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

[Nameless One]

It’s a video game dude lol calm down

Shut up fag.

 

[Nameless One]

Video comparing the different versions of HL2, interesting for people who didn't already know this.

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This guy is a retard and uses 4k resolution on emulated comparisons which is why he points out weird differences you won't encounter at the original intended resolutions and such. Do not trust this man. I hate to say but Digital Foundry had better HL2 comparisons.

He makes many flawed game version comparisons with emulators on non-software settings lmao.

 

[Coolio55]

In the process of writing my last post, I found some pretty funny shit while fiddling around with local models.
I was going to post the "Xiaolin Showdown" RPG I found that introduced me to the concept of "RPG" characters ...but then I found this.


I wish I could send these images back in time. We're making the dreams of preteen boys a reality and people are just ambivalent about it.

 

[The handsome tard]

To be honest i disliked the direction with G-Man

I got fascinated by him when i played HL1 and its expansions. A apparent human with something off about him, he gave a lot of that uncanny valley feeling. I think it's a kind of character that gets ruined if you expand too much on him

I hate Hunt Down the Freeman but HL: Alyx oddly justified that version of the character where apparently he has time powers.

As powerful as the G-Man was, HL2 did confirm that there are limitations and workarounds to his reach, things he cant do it for one reason or the other.

Alyx just gave him time powers and it makes you wonder how the hell anything goes "wrong" with G-Man if he can practically "nudge" everything in his favor? Sure, you can argue some nudges would be too big for his employees's liking but given how vague they are, how can we be sure?

That technically makes G-Man more powerful than even Pennywise because the latter can "Just" know the past,present and future at the same time, meaning he knows he will be defeated but cant alter that (basically, he "read the script" but still needs to follow it, he can still adknowledge it tho), G-Man, however, CAN alter time, thus raising the point on how anything can ever go "wrong" or "off" about his plans.

This is the problem with time powers and time travel*, once you introduce them, it raises so many questions, too many for the narrative to satisfyingly answer.

*at least as an element of a story, instead of being a time travel story by itself.

 

[Nameless One]

I hate Hunt Down the Freeman but HL: Alyx oddly justified that version of the character where apparently he has time powers.

As powerful as the G-Man, HL2 did confirm that there are limitations and workarounds to his reach, things he cant do it for one reason or the other.

Alyx just gave him time powers and it makes you wonder how the hell anything goes "wrong" with G-Man if he can practically "nudge" everything in his favor? Sure, you can argue some nudges would be too big for his employees's liking but given how vague they are, how can we be sure?

That technically makes G-Man more powerful than even Pennywise because the latter can "Just" know the past,present and future at the same time, meaning he knows he will be defeated but cant alter that (basically, he "read the script" but still needs to follow it, he can still adknowledge it tho), G-Man, however, CAN alter time, thus raising the point on how anything can ever go "wrong" or "off" about his plans.

This is the problem with time powers and time travel*, once you introduce them, it raises so many questions, too many for the narrative to satisfyingly answer.

*at least as an element of a story, instead of being a time travel story by itself.

The Simpsons treehouse of horror did a great classic time travel bit. But I feel like time travel can only make sense under comedy or autistic space sci fi or horror stories. It's open and shut with that part of the episode. A time travel story is best told either within less than an hour or within an anthology that's actually well written.

Parallel universes are usually gay but an exploration of the past especially a characters past or future, can be interesting. We have to go back to the future.

 

[Forklift Certified]

I hate Hunt Down the Freeman but HL: Alyx oddly justified that version of the character where apparently he has time powers.

As powerful as the G-Man was, HL2 did confirm that there are limitations and workarounds to his reach, things he cant do it for one reason or the other.

Well its kinda passable in HL: Alyx because Gman was imprisoned (sign of his limitation)

the hell anything goes "wrong" with G-Man if he can practically "nudge" everything in his favor?

its my new head cannon now... every Gman "off screen" in game appearance its a nudge in the right direction .

 

[Pumpkin_Spice_Bastard]

My take on the alleged time travel:
Fuck you, thats why.
I came to like Alyx more over the years. Same with Portal 2 weirdly enough.

 

[Star Classic]

My take on the alleged time travel:
Fuck you, thats why.
I came to like Alyx more over the years. Same with Portal 2 weirdly enough.

