Just finished HL1 again! Some brief pros and cons
David Simmons
Great sound and level design, great creature and friendly AI, and an
excellent balance of action and exploration. My favorite level is still the
Blast Pit. I love how that level has the sub-missions that lead up the
final fiery demise of that tentacled bastid with the great hearing. Going
up against the Marines is probably the most challenging part of the game. I
also LOVE calling in the air strike on the Gargantua. Death from above!! I
also remember how dumb I felt when I finally realized that you could
actually take down the Apache helicopters with two full-charge blasts from
the Gauss gun.
I still remember the first time I had a security guard and a scientist
following me in the Office Complex while I paused for a few moments to
reload my weapons and plan my assault on the gun turret up the stairs.
Suddenly, the security guard and the scientist began talking to each other!
Totally awesome. Little details like that make the difference between a
good game and a GREAT game!
It was also fun to discover different ways to do things, especially that
area with the Marines and the tank. Last time I'd fought my way out by just
charging out of the pipe and blasting away. This time I went across the
water and popped out behind the tank and hid in one the repair bays and let
the Marines come to me. Much more fun since I didn't have to worry about
the tank blasting my ass while the Marines were hurling grenades.
I also figured out what an incredible weapon the crossbow was! By the end
of the game, I was using it almost exclusively. I hope in HL2 you can lean
around corners without being seen, because the crossbow just rules for
sniping.
However, even after a second run-through of the game, I still felt like Xen
and all the alien levels were kind of a letdown. The level designs were
pretty good but I really LOATHE running and jumping puzzles, so I skipped
the entire beginning of Interloper. The kind of needless repetition that
jumping puzzles require really makes my teeth grind together and I've always
felt that they are the mark of a lazy or sadistic programmer (so thank
goodness for cheat codes!). I don't like having to use them, but better
that than smashing my keyboard in frustration. Residue Processing is just
an exceedingly annoying waste of time, and I god moded pretty much the
entire way. Remember Sigourney Weaver's lines from "Galaxy Quest" about
chompy, crushy things? My sentiments exactly!
I wanted to take out Nihilanth without cheating, but those ****ing Alien
Controllers made it impossible for me to do so without the veins in my
temples throbbing alarmingly. I'd already legitimately beat the game the
last time around so it didn't bother me too much. I've always found boss
battles to be somewhat anticlimactic anyway. You often put yourself through
a lot of abuse and then they don't give you much of an ending animation for
all your trouble. Not the case with Half-Life, thank goodness!
Well, it was just as much fun the second time around, and I'm really looking
forward to Opposing Force and Blue Shift!
Dave
The Berzerker
news:fk%kd.24669$KJ6....@newsread1.news.pas.earthlink.net...
Nice to see you played it through again. I'd imagine it's the game taht got
me hooked on FPS, I practically paly them exclusively now.
Why didn't you wait to play the updated source version of Half-life? Surely
that would have been worth it? (Admit it, you know you'll try most of it out
to see the differences anyway)
Inglo
>Nice to see you played it through again. I'd imagine it's the game taht got
>me hooked on FPS, I practically paly them exclusively now.
>
>Why didn't you wait to play the updated source version of Half-life? Surely
>that would have been worth it? (Admit it, you know you'll try most of it out
>to see the differences anyway)
>
>
I just played through it again myself thanks to Steam. I'll probably
play through HL:S too.
What I found funny was how much stuff I remembered exactly. I ducked at
precisely the right spot in "On a rail" without even thinking. Had
precise aim to take out the boarded doorways in blast pit with
grenades. Made me laugh at myself, what did it take to ingrain this
stuff into me that I still remember 4-5 years later.
I actually went all the way through, no skipping, no cheats (cheats were
one thing I couldn't remember, how god mode?). I think the final battle
in Opposing Force is better, if I remember it correctly.
Is Opposing Force or Blue Shift going to be "sourced"?
