Half Life thread - Discussions about Valve's FPS magnum opus(es) and any related content (spin offs, expansions and etc)

[jonahgoldberg]

just FYI, I hunted down and packed together all the hl1 files for lunix including (hopefully) all other official GoldSRC games such as day of defeat, counter strike, team fortress, etc... into a tarball, because they are kind of hard to track down. I also deleted some cl_dlls directories in the blue shift/opposing force directories because they cause xash3d to crash for whatever reason, so don't mind that because it will run fine with xash3d (at least on lunix, if you use proprietary garbage you can easily find the files for your operating system in under a minute anyway).

https://cia.govt.hu/hl1.tar.xz

DO archive and mirror the files around, ideally make a torrent for them, after doing any potentially needed cleanup to sanitize the files from things such as old logs or non-default configs.
there shouldn't be any of those in there, but you never know.
here are some checksums:
MD5: c3fcb61a7ccb8535479e565bf6d00697 hl1.tar.xz
SHA256: 1a3fd633379d75dd744679d63a897670e7c6bff1db16e46ba5f74f8dfa1e0faf hl1.tar.xz
i tested all of those files on xash3d-FWGS v49/0.20 (linux-i386 build 3142), obviously self compiled, so your version/build number may differ.
and please, use proxies when downloading any of this because you have to assume that you can't trust me, that i work for the government, will datamine your IP and user agent, forward it to the police for piracy, and fuck you over.

 

[Coolio55]

just FYI, I hunted down and packed together all the hl1 files for lunix including (hopefully) all other official GoldSRC games such as day of defeat, counter strike, team fortress, etc... into a tarball, because they are kind of hard to track down. I also deleted some cl_dlls directories in the blue shift/opposing force directories because they cause xash3d to crash for whatever reason, so don't mind that because it will run fine with xash3d (at least on lunix, if you use proprietary garbage you can easily find the files for your operating system in under a minute anyway).

https://cia.govt.hu/hl1.tar.xz

DO archive and mirror the files around, ideally make a torrent for them, after doing any potentially needed cleanup to sanitize the files from things such as old logs or non-default configs.
there shouldn't be any of those in there, but you never know.
here are some checksums:
MD5: c3fcb61a7ccb8535479e565bf6d00697 hl1.tar.xz
SHA256: 1a3fd633379d75dd744679d63a897670e7c6bff1db16e46ba5f74f8dfa1e0faf hl1.tar.xz
i tested all of those files on xash3d-FWGS v49/0.20 (linux-i386 build 3142), obviously self compiled, so your version/build number may differ.
and please, use proxies when downloading any of this because you have to assume that you can't trust me, that i work for the government, will datamine your IP and user agent, forward it to the police for piracy, and fuck you over.

What's the filesize? I want to know what grade of connection I can leech it thru.

 

[PunkinMan]

Some 3ds max source files have been leaked
Archive.org link

 

[ArthuriusMartyrius]

100% agree, though I might up it to 60%. This really was the absolute worst part of Black Mesa, and I'm surprised BM gets as much adulation as it does because the Xen portion of the game very nearly sours the entire mod, for me at least. It's like they said "The Xen section in the original Half Life was not as well recieved as the rest of the game by a not-insubstantial portion of players. Let's outdo valve in that respect and make our Xen section ten times worse! YAAYYY!!"

Xen started out pretty nifty (and occasionally shows burts of further niftiness) however it rapidly becomes just insidiously repetitive and/or tedious in almost all other parts. And I think to myself - they cut out, or really, decided to not remake an entire chapter as well as significant parts of other chapters set in Black Mesa (you know, the actual fucking namesake of the mod) to cram in overly long, comically repetitive sections of Xen, so much so that it makes up probably 60+% of the overall gametime - what in the christing fuck is wrong with you developers? Just awful.

The sheer irony of Black Mesa's devs refusing to do a proper length On A Rail chapter because it was "too long and repetitive" and then tacking on a huge-ass Xen section at the end which is EXACTLY that still boggles me. They couldn't even get Xen right, it's supposed to be a Giger-inspired nightmare world which they turned into a colorful Halo knock-off which only barely feels like the original Xen when you get to the Interloper chapter. And mind you, I was totally onboard with more Xen, I just meant more of the original Xen not the crap BM gave us and then had the devs throw temper tantrums when people criticized them for it.

Also I really hate how they changed the Vortigaunts to be more in-line with the ones in Half-Life 2. Those Vortigaunts sucked ass.

Spoiler

Half-Life 2 sucked ass in general too.

