Half-Life

[alanschu]

so we have a guy with super dooper body armor and the ability to smack anyone or anything to death with a briefcase

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Stop talking. It's clear you don't understand the Gman. Furthermore, you never see the Gman attacking anyone in the game, so I don't know where you get this "smacking anything to death with a briefcase" crap.

 

 

Play Half-Life 2. It's much more enlightening behind the mystery of the Gman.

[Musopticon?]

I wouldn't call it exactly enlightening, if you get my drift...

[RevanRedefined]

People play Halo for multiplayer. Halo1 had a good story line, and a good battle system for playing with friends. So when Halo2 was announced people were like "OMfG!1!! HALO2" and everyone bought it.

 

Halo2's story blew ass, though the online play is fun.

 

IMO Halo shoulda stayed an RTS

[alanschu]

I wouldn't call it exactly enlightening, if you get my drift...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

It's informative, in an albeit cryptic way. And it doesn't take much to extrapolate why the Gman can "walk around" everywhere you go in Half-Life 1 (and 2) without "bashing enemies in with his suitcase."

 

 

He's supposed to be mysterious and confusing.

[alanschu]

Halo feels a lot like Bungie's earlier FPS Marathon.  The alien threat is certainly similar.  In between Marathon and Halo, Bungie did the Myth strategy games which involved lots and lots of undead.  I think it's more likely they got the inspiration for the Flood from their own work (or Doom) than borrowing from Half-Life.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

It makes sense that Halo feels like Marathon. They exist in the same Universe. There are references to Marathon in Halo.

 

As for the inspiration, the developers themselves commented about how much Half-Life had inspired them. And this was before they went to XBox and I quit following the development of that game.

[Musopticon?]

You take me too seriously, Allan.

[alanschu]

I take everyone too seriously.

 

Sarcasm is hard to detect on the Internet

[Musopticon?]

You should know me for never being entirely serious by now

[alanschu]

You'd think I'd know better.

 

 

Maybe I said what I said because I assume other people don't know to not take you seriously...yes yes that's it!

[Musopticon?]

That makes so much sense.

 

 

So what did you think about HL 2?

[alanschu]

I really enjoyed it. My school suffered as a result. I liked the atmosphere and the action and the music and especially Ravenholm (even though it scared the crap out of me).

 

The spooky tone of the game, combined with some excellent art (Nova Prospekt, Ravenholm, heck almost anywhere) shot it up to the top of my all time favourite games list (behind only Half-Life and Deus Ex).

 

At first, the ending was a bit of a surprise...but then when I thought about it, I realized it was just as confusing and "WTF" as the first one was. Although the Final Chapter itself was definitely a lot better in HL2 than in HL. Xen just didn't seem as fun as the rest of the original IMO.

[Meshugger]

Remember people, Halo was released back in 2001. Everything, except the leveldesign, was very well executed (No endboss, great open battles, incredible A.I, graphics, jada jada jada). Halo 2 wasn't as good as Halo 1 though.

 

As a sidenote, i never got into HL back in 1998. The graphics were meh, the soundtrack was awful, the story a pop-corn action-flick, the gameplay was on rails (but solid nevertheless), and horrible end-boss and end-levels.

 

I liked Unreal 1 much more.

[EnderAndrew]

And wasn't Half Life out in 1999, two years before Halo?

 

Halo was a weak imitation of Half Life two years later.

[alanschu]

Half-Life was late 1998.

[RevanRedefined]

Halo was a weak imitation of Half Life two years later.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Perhaps it is an imitation, but I don't think Bungie really cares with all the money they're rolling in from it.

[alanschu]

Errrr...not sure what money has to do with it.

 

We're not talking about if the game is successful financially.

[LoneWolf16]

And wasn't Half Life out in 1999, two years before Halo?

