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Half Life 2 To Appear At E3
MonsieurEvil writes "Valve announced today (http://www.planethalflife.com) that the long-awaited Half-Life 2 will be appearing at E3, and will be released this year. The NDA for press is supposed to end on April 28th, and quite a few magazines are already hyping their scoops. Hopefully all the teen-angst types that show their superiority through decrying this as vaporware can now listen to their elders..."
Wow, finally a game worth spending money for this year. At least, I hope so.
Just because it's at E3 doesn't mean it'll be released this year. Wasn't TF2 at E3 in like 2001 ... but there is still no sign of it?
One would hope and expect so. The thing that made the first game was the fantastic story line, the incredible scripted sequences, and the feeling of intellegence from the enemy.
When the first one came out, it really blew me away with that mix... will the second one be able to live up to that? The marketplace has moved on, and it's harder to impress gamers than it was then...
I hope they've come up with a brilliant single player game as I'm sick of the focus on multiplayer these days. (Which is one of the reasons I'm so looking forward to Doom3)
I don't mean to be the typical troll, here, but I've managed to ween myself from Windows completely now. I really want to play this game, but not enough to go back to the dark side. besides, so many other FPSs support Linux now that it seems like a reasonable thing to expect.
Under capitalism man exploits man. Under communism it's the other way around.
Now this is news!
I bet TF2 is comming too! (grin)
As a mod player that has worn my HL copy into a fine paste, i would love to pick up this game just to show my support for a great company.
I still have my $5 down for DNF at the local EB, and have had it there since it first showed up in their books (97 or 98).
Do I get a prize for that much dedication for a TRUE vaporware product? =P
One headline: Half-life 2 to appear at E3. Story on pages 4, 5 and 6!
How long has it been since the original engine came out? 5+ yrs? HL has produced the most successful mods out of any 3D shooter I can recall. Let me name a few, Couterstrike, Natural Selection, Day of Defeat, Team Fortess, Action HL, The Matrix, etc...
Uh so what ever happened to the much hyped never released Team Fortress 2?
Valve was supposed to release it in the summer of 1999! A tad late are we?!
Oh well these days Americas Army or RTCW does everything TF2 was claiming to do so no big loss, but back in 1999 it looked SWEET!
I mean if you don't release it fine but was SO much HYPE really needed for a game that was never going to be released, sheesh...
Gordon, there you are. They're waiting for you in the test chamber, Gordon.
... :)
I hope they don't go all hollywood on this and do it as a "prequel". Although, that would be quite amusing
Oh it is not... I just went there a number of times, it's fine... quit jumping to conclusions, you've probably just got a crap connection.
If there isn't a Mac version of this I'm going to become a an angry and bitter person. Well, OK, more so than normal.
You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door. There is a small mailbox here.
(after hell freezes over), DNF! riiiiiight. Well, at least we might see HL2.
that's the scary, story-based sequel we need.
that pig just fly by?
A great company? They only released one game 4 years ago!
You have to release a lot more than that to earn great company status!
Hehe, this might be the only time a new version is a bad thing.
Half-life one has been used so much, it's almost a cult....I hope there's easy porting and compatibility.
Wonder if they'll take that crappy bunny hopping out of it.
When is Deus Ex 2 going to come out? I heard in June.
Does anybody actually play Half-Life? I only bought it for the excellent mods. Day of Defeat and Counter Strike top my list there.
I finally decided to go through the single-player mode and just finished up. I will be anticipating this with great relish.
--sdem
to their server? I have a cable connection.
I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
condition zero
Great--I start wondering what all the hullabaloo over this CS thing is, and I finally get a copy of Half-Life for my birthday. Then the day after this they announce Half-Life 2?
:-)
Oh, well, I've had worse...like getting a copy of Daggerfall after Morrowind was released and trying to work my way through both games at once.
I'm guessing that it's Half-Life 2: Full Life.
Or Half-Life 2: How The Other Half Lives.
Or Half-Life 2: You Only Live Twice.
Or Half-Life 2: Life Begins At 2.
Or Half-Life 2: Half-Liberty. (With the third game to be called Half-Life 3: Half-Pursuit Of Happiness.)
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
As a mac user, i eagerly await the day Half Life 2 is released, so we can begin the fantastic four-year wait that we have in store while whoever now owns sierra (or whoever they farm the port out to) very very slowly and incompetently attempts to port their game to our platform. Although that is nothing compared to the eager anticipation i have for what comes after that, when upon finishing and discovering that the port they have created is of very poor quality, Sierra suddenly announces "hey, the mac market is small and we don't want to bother porting to it" so that they can simply insult the mac market rather than releasing what they would percieve to be a public embarrasment! That was my favorite part of Half Life!
/me grumbles and bitterly huddles back closer to his GameCube, where he never has to worry about this kind of thing. Hmm.. dammit, "Navi", i hate you.. ***
Ooh! Or even better, maybe they'll go with the ever-so-popular development model they used with Tribes 2. You know, the one where they lie to the consumers for years, then at the end of the development cycle suddenly react to unexpected overruns in schedule by releasing the product before it's finished, promising lots of patches and a macintosh version really soon, and then firing the team that programmed the game before they can even begin to attempt to fix things! That was SO fun, i can't imagine they wouldn't jump at the chance to repeat their success at completely destroying a critically acclaimed franchise with a cult following! If so, I SO hope that they add insult to injury like they did with Tribes 2 by creating a fantastic Linux version that by all indications could run in Mac OS X's UNIX layer with little more than a recompile, one or two small compatibility layers such as an X11 server, and a trivial amount of slowdown, and then refusing to comment on this despite repeated and wide-scale petitioning on the part of would-be customers requesting Sierra attempt to make the Linux port run on OS X!
***
-- super ugly ultraman
Then you can expect a HOLY WAR in the offices of those game review companies.
And if TES III: Bloodmoon is as good an add-on as we Morrowind fans hope it is, this year will be even hotter than last year, which brought us blockbusters in triplicate (NOLF 2, GTA 3, AND Tes III: Morrowind / Tribunal).
Then again, sadly, all three could fall short...
--- Grow a pair, liberals... stop letting the Republicans bully you!
The HalfLife engine was a heavily modified QuakeII engine - and as I understand it many of the modifications Valve made were done in such a fashion to make them very tied to the Windows API.
As a result, there was no native port of the HalfLife client. However, due to much demand Valve eventually did release a native HalfLife server.
Now, did Valve learn from this, and if so, what did they learn? Did they make the server code portable, so that there will be a native Linux server (most probably)? Did they make the client code portable (less likely, but who knows?)?
I don't know about anybody else, but I would pay a premium price (e.g. US$20 more) for a native Linux version than for a Windows version.
No matter. When HL2 comes out, I will in all probability buy it. However, when I send in my registration card (and send it in I shall), I will scratch out all the Windows 9x, Windows 2000, and such options and write in WINE & Linux.
It may not make a difference, but it most certainly won't make a difference if I don't do it.
www.eFax.com are spammers
I can not do autoupdates either thanks to my dlink nat firewall. IT does not like apps that use multiple streams. No its not a MTU setting like some have suggested. It just that the networking code in the first one sucked!
http://saveie6.com/
Ooh! Ooh! I want a car with an extra hole in the engine!
As with most of Carmacks engines, I'm sure there'll be a mod somewhere that'll both fix the hole and create a capture the flag mode.
I just hope that Valve has kept in their minds the fact that HL's continued reign as #1 comes not from the game Half-Life, but the fact that HL makes a world class gaming platform. It's just an operating system for games. They had better get TFC, CS, DoD, NS, and everything else ported, or HL2 will just be another game, not the gaming OS that it is today.
