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Half-Life 25th Anniversary Update
- ayhem 3y agoyes
- akshayrajp 3y agoTime to terrorize crossfire with the glu-on gun again!
- reallymental 3y agoBesides the low brow "wen half-lyf-3?" comment, is valve planning on releasing any other games like hf? Anyone in the industry have anything to spill regarding this?
- ender341341 3y agodef no insider info on my side but from what I've heard/read they pretty regularly have a team spun up to explore a half life 3 but at this point they're afraid of a duke nukem forever (not that they'd make a shitty game like that) and that even if it's a great game it'd be seen as underwhelming because the community has hyped itself up so much on it over the nearly 20 years.
- fullshark 3y agoI think part of the issue is Half-life 1 & 2 were groundbreaking in terms of level design and storytelling in a FPS. It wasn't just about completing a maze, that was why Half-Life was so beloved there was nothing like it really before. Half-life 3 would just be like every other FPS game now, the trail has been blazed.
- account42 3y agoYou're right that if Valve made Half-Life 3 today it would be just like any other FPS - and Alyx does back up those concerns. But that doesn't mean that it has to be like that. Even just making Episode 3 with little technical and design changes from the other HL2 entries would be a breath of fresh air today. And that's just the bare minimum possible - there are many things about games that are still incredibly primitive.
- xcv123 3y ago> Half-life 3 would just be like every other FPS game now Artistically, aesthetically, nothing quite compares to the Half Life universe in other FPS games. A lot of people would be happy with just another chapter to explore. There are too many open world boring grinding simulations nowadays. Black Mesa was just a remake of Half Life 1 and it was so much more fun and immersive than any recent FPS game that I have played.
- kibibu 3y agoIf you can get your hands on a VR headset, I cannot recommend Alyx highly enough. An incredible experience inside a very high fidelity City 17. Headcrabs are about a million times more terrifying in VR
- zavertnik 3y agoI think a lot of the special sauce with the Half Life games is their "Show don't tell" approach to game design. You load up the game, watch an intro (for games after HL1) and boom you're in the game. Nothing is going to appear on your screen beyond your HUD except for one time tips when acquiring a new weapon and chapter titles when progressing to a new level. Everything happens in real time and everything always happens from the POV of the player. There are no cut scenes, there are no cinematic transitions, and the player's POV is never intercut with cameras/external perspectives. It makes the games feel grounded and more cinematic, IMO. Its a game design language that really puts the onus on the player to witness the story and game for themselves. When I play a Half-Life or Portal game, I feel like I'm discovering the story as I play, while other games often feel like I'm being presented or shown a story as I play. The execution is more nuanced than that, but the game's simplicity makes it difficult to focus on anything other than the story and world within the game. When you look at the stories of each Half-Life game, each game tends to follow the same structure with the same kind of plot points. But for me, it never feels repetitive because the experience of witnessing the story is different for each game. Of course Half-Life isn't the only game that does this and this of course isn't the only reason why Half-Life has been enshrined as one of the GOATs. The underlying content of the game, its aesthetic, the textures and models, sound design and score, voice acting, ect. all are great in Half-Life, but I wouldn't say that Half-Life is the best at any of these things. I also wouldn't say the game's narrative is the best of the best either. Despite this it remains my all time favorite game franchise, possibly/probably because I grew up with it but also because the game does a fantastic job of using that underlying content to give little clues. Everything feels like it has a purpose, whether it is apparent in the moment or not. But I am just a storyteller that happens to be a barely competent programmer with absolutely no experience in game development, so all of this is just my opinion based on my own experience!
- cogman10 3y agoHonestly, I think they could do HL3 at this point as the hype around 3 is basically dead. This, though, is why you don't end things with cliff hangers.
- fullshark 3y agoThey just happened to have the foresight to develop the most lucrative business model in gaming (owning the distribution platform) and Half Life 3 was the opportunity cost. They could have made a ton of money with that cliff hanger if they remained like every other game developer on the planet, instead of a metric buttload of money.
