Game Debate #155: Half Life 2

[Hammerfestus | 3,833]

There was a 2?

[Strange | 1,700]

15 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Have you given out any 10s?

To be honest I can’t even remember lol. If I have, maybe one or two. But I know I’m definitely being too stingy with these threads.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,520]

7 minutes ago, Strange said:

To be honest I can’t even remember lol. If I have, maybe one or two. But I know I’m definitely being too stingy with these threads.

I ask because I've been trying to cover most of history's "biggest" games, but we all have our own esoteric loves.

I know 3 of my own personal 10s will never get a thread because they're not popular enough.

[Gloves | 11,774]

21 minutes ago, Reed Rothchild said:

I know 3 of my own personal 10s will never get a thread because they're not popular enough.

"Games Gloves has Actually Played Debate Series" incoming!

[Reed Rothchild | 9,520]

9 minutes ago, Gloves said:

"Games Gloves has Actually Played Debate Series" incoming!

Speaking of, your movie line dead already?

Another imitator bites the dust 

[DefaultGen | 5,401]

55 minutes ago, Gloves said:

"Games Gloves has Actually Played Debate Series" incoming!

Where’s the Runescape thread

[Gloves | 11,774]

1 hour ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Speaking of, your movie line dead already?

Another imitator bites the dust 

I moved, Bitch. Lol. 

I just haven't had the time, and I'm limited to my phone so the poll part would be cumbersome. 

I have a few lined up. 

[RH | 4,901]

1 hour ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Speaking of, your movie line dead already?

Another imitator bites the dust 

HEY! ...I resemble that remark!

[Sumez | 2,939]

3 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

I know 3 of my own personal 10s will never get a thread because they're not popular enough.

Which are they? 

[Reed Rothchild | 9,520]

1 minute ago, Sumez said:

Which are they? 

Well, I'm gonna be doing another self-indulgent Top 100 list in the near future 

[Brickman | 3,983]

4 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Speaking of, your movie line dead already?

Another imitator bites the dust 

Nah he just reached the end of the movies he’s seen 

[wongojack | 214]

16 hours ago, Sumez said:

Very stereotypical modern FPS with a physics engine gimmick.

It's a fun game, but nothing out of the ordinary, and I'll never understand the hype about this series.

6/10

Story kinda separates the Half-Life series, but even the story is very similar to Doom or Halo.  I think it is really about the creativity of the world Valve built.  If you wanted to kill your friends in a deathmatch with a chainsaw, there were plenty of options for that, but if you wanted to spend time role-playing as a quirky technician who lives in a near-future world with lots of little realistic details and characters then Half Life was for you.  I have played a lot of FPS games, but it is not my favorite genre.  Half Life, Half Life 2, and Portal 2 are my favorite FPS games because they don't feel like they are treating me like a teenage boy.  I like the details they've spent time crafting, and the thoughtfulness of the various levels they've designed.  Non-valve games in the FPS genre that come close would be stuff like Bioshock or Doom 2016.  Both of those games would be a 9 or 10 from me, but Half-Life somehow just left me with something extra when I was done.  Like I actually felt smarter after playing it (or something).

 

Anyway, we all have our opinions.  I don't really like the Mario or Street Fighter series(es), so there's no accounting for taste.

[ZeldaFreak | 3,600]

21 minutes ago, wongojack said:

Story kinda separates the Half-Life series, but even the story is very similar to Doom or Halo.  I think it is really about the creativity of the world Valve built.  If you wanted to kill your friends in a deathmatch with a chainsaw, there were plenty of options for that, but if you wanted to spend time role-playing as a quirky technician who lives in a near-future world with lots of little realistic details and characters then Half Life was for you.  I have played a lot of FPS games, but it is not my favorite genre.  Half Life, Half Life 2, and Portal 2 are my favorite FPS games because they don't feel like they are treating me like a teenage boy.  I like the details they've spent time crafting, and the thoughtfulness of the various levels they've designed.  Non-valve games in the FPS genre that come close would be stuff like Bioshock or Doom 2016.  Both of those games would be a 9 or 10 from me, but Half-Life somehow just left me with something extra when I was done.  Like I actually felt smarter after playing it (or something).

Plus, in the case of Half-Life 2 and its Episodes, it has by far the most powerful empire I've seen in any piece of fiction in the form of the Combine, which is pretty neat. Makes the Galactic Empire from Star Wars look adorably puny in comparison, haha.

[Strange | 1,700]

8 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

I ask because I've been trying to cover most of history's "biggest" games, but we all have our own esoteric loves.

I know 3 of my own personal 10s will never get a thread because they're not popular enough.

Stuff like this is tough for me because I’m just a really indecisive person. My tastes have also changed drastically. 10 years ago I would have told you FF3/FF6 on SNES was my favorite game of all time (and I probably wouldn’t have considered Half-Life 2 a personal 9 or 10 back then either) but today I can hardly stick to a JRPG, as much as I still like them. FF3/6 still holds a place in my heart but it has definitely fallen from my personal first overall.

