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Grimthwacker posted:So now I find out about Half-Life Echoes from reading through the thread, Echoes was loving great.
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Feb 1, 2024 23:57
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| # ? Apr 28, 2024 17:32 |
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Yeah, MMod is just the default way to play HL2 imo, its gameplay changes sound relatively slight but make such a difference. For HL1, I really thought Poke646 was the best total conversion but really didn't gel with its sequel as much, can't remember why.
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Feb 2, 2024 00:43
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Was I mishearing things or was SMOD updated to work alongside MMod? SMOD was always amazing.
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Feb 2, 2024 00:45
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Honest question, what exactly does MMod do that makes it the "default" way to play HL2? From what I've seen, the main changes are bullet travel time, punchier weapon feedback, and some imo questionable aesthetic changes.
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Feb 2, 2024 08:20
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Unit24 posted:Honest question, what exactly does MMod do that makes it the "default" way to play HL2? From what I've seen, the main changes are bullet travel time, punchier weapon feedback, and some imo questionable aesthetic changes. Better weapon feedback and handling, a few extra weapons like the stun baton and detachable turrets, more aggressive enemy AI that can use secondary fire on their guns and Episode 2's flashlight change backported to HL2 and Ep1 are the only changes you really need. The whole thing is extremely modular so you can turn off the visual changes at will.
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Feb 2, 2024 16:49
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I'm content to make the MMod playthrough of Half-Life my last ever. Xen is a pain, and Nihalanth is such a terrible end boss. I can't be bothered to finish it. It's going to be a little while before I get back to anything HL-related.
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Feb 5, 2024 03:19
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Grimthwacker posted:I'm content to make the MMod playthrough of Half-Life my last ever. Xen is a pain, and Nihalanth is such a terrible end boss. I can't be bothered to finish it. It's going to be a little while before I get back to anything HL-related. lol don't worry there, Valve's got you covered
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Feb 5, 2024 03:26
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watching mmod gameplay to see whats up and i'm baffled at how every single tiny movement of the gun animations makes the view wobble with it. i hate it, this is just a youtube MW2 (2022) ALL GUN RELOAD ANIMATIONS montage turned into a hl2 mod, it has the same distasteful scent.
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Feb 5, 2024 08:04
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I'd play a remaster of HL2. Why's every fuckin game got a remaster except this one The Last Of Us 2 got a remaster and it's 3 years old
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Feb 9, 2024 01:20
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smoobles posted:I'd play a remaster of HL2. Don't give Valve ideas for further incrementing the road to HL3
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Feb 9, 2024 02:20
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sockpuppetclock posted:watching mmod gameplay to see whats up and i'm baffled at how every single tiny movement of the gun animations makes the view wobble with it. i hate it, this is just a youtube MW2 (2022) ALL GUN RELOAD ANIMATIONS montage turned into a hl2 mod, it has the same distasteful scent. I didn't think it was that noticeable from the time I played it. Half-Life does puzzles really well, and shooting. . . bare minimum adequate? The MMods fix that a lot. I had a lot more fun with my HL2 MMod run, and I probably should do one for the Episodes at some point.
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Feb 9, 2024 03:18
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Captain Hygiene posted:Don't give Valve ideas for further incrementing the road to HL3 What road?
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Feb 9, 2024 05:22
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Sometimes I'm glad we didn't get HL3 because I read the whole "leaked" outline or whatever and thought it kinda sucked.
