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FREE PORTAL IS FREE - It's actually HL2:EP3 in disguise but don't tell anyone

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Posts

  • Mr.BrickMr.Brick Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    So this is interesting..

    Its not Valve related- but rather someones personal for fun project. Remember Whats In The Box? Well its back and its timing couldnt be better.. which leads me to wonder about what it has to really do with half life. Which is nothing because it uses half life and lost things extensively. And its already proven that its just a physics student and his hobby.

    http://babel-research.eu/

    hidden on there is this:
    http://babel-research.eu/snd/hidden.mp3

    played backwards it sounds like something (9, or 19th) of November.

    movie #3
    http://babel-research.eu/129/222/315.html

    Mr.Brick on
    pew pew pew
  • HonkHonk Honk is this poster. Registered User, __BANNED USERS regular
    edited March 2010
    Mr.Brick wrote: »
    So this is interesting..

    Its not Valve related- but rather someones personal for fun project. Remember Whats In The Box? Well its back and its timing couldnt be better.. which leads me to wonder about what it has to really do with half life. Which is nothing because it uses half life and lost things extensively. And its already proven that its just a physics student and his hobby.

    http://babel-research.eu/

    hidden on there is this:
    http://babel-research.eu/snd/hidden.mp3

    played backwards it sounds like something (9, or 19th) of November.

    movie #3
    http://babel-research.eu/129/222/315.html

    I can't believe that someone went the length to incorporate all those floating vehicles and then not edit out the static vehicles left on the ground/water.

    Honk on
    PSN: Honkalot
  • donhonkdonhonk Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Ampix wrote: »
    We've got Black Mesa to look forward to for that!

    I WANT TO BELIEVE IT WILL COME OUT

    I WANT IT SO BAD

    donhonk on
  • KrunkMcGrunkKrunkMcGrunk Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Does no one here think that this points to another Portal?

    That seems like the obvious answer.

    KrunkMcGrunk on
    mrsatansig.png
  • ForarForar #432 Toronto, Ontario, CanadaRegistered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Does no one here think that this points to another Portal?

    That seems like the obvious answer.

    Umm, that's what everyone's been saying, far as I can tell.

    I'd be more surprised if there was anyone who didn't think that this pointed to another Portal.

    Forar on
    First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKER!
  • Mr.BrickMr.Brick Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Honk wrote: »
    Mr.Brick wrote: »
    So this is interesting..

    Its not Valve related- but rather someones personal for fun project. Remember Whats In The Box? Well its back and its timing couldnt be better.. which leads me to wonder about what it has to really do with half life. Which is nothing because it uses half life and lost things extensively. And its already proven that its just a physics student and his hobby.

    http://babel-research.eu/

    hidden on there is this:
    http://babel-research.eu/snd/hidden.mp3

    played backwards it sounds like something (9, or 19th) of November.

    movie #3
    http://babel-research.eu/129/222/315.html

    I can't believe that someone went the length to incorporate all those floating vehicles and then not edit out the static vehicles left on the ground/water.

    I wondered that too. He obviously spent more time on this one too. The shaders / lighting / rendering and compositing has gotten much better. But those little details... At this point- I would hire this guy to work for me.

    Mr.Brick on
    pew pew pew
  • Mr.BrickMr.Brick Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Found another one on the Babel website

    http://babel-research.eu/snd/discedoMalum.mp3

    backwards:
    "found. project ___ (sounds like attainable?) has failed"

    Mr.Brick on
    pew pew pew
  • exoplasmexoplasm Gainfully Employed Near Blizzard HQRegistered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Has everyone seen the colored images?

    http://imgur.com/qZ1bL

    exoplasm on
    1029386-1.png
    SC2 NA: exoplasm.519 | PA SC2 Mumble Server | My Website | My Stream
  • HonkHonk Honk is this poster. Registered User, __BANNED USERS regular
    edited March 2010
    Mr.Brick wrote: »
    Honk wrote: »
    Mr.Brick wrote: »
    So this is interesting..

