My experience fighting the Nihilanth was to shoot it a bunch, notice it was loosing the little floating orby things around it as it took damage, and then go "WTF!" as it recharged itself on the crystal. Then I discovered you could blow the crystals up. At which point I kept shooting him until his head opened up and figure "Videogame weak point!" and shot the crap out of the inside of his head.
Pretty straight forward, though time consuming as I didn't realize you could dodge those teleport projectiles.
It's been a long time since I've done it, but I remember jumping over Nihilanth's head and dropping a bunch of Snarks in. They pretty much just tear his head apart from the inside. It's pretty bad ass.
I'm only a couple minutes into this and can imagine what I'm in for already. I LOVE seeing this kinda stuff.
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NocrenLt Futz, Back in ActionNorth CarolinaRegistered Userregular
I remember when G4 still had Cinematech. During one episode they started with "Ravenholm: 27 minutes" it lasted about 3 minutes before they threw it in the corner of the screen and kept it running for the rest of the episode.
Totally blew me and my friends' minds when we were watching it, mainly cause of the sequence breaking in it.
Being a huge fan of Half-Life, I of course recommended it to anyone who hadn’t played it yet. Sadly, after hearing from a couple of friends who tried it out and didn’t like it, I was forced to realize the unfortunate truth: This game, which is my favorite game of all time, hasn’t aged well at all. Not to say it suddenly became a bad game; quite the opposite. The game was so groundbreaking that over the past fourteen years, most of the features and technologies that made it stand out have become must haves or are now considered old-hat these days. Pretty much to the point where people either no longer notice these concepts in action, or even worse, they find them trite and stale.
I remember seeing this back around '97 and losing my shit at the discussion of the AI and animation systems. Had a similar reaction at some of the Traptown footage for Half-Life 2 before the game got leaked. As it turned out, more of it was scripted than we were led to believe, but it's still the direction I want video games to be going. Interactivity, by making you second-guess the machine when it starts acting like a human. The way they ended up turning that idea on its head by putting Alyx's virtual role front and center in Episode 1 was pure genius game-making on Valve's part. I found myself chuckling, wanting to speak for Freeman in many cases when Alyx was on screen, which speaks to the amount of care and playtesting that must have gone into it.
I had those movies (Along with the program shell that played them). The version I had came on.. the Hellfire CD I think? (The unofficial Diablo expansion) was some good stuff there. It's a rare look at the "original" Half-Life, before Valve scrapped a lot of the game and started over. It's pretty cool to see how much the game grew, but also what got left behind (Lots of sounds, the music is pretty much the same as at a launch, and some of the level geometry is very familar)
I wonder if that "Lambda" book artifact thingy ever actually played a role in the game.
The initial Half-Life 2 footage was god damned mind-blowing. I must have watched the whole thing a couple dozen times. Shit, I think I have two separate versions downloaded from two different companies who managed to film it. Let me check...
Yep, still here. I might have to watch these later.
Because you know exactly what it is. It's a horrible tentacled trap that you've been carefully avoiding for a game and a half, and when you see it lying there on a lab table like any other specimen you say "<willsmith>Aw hell no,</willsmith> I'm not picking that thing up." But, eventually you do (because otherwise the area's impassable), and not only is it a fine grapple gun, but it chews through enemies in the exact same way it chewed through you if/when you were careless enough to wander into one. So, laughing maniacally, you charge at enemies to feed them into the maw of your new bestest buddy.
Sure, you scratch the Bee Cannon, maybe tease a Snark... but you pet the barnacle.
My experience fighting the Nihilanth was to shoot it a bunch, notice it was loosing the little floating orby things around it as it took damage, and then go "WTF!" as it recharged itself on the crystal. Then I discovered you could blow the crystals up. At which point I kept shooting him until his head opened up and figure "Videogame weak point!" and shot the crap out of the inside of his head.
Pretty straight forward, though time consuming as I didn't realize you could dodge those teleport projectiles.
This right here. Spent forever fighting him til I figured it out. Then it was instant death.
I was a PC gamer growing up, but I played almost exclusively the multiplayer modes of games like Quake 2 and blizzard games. I never really gave Half Life a shot.
