Since they are looking for multiplayer mappers, can this mean that they already completed Xen and now focus on MP?
No, it means whatever it means, perhaps they want the Deathmatch out first, so the waiting for Xen would be easier while having fun online for the time being.
It means they could use more manpower in designing mutliplayer maps.
I hated the xen part in half life. I didn’t like all that jumping about and just stepping into random portals. It didn’t make sense. As Gordon you just stepped into portals not knowing where they will take you. For all you know stepping into the portal might kill you. It didn’t make any sense. For me the end of half life was a big disappointment. Also the ending of Opposing Force was bad, IMO. I didn’t like that stupid battle with some big alien where you shoot the shoulders of the alien and then into the portal.
I think Blue Shift had the best ending of the three, though I didn’t like the xen part.
You didn’t like the Xen portion of Blue Shift? I mean, I agree that the maze of vent-like tunnels was a pain, but I think the rest of it was fine. In-fact, it’s the only game-mandatory Xen sequence that I like in all of the Half-Life series. There were no random portals, very little jumping puzzles, and you knew what your goal was.
I don’t like the Gene Worm either, though. The battle was tedious, slow, and repetitive, and …why were we fighting that thing, anyways? It has no buildup at-all…
I’m assuming that Xen is going to be done early next year. I mean, they’ve already made their own custom assets for the mod as a whole (weapons, props, npcs), so they don’t have to build all the core stuff from scratch.
Pointless to assume, it could be done in a month, 5 years from now or never. Perhaps even it’s already done, but it’s just too awesome to share.
The team haven’t alluded to any media releases/details yet, so they are probably deep into development.
I haven’t played Xen, but I did watch a couple playthroughs on youtube so I could move onto HL2 after BMS, and I was really impressed by the alien quality of the world. That being said, it was so alien that I couldn’t help but wonder how Gordon would have any idea what to do. How would Gordon know that these are devices to activate, that those are portals and not flesh-burning beams? It felt less immersive because there is no direction other than “kill the powerful entity,” and we’re left to solve puzzles as seasoned gamers that would totally baffle Gordon were he not just our avatar.
Xen is so incredibly abstract in the way I imagine an alien world really would seem to us, but that abstraction makes it unbelievable that Gordon would run through it helter skelter, activating devices and opening portals and riding elevators and jumping onto platforms. As gamers, we’re used to running around trying different things to advance, because if we die we can pick up from our last savepoint. But Gordon doesn’t have that luxury.
I don’t know how the dev team can accomplish it, but what I’m hoping for is some way for Gordon to come to understand the world through his ingenuity, to trust that what he’s doing makes sense and will advance his goal. Maybe a dead survey team member laying with his hand outstretched toward one of the butterfly devices or something. It wouldn’t have to be in your face, but some subtle clues that help Gordon to put together what he must do.
I agree with others who have said they’d like to see the Xen fauna doing more than just wandering around. I don’t want to see a bullsquid or houndeye just standing there waiting for me to come around the corner. They’re in their natural habitat, not intruding on ours, and I’d love to feel like I’m now the one intruding on a world that has an order of its own.
Yeah, I’d welcome some new puzzles or something using the environment.
Maybe they’ve finished xen and just want to hold it back from us as they find it amusing.
or maybe i’m just a retard.
LOL.
I’d like more consistency in Xen. Very few mechanics are repeated (so there is no real learning curve), and some times 2 or 3 things look different, but do the same thing. (See: Portals)
It’d also be cool if you could see other islands you will be/have been on in the Skybox. It’d prevent everything from feeling so disjointed.
Finally, make the vorts more sympathetic. Allude to the fact tht you’re freeing them JUST ENOUGH that it gives you some motivation. It’d fit in the cannon and give the player a tangible driving force through the end of the game.
I think the reason xen in half life was such a cluster f*ck is because they where trying to end the game yet add so much to it… what xen needs is to be longer with more of a exploration and I am lost feel.
