Half-Life Beats Half-Life 2 Over Time?

Anonymous Coward writes "Tom's Hardware has an editorial up entitled 'Half-Life vs Half-Life 2: No comparison?' It explores the two games, and how they're holding up over time. He states that while the score of HL1 may have depreciated from 'a spectacular 95% to around about an average 70%' over the past couple of years, the score of HL2 'I'd now rate it in the low to mid 80's, or a full five to ten percent drop in a fraction of the time that the original has been around. Why is this?' The reason, he goes on to elaborate, is a lack of characterization. Half-Life was a blank slate modders could use to fill in their own worlds. HL2, on the other hand, has a definite story that ages less gracefully."

Comments

huh?

[trigonalmayhem]

Is he even aware of how many more modding features HL2 has? Maybe he's just pissed that most of the mods are coming out via steam and being charged for, but I say good for the small independent developers who are actually making money off all their hard work.

Re:huh?

[smooth wombat]

but I say good for the small independent developers who are actually making money off all their hard work.

As opposed to the large, non-independent developers who are trying to make money off their hard work, right?

I know I'll be marked down but I don't care. I'm questioning why the double-standard. Why is it ok for the small guy to make money off their hard work but not for the big guy to make money off what is arguably even more hard work? In both cases someone is producing a product which they want to be paid for yet many on here feel it is acceptable to use pirated versions which they don't have to pay for and which costs the producing company money.

Re:huh?

[2nd Post!]

Well then, now you're comparing the SDKs from ID and Valve, aren't you? The original HL was based solidly on Quake, even if the engine was updated by Valve, so a lot of the basic stuff would still be sourced from ID.

The new HL2 is totally new, so there is no common descent from Quake3 or Doom3. Id's had several years and generations to get this stuff right, and Valve only one generation of development.

Don't bother with TFA.

[beavis88]

You'll just wish you had your two minutes back, like me.

Subjectiveness

[Kennego]

The second half of the article talks about why the author thinks that the fun factor of HL2 isn't nearly as high as in HL1, but as you'd expect this whole "rating" and "depreciation" score thing is completely subjective and made up. I really have no idea why this thing made Slashdot...

Completion of the story....

[Tragek]

Well I do think he may have been off base on a couple things; he's spot on with other things. The ending of HL left me craving more, but in a way that felt like I had achieved something. On the otherhand, the cop out that was the ending of HL2, made me feel as if everything I had done in the game was really for naught. Now, we know that stuff like that will be resolved in HL2:Episode 1 (aka Aftermath), but to be honest, dropping more cash for something I know will continue ad infinitum is not exactly my cup of tea.

The most exciting thing in my mind right now is the project Black Mesa:Source. Playing through the original half life with updated graphics? Kick ass.

Re:Lack of Imagination

[DeafByBeheading]

HL1: Scary sequences where you know monsters are slowly picking off people and annihilating the base. HL2: Less scary open outdoor sequences, more of a serious-sam game than before. (except ravenwood)

Um, for what it's worth I completely disagree. As another poster has already stated, HL2 is immensely atmospheric. Maybe 'scary' is not the right word to describe most of HL2, but 'creepy' certainly is. It seems to have that Eastern European WWII-era squalor look down perfectly, and with the Combine, the Striders, Doctor Breen's messages, plus the way zombies sometimes rise up in the distance and shamble towards you, and sometimes just pop out of nowhere, the feel of that game is incredible. Do you remember the first time the fast jumping zombie guys come at you? Among the best OMGWTFBBQ moments in all of FPS-dom.