Half-Life 20 Years Later: An LGR Retrospective
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Date: 2022-04-14
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Comments and reviews: 10
Arian
this type of story-telling is so much better than the super obvious type of story telling where the characters explain everything to you.
this style feels more authentic and realistic because just like the real world when something happens or some event is going on, you as a person only know so much about what's going on and a lot of stuff that's happening in the background will be unknown and vague to you and you'll mostly of the time have more questions than you will have answers and you'll never get the answers to most of your questions because we as human-beings have a very limited understanding about bigger and deeper questions, so if you got the answers to most of your questions in half-life as Gordon Freeman then it wouldn't feel authentic since at the end of the day this story is about creatures and worlds beyond our understanding and no matter how smart Gordon is, he's still dabbling with things he can't comprehend
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this type of story-telling is so much better than the super obvious type of story telling where the characters explain everything to you.
this style feels more authentic and realistic because just like the real world when something happens or some event is going on, you as a person only know so much about what's going on and a lot of stuff that's happening in the background will be unknown and vague to you and you'll mostly of the time have more questions than you will have answers and you'll never get the answers to most of your questions because we as human-beings have a very limited understanding about bigger and deeper questions, so if you got the answers to most of your questions in half-life as Gordon Freeman then it wouldn't feel authentic since at the end of the day this story is about creatures and worlds beyond our understanding and no matter how smart Gordon is, he's still dabbling with things he can't comprehend
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Emily
Back when I played this I have NO NEGATIVE THOUGHT - NOTHING - NADA. I found nothing tedious and annoying a devoured this thing because it was new and fresh, I had seen my share of PC and console games (N64 mostly) but nothing like this. And it did not even cross my mind that people hated Xen. I mean I liked the other parts more, but I just played in excitement until it was over and obviously more than once later one. But when I replayed it in Black Mesa the 2nd time after their version of Xen came out I did not really understand the Hype. I think the reviews are driven by Nostalgia because the dated mechanics show and their version of Xen is long and tedious at times. The game as a hole is not really on par with modern games and Black Mesa looks OK (could look way better in a complete different Engine like Unreal or something) but the game mechanics and concepts are just not as existing as the once were.
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Back when I played this I have NO NEGATIVE THOUGHT - NOTHING - NADA. I found nothing tedious and annoying a devoured this thing because it was new and fresh, I had seen my share of PC and console games (N64 mostly) but nothing like this. And it did not even cross my mind that people hated Xen. I mean I liked the other parts more, but I just played in excitement until it was over and obviously more than once later one. But when I replayed it in Black Mesa the 2nd time after their version of Xen came out I did not really understand the Hype. I think the reviews are driven by Nostalgia because the dated mechanics show and their version of Xen is long and tedious at times. The game as a hole is not really on par with modern games and Black Mesa looks OK (could look way better in a complete different Engine like Unreal or something) but the game mechanics and concepts are just not as existing as the once were.
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Garden
I was born in 92. My father worked on PCs in the 90s so we always had a more than capable pc. Eventually the old one was handed down as he upgraded. Handled HL really well. It even handled doom 3 years later. Tho that game was laggy as hell when a lot was going on. Anyway. I was young playing this game, I remember the first two/three levels vividly but would always get stuck. It was such a feeling to finally move into a new part. Back then beating a game seemed impossible. Now a days 2-3 days is all it takes for some games. My imagination as a kid made this game so special. I remember going in elevator shafts and being like so this is what it looks like when an elevator ain-t there. Always had this unreal expectation I would eventually be able to drive a vehicle. And the scripted events scared and intrigued me at the same time. Not as magical now a days but still fun to go back down memory lane
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I was born in 92. My father worked on PCs in the 90s so we always had a more than capable pc. Eventually the old one was handed down as he upgraded. Handled HL really well. It even handled doom 3 years later. Tho that game was laggy as hell when a lot was going on. Anyway. I was young playing this game, I remember the first two/three levels vividly but would always get stuck. It was such a feeling to finally move into a new part. Back then beating a game seemed impossible. Now a days 2-3 days is all it takes for some games. My imagination as a kid made this game so special. I remember going in elevator shafts and being like so this is what it looks like when an elevator ain-t there. Always had this unreal expectation I would eventually be able to drive a vehicle. And the scripted events scared and intrigued me at the same time. Not as magical now a days but still fun to go back down memory lane
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Darrick
I love it when ppl hype half life and seemlessly talk about the games they liked better at the time. I'll say it, give me metroid prime or halo ce any day. Half life may as well not exist and we would have arrived at the same place we were already headed, that's my take on it. Even half life changed myriad times because valve saw what other devs were doing, and their success has coasted on mod and workshop scene. Source was the crucial influence and I will absolutely concede its impact. I think we would have seen more of that focus on unreal engine which is pretty much what happened anyway so who is to say we wouldn't have had CS anyway? At any rate, and I will argue this until the day I die, Half life itself was boring compared to everything else we were playing.
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I love it when ppl hype half life and seemlessly talk about the games they liked better at the time. I'll say it, give me metroid prime or halo ce any day. Half life may as well not exist and we would have arrived at the same place we were already headed, that's my take on it. Even half life changed myriad times because valve saw what other devs were doing, and their success has coasted on mod and workshop scene. Source was the crucial influence and I will absolutely concede its impact. I think we would have seen more of that focus on unreal engine which is pretty much what happened anyway so who is to say we wouldn't have had CS anyway? At any rate, and I will argue this until the day I die, Half life itself was boring compared to everything else we were playing.
