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10 Years of Half-Life
intenscia writes "After 10 years of Half-Life and dealing with its silent protagonist Gordon Freeman, ModDB looks back at everything that Valve made possible with the release of its first game. The freedom and flexibility the Gldsource platform gave modders resulted in a plethora of user-generated content such as Counter-Strike and Team Fortress. In this article they take a brief look at the mods that made the jump to retail as well as the top non-commercial mods that have become perennial classics."
Planet Half-Life used the occasion to look back at the history of Valve. Valve is celebrating by offering the original Half-Life for less than a dollar on Steam.
Half-Life wasn't the first FPS game to capture my attention but it was the first to enthrall me to such a degree that I went out and bought the damn thing. Years of Counter-Strike, Natural Selection, Rocket Crowbar and other various interesting mods later, I'm damn glad I did. I garnered a metric fuckton of fun from that game and it feels like it's been a lot longer than 10 years since its release.
/salute
But then I guess that's what one can expect from a Valve game. Blizzard has a nice attitude: "when it's ready". Valve goes one further: "when it ready and only if it's fun". When HL2 was delayed by a year or so there was a lot of complaining... but nobody was complaining when that thing was released.
Here's to one of the best games ever released!
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, watch it -- I'm huge!
IIRC, a hybrid Quake1/2 engine was the basis for Half-Life's engine. Their license with id Software may not allow them to release the source, even though the Q1&2 sources were released quite a few years ago.
Indeed.
..., Portal, Ep. 2) [I'm on PC, so no HL:Decay], and have played HL1 and HL2 themselves more times than I can remember. Even though I can quote Dr. Breen word for word, the game remains interesting--I discover a bit more that I missed each time through.
I received Half Life 2 for Christmas, a few years back, and had it completely finished by December 28th. I did the same when Ep. 1 came out, and then again for Ep. 2--which is not to say that I was done with the game when I completed it. I'm currently in my 3rd(?) replay of the entire series (HL1, Opposing Force, Blue Shift,
And I'm close to getting my wife to play Portal. That will be a triumph; a huge success, indeed.
>> Standing on head makes smile of frown, but rest of face also upside down.
For reference, people made all kinds of fun toys after gaining knowledge of the insides of the engine and netcode. They then fixed so much that they released their own versions of the server, and eventually used that as a great line on their resume to get hired into the game coding biz. :)
I think Slashdot would be glad to hear those details
I've been waiting for and watching Black Mesa since it's inception, and with it's history of set backs and (relatively) slow progress I'll keep my original plan of recommending the original to my friend. If BM is even half as good as the original HL it'll be worth another go through anyways when it's released. I the BM team luck and mean them no offense, it's just they're no where near close enough to justify waiting for the original any longer.
"A witty saying proves nothing." - Voltaire
I'm not a go-to guy on FPSs or games in general by any means, but my impression is that "I didn't see it as much more than DOOM with puzzles and a more detailed story" was pretty revolutionary for a FPS.
(Disclaimer: I haven't finished the original HL (I'm not that good at FPSs and actually stopped playing for a while when I first hit the marines and didn't get past them after about a dozen attempts), but I think HL2 and Episodes are great.)
Wow. A virgin Orange Boxer. Hope you have a blast exploring PC games. This is a great year to become a PC gamer. FarCry2, Crysis:Warhead, STALKER:ClearSky, Fallout3, and CoD:4 are just a few of the games you should check out.
I bought Half-Life "Game of the Year Edition" on sale at CompUSA for $9.99 in the spring of 1999. It has spoiled me. When I think of all the fun I've gotten out of that $10 over the past nine years (I still play CS and DoD) it is just staggering. I'll venture out on a limb and say that was the best $10 I have ever spent.
Experiencing a world "in person" is a whole lot different to experiencing it top-down where you click to move a character.
- It's an FPS, so it has excellent graphics and detail to the world
- It's an FPS, so it grants greater control and freedom
- It's an FPS, so it's a more realistic experience
Non-action RPGs and Adventure games are known for their immersion, but when implemented properly into an FPS, you can get no better. I submit to you Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines, Half-Life 1 and 2, Morrowind (if you're one of the few that can actually get into it), etc...
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, watch it -- I'm huge!