Look at how many people buy Windows. They don't do this for all the "features" M$ tries to cram into the box, but rather for all the things that run on Win32. The same goes for HL.
HL2 will be a really good game, but will it be the next (and second, after HL1) gaming platform? If they could manage to let HL1 games run under HL2, (perhaps with some kind of 3d improvements like higher-rez, automagic shadows, etc) they'd have a killer. If not, HL2 will sell about as well as WinXP would if it couldn't run Win98 apps.
-twb
Duke Nukem Forever...
s/QuakeII/Quake/. Somebody always gets this wrong when Half-Life is mentioned. Half-Life was based on the Quake 1 engine. Yes, it heavily modified the engine (skeletal animation, better lighting and hardware acceleration, particles, etc), but in the end it's still based on the Quake 1 engine. Most people confuse this, since Half-Life was released shortly after Quake 2 (IIRC, Q2 was Christmas 97, while Half-Life was Spring 98 -- off the top of my head, so probably wrong). Of course, just thinking about it for a second would prove that HL wasn't based on Q2 -- If HL was released so soon after Q2, how could Valve have had time to modify the Q2 engine, as well as provide all of the necessary IP in formats Q2 would accept (models, maps, textures, etc)? History repeats itself -- SiN and Soldier of Fortune were based off of the Q2 engine (so were Daikatana and Anachronox, but those are bad examples simply because Q3-based games launched before they did), and they came after Q2 by a year or more, and without the major engine modifications Half-Life had. Alice, FAKK2, and RTCW were Q3-based games, and they came a year or more after Q3. Valve must be some kind of special, then, if they can highly modify the Q2 engine and launch within months of the official release of the Q2 engine (not supported by the length of time it's taken them to develop HL2 and the later-than-DNF TeamFortress 2).
But what the hell happened to Team Fortress 2?
Is this the first time vaporware has been deprecated?
What is music when you despise all sound?
Hopefully all the teen-angst types that show their superiority through decrying this as vaporware can now listen to their elders...
Damn... I hate it when my dad is right about video games. I'm going to paint my computer purple. That'll show him!
Geek out
HL2 has a tough job for itself. Metroid Prime (GameCube) has shown me what a modern-day Half-Life should be.
"No matter where you go, there you are." -- Buckaroo Banzai
I'd finally got my life back in order, no more CS'ing & TFC'ing til the wee-morning hours. I was clean, CLEAN...
Wow, I should not post when knackered.
Cylinder #10 has 100% pressure leak
is that a bad thing???
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
To hell with HL2, Valve owes us TF2 still. :(
HL is based on Q1, not Q2. Amazing how many people get this wrong...
How is it that Half-Life 2 could be considered vaporware? A product is only vaporware if it was publicly announced by the maker, and Half-Life 2 was never mentioned by Valve until today.
Sure, rabid fanboys have been speculating about it for years, but that doesn't qualify it as vaporware.
Give it 2 years before calling it that! Considering they plan to have it out by year's end, it should never get that far.
I can't wait for this release. Half-life was the only game that I'd ever paid for, and HL2 will be the 2nd. =D
-------
"In times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act."
-- George Orwell
I love getting my gaming news from slashdot. My favourite part is when nearly half of the comments are along the lines of "I don't think they're going to release this game on BeOS, so therefore I hate it and want nothing to do with it!" I feel like every one of these posts is off-topic. You don't see people commenting on movie news lamenting the fact that new movies don't come out on Betamax. What makes gaming magically different. Would people prefer a topic distinction between Windows gaming and anything else so they don't have to sully their eyes looking at news about products coming out on a Microsoft OS? Face it folks. Until linux gets a much bigger userbase, games developers will focus on Windows. So games news will be about Windows 9 times out of 10. If the topic is gaming and linux, then go right ahead and have your say. But being negative in a post about an upcoming Windows game due to the fact that it's a windows game is verging on trollish.
Halllff-Liiiifee twooo?
But, I thought it was just a myth, just like Team Fortress 2.
I think the biggest competition that HL2 has to worry about isn't all the other big name games coming out this year. Rather, HL2's worst enemy is the original Half-Life. Half-Life is hailed as a milestone in FPS, single player, and story driven gaming. If HL2 does not live up to the incredible amount of expectation built around it, I doubt it will really succeed. As soon as one reviewer says "HL2 does not live up to the hype," many gamers will just dismiss the game as just another attempt at raking in money from a cashcow franchise. Even if the game really is great, it may forever be overshadowed by it's predecessor. However, with that said, I think the Valve team is very talented and will produce a game worth buying.
So how long until we get They Hunger 4?
Freessssshhhh... braaaaaaains....
Apparently this is a leaked in-game screenshot from the PC Zone magazine...take a look...
http://home.1asphost.com/wingding325/sc551.jpg
To make a pun demonstrates the highest understanding of a language
God. When will people stop spreading rumors that Halflife was based on Quake 2?
Halflife = Based off of quake 1.
Hooray! Let us never mention the trainwreck that was Quake2 again.
Don't you realize that until companies actually support one or two other major platforms those platforms will continue to have minority market shares?
/, troll instead of doing physics homework (I guess that shows how much I don't want to do it.)) Anyway, your logic, if I can call it that, is severely flawed.
The only thing my Mac truly lacks is games. Not that I really care, though -- as a college student, I -really- need to be doing other things (like replying to a
if not, no money from me, sorry :(
For those that want to see the car, the auction is here.
Now that's a car...damn. I wouldn't worry about the #10 cylinder...it still has 11 others.
Ok, yes HL was based on Quake 1, BUT, there were some last minute Q2 addins to the engine that Valve included. Or so I have read. This might be why people believe HL is based on the Q2 engine.
how in-game are you going to see yourself walking towards you?
I was at the health club today, and I saw myself walking towards me.
Here's a mirror.
Will I retire or break 10K?
All i have to say is, good luck creating a new internet without MAC addresses. There's lots of problems with the current internet infrastructure, but the ethernet layer is pretty damn nice, and you can't have ethernet without MAC addresses.
--super ugly ultraman
...One-Quarter Life?
Sorry.
And the next one will be One-Eighth Life!
Ask yourselves, can the apocalypse be far off?
It hasn't been /.'ed, you've just been put into the patented GameSpy/FilePlanet queue system. Your web page will be served to you in
87
minutes. When you are at the front of the queue, you will have 60 seconds to click the link to view the webpage, otherwise you will have to re-enter the queue.
that is all.
Not to be too cynical, but can I be the nth person to call bullshit on them actually releasing it this year?
I'm still kinda hoping that TF2 gets released someday.
when come back bring pie
Where did all these ignorant fruits come from?
Where were you when Half-Life came out and rejuvenated single player, and all the game magazines gave it game of the year and wouldn't stop raving about it? Half-Life revolutionized gaming when everyone was going multiplayer-only with Quake 3 and Unreal Tournament. How could you have missed this game? It was only the hugest freaking thing for years. The fact a bunch of popular mods came out for it is just a mere side effect. Half-Life made a lot of gaming companies go back to the drawing board (id Software included).
Yep, it's even a better game than Counter Strike. Counter Strike is overhyped and overrated, a breeding ground for high schoolers with broadband and a handful of cheats. Counter Strike will never freak me out like, say, Half-Life's giant tentacle creature tapping at the metal, or the helicopters dropping troops to take you down, or the bizarre alien factories and weirdness of Xen and the final battle at the end ("The truth you will never know"...I'm hoping the sequel really explains what the hell exactly happened at Black Mesa). Enemies even used scent to track you and battled using herd behavior. Human troops would scatter and run for cover if you tossed them a grenade.
