Half-Life (General Topic)

Don't wish for things you know you wouldn't want. Because whatever Disney cooks up, it's guaranteed to be far, far worse than anything Valve could ever accomplish, cost twice as much, and be nowhere near as user-friendly nor popular.

Wait, Half-Life might actually be coming back somewhere in the next 5 years?

Without even clicking on that link:

No.

I say pass the torch to Crowbar Collective. They did fine job with Black Mesa remake (even if I took some gameplay design choices poorly) fleshing it out and the characters.

Come on Valve, give the rights to them and let them handle Half-Life franchise from now on!

Speaking of Half-Life, I'd like to see a "Half-Life the way Valve did" mod Inspired by a DOOM WAD called "Doom the way id did". Heh, that means modders and mappers would need happy accidents like Valve did, especially when developing Half-Life 2.

Given that resolving long-dangling plot threads is decidedly "in" these days (Samurai Jack, Hey Arnold, Twin Peaks, A Series of Unfortunate Events, Metalocalypse, and even 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo to name few) I think that could very well be serious.

"Video has been removed by the user".

Regardless of the (unmistakable) talent of Crowbar Collective, we've seen far too many fan games set in the Half-Life universe for me to ever trust that a set of fan developers could do HL3 justice. That said, Valve could hire them to do the main development while keeping the story, script, and voice acting in-house, for the best of both worlds.

Well...I got duped.

Turns out it was a troll attack.

Sorry.

always check and don't get your hopes up. I've been there

Also, gawds I miss the Crossfire days... Half-Life deathmatch, Crossfire map. Pure chaotic wtf-ery.

I always had almost equal K/D ratio there my highest killcount was almost 200

Wait, wasn't that video on Valve's official YT? How could a troll have faked it?

I don't believe we ever gonna get any Half-Life sequel. Valve long ago stopped making any actual games (i don't consider some cheap card game, clearly indenting to cash up on recent popularity of various card games, to be an actual game. Same goes for Team Fortress 2 add-ons). And considering how "well" they managing steam nowdays, i think even there they are working only at minimum level. But still, Valve managing to get shit ton of money, without actually doing anything, so why would they bother to work now, when they have steam making money for them.

Edited by VeryVileVillian on Mar 21st 2019 at 12:40:33 PM

At best Valve is an incubator for developers who seem to just be allowed to work on pet projects that never... go anywhere. I think the majority of the place now just processes getting software onto Steam and supports third party devs trying to make stuff compatible.

But they don't curate or run the dam thing very well, or even implement decent features.

At this point I wouldn't be shocked if HLF 3 was announced... but as an Epic Store exclusive.

Strange as it sounds, the Steam app is still arguably the best online game store of the bunch. Only Origin's app comes even close, and it's still missing a ton of features, with all the other apps not even holding a candle to the prior.

Should they ever decide to reboot Half-Life I hope it goes similar to how DOOM did.

Well minus gratuitous amount of gore, guns and demons.

Blend it elements from Half-Life 1 and Half-Life 2, especially various cut content from Half-Life 2.

What if Gordon Freeman is a slave scientist to Combine empire from start and G-Man takes interest in him? There's so much to think and imagine about.

Oh yeah, Gravity Gun is also there from very start. I was thinking of a less emphasis on gunplay and much more problem solving and manipulating environment and other stuff... stuff, yeah. There would be still plenty of combat and I would want the Tau Cannon and Gluon Gun but thanks to modern tech, they should go absolutely wild with physics! Gordon Freeman IS a theoretical physicist after all

Thoughts?

Edited by Dhiruxide on Mar 25th 2019 at 2:15:14 PM

Just cut out Water Hazard and Ravenholm.

F————k those levels.

I hate isolation. Isolation and rudimentary exploration/random enemy ambushes are terrifying.

Ravenholm always felt like a stock haunted house ride level,to me,plus I think everyone overhyped it

I find Ravenholm nice. I actually like being able to use the environment to my advantage.

Most other FP Ses would stop only at explosive barrels and just shoot them all up anyway.

