Whoops, didn’t mean to imply that I stole it, lol. He was just emptying his backpack and the 3-disc pack fell out. I was like: “Wuzzat?” He’s like “a good old fps” I wuz like “Wuzzat?” (I was, for all intents and purposes, due to my parents at the time, a gaming virgin before HL, I think the only games I had were Tomb Raiders (2,3,4, and maybe 5 at that time) and mechwarrior 2 and 3). He’s like “see fo yoself.” (he’s not black… in fact, he’s anything but black, so I don’t know why I imagined him that way just now…)
ANYWAY! Then I took it home, installed it on my (at the time) crap computer. Played it for like… twelve hours straight. Then I discovered “ZOMGWTFBBQMODS???” And had another twenty hours of fun. Then I found ZOMGHAMMER? and spent a few hours trying to get the right version (still hadn’t yet gotten steam), and worked on a really neat map. Lost it when my computer was raped by CNN and Internet Explorer (walked upstairs to my computer spouting russian, with Internet Explorer open several dozen times and a CNN news feed of some cat and a hurricane…).
Then I gave the disc back to my friend, because I had found steam, and bought it for myself. It was on sale for like 2 or 5 dollars or something when I found it.
And that’s the story of how I discovered the gaming world.
Thank you Half-Life. You are the reason I went to college! Well, you’re the reason I didn’t go to college for something else… Seriously, I’m in a Game Design & Development program. 'Tis cool.
As to HL1 vs HL2. HL1 was an amazing game for it’s time. HL2 was an amazing game for it’s time. Can’t compare, if you ask me. That’s like comparing… Halo to… Pong. Or maybe doom.
Gawddamit… The point was that they were totally different beasts. Yes, Pong, Tetris, and all those awesome games will always be unmatchable by anything, but you can’t really go say that Halo is a better game than Pong, because, as stated, they don’t exactly equate. At all…
On a side note, Tetris is addicting. AND NOT A WORD??? WTF MOZILLA! That should totally be a default word.
On an even more side (and completely unrelated) note: Did you know that the original DOOM’s multiplayer reserved port 666? That’s cool because ports 0-1023 have been reserved since Internet was born, and even WoW hasn’t whore’d itself a port in that range.
Sounds to me like Valve could never succeed in your eyes to create a better game than HL, no matter what they did. I think you’re looking at the game through nostalgic glasses, which is a pretty powerful thing. They have the ability, with hindsight, to make terrible films amazing and cheesy games incredible. When I was younger I used to love films such as Godzilla, The Lost World and The Mummy because they were some of the first films that I saw in the cinema. They were visually engaging and I loved to be entertained by them. However, seeing them again now I realise that there’s a big difference between an enjoyable film and a good film. Enjoyable films tend to be the blockbuster hits, and while some are good, popularity and the amount of money made in no way equates to a quality film. Take a film that has been consistently counted as one of the greatest films of all time, ‘Shawshank Redemption,’ and you see that it was one of the least successful films commercially.
This is generally how I feel with a lot of games, including Half-Life. I played HL2 before HL, simply because that was the moment that I really got into video games. For me, although I absolutely love HL and its ability, even now, to immerse you completely, I do feel that it’s quirky, tongue-in-cheek and occasionally inelegant delivery is firmly suited in 1998.
Half-Life 2 at the time felt gritty, new, exciting, dark and intriguing. It had story, character, plot, action, suspense, tension, fear, and excitement in spadefuls, whereas HL tended to neglect the details of its story and focus more on gameplay. To me, HL2 felt more intelligent.
However, I think we’re both coming at each other from opposite ends of the spectrum, as we’re both being blinded partially by nostalgia. If I were to play HL2 now, unmodified, I would find 60% to be fairly boring because I know every inch of it. However, as a first playthrough in 2004, when the graphics were outstanding and the physics were miles ahead of the game, HL2 seemed to have no fault. I was never bored by the long sections of vehicle gameplay because I had no idea what was coming next, and I believe that it is on those merits that a game should be judged. In order to make a clear, unbiased opinion about a game, you need to play it without any prior hype and also when it is released, so that the graphics and physics can be rightly compared with other games of its ilk.
I wish I could go back to when HL was just such an innovation, to when it was considered groundbreaking for NPCs to even open their mouths when speaking. But I can’t, just like I can’t go back and experience HL2 for the first time. I think we’re both guilty of judging our separate games on unfair grounds. For me, I’m unable to view HL without seeing graphics and a story that are far inferior to HL2. For you, I think you expected a very different game and judged it on what you felt was right and wrong rather than on the game itself. HL was an untouchable beacon, and I think you probably played it wanting it to be worse than HL, even if only a little. Perhaps it will be one of those things that you’ll come back to in a year’s time and replay and be blown away.
I played the HL2 demo, bought HL, almost finsihed it then bought Half-Life Complete on Steam!
BTW I have yet to go through HL2 for a second run so I can’t comment on it possibly getting old but it is (first playthrough at least) what I consider to be the greatest game of all time
Great post, thanks for the input. I definitely agree with you to an extent. One thing that will be interesting will be to compare BM with HL2. BM appears to successfully update HL and bring it on par with HL2 with regards to graphics, physics, etc.
SO you’re kinda new…Lol. I think I played half-life 2 first…woah woah wait a minute…I played counter-strike: Condition zero that pwnanated! Then I think I played hl2, then hl1, ep1, ep2…I loved how cool gmod looked so I started playin it back in like '06 or something. RP was a blast! now rp vehicles lag like a bitch and other stuff. :meh::fffuuu:
first off: you can’t compare HL:S to HL1. HL:S suxxxxx*xxx <-> HL1 roxxxxx :>
@topic:
i played hl1 + addons first, and i liked hl2 when it came out…
but when i finished hl2 i was disappointed, because i missed so many things… assassins, gargs, the long jump module, gauss, gluon gun and especially a good multiplayer mode. HL2DM did not feel like HL at all. I was very disappointed.
i think hl2 was a good game, but i think it’s hyped so very much.
hl1 had better ideas, more content (more enemy-types, weapons, environment-layouts) and more variety.
so really… HL1 > HL2. i don’t care about HL2 graphics… HL1 graphic was ok also (YES. old but OK…) …
and HL1 gameplay and ideas were just so very much better.
If I have to choose between playing HL1 and HLS I’d go with the latter. The difference might not be that great but it does look noticeably better and at least you don’t have that annoying elevator bug :meh:
Founded in 2004, Leakfree.org became one of the first online communities dedicated to Valve’s Source engine development. It is more famously known for the formation of Black Mesa: Source under the 'Leakfree Modification Team' handle in September 2004.