I've never seen better designed aliens or creepier labs or weirder alien dimensions than in Half-Life. The game just got better and better as I played it. Go back to your multiplayer mods.
"Sufferin' succotash."
I thought I was the ONLY person who remembered the ORIGINAL and still FAVE night wasting phenomenon known as TEAM FORTRESS... and the Two Forts 4/5 maps... good god those were awesome. I miss those days. Nothing like sentry guns with nailguns and heat seekers, or those NASTY bioweapons... heh... or camping in the enemy spawn on 2 fort 4... until they made it so you couldn't enter the enemy spawn :)
:)... ahhh what a year.
Man those were the days.
1996 I believe if the dates on my CDR archives are correct
-DaedalusHKX
PS - thanks for the reminiscing bud.
" What luck for rulers that men do not think" - Adolf Hitler
My own personal guess was that TF2 was originally delayed because they wanted to include CS2 with it. I wouldn't be at all surprised if this expanded to "aw, screw it, let's make HL2 and release it all in one box".
You must admit, it would be a pretty compelling deal to have the sequels to some of the most popular games in history coming out in one box. Hell, the only way it could get better is for them to have Mac and Linux versions, too.
-Erwos
Plausible conjecture should not be misrepresented as proof positive.
Don't take me wrong, I'm sure they'll tweak WineX to play that one- it's going to be on the hit list for Transgaming's fixes. However, WineX doesn't play things at full speed- no matter WHAT they say to the contrary. You need a modern machine with a lot of muscle to make a game play like it was on a less modern machine (Something like a 1.5GHz machine to be able to play like a 800MHz one...). Lest you wonder, I DO happen to have a subscription to WineX- I'm not impressed enough (maybe with their latest, though) to continue the same. It's just not the same answer as a native version. It never will be.
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
see above
...to announce a release date of THIS year, considering that they haven't even gotten Condition Zero and Team Fortress II out of the door yet?
I dont know much about game engines, but I wonder if all games created using the Unreal/Quake ect engines must be shooters? Could it be used to make a whole new Myst/Riven type of game? Would be interesting. I miss those great Zack McCraken type games.
I'm not sure if the folks at ID software working on doom 3 are going to be able to beat the folks at valve in terms of immersive storytelling and player interaction.
Let's face it, quake I and II weren't all that immersive, quake III wasn't even in the category.
Half Life was so revolutionary because it brought the story telling/involvement aspect to into a stale shoot-em-up line up.
Now with half life 2 and doom 3 possibly coming out around the same time, I think it's going to be interesting to see if ID can make a game as immersive as half life and also to see if valve can exceed half life and make half-life 2 even better.
--
|-_-| . o O ( bEef!)
if only i had a bongo
HL was a cool game in MHO, but it was never as cool as Quake or Quake 2. The bigges thing HL has going for it is the modding.
/. that reads more than the headlines can not say the same?
I play Dayofdefeat (DoD) for about an average of 3 or 4 hours a day! Yeah i have no life, but who here on
DoD is such a cool mod, I'd buy a new version of the Engine just in the hopes that it might happen again.
Plus DoD is being picked up by Valve and Activision as an official MOD, so it is will be given the support of the likes of CS...!!!
(dod_avalanche, look for "[dgx] Fist", I'll kill ya later.)
Silly Rabbit: tricks are for kids.
If anything, it has a BIG contention with PlanetSide from Sony, a FPS with up to 4000 players on a single server. There is no way HL2 will be able to come close to that. Wait till this sucker hits the stores, it's more addicting than Everquest. FPS games will mean nothing after this game, unless they can come up with their own massive multiplayer feature. Sure, single player might be the ONLY thing left for HL2 to have going for it, but EVERYONE is "DOES IT SUPPORT MULTIPLAYER?? NO?? IT SUX!!!" .. Now it's "DOES IT SUPPORT 4000 PLAYERS PER SERVER?? NO?? IT SUX!!!" ...
Indeed, it has a LOT of work to do to catch up.
Cheesy story, but the Deus EX meets Thief gameplay was pretty cool, I thought.
1)Scripting.
Allowing clients to script just about everything possible has given an unfair advantage to the average player. Taking this out will even the playing field.
2)Mapping
That and it would be nice to create maps that don't rely on Right Angles (like circles!!). Also, it takes almost 3 months to create a good map. This is ridiculous!!!
3)Hacks
Valve has been known to take forever to address hacks and other exploits (which is the reason why I stopped playing CS). Cheating Death has stepped up where Valve has failed. To get and keep players, hacks and cheats need to be addressed and patched ASAFP.
I know there are others but these are the biggies in H/L.
Dolemite
______________________
Save the World! Use a Quote!
I wanna see who's gonna come out on top too, but either way i want a new GeForce Leafblower (TM) to run it on who cares about noise? who cares about heat? it's all a pissing contest in the end, and Half Life 2 and Doom 3 are on equal footing to me, and i'm gonna download copies of each nobody gets MY cash
www.necroticobsession.com
Hey, TF2 also appeared at E3... in 1999. It's still not out. Valve has not had an official comment since 2001. So, why is anyone getting excited about this announcement?
Don't get me wrong. Half-life was a good game. Still is. It's so good, in fact, that it has spawned a grass-roots development community that has been incredibly prolific.
Still though, I've lost patience. In five years, Valve has made one game. ONE GAME. That's only one more game than I've made and I'm not even trying.
Oh, they've also become quite good at taking the mod's and add-ons developed by other people and putting them in cardboard boxes. Kudos, Valve. Oh, and there's Steam: their nifty content delivery mechanism for downloading that one game they've made.
In short, I'll believe it when I see it.
Wouldn't two half lifes make a full life?
*ducks*
Click here for yummy assorted nonsense.
Click here out of morbid curiousity.
"Then you can expect a HOLY WAR in the offices of those game review companies."
:)
Holy war? I would have thought the reviewers would be too busy with there pants down frothing at their monitors for that.
Didn't you play the game? If so, why are you asking questions that have such obvious answers?
Initially, the character (Dr. Gordon Freeman) wants to settle into his new job. At this point, there is no-one standing in the way of his goals.
The first unexpected event happens when the experiment goes wrong. Part of the lab is destroyed, and what remains is infested with aliens. At this point, the aliens and the destruction stand in his way and his goal is to contact people on the outside.
Eventually, he manages to find his way outside, and that's when another unexpected event takes place: the people who were supposed to save him and the other scientists are in fact trying to kill them to keep the whole affair secret. At this point, the soldiers stand in his way, and his goal is to try to learn as much as possible about the situation, and how to solve it.
Eventually, he finds a way to teleport to the alien's planet (which must count as another "unexpected event"). Now his enemies are once more the aliens, and his goal is to destroy them.
Finally, at the very end of the game, there's a final "unexpected event".
So there.
Half-life's story isn't "great" in the sense that it's very original (it's not). The great thing about it is not the story itself, it's the way it flows so naturally and feels so much part of the game, despite the fact that the game's genre is not one typically associated with "a story".
Half-life is essentially an action game. It's not an adventure, it's not a RPG. There are no dialogues and no items. Just guns, monsters, puzzles and the occasional scripted "scene". Given these building blocks, I think HL manages to create a great atmosphere and (apart from the rather weak and predictable ending) to tell a pretty entertaining story (a lot better - more interesting and more consistent - than some movies).
HL's great strength is not its originality, it's the level of perfection and polishing of every single of its elements, from the gameplay to the default keyboard layout to the auto-save system. Things that stem not from great technology or brilliant ideas but from a lot of playtesting, a good dose of common sense, and a refusal to settle for "good enough" just to meet the deadline.