People say it's "reddit", but the thing about something being reddit is that there's zero sincerity in it. This is not the case with Portal 2 or Alyx.

I think people would actually like Alyx a lot more, they just quite literally cannot play it. Hearing the story of Half-Life 2 is a helluva lot different than playing it. Watching a video doesn't give the same feedback as unleashing vort energy on the advisor and saving Eli, or picking up the crowbar again as Gordon.

I can guarantee you if I still hadn't played Alyx I'd be right here with the rest of folks complaining about it.

Also I will say this, if you don't like time travel, then I have some bad news: Valve was doing it as far back as Episode One given that the Vorts have to rewind HL2's ending to save Gordon and Alyx.

I'm a bit worried about how they'll handle EZ1's writing. Say what you will about EZ2's character writing, I still think that Bad Cop had a pretty good arc and there was somewhat of a reason for him spouting one liners so much. Clone Cop outright says you "talk too much" which implies that the cloning process isn't as straightforward as every variant being the exact same, with the Combine maybe making slight "tweaks" to every new clone. Bad Cop using mostly beta voice lines and talking infrequently separated EZ1's Bad Cop from EZ2's Bad Cop, which helped mitigate how much I would've (and kind of do) hated the writing for him in EZ2.

Also Aiden Walker is still probably one of the worst protag names ever, like I can't imagine literally anyone else but some snot-nosed 12 year old. Imagine you learn the big bad poster boy for the combine is named "Aiden"

 

[Nameless One]

People say it's "reddit", but the thing about something being reddit is that there's zero sincerity in it. This is not the case with Portal 2 or Alyx.

I think people would actually like Alyx a lot more, they just quite literally cannot play it. Hearing the story of Half-Life 2 is a helluva lot different than playing it. Watching a video doesn't give the same feedback as unleashing vort energy on the advisor and saving Eli, or picking up the crowbar again as Gordon.

I can guarantee you if I still hadn't played Alyx I'd be right here with the rest of folks complaining about it.

Also I will say this, if you don't like time travel, then I have some bad news: Valve was doing it as far back as Episode One given that the Vorts have to rewind HL2's ending to save Gordon and Alyx.


I'm a bit worried about how they'll handle EZ1's writing. Say what you will about EZ2's character writing, I still think that Bad Cop had a pretty good arc and there was somewhat of a reason for him spouting one liners so much. Clone Cop outright says you "talk too much" which implies that the cloning process isn't as straightforward as every variant being the exact same, with the Combine maybe making slight "tweaks" to every new clone. Bad Cop using mostly beta voice lines and talking infrequently separated EZ1's Bad Cop from EZ2's Bad Cop, which helped mitigate how much I would've (and kind of do) hated the writing for him in EZ2.

Also Aiden Walker is still probably one of the worst protag names ever, like I can't imagine literally anyone else but some snot-nosed 12 year old. Imagine you hear about the big bad poster boy for the combine is named 'Aiden"

They're making Entropy Zero 3?

 

[Star Classic]

They're making Entropy Zero 3?

Sort of but not really. EZ1 is getting a overhaul to be in line with the standards of EZ2, Axon Pariah is basically Entropy Zero 2: Episode One. Progenitors is some spinoff episode that's more comparable to what Episode 4 would've been in terms of adding content.

 

[Stalker]

People say it's "reddit", but the thing about something being reddit is that there's zero sincerity in it. This is not the case with Portal 2 or Alyx.

I think people would actually like Alyx a lot more, they just quite literally cannot play it. Hearing the story of Half-Life 2 is a helluva lot different than playing it. Watching a video doesn't give the same feedback as unleashing vort energy on the advisor and saving Eli, or picking up the crowbar again as Gordon.

I can guarantee you if I still hadn't played Alyx I'd be right here with the rest of folks complaining about it.

Also I will say this, if you don't like time travel, then I have some bad news: Valve was doing it as far back as Episode One given that the Vorts have to rewind HL2's ending to save Gordon and Alyx.


