Live data from Hacker News

Half-Life 2: 20th Anniversary Update

half-life.com

111–120 of 277 posts

Re: Half-Life 2: 20th Anniversary Update

#111
post #95

I can never understand why they haven't made a HL3. Given that they could literally make approximately 3.88 bajillion dollars from it in 24 hours. I suppose this is the very definition of developer integrity.

they made several money printers with cs and dota boxes

Re: Half-Life 2: 20th Anniversary Update

#112
post #95

I can never understand why they haven't made a HL3. Given that they could literally make approximately 3.88 bajillion dollars from it in 24 hours. I suppose this is the very definition of developer integrity.

For a while their stated reason was that they felt they couldn’t live up to the hype and the gaming community was too toxic and would have crucified them for it. True or not, I can see why they’d think that. However it’s also worth noting that they were spending that time on other projects making them likely even more money. HL3 isn’t going to have live service or esports applications that make money like their other…

It might not make as much money as live service but it might work like halo cars for the auto industry, giving them lots of press and attention and higher status as a game developer.

Re: Half-Life 2: 20th Anniversary Update

#113
post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's also a $60 purchase that requires a beefy Windows machine in addition to the headset. VR is a small market to begin with, and most VR people can't play Alyx without buying a whole new computer.

Does Half Life Alyx not come with the headset anymore?

Even among people on Steam (who have those beefy Windows machines for VR), more than half of headsets are an Oculus, and only 17% are an Index:

https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/Steam-Hardware-Softw...

Re: Half-Life 2: 20th Anniversary Update

#114
post #95

I can never understand why they haven't made a HL3. Given that they could literally make approximately 3.88 bajillion dollars from it in 24 hours. I suppose this is the very definition of developer integrity.

For a while their stated reason was that they felt they couldn’t live up to the hype and the gaming community was too toxic and would have crucified them for it. True or not, I can see why they’d think that. However it’s also worth noting that they were spending that time on other projects making them likely even more money. HL3 isn’t going to have live service or esports applications that make money like their other…

No rumor needed, they’re a 500 employee company with billions in estimated profits.

Re: Half-Life 2: 20th Anniversary Update

#115
post #92
post #46

It would be nice if it was again possible to run it in current Mac OS. The original Half life still lists Mac OS but with incompatible information (newer versions of Steam require recent versions, but HL only runs on old 32 bit OSX)

It should work in Wine, although I haven't tested this update yet. (disclaimer: I work for CodeWeavers, we sell CrossOver which should be a great and easy way to play) edit: tested out the 20th anniversary update on M2 Pro, it works great!

All, or at least most of Valve's games used to run natively on Mac, and now they don't (even on Intel Macs)

Re: Half-Life 2: 20th Anniversary Update

#116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Not a single company has my loyalty anymore. FromSoft

Really? Most of the people I know that are huge Souls fans weren't big on Armored Core. Then I've never heard anyone mention 2018's Déraciné and if you go a couple more years back their track record becomes fairly poor.

Yes Really.

Re: Half-Life 2: 20th Anniversary Update

#117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any idea how much earbuds are worth nowadays? I got the originals for being a first-day mac player, then traded them for some absolute nonsense… rip.

https://backpack.tf/stats/Unique/Earbuds/Tradable/Craftable 8 keys, I guess?

783 keys, rather. $500. Volume looms pretty low though…

Re: Half-Life 2: 20th Anniversary Update

#118
post #10
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also I highly recommend Black Mesa, which is the remake of HL1 in the HL2 engine. The Xen levels went from what they were to possibly some of my favorite levels in the game, and the music scoring is top-notch. It feels great to play.

And regarding another fan project - turns out the Prologue for Project Borealis has been released on November 11th! They're trying to make HL3 according to the Epistle 3 post from a couple of years ago. https://projectborealis.com/prologue-release/ Looks great, and feels pretty close to HL2 mechanics! Definitely has to be optimized more, but a very promising start (albeit short, ~10-15 minutes).

I worked on this in the first year, on the gameplay code. Glad it’s finally bearing some fruit.

Re: Half-Life 2: 20th Anniversary Update

#119
post #6

20-25 years ago a handful of companies had a weird hold on me. I’d jump on anything Google made back then. Blizzard could sell me any game they came up with. If it was from Blizzard, it was gonna be great. Lost all of it obviously. Not a single company has my loyalty anymore. Except if valve were to release a mystery black box with faint lambda symbol on it. I’d pay whatever they asked for it.

I’ve been following Larian trying to build a game of their dreams since early 2000s. It’s been immensely satisfying to see they finally succeed and achieve the popularity they deserved with the release of BG3.

I also highly recommend Divinity OS 1 and 2 for the same level of dedication to every single detail and free post-launch support, even if they didn’t have such an enormous blockbuster budget behind them.

Re: Half-Life 2: 20th Anniversary Update

#120
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been patiently waiting for an index 2 or a price cut. I will continue to patiently wait. I threw my CV1 that I bought secondhand in the trash when facebook bought oculus then forced login. Maybe I'll return to the market when it supplies something I want.

For better or worse Facebook are the ones keeping VR on life support, without them it would have flatlined years ago. They have the only good affordable headsets, they throw tons of money around to bankroll VR game studios in exchange for exclusivity, and even for games they don't bankroll it's a no-brainer to prioritize their platform because >90% of sales happen there. https://x.com/MuchRockness/status/184954344990…

I'm happy for them. I'd rather never touch VR again than plug my eyes into facebook.
Post reply on HN