    Its not Valve related- but rather someones personal for fun project. Remember Whats In The Box? Well its back and its timing couldnt be better.. which leads me to wonder about what it has to really do with half life. Which is nothing because it uses half life and lost things extensively. And its already proven that its just a physics student and his hobby.

    http://babel-research.eu/

    hidden on there is this:
    http://babel-research.eu/snd/hidden.mp3

    played backwards it sounds like something (9, or 19th) of November.

    movie #3
    http://babel-research.eu/129/222/315.html

    I can't believe that someone went the length to incorporate all those floating vehicles and then not edit out the static vehicles left on the ground/water.

    I wondered that too. He obviously spent more time on this one too. The shaders / lighting / rendering and compositing has gotten much better. But those little details... At this point- I would hire this guy to work for me.

    Yup, he's obviously very talented and fixing that would be pretty easy.

    Neat stuff though, very neat.

    Honk on
    PSN: Honkalot
  • TetraNitroCubaneTetraNitroCubane The Djinnerator At the bottom of a bottleRegistered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Machismo wrote: »
    I'd like for HL2 to at least visit Black Mesa for a moment. I know it won't happen, but I'd like to see what time has done to it.

    It'd be awesome if Portal 2 and Episode 3 were the same thing!

    Considering the whole thing with the Borealis in Episode 2, this may not be unheard of. At least, I'd expect Gordon to get his hands on the portal gun in Episode 3, or maybe run into GLaDOS.

    Or maybe I'm just an optimistic fool. :(

    TetraNitroCubane on
    VuIBhrs.png
  • AthenorAthenor Battle Hardened Optimist The Skies of HiigaraRegistered User regular
    edited March 2010
    You know, I actually think it would be cool if the final step of the Half Life saga took place in the Test Chamber, although I have no clue how to pull that off and still go after the Combine homeworld.


    As for Black Mesa Source... Yeah, I really want that to come out too. :( That'd be a hell of a thing to include in the Orange Box 2, though, wouldn't it? (NO I AM NOT SAYING THAT IS COMING.)

    Athenor on
    He/Him | "A boat is always safest in the harbor, but that’s not why we build boats." | "If you run, you gain one. If you move forward, you gain two." - Suletta Mercury, G-Witch
  • MEGAMERICANMEGAMERICAN Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Ricochet: Source!

    MEGAMERICAN on
  • donhonkdonhonk Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    This seems like the best thread I guess...

    How do I force AA in Half Life 2? (Not episodes.)

    Forcing Supersampling in nHancer doesn't seem to be working. Can anyone with a knowledge of these things post their settings?

    donhonk on
  • ImpersonatorImpersonator Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Impersonator on
  • MachismoMachismo Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Athenor wrote: »
    You know, I actually think it would be cool if the final step of the Half Life saga took place in the Test Chamber, although I have no clue how to pull that off and still go after the Combine homeworld.


    As for Black Mesa Source... Yeah, I really want that to come out too. :( That'd be a hell of a thing to include in the Orange Box 2, though, wouldn't it? (NO I AM NOT SAYING THAT IS COMING.)

    Its Green Box, btw.

    Machismo on
    steam_sig.png
  • Skull2185Skull2185 Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Machismo wrote: »
    Athenor wrote: »
    You know, I actually think it would be cool if the final step of the Half Life saga took place in the Test Chamber, although I have no clue how to pull that off and still go after the Combine homeworld.


    As for Black Mesa Source... Yeah, I really want that to come out too. :( That'd be a hell of a thing to include in the Orange Box 2, though, wouldn't it? (NO I AM NOT SAYING THAT IS COMING.)

    Its Green Box, btw.

    For real?

    Skull2185 on
    Everyone has a price. Throw enough gold around and someone will risk disintegration.
  • MachismoMachismo Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Skull2185 wrote: »
    Machismo wrote: »
    Athenor wrote: »
    You know, I actually think it would be cool if the final step of the Half Life saga took place in the Test Chamber, although I have no clue how to pull that off and still go after the Combine homeworld.


    As for Black Mesa Source... Yeah, I really want that to come out too. :( That'd be a hell of a thing to include in the Orange Box 2, though, wouldn't it? (NO I AM NOT SAYING THAT IS COMING.)

    Its Green Box, btw.

    For real?

    I really said that.

    Has Valve? No.