- cogman10 3y agoOpportunity cost? Steam was created shortly after half-life 1 and existed prior to half life 2's release. It was already a huge cash cow when they released games like CS go and TF2. But further, the skills to write a game are different from the skills to manage a game distribution system. It's not like by having the HL2 devs valve was squeezed for cash or resources to expand steam.
- fullshark 3y agoI think it's pretty reasonable to assume if Valve never made Steam, they'd have made Half-life 3 do you disagree? Businesses tend to focus on what moves the bottom line most dramatically.
- deadlocked 3y agoThe only sensible way to go about it would be to just drop it one day, no fan fair, no announcements, no additional hype.
- zavertnik 3y ago(no spoiler) From a storytelling perspective, Half Life 2 Episode 2 (the last mainline Half-Life game which Half-Life 3 was expected to be the sequel for) sets up Half-Life 3 as a proper ending to the game's story and confirmed by Mark Laidlaw's release of Epistle 3. I can see why they wouldn't want to rush quickly to the exit but at the same time, HL2E2 left them without much wiggle room. This issue alone is addressed in Half-Life Alyx. From Valve's perspective, the Half-Life property is pretty valuable and its served them well as a means of demonstrating the newest source engine updates with a ton of hype bootstrapped because it is Half-Life. Despite it's popularity, Half-Life is a delicate property in the sense that the story hinges on a lot of unknowns that are not revealed straight forwardly, similarly to LOST, the lack of detail stokes that mystery to the audience's delight, because they know there will be a big payoff that explains these mysteries at the end of the tunnel. That's a lot of pressure for the writers room @ Valve, especially so considering the development process of the game engine/assets itself. It works for Valve. It sucks for fans, but the alternative is ending the property early or extending the property far beyond its intended shelf life. As long as I live to see the end of the narrative, I'll be happy. If not, then valve pls fix.
- account42 3y ago> Despite it's popularity, Half-Life is a delicate property in the sense that the story hinges on a lot of unknowns that are not revealed straight forwardly, similarly to LOST, the lack of detail stokes that mystery to the audience's delight, because they know there will be a big payoff that explains these mysteries at the end of the tunnel. That's a lot of pressure for the writers room @ Valve, especially so considering the development process of the game engine/assets itself. They have noone else but themselves to blame for writing themselves into a corner. LOST is another example why you should absolutely not write a Mistery without knowing how it plays out before releasing the first part. Most importantly, it does not excuse their shitty cummunication about the development status of Episode 3 - to this day they have not formally acknowledged its cancellation. And all the vague hints at a sequel throughout the years which amounted to nothing are just abusive. Any hack can use the unknown with a promise of a future reveal to lure an audience but if you don't even have what you promise to reveal yourself then you are not better than a snakeoil salesman. Selling a promise you don't know you can keep is a scam, simple as. Although with valve specifically I don't even believe that they couldn't manage to tie the story up but rather that they can afford not to - because they have found a more profitable business in selling other people's games as well as a few gambling simulators of their own rather than making single player games themselves. That alone would be sad but at least understandable - what's less OK is gaslighting their fans instead of coming clean about their plans. > As long as I live to see the end of the narrative, I'll be happy. If not, then valve pls fix. Good for you but many fans have died waiting for a sequel. Many more have moved on.
- pitched 3y agoNo insider info again but, IMHO, Half Life: Alyx was a genre-defining success that has not yet been matched but even that did not hit the bar expected of a Half Life 3. It’s an impossible expectation and they don’t have a financial need to try.
- haunter 3y agoIt's also free until Monday (as in free to get, not just limited free play) https://store.steampowered.com/app/70/HalfLife/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/70/HalfLife/
- ta1243 3y agoInteresting. I do have a steam account, haven't used it for a long time, it doesn't seem to be in my password manager So I went to reset my password, but got thwarted by the captcha. To email me a password reset link. I think Ill just torrent it.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- rPlayer6554 3y agoWhy not make a new account? Valve is giving this out for free, partially to get people to use their program more. Why not support them in that small way at least?
