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

[The handsome tard]

That moment when you realise that Valve only finally made another Half Life game for the sole greedy purpose of selling VR headsets.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

Did anyone else play the Half-Life 1 demo? It was a cool idea, it uses no levels from the game and instead acts like a side story where you play as a marine(I think?) when hell breaks loose.

 

[Fwiffo]

Did anyone else play the Half-Life 1 demo? It was a cool idea, it uses no levels from the game and instead acts like a side story where you play as a marine(I think?) when hell breaks loose.

Huh? I did have the half-life demo, It was called Day One, and it ended just after We’ve Got Hostiles. Was there another one? Or are you thinking of something weird like half-life decay?

 

[Win98SE]

TBH, I love how fucked up HL2 looked in the leaked beta. The long train ride at the beginning originally showed an incredibly desolate world that had mostly been drained of its resources. In general it seemed like Valve really wanted to hit people over the head with an unrelentingly oppressive atmosphere. Other things like the air being poisoned to make humans dependent on Combine aid, child labor camps, and the oceans being emptied also come to mind.

Huh? I did have the half-life demo, It was called Day One, and it ended just after We’ve Got Hostiles. Was there another one? Or are you thinking of something weird like half-life decay?

I believe it's called Uplink.

 

[Coolio55]

HL3 will happen but as is standard in the modern gaming industry it will be made by a completely different team to the one who made the series great.
Back when epistle 3 was released I felt this massive sense of relief because all the ballbusting and teasing was over. HL3 as we knew it was dead and I stick to that.
Maybe they'll release some interesting stuff, maybe not. It's not a big deal anymore.
Shit, maybe I should read some of Marc Llaidlaw's sci-fi books.

One thing I'm interested in is if someone would recreate the atmosphere and gameplay as a 2d orthographical or isometric RPG. That would be the absolute fucking tits.
I'm a stickler for turn based combat but a 2d realtime shooter rpg would also kick ass.

@Gaymead
Oh, shit. I was actually in the middle of playing that mod. Alyx's voice works pretty well but I'm excited to see how the original actor fares.
I was wondering why I was seeing references to it recently, I thought it was just the NWO gangstalkers making fun of me again.

 

[Smug Chuckler]

TBH, I love how fucked up HL2 looked in the leaked beta. The long train ride at the beginning originally showed an incredibly desolate world that had mostly been drained of its resources. In general it seemed like Valve really wanted to hit people over the head with an unrelentingly oppressive atmosphere. Other things like the air being poisoned to make humans dependent on Combine aid, child labor camps, and the oceans being emptied also come to mind.

Apparently there are two mod projects trying to recrate the beta, and if you have garry's mod you can download the beta maps from the workshop and explore them.

 

[Jonah Hill poster]

 

[The handsome tard]

Memes like that just serve to remind you the power of sound design at building your game's identity

 

[Gar For Archer]

HL3 will happen but as is standard in the modern gaming industry it will be made by a completely different team to the one who made the series great.
Back when epistle 3 was released I felt this massive sense of relief because all the ballbusting and teasing was over. HL3 as we knew it was dead and I stick to that.
Maybe they'll release some interesting stuff, maybe not. It's not a big deal anymore.
Shit, maybe I should read some of Marc Llaidlaw's sci-fi books.

One thing I'm interested in is if someone would recreate the atmosphere and gameplay as a 2d orthographical or isometric RPG. That would be the absolute fucking tits.
I'm a stickler for turn based combat but a 2d realtime shooter rpg would also kick ass.

@Gaymead
Oh, shit. I was actually in the middle of playing that mod. Alyx's voice works pretty well but I'm excited to see how the original actor fares.
I was wondering why I was seeing references to it recently, I thought it was just the NWO gangstalkers making fun of me again.

This thing with the HL2 beta kinda makes you wonder how much “Epistle 3” would have actually matched a version of HL3 that hadn’t gotten stuck in development hell and actually got released. I feel like if it had actually gotten further along, the progression might’ve changed pretty drastically (even if the overall thrust of the plot stayed the same).

