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Here for a (Half) Lifetime?
June 1st 2006, 22:28 CEST by deadlock Upon its release in 1998 (eight years ago!), Half Life attained near-legendary status in the gaming community. Its contemporary setting, unique (at the time) approach to plot development, audioscape and enormous scale quickly established it as one of the cornerstones of the First-person Perspective Shooter. Memorable locations, some very original baddies (the tentacle thingie) and an ill-conceived platformer section ensured that the game was a flawed masterpiece. Half Life was an evolutionary step forward for the genre, rather than a revolutionary one - but it was a pretty big step. It took elements that we had already seen in other games - portals to nightmarish worlds, the ubiquitous secret labs and military facilities, futuristic weapons and a geek-turned-hero protagonist - and made them seem new somehow, providing us with a level of detail and immerson that we hadn't really experienced before. Half Life had such a huge impact on the FPS-genre that it became a reference point for pretty much every FPS that followed it as well as every review. I and many others have often found ourselves playing a game post-HL and bemoaning the fact that it played as though Half Life had never happened. Very often, even those games that did take on board some of the things that HL brought to the table gave us the impression that they were either ticking off points on a feature list or, worse, completely missing the point. Half Life 2, like its predecessor, was evolutionary rather than revolutionary, again taking elements that were already familiar from other games and making them seem better or more integral - physics being the most notable. But the sense of reinvention wasn't as strong with the new game. It was another flawed masterpiece, but this time the flaws (lacklustre AI, some showstopping bugs) were less forgivable. But the epic scale was intact and was, in fact, greatly expanded on. The battlefield was no longer confined to a remote facility but had become global. So, the question I'm asking is this: will Half Life 2, in years to come, be regarded with the same reverance as the original title or has the FPS genre become too diluted for a class-A title to have any impact any more? And is Half Life 2: Episode One just a daft name or is it any good? |
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Topic: Here for a (Half) Lifetime?
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Omg 2nd post "the game will be based on famous battles which actually took place in ancient Japan. So here's this giant enemy crab."
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THREE? |
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FOUR! |
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C'mon, FIVE? |
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Ho, ho, ho, SIX! |
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Well Jeet got it right, so I guess this topic is closed. No more posts please! |
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I never finished Half Life 2, so where's the incentive for me to plunk down cash for this?! こんにちは
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Where's Ergo been? |
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He died. こんにちは
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Half Life 2 is the best FPS ever created. Plain and simple. And the episode seems lovely so far. "me did a sneak attack to smack the demons off my back"
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I liked Half-Life 2: Episode One: Aftermath as a silly title even more. My anwers are "no" and "meh". And omgMetastasisftw[/droolingFanboi] "the game will be based on famous battles which actually took place in ancient Japan. So here's this giant enemy crab."
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I never played HL2. Strange but true. |
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You're a freak, everyone should have played HL2. Re: the topic, no, no, and don't know yet. MP3 Of The Week: Burning Spear - Marcus Garvey.mp3 (?)
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I haven't played HL2, but I've read Concerned and thus have a second-hand familiarity with the subject matter. |
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I've been on vacation in San Francisco. I got back yesterday. Ergo is right, as he always is except the times when his opinion is different than mine.--Mr. Nutty
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Oh, I think you might have mentioned that. Good time? |
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I never played HL2. You're not missing too much. Ravenholm, the bridge and some sections of the coast ride have their moments but the rest falls between 'meh' and 'burn'. I expect HLEP1 to be largely the same. "Similarly, your reloading and weapon management is substandard and betrays a lack of tactics." - G-Man
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Haven't played an FPS since Quake. No interest in HL or *HL2, halo,Doom3 or any of that shit. Never played any versiion of Unreal. Also haven't and will not be buying into Steam's "we own the game you just kinda lease it from us" business model. *I did manage to compile the "Stolen" code and mess about with it that way. Zep-- Matt Davis: If you had kids you'd learn to tune out the screaming baby and carry on watching TV as normal.
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You're not missing too much. Ravenholm, the bridge and some sections of the coast ride have their moments but the rest falls between 'meh' and 'burn'. I expect HLEP1 to be largely the same. Oh no you didn't, you do realise we're gonna have to take this outside now, yes? MP3 Of The Week: Burning Spear - Marcus Garvey.mp3 (?)
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I'll hold him down. Jesus Christ, that is unbelievably retarded! - lwf
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You're going to have to hold me down as well. I largely agree. |
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What's with the three questions people keep answering? Are you answering the subject-line question? What's that about? I even did a search of the subject text and there are only two questionmarks! "the game will be based on famous battles which actually took place in ancient Japan. So here's this giant enemy crab."
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The topic title itself is a question. こんにちは
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But it's just a rhetorical meaningless topic line, meant to pull the viewer in. I demand satisfaction! "the game will be based on famous battles which actually took place in ancient Japan. So here's this giant enemy crab."
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The "or" indicates a compound question which thus, requires a split answer for clarity. The topic title isn't a question I was answering, but since it essentially matches the first (hidden) question - it works for me. |
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Your Honor, the defendent is clearly confounding the case with cryptic and inexplicit parlance. I ask that the case of gaggle vs. G-Man be ruled in favor of gaggle and that the author of the post will submit to a rewrite of the text so as to make the questions it poses clear and easy for all to discern. (..sorry for attempting lawyereese, I can barely imagine how mangled it must be) "the game will be based on famous battles which actually took place in ancient Japan. So here's this giant enemy crab."
