Half-Life: Alyx (formerly: Half Life 3 is coming??)

Falthyron

cloud493 wrote: »

Too bad its not 2004, its 2013. I'm sure when it came out it blew everyones socks off, but these days it does not hold up as well as the internet would have you think.

But you can say that about anything. The Matrix film brought us bullet-time (technically Max Payne did :P ), which has been since bested by other special effects films. Even The Last of Us will be beaten on all fronts by another game in a few years and it will age.

The point is; Half-life 2 can be seen as a reference point in the development of computer games. A reference to a leap towards realism in terms of visuals, encompassing other mediums like literature (Orwell's 1984), and delivering in interactivity that had never really been achieved before (physics and manipulation of world objects). Battlefield 3's amazing Physics could, quite possibly, be traced and inspired by what Half-life 2 delivered upon.

Of course the game ages. Of course it doesn't fit in with what has become expected of FPS games today, but that is what makes it unique. It never fit in. Half-life 2 was something that hadn't been done before, and the internet renown you speak of is testament to the impact it had on the gaming industry at that time.

We remember Half-life 2 for what it brought, what it changed, and how nobody had seen anything like it at that time. If you think people will be calling The Last of Us 'timeless' in 2023 you would be greatly mistaken. However it remains to be seen as to what kind of impact it has and will have on games to come over the next few years.

marco_polo

cloud493 wrote: »

Not really the same thing is it/

You could say the same about the terms "overrated" and "I didn't like"

stevenmu

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

The only disappointment, IMO, is that some of the design evolutions - particularly its seamless flow and pace - have only barely filtered into the wider medium.

I agree, this is hugely disappointing. Valve did a great job of weaving the story into the gameplay, so the plot developed and story elements were revealed while you actually played the game. Sure, sometimes they locked you in a room until some NPCs had finished talking, but for the most part it felt pretty natural.

I had to give up on Assassins Creed 3 half way through. Despite the huge open world, it felt like the game spent more time playing itself than I did. For an hour of "gameplay" I got about 10 minutes where I was in control, and 50 minutes of either cutscenes, or that stupid restricted thing they do where all you can do is walk slowly in a fixed direction, and if you're lucky you get a QTE at the end to trigger another bloody cutscene.

Radiosonde

Not played it since maybe 2005? If I did again, bet I'd still love it . Delivering the 'cut scenes' while leaving the player in control was great. I want a good story but I don't want to watch little movies every five minutes. Didn't really like ep1 and never played 2.

ancapailldorcha

Radiosonde wrote: »

Not played it since maybe 2005? If I did again, bet I'd still love it . Delivering the 'cut scenes' while leaving the player in control was great. I want a good story but I don't want to watch little movies every five minutes. Didn't really like ep1 and never played 2.

Give episode 2 a try. The plot is even worse than the original game but it ends with a really enjoyable open section.

readyletsgo

barry181091 wrote: »

Hmm, maybe its time I actually download and play half life 2. Is it really that good huh

Must say when I started to get back into gaming 3 years ago, a frined was banging on about HL2 for ages, so I got a copy. My god, it was one of the best games I've played.

Totes recommend it to you.

Just got a PS3 today so going to get a copy of HL2 for it to play again.

Buy it, play it, enjoy the story to it and then move on with your life cause I dont think HL3 is coming anytime soon lol.

Myrddin

Clicks into thread to see when Half Life 3 is coming.
See's its still not coming.
Leaves thread again.

Pops back in to post this, & to state HL1 & HL2 were hugely influential games, Johnny Ultimate is spot on with his comments about them.

MadYaker

People speculating about HL3 and other stuff based on a valve project tracker.

http://www.valvetime.net/threads/updated-half-life-3-left-4-dead-3-source-2-much-more-found-on-valve-project-tracker.243580/

AlmightyCushion

Radiosonde wrote: »

Not played it since maybe 2005? If I did again, bet I'd still love it . Delivering the 'cut scenes' while leaving the player in control was great. I want a good story but I don't want to watch little movies every five minutes. Didn't really like ep1 and never played 2.

