this post was submitted on 16 Nov 2024
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[–] HawlSera@lemm.ee 12 points 4 hours ago

I'd have done it just to conclude the story, but then agian, I like stories...

[–] Mwa@lemm.ee 8 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago) (1 children)

Why does Gabe newell look like Richard stallman,Funny enough they have different goals and oppose each other.

[–] RangerJosie@lemmy.world 1 points 55 minutes ago

The man has aged since that famous photo from like 20 years ago.

~shock~

~gasp~

~questions asked at parliament~

[–] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 36 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

I. Do. Not. Care. About. The. Tech.

Gabe, you created an obligation when you ended Episode 2 on a cliff hanger. You should have just let Marc Laidlaw and the game devs just make more games.

As long as it had kept the core writers, I'm sure everyone would be happy. Hell, any "innovation" is being handled by the modding continuity. Breadman of Entropy: Zero created a more fun combat loop then any of the HL2 games have. Singularity has a better physics weapons just by being able to use it independent of the selected weapon and making the object transparent.

[–] SirEDCaLot 13 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

I. Do. Not. Care. About. The. Tech.

Exactly. The tech doesn't matter. Tech only exists in service of the gameplay, and (introduced with HL1), the story (previous to HL1 the 'story' of most games was just a quick blurb on why there's monsters and why you have to shoot them).

Gamers DGAF about new tech. Gamers wanted to be told a story. We LOVED the story.

Valve could've used the existing engine, built NOTHING AT ALL NEW, and just finished the story with existing assets and we'd all have been over the moon happy.

[–] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 2 points 7 hours ago

You know, I knew the next HL game to come out after Ep2 would be a VR title. It was the most obvious direction Valve could go considering Gabe treats the HL series as a tech demo. Seriously, I think out of anyone at Valve, he has the least respect for the franchise. What I didn't predict that it would a a VR exclusive title and that it would recon the ending of Ep2 so a character that died(and who's VA had died), would be alive again. Hell, they didn't even ask one of the MC's original VA to reprise her role(or cast into a different character if the age was an issue).

I have way more trust in the fan community to continue the story. Entropy: Zero took some cues from Epistle 3, so I hope the breadman and the Project Borealis are sharing notes, so the can have a shared continuity. I really, really liked the voiced MC of Entropy: Zero and the combat loop, with more enemy types and weapons was superb.

[–] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 11 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (2 children)

Copping out of an obligation?

Dude, not finishing the story and leaving us all on a cliffhanger for seventeen fucking years and then giving this as an excuse is the real cop out.

Looking back, I actually don't like what Half-Life did to the genre. It didn't push it forward; it made everything after a linear, set-piece experience with minimal replay value. It might have been different back in the day, but it wasn't something I had hoped other developers clung to like they did.

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 9 points 2 hours ago

It might have been different back in the day

It was very different back in the day.

[–] TheBat@lemmy.world 21 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Honestly, I have no problems with linear games.

Even Rockstar is fumbling with open-world games. God forbid if you try to do missions slightly differently than how Rockstar intended.

[–] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 2 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (2 children)

:It doesn't necessarily have to be open world as is currently used these days. The OG Doom isn't exactly linear, but also isn't open world in any sense. Remove the loading times between levels and it would be open world in the way that term was originally used. The desirable aspect of an open world, for me, has more to do with the continuity of the play space than how games calling themselves open world games are designed. Free to explore the map without it just being a series of hallways with only one actual path and maybe 1 dead end per fork where they stick a "secret" or treasure.

[–] ampersandrew@lemmy.world 1 points 15 minutes ago

At this point, I'm aching desperately for that linear shooter. They have other strengths. Halo Infinite offered a ton more freedom than the old games, but it was worse off for it.

[–] viking@infosec.pub 2 points 1 hour ago

The OG Doom is fairly linear, unless you play on the lowest difficulty level where all doors are permanently open. Else you need to kill specific enemies that can only be found in certain rooms to get keys.