Here you have saw blades, cars you can drop to crush and more. You can still shoot them but what I said is nice and rarely found in other FP Ses.

As for Water Hazard, I don't mind the airboat either. Just make it handle smoother I guess.

AND LET US GET HUNTER CHOPPER MG EARLIER TOO!

Edited by Dhiruxide on Mar 25th 2019 at 2:59:24 PM

I did used to dislike Ravenholm, because as a young bab, I didn't like horror themed levels at all.

Now I appreciate it much more because it forces you to ration your ammo, something other shooters, including Half-Life itself, hardly do (they give them out like free candy). I still hate that part where you're forced to get lost and there may or may not be repeating zombie spawns waiting to greet you.

Water Hazard was a real slog, but I could tolerate it. Route Canal is the one chapter I dislike the most, because of those damn Manhacks. Scarier than any zombie, and you don't have the Gravity Gun to deal with them swiftly.

I still don't like how Half-Life 2 cut some xen aliens and weapons from the game.

The tau cannon is only on the buggy for example and you can't encounter wild bullsquids or houndeyes.

But they sooooooo decided to keep barnacles in.

I used to have a MASSIVE phobia of barnacles when I was young. recurring nightmares about them, flat ceilings, dark and scary areas and everytime I'm about to be eaten/my head chopped off I wake up. My number 1 fear from childhood (and teenagehood)

Barnacles are the reason why I had massive ceiling paranoia and would prefer to be out or in places with low ceilings.

I got over my fear completely somewhere this decade tho.

Still, imagine fighting a remaining gargantua somewhere on the coastline!

Oh yeah and weapons. Gluon Gun kicked ass. The firing sound is just awesome, that pfwooooossshhhh when you hold down the trigger and release it. Satisfying af

Edited by Dhiruxide on Mar 25th 2019 at 3:06:54 PM

I had barnaclephobia in my early twenties. So much so that I didn't dare touch their tongue even when they were dead.

I had an odd fascination with the Barnacles in Half-Life 1. The ones in the sequel weren't as interesting.

Oh yeah? My phobia was so extreme even when barnacles were absolutely dead I still wouldn't ever dare be directly beneath one. One time I accidentally touched one I almost got a heart attack (or less exaggeratedly, almost jumped out of my seat) and scarequitted the game. It's a major reason why I never managed to complete Episode 1 (that bit with broken elevator sinking in water and hungry barnacles high above). It was that strong. Well it was so back in the day, I did eventually beat it some 9-10 years ago.

Then again HL 2 barnacles are less scarier than HL 1 ones. There's something disturbing about red colored mouths that look like Satan's asshole come to life with rows of teeth.

The biology of barnacles confuses me.

So they're large, enough to consume a human but... they don't have organs inside the ceiling? How are their tongues so damn long? It's disproportional! There's so much about them it doesn't make sense. I'm no biologist but the length of tongue and... yeah. And eating so damn much.

And NP Cs being so stupid enough to walk into those tongues (not as bad in sequel, at least for friendlies)

Edited by Dhiruxide on Mar 26th 2019 at 8:55:48 PM

I was always freaked out by barnacles. But i also remember the moment in the first game, right before i go in to the dark room, where you will be captured and thrown in to "trash crusher", i go sideways and enter the room with dead guy and ammo. I picked the ammo and then suddenly i couldn't move and my health started dropping like crazy and i heard some chowing sounds. I started shooting and (due to blood) realized that there was barnacle above the ammo and due to low celling he was able to pick me up a little (so little i didn't noticed) and started eating.

Edited by VeryVileVillian on Mar 26th 2019 at 4:11:23 PM

Sideways... wait, where was that in Apprehension chapter? In the final area you fight 3 assassins and I never ever remembered there was a barnacle there. You could find bunch at the start of the chapter however

Played the demo and the barnacle enemy is the thing i remember the most

It was on the way (or somewhere close to it) to the dark room, where you would be knocked out by military guys, who throw you in the trash to be crushed in the beginning of the next chapter. There was couple of rooms on the way and i entered one of them and there was barnacle above ammo on low celling.