[gemeaux333]

Perhaps because VR also tend to make existing games (much) better, the proof : Doom 3

[Rellik]

Counterpoint: Borderlands 2 VR is a piss poor VR port, if Gearbox can't get BL2 right in VR, what makes you think they could do a good Duke port?

[gemeaux333]

Did they really do this port single-handledly ? I very much doubt, just like for Fallout 4 VR by bethesda (they don't do Vr games right either)... and perhaps a Borderland game hardly feet VR (just like HL:A hardly feet the HL2 layout)... A port of Duke Nukem Forever in Vr could possibly find more success IMO.

[DisgustedGrunt]

gemeaux333, on 27 March 2020 - 09:38 AM, said:

Did they really do this port single-handledly ?

So, they can't get VR right, and also can't get Duke right.

[Fauch]

I've just finished Opposing Force again. and it was gearbox, I guess there are stuff they did right.

[DisgustedGrunt]

Fauch, on 27 March 2020 - 02:43 PM, said:

I've just finished Opposing Force again. and it was gearbox, I guess there are stuff they did right.

If you had told me back in 2000/2001 that Gearbox was making a Duke Nukem game i would have looked forward to it. I still consider Opposing Force my gold standard for a fps expansion pack, it a lot of ways, it's even better than Half-Life. At that time i think they could have done it, but today's Gearbox...

[gemeaux333]

As far as I see, the Borderland 2 VR port seems decent, especially according to the criteria of today VR titles...

[Fauch]

Yep, I'm not very impressed with the fact my computer has trouble running Duke Nukem 20th anniversary. I even have to switch back to 2.5D sometimes because I can get some serious framerate drops and freezes in 3D. And I don't remember if the pirate ship area in babe land was always poorly optimized, I probably had like 5 FPS.

[gemeaux333]

I have noticed a few things :
-Did you like having to carry a garden dwarf from start to finish in HL2:EP2 and Deadly Carnival episode in L4D2 in order to get an achievement ? Well there is the resurgence in HL:A, but its a fridge magnet this time (or as Joice would say in season 3 of Stranger Things : "Ask him what the hell he can be doing to make my magnets fall from this godamn fridge")
-There is enough Resin in the entire game to get all the weapons upgrades, I have even found 7 more than the necessary amount in my last playthrough (the 2nd)

[gemeaux333]

Well, I just bough Borderlands 2 Vr and I must say it is much better than I expected, even if it doesn't really use the capabilities of the support in terms of interactivity, at least it is pleasant and fun to play with the basic controls with Valve Index, unlike Doom vfr which is a pain in the grass with Valve Index no matter on what...
If Gearbox can significantly improve upon it with Duke Nukem settings, it might work !

[MusicallyInspired]

You know, there is such a thing as having too much optimism....

[gemeaux333]

Positive thinking is the only way to improve your life (and keep honour as Lo Wang would say), to stop dwelling on negative at least...
The thing I notice the most with Borderlands 2 VR is the effort made on user's comfort/well being (many stuffs that offer visual comfort and prevent motion sickness, although cutscenes are merely little cinema screens in the sight field which is the most disturbing to me with the cartoonish graphics...)

[MusicallyInspired]

Positive thinking is all well and good. But it becomes damaging when you get to the realm of totally unrealistic and completely wishful thinking.

[gemeaux333]

Also everything happen at the right time for those who are waiting, so everything is possible althought not necessarily plausible !
Even if negative thinking is not responsible for some events like the pacific islands being sinking...
And even if positive thinking is a luxury a few can afford...

[DisgustedGrunt]

VNN HL Alyx beta stream

[DisgustedGrunt]

Also this cut propaganda video

[NightFright]

NoVR mod for HL: Alyx is now officially available and allows to complete the game according to the mod author. Apparently this won't make the game any easier since he recommends using god cheat to get through certain situations.

Personally, I probably won't try this since it's definitely not the way this game is supposed to be played and experienced. However, if I find absolutely no way to play this in VR, the game eventually enters low budget stage and the NoVR mod becomes easier to use and more accessible, I may have second thoughts about it at some point.

[gemeaux333]

Without VR, HL:A will be utterly bland and voided from its substance, there is a plethoric amount of content that is uncompatible with the flat screen gameplays !