As someone wrote at the time, "Half-life restored my faith in gaming". After fiascos like Black & White and Neverwinter Nights (not exactly bad, but very disappointing nonetheless), I could definitely use a new injection of Valve fluid.
It's ironic that the company that created such a perfect game (and later created and financed so many great free updates and mods) was founded by ex-Microsoft employees...
RMN
~~~
The story in Half Life was very simplistic. There isn't really much to it. You don't really learn that much about what the scientists were trying to achieve there, or even what Gordan Freemans job was there. I know he was some sort of assistant, but beyond that I don't know anything.
What made Half Life so revolutionary is the immersion, and complexity of the environment you are in. You really Feel like everything is happening around you. There is nothing static about that world. But still, in the end you are nothing but someone with amnesia trying to survive (at least thats how I felt).
Deus Ex is the first FPS I think to have a really great story. It was able to take the immersive feel of the Half and combine it with a really interesting story.
Microsoft better not XBox this game, like they did with Halo and are trying to do with Doom3. If they do, I'm giving up living.
Yeah, TF on Quake was GREAT...
:)
Until people started cheating outrageously. When I started seeing spys fly through the air, and heavy weapons guys zooming around like scouts I knew TF had jumped the shark.
I suppose this happens to every game eventually. No game company will be able to support their stuff forever, but for whatever reason, none of the sequels have had that 'feel'. Although I have to admit that I did really enjoy TF on the HL engine, maybe I missed the gritty textures from Quake or the humorous operatic beginning.
"...Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam..."
There have been many people already in this story claiming Halflife's success was based upon its modability, and Valve's support for developers in doing so. And going by sales fuelled by Counterstrike and the other mods, that argument would have some merit.
But if you take that argument, then shouldn't UT2K3 be selling in absolute droves? Its marketing campaign focussed a lot on its extreme modablity, to the point where Epic packaged a customized Maya with it, for mod makers. They were driven by the Counterstrike phenomen in doing this.
But in a store the other day, I saw a Halflife pack selling for more than UT2K3 was. The difference between the two is that Halflife the game had incredible appeal because it really was a revolutionary game. UT2K3 wasn't. Lots of people therefore bought HL. This meant it generated large market share. And *that* is what gets a good mod. There's little point in modding a game to distribute if noone else has the game. So with the wide HL userbase, it made itself a very attractive medium for mods.
Yes HL sales were fuelled by CS and co, but that's not what started the avalanche. I'm sure Valve are acutely aware of this.
I wouldn't want to own a car that has a dead cylinder. The last car I bought, I chose intentionally to use it in the demolition derby; a 1977 Lincoln Continental, cylinder #6 was dead. Still, chopping the exaust pipes just a little after the transmission made that Ford engine sound better than Carmack's Foreign balsa-wood-constructed Ferrari. Those cruddy Italian cars can't compete in demolition derby with a real American car; build for tough. And to quote a popular engineer: "Nobody should need more that 8 cylinders."
So, if you have two Half Lives, do you have a whole life or do you have no life?
Because they're still making buckets of money off of Counter-Strike Retail and will make even more with the release of Day of Defeat (WW2 Mod) retail.
Not only that but Natural Selection is a new mod that is gaining incredible momentum in the Gaming community.
Finally, two Quake versions have come and gone but Half-Life is as popular as ever.
Dolemite
_________________
Save the World! Use a Quote!
I'm still not sure that the parent post is serious, at least with regard to the first two points.
1) Allowing clients to script just about everything possible has given an unfair advantage to the average player.
Yes, let's take control away from the player! I love games where you spend as much time fighting the interface as the enemies!
It's not like scripting is difficult to do. And it allows power players to ignore the minutae and focus on the game's deeper skills.
2) Also, it takes almost 3 months to create a good map. This is ridiculous!!!
Well, it's going to get a hell of a lot worse before it gets any better. If it gets any better.
As engine technology improves and more detail becomes possible, more detail also becomes expected. Back in the eighties, a single programmer could create a whole game - art, music, levels, everything - in a matter of weeks. Artists weren't necessary, because the medium wasn't really capable of much visual fidelity yet. One blob of pixels was as good as the next.
Now it can take huge teams upwards of half a decade and tens of millions of dollars to craft a blockbuster title. The vast majority of that time and money is spent on creating art and world assets. And technology has advanced to such a degree that only the very most talented artists and designers are capable of getting the job done.
If you're complaining about build time now...you're not even using curved geometry, dynamic lighting, deformable geography, surface typing, or any of the other dozens of new technologies that tomorrow's designers will have to deal with. I'd say enjoy it while it lasts.
HL did not "invent" the concept of a shooter with a story. THAT credit goes to System Shock.
I think I enjoyed System Shock 2 more than Half-life, but that's just me. Wanna talk revolutionary? The Dark Engine's sound system was revolutionary (and it even won awards).
If you could combine Doom3's graphics with a sound engine like the Dark Engine's, you would have one HELL of a technical wonder.
Read the fucking article.
UPDATE: Gamer.nl has publicly leaked two bits of information: the first is that the magazine embargo ends on April 28th, so magazines can publish their Half-Life 2 articles after this date. It's already been shown to certain members of the press. They also leaked the big news we hinted at before: Half-Life 2 will be released this year. It should also be noted that this is pretty much the first official mention of Half-Life 2's existence from Valve.
The World's Worst Webcomic!
> OMF YOU IDIOT - QUAKE 1 WAS THE BASE! HOW COME SO MANY PEOPLE GET THIS WRONG!??!?"
All your Quake 1 are belong to us.
Pet peeve: Profane people propagating perfunctory pedantry.
I'm gonna have a real cash flow problem: HalfLife 2, GTA3: Vice City, S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Homeworld 2, Paradise Cracked, Soldner and a few more...that's 300 at least for the software alone, not to mention the 500 I'll be spending on hardware upgrades :(
-- Waht? Tehr's a preveiw buottn?
MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
Could these guys still hold *some* loyalty to m$?
I believe that America's Army, Splinter Cell, Unreal Tournament 2 and Unreal Championship were all built on the Unreal 2 engine. Unreal 2 was not released for months after the other games were.
Nvidia Games: America's Army
UT2K3, UC, Splinter Cell
Admittedly, it is difficult to discern whether some of these were written with the original Unreal engine, but I think they all used the most recent one.
Dewey, you fool! Your decimal system has played right into my hands!
had configuration file settings that allowed you to adjust the weapon decay and monster respawn rates. You could play with neither if you wanted.
Halflife is not larger than it intened to be.
Does anyone remember that the valve coders were originaly the "QuakeC Command" mod developers? They went to valve to LICENSE the Quake engine and make a full game. Remembering this might bring the MOD idea in focus. If it was not due the fact that Quake allowed mods through Quake C, and the valve coding team being directly decendant from Quake modding, Half-Life (oops modified quake) would not be such a large modding platform.
It might also be safe to say that the "huge, and very overlooked occurance in the game community" was exaclty what valve wanted, if you look at the team's and the game's direct evolution.