I'm a bit worried about how they'll handle EZ1's writing. Say what you will about EZ2's character writing, I still think that Bad Cop had a pretty good arc and there was somewhat of a reason for him spouting one liners so much. Clone Cop outright says you "talk too much" which implies that the cloning process isn't as straightforward as every variant being the exact same, with the Combine maybe making slight "tweaks" to every new clone. Bad Cop using mostly beta voice lines and talking infrequently separated EZ1's Bad Cop from EZ2's Bad Cop, which helped mitigate how much I would've (and kind of do) hated the writing for him in EZ2.

Also Aiden Walker is still probably one of the worst protag names ever, like I can't imagine literally anyone else but some snot-nosed 12 year old. Imagine you learn the big bad poster boy for the combine is named "Aiden"

Thanks for posting this. EZ2 was so fucking good, glad to see that the guy is still doing stuff.

 

[Nameless One]

The wait for half life 3 is fucking killing me. And I don't even have a gaming computer anymore.

 

[Forklift Certified]

The wait for half life 3 is fucking killing me. And I don't even have a gaming computer anymore.

I blame the techbros who pumping the AI bubble. We are shifted from the perfect timeline, it supposed to be announced in the games award show !

 

[RandomBullshitGo]

Well its kinda passable in HL: Alyx because Gman was imprisoned (sign of his limitation)

Don’t you think it’s odd he was imprisoned in the first place? Unless it was part of a plan of his to meet Alyx, but surely he could have just presented himself to her anywhere else

 

[Jotch]

I hope they never announce HL3 in any of those gay shows, they frankly would not need it. Just silently put it on the steam front page without announcement and 10% of the world's population will be aware within 24 hours.

 

[Star Classic]

Don’t you think it’s odd he was imprisoned in the first place? Unless it was part of a plan of his to meet Alyx, but surely he could have just presented himself to her anywhere else

Getting caught was absolutely part of his plan.

I'm not concise with these sorts of thing, but I'll do my best. The plot of the Episodes is G-Man losing control (Laidlaw's words if I'm not mistaken) and he does given everything that happens after the ending of HL2 quite literally wasn't supposed to happen. Both in narrative and meta sense, as HL2 was never designed with a story continuation in mind.

Anyways, Episode One happens and G-Man loses Gordon as an employee due to the Vorts taking him out of stasis. The G-man isn't going to walk out of this without some form of compensation, so he needs a new employee to replace Gordon. You might say Adrian but Adrian technically isn't an employee, he's just been detained because he knows something he's not supposed to.

This is where G-Man's gamble of saving Alyx as a child pays off. This is getting into odd territory, but the G-Man is pretty clearly not all powerful/knowing. At best, he has some sense that someone can be very important down the line (which is why he saved Alyx) and has a limited sense of clairvoyance, since he can show surprise and anger when the Vorts hold him back. He wouldn't've been surprised had he already known that was going to happen.

Now all of that is actually kind of relayed to us in Episode Two during G-Man's heart-to-heart, where he tells Gordon to "see her safely to White Forest" which shows that by now he's got his eyes on Alyx. So from there the rest of Episode Two happens, Eli dying was not because of the G-Man, his death is entirely just a casualty of being the wrong man in the wrong place.

G-Man has already saved Alyx, but he's in no position to offer her a job since Vortigaunt meddling is likely still active around Gordon, and also don't forget that Freeman and Alyx have a "weaved soul" because of the Vortigaunt Marriage at the start of Episode 2. it's also likely she might not even accept his job given she knows more about the context of what he'd be offering her.

Given all that we know Alyx has to take place (story wise, not chronologically) sometime after the original ending of Episode Two. So he can't really hire Alyx at the end of EP2, and he can't offer a 4 year old Alyx at the time of HL1 a job, since she'd have to prove herself to G-Man's employers. Alyx as a game is pretty similar to HL1 in that it's basically a job application for the G-Man's Employers. However, there is still one opening in-between those two points that's perfect.

Now what exactly the timing during this isn't clear, but G-Man inserts himself into the Quarantine Zone of City 17, 5 years before HL2, and waits for the combine to find him, which they do. The combine spare no expense in "containing" the G-Man so they use vortigaunt energy (which is shown in EP1 to somewhat repel him) to keep him suspended in the vault. it should be noted that the G-Man probably could've left at any time he wanted too, given he still leaves in EP1, but he purposefully chose to stay in his prison because he knew, or at least believed, that Alyx was still capable as a 19 year old to come and save him.