Did any one else spend all of the time during the "cutscene" just hitting people in the face with the crowbar.

wyrn

Every.single.flippin.time I fall for this. I know it's only going to crush me but I can't help it.

Anyway, I quite liked Half-Life 2. My favourite part was the bridge scene. I remember the first time I played it, being blown away by the scenery and atmosphere.

Think this sums it up pretty well. Blah blah blah Mr. Freeman

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slRsexrhbG8

LuckyFinigan

I'd rate Half Life 2 as one of my favorite games, probably 2nd just behind MGS. I still throw it on every now and then and enjoy it just as much as when it first came out. I can understand why some people might think it overrated, I remember hearing about what a brilliant game Halo was and I finally played it and it was dullest thing I've ever played.

Grimebox

I played it in 2008 I think. Given the hype, I was disappointed to be honest. It is certainly good but it didn't leave any lasting effect on me. Don't listen to me though, I have gone off single player games in a huge way over the years, especially fps games.

CastorTroy

So remind me, why did he push that thing into the machine at the beginning of the first episode? I remember doing it just because it's all I could do. But what was the story reason?

Vicxas

God damnit OP. dont do that to me.

Genghiz Cohen

They was testing a very rare material. It was Gordons job to handle events inside the testing chamber, thus the HEV suit that allowed him to survive.

The test material on the day of the Black Mesa Incident, was very very pure and so the provider demanded much better results. The scientists involved decided to push the Anti Mass Spectrometer to very high energy levels and caused a Resonance Cascade. It tore open portals between Earth and the Zen. It also signalled the Combine to the location of Earth.

CastorTroy

Ah, of course.

:pac:

Skerries

pfft! obviously <..< >..>

ktulu123

STOP BUMPING THIS THREAD!!!!! I hate having to look in here! I also hate myself for posting in this. Sorry

Radiosonde

ktulu123 wrote: »

STOP BUMPING THIS THREAD!!!!! I hate having to look in here! I also hate myself for posting in this. Sorry

Why, we still haven't reached the OP's predicted release date of 2015...made in 2011?

Seems the first ever mention of hl3 by a poster on this site was made almost nine years ago. The poster looked forward to seeing what Unreal 3 could do and what hl3 might look like running on it...how young and foolish we all were, I wonder if by the time it comes out if the PS4 will be able to run it on it's creaky, cobweb-ridden tech :P

Kiith

I hate that i've been waiting for so long for this, yet still get excited every time a HL3 thread gets bumped. I guess it shows just how big an impact the previous games had on me. Seeing people say it's overrated...baffles my mind.

Its weird, but if it were anyone else other than Valve, i'd probably never forgive them.

RobertFoster

Was there meant to be an Episode 3 at some stage, or has that morphed into a full game? Anything I've ever read about HL3 was fan rumours, what's Valve's official stance?

Falthyron

RobertFoster wrote: »

Was there meant to be an Episode 3 at some stage, or has that morphed into a full game? Anything I've ever read about HL3 was fan rumours, what's Valve's official stance?

I believe they had planned to switch to episodic content because the development of Half-life 2 was a very long time since the original. The plan was to release a new episode every year so fans would not be kept waiting. However, Episode 1 wasn't released until June 2006 (a good 20 months after HL2), and Episode 2 wasn't released until October 2007 (16 months after Episode 1).

While both were well received, the biggest backlash came from the fact that each episode was only really 4-6 hours long, but fans were waiting more than a year. It didn't add up and Valve recognised this. It would seem Valve chose to abandon this method of development...

So now we play the waiting game... :P Having said that, Half-life 2 was released November 2004. Next year is the ten (yes, TEN ) year anniversary. Maybe, just maybe, if we don't get HL3, GabeN might actually deliver a timetable or some sort of announcement.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/172604/valve-episodic-game-plan-may-not-last/

CastorTroy

Maybe Half Life Episode 3 is being made by the people who make Red Dwarf since there are such big gaps between the series finale and the next episode.

So updated ending to Half Life 2 next year then?

Radiosonde

CastorTroy wrote: »

Maybe Half Life Episode 3 is being made by the people who make Red Dwarf since there are such big gaps between the series finale and the next episode.