1C Company Borderzone (PC) Konung 2 (PC) Mechminds (PC) Outfront (PC) Perimeter (PC) Private Wars (PC) R.C. Cars (PC) Space Bounty Hunters (PC) Space Rangers (PC) Spanking Runners (PC) Sphere (PC) Vivisector: Beast Inside (PC) 3DO Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (GCN, PC, PS2, Xbox) Jacked (GCN, PS2, Xbox) SRS (GCN, PS2, Xbox) Acclaim Alias (GCN, PS2, Xbox) Gladiator: Sword of Vengeance (PS2 Europe) NBA Jam 2004 (GCN, PS2, Xbox) Speed Kings (GCN, PS2, Xbox) Summer Heat Beach Volleyball (PS2) SX Superstar (GCN, PS2, Xbox) Urban Freestyle Soccer (GCN, PS2, Xbox) XGRA - Extreme G Racing Association (GCN, PS2, Xbox) Bethesda Softworks The Elder Scrolls III: Bloodmoon (PC) Pirates of the Carribean (PC, Xbox) Bioware Neverwinter Nights: Shadows of Undrentide (PC) Neverwinter Nights: XP2 (PC) Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (PC, Xbox) Blizzard Starcraft: Ghost (GCN, PS2, Xbox) Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne (PC) World of Warcraft (PC) Capcom Chaos Legion (PS2) Dead Phoenix (GCN) Gregory Horror Show (PS2) Killer 7 (GCN) Maximo 2 (PS2) Megaman X7 (PS2) Onimusha 3 (PS2) Product Number 0.3. (GCN) Red Dead Revolver (PS2) Resident Evil 4 (GCN) Resident Evil Dead Aim (PS2) unannounced secret project (GCN) Viewtiful Joe (GCN) CDV Blitzkrieg (PC) Breed (PC) Codename Panzers (PC) No Man's Land (PC) The Kore Gang (Xbox) Vultures (Xbox) Cenega Korea: Forgotten Conflict (PC, Xbox) Shade: Wrath of Angels (PC, Xbox) UFO: Aftermath (PC) Codemasters American Idol (PS2, PC) Battlefield Command (PC) Club Football (PS2, Xbox) Dragon Empires (PC) Operation Flashpoint (Xbox) Operation Flashpoint 2 (PC) Dreamcatcher Arx Fatalis (Xbox) Crystal Key 2 (PC) Painkiller (PC) Traitors Gate 2 (PC) Electronic Arts Madden NFL 2004 (GCN, PS2, Xbox) NASCAR Thunder 2004 (GCN, PS2, Xbox) NCAA College Football 2004 (GCN, PS2, Xbox) Funcom a new unannounced online project (PC) behind closed doors Anarchy Online: Shadowlands (PC) The Longest Journey II (PC) behind closed doors iGames Publishing Savage (PC) JC Entertainment Priest (PC) Konami Boktai (GBA) Castlevania (PS2) Cy Girls (PS2) DDRMax2 Dance Dance Revolution (PS2) K-1 World Grand Prix (PS2) McFarlane's Monsters (PS2) Silent Hill 3 (PS2) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (GBA, GCN, PC, PS2) LucasArts Gladius (GCN, PS2, Xbox) Secret Weapons Over Normandy (PC, PS2, Xbox) Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided (PC, PS2, Xbox) Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy (PC, Xbox) Majesco Black 9 (PC, PS2, Xbox) Blowout (PC, PS2, Xbox) Cartoon Network Block Party (GBA) Cartoon Network Speedway (GBA) Microsoft Amped 2 (Xbox) BC (Xbox) Brute Force (Xbox) Counter-Strike (Xbox) Fable (Xbox) Halo 2 (Xbox) Inside Pitch 2003 (Xbox) Project Gotham Racing 2 (Xbox) Sudeki (Xbox) Top Spin (Xbox) Midway ESPionage (GCN, PS2, Xbox) SpyHunter 2 (GCN, PS2, Xbox) NFL Blitz: Pro (GCN, PS2, Xbox) NHL Hitz: Pro (GCN, PS2, Xbox) Namco I-Ninja (GCN, PS2) R: Racing Evolution (GCN, PS2) Soul Calibur II (GCN, PS2, Xbox) Spawn (PS2) Time Crisis 3 (PS2) NCsoft a new game from ArenaNet (PC) City of Heroes (PC) Exarch (PC) Lineage II (PC) Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders (Xbox) Nintendo Advance Wars 2 (GBA) Donkey Kong Country (GBA) F-Zero GC (GCN) "Game Zero" (GCN) Kirby's Air Ride (GCN) Mario Golf (GCN) Mario Kart (GCN) Mario Tennis (GCN) Pikmin 2 (GCN) Pokemon (GCN) Silicon Knights mystery game (GCN) Star Fox Armada (GCN) Russobit-M Golden Land (PC) Kreed (PC) Neuro (PC) Xenus (PC) SEGA Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg (GCN) Headhunter (Xbox) NFL 2K4 (Xbox, PS2) NBA 2K4 (Xbox, PS2) NCAA 2K4 (Xbox, PS2) Otogi (Xbox) Sega GT Online (Xbox) Sonic Adventure DX (GCN) Simon and Schuster Interactive EVE Online: The Second Genesis (PC) Outlaw Volleyball: Spike or Die (Xbox) Sony Computer Entertainment America Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits (PS2) Downhill Domination (PS2) Gran Turismo 4 (PS2) Jak II (PS2) MLB 2005 2004 (PS2) NBA ShootOut 2004 (PS2) NCAA Final Four 2004 (PS2) NCAA GameBreaker 2004 (PS2) NFL GameDay 2004 (PS2) Ratchet and Clank 2 (PS2) Rise to Honor (PS2) Syphon Filter Omega Strain (PS2) Square Final Fantas
BF1942 is the fabled Counterstrike Killer. Valve has rested on its laurels too long, TF2's "fake" preview and subsequent vapor trail has left a void in confidence for Valve among gamers.
Mark my words, HL2 will flop. Doom ]|[ will destroy it for singleplayer, BF1942 has already killed it for multiplayer.
Yeah, like I need another virus called Sierra Utilities installed on my PC. I played HL six months ago and the weekend before last, uninstalled Sierra Utilities. After all was said and done, my entire Games folder (NWN, MW, MOHAA, UT2K3, etc.) was wiped out. Think I'll pass...
Nah, I'm sure 3DRealms will release DN:F this year and that will trounce them both.
No, really.
perhaps sierra won't be bitchy this time round and release a mac port? i for one have never gotten good at CS because of the lack of macintosh support.
also, it would prevent the starcraft-playin', iPod-totin' mac addict gamers from boycotting sierra.
I mod down pyramid schemes in sigs.
http://sharkygames.com/games/valve_halflife_r/b.sh tml
i think this review says it all.
btw half live is the only fps where i was really too scared to look around a corner (uhg these head crabs)
"It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
You can get a new one here.
Much more availible than the subject of this article.
I have saved some of my Starcraft replays here
I never played Half-Life (or any of the rest of that breed), but when I saw the box in the store I had to wonder if they used Scheme (or Common Lisp, or something like that) to code it.
...
But whatever they used, Elvis Costello sure looks pissed off about it
Gordon Freeman is a specialist in anomalous materials. That's an elegant way of saying "he's a specialist in very advanced physics" without a) feeding you bogus science or b) boring you to death with real advanced physics (which can be fun, but not when you're in the mood ot kill some aliens with a crowbar).
Deux Ex was made by a lot of people who worked on Ultima Underworld, and their experience in RPG and storytelling shows. It's a lot more complex and not as polished as HL, but it's also a very good game. Looking forward to DE2. I'm sick of "RPG"s (I use the term loosely here) where all you do is "power up" (i.e., increase your attributes and get more armor and bigger weapons until your character becomes a tank) and follow instructions. Hopefully, DE2 will give you plenty of freedom and require you to (or at least reward you if you) use your brain.
RMN
~~~
I play Half-Life all the time. The only game I've played more than Half-Life is the original DOOM. I play Opposing Force and Blue Shift as well. I have never played Team Fortress, Counter Strike, DoD, NS or any of the other multi-player only mods. I don't really care for them.
What I do care for is the single-player game that Half-Life brought to the table. In an era of deathmatch glut it was refreshing to return to the single-player game world. And they did a bang-up job of it, too.
Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
It's worse than just needing a bigger userbase. Linux needs a userbase of people willing to pay money for their software before developers will even give a damn about Linux. Loki Software tried to make a living proting games to Linux and lost their shirt in a big way.
Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
I think many Mac gamers are so resentful of Valve they'll probably refuse to touch the sequel even if it's ported and it's a great game.
A bunch of Mac Gamers won't buy the next game? Who's that, like 14 people in Saskatoon, Canada?
I am a viral sig. Please copy me and help me spread. Thank you.
Thinking this through, I think linux is actually less likely to ever to see games than even the mac. I know a lot of people who run linux, but most of them either have a dual-boot machine or a seperate windows box. So you an subtract all ofthose people from the linux user base wen counting it to attract developers. They'll get the game when it comes out on windows if they want it. And if you are a big enough gamer to throw down $50 every time a new game comes out you want, you don't just have a linux box. The people who burned their bridges (and windows cds) and have gone 100% linux aren't hardcore gamers. They can't be. There's not much for them to play. You're much more likely to find a household with just a mac in it and no windows machine than you are to find a household with with just linux and no windows at all. So it's another catch-22 for linux and gaming. The gamers who also want linux set up sual-boots and buy the games anyways, why waste money developing a linux version of your game for somebody who already bought it and finished playing it six months previously?
People probably think it's based on the Q1 engine because the quality of the graphics are so much better.
They "persistently refused"...? What is that supposed to mean? Did anyone approach them to make the ports? With a sane financial project (ie, we want $$ to make, test, market and distribute the Mac / Linux ports and we expect to make $$$ in sales)? If not, you might as well say they "persistently refused" to port it to Solaris, OS/2, BeOS and ZX Spectrum.
Valve is a relatively small company, and I doubt they had people who could do the conversion in-house (the PS2 version, for example, was not made by Valve), especially since they were busy with the new netcode, voice integration, HLDM, TFC, DMC, CS, HLTV, VAC, Steam, HL2 and TF2. Also, a lot of the code in HL's graphics engine was licensed from Id, and Valve was limited in what they could do with it (assuming they were familiar enough with it to make a port in the first place).
The fact that they released a Linux server (where all the code was developed by Valve) and helped convert several mods to Linux (ex., the CS server) speaks for itself.
TFC, DMC and CS, for example, are not "third-party add-ons". They are financed and supported by Valve. Care to mention any "3rd party add-ons" that are supported by Microsoft? For free?
Of course, Valve doesn't do it out of the kindness of their hearts. They do it because these mods extend the life of the original product and because they give Valve a chance to do a "public beta" of several concepts (voice, cheat detection, latency-compensated netcode, spectator servers, etc.). I suspect they'll soon start actively suporting NS (Natural Selection), because it gives them a chance to refine the commander interface that will probably be used in TF2.
RMN
~~~
You just outlined the fundamental difference between Epic and Id. After the first Unreal, Epic focused on building their Unreal Engine Technology and little more. The current Unreal 2 engine is still ultimately the original Unreal engine. Epic sells licenses for their engine to developers (Legend, Digital Extreme, Ion Storm, etc), and then gives those licensess access to technology updates as they build and test them. In other words, the Wheel of Time game was based on the same engine as Unreal and Unreal Tournament, even though it was released after Unreal and before Unreal Tournament. Id, on the other hand, focuses on one engine at a time, builds a game (read: tech demo) out of the engine, then sells licenses. If you license the Quake 2 engine, you're not going to get technology from the Quake 3 engine. And even if you did, the two engines are completely different so you'd have a lot of work to do to incorporate the new technology. Id still thinks of themselves as a game development house, and so you see Doom 3 being developed in-house. Epic, on the other hand, has transitioned to the role of technology provider. Their whole goal is to provide the engine for others to make games, which is why Legend was responsible for Unreal 2.
I cannot wait!
So, did someone approach Valve to do a Linux / Mac port, and did Valve refuse to let them do it? Still waiting for any evidence of that. Without it, I have to interpret your claim that "Valve persistently refused to release a Linux or Mac version of the game" as a troll.
Other statements in your posts show that you are either extremely uninformed or, again, deliberately lying (I'd bet on the latter, since they are so easy to verify). But without clearing the one above, I won't even bother to address the rest.
It's sad that some Linux users spend so much of their time thinking (and foaming at the mouth) about Windows. Linux is a tool, not a religion. Zealots like you give the rest of us a bad name, and frankly you give Microsoft a lot more attention than they deserve. I would tell you to go troll on Slashdot, along with the rest of the imaginary "technical elite" that you seem to think you're part of, but I just realised you already are.
RMN
~~~
Learn the difference between "it's" and "its", asshole.
Tons of HL mods have been released since the Quake engine became open-source, and not a single HL mod has been re-done as a stand-alone game. So much for your theories about Valve milking the poor helpless mod developers, eh asshole?
CS was written by a single guy (Mihn Le, a.k.a. Gooseman), with the exception of one element: the Linux server. That part was paid for by Valve (and done by Valve and Barking Dog employees). So much for your theory about Valve being "Microsoft-centric", eh asshole?
TFC was written by TF's authors. Paid by Valve, and released for free to all HL users. Let me guess, it was free because "otherwise hardcore users would have been alienated", eh asshole?
You're the one who's alienated. Possibly beyond recovery. I bet you're still a virgin, too.
Except, possibly, in your asshole.
There are still major differences between versions of the Unreal engine, enough so that while UT2k3 shipped with Linux support, it's unlikely that Unreal2 will ever run native on Linux. I don't know what those differences are, exactly, but that's the word from icculus on the ut2k3 Linux mailing list.
Under capitalism man exploits man. Under communism it's the other way around.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
That would be because, like almost all licensees of any engine, Legend had free reign to add features to the engine. They also get to choose what platforms they support. I find it highly unlikely that Legend would add anything that was truly Windows-specific. More likely, they decided (by company policy or arbitrary decision) that creating and supporting a Linux client was out of scope. Perhaps they added DirectX-specific features and didn't support other renderers, but since the Unreal engine has a history of supporting modular rendering engines (it was originally designed for GLIDE and software, with OpenGL and DirectX added later), I find it unlikely that it would be impossible to implement (or fake) such features in a different renderer.
UT2K3 was essentially from Epic (well, mostly DE, but with Epic oversight and support, and DE works very closely with Epic), so since Epic supports Linux, UT2K3 should support Linux as well. The same situation will arise with any other Unreal-based game. Ubi Soft's Raven Shield and Splinter Cell will only support Linux if Ubi Soft chooses to support Linux, regardless of the underlying engine's support for Linux. Same for Ion Storm (what's left of them, anyway) and the upcoming Deus Ex 2: The Invisible War, and any other Unreal-based games (historical example -- Wheel of Time never supported Linux, even though it was based on a build only slightly older than Unreal Tournament, and could easily accept patches from the UT codebase that would allow it to support Linux).
I think my point is still valid that Epic and Id take different approaches towards engine licensing, thus making it difficult to compare apples to apples. You'll often see games based on newer Unreal technology from licensees before you see a showcase game from Epic, but you'll never see licensee games based on new Id technology until after Id has released their own game/tech demo. This could change, especially if Id decides to move towards the infrastructure-provider path in the future, but theCarmack and gang seem to enjoy making games as well as making engines. At the very least, Id's tech demos (Q3A) make a good base for enthusiasts to modify without having to sink real money into engine licenses.
So in your opinion, any company that does not port product X to system Y, is "persistently refusing to release a Y version of product X"...? Strange way of looking at free will and business decisions. Using that definition of "persistent refusal" (which, apparently, means the same as "did not") I guess Adobe is also "persistently refusing" to release a version of Photoshop with support for HDR, and ATI is "persistently refusing" to give me a Radeon 9800 Pro for free. The bastards.