    Machismo on
    steam_sig.png
  • Skull2185Skull2185 Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    damn

    got excited for a moment.

    Skull2185 on
    Everyone has a price. Throw enough gold around and someone will risk disintegration.
  • El GuacoEl Guaco Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    To be honest, I found the shooter mechanics in halflife 2 really pretty bad.

    The recoil on the guns was just terrible (compare it to counterstrike, where recoil is an integrated gameplay mechanic that you can learn to control - a huge amount of skill goes into learning the recoil, and the game manages to have totally different feeling weaponry despite almost all of the guns just being rapid-fire weapons). Most of the enemies were pretty tedious (zombies, antlions, super boring). The exception to this being, of course, the combine troopers who were more interesting - but they weren't the evolutionary step that the marines were in the original halflife. I remember playing HL1 and hiding behind a box, and just seeing a grenade flop over the top and thinking to myself "Shit, they know they can FLUSH ME OUT". Whereas in HL2 you can just steamroll over all the combine troopers.

    To be fair, many of these complaints are probably not shared by most. I am just pretty jaded with FPSes, and I had hoped for more from HL2. I played the original halflife more than 20 times. I played halflife 2 just once, and never had any urge to replay it.

    What I think they should have done was up the lethality on the weaponry, both against the enemies and against you. You should be afraid of their weapons. I want a game where charging around like a brute-force lunatic is the harder choice, where the desire to be stealthy or efficient actually rewards itself.

    Also, a throw grenade button would be rad (having grenades as a separate weapon is just a stupid UI abstraction which neither reflects how people use grenades or how players want to use them). I quite like having the crowbar as a selectable weapon though.

    I have to agree with you on this. I played HL2 and the episodes once and didn't replay it until I upgraded my system and found the urge to play again with all the settings maxxed. I don't find much replay value in this game because of the gun mechanics. You're not really rewarded for being careful or being a good shot in most cases. Pistols were somehow more accurate than rifles but were underpowered despite using similar ammo. The only time you were rewarded for clever gunplay was using the rocket launcher.

    As progressive as the game was for its time it also fell into gaming sins such as endless enemies and unfair scripted sequences. I'm not QQing about it being hard, I'm just saying the difficulty was propped up by breaking the rules of the game universe, so to speak. I realize it's just a game, but for a game that gave me the creeps at times for strange realism, it was disappointing to find that realism flawed in strange places.

    That said, I hope they announce something soon. Just exactly how long has it been since we've had a HL release not counting Portal? Good grief it seems like they could have finished 2 or 3 games in this much time.

    El Guaco on
  • RakaiRakai Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    El Guaco wrote: »
    To be honest, I found the shooter mechanics in halflife 2 really pretty bad.

    The recoil on the guns was just terrible (compare it to counterstrike, where recoil is an integrated gameplay mechanic that you can learn to control - a huge amount of skill goes into learning the recoil, and the game manages to have totally different feeling weaponry despite almost all of the guns just being rapid-fire weapons). Most of the enemies were pretty tedious (zombies, antlions, super boring). The exception to this being, of course, the combine troopers who were more interesting - but they weren't the evolutionary step that the marines were in the original halflife. I remember playing HL1 and hiding behind a box, and just seeing a grenade flop over the top and thinking to myself "Shit, they know they can FLUSH ME OUT". Whereas in HL2 you can just steamroll over all the combine troopers.

    To be fair, many of these complaints are probably not shared by most. I am just pretty jaded with FPSes, and I had hoped for more from HL2. I played the original halflife more than 20 times. I played halflife 2 just once, and never had any urge to replay it.

    What I think they should have done was up the lethality on the weaponry, both against the enemies and against you. You should be afraid of their weapons. I want a game where charging around like a brute-force lunatic is the harder choice, where the desire to be stealthy or efficient actually rewards itself.

    Also, a throw grenade button would be rad (having grenades as a separate weapon is just a stupid UI abstraction which neither reflects how people use grenades or how players want to use them). I quite like having the crowbar as a selectable weapon though.

