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Honest Opinion on Half-Life 2

Morenatsu.

Liturgist
Joined
May 6, 2016
Messages
2,813
Location
The Centre of the World
Just use the ladder bro
There isn't one bro. And if you think HL2 ladders are remotely usable to jump off of onto a pipe from the main one you're an idiot. Ladders barely work, they don't work enough to make jumps like that.



57:30. He jumps on a railing and then along a pipe to get up there. So it is possible without physics shit but it's not the obvious solution when they put barrels under the ledge as I said.

 

Hell Swarm

Learned
Joined
Jun 16, 2023
Messages
2,079
Just use the ladder bro
There isn't one bro. And if you think HL2 ladders are remotely usable to jump off of onto a pipe from the main one you're an idiot. Ladders barely work, they don't work enough to make jumps like that.



57:30. He jumps on a railing and then along a pipe to get up there. So it is possible without physics shit but it's not the obvious solution when they put barrels under the ledge as I said.


And it took him 4 attempts to jump off the ladder to land on the pipe. Ladders suck in this game and while Valve may have intended you to use the ladder that way we can see how stupid a decision that was.
 

Morenatsu.

Liturgist
Joined
May 6, 2016
Messages
2,813
Location
The Centre of the World
Just use the ladder bro
There isn't one bro. And if you think HL2 ladders are remotely usable to jump off of onto a pipe from the main one you're an idiot. Ladders barely work, they don't work enough to make jumps like that.



57:30. He jumps on a railing and then along a pipe to get up there. So it is possible without physics shit but it's not the obvious solution when they put barrels under the ledge as I said.


And it took him 4 attempts to jump off the ladder to land on the pipe. Ladders suck in this game and while Valve may have intended you to use the ladder that way we can see how stupid a decision that was.

stfu and press e
 

schru

Arcane
Joined
Feb 27, 2015
Messages
1,141
Just use the ladder bro
There isn't one bro. And if you think HL2 ladders are remotely usable to jump off of onto a pipe from the main one you're an idiot. Ladders barely work, they don't work enough to make jumps like that.
You just press the use key to get off where you're currently looking.

The ladders in HL2's version of Source are rather sticky and rigid, but they're pretty functional otherwise.

Just use the ladder bro
There isn't one bro. And if you think HL2 ladders are remotely usable to jump off of onto a pipe from the main one you're an idiot. Ladders barely work, they don't work enough to make jumps like that.



57:30. He jumps on a railing and then along a pipe to get up there. So it is possible without physics shit but it's not the obvious solution when they put barrels under the ledge as I said.


And it took him 4 attempts to jump off the ladder to land on the pipe. Ladders suck in this game and while Valve may have intended you to use the ladder that way we can see how stupid a decision that was.
That person is just overestimating the distance and difficulty of reaching the pipe. The ladder is the intended path.
 

Hell Swarm

Learned
Joined
Jun 16, 2023
Messages
2,079
That person is just overestimating the distance and difficulty of reaching the pipe. The ladder is the intended path.
As you said the ladders are rather sticky and it's annoying to get off ladders at all, let alone land on a pipe. I've fallen twice on ladders with a ledge right next to them.

The stickiness also applies to the air boat. It physically drags you into the wall while lining up some jumps. It's frustrating to fail a jump because the game pulled you off course and tries to wrestle your handling away from you. And the whoever thought driving up/over logs was a good idea. The air boat section isn't challenging for the enemies. You take random damage occasionally from chopper fire (like shooting you from behind in a tunnel) but the real menace is the physics. I even got stuck under the collapsing tower at one point. Didn't kill me just trapped me.
 

schru

Arcane
Joined
Feb 27, 2015
Messages
1,141
That person is just overestimating the distance and difficulty of reaching the pipe. The ladder is the intended path.
As you said the ladders are rather sticky and it's annoying to get off ladders at all, let alone land on a pipe. I've fallen twice on ladders with a ledge right next to them.

The stickiness also applies to the air boat. It physically drags you into the wall while lining up some jumps. It's frustrating to fail a jump because the game pulled you off course and tries to wrestle your handling away from you. And the whoever thought driving up/over logs was a good idea. The air boat section isn't challenging for the enemies. You take random damage occasionally from chopper fire (like shooting you from behind in a tunnel) but the real menace is the physics. I even got stuck under the collapsing tower at one point. Didn't kill me just trapped me.
Yes, trying to jump off ladders can be problematic. Try just looking where you want to end up and pressing the use key. It should be enough to dismount seamlessly in most cases.