 

[BirdUp]

Half-Life 2 sucked ass in general too.

i like half-life 2 visually and story-wise but it's too gritty to be half-life, it forces you to wait through dialogue more than the first game, its ladders are janky to use, and it gives you a stamina and flashlight meter that arent separate
it would have been better if black mesa upgraded the graphics and AI without changing the art style, level design, or tone

 

[TVB]

i like half-life 2 visually and story-wise but it's too gritty to be half-life, it forces you to wait through dialogue more than the first game, its ladders are janky to use, and it gives you a stamina and flashlight meter that arent separate
it would have been better if black mesa upgraded the graphics and AI without changing the art style, level design, or tone

Even gameplay wise, it's inferior to its predecessor that it gets less interesting midway through gameplay. It just felt unfinished

 

[BirdUp]

Even gameplay wise, it's inferior to its predecessor that it gets less interesting midway through gameplay. It just felt unfinished

ive said this before but FEAR was a better sequel to half-life than hl2

 

[Slav Power]

The issue with HL2 was that Valve focused too hard on showing off that Source has Havok, leading to stupid puzzles like the one at the beginning where you have to grab cinder blocks to weigh down a see-saw to jump to an elevated passageway. That, and that massive leak that led them to hastily redo everything, so the whole 1984 vibe got dropped and you have this clash of themes where humanity is supposedly as fucked as it was in the beta vision, but you don't sense the urgency and weight of just how fucked everything is.

Recently I played a mod called Raising the Bar: Redux, and it does a good job at restoring the old vision of HL2 while keeping things modern with MMod-like combat and visuals. I got burnt by the very end of Division 2 because how the fuck am I supposed to fend off this many zombies at once?but otherwise I enjoyed it a lot. It has a ton of potential so keep an eye on it's development.

And speaking of MMod, that did the most to revitalize HL2, makes the gunplay actually fun, adds a bit of modern pizazz to HL2 without going full Cinematic Mod on visuals and "modernity", it's the perfect balance. it's HL1 counterpart is also very fun so give it a shot. Oh yeah, even Valve realized that having the flashlight bound to the main AUX power was retarded and it got split by Episode 2. MMod has the option to enable that when playing the older titles.

I should probably get my hands on Black Mesa and play through that while waiting on siemka321 to finish up Crack-Life: Campaign Anniversary.

 

[TVB]

ive said this before but FEAR was a better sequel to half-life than hl2

It's not even just that FEAR is what HL2 should've been, which yes this I do agree, but even something like Resistance is what HL2 should've also been. The first-person shooter mechanics and the series of monstrous creatures are things that Valve wished it wanted to be, and keep in mind, it was a PS3 exclusive that came out two years after (y'know, the first year that Sony gotten themselves to cocky for their own kind)

 

[PunkinMan]

heres all those leaked max files on showcase, or most of them at least.
From the info I have gathered so far this leak has possibly the earliest instance of the hl1 zombie

 

[Strange Looking Dog]

Xen was great what are you talking about?

 

[Patrick Bait-man]

The original Xen is fine. I don't understand the autistic hatred against it.

 

[TVB]

Xen was great what are you talking about?

The original Xen is fine. I don't understand the autistic hatred against it.

They're one of the main reasons why HL was fun

 

[Coolio55]

The original Xen is fine. I don't understand the autistic hatred against it.

Because the first person platforming reaches a head, it's unclear where you're supposed to go and the nihilanth comes out of nowhere with no foreshadowing.

 

[TheHarbinger]

The original Xen is fine. I don't understand the autistic hatred against it.

A lot of it comes from how people play games now. When Half Life 1 first came out there were not full walkthrough and speedrun guides and people generally played the games casually. As they didn't have to worry about YouTube thumbnails spoiling the entire game. And the 'hardcore no life' pace of game playing was only reserved for a small minority of gamers. You would take weeks to beat a game like Half Life 1 if you were an average gamer.

But now? Even casual gamers play at an exhaustive breakneck pace. Trying to finish a game's content in one setting. Binge watching television series, that debuted over the courses of years, in one or two days or even sittings. The pacing of most television shows was one episode a week. One season a year for a few years. Now people watch those shows in one weekend like a giant blur. Now people want downloadable content and battle passes and new seasons because this is how they were raised as gamers. They want to beat the game as quickly possible then get on social media and talk about the ending.

The newer people into the Half Life series basically played the first game in one sitting. Rushing through everything as quickly as possible. So the entire game is just a giant blur to them including Xen. I don't remember there being a visceral hatred for Xen when Half Life 1 came out. Most people when it came to the ending just obsessively speculated over what the G-Man was and what was next for Gordon (and then Shephard and Barney).

 

[30+GameOvers]

heres all those leaked max files on showcase, or most of them at least.
From the info I have gathered so far this leak has possibly the earliest instance of the hl1 zombie

Fatty mcNigger rebranded AGAIN?
This is fairly interesting. Looks like a lot of content from the final game is still in there, and what's there hints at cut content from the existing levels.