It was only a couple of years ago when I decided to get a gaming PC for Starcraft 2 that I gave the Half Life series a shot. Great, great games. Some things really showed their age though:
- Map design. I loved that they still had that oldschool map design and that it wasn't the complete narrow path filled with cutscenes that modern shooters are. But some of the paths you are supposed to take, if you were to take them in a modern shooter, it would feel like you were glitching the game. Walking tight rope acts across beams that look too narrow for your character, etc.
- Half Life 1 end fight:
The big alien baby. I actually had to look up the solution for this one. No indicators showing whether I was actually doing any damage. And when I finally did do the correct thing of jumping onto the baby's head, there was so much clipping that I wasn't sure if I was in the right place. Also, even after making it to the baby's head, I had to wack it for a good long while with the crowbar before it died. If I hadn't looked it up prior, I might have given up after a minute or 2. How in the world did anyone figure this fight out back when the game was released?
- No aim-down-sight. Feels weird not having it.
On another topic, Half Life 2 would make me physically ill after 30 mins of playing. Thankfully I found a solution of changing the field-of-view to fix that. Did any of you feel sick playing it as well?
It never bothered me much, but I've heard of the illness problem being common for Source games. Changing the FOV is the only solution I've ever heard work.
That said, Borderlands has the same effect on me, so does Quantum Conundrum, but to a much lesser extent.
Those games also have low FOVs, it's pretty fashionable these days I guess. HL2's is 75, HL1's was 90.
For what it's worth if you can enable the console on quantum conundrum, the same command (fov 90) should work there. Borderlands too I expect.
LaCabra on
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MongerI got the ham stink.Dallas, TXRegistered Userregular
Those games also have low FOVs, it's pretty fashionable these days I guess. HL2's is 75, HL1's was 90.
For what it's worth if you can enable the console on quantum conundrum, the same command (fov 90) should work there. Borderlands too I expect.
Borderlands is UE3, which makes it a bit more of a hassle to fix. There's a config editor for it that will allow you to change the FOV, but you have to bind it to a key because it resets all the goddamn time.
anoffdayTo be changed whenever Anoffday gets around to it.Registered Userregular
I love HL1, the expansions, and 2, but I kind of have a love/hate relationship with 2. On one hand it's an awesome game that got me back into PC gaming. On the other It required me to download this little thing called steam, and well, the rest (and my money) is history.
Those games also have low FOVs, it's pretty fashionable these days I guess. HL2's is 75, HL1's was 90.
For what it's worth if you can enable the console on quantum conundrum, the same command (fov 90) should work there. Borderlands too I expect.
Borderlands is UE3, which makes it a bit more of a hassle to fix. There's a config editor for it that will allow you to change the FOV, but you have to bind it to a key because it resets all the goddamn time.
Yeah, QC's UE3 too. Do they not just let you pull down the console? I haaaate that.
I just watched that speedrun video.. Maybe I'm not up on the modern speedrun community or maybe there's a real glitch I just don't know about, but what the fuck.. why does he have over 200 health at certain points?
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HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
It's probably a glitch that got exploited, just like in the first game.
This air-surfing with physics items in HL2 is something else. Ravenholm was like... a blink of an eye.
I wonder if there are mathmatical calculations for awesomeness. Like, they focus test until they get above the 95% awesome threshold.
"Sir! We're only at 93% awesomeness, we tried, but we can't get another 1% more awesome in there, let alone 2%!"
"Son, you better start shitting awesome, cause you won't go home till I see a nine-five on that board, ya hear?"
Battlenet ID: MildC#11186 - If I'm in the game, send me an invite at anytime and I'll play.
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HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
Ugh. Easily the worst mod for a game I've seen. It's not the first time I've seen a mod that makes everyone into pretty white people, but the disconnect from a dystopian setting is colossal. Also Alex looks like shit.
Those games also have low FOVs, it's pretty fashionable these days I guess. HL2's is 75, HL1's was 90.
For what it's worth if you can enable the console on quantum conundrum, the same command (fov 90) should work there. Borderlands too I expect.
I don't know what it is with this gen and horrible FOVs but it needs to stop.
Ugh. Easily the worst mod for a game I've seen. It's not the first time I've seen a mod that makes everyone into pretty white people, but the disconnect from a dystopian setting is colossal. Also Alex looks like shit.
IIRC, it was called Half-Life: Uplink. (Not to be confused with the HL demo levels.) and it was never at any point official or even authorized, which is why it was taken down within hours of being put onto the net.