    I have to agree with you on this. I played HL2 and the episodes once and didn't replay it until I upgraded my system and found the urge to play again with all the settings maxxed. I don't find much replay value in this game because of the gun mechanics. You're not really rewarded for being careful or being a good shot in most cases. Pistols were somehow more accurate than rifles but were underpowered despite using similar ammo. The only time you were rewarded for clever gunplay was using the rocket launcher.

    As progressive as the game was for its time it also fell into gaming sins such as endless enemies and unfair scripted sequences. I'm not QQing about it being hard, I'm just saying the difficulty was propped up by breaking the rules of the game universe, so to speak. I realize it's just a game, but for a game that gave me the creeps at times for strange realism, it was disappointing to find that realism flawed in strange places.

    That said, I hope they announce something soon. Just exactly how long has it been since we've had a HL release not counting Portal? Good grief it seems like they could have finished 2 or 3 games in this much time.

    Quite frankly, if EP3 doesn't come with a new engine and a complete overall of it's game mechanics it will be a huge disappointment for me.

    Rakai on
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]XBL: Rakayn | PS3: Rakayn | Steam ID
  • JragghenJragghen Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    I think some of you guys are going to end up disappointed due to misplaced expectations.

    Jragghen on
  • The DeliveratorThe Deliverator Slingin Pies The California BurbclavesRegistered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Rakai wrote: »
    El Guaco wrote: »
    To be honest, I found the shooter mechanics in halflife 2 really pretty bad.

    The recoil on the guns was just terrible (compare it to counterstrike, where recoil is an integrated gameplay mechanic that you can learn to control - a huge amount of skill goes into learning the recoil, and the game manages to have totally different feeling weaponry despite almost all of the guns just being rapid-fire weapons). Most of the enemies were pretty tedious (zombies, antlions, super boring). The exception to this being, of course, the combine troopers who were more interesting - but they weren't the evolutionary step that the marines were in the original halflife. I remember playing HL1 and hiding behind a box, and just seeing a grenade flop over the top and thinking to myself "Shit, they know they can FLUSH ME OUT". Whereas in HL2 you can just steamroll over all the combine troopers.

    To be fair, many of these complaints are probably not shared by most. I am just pretty jaded with FPSes, and I had hoped for more from HL2. I played the original halflife more than 20 times. I played halflife 2 just once, and never had any urge to replay it.

    What I think they should have done was up the lethality on the weaponry, both against the enemies and against you. You should be afraid of their weapons. I want a game where charging around like a brute-force lunatic is the harder choice, where the desire to be stealthy or efficient actually rewards itself.

    Also, a throw grenade button would be rad (having grenades as a separate weapon is just a stupid UI abstraction which neither reflects how people use grenades or how players want to use them). I quite like having the crowbar as a selectable weapon though.

    I have to agree with you on this. I played HL2 and the episodes once and didn't replay it until I upgraded my system and found the urge to play again with all the settings maxxed. I don't find much replay value in this game because of the gun mechanics. You're not really rewarded for being careful or being a good shot in most cases. Pistols were somehow more accurate than rifles but were underpowered despite using similar ammo. The only time you were rewarded for clever gunplay was using the rocket launcher.

    As progressive as the game was for its time it also fell into gaming sins such as endless enemies and unfair scripted sequences. I'm not QQing about it being hard, I'm just saying the difficulty was propped up by breaking the rules of the game universe, so to speak. I realize it's just a game, but for a game that gave me the creeps at times for strange realism, it was disappointing to find that realism flawed in strange places.

    That said, I hope they announce something soon. Just exactly how long has it been since we've had a HL release not counting Portal? Good grief it seems like they could have finished 2 or 3 games in this much time.

    Quite frankly, if EP3 doesn't come with a new engine and a complete overall of it's game mechanics it will be a huge disappointment for me.

    Then prepare to be disappointed. Expecting a full engine replacement or major overhaul of the game mechanics that make Half-Life 2 Half-Life 2 is completely absurd. It's not going to happen, so stop setting stupidly high expectations.

    What we'll most likely get is a small engine refresh to add more DX10/11 shinnies, and more of the great HL2 story. Who honestly wouldn't be happy with that?

    The Deliverator on
  • azith28azith28 Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Yeah, expecting a brand new engine for a 6 hour game is silly.

