Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Half-Life 2: 20th Anniversary Update

half-life.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

201–210 of 277 posts

Re: Half-Life 2: 20th Anniversary Update

#201

Post by kllrnohj »

riffruff24 wrote: post #190
danpalmer wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But that would go against > I believe they also said they don't want to do more of the same I've heard this too, with Half Life they want each game to be groundbreaking. Arkane have done great games, but they're not all groundbreaking, and arguably none of them are to the level that HL1/2 were.

That's why they should hire someone else to do the leg work (That's what they used to do anyway). There isn't exactly a lot of unique things in Portal 2 compared to the original but the sheer polish and testing Valve applied to their games (when they want to) is still unmatched.

Portal 2 added co-op as the big gameplay change vs. 1.

But Gabe has said Half-Life specifically is what they consider their ground breaking series now. So there won't be a 3 until they can push a boundary again like the first 2 did.

Re: Half-Life 2: 20th Anniversary Update

#202

Post by Timon3 »

mepian wrote: post #118
Timon3 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Thank you for your contribution! I'm sure it's frustrating to have your own work not be released for such a long time, but it definitely seems to have been worth it :)

Re: Half-Life 2: 20th Anniversary Update

#203

Post by willis936 »

chii wrote: post #174
willis936 wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like a perfect environment to make games. No budget or schedule pressure, virtually limitless resources so the staff can strive to make art with love and without the corruption of chasing a bottom line. The entire media industry on almost every format is chasing nostalgia because they refuse to recreate the environment that made endearing stories and experiences in the first place.

> virtually limitless resources so the staff can strive to make art with love and without the corruption of chasing a bottom line. which means they have no obligation to ship. And so it is with the valve-time, they never shipped. Some pressure (monetary usually) is required. Not to mention that "strive to make art" is not a commercially viable objective - the owners of steam will basically be operating a charity for…

>the owners of steam will basically be operating a charity for these artists

If that's what it takes to make something worth playing, then so be it.

Was Bungie in its day a charity? Or did they just get it? 20 years later the magic is gone and Microsoft is desperately trying to figure out how to make the goose lay an egg. As long as they're optimizing quarterly reports they'll never get there.

Re: Half-Life 2: 20th Anniversary Update

#204

Post by lucw »

satvikpendem wrote: post #172
happytoexplain wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>their image has been largely rehabilitated among many young devs Whoa, what? I only hear people complain more about Windows over time.

Lots of people praise VSCode and have neutral to positive opinions about GitHub. I haven't heard any more complaints about Windows than I've been hearing over the past 20 years or so anyway.

Microsoft came up with some objectively good products both for consumers and developers in the recent decade. For consumers, Xbox would be the biggest one, and for developers, VSCode, WSL/WSL2, Azure.

Re: Half-Life 2: 20th Anniversary Update

#205

Post by justaj »

jsheard wrote: post #3

It doesn't seem to be mentioned here, but HL2 (which now includes the sequel episodes) is completely free to claim on Steam until the 18th, if you're new to the series. https://store.steampowered.com/app/220/HalfLife_2/ Also try clicking on the gravity gun at the end of the anniversary page.

So if I already own HL2, that means I'd automatically be able to access those sequels / episodes?

Re: Half-Life 2: 20th Anniversary Update

#206

Post by trashburger »

nanna wrote: post #177
satvikpendem wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it possibly because you were much younger back then and thus likely less jaded? I hear of people even back then who for example hated Microsoft with a burning passion, who were already older, even as today their image has been largely rehabilitated among many young devs.

This. When was the last time you saw anyone write Micro$ith? Young devs wouldn't even know what you're talking about. It was never about the quality of Windows, but their attacks against FOSS. And I think Nadella largely repaired the damage from that.

The image, sure. Their ethos never changed.

Re: Half-Life 2: 20th Anniversary Update

#207

Post by Rinzler89 »

inasio wrote: post #115
mrpippy wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)

Is this a problem Valve should invest in fixing because it's an issues caused by them, or a problem Apple created for not caring about backwards compatibility on MacOS the same way Microsoft does on Windows?

If Apple doesn't care about backwards compatibility on their platform, why should Valve or other developers be burdened with the added cost, especially on a platform with small market share that won't drive many sales?

Re: Half-Life 2: 20th Anniversary Update

#208

Post by Rinzler89 »

mrpippy wrote: post #165
dagmx wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are these new windows releases also 64 bit or still 32 bit?

Still 32-bit

Shouldn't be a problem. Windows 11 and Wine can run most 32 bit Windows apps just fine. I managed to get Winamp 2.6 working on Windows 11.

Re: Half-Life 2: 20th Anniversary Update

#209

Post by BlueTemplar »

willis936 wrote: post #76
ramesh31 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Valve is still a top tier org, but they simply make too much money in the publishing business to bother with game development anymore. Any sales would be peanuts to what they are making through developer fees and the marketplace. This is why all of their releases in the last decade have been F2P.

Sounds like a perfect environment to make games. No budget or schedule pressure, virtually limitless resources so the staff can strive to make art with love and without the corruption of chasing a bottom line. The entire media industry on almost every format is chasing nostalgia because they refuse to recreate the environment that made endearing stories and experiences in the first place.

That's only the case if you are so blinded by advertising that you don't see the innovations happening in the low(er) budget media.

Re: Half-Life 2: 20th Anniversary Update

#210

Post by BlueTemplar »

ethbr1 wrote: post #58
ramesh31 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Valve is still a top tier org, but they simply make too much money in the publishing business to bother with game development anymore. Any sales would be peanuts to what they are making through developer fees and the marketplace. This is why all of their releases in the last decade have been F2P.

Also, supposedly the whole radically flat org structure thing. Which I imagine doesn't lend itself to doing hard things like making Half Life 3... Why would any game dev choose to go through a death march to perfection, if they had other project choices?

I would hardly call making a sequel "perfection".

They might have had enough original ideas for HL2 (and then Alyx, driven by a new medium), but still not HL3...

Post reply on HN