Reminds of how the times have passed me by. As I mentioned, I love Black Mesa, and always liked opportunities to see more of it, so I was dissapointed that shrt film sucked. These days, very few care about Black Mesa anymore. All the mods and fan films focus on City 17 these days.
Those games also have low FOVs, it's pretty fashionable these days I guess. HL2's is 75, HL1's was 90.
For what it's worth if you can enable the console on quantum conundrum, the same command (fov 90) should work there. Borderlands too I expect.
I don't know what it is with this gen and horrible FOVs but it needs to stop.
Basically?
Most modern FPS's are made for console.
Basically think of the screen as your "window" into the game world. Console viewing is at a much longer distance from the screen. When you're close up against the screen, a wider FOV feels more natural (and typically helps avoid motion sickness and other side-effects in a lot of people, myself included).
A lower FOV on the other hand, is:
- All that's really necessary for corridor shooters.
- Makes things in that small field larger and more visible (important when you're sitting at a distance).
- Means that the game has to process far less of a scene since you're only viewing a much smaller fraction of it.
It's also why for example, in-game gun models have ballooned in size over the years. Partly so that they're more evident, partly because they obscure more of the background scene.
You know, it's a shame Valve is so ARG focused these days, as they could pull off the greatest reveal in the history of gaming.
Queue E3 2013: there's new console buzz from the keynotes and the show floor is about to open. In a non-descripted booth, there is Valve. A DOTA2 sign hangs on it. The floor opens and people start lining up for booths, but not a whole lot line up for DOTA2 since it's (probably) been out for awhile already. Then, right before the few loyal fans are about to be let into the theatre, Valve pulls a rope and the DOTA2 sign flops over, revealing nothing but a big, orange 3.
The show floor is quickly overcome in madness. And somewhere, Gabe Newell laughs a maniacal laugh.
IIRC, it was called Half-Life: Uplink. (Not to be confused with the HL demo levels.) and it was never at any point official or even authorized, which is why it was taken down within hours of being put onto the net.
Reminds of how the times have passed me by. As I mentioned, I love Black Mesa, and always liked opportunities to see more of it, so I was dissapointed that shrt film sucked. These days, very few care about Black Mesa anymore. All the mods and fan films focus on City 17 these days.
You know, it's a shame Valve is so ARG focused these days, as they could pull off the greatest reveal in the history of gaming.
Queue E3 2013: there's new console buzz from the keynotes and the show floor is about to open. In a non-descripted booth, there is Valve. A DOTA2 sign hangs on it. The floor opens and people start lining up for booths, but not a whole lot line up for DOTA2 since it's (probably) been out for awhile already. Then, right before the few loyal fans are about to be let into the theatre, Valve pulls a rope and the DOTA2 sign flops over, revealing nothing but a big, orange 3.
The show floor is quickly overcome in madness. And somewhere, Gabe Newell laughs a maniacal laugh.
I suspect that you're way underestimating the popularity of Dota 2. Although I think Valve has such a fan following these days that they could have a presentation about how Chet Faliszek discovered the joys of vegetable gardening and shares his crop rotation tips outside of Valve, and it'd still be a packed house.
Ugh. Easily the worst mod for a game I've seen. It's not the first time I've seen a mod that makes everyone into pretty white people, but the disconnect from a dystopian setting is colossal. Also Alex looks like shit.
You know, it's a shame Valve is so ARG focused these days, as they could pull off the greatest reveal in the history of gaming.
Queue E3 2013: there's new console buzz from the keynotes and the show floor is about to open. In a non-descripted booth, there is Valve. A DOTA2 sign hangs on it. The floor opens and people start lining up for booths, but not a whole lot line up for DOTA2 since it's (probably) been out for awhile already. Then, right before the few loyal fans are about to be let into the theatre, Valve pulls a rope and the DOTA2 sign flops over, revealing nothing but a big, orange 3.
The show floor is quickly overcome in madness. And somewhere, Gabe Newell laughs a maniacal laugh.
I suspect that you're way underestimating the popularity of Dota 2. Although I think Valve has such a fan following these days that they could have a presentation about how Chet Faliszek discovered the joys of vegetable gardening and shares his crop rotation tips outside of Valve, and it'd still be a packed house.
That would be amusing, honestly
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MongerI got the ham stink.Dallas, TXRegistered Userregular
I would listen to Chet Faliszek talk about anything from proper accounting practices to household mold prevention to elementary school janitorial opportunities.