[Player Lin]

If not ever try to buy any of VR equipments/play any of VR games but HL:A, then I think it's not bad idea to play with the noVR mod...

But, yeah, since it's not intended way to play the game so the gameplay experiences would be bad enough to ruin the whole game but unless you will change mind to buy a VR equipment then I see no problem at this point.

[Malgon]

Finally got around to playing through Black Mesa and finished it earlier on. Took me 14 and a half hours, which was a few hours longer than my last playthrough of the original. I had a few quibbles in regards to weapon sounds and their handling, along with some janky physics, which is odd considering it's based on Source. I'm a bit mixed on the music as well, not that it's bad just that some of it felt out of place or changed the tone of certain areas and encounters. On a positive note, it was interesting to see how the levels were re-imagined and getting a feeling of remembering it always being that way. While I never really hated Xen or anything, this is definitely an improvement gameplay wise, and from a visual standpoint a lot of it just looks really nice. Overall it was enjoyable, and I have to commend Crowbar Collective for sticking through it for so many years and finally getting it across the finish line.

[Putrid Pete]

I have a confession to make.

Despite playing games on the PC since 1996, and being a PC Gamer exclusively since 2004, I had never played Half-Life. Until now. I finished it last night for the first time since its release all the way back to 1998.

If you're wondering why I never played it, there really isn't a particular reason other than I just didn't get to it until now. Ironically, I've actually played a handful of Valve games in the past, including the Portal and Left 4 Dead franchise, Gary's Mod and to a lesser extent Day of Defeat, Team Fortress and Counter Strike.

If you want a more detailed, albeit unnecessary explanation of why it took me so long to get to Half-Life, I've included it inside the spoiler tag below:

Spoiler

In 1998 I was only 8 years old, and living in a third world country where finding a retail release of a PC game that wasn't some dodgy pirated version was almost impossible. I still live here to this day and in fact, all through my life I only ever saw two PC games legitimately release in this country: Diablo II and Unreal Tournament. I always bought my PC games whenever I visited the United States, usually on summers. I think I was just unlucky and never stumbled upon Half-life while shopping for games during my trips.

I also wasn't looking for it because I never heard much of Half-Life until much later in my life. I first had access to the internet in 1999, but it was piss poor dial-up that I never bothered using much until the year 2000 when we finally got a decent connection and I started going online regularly. By the early 2000s, I was too focused on Deus Ex, Unreal and Unreal Tournament to even think of Half-Life at the time. I also didn't speak much English, so any news or posts about it was probably flying past my head.

In 2004, I might have had the opportunity to finally get acquainted with the Half-Life franchise considering Half-Life 2 was releasing that year, but something quite significant was also happening during that time: World of Warcraft released shortly after Half-Life 2. It was my most anticipated game of the year, and I was closely following the development of that game since at least 2002. I bought my first PC Gaming machine with my own allowance money in 2004 and tailored it specifically to be able to play WoW. As you can imagine, this game took all of my time and attention for quite some time. 6 years, to be precise. I stopped playing in 2010, a week after the release of Cataclysm after being dissatisfied with the expansion. I was also pretty deep into Eve Online, and that combined with WoW meant I had no time to play anything else. Eventually I left EVE as well and got into SWTOR shortly after that, which I played continuously for a solid year or so, and on and off until around 2014.

It was only after being done with playing MMORPGs exclusively in 2012 that I seriously got back into singleplayer oriented PC Games, and when I first started noticing Half-Life's reputation within PC Gaming. I began to notice news articles calling it one of the best PC Games of all time, and saw the passionate fan reaction to wanting a Half-Life 3, as well as all the funny memes about it. At the time I just felt like I missed the boat, and still had a truckload of other games to catch up with that I missed when I was playing MMORPGs. So I slowly started working my way through everything I missed. Then in 2014 I got into Elite: Dangerous and put almost 3000 hours into it over the course of 5 years. I still played other games in between Elite sessions, but it meant that I wasn't able to progress at a faster pace. In 2019 I took a break from Elite and have been going back to single player games once again.

So more than 20 years later, and with a lot of free time due to the pandemic, the stars have finally aligned giving me the perfect time to play through Half Life.

But what do I think about it after finally playing it? Here's my review:

The first thing I have to say is that I knew absolutely nothing about Half-Life before playing it. All I knew going in was that it's a shooter and that people seem to like it. I had never seen gameplay footage or a review. The most I had seen was maybe a screenshot or two.