As for the air-boat, it's more uncontrollable when it's not accelerating and just floating instead, but maybe that's not what you mean. Generally, I find its mechanics to be very satisfying, since it takes a bit more skill to control than the car does (especially in the later versions since the Mac compatibility update, which changed its handling entirely, making it very bland). You can get tripped and knocked off course by some obstacles, but all the ramps for work as intended, only some of them require more precise alignment. One spot that can cause problems is the collapsed pipe during the helicopter chase with the music, I suppose, but that looks like an intentional trap.
 

Egosphere

Arcane
Joined
Jan 25, 2018
Messages
1,926
Location
Hibernia
If i wanted to play devil's advocate, i would say the combine are not the actual force that conquered earth, but just the peace keeping occupation troops that were left behind. The problem with that of course is that Gordon fights his way towards the heart of their power any no other kind of army shows up so i guess that was it.
The Advisors were supposed to be the leaders of the Combine, I believe.
If their powers are any indication, they would've made for some really tough boss fights.
iirc Laidlaw had that twitter joke account on which he posted cryptic messages according to which the advisors themselves were invaded by a parasite that puppeteered them towards its own ends. Not official lore of course, but still was an interesting take on who the actual enemy is, for it seems to be the enemy of everyone involved.
 

Egosphere

Arcane
Joined
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Messages
1,926
Location
Hibernia
Another thing I'll say in 2's favour - I remember more music tracks from it than from 1. Triage at Dawn, C Violation, the track that plays when you're under the bridge. A big step up from the first game, although perhaps tied with Opposing Force, which had quite a few bangers of its own as well. I lost all remaining trace of interest in the series when Bailey left the studio. Bailey had a certain texture to his work that was unique.
This was his last piece for Valve as far as I'm aware.



You can just picture cruising down abandoned Finnish highways in your buggy with the biomech combine helis buzzing in the sunset glow of the horizon.
:salute:
 

ds

Cipher
Patron
Joined
Jul 17, 2013
Messages
2,249
Location
here
Dunno, HL1 has fewer memorable tracks but that just makes Diabolical Adrenaline Guitar, Nuclear Mission Jam and the closing theme stand out more when they do come on. HL2's music is great too though, just never felt HL1 was lacking in that department.
 

Lyric Suite

Converting to Islam
Joined
Mar 23, 2006
Messages
57,831
Fun fact: i played Half-Life 1 without music the first time.

The only other game i ever did that was System Shock 2.

Something in both games just told me the experience would have been better without music.
 

Egosphere

Arcane
Joined
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Messages
1,926
Location
Hibernia
Fun fact: i played Half-Life 1 without music the first time.

The only other game i ever did that was System Shock 2.

Something in both games just told me the experience would have been better without music.
I don't understand the SS2 muting meme. There's nothing wrong with the music.

Some of the tracks take away from the horror of the setting
 

NecroLord

Dumbfuck!
Dumbfuck
Joined
Sep 6, 2022
Messages
13,066
Fun fact: i played Half-Life 1 without music the first time.

The only other game i ever did that was System Shock 2.

Something in both games just told me the experience would have been better without music.
I don't understand the SS2 muting meme. There's nothing wrong with the music.

Some of the tracks take away from the horror of the setting
I think the first System Shock game's soundtrack doesn't get enough credit.
I thought it was even better than two's.
 

Lyric Suite

Converting to Islam
Joined
Mar 23, 2006
Messages
57,831
Fun fact: i played Half-Life 1 without music the first time.

The only other game i ever did that was System Shock 2.

Something in both games just told me the experience would have been better without music.
I don't understand the SS2 muting meme. There's nothing wrong with the music.

It's not that i dislike the soundtrack a lot of the times i just didn't want hear any music at all. I had no idea it was a thing either i thought it was just me.
 

rubinstein

Educated
Joined
Sep 12, 2022
Messages
204
Fun fact: i played Half-Life 1 without music the first time.

The only other game i ever did that was System Shock 2.

Something in both games just told me the experience would have been better without music.
I don't understand the SS2 muting meme. There's nothing wrong with the music.

Some of the tracks take away from the horror of the setting
i assume you mean the "dreaded" dnb tracks. its almost like soundtrack was split into music that fits exploration bits (moody, atmospheric ambient tracks) and music that fits combat bits (energetic, adrenaline-pumping tracks perfect for beheading monkeys with laser rapier) for a reason. as far as i remember these dnb tracks never play outside of combat. when you are facing multiple maintenance robots while having grenade launcher equipped then the horror elements of the setting go far into the background, and you need some music to hype you up.
the designers were right to make it that way.
 