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Feb 9, 2024 05:24
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smoobles posted:I'd play a remaster of HL2. I mean, there's that big RTX mod in the works. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIE9gQt6WXQ
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Feb 9, 2024 06:23
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sigher posted:Boneworks melee is pure misery, but I do agree that Valve should have at least let us stun enemies by hitting them with objects or knocking them down. this is insane it's the best combat in any vr game
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Feb 9, 2024 06:25
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Baronjutter posted:Sometimes I'm glad we didn't get HL3 because I read the whole "leaked" outline or whatever and thought it kinda sucked. Very much agreed. I get pretty tired of trying to subvert narrative structure with "you and your actions don't matter, you aren't the main character," especially while creating a new chosen one archetype at the same time, and especially especially when it's tied to parentage. Part of the point of Freeman himself was that he wasn't an action hero, just someone who was in the wrong place at the right time. Addressing the demography is great, and Alyx could even have been a mechanism for that, but she shouldn't do so and also be a plot device genius inventor with preternatural hacking skills. Later games in the half-life series seemed to suffer more and more from creating one-off Characters with no arc as setpiece dressing as well; this just further interfered with a smooth, limited, show-conveyed arc in favor of More Writing. Gordon Freeman! It makes me wonder how much of the advantage of the original game was in its limitations (which aligns with the raw quantity of bad ideas valve developed and tossed). Discendo Vox fucked around with this message at 06:50 on Feb 9, 2024 |
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Feb 9, 2024 06:45
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Eh, I think even Laidlaw said that was pretty much a first draft, I doubt much of it would have survived contact with development.
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Feb 9, 2024 06:49
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Yeah Laidlaw literally called himself deranged for sharing that outline since it's absolutely not what the final story would have ended up being. https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/the-narrative-had-to-be-baked-into-the-corridors-marc-laidlaw-on-writing-half-life
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Feb 9, 2024 07:58
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Unit24 posted:Yeah Laidlaw literally called himself deranged for sharing that outline since
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Feb 9, 2024 14:30
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ScreenDoorThrillr posted:this is insane I'm in your boat, I love Boneworks combat, gun handling, shooting, all of it, but it is probably the most polarizing VR game I've ever seen. There is an equally big boat of people who absolutely hate it and are just as vocal about it.
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Feb 9, 2024 14:32
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Boneworks is definitely the best feeling VR game in terms of like, physicality and is an unmatched experience there but both games have given me this same feeling of "wait it's over?" at the end and I'm still of the opinion that the shooting and general action feels kinda goofy. That and while I know the games are definitely not intended for people who don't have their VR legs, the second one committed the cardinal sin of having vehicle sections which good god that's an express ticket to lying on the floor feeling your guts turn inside out
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Feb 9, 2024 14:51
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Case in point, you thought the shooting was goofy, I thought the way the iron sights and scopes worked was awesome, and the loading and reloading did a lot to make the guns feel more real. Its just that kind of polarizing game
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Feb 9, 2024 15:17
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I think it's that I've played several games with VR shooting and Boneworks doesn't measure up as well. It's partially a consequence of the game's full body simulation and everything has collision stuff but aiming and reloading always made it feel like my arms and the gun were made of rubber. A lot of bouncy, jiggliness to the control. Absolutely serviceable and far from the worst shooting in VR for me and I wanna be clear that I think Boneworks is one of my favorite VR games just as an experience but kinda like Half-Life Alyx there's pieces that aren't as good as other games. Also kind of like Half-Life Alyx though it's one of those games that's greater than the sum of its parts. Like I think I've had better gun handling but I don't think I've seen a game that's quite as much of a total package as either of them
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Feb 9, 2024 16:05
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Thankfully the episode 3 rough draft got tossed out the window with the way Alyx ended.
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Feb 9, 2024 16:31
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Boneworks was the first shooter I played in VR, and I liked it, but it always felt just a bit janky and I wasn't surprised when folks talked about it making them motion sick. Alyx just intrinsically felt better to me, I remember my big thought about it was that it was the first VR game I played that felt polished, like a "real" game.
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Feb 9, 2024 17:17
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Boneworks was nice because you could basically do anything. Everything was a physics object, and everything could collide realistically with everything else. I recall in one level not having enough inventory slots to carry the stuff I wanted to take to the thing-saving-machine at the end of the level. I just picked up a trash can, threw them in and carried the trash can with me. It worked perfectly, minus the sound of like 5 guns rattling around in a metal trash can I tried the same thing in Alyx when you first get grenades, and the grenades just sort of slipped out of the bucket I was carrying after I walked a bit, becuase the bucket wasnt designed to carry grenades, really. Thats the main difference in my mind. Alyx was (very much like Half-Life), a series of setpieces that you can kind of interact with but mostly exist to impress visually. It was very polished, and looked and functioned better than boneworks. Boneworks was a linear series of places with stuff in them, and it was up to you to figure it all out any way you wanted. It wasnt always pretty, and could come across as quite janky, but dammit, if you wanted to smash a zombie in the crotch with a chair from a break room that you've been carrying with you for 20 minutes, you could.