With all the hype and claims of gaming excellence, I actually went in expecting to be somewhat disappointed with Half-Life. I ended up being actually surprised with it. For 1998, I thought I'd get a basic story, and I guess in many ways it was, but what surprised me was how well conveyed and thought out the presentation of that story was, how creative and well crafted the world building was. It had that air of modern games that we experience today and I can see now why many of today's games owe something, at least in part, to Half-Life. I don't think the environmental storytelling was as rich as Unreal, but the straight up storytelling and particularly how it was presented to the player through the use of scripted sequences was done in an excellent manner.

Half-Life's non linear level design was well done, albeit a bit contrived and obtuse in some areas. Going back to another comparison with Unreal, which also featured non-linear level design, I found Unreal's levels to be at their worst when they featured some insane backtracking and quite hidden lever or pathway in order to progress. That only happened about 3 or 4 time across 38 levels in Unreal. In Half-life's campaign, it happened to me around 10 or more times. It wasn't enough to ruin my experience, but it did bring in an element of tedium and frustration to it.

One thing that I wasn't expecting, is how much puzzle solving played a part in the gameplay of Half-Life. I'd almost dare classify it as a puzzle game as much as it is also a shooter. Puzzles were a blessing and a curse for it in my opinion. Some of them were crafted to perfection and presented a fair and rewarding challenge. Others were kind of abstract and cryptic. They were more hit than miss, thankfully, but undeniably I felt an occasional puzzle dud here and there.

As for the shooting mechanics... well that's the biggest mixed bag for me. I liked the arsenal a lot. It was a perfect mix of traditional weapons with wacky, really out there ones. But I kind of hated having to select the weapons by groups. I guess the benefit of that is that you could have a lot of guns with you, but switching to a particular weapon, specially in the middle of combat, was almost like playing a guessing game at first. I got used to it eventually but it never felt quite right. The actual shooting, on the other hand, was solid; it wasn't a straight up retro shooter in how it approached most weapons: it had a more realistic, even tactical approach to some of them with reloading for every weapon and some of them, like the rocket launcher not having much ammo while also getting quite a slow firing rate. The more creative guns did operate in a more retro styled 'arcadey' way, so there was a good compromise between both styles.

While technically there is nothing wrong with the shooting itself, my issue was with how it all works when fighting the enemies. Battling the aliens was the best part of the game and where most of the fun was for me. However, firefights against human enemies was... well, quite honestly, terrible. There was an overabundance of hit-scan enemies among the humans that simply sucked out a lot of the fun for me whenever I was fighting them. As soon as I saw myself involved in a shootout with human enemies, all the problems I had with Half-Life's shooting mechanics started to manifest themselves: the awkward way of switching through weapons combined with reloading, sometimes slowly, against hit-scan enemies that rarely miss a hit on you and are quite relentless made me get caught in many bullshit moments that highlighted all the problem with the shooting in the game for me. I think that Half-Life's shooting would have greatly benefited from doing away with hit-scanners entirely.

In terms of sound design, I like the atmospheric sounds, and the guns themselves were beefy and packed a punch satisfactorily. However, I'm not sure I liked how quiet Half-Life was in terms of the music. It seemed to only play during certain key moments which is fine, and lets you experience the atmospheric sound design more... but it also felt a bit dead. I think they had the right idea with a more dynamic soundtrack, but I would have preferred if music was used more often.

Still, I feel Half-Life's biggest strength is a combination of its best moments in regards to the shooting, puzzle solving and level design, coupled with a great atmosphere, intelligent world building and quite mature approach to game design. The game didn't shy away from trying to compel the player in a more sophisticated manner than just guns go boom; it allowed for some intense quiet moments as well as some legitimately intriguing aspects, like the mysterious man that follows you all through the campaign.

Overall, Half-Life was a tremendous effort for 1998 and I can see why many hold it as a pinnacle in PC Gaming to this day. While some aspects of it I wasn't too keen on, they were hardly a problem in the entirety of the experience.

I apologize for the long review, but after all these years of not playing Half-Life, I guess I'm just compensating. I haven't gotten to the expansions or any of Half-life 2 content yet, but I'll start playing Opposing Force today, and hopefully I can finish all the games and finally close the book on the franchise. I'll post any updates of my progress here in the future.