 

[Slav Power]

I played like five minutes of Half-Life: MMod and bounced right off of it. I last ended at Unforeseen Consequences by the grate where you're supposed to flood the sewers to get on the other side, and the headcrab elevator ride made me realize that MMod has insanely raised the difficulty level. I was getting my ass kicked even on Easy, and that fucking headcrab elevator shaft is complete bullshit.

The ammo is extra scarce, they keep flying down, you have no real way of defending yourself during that part, and they hit hard. And once you're at the bottom, it's full of headcrabs, and a zombie, and you're probably already out of ammo by then. I do not remember this segment being so miserable in vanilla, completely kills the mood when I'm compelled to use cheats to overcome the mod's bullshit.

I've been playing through Half-Life 2: MMod again, on Easy, and it's way, way more forgiving. I have no idea if it's just me or if MMod did fuck up the balance that bad for HL1 compared to HL2.

 

[PunkinMan]

Black Mesa has recieved an update which increases compatbility with linux as its has been ported to DXVK 2.3.1 along with full controller support, Im retarded and dont know about software very much sorry.
Steam News Update Link.

 

[Varretnon847]

That, and that massive leak that led them to hastily redo everything, so the whole 1984 vibe got dropped

I do agree that Valve probably spent too much time showing off Source and Havok rather then investing more time into the gameplay, but I'll have to correct you on this line. You seem to state that Valve scrapped the original vision of HL2 because of the leak in 2003, but this is actually a pretty big misconception that a lot of fans have.
If you were to play the actual 2003 HL2 leak, then the maps you would find you would look like this.


Not too much different from the final release eh?
All the maps for the original vision of HL2 were found in the WC-Mappack, which was a repository of maps created by Valve developers for HL2 that spanned from 2000-2003, that was leaked alongside the 2003 build of HL2. The maps were all VMFs that needed to be compiled to play on the leaked build.



A lot of these maps were very unfinished at varying levels, with only some of them having gameplay, scripted sequences. Even the ones that were mostly playable still had a lot of issues.
In truth, Valve had actually scrapped the original dark vision for HL2 around late 2002, and beginning the version of it that we know of now. I don't remember the exact reason that Valve scrapped the darker version, but I think it was due to the story and vision not working out the way they wanted to, resulting in them rewriting and rearranging a lot of it around. All the 2003 leak did reveal though was that HL2 was still heavily unfinished and Valve definitely would not have made it to their original 2003 release date. Whether the original version of HL2 was better then final I'll leave for your opinion.
As a bonus, if anyone is curious as to what the original 2003 unfinished campaign for HL2 was like, then there's a video playthrough here of a fixed version of the campaign maps. It's kind of what you'd expect for an in development campaign.

 

[Slav Power]

Whether the original version of HL2 was better then final I'll leave for your opinion.

IMO it should've landed somewhere in between.

The original vision was too extreme to make sense narrative wise. It felt right, you really felt that humanity was completely fucked and enslaved by an alien race. If you play through a mod like Raising The Bar: Redux you can really feel that oppressive atmosphere of the 1984 vision. Everything's dark, ruined, the sky is heavily polluted, you have child slaves working in a factory, you have an immense amount of dirt and rot in City 17, you feel just how fucked everything became.

But then how does it work exactly, that Gordon comes back from the stasis and actually puts a dent in the Combine's empire? Those are odds too impossible to have narrative sense, shit's too fucked for any sort of resistance to push back and not get obliterated in a nanosecond.

Retail vision on the other hand is too light. You don't really notice just how fucked humanity is really. The resistance is very joyful despite the circumstances, as if humanity wasn't enslaved for decades since the Resonance Cascade with no way to reproduce, while the entire planet is dying. The sea drainage and atmosphere pollution isn't that clear either. There are the coast levels but the lowered sea level doesn't give a good enough emphasis on just how bad it is. The cut Air Exchange would do that well, where the Combine were actively turning the planet inhabitable, but again, that was cut.

White Forest in Episode 2 just makes things worse because it shows that outside of City 17 there's a wonderful green forest. It's meant to be implied that the entire world is being drained of resources and polluted beyond the point of recovery. Why the fuck is there this wonderful green forest? Why doesn't it look like Red Forest from Chernobyl right after all the trees died from immense radiation?

They've dialed it back way too hard. HL2 lost all the weight of the situation the humanity is at. Raising The Bar: Redux does a good job at reimagining the original vision, much like Black Mesa did a better job at making the Resonance Cascade feel as serious as it was. And yes, I downloaded that and slowly playing through it, enjoying it so far.