i know i'm kinda late for this but... HALF LIFE 2

Quality no guns puzzle solving mod here:
http://www.moddb.com/mods/research-and-development

(needs ep 2)

needs ep 3 goddammit

why you do this to me valves

Just finished Episode 2, which was definitely better than Episode 1. Fun stuff! Definitely had a good flow from chapter to chapter, I never felt stuck or dragged on like some parts of the original HL2.

One of the weird things that's still in the game is the uncanny valley effect with the game's models and animations. But that actually makes the eye-popping, reality-busting G-Man moments extra-fucking-spectacular and creepy!

i'm at the part in HL2 where you have to blow up the striders and it's getting hard. love this game but i hope i finish it soon.

also, the autosave + save-whenever-you-want system is so convenient that i'm constantly restarting when i do dumb things or take a lot of damage in a room. this is both good and bad.

I can't see any downside to it at all!

Also it's possible you've beaten it by the time i've posted this - but yeah that section was pretty tough i gotta say, especially with all the hunters coming after you. If I even do a run through again I'll probably do it on easy, maybe go for some achievements like that insane one with the gnome.

ha, i think i'm a good deal more than 25 min away from the end. also i'm at work.

yeah I did the insane achievement with the gnome. It was fun but I left the gnome behind with two of the npcs at one point (figuring I could get him when I unlock the door for the npcs). One of the hardest things I had to do was retrieve that gnome because I had to open the door and quickly jump up the stairway and gravitate/grab the gnome before the npcs come out the door. I finally got him after 20 or so tries. The other hard part with the gnome was a driving stage where a helicopter is shooting you by an abandoned train.

The stripped & modded '69 Dodge Charger that you have to motor around in is AWESOME. I remember being really impressed how they worked the different engine sounds into the game.

playing through this right now as well (HL2, not ep 1 or 2 yet), and getting close to the end it think. this fucking laser defense room with the third generator in it is infuriating.

ok not actually playing through it right now, i am at work, but IT HAUNTS ME

needs ep 3 goddammit

why you do this to me valves

― More Butty In Your Pants (Telephone thing), Friday, September 25, 2009 6:38 PM (1 week ago)

this fucking laser defense room with the third generator in it is infuriating.

you've got to jump up on some pipes > bookshelf > more pipes etc.

no i know but my 1st person shooter precision jumping ability is legendarily bad, and the second jump in between lasers is unforgiving. and then guaranteed death and doing it all over again. prob on attempt 20 or so at this point nnghghhh

i don't remember having to jump between lasers, just over them? but yeah, 1st person jumping puzzles are a terrible idea.

btw i only have two chapters left.

do you mean the bit with the exploding barrels and the freight elevator?

no its some secure room and the dude running the mission with me says something like "wow with that much defense there must be something really important in there" and there is a hopper right at the front of the room and like a grid of red lasers and when you hit one they lock all the doors and proceed to fuck you up with shitloads of ceiling mounted turrets

dude just jump over the lasers

xp lol

huh i don't remember that at all

btw how awesome is the voice acting in this? barney <3

jordan why u mock my pain

i don't know how you have the controls mapped but there is a button for 'jump', just press that

okay so you are saying that i should not have jump mapped to the the left analog stick then

hold on i need to get a pen to write this down

do you have a driving wheel?

oh wait i see that i neglected to mention that i hacked my wii to play halflife and it is not compatible with motion plus

shitting hell i totally forgot about that room! yeah it was bad.

ohhh that room. yeah, kind of tough. iirc it comes down to just three or four jumps tho.

pro-tip: get one jump right, then save. don't do the whole thing at a shot.

i was having way more trouble in the courtyard with the striders (died a million times last night), until i realized that i didn't need to destroy them all (or any, i guess) to move to the next area.

i always thought that most of the puzzle elements were excellently blended into the backdrops and scenery of the game. In that when you solved them, sometimes you could be like "was that the correct solution, or did i just invent it?" feeling.

i was having way more trouble in the courtyard with the striders (died a million times last night), until i realized that i didn't need to destroy them all (or any, i guess) to move to the next area.

― Ømår Littel (Jordan), den 7 oktober 2009 20:01 (3 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah this is classic. iirc they just kept coming too

yeah tbh that seems to be a lot of what is grating in this current stuck spot, i keep thinking that there must be a gravity gun solution or a hidden vent or something like that awesome room where you have to climb higher and higher using the moving platform etc, but instead its just a tedious and uninspired perfect execution jumping exercise and yknow the world has plenty thx.

the other level that nearly made me quit the game was the one where you have to shoot down the two gunships with the rocket launcher - again, the feeling of slogging through the drudgery was strong, and it really bothered me that the gunship could blow up the fuel tank but my rockets just sort of thwacked into it without doing shit. maybe my expectations are so high from all the stuff it does well (first level rails escape that seems totally freeform is GENIUS) that when it drops the ball it just seems way worse.

xpost

the game definitely has a bunch of points where you're kind of shaking your head about where to go. in particular, i remember after this one boss fight, you're outside in the ruins of this building. after you win you're supposed to actually climb on top of the building rails and then over a wall, but at the time it's completely unclear how you get there, what direction to go in - even after giving up and finally going into a faq, it still took me a while to figure it out

that said, the game's like 90% great so i forgave it

i always forget to look for vents when i don't know how to get out of a room.

yeah, or a few planks of wood covering up a hole that can easily be removed with a crowbar

haha so after all my bitching sat down tonight and beat that dumb room on my first try - memo to self WALK AWAY SOMETIMES

getting left 4 dead totally stalled me out on HL2, even though i only have two chapters left.

The first couple chapters and the last couple chapters are the best bits

i was surprised how super easy the end was. i started episode one and i'm digging the quiet horror movie vibe in the falling-apart citadel.