Ignoring other factors (such as licensing, lack of resources, lack of experience, etc.), there is still one important dimension you forgot in your little comparison: time. Neverwinter Nights and UT2003 were released less than one year ago. Half-Life was released in 1997. If you don't see the fundamental differences in the market, you must have been on prolonged vacations from reality. And if you read the NwN forums and see the amount of flak Bioware took for not releasing the Linux patches at the same time as the Windows patches, and for not releasing a Linux toolset, and then compare that with their Linux sales, you have to wonder if they'll decide to support Linux with their next products.
I'm sick of this attitude of certain Linux users that anyone who doesn't cater to their personal wishes is attacking "the Linux community" and / or is on Microsoft's payroll. Not only do these jerks have the arrogance to consider themsevles superior to everyone else, they also have the arrogance to assume they represent the entire Linux community.
Imagine if everyone whose native language isn't English decided to come to Slashdot and insult you (personally) for not translating your messages into their various languages.
I speak, read and write in five different languages. But you don't see me describing myself as part of a "linguistic elite" or as an "influential language user", nor do I think that people who speak exclusively English are a bunch of idiots (despite the fact that English has just about the most primitive grammar of any human language). Nor do you see me protesting that anyone who doesn't translate their software into, say, German is deliberately attacking "the German-speaking community".
If you feel that you're able to port Half-Life to Linux, and sell enough copies to cover the conversion (the easy part), the distribution (establish contacts with local distributors worldwide, make localised versions for other countries, etc.), and product support (hire or train staff to answer support calls for the Linux version in all the countries where Half-Life is sold), go ahead and make Valve an offer. If it's such a great deal (financially) as you seem to think, then look at it as an opportunity. Invest your own money into that project and get rich. Or are you also "lazy"...? Or perhaps you just remember Loki Games...?
If you approach Valve (or any other company, for that matter) with a credible business plan (or one that you're willing to finance yourself), and they say no, then yes, they are refusing to release a Linux version. If you insist (presumably with progressively better deals for them) and they keep refusing, then they are persistently refusing it. Otherwise, they didn't "persistently refuse to release a Linux version" any more than they "persistently refused to release" a Nintendo or Xbox or OS/2 version.
Oh, and from now on please provide a Portuguese version of your messages. I do understand English, and I realise you may need to spend time and money on the translation, but seeing as I'm part of a linguistic elite, I feel it's my right to decide how you employ your time and money.
What? You're persistently refusing to release a Portuguese translation? Vou tomar isso como uma ofensa a todas as pessoas lusófonas...
RMN
~~~
From what I've read, originally, the girl was going to be a playable character. Eventually she became the hologram, because Valve didn't have the time / money to make and test two versions of all the dialogues (well, monologues). Who knows, maybe she'll make a comeback in HL2... (c:
As to the ending, well, life isn't fair. A game (or movie, or book) that acknowledges that fact scores some points with me. The almost inevitable (and often logic-defying) happy endings are one of the main problems I have with "mainsteam" american books and films. So cheers to Valve for the "unexpected" realism of the ending. A smart Gordon Freeman would have realised the consequences of his choice.
What I didn't like was all the jumping around in HL's last 2 or 3 levels, especially after a game that was so realistic in terms of environment. I realise it was supposed to be an alien planet, but it still felt silly.
RMN
~~~
... has a huge story on HL2. God bless subscriptions. :-)
The chix0r on the cover is Alyz Vance, "a non-playable buddy sidekick who is the daughter of one of those generic balding scientists who populated Black Mesa".
Screenshots look *awesome*. Details are a little lacking in the article, but it's 9 pages of upcoming gaming goodness.
HL2 Screenshots.
it seems the valve lawyers have been nuking sites that dare post these scans from PC Gamer. Get em while they are hot.
The thing I remember about HL the most were it's in-game vignettes. Looking into an office, and seeing a dead scientist with a headcrab on his skull, still seated in front of his laptop, which was the only illumination in the room. I remember the shock of watching the scientists getting gunned down by the marines at first contact.
And most of all, I remember the triple-tentacled monster in the engine room. I remember the guard whispering to me about the monster's weakness- it was blind.
The game always had something fresh and interesting right around the corner. There were either new guns, monsters, plot points or interactive sequences constantly coming at you.
And that was what worked. You were always propelled through the story with something new.
No one here is trying to say that Half Life was Shakespeare. But I tell you this:
Shakespeare would have been a terrible First Person Shooter game designer.
------ What's sadder than realizing you've filtered out your own comments?
heh heh... you'd better pray Sierra isn't porting DNF to the Mac...
Thank you for the English lessons. However, neither the dictionary not common usage support your claim that "persistently refuse" and "did not" are synonyms (let alone "excellent synonyms", as you say above). If, when faced with the question:
"Did you build the Eiffel Tower?"
You find it appropriate to answer with:
"I persistently refuse to build the Eiffel Tower!"
Then perhaps it is you who are in need of some English lessons.
Refusal only exists as a response (to a request or a proposal). Most things that don't happen simply don't happen; they are not refusals. I've never written a symphony. Not because I've refused to; simply because I don't have the time nor the knowledge to do so.
To the best of my knowledge (and, it appears, yours as well), no-one ever approached Valve with a concrete proposal or even a request for a Linux version (note that "approaching Valve" means a bit more than "posting a few messages on a newsgroup saying how cool it would be to have a Linux version", and hoping they read it). Nor have I ever seen any official statement from Valve saying they would not release a Linux (or Mac) version. In other words, there are no proposals and no refusals. It's just something that never happened.
Turning a non-event into an active (and "persistent") refusal is a typically paranoid behaviour. Just because someone doesn't say "hello" doesn't mean they are deliberately snubbing you.
The various "versions" of Half-Life you mention are in fact simply packs with the original game plus some new levels or mods. The original game's code and map design were never changed (apart from some minor bug fixes). The only version of Half-Life besides the original one is the PlayStation 2 version, which Valve really had nothing to do with apart from granting the rights; it was done by Gearbox Studios and financed by Sierra. Linux ports of the server(s), on the other hand, are made by Valve, without any external financing. In fact, they started handling the CS server Linux port long before CS was bought by Valve.
As far as I know, Valve's original licensing of the Quake engine was for a single game on the Windows platform (licensing does not give you the right to use the engine in all your future games). Ports to other platfroms would probably have required a new license. Something that I'm sure Sierra wouldn't have a problem paying for if they thought those ports would be profitable, and their quality would be satisfactory. Apparently they didn't. The article you linked to (which does not contain any Valve announcement, contrary to what you say) makes it perfectly clear that the Mac port was not being done by Valve. Some relevant quotes from that same article that seem to contradict your theory that Half-Life would be easy to port to Linux / Mac:
"Significant sections of the code are so closely tied to Windows (and MFC) that it's easier to rewrite them from scratch than attempt to convert them over to another OS"
"Due to the architecture of the Half-Life add-on [TFC] it would need to be ported separately"
I suspect the same would apply to HLDM, DMC and CS (not to mention all 3rd party mods, or any mod that Valve decided to release in the future). To the money and time required for these conversions, you would have to add the cost of training all the support personnel in all countries to deal with support requests from Mac and Linux users. All this for a market that would be (in 1997), at best, about 4% the size of the Windows market (and this is assuming that the people running Linux and Mac OS did not have any way of running the Windows version).
I think only someone with a serious deathwish would try to support three platforms (two of which clearly unprofitable) with their first title ever.
