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In terms of pure fun, Modern Major General is way up there. Talk Like a Pirate Day is a close competitor. So is when he gets high on morphine and teleports into Half-Life: Uplink.
But I think that the part I enjoy most is when he goes to Xen. Pure, unadulterated panic followed by the realization that he's dealing with (in his mind) a bunch of primitive aliens that he can conquer. Then thinking that after killing the Nihilanth, he gets to be the new god. The whole sequence is amazing.
Edited by Fighteer on Nov 17th 2024 at 7:40:11 AM
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"I remember Half-Life 2 in general going over the top with that. Like, in-universe, teleportation is the one technology that the Combine doesn't have (this is outright said early in the game, at Kleiner's lab), yet the game likes to throw hordes of infinite soldiers that never stop until the player does something. It's strange because Half-Life 1 seldom did it (I think four times if counting the expansions).
I am also not aware of many places where Half-Life 2 throws infinite enemies at the player. The only one I can think of is in the Citadel when you're waiting for an elevator, and that's excused by the Combine having all the soldiers there. You have infinite ammo and health, so it's an even match.
The Episodes have a few more occasions, but those are all reasonable in-universe. Like the sections where zombies spawn indefinitely until you achieve some objective, which the story justifies by there being effectively infinite zombies.
Edited by Fighteer on Nov 21st 2024 at 4:35:51 AM
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"I remember that one part in Ravenholm where enemies do slowly respawn. It's the section in which the game railroads you into going into a dead end, and you need to escape it via the rooftops (and get chastised from Father Grigori about it). No wonder the custom Left 4 Dead adaptation of the chapter left this entire map out.
ASAB: All Sponsors Are Bad.When I played the game, I found several more points. The problem is, any playthrough will not show that because any player who's not blind-playing will go straight to the trigger that makes enemies stop spawning.
For example, I remember well having respawning enemies at 5h 27m 50s - 5h 29m 50s, and 6h 52m - 6h 56m in this video. Not entirely clear in the video, but you can see there are lots of enemies, and there seem to be some cuts (I guess the uploader decided to cut some endless fighting) - believe me, I remember well those sections, and enemies just wouldn't stop spawning. And I remember those two sections because I got very pissed by that point - I'm sure there were more sections before, I just can't remember them because I wasn't tired of that yet, and it's been a long time since I played the game.
I'm pretty sure it's because you know the game so well that you go straight for the trigger. For example, at 2h 14m 40s, do you go straight to the door? IIRC, the game will not stop spawning fast zombies at that point until you enter the door. It's not a problem if you rush to the door, but it's very annoying if you're a player who likes exploring every area, and stops to kill the zombies so that you can explore the area later.
Edited by morenohijazo on Nov 22nd 2024 at 8:05:14 AM
This is what workshop did to the game.
Edited by manhandled on Nov 22nd 2024 at 1:04:25 AM
Steam Workshop support got added, so Half Life 2 now has mods on a very visible platform. Cue the memes and anime. One such mod replaces Breen's lines with DRACULA FLOW and another turns his model into DRACULA FLOW. It also benefits the serious mods like MINERVA too.
Edited by manhandled on Nov 22nd 2024 at 2:14:07 AM
Manhacks used to give me the creeps. The way they're ominously introduced in Route Kanal and how they buzz and fly and cut you remind me of those Wicked Wasps. They become a lot less threatening once you get the Gravity Gun, thankfully.
ASAB: All Sponsors Are Bad.For me it was the black headcrabs. That rattlesnake screech followed by their strikes immediately reducing your health to 1 HP made be freak out and use maximum firepower whenever they were present out of fear they could eat away all my extra shields and health. Took me a long time before I realized it was a somewhat exaggerated threat.
I seem to recall some developer commentary that indicated that yours was not an uncommon reaction!
I also seem to recall reading somewhere that, while players have a tendency to not look up overmuch, the first game's barnacles encouraged them to do differently!
My Games and Asset PacksThere were apparently going to be such creatures, Barnacles in the sand, but they got cut. Black Mesa does introduce aquatic Barnacles in that direction though.
ASAB: All Sponsors Are Bad.

In case you didn't know, the Blue Shift Black Mesa mod
is updated to feature the Focal Point Chapter (Xen). Remember to do a fresh uninstall-reinstall if you have the mod already to access the new content. I also wouldn't start immediately at Focal Point, as you don't start with much ammo by default at all.
ASAB: All Sponsors Are Bad.