- k12sosse 3y agoYou're trying to reason with a person who can't even complete a captcha.
- jorvi 3y agoIn his defense, the best way to solve a captcha is by pretending you are partially blind. If you actually select all the relevant squares, Google just says “nope lol go again!”.
- OnionBlender 3y agoMy theory is that, if the real goal of the captcha is for AI training then you would want to get rid of the people that were close but not quite right (let them proceed) . If the user was 100% correct on the first test, you'd probably want to give them more tests.
- wmichelin 3y agoLove to see Valve revisiting old games and giving them modern quality of life improvements.
- xen2xen1 3y agoAh, it now works on the Steam Deck. Wondered why it would happen.
- bjord 3y agoAside from just generating tons of goodwill, does anyone have any insight into why Valve would do this? Obviously, I think it's great regardless of the motivation, but are there rumblings of Half Life 3 that I've missed or something?
- dom96 3y agoHalf Life 3 already happened and it was called Half Life: Alyx.
- account42 3y agoIt's not a proper Half-Life game if you don't play as Gordon Freeman. Alyx also misses many of the things that made the HL series great and replaces them with "modern" game design anti-features. Not looking forward to future HL games going even further in that direction. The new voice actor doesn't even sound anything like alyx FFS and her lines are a perfect argument why the silent protagonist in the HL games was not a mistake.
- vbeeaz 3y ago[flagged]
- LtWorf 3y agovr only
- solardev 3y agoIt's VR only.
- Timon3 3y agoAside from the obvious meaning of your comment - there is a mod which makes Alyx playable without VR: https://github.com/bfeber/HLA-NoVR https://github.com/bfeber/HLA-NoVR
- capableweb 3y agoJust like a lot of early 3D PC games weren't possible to play without a graphics accelerator card (GPU for you younglings) which not a lot of people had, these new VR games are not possible to play without VR hardware. Doesn't mean early 3D PC games weren't PC games, and it doesn't mean that contemporary VR games aren't also PC games.
- moralestapia 3y agoHALF-LIFE 3 CONFIRMED
- deadlocked 3y agoHALF-LIFE FREE CONFIRMED
- shmde 3y agoThere is an easter egg in the website.
- sparrish 3y agoDo tell...
- shmde 3y agoClick crowbar and start hitting ...stuff.
- PrimeMcFly 3y agoWhat is it? I clicked the crowbar which changed my cursor and that was it.
- justin_oaks 3y agoTry clicking on the various enemies or people.
- PrimeMcFly 3y agoI tried clicking on everything, I just gave up lol
- shmde 3y agoClick on Gordon and the Xen Alien after you have gotten the crowbar.
- jrwr 3y agoStart clicking on stuff, You'll find it :)
- PrimeMcFly 3y agoI was clicking around like mad, nothing happened and I gave up
- evanjrowley 3y agoJust a few days ago I downloaded a Half-Life PS2 ROM because it looked like the only way to get decent analog stick support for the game. After purchasing a Steam Deck earlier this year, Half-Life was one of the things I was really looking forward to. It was pretty disappointing once I realized the gamepad support wasn't quite there. The update claims they've improved this and verified it for the Steam Deck. So excited to give this a go later this weekend.
- simlevesque 3y agoYeah, FPSs on the couch is fun. I love playing HL2 on my Xbox Series S.
- canadianwriter 3y agoAt the bottom of the page is a crowbar... maybe you should see if it's useful!
- simlevesque 3y agoThank you, that was fun.
- kemayo 3y agoThe achievement-popup was a cute addition. :D
- hmottestad 3y agoSteam deck got an upgraded chassis from the sound of it.
- alexchantavy 3y agoOh man this makes me miss when websites had fun and did this kind of stuff with Flash
- doublerabbit 3y agoTo those who are unhappy with the graphics of HL1, you can download Black Mesa which is an remake of the original. https://www.moddb.com/mods/black-mesa https://www.moddb.com/mods/black-mesa
- pugworthy 3y agoGraphics do not make a game better. A good story is a good story whatever the graphics, and for me HL1 passes that test.
