Half-Life 2 - A Canvas for Original Works

Moe Napoli writes "Nearly six months since its release, Half-Life 2 is not only making ripples for its being a great game, but also for the works being made from the game itself. Garry's Mod (aka GMod) is a extremely popular and fun "sandbox" modification for Half-Life 2, that allows you to play with the game's exceptional physics engine as well as pose characters, create Rube Goldberg-type devices and other physics phun inside of HL2. Taking advantage of GMod's character posing, the compelling and professionally produced Apostasy is an online comic that follows 3 characters from the HL2 universe and is interwoven within and around the game's original narrative. Still Seeing Breen is an excellent machinima music video created by intercutting the game events with a singing G-Man - ultimately displaying Valve's powerful FacePoser software (which comes with the game's SDK) and HL2's capabilities for machinima development (spoiler alert for those who haven't completed the game yet). It's really great stuff - I'm looking forward to what the next six months brings."

Comments

...havok

[Anonymous Coward]

is the physics engine that's used in half-life 2.

same physics engine is in a lot of other games, too.

and too bad it was never used in hl2 to enable creativity in the player. never, not once. every time the player just has to do something envisioned before.

Re:...havok

[cgenman]

and too bad it was never used in hl2 to enable creativity in the player. never, not once. every time the player just has to do something envisioned before.

HL2 is a linear FPS with a strong story line element, not Sim City. Besides, there were quite a few interesting sequences that took advantage of the physics. Moving objects so that you could walk around on the sand. Squishing bad guys with shipping crates from a tower. All of the floating / weight puzzles.

Arguably the best thing in the game was the gravity gun, and that was completely physics based. The second best thing was blowing things up and watching the physics-driven debris take out baddies all around. The third best thing was rolling garbage into the hanging tongues, but maybe that's just me getting petty revenge. And, of course, there were the driving sequences.

I certainly had a lot of points where I moved things around to get better cover, or to cause more debris to fly. If anything the seamless nature of the integration makes it a success. The game wasn't about physics any more than it was about health or guns, but it used both with reasonable subtly and to good effect.

Re:...havok

[cgenman]

What's wrong with linear gameplay? Why would having a great physics engine imply nonlinear play?

As a developer, pseudolinear play is a pain in the arse. Sandbox / true nonlinear play is appropriate for certain areas in Tenchu, for example, where your goal is to kill everyone in a level and it doesn't matter how that happens. I love sandbox games, but you have to make the entire game around such things. HL isn't. Most of HL is getting from point A to point B without getting killed, in order to drive the plot forward. Giving the player 1,000 ways to do it will just mean the player takes their sandbuggy, jumps the fence, and the level is over. It's a different type of game.

If you give the player 3 different ways to do something (which I'm calling pseudolinear), you're now making each level three times. You also have the problem that it isn't always clear what to accept or ignore. And, trust me on this one, players will find a way to wedge themselves into a position they can't get out of.

If you want nonlinear or pseudolinear play, try Deus Ex 2. Honestly it was a bit of a mess because it was too nonlinear, what with all the keycards and lock picking and getting people to let you in places and blowing things up, etc. But it was an OK game. Deus Ex 2 also used the Havoc physics engine (although an earlier iteration). Not surprisingly, the solutions to puzzles that used physics, basically had one way to solve them. Pile up boxes, move things over, jump on top.

I love nonlinear play. But with certain goal structures too much nonlinearity is inappropriate. HL2 is one of them.

well

[Sv-Manowar]

It's not really surprising, Valve developed Half Life 2 with modders in mind, the knew how the Mod Community helped make Half Life the huge success it was.

By opening the game up for easy modification, they increase the lifespan of their product, and it also allows them to fish for new talented staff from the fans who create the mods. Good going valve, and more importantly, good going to the mod creators.