Catching up on Half-Life

FooAtari · 25 Apr 2011 at 14:04

FoxEye said:
You could get away with skipping HL1. I'd actually recommend skipping the add-on packs for it (Opposing Force & Blue Shift).

No no no.

As others have said do not skip HL1 or the expansions. HL1 is still the greatest FPS ever and I'd rather play it over every FPS released since. I played through HL1, Opposing Force and Blue Shift a year or two ago and they are still brilliant games (Blue Shift less so)

Opposing Force is probably the best game expansions I have ever played and could have been released as a stand alone title in it's own right rather than an expansion to HL1

rwm24 · 25 Apr 2011 at 14:45

If you do play through them all I recommend you get http://www.cinematicmod.com for HL2/Episode 1/Episode 2

Hudzy · 25 Apr 2011 at 15:18

For the higher res textures, sure. Skip the music and character model changes though, at least until a second play through.

FoxEye · 25 Apr 2011 at 15:26

FooAtari said:
No no no.

As others have said do not skip HL1 or the expansions. HL1 is still the greatest FPS ever and I'd rather play it over every FPS released since. I played through HL1, Opposing Force and Blue Shift a year or two ago and they are still brilliant games (Blue Shift less so)

Opposing Force is probably the best game expansions I have ever played and could have been released as a stand alone title in it's own right rather than an expansion to HL1

I think that's possibly nostalgia talking there. HL1's expansions were cack, tbh. Each to his own, I guess.

The OP asked:

which games should I buy from Steam to get the core storyline of the series?

HL1's expansions do nothing to expand the story at all.

BlairH · 25 Apr 2011 at 15:52

arknor said:
lol this is known as "console attention deficit disorder" the HL1 levels would blow you brain into tiny peices

Indeed.

This is why we have so many linear "corridor shooter" COD clones these days.

gropingmantis · 25 Apr 2011 at 16:17

BlairH said:
Indeed.

This is why we have so many linear "corridor shooter" COD clones these days.

Yes people like you should have your own genre of FPS and leave the good stuff to us adults

edit: people like stoke1863 not like you BlairH.

Utnac · 25 Apr 2011 at 16:19

jomiyo said:
Yeah, I think they said a while back that since they've released several great games, they're going to go through a period of releasing piles of crap to balance things out. Boy did they keep to their word, as L4D1 & 2 and Portal 2 are utter garbage!

Well personally, I'd rather have EP3 and probably 4 than those 3 games, not impressed by L4D at all and portal 2 is not worth the wait for EP3

tuftyfella · 25 Apr 2011 at 16:38

oh how i envy you OP, your in for such a treat.

CaptainRAVE · 25 Apr 2011 at 16:40

FooAtari said:
No no no.

As others have said do not skip HL1 or the expansions. HL1 is still the greatest FPS ever and I'd rather play it over every FPS released since. I played through HL1, Opposing Force and Blue Shift a year or two ago and they are still brilliant games (Blue Shift less so)

Opposing Force is probably the best game expansions I have ever played and could have been released as a stand alone title in it's own right rather than an expansion to HL1

+1

I still consider HL to be one of the greatest games of all time. To skip it would just be crazy. The "expansions" were basically games in their own right. These days an expansion counts as a couple of new maps

FooAtari · 26 Apr 2011 at 13:08

FoxEye said:
I think that's possibly nostalgia talking there. HL1's expansions were cack, tbh. Each to his own, I guess.

The OP asked:

HL1's expansions do nothing to expand the story at all.

I don't think it's nostalgia, as I said, played through them all recently and I still regard Opposing Force as a great game. However, it's true that it doesn't actually expand or add to the story, but I still considering it worth playing and would love to see another Opposing Force game and the return of Adrian Sheppard. (There is a source remake, which will hopefully see completion)

Blue Shift is pretty average, but also quite short, so may as well play that too!

Half-life is a great series of games and I think it's worth playing them all to get the full Half-life experience.

gronf · 26 Apr 2011 at 18:49

Utnac said:
Well personally, I'd rather have EP3 and probably 4 than those 3 games, not impressed by L4D at all and portal 2 is not worth the wait for EP3

L4D's not my cuppa, but from sales figures and general gamer opinion they seem to be damn-good games. Portal 2, tho, is a great gem in my collection.

Anyway, I don't know, do you? Been in the dark for some time now, haven't we? Words don't cut it for how much I want Ep3/HL3, but as often as it's said... really just have to wait and see.