[MusicallyInspired]

Great read. Glad you enjoyed it. Opposing Force is great and many regard it as the single greatest expansion pack for any game of all time. Blue-Shift is quite short, though, and not as interesting. But any view into the Half-Life world was always one I enjoyed.

[Putrid Pete]

I've just finished Opposing Force and... wow. I was absolutely blown away by it. I think I liked it far better than Half-Life's original campaign.

Funny enough, this makes me think of Unreal yet again because of how many similarities I've found with it while playing through Half-Life: both released in 1998, were revolutionary in their own respect, featured non-linear level design, had an emphasis in environmental storytelling and finally... their expansion packs were more enjoyable for me than their respective campaigns. Not to say that I didn't like the original campaigns for each game, but the mission packs were better paced, allowing the level design to shine more often.

Opposing Force did a few things differently that I liked better than Half-Life. First, it really cut back on the use of hit-scan enemies which helped tremendously to make the gameplay more enjoyable. I spent most of my time fighting the aliens and experiencing the shooting in a more skill based manner as a result. Second, the addition of more varied alien enemies was a major step up in keeping the combat varied and entertaining. I also liked the roster of weapons more here since it felt less cluttered and more situational than before. In Half-Life some of the alien weapons were a bit gimmicky more than entirely useful, but here they all played a role one way or another. And then there's the puzzles. Having ropes and the alien grappling hook thing really added a whole new dimension of depth to the puzzles. The big majority of them were designed almost to perfection.

I half expected a throwaway story given that it's an expansion pack, but boy was I wrong. It was as good as the original game, if not better; perhaps the most surprising part is that the story was still masterfully conveyed through scripted events and environmental storytelling with the same care and dedication that the original campaign had. The final boss was quite clever as well and not too cryptic to figure out, which is a plus. I also like the fact that they cut down on the usage of Xen levels. They were amazing at first when they were first introduced in Half-Life but started to drag a bit by the end.

Of course I still share the same issues that I had with Half-life in Opposing Force regarding the soundtrack and how you switch weapons, but I do have some Opposing Force exclusive criticism, albeit minor ones: I wasn't a big fan of the night vision that replaced the flashlight. It was easier to see at close range with it, but it greatly distorted everything that was at a farther distance. I found it unhelpful and a nuisance. It was also a bit buggy for me. Granted I've been using the more bug prone software renderer because I wanted to experience the retro pixel chunkiness, so some of that might be my own fault. But regardless, I had this strange issue where every time I saved the game, my character would spin 180 degrees. Also, I got stuck and frozen in place at some point, and had to switch to the OpenGL renderer to unfuck myself and be able to move. And lastly, while happy that hitscanners were less present throughout the campaign, that warehouse section full of them that you have to play while being completely in the dark, forcing you to rely on the shitty night vision, can go suck a bag of dicks.

So in conclusion, Opposing Force was incredible and just a joy to play. I wish more games of that era delivered quality expansions like that (looking at you, Quake II). Now, onto Blue Shift.

[Putrid Pete]

I've now finished Blue Shift, Half-Life 2 and both its episodes.

Blue Shift was certainly shorter than Opposing Force. It also felt incomplete. It doesn't have a proper boss fight to end it and the story kind of stops more than it properly wraps up. I expected to fight more human enemies considering you now play as a security guard, and you indeed do. This fact makes the expansion far less fun for me since I already wasn't too keen on the hit-scan soldiers. I also found the puzzles to be inferior and lacking the depth that the previous expansion introduced.

While Opposing Force felt like a really polished, well executed expansion that tried to be more than just an extension of the main game, Blue Shift was exactly what I would expect from a mission pack. Just more of the same of what we saw in the main game. It still had its fun moments but the ride was somewhat bumpy.