Last edited:

SilentMRG

Novice
Joined
Nov 27, 2023
Messages
95
Location
South America
I've always heard good things about HL + HL 2, but I never played them until 2017. So, having no nostalgia for them, I can say that they are both good. Just a note, I was impressed with the water graphic quality of HL 2. The FOV correction from the HL anniversary patch, among other cool things, was very welcome. Anyway, honestly, I have no negative reviews for these games. Valve has guaranteed support for these games over the years and that's a good thing. They are also extremely well optimized games and work immediately, without requiring tedious adjustments, something rare to see in many titles out there.
 

Ash

Arcane
Joined
Oct 16, 2015
Messages
7,006
You all loaded your pants when you saw the gravity gun.

HL2 had more systems built for it alone than any other game, except maybe Crysis.

Half of these didn't play Half-Life 2 when it was still new, which is why they can't appreciate its significance. Some codexers weren't even born yet when it came out 20 years ago. It didn't take long for other games to adopt the same mechanics and ideas that are still a staple today.

Half-Life 2 in 2004 was like Wolfenstein 3D in 1992. They had people playing with mouths agape.
Aye, they're full of shit. I don't know why people feel like they have to lie, who are they trying to kid?

The hype was unreal from day 0 when it was first revealed in PCZone magazine, to those high quality bink trailers that dominated download sites.
It killed any and all momentum Id and doom 3 had, and the beta client leak broke the internet and topsites.

It put ATi ahead of Nvidia in marketshare for the first and far as I know last time -because 97 and 9800's were the cards to play HL2 on.

It was so good that no other game in existence could have gotten us to accept the bullshit that was early steam.

Sheep. My mouth was agape because shit had been stuffed in it. I could not believe this was supposedly the best PC game of all time, what a total farce. It's not even a notably good game, let alone competition for best. This was probably when I first realized people really do just have that low standards. It was hyped to death so it must be good right? That's called a marketing campaign manipulating your pea brain. There isn't much more that pisses me off with the retarded human race than their susceptibility to manipulation from powerful people, tendency to follow the crowd like a brainless moron, as well as the complete blindness to said manipulation.

Half this thread is filled with prestigious gentlemen that see Half-Life 2 for the mediocre game it very obviously is. The other half...well if you're in disagreement I have news for you: you have shit taste and are the type that makes the decline (of video games and probably society on the whole) even a possibility in the first place.
 

Morenatsu.

Liturgist
Joined
May 6, 2016
Messages
2,813
Location
The Centre of the World
You all loaded your pants when you saw the gravity gun.

HL2 had more systems built for it alone than any other game, except maybe Crysis.

Half of these didn't play Half-Life 2 when it was still new, which is why they can't appreciate its significance. Some codexers weren't even born yet when it came out 20 years ago. It didn't take long for other games to adopt the same mechanics and ideas that are still a staple today.

Half-Life 2 in 2004 was like Wolfenstein 3D in 1992. They had people playing with mouths agape.
Aye, they're full of shit. I don't know why people feel like they have to lie, who are they trying to kid?

The hype was unreal from day 0 when it was first revealed in PCZone magazine, to those high quality bink trailers that dominated download sites.
It killed any and all momentum Id and doom 3 had, and the beta client leak broke the internet and topsites.

It put ATi ahead of Nvidia in marketshare for the first and far as I know last time -because 97 and 9800's were the cards to play HL2 on.

It was so good that no other game in existence could have gotten us to accept the bullshit that was early steam.

Sheep. My mouth was agape because shit had been stuffed in it. I could not believe this was supposedly the best PC game of all time, what a total farce. It's not even a good game, let alone competition for best. This was probably when I first realized people really do just have that low standards. It was hyped to death so it must be good right? That's called a marketing campaign manipulating your pea brain. There isn't much more that pisses me off with the retarded human race than their susceptibility to manipulation from powerful people, tendency to follow the crowd like a brainless moron, as well as the complete blindness to said manipulation.

Half this thread is filled with prestigious gentlemen that see Half-Life 2 for the mediocre game it very obviously is. The other half...well if you're in disagreement I have news for you: you have shit taste and are the type that makes the decline (of video games and probably society on the whole) even a possibility in the first place.
Ok modder
 

Beans00

Erudite
Possibly Retarded
Joined
Aug 27, 2008
Messages
1,609
Hi. My name is Ash. I'm an edgy oldfag who hates anything after 1995.

Ash is a poser, he only played most of these games in the late 00's. Then he turned into a modder who sits around all day being autistic, while having mods hijacked and crying about it lol.
 

Glop_dweller

Prophet
Joined
Sep 29, 2007
Messages
1,209
I bought the game, I installed it years ago. I've never played it; same with Witcher 3.
 

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