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

[RSU 1741]

if another modern game company made these characters, it would likely be extremely obnoxious.

Valve was extremely, extremely competent at what they were doing.

I hate Alyx. I hated her at release. I hated her even more during the Episodes when they made her suddenly INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT. I hated Half Life : Alyx even more because instead of Gordon I got more blasian waifu. Nonetheless, inserting culture war bullshit was far beyond whatever Valve was doing. I hate Alyx because she's a waifu by committee, feels completely artificial and she's thrown in your face constantly, particularly in the Episodes. But calling it DEI is mindrot.

The Citizens are purposefully multiracial and multicultural (white male, black male, asian male, white woman, black woman, asian woman) and Valve clearly planned it so for American audiences justifying their presence in Eastern Europe with the "Combine moved millions around to uproot people from their native countries". It's very well done and it's not preachy.

If Half Life 2 diverse? It is and it's done on purpose. It's not, however, done out of obligation or to be preachy. Valve simply planned their crap well.

"dated" by the younger generations after HL2 came out.

I'm old enough to remember the bile against HL2 by the HL1 purists. There's still some around, preaching that HL2 murdered their dog. Some things in HL2 are a bit iffy indeed (weapon selection in particular and the use of Combine soldiers but... it's beyond the point) but they were simply contrarians.

I disagree that HL1 and HL2 are particularly dated by modern standards. Both reached a fairly decent retirement age with a still alive and kicking mod community that still throws out stuff. Compared to contemporary unmoddable FPS games or even 2010/2020-era shooters, it's a kind of immortality others will never reach.

 

[modern horrors]

Valve should've done what Doom 3 did and make all characters you encounter killable without breaking the game. If they really wanted they could have added a bad ending where Gman scolds you about dooming the Earth after you kill critical npcs, or something like that but no. Half-Life 2 takes itself much more seriously than Half-Life 1 did.

 

[Dude Snakes]

Speak for yourself, I don't want shitskins in my media. Just as China doesn't, just as Israel doesn't. I have never heard an argument good enough to get me to watch niggers on TV or anywhere else. Los Fatigos Las Negros is REAL. No Mas.

Did a black guy steal your girlfriend?

 

[Soggy Floppa]

And accordingly they haven't released any significant games since DOTA2 or Portal 2.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/546560/HalfLife_Alyx/

Kerbal Space Program

Is unity

 

[Foltest]

Did a guy steal your girlfriend?

He was offented that he was not the one who got stolen.

 

[Slav Power]

the new stonetoss is about half-life:

View attachment 7030277

I don't think I've ever heard someone single out Valve when talking about DEI.

Politisperging retards that have to make everything political retroactively can all collectively put a 9mm lead pellet in their cranium, no matter their views. Racial diversity was never brought up during HL2, it only served as set dressing, since after all, and Valve said it themselves in the dev commentary, after 20 years of Combine occupation, they've thoroughly destroyed most of the planet, with only parts of Europe still being habitable, so they've moved what little left of humanity there, the NPC mish-mash makes sense.

And the reason Alyx was Blasian?

Her voice actress/face model was Blasian. If you try to pull some semantics about how Valve purposefully chose a Blasian actress to push the zogbot racemixing kikery agenda or whatever the fuck it is that you've made up in what little that's left of your brain, you're no different than all the SJW's you've made fun of those 8-9 years ago.

Plus, Valve did the most "anti-racist" thing you could ever do.

They've made some of the best black characters ever. So good in fact that a lot of racists will have no issue with the drunken black Scottish cyclops or the one-man cheeseburger apocalypse because of how lovable and iconic they are. Their race is never brought up, well, except Demoman where it is mentioned once, since his race is a subtle joke.
If your mind cannot help but jolt to schizo theories about some ulterior political motives when looking at them, maybe it's time to ventilate it with that lead pellet I've mentioned.

As an off-topic remark, GTA IV is my favorite example that it's not the racial diversity that's the issue, but it's purpose and how it's presented. Try to count how many characters in IV could score those sweet sweet diversity points, and then think about whether or not you've felt those characters were put there by R* only to serve as a race token rather than fully fleshed out characters whose races are the last thing that comes to mind when you think about them.

tl;dr: StoneToss is a faggot that needs to touch grass, pronto.

 

[Dude Snakes]

Recently I find its the passion that's the most absent. While I won't argue and say that to a certain point it became about money even for valve, people have to make a livelihood after all, but Valve left a game in my hands that felt worth my money. Nowadays devs cant even be bothered to leave something worthwhile in my hands for the 60, oh sorry its 70 now, that they take out of my pocket.