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Feb 9, 2024 17:41
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Is there a good mod to play Alyx like a regular FPS yet or are they still all pretty bad?
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Feb 9, 2024 20:01
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LividLiquid posted:Is there a good mod to play Alyx like a regular FPS yet or are they still all pretty bad? Alyx will not be a good game outside of VR. You'd have to completely remake it in order for it to be fun outside of VR. I say this as someone who loves Alyx and still thinks it's one of the best VR games out there, it'd make for an absolutely abysmal FPS without the VR controllers and perspective.
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Feb 9, 2024 21:49
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Yeah I don't think Alyx will be fun as a regular game. All of the fights are geared towards you being in VR and manually aiming a gun, so there aren't a bunch of enemies like you'd get in a mouse and keyboard game.
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Feb 9, 2024 22:59
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It would be extremely slow and boring as a flat game. It is very much not designed around mouse and keyboard "whip your view 180 degrees in a split second" gameplay that you'd find in a regular flat FPS
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Feb 9, 2024 23:02
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What are the odds it ever gets ported to Vision Pro or OS or whatever?
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Feb 9, 2024 23:11
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frogbs posted:What are the odds it ever gets ported to Vision Pro or OS or whatever? If anything happens at all, it will be Valve putting in the work to make the apple headset work with Steam VR. Valve does things like make playstation and switch controllers work natively in steam because that brings people into their ecosystem. So they will find a way to make the apple headset work in Steam if it is possible. If that's not possible or Apple makes it so it isn't possible, then Alyx will not work in an Apple headset.
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Feb 9, 2024 23:17
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Brownie posted:Alyx will not be a good game outside of VR. You'd have to completely remake it in order for it to be fun outside of VR. I say this as someone who loves Alyx and still thinks it's one of the best VR games out there, it'd make for an absolutely abysmal FPS without the VR controllers and perspective. People love demaking poo poo. Put it in the HL2 engine and just give me the story, dammit! :richards:
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Feb 10, 2024 10:54
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LividLiquid posted:I mean, it's not like people don't mod the poo poo out of some Half-Life. There’s already a No-VR mod for Alyx if you really want to try it, for me I’d still rather wait for the proper experience though. Toast King fucked around with this message at 12:23 on Feb 10, 2024 |
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Feb 10, 2024 12:13
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Arc Hammer posted:Thankfully the episode 3 rough draft got tossed out the window with the way Alyx ended. I've wondered if in the slim possibility more half-life ever came out whether they'd patch the new ending into episode 2 the same way they did for portal
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Feb 11, 2024 05:50
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LividLiquid posted:I mean, it's not like people don't mod the poo poo out of some Half-Life. Yeah I'm just trying to communicate that it'd need to be a complete remake, something closer to Black Mesa than MMod
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Feb 11, 2024 21:46
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Toast King posted:There’s already a No-VR mod for Alyx if you really want to try it, for me I’d still rather wait for the proper experience though. I'm sad that there's Half-Life I can't play.
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Feb 11, 2024 22:34
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goddamn this game was good as poo poo. looking forward to playing a dev commentary run sometime
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Feb 12, 2024 02:35
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Gnome de plume posted:I've wondered if in the slim possibility more half-life ever came out whether they'd patch the new ending into episode 2 the same way they did for portal I don't think valve actually cares about half-life's canon. It's just a tool to help sell something else at this point.