- account42 3y agoExactly. I do enjoy good graphics, but the obsession with graphics over everything of both the gaming industry as well as many gamers is absurd.
- justin_oaks 3y agoBlack Mesa has an extended Xen portion of the game. Otherwise it's a faithful reproduction of the original with better graphics.
- account42 3y agoNo, it's a reimagining not a reproduction and takes liberties with encounter and enemy design throughout the game. I don't mean to disaparage Black Mesa but if you want to play HL, play HL instead of pretending that some other similar game is the same.
- corysama 3y agoFor anyone who wondered "WTF was supposed to be the story behind Xen?" this guys spent way to much time piecing it together and came up with a pretty solid proposal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpp0Jh5514g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpp0Jh5514g
- XorNot 3y agoThe Black Mesa Xen levels are one of the best things I've played recently, and sucha monumental improvement. I loved the whole sequence to bits and got stuck thinking about it for days after I finished it: it just feels so right now.
- messe 3y agoI love that they brought back the software renderer (and allowed you to disable texture filtering). There's something about that style I find charming. I'm just waiting on my steam deck to charge so I can curl up on the couch with this for a few hours before bed. EDIT: I tried it out on my laptop while waiting for the deck to charge, and I'm seeing some bugs in the software renderer with missing textures for semi-transparent objects like floor grilles, so I'm switching back to OpenGL for now. If anyone at Valve wants log-files or information on my setup in order to reproduce, I'm happy to provide it; my email is in my profile.
- solardev 3y agoHow are first person shooters on the Deck? Do you just use the analog stick to aim, or is the gyro actually helpful?
- entropicdrifter 3y agoEither work just fine, IMO. The gyro is just as good as on the Switch
- solardev 3y agoThe Switch has gyro aiming?
- entropicdrifter 3y agoSure does! Best use of it is on the Zelda games, IMO. Aiming the bow with the stick works fine when out of combat, but if you want to manually aim e.g. while riding a horse, doing the broad strokes with the stick and the fine tuning with the gyro works great.
- solardev 3y agoNeat! I've never played a Zelda but that makes me want to try one the next time I'm at my friend's house
- lapetitejort 3y agoI got my first real introduction to first person shooters with Quake II. I used keyboard only, with page up/down keys for vertical look. When Half-Life came out my friend would only let me play if I looked with the mouse instead. I thought that was so dumb. Why not just use both sides of the keyboard? Why split controls across two devices? But I relented and picked up this wonky control scheme pretty quickly. Then I bought my own copy and wore it down to the nubs over the course of years. I loved mods. My favorite was Action Half-Life. I played Counterstrike a few times when Xena Warrior Princess posters were plastered around maps and scientists acted as hostages. I thought it was too derivative of other accurate combat mods. When Half-Life 2 came out I bought the pricier version which came with HL1 and all the expansions, mods, etc on Steam. Those are my oldest purchases on the service, naturally.
- solardev 3y agoIt's funny that two decades later, basically the only games Valve still actively develops are Half Life mods (Counterstrike and Team Fortress).
- reubenmorais 3y agoIs Dota 2 not actively developed?
- bakugo 3y ago> Incorporated func_vehicle entity support from Counter-Strike By far the most important change in this update.
- khangaroo 3y agofunc_vehicle is a right, not a privilege!
- simonlc 3y agoOne of my favorite documentaries was made by Noclip, which tells the story of Half-Life and Valve. It is soo good, a must watch. Interestingly, though, it features no one from Valve, as they, in typical Valve fashion, ignored their requests. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQLEW1c-69c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQLEW1c-69c So I'm very excited to watch this new documentary featuring people who worked on the game, made by the same people, such a surprise haha.
- sebasmurphy 3y agoYeah, they definitely keep that vid under wraps. There's has been zero mention of it on their patron and weekly podcasts.