As for innovation, I really don't know what else there is left to do. Maybe I don't get around enough gaming wise but post-2007 what has come out tech wise that has really matched HL2 or any technical juggernaut from that era like Doom 3? The only game that really wowed me in the graphics department was Star Wars Battlefront 2015 which I still stand by is the most realistic looking game I've ever played, and even then good graphics don't count for much when your game sucks.


You talk sense but you forget your words are wasted on people who cant go 5 seconds without whining about DEI this or Woke that. People don't care to know the deeper meaning anymore. I know my generation doesn't.

Crysis also came out in 2007 and it was infamous for pushing past pcs limits. With the right mods it could look photorealistic.

 

[Red Frida]

Is unity

You got me there.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/546560/HalfLife_Alyx/

Alyx is a Valve Index tech demo you pay for.

 

[Soggy Floppa]

Alyx is a Valve Index tech demo you pay for.

That you can play on any headset and is a 12+ hour long full Half-Life game?

 

[Red Frida]

That you can play on any headset and is a 12+ hour long full Half-Life game?

Valve wouldn't have made Alyx if they weren't developing their own headset, so it falls under the hardware half of the "Valve is steam platform and hardware developer" theory. Aperture Desk Job also falls under this for the Steam Deck.
When Valve makes actual PC games these days they focus on multiplayer because the players buy cosmetics. And I don't know whether I'd count CS2 as a new game vs a reskin of the existing CS concept. I don't see them making an actual Half-Life game that people pay only $60 for once and isn't a loss leader to get people to buy unique Valve hardware for it. Cost would be significant and reception risk would be high for something that makes less money than their current activities.

 

[PanLake007]

Looking at all the nigger worshiping here it feels like Reddit, do you have to defend your nigger boyfriends.

You can see the whole quota nigger thing already in 80's/90's White TV shows, they were simple more subtle back then, slow cooking the frog. Another thing you could see was pro gay talk, and women equality talk, well, we all know how that turned out, talking about a slippery slope. I wonder how many niggers did work on Half-Life, guessing close to zero.

America had already ~13 niggers in 1900 so Americans are likely more accustomed to them, the rest of the White world was pretty much nigger free until recently, one of the rare occasion you would see one was in games, films or sports. So maybe Americans have a higher tolerance for them, on the other hand they could first hand witness how dumb, destructive, dangerous, and anti-White this race is, so simping for them is kinda weird.

Considering all the nigger bombardment in especially the last ~10 years, I'm surprised people still have a tolerance for them. If this isn't enough to radicalize you, then nothing will do, nigger in the front, then the strong woman, and the White men, you know the guys who fought and died in WW2, in the background.

Reminder, they really hate you.

.

 

[Foltest]

"braindead sperging"

Lol, calm down.

 

[capitalBBustard]

Plus, Valve did the most "anti-racist" thing you could ever do.

Nigger, Demoman was supposed to be white but was changed into a nig as having a Scotsman be white was "too cliche". Wow, that's fucking garbage straight out of today, and you wouldn't be shitting yourself crying how not woke that notion is if anyone said it nowadays.
50% of L4D2's protagonists being niggers was something people noticed as soon as the game was announced. It was ridiculous even then.

Also there's nothing more anti-racist than making your cast niggers! Oh wait, you said that without any irony whatsoever. People ITT being unhinged retards about the notion that a company based in Seattle are filled with shitlibs who believe shitlib things and their motivations for putting niggers in their games is and always was the exact same vapid reason why shitlibs put niggers into everything else. No, clearly it's the mysterious 4D common sense nigger control that only you and the chosen few of Gaben are privy to.

Stonetoss went for the sacred cow, which is the notion that niggers in media 20 years ago were ackshually there because "it just made sense for the story". No, they did it for the same reason it's done today. Muh "made sense" is and always was cope, and the slippery slope that lead to today.

Just for some perspective, Gaben, ol' sacred Gaben himself, wanted shit like a cut penis monster in HL1 that was supposed to confront teenage boys with their innate homophobia.

Among these was "Mr. Friendly" displaying an obvious penis. When questioned about it, Backman described that the creature would use its tentacled arms to pull the player towards itself until the point of fatal copulation. Birdwell was worried that Newell wouldn't approve of this material, but it turned out that was exactly what he was looking for. Newell and Backman then began a discussion about possible psycho-sexual alien behaviors and clinical descriptions of disturbed adolescent sexual fantasies. The sexual themes of some of these enemies were intended to elicit a response from the homophobia of 14-year-old boys, a significant portion of the targeted audience for the game.