It was surprising! But it was also a lot of fun with the SGG -- I almost wish more games would just let you go all-out and utterly destroy everyone with ease towards the end game, it's definitely different from the usual difficulty ramp up.

it's kinda weird to back and forth between HL2 and left4dead, in HL2 i keep wanting to shove back zombies before shooting them and thinking that some crazy-ass zombie is going to haul off my partner with its tongue.

finished episode one, started ep 2, so far i like it a lot more, more puzzly, less shoot shit forever going on.

i liked the 3d mazey bit at the beginning (if it's the bit i'm thinking of). must play through this again now i've the computer to do it justice.

if you want puzzles you should try the mod i linked to - http://www.moddb.com/mods/research-and-development

have downloaded that. need to copy all my steam games to new laptop before i can play it though.

i think the key word in the above was 'bit' 8) was nice as a prelude and a scene setter. an entire game of that would drive me batshit.

the mod ain't long, a couple of hours perhaps, and there's a fair amount of variety. also a few enormously frustrating bits, to be fair. it is brilliantly done though, could easily be taken for a valve release.

that looks awesome, too bad i'm playing on xbox

http://grab.by/1ls1

I beat ravenholm with no guns in my second playthrough (first on pc, second on xbox), forgot the fucking cross bow at the end of the level and didnt have any good saves that weren't the beginning of ravenholm so I quit. =(

I had trouble getting through Ravenholm unless I brought Dog's ball with me and left it for the zombies to fight over in the bit of town where they keep spawning and you have to ride a basket in a cable car type thing.

hah, i remember being super annoyed by that specific section - i spent forever hopping between rooftops, trying to figure out where the switches were

is that the part where you can drop a car on a bunch of zombies? that was key.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EHPtG9Pu3E

is it necessary to play through HL before jumping into HL2 - I've been trying to play through HL but it just feels so dated

naw

btw i finally played this earlier in the year, and i dont think it's very good :-/

kinda wish i played it in 2004, maybe then it would've seemed special to me, but right now i think HL1 might actually be better. the only part that was like barrels of fun was the stuff with the super grav gun at the end... so of course they cant let you do something fun for the whole game. regular grav gun's fun for first 15-20 mins and after that you only use it when the game forces you to. none of the guns are fun to shoot and none of the enemies are fun to kill.

did anyone really have fun with all the vehicle sections in this shit?? seriously why was driving around in a dune buggy like the funnest thing in the world according to FPS makers from 2001-2004

played ep 1 and 2 right after and they were Real Bad... i cant believe people are mad about ep 3 not coming out yet, like do you actually wanna play that crap... ep 2 was particularly hard for me to finish, because it was so excruciatingly boring.

this is the epitome of like LAST GEN fps imo... just too much too late. HL1 is a MUCH more memorable game. and fuckin Deus Ex is so far ahead of this... its like warp drive vs donkey pulling a cart. i wonder if being the model for so many mediocre games that came after has diluted HL2... but then so was doom, and doom still owns

i had some issues with the story elements too but its less that it was bad and more that it just wasnt to my taste, i think? i dont have a problem with the in media res approach, but after the start of the game i kept expecting a 'catch up' moment where some character would sit my ass down and explain some motherfucking shit about what the fuck is happening, and after beating the game and beating the stupid ass homo episodes it still didnt happen and i was pretty annoyed. i will also say that i felt extremely pandered to by the Alix character and ended up hating her as a result.

the good:
atmospheric, still looks good in some parts, ed asner

this is the craziest shit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GRpzkNLFQw

those guys really know how to start a video with a bang

what I had to do was make these cardboard cutouts so I could move my mouse the correct distance /nerdvoice

lol, i cracked up when i actually heard that line

really boring intro, but after that first 8 minutes or so it's just total insanity. never knew people did QDQ-style runs of Half Life

i like this game enough but i can't seem to finish it, seems like such a chore. some of the chapters feel like they'll never end

after the start of the game i kept expecting a 'catch up' moment where some character would sit my ass down and explain some motherfucking shit about what the fuck is happening
― xX_420_GoKu_ChRiStWaRrIoR_Xx (Princess TamTam), Friday, December 17, 2010

lol otm

Hopefully the guy behind Freeman's Mind actually finishes the game someday, because watching series that is a lot more enjoyable these days

it was a chore for me too amon

why is this game like 4 hours of airboat

yeah. and 19 hours of dune buggy

i like the environments and the sound design, v effective at keeping up the tension and creepiness. i also enjoyed how they have you terrified of those giant bugs one minute and the next you're leading an army of them. i'm near the end where you're fighting striders and groups of rebels randomly pop up to "help". i keep hitting C to send them out to die cuz they keep getting in my damn way. "oh sorry, gordon" fucking move outta the way!

well that ending was dumb. not gonna bother with the eps

the eps were pure tedium for me

heh yeah no thx, i'll pass. the portal games own tho

portal owns. still havent played 2. it says a lot that memecrazy nerds havent ruined the first portal, though they've tried their hardest

def check out portal 2, its amazing

i traded in some games yesterday at the chain video game store, mainly just to get rid of some stuff. as usual, the trade-in for most of my games was like $1-$5, but they gave me $11 for the ps3 civilization game and $18 for orange box. is orange box really rare or something?

weird!

I finished HL2 for the first time over the weekend. I'm obviously out of the loop with FPS as I thought it was very good and not very dated at all. A bit worn out with it to go into the episodes but I'm glad I finally played it after all the years of hype.

Anyone managed to bag Alyx today? I hear good good things.

I'm not sure if my 1070 card would be able to do it justice though, holding out for a bit longer until I feel the need to upgrade.

Am holding out for the Xbox port, which I read initially, will be coming eventually.