Half Life 2's story is awesome

[Admiral jimbob]

None of the weapons feel good. They all feel castrated. They all suck.

I found the revolver pretty satisfying to use. Felt like it really packed a punch, with the combination of the OTT ragdoll, meaty sound effects and reload animation. Can't remember any FPS revolvers with a better feel to them. Other than that, I pretty much agree.

 

[ScottishMartialArts]

None of the weapons feel good. They all feel castrated. They all suck.

I found the revolver pretty satisfying to use. Felt like it really packed a punch, with the combination of the OTT ragdoll, meaty sound effects and reload animation. Can't remember any FPS revolvers with a better feel to them. Other than that, I pretty much agree.

Agreed. I also thought the Pulse Rifle had a nice kick to it, although sometimes it seems like I'm the only person on the planet who thinks so.

 

[Dark Matter]

Only a total retard would think the Half Life series has better storytelling than Bioware games. Half Life 2+eps pretty much consists of a few long cutscenes (which actually have no story development) interspersed between hours of crawling through sewers/ducts, shitty vehicle sequences, physics puzzles, and shooting.

Oh, and you guys think Bioware games have bad characters? What great characters does the Half Life series have? The absent-minded professor? The mute main character? The totally mysterious and enigmatic dude that seems to serve no purpose whatsoever other than being fanboy wank material?

Dr. Breen is the only good character from the Half Life series.

Instead of that long winded crap, Valve just created a ruined mining town, filled it with headcrabs and headcrab zombies, and left head crab dispersal units allover the place

And the end result is another generic area which involves blasting our way through a thousand zombies just so we can get to the next area. People actually gave a shit about the backstory behind Ravenholm?

I really can't play Bioware games anymore for that very reason. I am increasingly suspicious that their writing staff has only ever read Forgotten Realms and Star Wars novels. The only thing they know how to do is plot, plot and more plot. Since the only way they know how to use dialogue is for plot exposition, the characters never have the wonderful opportunity to show who they are by what they think and say. And when the writers do try flesh out a character they still can only think to do it by having another plot dump. Characterization in a Bioware game doesn't come from characters thinking, speaking, and acting in certain ways; it comes from them spending 20 minutes telling you how their daddy molested them as a child. It's just garbage.

Bullshit. Almost all Bioware characters have a clear personality even if you ignore their backstory. Hell, I don't even remember the backstories of most Bioware characters, yet I clearly remember their attitudes/personalities.

 

[ScottishMartialArts]

Dark Matter, what books do you read?

 

[kingcomrade]

self help and romance novels XD

 

[ScottishMartialArts]

Honestly, Bioware's games are on par with Forgotten Realms and Star Wars novels. If you consider that competent story telling, then, well, you probably don't read much.

Half Life 2+eps pretty much consists of a few long cutscenes (which actually have no story development)

Amazing! Dialogue being used for reasons other than exposition. Who ever heard of such a thing?!

 

[Dark Matter]

Is this the part where we're supposed to compare our e-penis over who has superior taste in literature and is therefore in a position to decide which game has better storytelling? Maybe I read Harry Potter and Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne. It's not relevant. The point was that you're full of shit about HL having better storytelling and about Bioware characterizations solely depending on contrived backstories.

 

[ScottishMartialArts]

Eh, I donno, I kinda think the HL2 characters are all fully realized and even show moments of real humanity. Eli telling Alyx to close her eyes right before he was killed, for example. Not sure I can say the same for the badly recycled fantasy cliches that pass for Bioware characters.

Furthermore, the beauty of visual media is that visuals are just as capable of telling a story as words. That old "a picture is worth a thousand words" thing. Conan the Barbarian was on tonight, and honest to God there's maybe 10 words of dialogue for the entire first half hour. And despite that, you never have any doubt as to what is going on, who the characters are, and what motivates them. Same deal with the first part of WALL-E. In fact, I'd even go so far as to say that the first part of WALL-E is visual poetry, and film making at its very best. And the only dialogue is the unintelligible beeps and bloops of the protagonist and the chittering of his cockroach friend. Good writing in general depends upon economy of expression, and this is even more true in theatre and film -- and video games -- where you have so many other tools at your disposal to tell a story besides long plot-dump monologues.

Shit take any famous Shakespeare speech, and how much of it is actually advancing the plot? Very little. Instead, those speeches illuminate the characters and bring a new perspective on the issues at the core of the plot, i.e. themes. They make you feel and they make you think instead of merely conveying information so you know what's going on.

Video games will never have particularly complex stories. And by complex stories I don't mean complicated plots. The Odyssey is a complicated story even though the plot is simply a war veteran trying to get home to his family and set his household aright. A complicated story is one that deals with complex issues with a subtle and nuanced hand, giving you much fodder for reflection just as it gives you entertainment. Video games, constrained by the needs of gameplay will never reach the heights of other literary media. But video games can tell their simple stories well. Bioware doesn't do that.