Half Life series.

Duff-Man · 22 Nov 2007 at 12:41

Squark said:
Just out of interest, when was SS2 out compared to HL?

I think that HL came out before SS2.

I remember that, at the time, the closest rival to HL was the original Unreal, which took a very different path.

Yes, Half Life was ahead of its time. It seems much less revolutionary now, in no small part due to the fact that developers have taken a lot of its features and re-done them in a variety of games. I will say one thing though: Xen sucked donkey balls and was a mistake of epic proportions

scorza · 22 Nov 2007 at 12:52

Zefan said:
I don't remember that

He means the 3-tentacle beast in the blast pit - you had to crouch to move around there or you'd make a noise and it'd know where you were resulting in a speedy death.

Duff-Man · 22 Nov 2007 at 13:19

scorza said:
He means the 3-tentacle beast in the blast pit - you had to crouch to move around there or you'd make a noise and it'd know where you were resulting in a speedy death.

Ah! I never realised you could stealth around...

I always used to lob a grenade to the other end of the room, then run across while it was distracted. I figured that was the reason for there being so many nades scattered around.

Weebull · 22 Nov 2007 at 13:22

Half-Life 1 is one of the best PC games ever made. If you don't play it because of poor graphics you're missing out. The gameplay is just so damn well done. HL2 does improve on it well, but the sheer length and variety of HL1 is its strength, even now.

EDIT: The Gauss gun was amazing. Why didn't they bring it back

.

I'd also play Opposing Force. In many ways it's actually a detriment story-wise, since it adds the idea of a new alien race, who were promptly abandoned by Valve for HL2, but it's almost as much fun as HL1, and the constant "oh hey that bit of Black Mesa!" experience is very nicely done.

Duff-Man · 22 Nov 2007 at 13:46

Weebull said:
EDIT: The Gauss gun was amazing. Why didn't they bring it back .

They did - you get one attached to the front of your buggy in HL2.

To be honest, I'm glad they didn't include it in the regular weapons. It was never one of my faveourite guns.

bledd · 22 Nov 2007 at 13:47

Damonic said:
I don't want to buy data downloads and store it on my PC, just not my thing.

if you format your pc, you can just re-download them (or copy your steam folder to another drive before you format) much faster than installing from DVD

plus, it loads up without having to scan your dvd drive each time

steam is a good thing

misterPK · 22 Nov 2007 at 13:49

Duff-Man said:
Ah! I never realised you could stealth around...

I always used to lob a grenade to the other end of the room, then run across while it was distracted. I figured that was the reason for there being so many nades scattered around.

I think it was designed so you could use either tactic. The grenades were also usefull for unblocking the exit iirc. I found getting off the ladders and not making any noise was the hard part. I usually went for stealth but then in any game my 1337 nade skillz usually involve them bouncing off something and landing by my own feet. Perhaps thats why I like TF2...

PK!

Duff-Man · 22 Nov 2007 at 13:53

misterPK said:
I think it was designed so you could use either tactic. PK!

...Another HL innovation

There were several places where you could use different strategies to achieve the same ends. This is commonplace these days, but was pretty new back then.

jrodga2k5 · 23 Nov 2007 at 01:15

Duff-Man said:
Ah! I never realised you could stealth around...

I always used to lob a grenade to the other end of the room, then run across while it was distracted. I figured that was the reason for there being so many nades scattered around.

I never realised it at first either but that encounter bugged me at the start! Amazing game and I loved the intro, not sure anything can beat that to get you right into the story and feel a part of it!

Confused · 23 Nov 2007 at 09:58

I always read these HL threads and realise how much I've actually missed out on by not completing it. Hell, I hardly even played the SP part of it, I just jumped straight to HL: DM and CS

The fact that I usually suck at SP games too... darn I must install Steam onto my laptop and start playing HL: Source... once I've finished playing Mafia (which I'd never completed either, and have only just re-installed). Oh, and there's Deus-Ex I've never played. And I never got past the first level in Unreal... Darn, no wonder I've all but given up on gaming

.Lethal · 23 Nov 2007 at 10:41

bledd. said:
if you format your pc, you can just re-download them (or copy your steam folder to another drive before you format) much faster than installing from DVD

plus, it loads up without having to scan your dvd drive each time

steam is a good thing

You might be right, I only wanted certain games but after installing HL1 Anthology I was forced to use this steam system and part of me thinks I might as well have spent $99.99 on all games.

But another part of me thinks buying HL1 Anthology and the GOTY edition of HL2 has given me all I want, bar the EP1 and 2 of HL2 which right now I do not need (since I have so much to play first).

mks2005 · 23 Nov 2007 at 11:10

Half-Life was undeniably brilliant - nice to see someone mentioning the demo, "Uplink"... Not sure how many have played that but I remember playing it in my early FPS days and thought it was absolutely amazing.

misterPK · 23 Nov 2007 at 12:07

I've never played Uplink, is it easily avaliable? (ie on steam)

PK!

D3lirious · 23 Nov 2007 at 12:24

To play throught the half life story in it's entirety, do it in the following order. I've added a personal rating out of ten to give an idea of which ones shouldn't be missed but you may aswell get them all in a collection.

Half Life (10/10)
Half Life: Opposing Force (expansion to Half Life) (9/10)
half Life: Blueshift (expansion to Half Life) (8/10)

Half Life 2 (7/10)
Half Life 2: Epsiode One (8/10)
Half Life 2: Episode Two (9/10)

Lost Coast was just a tech demo to showcase HDR and is just a short bit of gameplay. No harm in looking since it will prob come free with any pack you choose.
Half Life 2 and the follow ups are good fun, but they tend to be overrated and don't really touch the original Half Life.

.Lethal · 23 Nov 2007 at 12:27

D3lirious said:
To play throught the half life story in it's entirety, do it in the following order. I've added a personal rating out of ten to give an idea of which ones shouldn't be missed but you may aswell get them all in a collection.

Half Life (10/10)
Half Life: Opposing Force (expansion to Half Life) (9/10)
half Life: Blueshift (expansion to Half Life) (8/10)

Half Life 2 (7/10)
Half Life 2: Epsiode One (8/10)
Half Life 2: Episode Two (9/10)

Lost Coast was just a tech demo to showcase HDR and is just a short bit of gameplay. No harm in looking since it will prob come free with any pack you choose.
Half Life 2 and the follow ups are good fun, but they tend to be overrated and don't really touch the original Half Life.

Thats exactly how I plan to play them. Have started on the original Half life last night

siclilmonkey · 23 Nov 2007 at 12:45

I Have to say that the HL series has to be the best series of games that has ever been.

having played all of the games and many of the sp and mp mods there is nothing that can beet the game play and the story line (admitidly the story gets a bit shadey between HL1 and HL2 but i think theres a book that fills in some of the gaps.

i bought HL1 when it first came out and i am still playing HL

M on and off, and the graphics arnt that bad iv seen worse in newer games.

Who ever has not played the main games are missing out on 1 hell of a series and the valve compleate pack is a bargin.