 

Halo was a weak imitation of Half Life two years later.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Somebody seems a bit biased "

 

Personally, I loved both Halos. Both are excellent FPS titles with what I thought to be a great, albeit slightly unoriginal, storyline. The gameplay was repetitive, yet in a good way, level design was bearable, and at first, quite fascinating, there was a satisfying array of weaponry, control was pretty tight for a console game, and enemies were varied enough to keep things interesting. (I love Elites. Oh so very much )

 

I've played Half-Life 1 and 2. Great games, both beautiful and entertaining, but I didn't have as much fun with them as I did with Halo. Then again, Co-op pretty much made the game for me.......So many hours wasted blowing each other up with plasma grenades, driving off cliffs, insta-killing one another with a single melee attack to the back, running each other over with the Warthog...I'm gonna cry :'(

 

Why do people seem to think so little of the story? It's standard Sc-Fi fare, fraught with danger, a bad ass main character, a huge armada of hostile aliens, a ring world...I love it all, and the cliffhanger at the end of Halo 2...as much as it pissed me off when I first saw it, did nothing but pique my interest, and keep my heart set on the next installment.

 

The music, damn I love the music. There's something about it, and it fits so well with the in-game situation. Sounds and graphics were also top-notch.

 

All in all...a great pair of titles. 9/10 for both. IMHO of course.

 

Did I mention I'm a hypocrite? :ph34r:

[Ekkest]

Loving Halo and loving Half-Life aren't mutually exclusive, you know.

[EnderAndrew]

I agree. And I'm not biased. I have both Halo games.

 

Half Life is just much better. Halo is the game of the century that people make it out to be. I'm not saying Halo is bad. I'm saying Halo s really overrated.

[LoneWolf16]

Loving Halo and loving Half-Life aren't mutually exclusive, you know.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thus, the hypocrite line.

 

I agree.  And I'm not biased.  I have both Halo games.

 

Half Life is just much better.  Halo is the game of the century that people make it out to be.  I'm not saying Halo is bad.  I'm saying Halo s really overrated.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The biased thing was more in jest, and I agree with you, it is overrated. But the same can be said for Half-Life's sequel. Bits of innovation, building on the accomplishments of other titles...there hasn't been something truly innovative in a long time.

 

I look at games in terms of Fun, and don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the Half-lifes immensely, but Halo just did it better for me.

[EnderAndrew]

I think the beefed up physics engine, facial renderings, visual rendering engine, SDK kit, and gravity gun count as innovations.

[Child of Flame]

The work that went into the Destroyed city was insane as well.

 

You have to get the Hardcover book or have a Videogames degree to truly appreciate everything they did. Insane amount of attention to detail.

[LoneWolf16]

Visually, of course, but in terms of basic game play, nothing major has happened in some time. There's a basic formula, and all games in the genre follow it to some degree, before branching off on a small creative tryst that is.

[alanschu]

I love the lipsynching and animations. The attention to detail for the characters was fantastic in Half-Life 2. In addition to the immensely fantastic work with the shaders for the levels. The levels are actually much lower in polygon count than Doom 3, but look stunning because of the impressive shader effects. It was impressive seeing an untextured wire mesh of Half-Life 2. It looks rather blocky compared to Doom 3, but they did a fantastic job with the art that you can't even tell at all.

 

The only reason why I think Halo is the "end-all be-all" of FPS games is because so many of those people have never played Half-Life 1 or 2, or many of the other excellent FPS games out there. Halo had a marketting blitz up the wazoo, and was one of the few solid FPS games on a console that reminded people of GoldenEye (which is another game that was very outclassed in many aspects by PC shooters...that people had never heard of so GoldenEye was the bestest game evah!).

 

 

but in terms of basic game play, nothing major has happened in some time.

 

I dunno. The focus on physics, and the gravity gun in particular, were awfully fun. It was cool being able to kill guys up on a bridge by taking out the supports and watching their reactions as they fall to their doom. And grabbing hand grenades and tossing them back with the gravity gun (or even just your hands) was pretty sweet too.

[LoneWolf16]

Ok, I admit, the gravity gun was great. Just screwing with the Combine's corpses, shooting them up into the air, catching them, doing it over again...or watching them go *blink* and dissapear in that energy field.

 

Good, good times.