Like the whole final act on the Borealis just FEELS like one of those things that would’ve had to be heavily cut down and altered for being too overly-ambitious.

 

[Kane Lives]

Memes like that just serve to remind you the power of sound design at building your game's identity

I'm honestly surprised how enduring goldsrc memes are, considering the age of the game. Might just be because Half-Life is so ubiquitously ingrained in everyone's collective memory for that generation but when even zoomers are memeing it...

 

[CreamyHerman’s]

That moment when you realise that Valve only finally made another Half Life game for the sole greedy purpose of selling VR headsets.

View attachment 3224741

I doubt it, because it is playable on every VR headset out there, not just exclusive to the Index. Best way to play? Yes. But you get 99% of the experience with the other VR devices

 

[WULULULULU]

I'm honestly surprised how enduring goldsrc memes are, considering the age of the game. Might just be because Half-Life is so ubiquitously ingrained in everyone's collective memory for that generation but when even zoomers are memeing it...

Tell the zoomers to STAHP and fuck off with their presence. Let them make their own memes, leave us Half-Life retired fans alone.

 

[Toolbox]

That moment when you realise that Valve only finally made another Half Life game for the sole greedy purpose of selling VR headsets.

View attachment 3224741

At least it's one of the better VR games, rivaling Boneworks. Still didn't exactly prove VR as a new medium or anything, especially with the pricetag the valve index had and still has. Seriously, how have they not budged on the 1 grand pricetag?

 

[Übertroon]

I'm of the opinion that Laidlaw's proposed Episode 3 sounded pretty meh. It was just an outline and it probably was going to be refined, but the general gist of it didn't entice me much. I can't say I like Alyx's ending much either, though. Maybe it was just impossible to live up to Episode Two's ending.

The episode 3 outline was fine until the ending, as it's just a rethread of what we learned in episode 1 and 2, there is no relevation or plot development, and then it just ends with a timeskip.

Personally I would begin Episode 3 with more action than a funeral service and arguing about what to do with the Borealis. Have multiple Combine forces approach from every direction, have it be a desperate evacuation as we get a teaser for some new foes you will be facing later. Since you're now fighting Combine from outside City 17 they have frightening new weapons and monsters in their arsenal.

In the original outline the teleportation capability of the Borealis is the main focus, but I think the time travel aspect should get more focus, basically the Aperture scientists accidentally discovered time travel while experimenting with teleportation.

Bree slug makes an appearance, he's terrified, but not by Gordon or Alyx, he fears the Combine as their true nature has been revealed to him, and he's being kept on a short leash, but mostly he fears the person manipulating Gordon and Alyx, the one thing even the Combine fear.

At the climax the true nature of the combine is revealed. They are not alien conquerors, nor are they running from something else like Nihilanth. They are exactly where they've always been, earth. The Combine is revealed to be the end result of an unkown amount of time and evolution that has resulted in humanity becoming slug like galactic conquerors, but having grown too large for their own galaxy they've begun using time travel to siphon resources from alternate timelines.

Basically there is nothing for the Combine in the future as it's simply more Combine having consumed everything. But by going to the past the combine are creating alternate timelines where they are free to ravage galaxies to satisfy their need and continue growing.

And where the alien looking combine and even Nihilanth were just humans from alternate timelines far into the future, the human looking G-Man is a true alien with alien motivations. G-Man's "employers" regard humanity as a blight and a threat. Their distant descendants have no regard for the equilibrium of the universe and are playing with dangerous technology that might endanger all of reality.

The Borealis is of interest both to the Combine and the G-Man as it's the moment where time travel was discovered by humans. It's the reason why the time around the Black Mesa incident was the moment all sides began to make their move.
The Combine wants to keep time travel away from those who would use their own technology against them. The G-Man has led Gordon and Alyx to it as it's an opportunity.

