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Half-Life 25th Anniversary Update

half-life.com

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Re: Half-Life 25th Anniversary Update

#241

Post by account42 »

bombcar wrote: post #163
pacifika wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s the benefit of doing that please?

Most engine reworks like that (Doom, Age of Empires, Heroes III, etc) offer significantly improved performance and scaling for modern computers. There are often other enhancements, too, including native support for Mac, Linux, etc.

HL1 is already quite performant though and does have native support for Linux and Mac on Steam without needing third-party engines.

Not disputing that engine replacements / source ports can be great (I work on one myself) but it's weird that there are three replies that sidestep the actual question: What does this particular engine replacement add over vanilla GoldSrc?

Re: Half-Life 25th Anniversary Update

#242

Post by account42 »

squeaky-clean wrote: post #199
Findecanor wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it possible to play it off-line though? I remember that was an issue when I got The Orange Box with Half-Life 2.

The offline system for steam is way less glitchy than it was pre-2010. Like another commenter said though, you may need to be online the first time you launch the game.

There is also the Goldberg Emulator [0] if you don't want to rely on Steam at all.

[0] https://mr_goldberg.gitlab.io/goldberg_emulator/

Re: Half-Life 25th Anniversary Update

#243

Post by account42 »

rPlayer6554 wrote: post #120
ta1243 wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Presumably the same captcha nonsense.

Is it ok to steal from a liquor store because they require a license shown to buy it and for some reason you can't get yours?

Copyright infringement is not theft.

Re: Half-Life 25th Anniversary Update

#244

Post by account42 »

illumanaughty wrote: post #141
ta1243 wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not really a game person. The point is that getting things the right way should be a better experience then going to piratebay. Nonsense like captchas only hurt legitimate users, and when those captchas are asking you time and time again it's simply not worthwhile. Had I wanted to actually spend good money on a game they would have lost a sale, and for what -- to stop a robot asking for a password reset email to…

Steam is a perfectly fine experience and captchas are the universal standard these days. They lost someone who's 'not really a game person' and wasn't willing to fill in a captcha for a free game, I don't think they're too worried about lost revenue. I highly doubt tracking down and downloading a legit version of the updated Half-Life from a torrent site is an easier option, but you do you.

Steam is a ... somwehat tolerable experience. The client is extremely bloated for its primary function (installing and launching games) and this is only getting worse.

Steam is also dropping support for older operating systems - ones that you originally used to buy your games. That is also NOT perfectly fine.

Re: Half-Life 25th Anniversary Update

#246

Post by account42 »

solardev wrote: post #40
bjord wrote: post #5

Aside from just generating tons of goodwill, does anyone have any insight into why Valve would do this? Obviously, I think it's great regardless of the motivation, but are there rumblings of Half Life 3 that I've missed or something?

It's just a little dose of nostalgia. I think Half Life was one of the highest rated games of all time before Baldur's Gate 3 (both are 97% at PCGamer, for example). That's a pretty rare accomplishment worth celebrating, especially for those of us who grew up with the series... I do kinda wish they incorporated the fan Black Mesa remake and improvements, though.

> I do kinda wish they incorporated the fan Black Mesa remake and improvements, though.

No thanks. Black Mesa is a nice game, but it is not Half-Life 1 and should not replace it.

Re: Half-Life 25th Anniversary Update

#247

Post by account42 »

ascagnel_ wrote: post #207
SteveNuts wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When/if HL3 is announced, I actually believe it might break parts of the internet.

A decade ago, yes. Valve was riding high on the dual successes of Dota 2 and Portal 2, we were only 6 years out from HL2Ep2, and CS:GO was newly released. Today, not so much. Aside from a prequel, the series had been dormant for as longer than it had been alive (11 years alive 1998-2007, 13 years dormant 2007-2020), and the prequel required a pricey hardware peripheral to run. It’d get attention, but it wouldn’t be t…

*interquel - Alyx takes place after HL1.

Re: Half-Life 25th Anniversary Update

#248

Post by account42 »

dom96 wrote: post #8
bjord wrote: post #5

Aside from just generating tons of goodwill, does anyone have any insight into why Valve would do this? Obviously, I think it's great regardless of the motivation, but are there rumblings of Half Life 3 that I've missed or something?

Half Life 3 already happened and it was called Half Life: Alyx.

It's not a proper Half-Life game if you don't play as Gordon Freeman.

Alyx also misses many of the things that made the HL series great and replaces them with "modern" game design anti-features. Not looking forward to future HL games going even further in that direction.

The new voice actor doesn't even sound anything like alyx FFS and her lines are a perfect argument why the silent protagonist in the HL games was not a mistake.

Re: Half-Life 25th Anniversary Update

#249

Post by account42 »

beebeepka wrote: post #212
solardev wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried it in VR for half an hour or so. It was really nice compared to most VR shovelware. High production values, fun interactivity, etc. But remove the VR and you're left with an above-average short FPS that would've been entirely unremarkable if not for the Half-Life tie-in. If they released it for non VR, it would probably get trashed just for not being HL3. Honestly I don't think you're missing much. It's a goo…

Well, yeah. It wouldn't have worked if it had been a proper shooter. Imagine playing Doom Eternal in VR. It's going to suck. I almost broke my TV with Alex and that is a slow, slow game.

Serious Sam in VR is pretty fun.

Re: Half-Life 25th Anniversary Update

#250

Post by account42 »

vbeeaz wrote: post #91
stetrain wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I played it fine on my PC. But I have a VR headset for my PC. I'm not sure that makes it not a PC game. In the 90s you might have needed to buy a graphics card or sound card to play a game, but it was still a PC game.

All games ended up needing a GPU and a soundcard - in fact they became so necessary that all CPUs and motherboards today come with a GPU and a soundcard respectively. While VR headsets were a gimmick of the moment. (Yes I know some CPUs come with no GPU but that's because you will buy a discrete GPU which only furthers my point)

> all CPUs [...] today come with a GPU

This is not even remotely true.

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