--
Steve 六Inglo咫
www.inglostadt.com
Paul Catley
>
> It was also fun to discover different ways to do things,
One brief but satisfying moment I remember was in We've Got Hostiles, shortly
after you have discovered the first turret guns. (Excuse me if my memory of
this is inaccurate, it's been a while).
You reach a warehouse where you have to climb up over a big pile of crates and
drop down the other side, but there is a turret down there. You can take it out
with a grenade or pistol before you drop down, and then a bunch of headcrabs
will teleport in while you continue down the corridor, which you'll have to
fight.
However, there is a more elegant solution. Leave the turret gun alone and
instead drop down and run full pelt away from it through a low door and down the
corridor (which I think is slippery). The turret will activate and shoot all
the pursuing headcrabs before it tries to shoot you. By the time it has killed
them all, you will have reached a small "island" of boxes, and if you run up
them the turret won't have line of sight to hit you due to the low door :) A
neat solution, no health lost and no need to use any ammo :) (but don't go
back!)
> Residue Processing is just an exceedingly annoying waste of time,
Hell yes, I nearly stopped there out of boredom, and would thus have missed the
best level of the game.
--
Paul
Ben Cottrell
> Is Opposing Force or Blue Shift going to be "sourced"?
I don't think they'd be allowed to do that (AFAIK valve don't own the
copyrights). Besides, i think most would rather they spent more effort
creating something new than another :Source remake :-)
--
Ben Cottrell AKA Bench
McGrandpa
news:2vpvrtF...@uni-berlin.de
Except for Half-Life! Gee! Gotta have The Original Sourced!!!
McG.
Warty
Hopefully HL2 Deathmatch. :-)
Warty
--
Those who claim that
others need lives...while doing the EXACT same thing...are what "we"
would call hypocrites.
Paul Catley
>
> Except for Half-Life! Gee! Gotta have The Original Sourced!!!
TBH, I think it will be disappointing. The visuals aren't changing, and how
much scope will there be for use of physics in a game that wasn't designed
around them? We can tip the odd barrel here or there, but will it make much
difference to the gameplay?
I'll be happy to be wrong, but I'm not getting it.
--
Paul
McGrandpa
news:2vqbc7F...@uni-berlin.de
That's ok, I just want to see how it acts :) Besides, I think there
will be a pleasant surprise for us about this. After all, HL was Valves
own and CS was the redheaded stepkid....and the stepkid got a nosejob as
well as a hairdo. Valve, I think, will take good care of their own kid.
I say to look for the nosejob, hairdo AND a teaparty :) Just my thinkin
friend ;)
McG.
Inglo
I'm basing all of my HL:S expectations on what I've seen from CS:S. If
you look at some screenshots you're hard pressed to tell the difference,
but the game itself is very noticeable.
With all the talk of physics, everyone leaves out the lighting and
shadows.
--
Steve 六Inglo咫
www.inglostadt.com
Strider
> I'm basing all of my HL:S expectations on what I've seen from CS:S. If
> you look at some screenshots you're hard pressed to tell the difference,
> but the game itself is very noticeable.
> With all the talk of physics, everyone leaves out the lighting and
> shadows.
CS:S is just CS with physics. The question is, how will Valve make use
of the physics for gameplay?
The crane in the demo being an excellent example.
--
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"By the powers invested in my by news international I
pronounce you GUILTY! - of paedophilia!"
"Guilty?! but there was no trial!"
"Under the basic principals of English law every man is
innocent until speculated guilty!"
Todd
>> Is Opposing Force or Blue Shift going to be "sourced"?
Ben Cottrell <be...@bench333.screaming.net> wrote:
>I don't think they'd be allowed to do that (AFAIK valve don't own the
>copyrights). Besides, i think most would rather they spent more effort
>creating something new than another :Source remake :-)
Might make for an interesting amateur project. Get some volunteers
and assign each of them one of more maps. Get someone to do the
coding. And I suppose textures would have to be remade.