I think it's more like the Star Wars prequel of video games...ten to twenty years of rumours and speculation, and just when you think they're never gonna do it, they announce it, you get all psyched, and it'll turn out ****.

I'm a glass half-empty sort of person!

stevenmu

Be careful what you wish for (vaguely relevant)

Riesen_Meal

Absolutely

Could there be anything to this?

Steam support on Twitter just responded to the HL2 Update:

WARNING: The most recent HL2 update has some issues. We're working to fix this, you can pause the update for now. 예측하지 못한 결과에 대비하라...

Translation: Prepare for unexpected results.

https://twitter.com/Steam_Support/status/349678346688405505

I hate to bump this bloody thread but here goes :

http://kotaku.com/half-life-2-just-got-all-messed-up-and-people-are-frea-578836197

Half-Life 2 Just Got All Messed Up, And People Are Freaking Out
Normally, when a game is updated and things break, it's cause for concern. When a Valve game updates and things get weird, though, people get excited.

Ever since Portal 2 was announced via updates to Portal 1, people have paid extra close attention to any changes made to Valve games, and after a big one to Half-Life 2 this morning, those people are going a little crazy.

A patch sent out over Steam earlier today - for some people hundreds of MB in size, for others over 1GB (sometimes even over 3GB) - has made some weird alterations to the game. Many people's versions, for example, now feature Korean audio, even though their game settings specify English. Like mine. I can't even change the language, it's stuck on Korean. Some people are also reporting broken save game files.

It's probably an error, and we've contacted Valve to be sure. But when it comes to Valve games, there's always hope stuff like this is something more, even if it is a fool's hope...

UPDATE - While we're yet to hear back from Valve, the game, like other Source Engine titles, was recently converted to the "Steampipe" file system, so it's likely an error with how that handles your update downloads.

UPDATE 2 - Valve tells us it "should be fixed now".

Falthyron

Fieldog wrote: »

Could there be anything to this?

Steam support on Twitter just responded to the HL2 Update:

WARNING: The most recent HL2 update has some issues. We're working to fix this, you can pause the update for now. 예측하지 못한 결과에 대비하라...

Translation: Prepare for unexpected results.

https://twitter.com/Steam_Support/status/349678346688405505

I hate to bump this bloody thread but here goes :

http://kotaku.com/half-life-2-just-got-all-messed-up-and-people-are-frea-578836197

Half-Life 2 Just Got All Messed Up, And People Are Freaking Out
Normally, when a game is updated and things break, it's cause for concern. When a Valve game updates and things get weird, though, people get excited.

Ever since Portal 2 was announced via updates to Portal 1, people have paid extra close attention to any changes made to Valve games, and after a big one to Half-Life 2 this morning, those people are going a little crazy.

A patch sent out over Steam earlier today - for some people hundreds of MB in size, for others over 1GB (sometimes even over 3GB) - has made some weird alterations to the game. Many people's versions, for example, now feature Korean audio, even though their game settings specify English. Like mine. I can't even change the language, it's stuck on Korean. Some people are also reporting broken save game files.

It's probably an error, and we've contacted Valve to be sure. But when it comes to Valve games, there's always hope stuff like this is something more, even if it is a fool's hope...

UPDATE - While we're yet to hear back from Valve, the game, like other Source Engine titles, was recently converted to the "Steampipe" file system, so it's likely an error with how that handles your update downloads.

UPDATE 2 - Valve tells us it "should be fixed now".

You didn't think all those nuclear tests in North Korea were actually nuclear tests, did you? 'They're waiting for you, Gordon. In the test chamber...'

Clover

Falthyron wrote: »

'They're waiting for you, Gordon. In the test chamber...'

Classic

Giggling like a school girl here , apart from yesterday when I built my first pc . Half Life 2 was the last time I was like this.

cherryghost

2 Valve Employees

No ARG, sorry. I mucked up.

and

There is nothing interesting going on..

There's a second full stop there, so there's definitely something happening. NEW TF2 ITEMS CONFIRMED.

Skerries

maybe it's a microdot containing HL3 information