What if instead of flat platforms orbiting towers, xen was comprised of large central asteroids orbited by smaller asteroids, and gravity increased as you approached these asteroids on your jump pack. The asteroids would be spheroids and you could walk around on them, or hop depending on their size and the pull they exerted on you. So you’d have to plan your jumps based on where you stood on the asteroid’s surface and launched off from. Larger ones could even have hollow caverns in them for explorations.
I actually like the nonsensical gravity in Half-Life’s Xen because it implies a dimension with different physics than our own, but the gameplay experience of walking around the surfaces of large and medium-sized asteroids and jumping from them to other asteroids and feeling the tug as you floated closer to them would be interesting. Just a crazy thought. Probably too late on the dev to implement…
So you want Xen to be first-person Super Mario Galaxy? …I can get behind that. 
Ha! Never played it. I had a feeling there was probably a game with that mechanic. Should’ve figured it would be Mario.
I suggest that whenever or sometimes you reached a dead HEV scientist, a recording from a black box in their suit would play (Think Bioshock). This would serve as build-up for upcoming battles, creation of atmosphere and, for the quote, directing the player towards goals.
The scientists who sent you off could also communicate with you via your suit. To keep the feeling of loneliness, this would only be possible when in close proximity to “communication beacons” set up by earlier expeditions. Move too far away, and the guys’ voices would degrade to static.
The earlier expeditions would be visible not only by the many corpses strewn throughout Xen, but also camps found in caves, like the one in Blue Shift. Whether these camps would have “camper vans” (obviously not actual earth-ones, more space-station inspired) for living quarters or simple tents is up for debate, but they’d be ideal places for the aforementioned beacons. Whether they should contain “HEV”-zombies or not is a matter of opinion.
The skyboxes should be more varied. I support the idea of other islands being visible, but unreachable, like some Xen “archipelago”, but for other maps, the skybox should stay empty in my opinion. This is because I actually like the idea that you’re teleporting all over this dimension, and how some places it’s nebula all around, some places are vast archipelagos, some places seem to have water and a sun (c1a4b) and some seem to be floating in pure nothingness. The latter is, of course, the islands with the Nihilanth’s Portal. I find it interesting how that location and it’s purpose shares a great similarity with Gyigas’ Lair in Earthbound.
I think we should have access to a fire extinguisher on xen. not to put out fires though.
If you jump and you realise mid flight that you will overshoot the platform you can use the extinguisher to slow down your enertia or basically less propulsion.
No, communication via HEV wouldn’t add in my opinion, even if it’s restricted like you suggested. It would drag you out of the bizarre and isolated atmosphere you encounter on xen. That’s what really struck me the first time I played Half-Life. I had no problems for most of the game to figure out what I had to do, but once I came to xen… Boy, how long it took to figure out I had to free these crystals to activate the portal or to use the mantas as a means of transport… Of course, all that was pretty frustrating, but thinking back, so much more rewarding in the end than all those arrows and listed objectives to help you keep on track in modern gaming “go there, shoot that, activate this”. It really added a flavor to the eerie atmosphere of being alone in a strange world, not knowing what you will encounter, desperately searching for a way forward, in short the fear of the unknown. I don’t ask for more than to re-create this atmosphere on Xen.
Audio-logs or something along those lines on dead HEVs is another story. They could add to the overall story and immersion IMO.
Other things which were discussed here like more varied gameplay (the “Xen mobile” among other things)and less jump ‘n’ run, for which Xen often got criticized (or perhaps even more ? I wouldn’t mind actually, I found the change of gameplay in Xen rather refreshing) would also add.
Apart from the strikingly laughable image this suggestion builds in my head, I don’t think it’s necessary because we will have at least a little bit more control over the long-jump module than in the original Half-Life I think, judging by the in-game explanation of the device in the end of Lambda Core. I hope the Devs WILL implement a better control than in the original, that is…