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George
Damn, i remember playing this for the first time at my friend's. We'd constantly argue on which game is better: HL or Duke3D. I remember hating the 'wasd' control layout because it was so different from the tradition fps arrows, but eventually grew to appreciate it, because it's indeed far more practical. And yeah, the game is still great. Black Mesa may add more stuff to the game-world, but i still like the original better (doesn't mean i don't appreciate the devs' efforts of course.
Also, you didn't talk about Orange Box and HL: Decay, the latter being a PS1-exclusive co-op puzzle game that, nonetheless also expanded the game world and is technically canon within the universe.
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Damn, i remember playing this for the first time at my friend's. We'd constantly argue on which game is better: HL or Duke3D. I remember hating the 'wasd' control layout because it was so different from the tradition fps arrows, but eventually grew to appreciate it, because it's indeed far more practical. And yeah, the game is still great. Black Mesa may add more stuff to the game-world, but i still like the original better (doesn't mean i don't appreciate the devs' efforts of course.
Also, you didn't talk about Orange Box and HL: Decay, the latter being a PS1-exclusive co-op puzzle game that, nonetheless also expanded the game world and is technically canon within the universe.
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Gilmaris
I never touched any of the Half-Life games until last year, in spite of being in the prime age demographic when the first was was released in '98. The setting just never attracted me, neither did the fancy-schmancy modern graphics, even though lots of my friends were -Half-Life- this, and -Half-Life- that all the time. Last year I thought I'd see what all the fuss was about and bought the first one on Steam. And. oh my god - I've been missing out. The level designs, the gameplay. I felt like I had come home. There was a certain gameplay magic there that is simply lacking in modern shooters.
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I never touched any of the Half-Life games until last year, in spite of being in the prime age demographic when the first was was released in '98. The setting just never attracted me, neither did the fancy-schmancy modern graphics, even though lots of my friends were -Half-Life- this, and -Half-Life- that all the time. Last year I thought I'd see what all the fuss was about and bought the first one on Steam. And. oh my god - I've been missing out. The level designs, the gameplay. I felt like I had come home. There was a certain gameplay magic there that is simply lacking in modern shooters.
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Joseph
This and Unreal were the games that got me into FPS gaming and online multiplayer. I remember playing Counter-Strike when it was just a Half Life mod, Day of Defeat and being super excited when Opposing Force and Blue Shift came out. When I first played vanilla Half Life I had a Pentium III 300MHz with a Diamond Stealth AGP video card. From there it was onto Medal of Honor and playing on a bolt action rifles only online multiplayer server and in the process joining a few clans. These were in my eyes, the golden years.
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This and Unreal were the games that got me into FPS gaming and online multiplayer. I remember playing Counter-Strike when it was just a Half Life mod, Day of Defeat and being super excited when Opposing Force and Blue Shift came out. When I first played vanilla Half Life I had a Pentium III 300MHz with a Diamond Stealth AGP video card. From there it was onto Medal of Honor and playing on a bolt action rifles only online multiplayer server and in the process joining a few clans. These were in my eyes, the golden years.
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AtheoAng3l0
The first 1st-person shooter I ever played. I watched older kids play Doom before, but HL1 was my first true introduction to FPS. I still play HL1 on Steam from time to time, but the Sierra/WON version still feels nostalgic af to me. I have the latter installed on a retro gaming VM in case I want some therapeutic nostalgia.
I currently own and use a Sound Blaster X-Fi HD USB sound card (which beats any built-in Realtek IMHO. Listening to the audio with the card's EAX effects is always nostalgic as hell.
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The first 1st-person shooter I ever played. I watched older kids play Doom before, but HL1 was my first true introduction to FPS. I still play HL1 on Steam from time to time, but the Sierra/WON version still feels nostalgic af to me. I have the latter installed on a retro gaming VM in case I want some therapeutic nostalgia.
I currently own and use a Sound Blaster X-Fi HD USB sound card (which beats any built-in Realtek IMHO. Listening to the audio with the card's EAX effects is always nostalgic as hell.
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Alexander
Remember I showed it to my friend, turned the lights out put headphones on him. He asked if it's -scary-, I told him not particularly (yes I lied. And then I let him play, first alien jumped him and he screamed and screamed, throwing away the headphones and started to shout at me. He never played that again.
Loved that game, that game was the first game that I actually liked a lot on the PC (still would not give up my Amiga though.
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Remember I showed it to my friend, turned the lights out put headphones on him. He asked if it's -scary-, I told him not particularly (yes I lied. And then I let him play, first alien jumped him and he screamed and screamed, throwing away the headphones and started to shout at me. He never played that again.
Loved that game, that game was the first game that I actually liked a lot on the PC (still would not give up my Amiga though.
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Charles
Interestingly, the higher poly assets that came with the HD pack actually originated in the Dreamcast port of Half Life which was scrapped when that console flopped, despite being essentially finished. You can download a ROM of that port online and play it on a Dreamcast and it works perfectly well aside from some extremely long load times (I-m guessing if the port wasn-t scrapped it would-ve been better optimized before release.
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Interestingly, the higher poly assets that came with the HD pack actually originated in the Dreamcast port of Half Life which was scrapped when that console flopped, despite being essentially finished. You can download a ROM of that port online and play it on a Dreamcast and it works perfectly well aside from some extremely long load times (I-m guessing if the port wasn-t scrapped it would-ve been better optimized before release.
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