If you are offering Chet Faliszek, I will give you a Blank Falischeck.
I totally chatted with Chet for like ten minutes at E3. He is a swell dude.
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NocrenLt Futz, Back in ActionNorth CarolinaRegistered Userregular
I don't recall how I beat big fat baby at the end of HL1, but I'm pretty sure if the option were available, I'd have thrown rocks at the damn thing because I was out of everything else.
Also, one of those blue behemoths? The kind where you either kill one with an air strike, turning it into a conduit or just flat out running away? I killed one of them too. Again, took every bullet, rocket, bolt, and bit of energy I had (plus excessive use of the regerating bee gun and kiting like a motherfucker), but I killed it.
Also learned that basically the crossbow works by ramping up the damage when zoomed in.
The blue fuckers can bill killed with a judicious use of explosives and/or the energy weapons.
I always make sure to kill the two you're supposed to flee from in Xen (one on your way to the nihilanth, one in the final chamber the Nihilanth teleports you to.)
Re: Half-Life: Uplink
You know, I had to fight my way through like two hundred soldiers to get into the lambda complex; this fucker just wanders in.
Re: DOTA 2
Yeah, I probably underestimate it; though I have a feeling it won't take off as well as anyone expects. The DOTA community are super-grognard.
Re: The High Def HL2 mod
Yeah, that has issues; the models detail doesn't gel with the skin detail so it trips an uncanny valley effect, and whoever did the faces has a major facial hair fetish. Also it's stupid as balls all the men have super detailed faces and the women look porcelain smooth. The music they added was overly dramatic and generic. And holy shit, way to miss the point about Alyx, guys. That goes beyond being a poor interpretation; they fetishized the hell out of her. Just terrible.
And whoever put that video together needs to learn how to edit: there's no reason the viewer should have to wait for the game to load.
Posts
Pretty straight forward, though time consuming as I didn't realize you could dodge those teleport projectiles.
I'm only a couple minutes into this and can imagine what I'm in for already. I LOVE seeing this kinda stuff.
Totally blew me and my friends' minds when we were watching it, mainly cause of the sequence breaking in it.
Just going to leave this here:
I remember seeing this back around '97 and losing my shit at the discussion of the AI and animation systems. Had a similar reaction at some of the Traptown footage for Half-Life 2 before the game got leaked. As it turned out, more of it was scripted than we were led to believe, but it's still the direction I want video games to be going. Interactivity, by making you second-guess the machine when it starts acting like a human. The way they ended up turning that idea on its head by putting Alyx's virtual role front and center in Episode 1 was pure genius game-making on Valve's part. I found myself chuckling, wanting to speak for Freeman in many cases when Alyx was on screen, which speaks to the amount of care and playtesting that must have gone into it.
Ka-Chung!
Ka-Chung!
I wonder if that "Lambda" book artifact thingy ever actually played a role in the game.
The initial Half-Life 2 footage was god damned mind-blowing. I must have watched the whole thing a couple dozen times. Shit, I think I have two separate versions downloaded from two different companies who managed to film it. Let me check...
Yep, still here. I might have to watch these later.
You fist the hornet gun.
This right here. Spent forever fighting him til I figured it out. Then it was instant death.
It never bothered me much, but I've heard of the illness problem being common for Source games. Changing the FOV is the only solution I've ever heard work.
That said, Borderlands has the same effect on me, so does Quantum Conundrum, but to a much lesser extent.
For what it's worth if you can enable the console on quantum conundrum, the same command (fov 90) should work there. Borderlands too I expect.
All right, people. It is not a gerbil. It is not a hamster. It is not a guinea pig. It is a death rabbit. Death. Rabbit. Say it with me, now.
Yeah, QC's UE3 too. Do they not just let you pull down the console? I haaaate that.
Obligatory HL2 speedrun:
Linking at part 3 since 1 & 2 are bogged down with mandatory stops where scripted events play out.
Linking part 5 for awesome.
Would not surprise me.
I bet there's a big whiteboard at Valve with flawless instructions on how to get people to crush on fictional characters.
And an even bigger one on how to not make it creepy-as-hell. That's the more impressive feat.
Why I fear the ocean.
*THWAP* to the door
*THWAP* to the cage
*THWAP* to the elevator, start talking!
This air-surfing with physics items in HL2 is something else. Ravenholm was like... a blink of an eye.
