fancy physics engine of HL2 might mean for games.

Hey, but i played Half-Life too, that's also a thing. It's a bit of a shame that it often kind of ends up being a bit of a foot note to HL2, despite being the far more importan and influential game.

As i played through the first Half-Life, it slowly started to sink in that it still feels very much like a modern first-person shooter, which i think both speaks to how little shooters have progressed since then, and how much it was the template for everything that has followed. It's still a great game though, it's filled with interesting setpieces and combat design that was well ahead of its time, looking back on things. Large spaces filled with cover points and flanking opportunities. However, the rudimentary tactical AI in the marines doesn't hold up quite so well, i noticed that they were killing themselves with grenades a lot.

I also properly finished Xen, i'm not sure i've ever done that before. I certainly never beat Nihilanth legitimately before. It's an annoying boss fight, having him constantly trying to teleport you away to fight other enemies before you can come back and deal with him some more.

Also, god damn all those terrible jumping puzzles. Not just the ones in Xen, but all of them across that game.

[Joewintergreen]

Valve have actually started patching HL1 and HL2 again lately. A few years ago they updated HL2 to 2007 version of the Source engine and broke a bunch of things in the process which they finally fixed a few weeks ago. I'm not completely sure, but I think you currently have to opt in to the "steampipe beta" to get those changes. Which you should totally do.

[Max Ernst]

I played a graphics mod for Half Life 2 and it ruined the art direction and turned the women into porn stars so then I turned it off. 

[Sno]

Valve have actually started patching HL1 and HL2 again lately. A few years ago they updated HL2 to 2007 version of the Source engine and broke a bunch of things in the process which they finally fixed a few weeks ago. I'm not completely sure, but I think you currently have to opt in to the "steampipe beta" to get those changes. Which you should totally do.

 

Argh! I wish i knew about this.

I knew they updated the game and broke a lot of things, but i didn't know about this.

I'm actually a little bothered by how Valve is constantly tweaking their older games, often to their detriment.

 

I'm not going to say Gabe Newell is the George Lucas of video games, but Gabe Newell might be the George Lucas of video games. Heh.

[Zeusthecat]

"We always wanted the headcrabs to be more realistic and be creepy baby heads with tentacles coming out but the technology didn't exist yet. Now that dream can finally be realized in the re-re-re-release of Half Life 2: Dead Space Edition."

[Ben X]

What are the biggest changes they're making? Is it mainly technical tweaks?

[Lu]

And also what did they break?

 

I started replaying HL2 as well. Hadn't played it in a good long while. I'm pretty much in agreement; the game held up so well. I also didn't know they added achievements to it. I think that would've annoyed me if I played it for the first time, but I'm kind of enjoying doing some of them along the way, playing it for the however many times I've played it before. A lot of the sequences (like the canals) were actually way shorter than I remember them being, but then I have an easier time navigating everything due to familiarity.

[Joewintergreen]

It's mainly technical stuff yes although there are a few tiny gameplay things that carry over from the newer version of the engine - in the original HL2, supply boxes didn't smash if you just punted them against a wall with the gravity gun, you had to pick up and throw, shit like that. 

Things they broke were mostly to do with HDR. The original HL2 maps were not made with HDR in mind, and the Mac update where they updated the engine to one with HDR in it, they didn't tweak anything, so the maps were often over-bright and gross. On Breen's propaganda screens for instance you often couldn't see his face because it was so overexposed. Sky textures were also all stretched because they were a lower resolution than the new engine expected, etc. Lots and lots of other things, all fixed with the steampipe beta as far as I know. 

Achievements are there now too, but that came in with the Mac update ages ago.

 

So today I got a razer hydra and spent a while trying to make the VR mod work with it. I don't have a Rift yet so it took some doing to make it hydra-only and I wasn't able to look up or down. But it was sweet. You can wave your crowbar around manually. Favourite two things: you can physically reach out your arm to poke your gun around corners and shoot without exposing yourself, and instead of using alt fire zoom on the crossbow you can just hold the scope up to your face.

 

Fun fact: a really early press build of HL1, from about a year before it shipped, was leaked a few months ago. In it, headcrabs are about twice the size, kill you instantly, and have sphincters. Like...buttholes.

[toblix]

You just sold me on the Hydra, and then I found out nobody sells it. I found one shop that says they had one in stock, so we'll see.

[Joewintergreen]

Just buy it from here and get 50% off

[toblix]

Thanks, but they're sold out.

[Joewintergreen]

Oh, dang.

[toblix]

The store I ordered it from sent me a Short Message Service text message saying «oh shit it said we had that? Sorry bro!» and then canceled my order. Then I ordered one from Amazon.co.uk which didn't have any in stock, but maybe they'll get some later? I don't know. I also registered my interest on Razer's site. I can't really run around on an Omni, wearing the Oculus Rift and not have the Razer Hydra – I'd look like a complete idiot!

[toblix]

Aaand my Amazon order has been dispatched ... they're still out of stock, so either I'm very lucky or I'm not.

[Sno]

I decided to give the gearbox add-ons another look, and nope, i can't do it. I bailed out about half of the way through Opposing Force, and could barely stand to play Blue Shift.

They have a lot of positive attributes, a lot of flashy, ambitious scenarios, and in Opposing Force specifically, a lot of really cool and inventive weapons. (In a weird way, i felt like i could feel some of the ethos that would later inform the Borderlands games. Mainly in the character dialogue and weapon design.)

Their battles are also very unflinchingly scripted and narrow in a way HL1's firefights actually weren't, despite that game's reputation as having essentially devised the linear FPS thrill-ride to begin with.

Opposing Force's big emphasis on a squad mechanic, built up on HL1's barely functional NPC AI, was also making it pretty frustrating at points.

[Ben X]

Someone's doing a big ambitious BM style (but unaffiliated) remake of OF and BS.

 

You know, it took me a long time to realise that those two add-ons have clever names

[toblix]

Aaand my Hydra is in my hand(s.)

 

So, what do I use this thing for? What are the sweet games I can play with the Rift and the Hydra? HL2?

[zerofiftyone]

You know, it took me a long time to realise that those two add-ons have clever names

I know right? When I finally realised, it was like figuring out the joke behind "Miles Prower" all over again.

[Ben X]

I know right? When I finally realised, it was like figuring out the joke behind "Miles Prower" all over again.

 

Yeah, Dan had to explain that to me and that was only when he realised in 2005. Also, it took him a bizarrely long amount of time to work out that Wile E. Coyote was so named because it sounded like "wily coyote". I actually snuck a line of dialogue into TGP where the character Dan suddenly realises that, to take this piss out of real-life Dan.

[Sno]

There's the third Gearbox add-on too, the co-op one exclusive to the PS2 port of Half-Life.

It was called "Decay".