    I think source might get some additions....but I'm pretty sure source 2.0 will mostly be the evolution of the current source engine, not a start from scratch kind of thing. The lighting and such effects we saw in Episode 2 are still impressive.

    I can't get over people thinking source looks outdated. It just feels so massively Solid in so many areas to me. There are prettier engines but they lack other things source does very well.

    azith28 on
    Stercus, Stercus, Stercus, Morituri Sum
  • WitchsightWitchsight Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    I first played HL2 when Orange Box came out, and i thought everything about it was amazing. Vehicles, weapons, enemies, story... It all came together perfectly.

    Considering how late to the party i was, thats a pretty awesome feat (Although im pretty sure the graphics got a bit of an overhaul for O B). If pt.3 is more of the same, fleshed out with the portal spinoff...i really couldnt be upset.

    Witchsight on
    Witchsight.png
  • RakaiRakai Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Taking 3+ years for a 6 hour add-on is even sillier if that's all EP3 is.

    And since when is having a comparable product to their competitors "stupidly high expectations"?

    Rakai on
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]XBL: Rakayn | PS3: Rakayn | Steam ID
  • subediisubedii Registered User regular
    edited March 2010

    Then prepare to be disappointed. Expecting a full engine replacement or major overhaul of the game mechanics that make Half-Life 2 Half-Life 2 is completely absurd. It's not going to happen, so stop setting stupidly high expectations.

    What we'll most likely get is a small engine refresh to add more DX10/11 shinnies, and more of the great HL2 story. Who honestly wouldn't be happy with that?

    That's pretty much all I'm after. The major renovations can wait for HL3. The Episodes have largely been as a means to evolve the gameplay as it currently exists, and they've been getting better at crafting it with each Episode. That's part of the point behind the episodic releases at more frequent intervals. Ep1 gave us a lot more focus on Alyx and still kept up the pace with varying setpieces. As did Ep2, but they also evolved the concept with more openness to the gameplay.

    Each episode has been better than the one before (some people will disagree with me on that one I guess), because they learn from the feedback of what they tried last time, and they can learn how well their experiments went in the previous iterations.

    HL3 depends on everything they've learned from the franchise and its iterations to date. Heck, from their other games too. In the past few years, Valve have learned a tonne about cinematic presentation (with the TF2 shorts for example), gameplay pacing, art-design, and loads of other things that can only contribute to a better game. HL3 is going to be a much better game than it would have been if they'd simply went straight to work on it after HL2, with no further experimentation or iteration.

    subedii on
  • FencingsaxFencingsax It is difficult to get a man to understand, when his salary depends upon his not understanding GNU Terry PratchettRegistered User regular
    edited March 2010
    The only gun I have a complaint about is the SMG.

    Fencingsax on
  • Metal Gear Solid 2 DemoMetal Gear Solid 2 Demo Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    subedii wrote: »

    Then prepare to be disappointed. Expecting a full engine replacement or major overhaul of the game mechanics that make Half-Life 2 Half-Life 2 is completely absurd. It's not going to happen, so stop setting stupidly high expectations.

    What we'll most likely get is a small engine refresh to add more DX10/11 shinnies, and more of the great HL2 story. Who honestly wouldn't be happy with that?

    That's pretty much all I'm after. The major renovations can wait for HL3. The Episodes have largely been as a means to evolve the gameplay as it currently exists, and they've been getting better at crafting it with each Episode. That's part of the point behind the episodic releases at more frequent intervals. Ep1 gave us a lot more focus on Alyx and still kept up the pace with varying setpieces. As did Ep2, but they also evolved the concept with more openness to the gameplay.

    Each episode has been better than the one before (some people will disagree with me on that one I guess), because they learn from the feedback of what they tried last time, and they can learn how well their experiments went in the previous iterations.

    HL3 depends on everything they've learned from the franchise and its iterations to date. Heck, from their other games too. In the past few years, Valve have learned a tonne about cinematic presentation (with the TF2 shorts for example), gameplay pacing, art-design, and loads of other things that can only contribute to a better game. HL3 is going to be a much better game than it would have been if they'd simply went straight to work on it after HL2, with no further experimentation or iteration.