"Sir! We're only at 93% awesomeness, we tried, but we can't get another 1% more awesome in there, let alone 2%!"
"Son, you better start shitting awesome, cause you won't go home till I see a nine-five on that board, ya hear?"
Battlenet ID: MildC#11186 - If I'm in the game, send me an invite at anytime and I'll play.
I don't know what it is with this gen and horrible FOVs but it needs to stop.
PSN/Steam/NNID: SyphonBlue | BNet: SyphonBlue#1126
EVERYONE looks like shit
holy god those models are awful
PSN/Steam/NNID: SyphonBlue | BNet: SyphonBlue#1126
They ended up not releasing it officially but there was a half life fan site with a write up on it.
Reminds of how the times have passed me by. As I mentioned, I love Black Mesa, and always liked opportunities to see more of it, so I was dissapointed that shrt film sucked. These days, very few care about Black Mesa anymore. All the mods and fan films focus on City 17 these days.
And with the suppression field down...
Battlenet ID: MildC#11186 - If I'm in the game, send me an invite at anytime and I'll play.
Saw the "Escape from City 17" short, it ends on a cliffhanger along with a preview of part two, there's part two right there with a preview image!
*Clicks the link*
Cue the synth... "Sonovabitch!"
Basically?
Most modern FPS's are made for console.
Basically think of the screen as your "window" into the game world. Console viewing is at a much longer distance from the screen. When you're close up against the screen, a wider FOV feels more natural (and typically helps avoid motion sickness and other side-effects in a lot of people, myself included).
A lower FOV on the other hand, is:
- All that's really necessary for corridor shooters.
- Makes things in that small field larger and more visible (important when you're sitting at a distance).
- Means that the game has to process far less of a scene since you're only viewing a much smaller fraction of it.
It's also why for example, in-game gun models have ballooned in size over the years. Partly so that they're more evident, partly because they obscure more of the background scene.
Queue E3 2013: there's new console buzz from the keynotes and the show floor is about to open. In a non-descripted booth, there is Valve. A DOTA2 sign hangs on it. The floor opens and people start lining up for booths, but not a whole lot line up for DOTA2 since it's (probably) been out for awhile already. Then, right before the few loyal fans are about to be let into the theatre, Valve pulls a rope and the DOTA2 sign flops over, revealing nothing but a big, orange 3.
The show floor is quickly overcome in madness. And somewhere, Gabe Newell laughs a maniacal laugh.
A simple google search found it, and here I was thinking it was lost to the ages
It's funny that he just walks into the top secret research facility.
Here is something much much better
I suspect that you're way underestimating the popularity of Dota 2. Although I think Valve has such a fan following these days that they could have a presentation about how Chet Faliszek discovered the joys of vegetable gardening and shares his crop rotation tips outside of Valve, and it'd still be a packed house.
Those nipples are trying to cut me.
That would be amusing, honestly
If you are offering Chet Faliszek, I will give you a Blank Falischeck.
All right, people. It is not a gerbil. It is not a hamster. It is not a guinea pig. It is a death rabbit. Death. Rabbit. Say it with me, now.
Also, one of those blue behemoths? The kind where you either kill one with an air strike, turning it into a conduit or just flat out running away? I killed one of them too. Again, took every bullet, rocket, bolt, and bit of energy I had (plus excessive use of the regerating bee gun and kiting like a motherfucker), but I killed it.
Also learned that basically the crossbow works by ramping up the damage when zoomed in.
I always make sure to kill the two you're supposed to flee from in Xen (one on your way to the nihilanth, one in the final chamber the Nihilanth teleports you to.)
Re: Half-Life: Uplink
You know, I had to fight my way through like two hundred soldiers to get into the lambda complex; this fucker just wanders in.
Re: DOTA 2
Yeah, I probably underestimate it; though I have a feeling it won't take off as well as anyone expects. The DOTA community are super-grognard.
Re: The High Def HL2 mod
Yeah, that has issues; the models detail doesn't gel with the skin detail so it trips an uncanny valley effect, and whoever did the faces has a major facial hair fetish. Also it's stupid as balls all the men have super detailed faces and the women look porcelain smooth. The music they added was overly dramatic and generic. And holy shit, way to miss the point about Alyx, guys. That goes beyond being a poor interpretation; they fetishized the hell out of her. Just terrible.
And whoever put that video together needs to learn how to edit: there's no reason the viewer should have to wait for the game to load.