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They've been wondering all this time (lemmy.world)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/funny@sh.itjust.works
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[–] 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

What, like Blue Shift > Opposing Force or HL1 > HL2? Or lore-related stuff?

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

    Uhh yes. Oh boy, an invitation to ramble!

    Tap for spoilerPersonally, while I don't hate either of the Gearbox games, I don't think they deserve to be on the same pedestal as the Valve games, either. BS is so short and does so little worldbuilding that it's like one step up from Lost Coast in terms of replayability. I've only felt the need to replay it once, and that was like a decade after my first run (I run through the mainline HL games almost every year). And it's a huge stretch for OF to be considered canon. While it definitely goes further than BS in trying to impart interesting details, mostly it seems to recycle beats from the original game, and the parts it adds on don't have a consistent tone. I also strongly dislike how the game tries to whitewash the military. Plus it doesn't seem like Valve was a fan either; in HL2, the way Mossman describes teleportation working for either the humans or the Combine doesn't fit with the existence of Race X, the headcrab life cycle is completely retconned, and not one element of that game has ever resurfaced, not a single easter egg among all the Xen fauna throughout HLA. Maybe the Xen grenades could be a reference to the OF alien grenade launcher if you really want to push it? I mean Laidlaw has even said he didn't consider the Gearbox games when writing HL2.

    As for HL1 vs HL2... I dunno, they're very different games. HL2 obviously wins in terms of narrative storytelling, but I totally see the argument when people say that HL1's gameplay is more fun. On the other hand, I also think HL2's more restrained weapon design came about because Valve was being more careful about crafting enemy encounters. Like in HL1 you get weapons like the Tau cannon which are super cool but Valve don't seem to have thought the ammo placement through very well. It's so rare that you get used to not using it unless all your other guns are out of ammo, which is also rare, even on hard mode. The Black Mesa fan project did a much better job of showcasing those lategame weapons (at least, unless you're a fan of Tau jumping).

    Edit, actual hot takes: HLA was extremely average, even among VR games; the only standout it has is looking pretty. The boat and car in HL2 aren't bad. More lukewarm but Breen as a character is a fully selfish, evil prick and only uses "saving humanity" to justify himself to others, he doesn't believe it at all.

    Ah jeez I'm gonna stop. Feel no obligation to read any of that. But yeah I used to post about all kinds of half life stuff. Once I wound up permabanned from okbuddyhalflife when I argued that valve popularized lootboxes and gaben was not a good billionaire

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    That makes sense to me. I think 1 vs 2 comes down to personal preference, they both excel in different ways. I prefer the focused gameplay loop of 1, but I can imagine how groundbreaking the NPCs and the physics of the boat and car sections were back in the day. My main gripe with BM's weapon balancing is limiting machine gun grenades to three, but I understand that ten was overkill and fed into my "I'll save five in case I really need them" hoarder mentality lol.

    Wild that you got banned for saying that given TF2 pioneered the practice.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Yeah it feels like BM picked 3 because that's what HL2 did, but to be fair there needed to be fewer than 10 because each individual grenade was way more powerful than in the original. At least HL2 didn't go as far in reducing weapon variety as HLA!

    Also I edited in some actual hot takes into my original post.

    Yeah okbh was a meme comm and I guess its mods were equally unserious. Not like I got banned for making a non-meme post, mine was the only viewpoint in that thread that got deleted so I guess they just didn't like what I was saying lol

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    People say Breen is sympathetic? That's more of a hot take to me lol. He's actively helping them destroy the human race (suppression field/other war crimes).

    And I like the boat/car sections, I just love HL1 and how it mixes gunfights and platforming challenges. The only part of 2 that hit that high for me was the underside of the bridge, which is an inspired sequence in an already brilliant game. They both deserve the praise they get and will go down as some of the best games of all time.

    I suppose my hottest take is that I refuse to believe in anything HL3, even if they announce it, until it's actually released. I thought for sure that Alyx meant it was around the corner and it's been five years... at this point I think it will never happen (I'd love to be wrong though).

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago

    People say Breen is sympathetic?

    Ohhmygoodness I must have argued about this on the old site at least 5 different times. People really like the idea he was doing the best he could to buy time in a world where he genuinely believed fighting the Combine was impossible. I guess they were really starving for a sympathetic villain? But yeah his actions don't leave any room for sympathy, let alone his speeches and the dialogue between him and Vance. If anything the evidence points to him working with G-Man to cause the Black Mesa incident on purpose.

    The only part of 2 that hit that high for me was the underside of the bridge

    True, HL2 really deemphasized platforming as something necessary to win. I've always figured Valve tries to make games they want to play, and they fell out of love first with platformers, then with shooters. That's why there's been no HL3: they're into MOBAs now. I put together an almost entirely new PC and I'm still out here playing TF2 when I get the itch to shoot stuff; Deadlock really isn't my jam. Honestly at this point I figure even if we do get a HL3, it will have been taken in a direction I'm not really interested in.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    I agree with all your opinions except I would give more credit to HLA as a first timer's VR experience.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    I feel that excuse only goes so far. It's funny; the original Half Life was my first PC shooter experience, and Alyx was my first VR experience, but HL1 manages to be engaging for me even now while Alyx already feels stale. Like, I get the decision to dumb the movement way down for VR first timers who might get motion sick, but it goes way too far and offers vanishingly few options for people who might want more immersive physics. Or, like, a sprint button. Apparently I have naturally strong VR legs, but jeez, it bothered me even on my first time with a headset

    Other things should still have had more room to expand as the game runs on, too. There's so little weapon variety and even among what it does have, the SMG and pistol fill almost the same niche. Apparently they made the AI painfully bad on purpose, but why couldn't they have saved a more engaging combat experience for the endgame or higher difficulties? And the constant orb puzzles they used to replace the traditional physics based ones get incredibly repetitive, especially when replaying the game.

    It fails to iterate on the mechanics it introduces in meaningful ways, instead choosing to introduce new things that are entirely self contained (i.e., the Jeff sequence and the final level's vortigaunt blasts). Like, Jeff was super memorable, but part of the reason for that is he breaks up some seriously repetitive gameplay, and nothing about that level is ever relevant again.

    Plus I have other gripes about sound design, physics (especially for heavy objects), even the way fall damage is handled. And the way it retcons Ep2 feels cheap to me. Idk. The game was ultimately fun, but flawed far beyond what I think can be said of the earlier games. Obviously I'm biased, but I wound up having more fun with HL2VR than Alyx.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    I think it has to be seen through the eyes of soneone's first VR experience. Which already is where most of the innovation takes place. As far as the game itself, I think it's more streamlined, polished and narratively coherent version of HL2. I think as a whole it does a good job of blowing away most first time players.

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