- aequitas 3y agoI immediately got a déjà vu feeling from the intro like I had seen this already in a Noclip documentary. Nice to finally get this 'episode 3' in the documentary series.
- simonlc 3y agoHaha yes! The Black Mesa doc is also very good :D
- halflife 3y agoIs it finally available at 64bit so I can play on my Mac?
- babypuncher 3y agoIt appears not. It seems they didn't do anything for the Mac version with this release.
- carabiner 3y agoNope :(
- Der_Einzige 3y agoThis is awesome... but why not just help out Black Mesa? https://store.steampowered.com/app/362890/Black_Mesa/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/362890/Black_Mesa/
- behringer 3y agoNo raytracing / RTX support? :(
- capableweb 3y agoThere is a mod for that, unsure if it works with this new release though, but try it out and report back :) https://github.com/sultim-t/xash-rt https://github.com/sultim-t/xash-rt
- behringer 3y agoOh neat, thanks! I followed standard insertion procedures and everything turned out fine!
- knodi 3y agoI'm still waiting on half-life 2: ep3....
- madspindel 3y agoThis. Valve was my favorite game developer but now I don't really care about them anymore.
- knodi 3y agoI think steam is been such a cash cow for them that they gave up on game development.
- opyate 3y agoI doubt it. HL:Alyx was quite recent, wasn't it? They have a bunch of cancelled/unreleased games [0] because their standards are so high. I don't think they want to be known as the company who made the best PC gaming platform in the world, but who also released some really crappy games on there. Games are in their DNA, so I expect we'll see something absolutely amazing from them in the future. 0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unreleased_Half-Life_games https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unreleased_Half-Life_games
- account42 3y ago> They have a bunch of cancelled/unreleased games [0] because their standards are so high. Their standards for recurring revenue maybe. Most of their recent games(discounting smaller demos that are really just platform/hardware ads) are casino simulators. (Less profitable) single player games don't get enough attention to be finished. Alyx is the exception that proves the rule - and even that might never have happened if they didn't need a game to showcase VR. > Games are in their DNA This is such a nonsensical statement. People can change. So can companies made up of people.
- pynappo 3y agoArtifact (2018) released to terrible reception, and DOTA: Underlords (2019) eventually just died off. Half Life: Alyx (2020) is one of the highest-rated single player VR games. Counter Strike 2 released 2 months ago, and has very active development. Valve also allegedly has a game named Neon Prime in development and apparently slated for announcement soon(tm) [1] [1]https://youtu.be/Fm1VUo6NYaw https://youtu.be/Fm1VUo6NYaw
- neonate 3y agoThe linked documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbZ3HzvFEto https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbZ3HzvFEto
- hgs3 3y agoOne of the level designers, Dario Casali, marked the 25th anniversary with a complete playthrough and commentary. [1] [1] https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLk5gaNp4x_AVIJviyHueHizonrIhAAtdj https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLk5gaNp4x_AVIJviyHueH...
- miramba 3y agoSeek. Medical. Attention. God I still love this game. The welcome speech of the Mark IV. How the scientist talk to each other, and how different the talk is when they speak with guards. How they first hope for a government rescue which decides to kill any and all in black mesa. How fearsome those black assassins are. That you can tickle that insect-bomb thing. In my opinion, HL2 felt much more scripted and less lively. No mention of a recompile for Intel 64bit Macs though.
- Zanni 3y agoLooks like no recompile, sadly: "Notice: This product is not compatible with macOS 10.15 Catalina or above. Click here [1] for more information." [1] https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/5E0D-522A-4E62-B6EF https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/5E0D-522A-4E62-B6...
- miramba 3y agoHmm it won‘t start on a High Sierra iMac after the update. It did before, happened to play it just 3 hours ago :) Guess they didn’t do a lot of testing on 10+ year old hardware, CRT or not.
- xcv123 3y agoYou can run Half Life on 64-bit MacOS (including ARM64) using Crossover. It uses Rosetta and Wine. https://www.codeweavers.com/compatibility/crossover/half-life https://www.codeweavers.com/compatibility/crossover/half-lif...