Later (say, in 2001, when the PlayStation 2 version was released), could a Linux or Mac version have been viable? Maybe. Personally I doubt it. 2001 was the year Loki went bankr
I noticed a lot of people ragging on Half-Life. Truth is I personally despise multiplayer games [maybe because my ping is 900 my connection is 33.3 and I prefer storyline] and having that as a fact there have been THREE games that have really impressed me.
Half-Life
Homeworld
Deus Ex
Half-Life, okay the storyline isnt the MOST immersive, however you must consider frame of reference. In 1997 THE First Person Shooter was Quake 2, whose idea of storyline was 2 paragraphs in a readme.txt that nobody ever read - thats worse than even Doom2 was. Half-Life comes out from this unknown company [a year or two past deadline for those ragging valve on being late, because they wanted it RIGHT not good] and you got something that blew Quake2 away in every aspect. Far superior graphics, intelligent AI, fluid motion, interactive characters, a storyline that changes throughout the game IN the game, not presented through cutscenes [the most common of the era] or text [neither would make sense at all in the Half-Life environment], a universe that looked believeable if not totally realistic. Compared to the game by which all FPSs were compared to, it was revolutionary in every aspect, and got a HUGE following simply from the single player aspects.
From that alone it gets an utterly massive multiplayer following and from that releases TFC after the most popular mod for Quake 1. Success of that triggers development of TF2 [which may take years but valve likes to do things right, they were a year behind in releasing Half-Life at a time when nobody had any right to believe that the extra investment might pay off]. Hundreds of mods are released due to peoples love of the game and several become extremely popular, two have been adopted by Valve as official mods and both are utterly huge among the multiplayer community.
Now compare Half-Life to today five years later, the graphics are pretty bad, the engine is slow and doesnt support a lot of things, the storyline isnt as immersive as say DeusEx, the multiplayer isnt as cool, but remember you're talking about a five year old game. I dont expect HL2 to be released this year, not with Valves track record, but when it is released expect it to recieve a LOT of attention. It is STILL PC Gamers best game of all time, it STILL has more game of the year awards than many other games, and between it and its mods it is STILL more played than any of the more modern games.
One person said above something that I completely agree with. There needs to be a way to incorperate current mods into the new game, otherwise it MIGHT not do well. If it has that capability there is no doubt it will not only do as good, but better even if it has NO storyline and is just an engine update for the original Half-Life.
http://tmp.crypt.wack.us/hl2/
Natural-Selection Be
Here's hoping that they get the Osprey modelled accurately this time... with the chin turret and bay door in the rear.
It seems to me that Valve is going after the FP engine market. The dominant current competitors are Id's Quake/Doom iterations and Unreal. Now with Half-Life 2 Valve have their own proprietary engine being showcased by the sequel to the most popular game of recent times (and therefore arguably already guaranteed to extremely popular) with a history and future of committed and proven mod/community support. The Half-Life 2 engine will be tested by millions of users and then perfected by Valve. An FP game developer will now be able to choose the Half-Life 2 engine for their new game and it would probably make a compelling choice. Note the alleged lenience on system specs required by Half-Life 2 being sought by Valve - whereas the Doom 3 and others admittedly demand a high-end system to do the engine justice.
There is nothing pro-Linux in most Linux zealot's rants (same goes for Mac zealots, Intel zealots, and so on). It's all about playing the victim (usually the "intelectually superior", "elite" victim of the stupid, sheeplike masses, manipulated by [insert name of evil enemy here]), and attacking the "enemy" in every way possible. Linux / Mac zealots don't care if Linux / Mac is good, or about making it better, they just feel the need to tell everyone that Windows is crap. Which makes it kind of a mystery why they then use window managers that make Linux look and behave exactly like Windows, but hey, I'm not going to waste my time trying to make sense of their "logic".
Now, if you're not one of these zealots, then you're really unlucky when it comes to choosing your words and getting your facts straight. Let's see:
"[Valve] persistently refused to release a Linux or Mac version of the game."
I think this point has already been discussed enough.
"the Quake (and sequels) sourcebase they worked from was cross-platform."
They licensed and used only the original Quake engine, not the sequels' (this was 1996, remember?). As the article you linked to above (the one about the Mac port) said, most of Half-Life's code was very specific to Windows, and virtually impossible to "port" to other operating systems, requiring a full rewrite.
"That behavior is fully consistent with Microsoft-ism."
This "behaviour" meaning "not releasing a Linux and / or Mac version". So any company that does not release Mac / Linux versions of all their software is "acting like Microsoft". I'm going to start boycotting 3D Studio MAX and TMPGEnc today...
"Microsoft always supports 3rd party addons, as long as they serve as additional glue tieing users to their platform."
I'm not aware of a single free 3rd party application that Microsoft supports. As to "tying the users to their platform", what exactly did you expect? Did you want Valve to start developing and releasing free mods for Unreal Tournament, for example? Or perhaps (to be really platform-independent) they should make mods that would work with any game. That would be the only truly acceptable attitude, and the fact that it's impossible doesn't change anything.
"CS was a free 3rd party add-on for all of it's meaningful development."
CS still is a free add-on, and is still being developed by its original author. The only difference is Valve decided to pay him for it. For some obscure reason, you seem to think that's a bad thing.
"It [CS] had already doubled the sales life of Half-Life by the time Valve bought it, and made it a paid product."
Care to post the sales figures to support that claim? Didn't think you could, either. And Valve never made CS "a paid product" (you can still download it for free from all the usual places). They simply distributed a boxed version for a) people with slow network connections who don't want to spend hours downloading a 120 MB file and b) people who did not want to buy the original Half-Life game just to play CS. Again, for some strange reason you seem to think that's a bad thing.
"They still had to allow free distribution of the basic netplay version, because otherwise hardcore users and server-ops would've been alienated and forked away"
Is that also why they distribute TFC, HLDM and DMC for free? Is that also why they added voice communications, lag compensation and spectator modes to HL for free? Because, if they had decided to release those as commercial add-ons, people would have "forked away"...? Where to? At least try to make some sense.
"they had a Microsoft-centric view of computing"
Here we go again...
"Half-Life helped preserve the use of Microsoft Windows amoung heavy internet users and the technical elite"
This one actually made me laugh
SPOILER WARNING!!!
But in case you wondered, you eventually meet up some scientists and they set one of the teleporters to an SUV on the surface. You escape.
Tim
Omnia vestra castrorum habetur nobis.
I wasn't refuting your main claim, just the implication that the Unreal engine is based on continual improvement of the same technology. There are significant breaks between versions.
What I said about the possibility of Unreal2 running native on Linux is almost a direct quote from Ryan Gordon, the man who did the ut2k3 Linux port, based on his knowledge of the version of the Unreal engine that Unreal2 is based on (apparently he has had a chance to look at the source). No offense, but I'll take his word over yours any day.
Under capitalism man exploits man. Under communism it's the other way around.
The opera music to it was hilarious beyond help... :) someone needs to make a high quality mpeg... avi? divx or something of it.
heh... goddamn makes me wish to get the source and compile it just to watch that intro
THAT would bring even Gnutella to its knees with traffic... "all your users are belong to quakeworld_tf_intro.mpeg!"
-Daedalus
" What luck for rulers that men do not think" - Adolf Hitler
I have a new black pen! I'm so happy!
-0-0- idle
No chance of being a prequal since one of the main supporting characters is a woman who lost her mother in the events of the first game.
Of course, I don't know how that can be possible, since there was not a single female NPC in the entire game... unless her mother was one of those funky flipping assassins that made me reload a dozen or so times to get past.
"I will trust Google to 'do no evil' until the founders no longer run it." Hello Alphabet.