Now, for my thoughts on Half-Life 2 I'll combine the main game and it's two episodes into a single thing, since they both felt like they should have been in the main game anyway:

I'm not sure how to feel about Half-life 2. It certainly was fun and it had many good things to it, and yet I couldn't help but feel that something about it just didn't sit right with me. It felt like it lacked direction, trying to do too many things at once without developing some of them well. It was as if each section drastically changed how the game plays: you start like normal fighting on foot, to then escaping gunfire on a boat, using the gravity gun to solve puzzles, later fighting enemies on a buggy, commanding a squad of bugs with some pheromone device to later command a squad of humans and dish out orders, set up traps and turrets to defend ambushes... just a mishmash of ideas that certainly keep the game varied but at the same time some of these new areas lack depth, such as the aforementioned squads. Once their section is complete they either never show up again like in the case of the bugs or are just used sparingly and inconsequentially like the human squads.

One of the best aspects of the game was the visual design. Valve created some very lively and livable environments that felt grounded in reality. The visuals are also aided by fantastic scripted sequences that showcase the robust world crafted here. I also quite enjoyed the new physics based puzzles with the gravity gun, although trying to operate the gun with some of the objects can be wonky and get in the way of my enjoyment from time to time. The shooting was well executed and lobbying grenades was most improved from the first game. Not crazy about the reduced ammunition you can carry or the energy mechanic for sprinting that is shared with the flashlight, though. Still, the game is certainly balls to the wall with action for most of the campaign and that keep things from being boring.

In terms of story, I'm not sure if this complete departure from the first game was a good or bad idea. I liked all the opportunities it created which allows the level design to have all these crazy scenarios that turn into enjoyable playgrounds, but I also found the new direction to be confusing and hard to follow. I went from traversing through lab facilities and portals to alien worlds to all of the sudden be thrown into some dystopian society that lives in a kind of post apocalypse situation. There's all these factions like a resistance, the Combine and now some of the aliens are also working with the humans? I guess the idea is that as Gordon Freeman you were asleep for quite some time and you missed out on a lot of things, but personally I found the more X-Files oriented secret bases doing experiments with the government involved more compelling than another tale of rebels and a resistance. It unfortunately falls into some tropes that are a bit trite for my taste such as the now extremely overused Portal in the Sky ultimate threat to the "we have to save humanity" battle featuring giant monsters trampling over the city. I realize this must have been very impressive when it came out in 2004, but I'm unable to detach my 2020 mind from the experience and it's just all too familiar for me.

I have some issues with how the writing set things up. As soon as the character Judith shows up, the way she is introduced makes any person with a brain cell realize that 1) she's going to betray you and 2) she is going to redeem herself in the end because she is not necessarily a bad person. It all leads to the entirely predictable outcome of her selling you out and then having a conversation with the villain saying "but you promised not to hurt them". It's unfortunate that the story relied on many of these cliches, because the new characters are interesting and the writing makes a decent job on fleshing them out enough to make you care about them. At least as the game progressed the writing improved, specially when I got to Episode 1 and 2. You had more quiet moments, specially with Alyx, to get to know her and even some of the others. I liked spending time with her or one of the aliens, which injected their personality into their missions. This was far better than a revolving door of squad member that get killed as soon as we see some enemies.

With the previous knowledge of how Half-life and its expansion packs end, as well as how Half-Life 2 and Episode 1 ended, I knew that it was going to all end in a cliffhanger because it was just routine by now. I thought I would hate it, but it actually was a ballsy move to end it like that. The final section of the game where you run around in the car trying to kill Striders guarded by the Hunters was terrible, however. Very frustrating and annoying part that dragged on forever and really tested my patience.

Personally I found Half-Life 2 to be good, but a bit of a mess to call it great. The whole thing took me about 25 hours to complete (including both episodes) and I'm not sure if I want to revisit it anytime soon. Some parts of it really left me exhausted and I feel a kind of relief for finally getting through the entire thing. Maybe at some point I'll develop an urge to replay it, but for now I think I can go several months without touching it again.

I really wanted to close the book on the franchise with HL2, but I realize I still have Half-Life: Alyx to play. Well I don't have a VR set, nor do I want to commit to buying one just for that game. I know there are some ways to play it without VR but I can't be bothered to drop 60 dollarydoos on a game that I would have to wait for a VR-less version that may never come or use a mod in order to be able to play. So this is as far as I'm gonna go for now until something changes in the future.

After more than 20 years I can finally say that I've experienced the Half-Life franchise. It was a fun ride despite having come into it so late. In a way I guess it was better to experience it later after the hype went down a notch and enjoy it at my own pace. I had my fun moments, frustrating moments but I don't regret getting into it, so there's that.