    Hint: The Episodes are HL3

    Valve have stated the episodes are the end of this arc. Although there may be more games set in the half-life universe, but they will not be 'half-life' as we know it.

    This could change of course, but I doubt we will be seeing hl3.

    And the entire idea of Source was that it was an engine that they could quickly and easily modify to keep up with current standards instead of having to create a new one from scratch every time. We can see the improvements they've made in the particle systems, lighting, and other such factors (TF2 actually depends a lot on many of the engine upgrades that came after Hl2)

    Metal Gear Solid 2 Demo on
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  • SabanSaban Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Its been over 3 years since Episode 2 released, how long was the gap between Half Lifes launch and the HL2 reveal? 4, maybe 5?.

    My recent assumption has been that Episode 3 has been reformed into Half Life 3 using a heavily modified Source engine, but that might be stretching things.

    Saban on
    371839-1.png
  • subediisubedii Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    subedii wrote: »

    Then prepare to be disappointed. Expecting a full engine replacement or major overhaul of the game mechanics that make Half-Life 2 Half-Life 2 is completely absurd. It's not going to happen, so stop setting stupidly high expectations.

    What we'll most likely get is a small engine refresh to add more DX10/11 shinnies, and more of the great HL2 story. Who honestly wouldn't be happy with that?

    That's pretty much all I'm after. The major renovations can wait for HL3. The Episodes have largely been as a means to evolve the gameplay as it currently exists, and they've been getting better at crafting it with each Episode. That's part of the point behind the episodic releases at more frequent intervals. Ep1 gave us a lot more focus on Alyx and still kept up the pace with varying setpieces. As did Ep2, but they also evolved the concept with more openness to the gameplay.

    Each episode has been better than the one before (some people will disagree with me on that one I guess), because they learn from the feedback of what they tried last time, and they can learn how well their experiments went in the previous iterations.

    HL3 depends on everything they've learned from the franchise and its iterations to date. Heck, from their other games too. In the past few years, Valve have learned a tonne about cinematic presentation (with the TF2 shorts for example), gameplay pacing, art-design, and loads of other things that can only contribute to a better game. HL3 is going to be a much better game than it would have been if they'd simply went straight to work on it after HL2, with no further experimentation or iteration.

    Hint: The Episodes are HL3

    Valve have stated the episodes are the end of this arc. Although there may be more games set in the half-life universe, but they will not be 'half-life' as we know it.

    This could change of course, but I doubt we will be seeing hl3.

    And the entire idea of Source was that it was an engine that they could quickly and easily modify to keep up with current standards instead of having to create a new one from scratch every time. We can see the improvements they've made in the particle systems, lighting, and other such factors (TF2 actually depends a lot on many of the engine upgrades that came after Hl2)

    When I say HL3, I mean in the sense of starting from scratch with creating an all-new engine and creating a brand new HL2 sized game. Doug Lombardi talked about this in an interview, part of the reason they wanted to go with smaller and more regular releases is because HL3 done that way would've taken them maybe 6 or more years. It becomes an all-or-nothing gambit for the studio, there's no real opportunity for experimentation or risk. Here they can play around with different gameplay ideas, see how they work, and evolve them from there. The gameplay in the episodes felt a lot tighter than it did in HL2.

    subedii on
  • subediisubedii Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Saban wrote: »
    Its been over 3 years since Episode 2 released, how long was the gap between Half Lifes launch and the HL2 reveal? 4, maybe 5?.

    My recent assumption has been that Episode 3 has been reformed into Half Life 3 using a heavily modified Source engine, but that might be stretching things.

    Honestly? I'm not sure anymore whether they're even working on Ep3 in the same context as the previous two episodes. I mean the studio's been busy with other stuff in the meantime, but it wouldn't surprise me if they just said "OK, instead of Episode 3 we're making HL3 with a new engine and everything". Or it could be something with a completely different gameplay mechanic at play. Who knows. Valve are always tight lipped about this stuff.

    Maybe that's why we're so willing to play their little ARG. :P

    subedii on
  • AthenorAthenor Battle Hardened Optimist The Skies of HiigaraRegistered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Speaking of, has anything new been found in the last day?

