They never ran away from them in Half-Life 1. They just sat there like potato sacks.
when referring to video games i believe it to mean a complete or an almost complete connection with the character your playing, his/hers environment and the consequences of your actions as this character. You would also have an emotional connection with this character. e.g. American players seem to have a very strong emotional attachment with Sgt. Paul Jackson and the other marines who perished in the nuclear explosion from from Call of duty 4: Modern Warfare.
Immersion could also mean more that emotion and psychological, theoretically if video games ever became so realistic that you couldn’t tell the difference between the civilian on your Monitor and your next store neighbor, then immersion would mean that you couldn’t perceivably tell the difference between Virtual reality and reality.
Anyways, our petulance has veered this thread way off topic.
I’d like to see the air strike bit redone with a more modern way of placing coordinates, perhaps a design similar to COD4 but with the screen always staying in first person and the player using an LCD screen like on the tram from OAR.
More or less yes, but you give too much credit to graphics and realism. It’s loosing yourself into something causing you to forget about reality. It can happen in anything. A good book, song, or even an unrealistically animated cartoon. When things seem to stop to remind you to “press w to move forward” or jokingly remind you that you can’t talk are the biggest breaks in immersion that the game causes. Not that you don’t match the profile of the main character.
Wait a minute, I wasn’t even asking you. I was asking UrBY. Stop picking up other people’s conversations.
Your opinion, not fact. In my opinion, in other games it’s usually hearing the character talk, usually with a butch American accent and voice that in no way resemble mine, saying things I wouldn’t say, that break the immersion. At least with Half-Life I can just think my own private thoughts as Gordon as though I’m just not saying them out loud for the other characters to react to.
FYI, When I play Half-Life 2 Gordon is a horny, filthy bastard who fondles Alyx with his eyes but is just about managing not to scare her off by keeping quiet instead of blurting out all the filth that’s running through his mind. I swear Eli knows though, with his talk of ‘doing our part’ to repopulate the species and his knowing winks. It’s like he can see my facial expressions (and the bulge in my pants/HEV suit) while I’m playing.
:o
That’s possibly the furthest from my Gordon I have ever heard of. Freeman’s Mind’s cynical Gordon is closer. (Very charismatic, but he’s pretty far from mine)
My gordon is a quiet guy who just wants out of Black Mesa, although this can vary depending on my mood.
But that’s exactly the point: Half-Life lets you put your own character into Gordon. If you suddenly heard him speaking he would no longer be your Gordon or my Gordon, but suddenly some game writer’s Gordon, and likely a disappointment.
And if you want a good example of that, go and play Todesangst 2. 
On an unrelated note, I’m wondering if we’ll still be able to blow the ceiling panels out in the cafeteria area of Office Complex (at least I think thats where it was - the huge open room with a couple of zombies and headcrabs sitting about, with a debris-clogged doorway beyond them).
I’m sure the devs haven’t failed to recreate that part of the scene. Only this time it’s better.
But what of other games, that aren’t in first person? Where you can see how the characters move, and interact, and their character in general it usually isn’t a problem. It makes it more like an interactive movie. I’ve never heard of someone being taken out of a movie because the characters didn’t act like them (maybe acting like utter morons), but breaking the fourth wall is a much more commonplace breaker of immersion. First person can be a whole other story.
To be truly truly immersed in something it must be believeable, not realistic, but believeable.
I saw I Robot again the other night and witnessed Will Smith standing on top of a motorbike firing akimbo pistols and successfully destroying 3 robots while leaving all bystanders unharmed.
This is entirely unrealistic and borderline impossible but I was too immersed by the believabilty of the film to care at the time.
On a side note my Gordon is a paranoid schizophrenic who’s predominate thought after the Resonance Cascade is “OH SHIT!”.
Ever read Deadpool comics? I’ve always liked how he talks to the reader and makes statements about what’s happening in popular culture. Thankfully, nobody else does that.
Compare this to how Duke Nukem makes goofy remarks while you’re playing. If every video-game character did this, they’d lose their appeal.
ON TOPIC:
When a houndeye is standing on it’s hind foot, can you make it so you can blow them away into several amazing back-flips?
I don’t know how the gibbing will work, but if ragdolls gib from being smashed, you could send a houndeye flipping into a wall, and he’d explode into a million pieces.
Do you realise how idiotic that would appear? Houndeyes are not pinatas.
I have to admit, houndeye flying through the room and exploding on impact would be epic. Altough it would be funny only once so I just have to hope there is some crazy scripted sequence reserved for some poor houndeye out there.
Maybe if you kill the houndeye during his charging, it could blown in million pieces because of it’s gathered energy 
Question: Will we be able to see Gordon’s legs like we did in Left 4 Dead?
Answer: You did not see Gordon’s legs in Left 4 Dead, so you won’t be seeing them in Black Mesa either. Just like in Left 4 Dead. 
My God… I mean PLAYER’S legs you comediant!
You won’t be seeing them in Black Mesa.
edit: Oh, and this thread is for suggestions, not for questions. Use the Got a Question? thread insted.
Would it be possible, in these late stages of development, to add “heat blur” in some areas? It’s sort of like heat rising from the ground. You can see it sometimes if you look down a road on a hot day. Heat blur is already existent at the top of Source fire, it’d just need to be redone for a different situation.
I’m guessing no?
I’m sure they’ve implemented it, and if not, oh well. There’s always the remake of HL on the next valve engine.