- issafram 3y agoDisappointing they never made HL3
- pugworthy 3y agoMaybe you mean haven't yet released?
- Waterluvian 3y agoOne of my favourite memories of early teens was playing HL1 Deathmatch with my brother. We didn't have a situation that enabled actual Internet play, and we were not "in the know" about metastrategy or anything. Learning to endlessly use the longjump module with the OP4 covert ops character that did flips when jumping, to fly across boot_camp in seconds, was just exhilarating and eventually led to my brother never playing against me again. I'd just fly around the map picking up health/energy/grenades and then just blast him with the grenade launcher and disappear again. Such good times.
- Aardwolf 3y agoThat's a very neat surprise! Many active multiplayer servers too, today! Now release HL3 ;)
- thdespou 3y agoHL3? Not in this lifetime
- jjcm 3y agoLove this. I do wonder how the bug fixes will affect speedrun attempts, and if people will start using this for speedrunning or if they'll stay on the prior version.
- saltminer 3y agoThe Steam version is basically dead; WON is what most runners play. (Though it would be interesting if this revitalized the Steam categories.) For those curious, you can download WON from https://www.speedrun.com/hl1/resources https://www.speedrun.com/hl1/resources ("GoldSrc Package" and "Half-Life 2005 Package" are the builds allowed in the WON categories). You will need Half-Life on Steam to run them (which is currently free until Nov 20 - get it while you can).
- atleastoptimal 3y agoRemember when video games were cool?
- keybpo 3y agoI love the fact that on the games requirements on the Steam page it still says it runs on Windows XP when in fact all support has been cut for long now, leaving out many of us who got into Steam on the first place because we either wanted a legal digital copy of our physical collection or because many physical game keys WOULD also activate a digital license. I still keep Windows 8 because it's still supported on Steam but that too will change in january 1st next year. The irony is even sweeter, given that this update should very well work on period correct machines (which again, many of us still keep running) but alas, you'll still locked out. We'd gladly trade all the distractions the client forces down our throat (stickers, trading cards, avatars and all of that stuff) for the ability to single play the games we legitimately bought. But that's not an option we have, unlike say GOG, who also doesn't support old OS but at least gives us the possibility to download the games. I'd even concede some form of DRM that doesn't involve the Steam client but naaa, "the h4x0rs will get into your XP box that you keep solely for retro gaming and shut off the world. you must upgrade, re-buy, expend!" Anyway, happy birthday Mr. Freeman.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- IntelMiner 3y agoSteam uses Chrome for its web integration. They *can't* support OS's that Chrome doesn't anymore If you already own the game though arguably it's not unreasonable to download a "NOSTEAM" torrent (if any still exist) of the relevant game you'd want to play on your XP rig
- account42 3y agoBullshit. They CAN support whatever they want. They CAN choose NOT to use Chrome. They used Windows' browser before and no browser component before that. Steam doesn't NEED an embedded browser, having one just makes things more convenient for Valve because they can reuse their website in the client. They CAN maintain support for older versions in their fork of Chrome. Browsers are expansive but not rocket science. Valve has the funds to maintain one. They CAN make a specced down version of Steam (or GUI for steamcmd) for older operating systems. They don't have to keep selling Games on older operating systems (or could require an external browser for that) but taking away the ability to run already sold ones is unacceptable. Problems caused by middleware are still the responsibility of the developer using that middleware. The end user does not and should not have to care how you cobble together your software. They have simply decided that doing the right thing would be more costly than whatever cost they will incur from dropping support. That only works out for them because people accept this shit rather than demanding Valve keep their promise that you can continue to play the games you bought from them without trying to add additional conditions.
- scrlk 3y agoWelcome to the H.E.V. Mark IV protective system, for use in hazardous environment conditions. High-impact reactive armour activated. Atmospheric contaminant sensors activated. Vital sign monitoring activated. Automatic medical systems engaged. Defensive weapon selection system activated. Munition level monitoring activated. Communications interface online. Have a very safe day.