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Feb 12, 2024 05:40
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| # ? Apr 28, 2024 17:32 |
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Old Man Rambles & Yells At Cloud Warning. In the first game, Gordon's a scientist with very little backstory & a mute: he's an ordinary guy in scientific focused power armour, he's not a stoic badass Space Marine. This allowed him just enough personality for him to be relatable to players, but also wasn't a major detriment if you weren't invested in Gordon's backstory. His personal life isn't really explored in the game. Despite the government/alien forces he's facing, how he's a small pawn in a vast mysterious world of interests, you could define your Gordon through your actions. Valve's first game is a seamless, unbroken first person experience throughout, no dialogue choices or cut-scenes to drag the player's control away, which was a big selling point on release. You can only define Gordon by pressing E on certain things, and whether to shoot kill friendlies or not: but the friendly fire choices still work for making your unique version of Gordon. Your Gordon wants to do his very best to help everyone? Escort friendly NPCs as far as you can, putting up with the wonky path finding and going back repeatedly to guide them as far as the level permits.Your Gordon is a pragmatist who wants to help others, but his own survival is the most important goal? Only take the NPCs that are most helpful to you, and/or leave them behind if they refuse to navigate things like stairs or corners. Want Gordon to be a psychopath who shoots all Black Mesa staff for gleeful fun or ammo? Sure, go nuts! Occasionally you get a "Failed to effectively utilize human assets in the field" a few times: even for those cases, you can keep them alive to a certain point, then kill them afterwards. Even as an occasionally edgy teen playing in 1999, I usually tried to be more pragmatic with friendlies and only left them behind after 2 or 3 tries if their path-finding didn't cooperate. Nowadays I do my very best to bring everyone along as far as possible. But that's how I play and my version of Gordon: other players can shape him differently. The sequel has Gordon returning decades after Black Mesa, with even more horrific events having occurred in his absence, and the Combine is even more of an existential threat with the death of native wildlife & sterilization of the human race. Even if the Combine never come back at all, at best humanity & the planet are facing decades of painful rebuilding, at worst, it's too late for everything. He's an even smaller pawn in the sequel's story. How can you specifically, the player, shape your version of Gordon in this backdrop and have him respond to this disorienting new threat, with legends and myths about his experience decades ago? You can't. No friendly fire, and since your only real way of interacting with the world is pressing E or shooting things, you have no optional effect on defining Gordon's personality compared to the previous title. The HL2 beta did indeed have friendly fire and recorded dialogue acknowledging it, so Valve were planning on it being in game until they removed it. Since there's no cutscenes or dialogue choices, you can't really define your Gordon through your actions. Gordon could be traumatised but still numbly doing the right thing no matter what, he could be a reluctant but pragmatic hero who will kill a few humans if it'll stop a far bigger threat in the long run, or Gordon's completely crazy like in Freeman's Mind 2 and shooting Vortigaunts since he doesn't know they're now friendly. Sorry, can't define your Gordon personality in the game now! FYI I hate most morality systems and the binary/arbitrary nonsense choices you have to make. But Valve could easily allow a few extra lines of dialogue acknowledging the player's decisions, so that the game feels less artificial, whilst keeping the overall HL2 "Gordon is seen as Earth's saviour, no matter what" plot. Have some generic Resistance members, who always open up two slow moving gates for you at a captured checkpoint (you can open both gates yourself at anytime). They have a brief conversation with you, or each other, based on your friendly fire choices, whilst waiting. They've got orders to hold the checkpoint so they won't follow you. Then a few levels later, Gordon reaches a brief section with Alyx, who helps him out, and then something like my crappy dialogue plays out. No other changes or dialogue would be necessary. - Gordon hasn't killed any friendlies at all: "It's great to see you! All the stories about you & the Black Mesa incident were true I guess! The Combine have a special weapon on the roof blah blah" - Gordon has killed a few friendlies: "Hey Gordon, we need your help. There's some chatter about what happened recently, but fog of war and confusion and all that, right? Maybe some tragic mistakes happened? Anyway, the Combine have a special weapon ..." - Gordon has killed a lot of friendlies. "I-I don't know if I believe what I've been hearing... but...okay, the Combine occupation is a threat to everyone, it's bigger than us...so let's focus on stopping them. They have a special..." I genuinely would love to have a coffee with Marc Laidlaw and have a long chat about the interaction of player choice vs story/worldbuilding plot impacting on the storylines and the choices made for HL2 & later titles. Maybe the frantic development of the second game, the leak and major redesigns influenced their decision? Maybe Valve wanted to focus much more on characterization with Alyx and Barney, so they didn't want to muddy the waters by allowing generic rebels to be killed? Or the removal of friendly fire in the final game was a meta-commentary on "The illusion of choice" theme in video games?
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Feb 12, 2024 06:26
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