[Sumez | 2,939]

7 hours ago, wongojack said:

Story kinda separates the Half-Life series, but even the story is very similar to Doom or Halo.  I think it is really about the creativity of the world Valve built.  If you wanted to kill your friends in a deathmatch with a chainsaw, there were plenty of options for that, but if you wanted to spend time role-playing as a quirky technician who lives in a near-future world with lots of little realistic details and characters then Half Life was for you.  I have played a lot of FPS games, but it is not my favorite genre.  Half Life, Half Life 2, and Portal 2 are my favorite FPS games because they don't feel like they are treating me like a teenage boy.  I like the details they've spent time crafting, and the thoughtfulness of the various levels they've designed

So basicall you're saying you like Half-Life for everything that's not a part of core FPS gameplay?

I can halfway respect that, it's the typical AAA "everything and the kitchen sink" design approach, where if the game has enough going on, there should probably be something for everybody.
But there are also a ton of other games doing that exact same thing, and I don't think the HL games do anything outstanding in that regard. And personally I do like FPS games (because I like gameplay, not because I'm a teenage boy), but there are a ton of other FPS games that I think do that aspect a lot better, including the first Doom.

The first HL kinda championed the idea of having a more "realistic" AI governing enemy behavior, making them try to take cover and take potshots at you, etc. Lots of games do that now, but it was a big thing at the time, but the thing is I don't think that actually makes the game any more enjoyable, but rather has the opposite effect. I'd rather be thrown into a situation with multiple different enemy types with different predictable patterns, and having to quickly analyze the situation in order to stay on top of things.

[Sumez | 2,939]

@ZeldaFreak if you have an issue with my description of the game, at least offer some counter-arguments.  Every opinion is valid, and I'd love to hear why people disagree with what I'm saying.

[Brickman | 3,983]

17 hours ago, DefaultGen said:

Where’s the Runescape thread

Collector's Quest podcast:

Johnny: What are you playing Tyler?

Tyler: Runescape!

Me: Oh god not again 

[ZeldaFreak | 3,600]

5 minutes ago, Sumez said:

@ZeldaFreak if you have an issue with my description of the game, at least offer some counter-arguments.  Every opinion is valid, and I'd love to hear why people disagree with what I'm saying.

There's a difference between "having an issue" with your description of the game and disagreeing with it, haha. Beyond that, frankly I don't much care to have that discussion with you since I don't feel anything all that constructive would come of it, seeing as how we're both quite clearly set in our opinions on the game. Neither of our opinions on the game would be even remotely shifted afterwards.

My thoughts summarized are just that I think the story and setting are very unique and intriguing, the worldbuilding is among the best in its genre, the characters are fantastic, the antagonists are all very interesting and captivating to me (Breen, the Combine, and the G-Man who for me is one of the most interesting antagonists in any game I've played,) the gunplay is very fun and satisfying, the little bit of platforming and physics-based puzzles mixed in are fun, the music is bangin', the graphics still look pretty damn good to this day... there's very little about the game I dislike, and the fact that this was all accomplished in 2004 just makes it all the more impressive to me.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,520]

10 hours ago, Sumez said:

But there are also a ton of other games doing that exact same thing

Not at the time, and not as well, in my opinion.

Going back to the Far Crys, Deus Exs, Doom 3s, Quake IVs and (soon) No One Lives Forevers of the era, I think HL2 has much stronger gameplay and world building that has aged far more gracefully than it's peers.  The rest of those games have the kinds of 2000s jank that's been heavily refined over the last 20 years.  HL2 is smooth as silk in comparison.

Just my opinion obviously.

I say all of this with my last playthrough being with The Orange Box, so I'm assuming it was touched up in the years since 2004.

[koifish | 555]

HL2 was the refinement of all the things that HL1 was famous for in the game world, but none of them are things that I like to see in games. In fact, most of what HL2 did in my eyes was set the perfect model in place for what I hate about modern games. Take bad gameplay, throw in cutting edge technological gimmicks, and cover it up with story and pizzazz and worldbuilding, like I'm meant to treat this not as a game but as some sort of cinematic experience. There are people for that product, but I am the furthest from them, and so the most powerful part of HL2 is totally lost on me. All I see is how much I dislike playing it, and frankly, to me, that's the only thing that matters about it. 4/10. Can think of about 15 other shooters I would play before booting this up again.

[OptOut | 8,883]

Who the fug are all these Half Life hating freaks? 

[DefaultGen | 5,401]

1 hour ago, OptOut said:

Who the fug are all these Half Life hating freaks? 

Must be all those elitist haters I hear about from Nintendoage.

[koifish | 555]

2 hours ago, DefaultGen said:

Must be all those elitist haters I hear about from Nintendoage.

and I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for these meddling sages!

[koifish | 555]

4 hours ago, OptOut said:

Who the fug are all these Half Life hating freaks? 

I had just gotten into doom (kind of late I know) when orange box came out, and everybody said 'get orange box' so I got it, and granted I had played maybe 3 shooters before that, but it wasn't long before I went right back to doomin.

HL fans can call me when the novel drops. The "find the hallway" excitement of HL2 should translate well to a linear medium.

[mbd39 | 2,020]

Unfortunately I played this on a very shitty PC where the game turned into a stuttering slideshow when there was anything demanding, so I wasn't able to get too far.