- RulerOf 3y agoThat was pretty wild. I created a multi-player game and within a few minutes 31 other people showed up. Then I used alt+tab and the game crashed.
- squarefoot 3y agoObligatory mention: the Black Mesa HL remake using the HL2 engine. https://store.steampowered.com/app/362890/Black_Mesa/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/362890/Black_Mesa/ Full walkthrough: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHKUVdb5YTM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHKUVdb5YTM
- pelagicAustral 3y agoI would literally pay a year wage for an @half-life.com email address.
- ubermonkey 3y agoI would really, really love to be able to play Half-Life again for the first time. I feel the same way about the first Bioshock, and about the early years of World of Warcraft. Those two are from a bit later obviously, but the three of them really raised the bar for me personally in what was possible in a game. With HL, it was how immersive the world was, and how very strange and complex the story turned out to be. With Bioshock, it was the story above all, and how for the first time I was taken in by an "unreliable narrator" in a video game. The reveal around "would you kindly" was really shocking to me, like a good book can be. With WoW, it was everything, but entering Ironforge for the first time was just a stunning moment for me in particular.
- addisonj 3y agoThis game holds such a special place for me, not only for just fun childhood memories, but also so much of what got me into the excitement of how cool it was to see the rapid progress of tech. Certainly, it isn't atypical for software industry folks of my age to have games be a gateway into tech, but I think I was a bit different in that I rarely considered wanting to make games, rather I enjoyed the tinkering with my computer and the rapid pace at what games could do as much as the game (which continues today with my spending more money on playing with the hardware and toys rather than the actual games) and half-life just I first played Half-Life on a family PC with no graphics accelerator and I loved it, but I remember the jank from ~15 FPS at a few hundred lines of resolution. This is what drove me to build my first computer and after debugging my way through all the issues that a 12 a year old would make when building a computer before the age of YouTube, I remember being absolutely blown away by the lighting and speed of what this little piece of hardware added to the experience. That wasn't the first time I felt the rush of getting a computer to do something I wanted (that would probably be getting doom running in windows 3.1 after dealing figuring out the mystical "command line") but it certainly was one of the most drastic in just how fast tech changed. A small addendum to this... I really want to figure out how to bring similiar experiences to my kids, because it was that loop of problem -> learning -> breakthrough that I think was hugely transformative to not only my career trajectory, but also just in learning to love learning. So thanks Valve and Half-Life team for this happy memories... but maybe I won't feel the same when I try and play HL DM this weekend and inevitably realize how slow my reaction times have gotten in the last ~25 years ;)
- ionwake 3y agoThis is cool , Im just really confused, I somehow coincidentally was JUST playing Black Mesa this evening, ( Hl1 redone in Half-life Source Engine apparently by a fan base with permission) and I am ofcourse a bit surprised to hear this news ( as I rarely play games ) , but also because I don't understand how it relates to Black Mesa. Black Mesa clearly seems to look better basically as its in the new engine ( but I note a couple of very small things are missing such as how you customise your player model in HL MP) - and it took a long time to make, so I am a bit confused why they have gone back to improve the original code but not port or not just improve Black Mesa. Sorry if I am out of the loop, I'm honestly just in the dark how the 2 product relate, reasoning wise.
- xcv123 3y agoThis is Half-Life, the original, from 1998. This is Valve's original game and they won't abandon it. Black Mesa is a fan-made remake. That's a separate game not made by Valve, and they co-exist. It does not replace Half-Life.
- seritools 3y agoIt's just the original game touched up to work on modern systems. It's still the original experience. Black Mesa is a full reimplementation (and partly reimagination) by a fan team, with large changes, while keeping the feel mostly intact.
- fbdab103 3y agoUnless you are looking for the full-on nostalgia trip, I think Black Mesa is how people should play the game today. Many quality of life improvements and stream-lining decisions. Except for Xen. Worst part of the game, and they made it longer.
