Half-Life and Portal series, general discussion (v6) - Games

Honestly, anytime anyone talks about Half Life 3 and the reaction the core fanbase has I believe it will follow a simular situation as Bioshock Infinite, where half will consider the game a blessing from upon high, and the rest will react like Gabe Newell personally came to their house and shat under their covers. Im just hoping the weird ironic hipsters that go "lol hl3 confrimd" will move on to their dead horse to beat.

[QUOTE=artDecor;47156257]half-life is the seinfeld of video games[/QUOTE] This reminds me of the Left 4 Dead mod my roommate and I thought up. It's called Left 4 Nothing. It's a mod that replaces the four survivors with Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer. They start out at the diner when the outbreak begins, George has to go back to his apartment for something trivial while fighting through hordes of zombies. Special infected are changed into recurring characters like Newman as a boomer and Soup Nazi as the spitter.

[QUOTE=Captain Charles;47161443]This reminds me of the Left 4 Dead mod my roommate and I thought up. It's called Left 4 Nothing. It's a mod that replaces the four survivors with Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer. They start out at the diner when the outbreak begins, George has to go back to his apartment for something trivial while fighting through hordes of zombies. Special infected are changed into recurring characters like Newman as a boomer and Soup Nazi as the spitter.[/QUOTE] I'd play that

I think if they made Gordon speak during Half-Life 2, it would be fine, but unfortunately it's dragged out over too many games that if they made him suddenly able to talk now, it would just be jarring to the player. Dead Space managed this by making the protagonist able to communicate in the second game, while in the first game he was completely mute (even with several people talking to him the entire time) and this wasn't too jarring because he only had a few people to interact with originally, and it was only one game later. I seriously think that a silent protagonist because "no but its U, UR the player" is just a relic, and honestly cringe when it becomes painfully evident in a lot of games. It may be true to the series, but it is a sin through and through, in my mind. I can't relate to a voiceless pair of hands, nor can I actually feel emotionally invested in a character with no personality besides "blew up a microwave meal maybe". Maybe I'm just old-fashioned, but is it completely impossible to make a fully voiced character immersive and fluid? It honestly sometimes throws me out of the game when an NPC like Alyx is clearly talking to me and yet I'm saying nothing. No, formulating a response in my mind really doesn't count as immersive if the end result is basically the same. By that point, what IS the point? Half-Life is built on linearity (something that I also think could be sidestepped a little in future entries) so it's not like he would have a plethora of responses.

The thing with HL DM games is that Valve kinda just have it in there because that's what you do when you manage a game engine: have a multilayer component so that mod makers or game designers don't have to code it. In General I find them both pretty lacking, but fun in a weird ghetto sort of way. HL2DM especially, considering the gravity gun adds a whole other level of complexity to the game. [QUOTE=IceyMalone;47161597] I seriously think that a silent protagonist because "no but its U, UR the player" is just a relic, and honestly cringe when it becomes painfully evident in a lot of games. It may be true to the series, but it is a sin through and through, in my mind. [/QUOTE] I wrote a really long post, decided to snip it and post it on my tumblr, here is the tl;dr [QUOTE]The TL;DR: Game design is complex and varied, adding a voice to the player character has it's benefits as does not having a voice, Half Life definitely benefits because it's about surviving after a horrible accident but Half Life 2 gets a bit too weird and goes from survival to having Gordon being an idol for the oppressed masses. Half Life 3 can go either way, I prefer silent and survival because that's just how I do. Another issue with this is that everyone has their own head-cannon of what Gordon would sound like, and you're going to get a lot of temporarily angry fans if you do that, but honestly who cares about fans of things.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=TheTrainRider;47161294]Honestly, anytime anyone talks about Half Life 3 and the reaction the core fanbase has I believe it will follow a simular situation as Bioshock Infinite, where half will consider the game a blessing from upon high, and the rest will react like Gabe Newell personally came to their house and shat under their covers. Im just hoping the weird ironic hipsters that go "lol hl3 confrimd" will move on to their dead horse to beat.[/QUOTE] That's the danger any sort of game that's been delayed for a long time has to go through. Daikatana and DNF were shredded by the press partially because of expectations that were developed during the long production times they had. Then, you have games like Doom 3 and Bioshock Infinite that were praised when they first came out, but after a few months, people realize it didn't fully match the hype and started talking about how the games were actually tremendous pieces of shit that nobody should like. There are some games in dev hell that manage to survive, like HL2, TF2, and Unreal, but people never remember the long wait for them a year or so after release. Like, everyone remembers TF2 as the fun FPS with hats, not the military-themed game that was trapped in dev hell since Quake 2's prime in 1998.

Cool [t]http://i.imgur.com/5bFdYbD.png[/t]

[QUOTE=IceyMalone;47161597]I think if they made Gordon speak during Half-Life 2, it would be fine, but unfortunately it's dragged out over too many games that if they made him suddenly able to talk now, it would just be jarring to the player. Dead Space managed this by making the protagonist able to communicate in the second game, while in the first game he was completely mute (even with several people talking to him the entire time) and this wasn't too jarring because he only had a few people to interact with originally, and it was only one game later. I seriously think that a silent protagonist because "no but its U, UR the player" is just a relic, and honestly cringe when it becomes painfully evident in a lot of games. It may be true to the series, but it is a sin through and through, in my mind. I can't relate to a voiceless pair of hands, nor can I actually feel emotionally invested in a character with no personality besides "blew up a microwave meal maybe". Maybe I'm just old-fashioned, but is it completely impossible to make a fully voiced character immersive and fluid? It honestly sometimes throws me out of the game when an NPC like Alyx is clearly talking to me and yet I'm saying nothing. No, formulating a response in my mind really doesn't count as immersive if the end result is basically the same. By that point, what IS the point? Half-Life is built on linearity (something that I also think could be sidestepped a little in future entries) so it's not like he would have a plethora of responses.[/QUOTE] that's the thing though, you played dead space from a third person perspective (you can see isaac's face early on in the game if you spin the camera around) and isaac made grunting noises, so he already had something of a voice. gordon feels no pain and has no body so you are meant to fill in for him.