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The best FPS ever is multiplayer LAN Halo 1 on the Xbox... but Half-Life 2 is alright too. YHBT. YHL. HAND
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Hey Penguinx did you get my email? Put down the imaginary knife before you pretend to hurt yourself.
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Oh no you didn't, you do realise we're gonna have to take this outside now, yes? Hey, look who's the big boy now. Whatcha gonna do - google me? Seriously though, I'm not trying to pull a Bob here and make it like the game raped my mother, but I must say I had heaps more fun playing, say, FarCry (and got knows that game had a fair share of its own problems) than I did with HL2 . "Similarly, your reloading and weapon management is substandard and betrays a lack of tactics." - G-Man
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Your Honor, the defendent is clearly confounding the case with cryptic and inexplicit parlance. I ask that the case of gaggle vs. G-Man be ruled in favor of gaggle and that the author of the post will submit to a rewrite of the text so as to make the questions it poses clear and easy for all to discern. Court finds in favour of G-Man. Bailiff, take Gaggle out back and beat him with a dictionary. MP3 Of The Week: Burning Spear - Marcus Garvey.mp3 (?)
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You'll nevar catch me coppar! *runs off laughing maniacally* I did not enjoy Farcry. "the game will be based on famous battles which actually took place in ancient Japan. So here's this giant enemy crab."
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Objection! If you don't count the title, it's either 2 or 4 questions, but not three! MASSIVE DAMAGE! |
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YOU CAN'T HAVE AN END! THAT WOULD BE BAD! Or something like that... too many good lines to choose from. "Similarly, your reloading and weapon management is substandard and betrays a lack of tactics." - G-Man
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Let me make a nice blanket statement... If you haven't played HL2, you suck. And, if you have played it and don't think it's the best FPS ever, you suck. That pretty much covers everything. "me did a sneak attack to smack the demons off my back"
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gaggle-- If you really want to shock us, tell us about a game that you actually DID like. Ergo is right, as he always is except the times when his opinion is different than mine.--Mr. Nutty
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The word "or" does not always operate disjunctively, hence its frequent misuse and disfavor. Given the context of the last sentence, it can only be construed as a single query. Truly, disjunctive conjunctions can be perplexing! |
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And, if you have played it and don't think it's the best FPS ever, you suck. I played Half Life 2. Hell, I remember staying up all night waiting for steam to unlock it, and then playing it at like 3am when I had to be at work for 7. It was a decent game, overrated by some people here. |
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So should I spend hundreds of dollars upgrading my PC so I can play Hitman pleasurably, or should I just buy it for the 360? Put down the imaginary knife before you pretend to hurt yourself.
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I have a counter arguement: Fuck you , Perkins. |
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360, obviously. |
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Why the hell would want to buy a 360? Ergo is right, as he always is except the times when his opinion is different than mine.--Mr. Nutty
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lwf is retarded. I thought that was common knowledge. |
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A "you" was technically meant to be in there somewhere. Ergo is right, as he always is except the times when his opinion is different than mine.--Mr. Nutty
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I already have a 360 in my home. Put down the imaginary knife before you pretend to hurt yourself.
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Why? So you can play Uno on it? Ergo is right, as he always is except the times when his opinion is different than mine.--Mr. Nutty
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Don't ask me, I didn't buy it. Put down the imaginary knife before you pretend to hurt yourself.
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Personal opinions here, trying not to be an obvious troll like Nutty. Best team FPS ever was Quake 3 Arena - Rocket Arena 3. Best 1v1 ever was Quake 3 Arena, and I'm biased towards Blood Run. Best FFA was Unreal Tournament with all the service packs and whatnot. Best FPS single player was Deus Ex, but since that's so RPG-like, I'll grudgingly give a tie to Half-Life. Doing things 'right' a.k.a. game and interaction standards from a single watershed game don't really happen, IMO. Games are too disposable. They're meant to be played for a year or so, then discarded for a sequel, so most gamers don't really interact with them enough to see that polish. You see it with operating systems, but that's because they're used day-in and day-out and have jobs attached. Sure, you could put all those wonderful polished bits in, but right now well-established FPS tropes are being trotted out to a console mass market that's never seen them before. So, mediocre games like Halo are seen as the 'best game ever' by slack-jawed morons that wouldn't last five seconds in any Quake pick-up game. Who cares about putting in neat 'polish' bits that add 25% to your development time in order to please 5% of your customers? Fuck that... do the least you can, ship it, leave room for the sequels to grow into. |
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OK, the middle of the last paragraph was a troll. |
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Blood Run... oh man, I can't remember when I last fired up Q3A. Definitely not this year. I'll have to remedy this at once. "Similarly, your reloading and weapon management is substandard and betrays a lack of tactics." - G-Man
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Given the context of the last sentence, it can only be construed as a single query. OK, you're right, but the problem lies with the metonymic use of the title rather than the conjunction itself. |
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