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Half-Life 25th Anniversary Update

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Re: Half-Life 25th Anniversary Update

#251

Post by account42 »

majora2007 wrote: post #93
OkayPhysicist wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Besides second order stuff like that it might help some Steam Deck sales (mostly by demonstrating their commitment to the platform and attract other companies to develop for it, moreso than anybody rushing out to buy a Steam Deck specifically to play Half-Life), the fact that Valve does stuff like this that's not directly "make all the money right this second"-driven is in no small part why Valve has such goodwill wi…

Well it's not exactly trivial to build a software as extensive without just being a rip-off and having the share of games at launch. Gamers are extremely picky and it costs tons to build out a scalable system. This is where Epic failed. Sure they gave me a ton of free games, but their UX was horrible that I just never went to it and stayed within Steam.

No, the software part really is trivial compared to getting developers and gamers on board. Epic failing at it is an anecdote, not proof of anything.

Re: Half-Life 25th Anniversary Update

#252

Post by account42 »

justin_oaks wrote: post #45
doublerabbit wrote: post #25

To those who are unhappy with the graphics of HL1, you can download Black Mesa which is an remake of the original. https://www.moddb.com/mods/black-mesa

Black Mesa has an extended Xen portion of the game. Otherwise it's a faithful reproduction of the original with better graphics.

No, it's a reimagining not a reproduction and takes liberties with encounter and enemy design throughout the game. I don't mean to disaparage Black Mesa but if you want to play HL, play HL instead of pretending that some other similar game is the same.

Re: Half-Life 25th Anniversary Update

#253

Post by account42 »

pugworthy wrote: post #168
doublerabbit wrote: post #25

To those who are unhappy with the graphics of HL1, you can download Black Mesa which is an remake of the original. https://www.moddb.com/mods/black-mesa

Graphics do not make a game better. A good story is a good story whatever the graphics, and for me HL1 passes that test.

Exactly. I do enjoy good graphics, but the obsession with graphics over everything of both the gaming industry as well as many gamers is absurd.

Re: Half-Life 25th Anniversary Update

#254

Post by account42 »

fbdab103 wrote: post #183
seritools wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's just the original game touched up to work on modern systems. It's still the original experience. Black Mesa is a full reimplementation (and partly reimagination) by a fan team, with large changes, while keeping the feel mostly intact.

Unless you are looking for the full-on nostalgia trip, I think Black Mesa is how people should play the game today. Many quality of life improvements and stream-lining decisions. Except for Xen. Worst part of the game, and they made it longer.

Hard disagree. Black Mesa is not Half-Life. It takes way to many liberties to be even considered as a replacement.

Re: Half-Life 25th Anniversary Update

#256

Post by account42 »

casenmgreen wrote: post #187

I have to say, I had HL - bought it, and a few other games - moved to Steam, moved the games there, then in the end, few years later, bailed on Steam. Customer service was appalling. I lost everything. I love HL, and if I could get hold of it without Steam, I'd have it, but I don't know of a way to do that, and I've lost the copy I originally bought because leaving Steam meant loosing everything.

> I love HL, and if I could get hold of it without Steam, I'd have it, but I don't know of a way to do that, and I've lost the copy I originally bought because leaving Steam meant loosing everything.

(Used) physical copies are still reasonably available. For Half-Life 1 those should all be pre-Steam AFAIK. The high seas are also always an option - don't let others' morals stop you from preserving your childhood memories.

Also while I don't mean to be uncritical of Steam and Valve, loosing access to your games sounds highly unusual. Did they actually take your stuff or are you simply choosing not to use Steam? If its the latter and you still have a working login, then you could download your Games using Steam, steamcmd [0] or reverse engineered downloaders [1] and play them forever using the Goldberg Emulator [2] instead of Steam.

[0] https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/SteamCMD

[1] https://github.com/SteamRE/DepotDownloader

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

Re: Half-Life 25th Anniversary Update

#257

Post by account42 »

pynappo wrote: post #171
knodi wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think steam is been such a cash cow for them that they gave up on game development.

Artifact (2018) released to terrible reception, and DOTA: Underlords (2019) eventually just died off. Half Life: Alyx (2020) is one of the highest-rated single player VR games. Counter Strike 2 released 2 months ago, and has very active development. Valve also allegedly has a game named Neon Prime in development and apparently slated for announcement soon(tm) [1] [1] https://youtu.be/Fm1VUo6NYaw

You seem to be confused, most of the titles you mentioned are casino simulators rather than games.

Re: Half-Life 25th Anniversary Update

#258

Post by account42 »

opyate wrote: post #156
knodi wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think steam is been such a cash cow for them that they gave up on game development.

