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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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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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TOO MANY BIG WORDS. |
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And I still can't play my Ep1. MOTHERFUCKER! |
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I still cannot buy anything on Steam. Valve refuses to accept my credit card, telling me to contact VISA. Visa tells me everything is a-ok on their end and that Valves systems are fucked and have problems with international credit cards and to contact valve directly for a manual authorization. Except, valve has no contact information anywhere. No support email that I could find, no phone numbers (not even a long distance number), nada. From what I gather, the only way to contact valve is to go to their tech support website and fill out a support ticket, and pray you get a response sometime within the next millenium. |
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SEX at the theatre. Kilt Wearing Pixel Pushing Monkey Boy
DVD Collection Blend Creations After a long hard day of being a big male geek, it's nice to get to be a pretty, pretty princess for a little while. -- Hugin |
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I'm not trolling you dumb fucker! When I consider how much fun I've had playing any FPS in the past, Xbox Halo 1 multiplayer LANs top the list. Therefore, Halo 1 multiplayer is the best FPS ever. Period. YHBT. YHL. HAND
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Valve Software 520 Kirkland Way Ste 201 Kirkland, Washington 98033 Tel: 425 889 9642 Fax: 425 889 9642 I remember when people used to prank call their support line shortly after HL1 was released. |
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Uh, obviously the fax line is wrong. It is 425 827 4843. Extension 160 is Director of Marketing, Doug Lombardi's FYI (in case their customer support gives you any shit.) |
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Meh. Its cheaper for me to buy it in the store, anyway. $19.99CAD + 10% employee discount. |
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Shadarr had the best counter argument by far. You guys know I was just playing with all that jazz...I really do feel that HL2 is the best single player FPS ever released at this point. I'm happy for me...everyone's got their opinions on the matter and if we all agreed I'd worry. "me did a sneak attack to smack the demons off my back"
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Apparently, Valve hires nude models to come in and pose twice a week for six hours for its employees. I think 3DR had a policy like that too... |
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Apparently, Valve hires nude models to come in and pose twice a week for six hours for its employees. I think 3DR had a policy like that too.. Eh. We do that every other week. It's a great way for the artists to keep creative. Life drawing models have never been on the attractive side of humanity... Kilt Wearing Pixel Pushing Monkey Boy
DVD Collection Blend Creations After a long hard day of being a big male geek, it's nice to get to be a pretty, pretty princess for a little while. -- Hugin |
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Do you go in a storeroom and cry after the session is finished, Eric? "It's only make-believe until it becomes flim-flam."
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heh. |
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That is so dumb. No wonder games cost $60. 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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schnee sounds like he never played multiplayer fps games before quake 3. |
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I'm halfway through Episode 1 now, and I have to say, the three chapters I've played through so far have been more fun than the entire game of Half-Life 2. Oddly enough, things feel much more "Half Lifey" in the expansion, or whatever new name will be invented for expansion-like-episodic-content, than Half Life 2 itself ever managed. Me oportet propter praeceptum te nocere...
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That's what I thought too bishop. |
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Speaking of episodic releases, if you like adventure games of yore at all, the second installment of Bone is much improved over the first effort. I'm looking foward to what TellTale does with Sam and Max. Me oportet propter praeceptum te nocere...
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Does it still play out line for line, scene for scene with no deviation whatsoever from the comic? |
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schnee sounds like he never played multiplayer fps games before quake 3. Sort of. I played a smattering of Quake 1 LAN at college. I always died so quickly, I never had enough fun to merit learning the game. I played a fair amount of Quake 2, but it just didn't 'click' with me. Quake 3 is when I started really learning the game, and I got fairly good for a scrub... i.e. lots of 13-year old kids would drop out and spec me while accusing me of cheating, but I got owned like a keyboarder on the better servers. I also joined a clan, started skinning, and hand-picked maps for our servers. So, I'm probably biased, but when I went back to Q1-2, they just weren't that fun. Q3A Promode was better than either of them. |
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Loved HL1, loved HL2, and am loving the first episode. Does the Sin episode use the same engine, because this episode feels better than the Sin episode did. Actually, the liberalism of the media - as a general thing - IS a major fallacy. What the media is, is a whore. -LP
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From what I've heard, SiN's Episode 1 uses an older build of the Source engine. This seems to be true because it has a lot of the sound stuttering issues that used to be a bigger problem in HL2 but were patched a while ago. YHBT. YHL. HAND
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Cute warning labels. This is a 100% Matter product: In the Unlikely Event That This Merchandise Should Contact Antimatter in Any Form, a Catastrophic Explosion Will Result. We need to keep our arms open, our head up, smiles big and our middle fingers raised.
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Eh. We do that every other week. It's a great way for the artists to keep creative. Life drawing models have never been on the attractive side of humanity... I dunno, this one is a bit of a butterface but I'd still hit it. |
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