How were you introduced and what got you into purchasing Half-Life?

Half-Life Series
#1

Basically, write how you came to know of Half-Life 1 and what got you into purchasing it? How did Half-Life change you as a gamer and as a person? Extra points if you write it into story format.

Well, as for me, I went into K-Mart one time to buy a PC game. I didn’t own any consoles, other than my N64, but I was interested in PC gaming. As I browsed through the items, my brother, 4 years older than I was chose Galaga, the popular space-shooter, but a 3D remake of it for the PC. I noticed Half-Life and liked the picture of a man holding a shotgun, being 9 at the time, and studies the pictures provided at the back of the product. Guns and aliens! What more fun could a kid ask for? The only other FPS game I ever played was Goldeneye, but this game killed that visually and it looked awesome. My brother nearly, just nearly, convinced me to purchase 3D Galaga, but I held strong until he gave up. I had bought Half-Life, and boy did I not know what great of a game I got myself into. Even as a kid, I enjoyed the fact that you were going to work one day and you, the player, caused this massive disaster which kills a lot of people. Half-Life changed me as a person and how I viewed games, movies, even music. I know longer cared about mindless action, but with the 4+ years I grew up playing Half-Life, I realized how beautiful the story melded together.

The NEXT FPS I would buy on PC, after Opposing Force and Blue Shift, was Hal, after hearing so much about it. But, after playing Half-Life and with it’s awesome storyline, I would not see Halo as such an epic game. It was purely combat, no puzzles involved. An action game with great graphics, at least at the time, but the story failed in comparison to Half-Life. The immersion in Halo was fine, but you felt insignificant, in my opinion. In Half-Life, as Gordon Freeman, you freed an enslaved alien race, destroyed the Nihilanth and felt as if you really beat the game.

What about you guys?

#2

Uplink.

#3

I discovered it on a trip to Russia a few years back.

#4

A friend lent me pirated copy of HL1 around the time OP4 was released. I was hooked from the start. I later bought the Generations pack containing HL1,OP4,BS and CS. Some time later a got HL on the ps2 for Decay. Then CS:CZ when that was out. Gun Man Chronicles was an awesome mod. I bought a whole new PC just to play HL2 when that was released. Enjoyed EP1,2 and Portal. Started building my own PC now ready for BM and EP3. I cant wait to play it!

#5

I watched my dad play HL1 way back in the day (okay ten years ago)
I ended up purchasing a copy for myself which included Blue shift, Op4 and Team Fortress Classic. soon after that, I acquired my dad’s steam account following the purchase of Garry’s mod 10. (yes, He knows I use his account, doesn’t really matter, he doesn’t have much time to play PC games anymore.)

#6

My friend let me play Gmod9 on his PC. I knew nothing about it. I thought the Metropolice were just cops, the Combine Prison Guards were just that, Prison Guards, and the Soldiers were sorta like SWAT Guys. I also saw a Headcrab Zombie for the first time, and flipped the fuck out when I did.

#7

i’ve actually acquired HL, Op4 and 'Shift four times on four different occassions.
(i originally typed this up as a long freak’n post but chopped it down severely when i figured that nobody would read it)[/SIZE]

(1) Got all three once as a promotion with the purchase of our videocard.

Lost them.

(2) Got HL from grandpa as it came for free with his CD-Rom. Got the other two for Christmas because his third wife actually did research on computer games. Who’da thunk it!

Sold them by accident at yard sale.

(3) Got all three as payment for babysitting neighbors.

Sold them intentionally to pay for plane tickets.

(4) Two weeks before HL2 came out, bought all three on eBay for a dollar.

Still have them and WON’T GiVE THEM UP!!

-Kawai Tei-

#8

I got it because it was included with Counter Strike.

#9

Mine is a long and shameful tale. :frowning: Too long to post.

#10

A friend of mine mentioned in passing one day that they wanted to re-install half life 2 on their computer. Not wanting to appear stupid, I kept my mouth shut about it. Later on that night I went online and got a pirated copy. The next day I bought it. It went on from there to me getting Half Life 1 and all of the rest of the anthology. I now own every single player game in the half life saga, all because of that single passing statement.

#11

my dad got it for me 10 years ago and i used like 1/8 of our hard disk space to install it. damn those were the days.

#12

I still remember,
I was 13 and a friend of me was talking about a game,
where you had a crowbar and you could kill scientist,
and there was an experiment that failed because of you,
and aliens that got on peoples heads and turned them into some kind of zombie,
and dog with no head that blew shockwaves!
and there were lazers that activated guns an stuff like that!
we were like all! WOW
we want that game, how is it called!
and since that time Half-Life is carved in my heart!
i first got a pirated version (of one of the only people in school with a cd burner :stuck_out_tongue: - can you imagen that :p)
but after i finished it, i bought it, out of respect!
it was the funnist game ever and played it like 100 of times!
also bought all the other half life games coming after that!
then also the generation box and so on!
even my sister bought it (cause she loves to play natural selection and i got my own computer so she couldn’t use my steam account anymore :p)
sadly enough my parents threw away all my old game boxes that in that time were not old :@
aaaa good old time (execpt the part of my parents throwing away my boxes!)

#13

i remember my three brothers and i would play half-life and try and beat it. we didn’t know the enemies’ names, so we nicknamed the hound-eye a “alien-dog”, a headcrab “head bug” and bullsquid “spatula” and zombie a zombie.

i miss those days so much.

#14

Man, back in the olden days, Half Life was the biggest thing at my high school. Heard a bunch of friends talking about it, along with my older brother, who was a senior at the time…me being a freshman.

So…yeah…since i was broke, asked for it for christmas…and i ended up getting Half-Life Generations pack…which has Half Life…OP4…and Counter Strike in it…i’ve been addicted eper since :3

#15

Seen the box at the store, seemed cool so I’d buyed it.
Wait a new computer for a while so I bought HL2 with the orange box when it came out.

#16

I saw my dad play it in about '99, and then I played it. Never got past Unforseen consequnces untill '05.

#17

My dad bought it for me when it came out

off: bigfan that was MY avatar for a long time here on the forums :open_mouth: (I changed to the ORLY Walrus/Ferret not so long ago.)

Edit: Or maybe it was you who used it before me?:open_mouth:

#18

I remember often seeing the giant, colorful boxes on the shelves of Electronic departments for years, but i didn’t actually play it until early '02, after obtaining a PSM demo disc featuring the ps2 version. I played the crap out of the demo, but didn’t buy it until i played Opposing force at my friends house when i moved to Seattle, several months later. Then i became hooked, and bought the ps2 version as well as the PC version and expansions.

#19

I didn’t buy it. I stole it from my sister and activated it on steam, without her knowledge, it was the perfect crime!

#20

The first time I truly played all the way through Half Life was on the Dreamcast, using the leaked version. I didn’t have a PC at the time (and was more of a console gamer, to tell the truth). I had already played it at a friend’s house on the PC, though.

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.