I doubt it. HL:Alyx was quite recent, wasn't it? They have a bunch of cancelled/unreleased games [0] because their standards are so high. I don't think they want to be known as the company who made the best PC gaming platform in the world, but who also released some really crappy games on there. Games are in their DNA, so I expect we'll see something absolutely amazing from them in the future. 0. https://en.wikipedia…

> They have a bunch of cancelled/unreleased games [0] because their standards are so high.

Their standards for recurring revenue maybe. Most of their recent games(discounting smaller demos that are really just platform/hardware ads) are casino simulators.

(Less profitable) single player games don't get enough attention to be finished. Alyx is the exception that proves the rule - and even that might never have happened if they didn't need a game to showcase VR.

> Games are in their DNA

This is such a nonsensical statement. People can change. So can companies made up of people.

Re: Half-Life 25th Anniversary Update

#259

Post by account42 »

zavertnik wrote: post #46
ender341341 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

def no insider info on my side but from what I've heard/read they pretty regularly have a team spun up to explore a half life 3 but at this point they're afraid of a duke nukem forever (not that they'd make a shitty game like that) and that even if it's a great game it'd be seen as underwhelming because the community has hyped itself up so much on it over the nearly 20 years.

(no spoiler) From a storytelling perspective, Half Life 2 Episode 2 (the last mainline Half-Life game which Half-Life 3 was expected to be the sequel for) sets up Half-Life 3 as a proper ending to the game's story and confirmed by Mark Laidlaw's release of Epistle 3. I can see why they wouldn't want to rush quickly to the exit but at the same time, HL2E2 left them without much wiggle room. This issue alone is address…

> Despite it's popularity, Half-Life is a delicate property in the sense that the story hinges on a lot of unknowns that are not revealed straight forwardly, similarly to LOST, the lack of detail stokes that mystery to the audience's delight, because they know there will be a big payoff that explains these mysteries at the end of the tunnel. That's a lot of pressure for the writers room @ Valve, especially so considering the development process of the game engine/assets itself.

They have noone else but themselves to blame for writing themselves into a corner. LOST is another example why you should absolutely not write a Mistery without knowing how it plays out before releasing the first part. Most importantly, it does not excuse their shitty cummunication about the development status of Episode 3 - to this day they have not formally acknowledged its cancellation. And all the vague hints at a sequel throughout the years which amounted to nothing are just abusive. Any hack can use the unknown with a promise of a future reveal to lure an audience but if you don't even have what you promise to reveal yourself then you are not better than a snakeoil salesman. Selling a promise you don't know you can keep is a scam, simple as.

Although with valve specifically I don't even believe that they couldn't manage to tie the story up but rather that they can afford not to - because they have found a more profitable business in selling other people's games as well as a few gambling simulators of their own rather than making single player games themselves. That alone would be sad but at least understandable - what's less OK is gaslighting their fans instead of coming clean about their plans.

> As long as I live to see the end of the narrative, I'll be happy. If not, then valve pls fix.

Good for you but many fans have died waiting for a sequel. Many more have moved on.

Re: Half-Life 25th Anniversary Update

#260

Post by account42 »

zavertnik wrote: post #103
xcv123 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Half-life 3 would just be like every other FPS game now Artistically, aesthetically, nothing quite compares to the Half Life universe in other FPS games. A lot of people would be happy with just another chapter to explore. There are too many open world boring grinding simulations nowadays. Black Mesa was just a remake of Half Life 1 and it was so much more fun and immersive than any recent FPS game that I have play…

I think a lot of the special sauce with the Half Life games is their "Show don't tell" approach to game design. You load up the game, watch an intro (for games after HL1) and boom you're in the game. Nothing is going to appear on your screen beyond your HUD except for one time tips when acquiring a new weapon and chapter titles when progressing to a new level. Everything happens in real time and everything always hap…

Absolutely agreed overall, Half-Life's dedication to maintinging the player perspective is something many modern games could learn from. So many games are too focused on providing a cinematic experience of their story that they end up taking freedom away from the player with cutscenes where the character acts exactly like the designers want rather than how the player would. In a sense, cutscenes are a crutch that is too often used to force (or skip over) story developments that make no sense.

> You load up the game, watch an intro (for games after HL1)

HL1's train is also an intro that you more or less watch even if you can move around a bit and choose what to look at. Same for Opposing Force's helicopter flight but you are even more restricted: no more movement, only limited camera rotation. Kinda sad that they stripped away even that in the later games but I guess HL1 had the benefit of not having to show what happened previously.

> It makes the games feel grounded and more cinematic, IMO.

I don't think cinematic is the right word here - rather the opposite: HL feels much less like watching a movie.

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