This would've been in 1997, and this drivel is not dissimilar to todays wokeshit wordsalads justifying trash.

And for the record, Niko in GTAIV is an East Euro country bumpkin who fought in the Yugoslav wars who is also somehow an open minded individual without reservations about barely literate Jamaican niggers or bourgie sissyfags. He's like the alpha version of Arthur from RDR2, the completely safe edgy protagonist.

I like me some GTAIV and Niko Bellic, despite seeing the game basically doing everything it can not to cross lines that would offend sacred shitlib beliefs, like doing a heckin racism or calling a faggot a faggot. But they made fun of Hillary Clinton, wow so stunning and brave. #zased #bothsides

Lol, calm down.

>be Swedish
>have meltdown when someone doesn't worship niggers
Pottery. A witty repartee too. Your bull must be chortling.

 

[AnOminous]

You talk sense but you forget your words are wasted on people who cant go 5 seconds without whining about DEI this or Woke that. People don't care to know the deeper meaning anymore. I know my generation doesn't.

There really is no post-apocalypse DEI. You're either tough or you're dead.

But to give a DEI-riddled example, look at Abby from TLOU2. You have a roided-up bulldyke with a personal gym the size of a city block post-apocalypse. Absolutely fucking retarded gibberish. Freakish physical features that make absolutely no sense under the circumstances of the story.

Also I'm not really talking to those retards, I'm talking to people here who usually aren't that kind of person.

 

[Foltest]

>be Swedish
>have meltdown when someone doesn't worship niggers
Pottery. A witty repartee too. Your bull must be chortling.

Calm down faggot.
We know that you are so deep on the closet that you are afraid big man tyrone are going to find you.
Why don't you go and get asspats from your fellow faggots in the synththread? Maybe get a reach around from the,.

 

[capitalBBustard]

Calm down faggot.
We know that you are so deep on the closet that you are afraid big man tyrone are going to find you.
Why don't you go and get asspats from your fellow faggots in the synththread? Maybe get a reach around from the,.

Are you ok lilbro? You're violently projecting homosexual fancies. You're not typing one handed are you?

 

[AnOminous]

I'm old enough to remember the bile against HL2 by the HL1 purists. There's still some around, preaching that HL2 murdered their dog. Some things in HL2 are a bit iffy indeed (weapon selection in particular and the use of Combine soldiers but... it's beyond the point) but they were simply contrarians.

Tbh HL was just a slightly more advanced Doom-style FPS. It was an exceptionally good example of the genre. By the time HL2 came around, video games with an actual storyline and characters were more in vogue, and actually having semi-realistic physics engines was a thing. And HL2 (especially stuff like Lost Coast) was full of showy physics.

Even if a lot of it comes across as pretty janky in current year, it was super impressive at the time. It even got me to install Steam when I utterly detested the whole idea of proprietary game launchers (and Steam actually really blew chunks at the time).

Some of the criticisms are valid. They definitely made the game a lot easier. HL was brutal. HL2 was mildly brutal at best, but with frequent checkpointing and other stuff, you had a lot of room to fuck up, whereas HL was full of instadeath.

 

[Slav Power]

nigger nigger nigger niggers niggers nigger nigger
View attachment 7034066

Reminder, they really hate you.

View attachment 7034021.View attachment 7034095

Hey buddy I think (You) got the wrong door, /v/ is two blocks down.

Nigger

Same with (You).

You're about as subtle as a troon in a women's bathroom. To be fair, you act like them too, shoving your shit into places where no one wants it.

 

[TheHarbinger]

Looking at all the nigger worshiping here it feels like Reddit, do you have to defend your nigger boyfriends.

What did you expect exactly? Valve's fanbase are nothing but reddit tier faggots and nigger lovers. They want more niggers and blasians in Half Life.

Nigger, Demoman was supposed to be white but was changed into a nig as having a Scotsman be white was "too cliche".

No amount of evidence of Valve being run by DEI freaks will ever convince their fans. Most people here fully support DEI in Half Life it means more games.

 

[capitalBBustard]

Same with (You).

Instead of shitting yourself and crying like a little bitch about absolutely nothing you should make an #epic retort to prove me wrong with #factsandlogic.

Oh wait, you have no material for a retort, as you would've posted that instead of your embarrassing meltdown. Funny how me quoting Gabe once and posting a single TF2 post from Valve just wrecked your shit completely. Sucks to suck, gg no re.