Half Life

[Narly Bird]

I was a really big fan of Half Life and the totally awesome CS. I remember waiting in anticipation for Half Life 2 and totally loving it. Then playing through episodes 1 (slightly dissapointing) and 2 (enjoyable). But what happened to episode 3. Did they decide to discontinue? Anybody know?

 

[Panda with issues...]

As far as I know, it's in the 'not quite vapourware, but almost' camp at the moment.

Haven't seen anything press wise on it for a long time, and yes, a number of us are a bit annoyed really.

Team fortress can wait as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Narly Bird]

I was a massive fan of quake team fortress. Used to play it for hours and hours - including some of the cool TF related mods. But strangely, i never got TF2 for HL2.

I was all keen and excited about it, but then it took so damn long to get released that my interest wained and i was already focused on CS Source by that stage.

Now i dont play any 1st person shooters, but will definately be getting HL2 Ep.3 whenever its released. I really love the storyline and characters.

 

[Tempscire]

The "The Spy" feature in PC Gamer has had some news about Ep 3 this month, (namely that there's going to be a gun called "The Weaponiser" in it) so it's definitely still in development. No point speculating when though as Valve time exists outside our universes continuum.

 

[thatbloke]

to be honest, I'm expecting Episode 3 to instead be Half Life 3

 

[Panda with issues...]

to be honest, I'm expecting Episode 3 to instead be Half Life 3

I'd be all right with that to be honest.

I really like the Half life setting too. I feel that they've done a really good job with the burgeoning relationship between Freeman and Alyx Vance (despite the fact that Freeman never speaks).

Alyx is actually a triumph in an industry that has a shocking dearth of strong, well realised female characters (instead typically pandering to adolescent fantasies) and seems to find it incredibly difficult to translate meaningful relationships between characters (particularly characters of opposing sexes) to the screen.

 

[Narly Bird]

I totally agree with what Panda said re. Alyx. Its so rare to have a good female character that is actually a half-decent role model.

Another thing i love about the game is the designers commentary. It really gives you insight into their thinking. Such a great extra.

But as was said by Tempscire, Valve seem to operate under a different time than the rest of us. Perhaps they are stuck in the slow-time portal from the game? Except that instead of taking 1 week to teleport, its taking them several years.

 

[BiG D]

Much like all Valve sequels, HL2 is an exercise in more rather than better.

 

[Ghostwolf67]

I think portal 2 bogged valve down alot development wise. i wont knock portal 2 in any way shape or form but i'd say its where their focus was for alot of last and this year. The constant barrage of tf2 garbage cant be helping productivity either.

After the end of Ep2 i was literally gagging for more. Its a shame valve havent been feeling the same way...

 

[Narly Bird]

I never played either Portal 1 or Portal 2. Are they any good? I heard they give a bit more insight into the half life world too (at least I heard Portal 1 does, not sure about P2).

Regarding HL2Ep3 I wonder that it will run on a different games engine? Whilst the graphics from the previous episodes were quite nice, I feel that things have moved on from there, especially given the long time lag. How long ago was Ep2 released? About 2 years ago?

After starting this thread I’ve been sucked back into playing through the series again.

 

[Panda with issues...]

Portal 1 is great.

I was quite disappointed by 2.

 

[thatbloke]

Ignore Panda, both games are excellent and well worth your time.

Hilarious, too.

 

[Tempscire]

Ignore Panda

That's pretty much a general rule...

 

[waterproofbob]

Defo get portal 1 first. Portal 2 is a good game but no where near as good as the first. Both are awesome games tho.

 

[Wol]

I'm possibly the other way around.

I much prefer portal 2 in the way it uses the new dynamics in the game, looks better IMO, and actually has an element of a story developing behind it. Portal 1 was fun as a standalone game, but I didn't personally feel that there was a larger world outside of it, and to me, lacked much of a backstory really. But it was very much a new idea having a puzzle based game rather than a fps style game, so I can imagine valves reluctance in putting too much effort into P1 compared to P2.

Whichever way - Portal is free (or has been free enough times for you to not need to buy it), so you have no excuse to not play through it

 

[Panda with issues...]

I'm possibly the other way around.

I much prefer portal 2 in the way it uses the new dynamics in the game, looks better IMO, and actually has an element of a story developing behind it. Portal 1 was fun as a standalone game, but I didn't personally feel that there was a larger world outside of it, and to me, lacked much of a backstory really. But it was very much a new idea having a puzzle based game rather than a fps style game, so I can imagine valves reluctance in putting too much effort into P1 compared to P2.

Whichever way - Portal is free (or has been free enough times for you to not need to buy it), so you have no excuse to not play through it

I was pretty disappointed by the story in Portal 2, I thought it wasn't very well done. I was also a bit disappointed by the puzzles, particularly the ones with goo, which were really annoying.

 

[Narly Bird]

Actually i recall Portal 1 being free on steam. I can't remember if i downloaded it or not though?

If i get free time (a big if) i might fire it up and see how i find it. As its quite an old game i cant help but feel i will be dissapointed by the graphics/mechanics. But who knows...?

 

[thatbloke]

Actually i recall Portal 1 being free on steam. I can't remember if i downloaded it or not though?

If i get free time (a big if) i might fire it up and see how i find it. As its quite an old game i cant help but feel i will be dissapointed by the graphics/mechanics. But who knows...?

Portal is not about the Graphics, and is all about the mechanics and the dialogue

 

[Ghostwolf67]

Well now as this thread has gone from 'Where the hell is my HL:EP3 dammit?!' to a portal appreciation thread. I'm not even sorry.