The G-Man presents a dilemma, Gordon can choose to use the Borealis technology to correct the universal equilibrium, in one easy stroke defeat an enemy beyond counting and with no hope for resistance but which means that humanity has no future. He can not go back and try to prevent the Combine, as that just creates a new alternate timeline, but he can use it destroy all the timelines touched by the Combine.

Alyx Vance is also presented with the same dilemma. Have not really thought out who would agree or disagree with either option. Obviously the G-Man does not take kindly to whoever decides to go against the wishes of his "employers"

Oh also G-Man could easily do the dirty work himself, I mean it always seemed strange that the teleporting, time traveling individual required the services of a guy with a crowbar, but basically his "employers" have stipulated that the destruction of human future must fall upon human hands, and not some intra dimensional time police.

 

[HeyYou]

At the climax the true nature of the combine is revealed. They are not alien conquerors, nor are they running from something else like Nihilanth. They are exactly where they've always been, earth. The Combine is revealed to be the end result of an unkown amount of time and evolution that has resulted in humanity becoming slug like galactic conquerors, but having grown too large for their own galaxy they've begun using time travel to siphon resources from alternate timelines.

Doesn't that defeat Half-Life's entire point that humans are nothing special and we're just another resource to be drained for a power beyond our understanding?

 

[The handsome tard]

@Gaymead

Me: okay, look, I will give them the benefit of the doubt and check this out. Who knows? Maybe she might fit in well in a bizzare ma- *see her model with giant ass tities* Well, gave them too much credit

Doesn't that defeat Half-Life's entire point that humans are nothing special and we're just another resource to be drained for a power beyond our understanding?

The problem is that people expect answers but also dont want to get said answers at the same time.

Its like the fanbase doesnt know what it truly wants

 

[Übertroon]

Doesn't that defeat Half-Life's entire point that humans are nothing special and we're just another resource to be drained for a power beyond our understanding?

Having our resources taken is not beyond our understanding though. The fight for resources is the main cause of most human conflicts. The Combine were mysterious. But I think the Combine being an extremely alien future is more intruiging than Dyson sphere galactic imperialists

It's the G-Man who is the truly enigmatic one

 

[HeyYou]

Having our resources taken is not beyond our understanding though. The fight for resources is the main cause of most human conflicts. The Combine were mysterious. But I think the Combine being an extremely alien future is more intruiging than Dyson sphere galactic imperialists

It's the G-Man who is the truly enigmatic one

It's not taking our resources that's beyond our understanding, it's the Combine's technology, culture and actual government that's beyond our understanding. It's what a tribal ruled over by an 18th century European empire would be experiencing, but on an entirely different level. "Humans but slugs" diminishes that pretty heavily in my opinion.

 

[Übertroon]

It's not taking our resources that's beyond our understanding, it's the Combine's technology, culture and actual government that's beyond our understanding. It's what a tribal ruled over by an 18th century European empire would be experiencing. "Humans but slugs" diminishes that pretty heavily in my opinion.

Well the technology and system of government is still entirely alien. It's not slug president of slug America coming in with the slug air force. Also the comparison to colonial Africa is fair, but I think the conbine always came off as galactic colonisers, and it's more like the USS Enterprise colonising Africa while the human apes haven't even begun standing upright

The only difference is that what you thought were aliens is now just alien humans, everything else is the same

 

[HeyYou]

Well the technology and system of government is still entirely alien. It's not slug president of slug America coming in with the slug air force. Also the comparison to colonial Africa is fair, but I think the conbine always came off as galactic colonisers, and it's more like the USS Enterprise colonising Africa while the human apes haven't even begun standing upright

The only difference is that what you thought were aliens is now just alien humans, everything else is the same

Anything that doesn't sound good in concept could be infinitely better in execution, to be fair, I just think that Half-Life works well because it doesn't have the typical sci-fi twists.