[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 10 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

What did Episode 1 and 2 push forward?

[–] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 8 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Linear, set-piece story-telling.

[–] Viper_NZ@lemmy.nz 2 points 6 hours ago
[–] slaacaa@lemmy.world 27 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago) (6 children)

Meh. They might have not wanted to make Ep3, but the fans sure did.

I understand Valve works or used to work very differently, people collaborating without a strong top-down steering from management. Yet whatever explanation they have, we were punched in the gut at the end of Ep2, then left waiting, holding our breath. It’s just a piece of media, but it was an important part of my teenage years, and I could never experience the end of the story (outside of reading it in a blog) I waited so much for.

This made me really resent Valve, and soured my experience/memories with the series, I haven’t touched HL or other Valve game for 10+ years, and I don’t think I will in the future.

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[–] dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 87 points 19 hours ago (2 children)

I think most gamers would have been perfectly happy with a trip to the Borealis just for the closure of the thing, even if the gameplay brought little to nothing new to the table other than some nice new visuals and arctic setpieces.

Instead we got Half Life: Alyx which was a stunning albeit niche experience in the same old City 17, which retconned Episode 2's cliffhanger with another, different cliffhanger. For fuck's sake, Gabe.

[–] TheBat@lemmy.world 37 points 18 hours ago (8 children)

Instead we got Half Life: Alyx

Only if you're rich enough to afford VR setup. Fuck me for being born in a third world country, right Gabe?

[–] ms_lane@lemmy.world 15 points 12 hours ago

And are physically abled to play in VR.

I had a VR Headset (Vive Cosmos), but my eyes just aren't up scratch, so I could never enjoy it.

[–] SRo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 33 points 18 hours ago (1 children)
[–] TheBat@lemmy.world 29 points 17 hours ago (1 children)
[–] qarbone@lemmy.world 7 points 9 hours ago

Don't threaten them with a good time.

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[–] squirrelwithnut@lemmy.world 26 points 19 hours ago

This. I didn't (and still don't) need groundbreaking gameplay for Episode 3. I just wanted an ending to the plot.

[–] NeoToasty@kbin.melroy.org 38 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

I have so many thoughts about this.

I would've wanted a conclusion just to shut up all of the dead-horse beating to dust memelords that for years have been wagoning their tiresome HL3 jokes.

But, it's like, how many games have we waited so long to be released whether it's to continue the story or end it and the reception being more of "...wait that's it?!" than "I'm satisified."

Gamers are the hardest people to appease, so I get the sentiment that Gabe not only felt stumped but written himself into a corner with HL3. Whatever hype at all that has been built, is insurmountably high that whatever Valve pitches out, it's going to be mixed. It'll have a higher chance of being what happened to Duke Nukem Forever in context, than it being what Baldur's Gate 3 became 23 years later after Baldur's Gate II. It's a very narrow window to hit that sweet spot.

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[–] newthrowaway20@lemmy.world 92 points 22 hours ago (13 children)

Shame Ubisoft doesn't feel this obligation to gamers. If they did, we'd probably only have 4 assassin's Creed games

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[–] 4am@lemm.ee 66 points 22 hours ago (2 children)

We’ve been waiting for so long that games don’t even remember Half-Life. It’s all “silksong copium” memes now lol

[–] missingno@fedia.io 19 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

I think HL3's meme status is the only reason a lot of gamers today do know it. If it had come out, it would've been forgotten.

[–] interurbain1er@sh.itjust.works 7 points 16 hours ago

Just like duke nukem forever was. Had to think hard to remember the name.

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[–] derpgon@programming.dev 49 points 23 hours ago (3 children)

At this point I am just expecting Half-Life 2: Episode 2, Part 2

[–] billwashere@lemmy.world 11 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Then Half-Life 2: Episode 2, Part 2; Chapter 2

[–] lunar17@lemmy.world 10 points 18 hours ago

Valve is asymptotically approaching episode three. Always getting closer, but never quite reaching it.

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