    Athenor on
    He/Him | "A boat is always safest in the harbor, but that’s not why we build boats." | "If you run, you gain one. If you move forward, you gain two." - Suletta Mercury, G-Witch
  • RoyceSraphimRoyceSraphim Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    I googled protocol 602 and aside from some TCP/IP pages, I found that in Pennsylvania, protocol 602 is the treatment for victims involved in a explosion of some sort (terrorist or industrial explosion, something goes boom). Specifically, its followed for when a victim is suffering from

    c. Tertiary blast injuries (from patient falling or being thrown by blast or pinned by debris)

    2. If multisystem trauma – see Protocol # 602

    Most likely has nothing to do with portal but considering the ending, this would be the sort of injury that Chell would be suffering from.

    RoyceSraphim on
  • azith28azith28 Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    mmm Well i wouldnt be surprised to find out that HL3 is already pretty laid out and waiting for a new engine...I think they have a great thing with the source engine and they think that they want the next best thing to be perfect (as well as milking the existing source for as much as its worth) before going onto source 2.0 and making HL3 on that.

    azith28 on
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  • EdcrabEdcrab Actually a hack Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    I can totally get why people would want a whole new super-updated engine, but yeah, it's not likely to happen.

    Still, it's nice to think there's an awesome title (or two) on the horizon that won't do the "DX10 only! Vista only!" schtick.

    Edcrab on
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  • El GuacoEl Guaco Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    6(?) years of development for another episode with the same engine and same game mechanics? Yes, definitely I will be disappointed then. That doesn't seem a tad silly to you? It does to me. I don't want them to completely change the story or the vibe of the game, I just think it strange for them to take so long on this if they aren't going to wow us with something beyond an incremental upgrade. If they wanted to give us something only marginally better, don't you think they would have done it 3 or 4 years ago? And then did it again once or twice more? They are in the business of selling video games after all and I find it hard to believe they'd just leave money on the table like that unless they have a better reason, that reason being that they needed that much time to give us the next big thing.

    El Guaco on
  • ImpersonatorImpersonator Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Rakai wrote: »
    El Guaco wrote: »
    To be honest, I found the shooter mechanics in halflife 2 really pretty bad.

    The recoil on the guns was just terrible (compare it to counterstrike, where recoil is an integrated gameplay mechanic that you can learn to control - a huge amount of skill goes into learning the recoil, and the game manages to have totally different feeling weaponry despite almost all of the guns just being rapid-fire weapons). Most of the enemies were pretty tedious (zombies, antlions, super boring). The exception to this being, of course, the combine troopers who were more interesting - but they weren't the evolutionary step that the marines were in the original halflife. I remember playing HL1 and hiding behind a box, and just seeing a grenade flop over the top and thinking to myself "Shit, they know they can FLUSH ME OUT". Whereas in HL2 you can just steamroll over all the combine troopers.

    To be fair, many of these complaints are probably not shared by most. I am just pretty jaded with FPSes, and I had hoped for more from HL2. I played the original halflife more than 20 times. I played halflife 2 just once, and never had any urge to replay it.

    What I think they should have done was up the lethality on the weaponry, both against the enemies and against you. You should be afraid of their weapons. I want a game where charging around like a brute-force lunatic is the harder choice, where the desire to be stealthy or efficient actually rewards itself.

    Also, a throw grenade button would be rad (having grenades as a separate weapon is just a stupid UI abstraction which neither reflects how people use grenades or how players want to use them). I quite like having the crowbar as a selectable weapon though.

    I have to agree with you on this. I played HL2 and the episodes once and didn't replay it until I upgraded my system and found the urge to play again with all the settings maxxed. I don't find much replay value in this game because of the gun mechanics. You're not really rewarded for being careful or being a good shot in most cases. Pistols were somehow more accurate than rifles but were underpowered despite using similar ammo. The only time you were rewarded for clever gunplay was using the rocket launcher.

    As progressive as the game was for its time it also fell into gaming sins such as endless enemies and unfair scripted sequences. I'm not QQing about it being hard, I'm just saying the difficulty was propped up by breaking the rules of the game universe, so to speak. I realize it's just a game, but for a game that gave me the creeps at times for strange realism, it was disappointing to find that realism flawed in strange places.