- account42 3y agoHard disagree. Black Mesa is not Half-Life. It takes way to many liberties to be even considered as a replacement.
- 3y ago
- prox 3y ago> The entire UI has been reworked to scale at larger screen sizes. We built most of this stuff for 640x480 CRTs and apparently some of you have upgraded since then. I love this quip :D
- OliveMate 3y agoAs someone who first played a CD copy of Half-Life before picking up the Steam version, it's amazing to see that they brought back features which were neglected from the Steam release – most notably the viewroll when moving left & right and a semi-recreation of the old main menu. Many of the QOL changes are greatly appreciated (especially grenade physics), the changes to technical limitations (and addition of func_vehicle) will be a godsend for modders, and I'm surprisingly over the moon that Valve have acknowledged the psyched out Barney from the alpha.
- ascagnel_ 3y agoIf you still have the serial from that CD copy, you can plug it into Steam and redeem a copy (and also the expansions, depending on which version you bought).
- Vicinity9635 3y ago[dead]
- serf 3y agoHEV suit design is still one of the most slick sets of armor in any game ever. Just enough practical touch to look feasible.
- casenmgreen 3y agoI have to say, I had HL - bought it, and a few other games - moved to Steam, moved the games there, then in the end, few years later, bailed on Steam. Customer service was appalling. I lost everything. I love HL, and if I could get hold of it without Steam, I'd have it, but I don't know of a way to do that, and I've lost the copy I originally bought because leaving Steam meant loosing everything.
- account42 3y ago> I love HL, and if I could get hold of it without Steam, I'd have it, but I don't know of a way to do that, and I've lost the copy I originally bought because leaving Steam meant loosing everything. (Used) physical copies are still reasonably available. For Half-Life 1 those should all be pre-Steam AFAIK. The high seas are also always an option - don't let others' morals stop you from preserving your childhood memories. Also while I don't mean to be uncritical of Steam and Valve, loosing access to your games sounds highly unusual. Did they actually take your stuff or are you simply choosing not to use Steam? If its the latter and you still have a working login, then you could download your Games using Steam, steamcmd [0] or reverse engineered downloaders [1] and play them forever using the Goldberg Emulator [2] instead of Steam. [0] https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/SteamCMD https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/SteamCMD [1] https://github.com/SteamRE/DepotDownloader https://github.com/SteamRE/DepotDownloader [2] https://mr_goldberg.gitlab.io/goldberg_emulator/ https://mr_goldberg.gitlab.io/goldberg_emulator/
- pipes 3y agoCan anyone tell me what's the best version to play: black mesa or the original (this anniversary update)? I installed both last night, original plays 4k out of the box. I ended up comparing the intros, in the rail cart bit last night. They are quite different surprisingly. (Hrm, I'm developing weird habits as a sleep deprived parent). I'm on a good pc, 3070, Ryzen 3600. I never really played this back in the day. Though I did buy half life 2 around release and nearly completed it but this was before steam did cloud saves so I don't have my save file anymore. I see I can buy the full collection for a bout 4 pounds. Opposing force looks interesting. I really shouldn't be buying games I don't have time to play!
- frippertronics 3y agoPlay the original! Black Mesa is a modernised version, so it plays different, more like a modern shooter. The original has aged well compared to many other games from its era.
- pipes 3y agoThanks :)
- pezezin 3y agoI played Black Mesa a couple of years ago, and I really loved it. All the fun of the original game, but with much better graphics. Frankly speaking, I find it difficult nowadays to go back to the old, blocky early 3D games. Except for Quake, I will always love Quake.
- pipes 3y agoI don't mind old blocky graphics at all, especially if it's running at 120fps at 4k :) It's part of that uncanny valley thing I guess, the more graphics have improved, I find humans in the games look more ridiculous. Though something like dishonoured gets this right, the characters look more like paintings rather than an attempt to look totally real.
- nulcow 3y agoI don't know where to get the updated code to make mods with though. A lot of the changes they mentioned were specifically for modders, so I don't know why I can't find the source code anywhere.