She was of course, since Alyx the game exists. G-Man offers her something for "coming all this way", in this case saving Eli. It should be noted that Eli (by this point) is no longer deemed important, if he was, he'd still be alive/dead by then, with no changing his fate allowed. So of course, a more naïve 19 year old Alyx who knows nothing of the context in the scene she's shown, takes the bait and saves her father, but in doing so seals her fate and unknowingly accepts his job offer, sin of omission.

Now G-man can't take Alyx right then because she's still important to the plot of HL2 and the Episodes, and she's not going to resist the "irresistible human temptation of telling all" so he would've had to erase her memory MIB style (kind of dumb yeah, but it is what it is) so she can still play her part. Anyways, skipping back to EP2. Gordon wakes up and Eli isn't curled up in a pool of blood and Alyx is now missing, having been delivered to her Point Extraction, by Gordon. Expect that nothing of this will be explained to you in HLX.

TLR Brevity is the soul of wit, and I'm lacking in both. Type a 9.

P.S. "why didn't G-Man just erase Shephard's memory?" Because he likes to do a little trolling. It's called we do a little trolling .

 

[RandomBullshitGo]

P.S. "why didn't G-Man just erase Shephard's memory?" Because he likes to do a little trolling. It's called we do a little trolling

I’m optimistic and like to think to myself it’s because he’s saving Adrian for later (haha)

 

[Star Classic]

I’m optimistic and like to think to myself it’s because he’s saving Adrian for later (haha)

I like to think this too. G-man has some sort of liking to Shephard like he does Freeman given that he did favors for both of them, like putting Shep unto the advanced training course, and I doubt G-man would bend over backwards for anyone else like he does for Gordon in EP2, if he didn't like them.

My hope is that Valve won't do anything relating to him in HLX, that way if they ever do a another HL game, perhaps one that has nothing to do with Earth or the Combine (like they wanted to do with HL2 in 1999) they have a protagonist premade for them. God only knows if they would ever touch HL again after HLX, so for all intents and purposes I'll just assume he gets released sometime after because why else does he need to be detained.

 

[Blackstar]

Valve clearly wanted to have Adrian involved in the HL2 world since he was supposed to be the playable character in the Ravenholm game, but its cancellation threw him back into limbo. Time will tell if he ever returns but it might be a very long time, or he'll just never return.

 

[Nick Wilde]

The thing is with Half Life: The Next One they still kinda have themselves written into a corner. The storyline has a narrow range of places it can go because it's still beholden to where HL2 and the Episodes took it.

The retcon in Alyx kind of helps, but only in as much as it gives them more wiggle room; it doesn't fundamentally solve where they are stuck with the narrative.

For HL3 I always imagined it would be something of a jump, like how it is between HL1 and HL2. It's still linked, the characters are ostensibly "returning" from HL1, it's downstream from the events of the first game. But it is for all intents and purposes a brand new story that doesn't need to have those connections to be a cohesive narrative- You can remove every reference to Black Mesa and it's still a perfectly understandable story.

The problem is they have no way to pull that off again without it leaving the arc of HL2 unresolved. They need to tie up that story first, so any Half Life we get now, is never truly even capable of being HL3. It has to be a continuation of HL2. Half Life will always be about Gordon, and I think Gordon will always ultimately be in the thrall of G-Man. G-Man metaphorically represents Valve (his "employers"), wheeling Gordon out of his space cupboard so we can play as him for another instalment.

I won't be surprised if the HL2 arc ends with Gordon getting to make a similar Hobson's choice as in the first game, except this time with a much more meta thematic undercurrent about narrative and player agency and such, similar to the "a man chooses" thing in Bioshock.

I can guarantee you if I still hadn't played Alyx I'd be right here with the rest of folks complaining about it.

The funny part is that people's reasons for not playing it are that they don't want to invest in VR hardware. But it's barely an investment at all if you already have a gaming PC. Gamers will spend $1k to get a new graphics card that gives 10% better performance than their old one, but can't drop a hundred bucks on a second hand Quest.

Anyway I thought Alex was incredible. The ironic thing is they played it super safe in gameplay terms, but went a bit too heavy on the horror. I know several people who said they couldn't finish it (and not just the Jeff part) because they got too creeped out.