[QUOTE=eirexe;47164407]Cool [t]http://i.imgur.com/5bFdYbD.png[/t][/QUOTE] dat sierra

[QUOTE=Captain Charles;47161443]This reminds me of the Left 4 Dead mod my roommate and I thought up. It's called Left 4 Nothing. It's a mod that replaces the four survivors with Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer. They start out at the diner when the outbreak begins, George has to go back to his apartment for something trivial while fighting through hordes of zombies. Special infected are changed into recurring characters like Newman as a boomer and Soup Nazi as the spitter.[/QUOTE] I imagined this: [quote] Oh my god! What's the deal with zombies? George, what-a-ya mean we gotta go back to your apartment? Those are my grandmother's place-mats Jerry, I will NOT lose them just because of a couple of mushy-brains walking around! Jerry! Have you seen those place-mats? They're immaculate! Priceless items! You don't just leave those lying around in an apocalypse, they're priority items![/quote]

"What's the deal with X" is a stereotype of Seinfeld humor. The tone is close, muted examination of mundane and surreal aspects of life. I'd suggest something more like, "Where did the undead get the idea that the living are just available to eat? It's not like we walk around with a sign saying 'Fresh dinner for the whole zombie mob! Come and get it!' The culinary fascination with brains is outright tacky, too. If I were the one to decide which body part my fellow dead man would target, it would be the stomach. That's just bound to have something delicious in there. Plus, with the brain you have to break through a bunch of bone, and by the time you finally get inside the skull cavity, it's all mushy anyway. Talk about an appetite killer! There's nothing worse than having to try and pick up tiny pieces of brain if you're a zombie."

that brings up the question: When the fuck do they eat in L4D? How do the survivors not starve?

change thread name to v3

[QUOTE=Ape?;47149686]change thread name to v2[/QUOTE] [QUOTE=Ape?;47168500]change thread name to v3[/QUOTE] Okay, what are you trying to pull here, buddy?

Building on the Seinfeld idea, I could see it also working with the Always Sunny in Philadelphia crew. Seinfeld might work better but both would have some hilarious settings and conversations. Can someone seriously make this??

I think Seinfeld could work in any world because the humor is based around observations of the world.

[QUOTE=Jebus;47170868]Building on the Seinfeld idea, I could see it also working with the Always Sunny in Philadelphia crew. Can someone seriously make this??[/QUOTE] Seinfeld, Always Sunny, and L4D? This fan fiction could write itself!

A Seinfeld mod for L4D1, an Always Sunny mod for L4D2, then something similar to The Passing afterwards, where both sides meet each other.

I feel very awkward as I have no idea what Seinfeld is or what any of you are talking about

[QUOTE=WhyNott;47172439]I feel very awkward as I have no idea what Seinfeld is or what any of you are talking about[/QUOTE] How do you not know what Seinfeld is?

Speaking of L4D2, the L4D1 animations for the [url=http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=394563548]SMG[/url] and the [url=http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=395091611]Assault Rifle[/url] have been released thus far and, considering the lack of scripts, are online compatible. Six years of waiting finally pays off :toot:

[QUOTE=Pops;47164485]that's the thing though, you played dead space from a third person perspective (you can see isaac's face early on in the game if you spin the camera around) and isaac made grunting noises, so he already had something of a voice. gordon feels no pain and has no body so you are meant to fill in for him.[/QUOTE] Gordon grunts when burnt by fire in hl2

[QUOTE=WhyNott;47172439]I feel very awkward as I have no idea what Seinfeld is or what any of you are talking about[/QUOTE] It was an American sitcom in the '90s. It was based on Jerry Seinfeld's style of observational comedy, making fun of things that you wouldn't really notice. It was extremely well received.

I've always wondered what the fallpain sound is supposed to be in HL1.

[QUOTE=NoaJM;47175281]I've always wondered what the fallpain sound is supposed to be in HL1.[/QUOTE] Your tibia snapping. And people who live in mud huts in South America watch Seinfeld, if Micheal Richards is to be believed.

[QUOTE=NoaJM;47175281]I've always wondered what the fallpain sound is supposed to be in HL1.[/QUOTE] Or the sound when you get on ladders.

Guess what. Today at the work I have found from where the music at the HL1 PS2 trailer comes from: [video=youtube;4wXzfX86lD0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wXzfX86lD0[/video] [video=youtube;iTxOKsyZ0Lw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTxOKsyZ0Lw[/video] Seems they had used some sort of no-vocals version, but is practically the same song.

I come to this thread every day only to see if there's something new on Half-Life 3

[QUOTE=NoaJM;47175281]I've always wondered what the fallpain sound is supposed to be in HL1.[/QUOTE]It sounds like a duck quacking.

I've always wondered if any Half-Life fans that are actual developers came to work at Valve just to see what's happening to HL3. [editline]21st February 2015[/editline] [QUOTE=megafat;47172470]How do you not know what Seinfeld is?[/QUOTE] I think it's not that big in non english speaking countries. I've never met anydoby who knows what Seinfeld is, even though american pop-culture is a thing among Russian youth. Well, maybe I have met some people that've heard of it, but nobody's ever mentioned it, keep in mind that it could easily pop up in a conversation about humorous TV shows. I imagine the case is similiar in Poland.