    That said, I hope they announce something soon. Just exactly how long has it been since we've had a HL release not counting Portal? Good grief it seems like they could have finished 2 or 3 games in this much time.

    Quite frankly, if EP3 doesn't come with a new engine and a complete overall of it's game mechanics it will be a huge disappointment for me.

    So basically the only way of EP3 to please you is if it's nothing like HL and has shinier graphics? Hmm.
    I googled protocol 602 and aside from some TCP/IP pages, I found that in Pennsylvania, protocol 602 is the treatment for victims involved in a explosion of some sort (terrorist or industrial explosion, something goes boom). Specifically, its followed for when a victim is suffering from

    c. Tertiary blast injuries (from patient falling or being thrown by blast or pinned by debris)

    2. If multisystem trauma – see Protocol # 602

    Most likely has nothing to do with portal but considering the ending, this would be the sort of injury that Chell would be suffering from.

    Good one. :^:

    Impersonator on
  • EdcrabEdcrab Actually a hack Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    El Guaco wrote: »
    6(?) years of development for another episode with the same engine and same game mechanics? Yes, definitely I will be disappointed then. That doesn't seem a tad silly to you? It does to me. I don't want them to completely change the story or the vibe of the game, I just think it strange for them to take so long on this if they aren't going to wow us with something beyond an incremental upgrade. If they wanted to give us something only marginally better, don't you think they would have done it 3 or 4 years ago? And then did it again once or twice more? They are in the business of selling video games after all and I find it hard to believe they'd just leave money on the table like that unless they have a better reason, that reason being that they needed that much time to give us the next big thing.

    ...sorry, what? If they'd have done it 3 or 4 years ago, it would've come out at the same time as Episode 2.

    It's a completely legitimate opinion to think they'd have been better served with a straight sequel, but you seem to be positing that they should scrap their current episodic approach that they've been using since Ep1 in 2006, so yes, you will be disappointed because it's unlikely they're going to drop the episodic approach when everyone ever is expecting Episode 3.

    Edcrab on
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  • subediisubedii Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    El Guaco wrote: »
    6(?) years of development for another episode with the same engine and same game mechanics? Yes, definitely I will be disappointed then. That doesn't seem a tad silly to you? It does to me. I don't want them to completely change the story or the vibe of the game, I just think it strange for them to take so long on this if they aren't going to wow us with something beyond an incremental upgrade. If they wanted to give us something only marginally better, don't you think they would have done it 3 or 4 years ago? And then did it again once or twice more? They are in the business of selling video games after all and I find it hard to believe they'd just leave money on the table like that unless they have a better reason, that reason being that they needed that much time to give us the next big thing.

    Six or more years for HL3 I said (well, Doug Lombardi said), as in if they just started it right after HL2.

    As for how long Ep3 is taking, Valve is not a large company, and they've been working on other stuff in the meantime.

    subedii on
  • azith28azith28 Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    I googled protocol 602 and aside from some TCP/IP pages, I found that in Pennsylvania, protocol 602 is the treatment for victims involved in a explosion of some sort (terrorist or industrial explosion, something goes boom). Specifically, its followed for when a victim is suffering from

    c. Tertiary blast injuries (from patient falling or being thrown by blast or pinned by debris)

    2. If multisystem trauma – see Protocol # 602

    Most likely has nothing to do with portal but considering the ending, this would be the sort of injury that Chell would be suffering from.

    mmm. Maybe but remember...there is more then enough evidence to prove that portal is occuring in the HL2 world, in a post-7 day war setting. In case you dont accept this comment at face value here are my reasoning:

    1) During your final fight with Glados she talks about how you dont know what its like up there. This suggests to me that Chells been in suspension of some kind (I would expect that Glados has several subjects on ice somewhere).
    2) The Boreallas has the apature logo
    3) The slide show you can see through a window in portal makes references to black mesa.

    Also, consider this quirky idea. Sure chell may have suffered that trama. But so did glados.

    My point being that I doubt standard protocal numbers would be used in a world that has little civillian communication and / or medical facilities.

    azith28 on
    Stercus, Stercus, Stercus, Morituri Sum
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