[MusicallyInspired]

Great read. I enjoyed it. And yeah, HL2 came out 6 years after HL1 so the players really got a sense of the feeling firsthand that Gordon (and the player) had been in stasis for quite a while and many things changed in the world. Going straight from HL1 to HL2 would be pretty jarring. And I know you mentioned this too, but at the time (speaking for myself anyway) I was just floored to see that kind of engaging storytelling going on in an FPS game and it hadn't been that way before. I mean, Doom 3 came out at around the same time which I guess would have been its biggest competitor at time when multiplayer-only shooters were reigning supreme but good single player experiences were just coming back (that's my recollection anyway). So seeing storytelling character tropes (like Judith) and visual tropes (giant tower in the distance) that you mentioned was just awesome to behold in my video game and even though some of that may have been old hat in general storytelling media, it was all brand new in a shooter.

Fascinating to see someone's brand new impression of what is now an old classic franchise. Thanks for sharing!

[Putrid Pete]

Thanks for the comments. That I manage to write even one cohesive sentence in a language that is not my own is already a miracle to me, so I'm happy any time a long ass post that I made makes any semblance of sense.

Like I figured, it seems that experiencing this in 2004 would've probably had a bigger impact on me than 16 years later. For me older titles are more palatable and easier to appreciate than games like Half-Life 2 that are still part of that awkward transition period that bridges the gap between what gaming was in the 90's to what it is now. Because it looks very good for its age and plays like many modern games it was almost impossible for me not to judge it by the standards that I use with any shooter of today. In many ways it isn't fair for Half-Life 2 as it's already a classic game in it's own right, but I guess it also speaks about how well it laid a groundwork for modern gaming that I had a hard time separating it from current titles. At least in terms of how it plays and presents its story.

Looking back, I realize there were a few things that I failed to comment on such as the vehicle sections, the new soundtrack and G-Man. So tying up loose ends I'll give a rapid fire impression on each:

• Vehicles were hit and miss. Water Hazard was amazing and it made me feel like I was part of an action movie. Highway 17 dragged for too long and was less satisfying. Using the car in Episode 2 was better paced, but like I mentioned earlier the final encounter against the Striders was pretty bad.
  
• The soundtrack played far more often while still retaining the idea of the original game of being dynamic. I also really appreciated that pausing the game did not pause the music.
  
• At first I thought G-Man was underused in Half-Life 2, because he didn't pop out like he did in Half-Life, but as it turns out, he actually does show up around the world and such, but because environments are far more open and large its quite easy to miss him. I believe I only noticed him once. Kind of a shame as it was a very iconic part of the original game and now it feels more like an easter egg.

And here's a closing thought that hadn't occurred to me while writing the review. What in the world happened to Adrian Shepard from Opposing Force? Is he still tucked away on G-Man's freezer or what? Wonder if HL: Alyx explores on his fate.

[gemeaux333]

Opposing Force, Adrian SHepard a,d Blue Shift are non-canonical expansions/elements, so there is no clue if Adrian Shepard is going to make its way again...

HL: Alyx is worth any expense that come with it, it is the way any VR game should come on the spot, although there are plenty of other games you can take too if you want to make your VR expenses profitable such as Boneworks, Beat Saber, Pavlov VR, Blade and Sorcery, and possibly some ports like Borderlands 2 VR or Serious Sam VR

[Marphy Black]

gemeaux333, on 25 May 2020 - 08:31 AM, said:

Opposing Force, Adrian SHepard a,d Blue Shift are non-canonical expansions/elements

Do you have a single fact to back that up?

[MusicallyInspired]

Adrian Shepherd and everything Gearbox made in the HL universe are technically "non-canon", but Gearbox also made Blue-Shift and gave Barney the last name "Calhoun" which Half-Life 2 did use. So Valve obviously is not opposed to taking things and using them in the official canon universe (although, I don't know how Race X fits into all that). So I wouldn't put it past Valve to do something with Adrian at some point officially given that he's such a popular character in the fandom and Opposing Force is so well liked.

[DisgustedGrunt]

gemeaux333, on 25 May 2020 - 08:31 AM, said:

Opposing Force, Adrian SHepard a,d Blue Shift are non-canonical expansions/elements

Those are canon until proven otherwise, until Valve says so.