The Valve and Steam Platform Discussion Thread

[MetalCraze]

It did what no other FPS shooter did before it.

Took place in a linear corridor?

 

[villain of the story]

There is only one way to resolve this conflict. We add up and compare the brofists the proHL posts and the antiHL posts received.

 

[Angthoron]

It's funny that you say that.
The person who convinced me to play HL (when I was bored out of my mind when I realized no more traditional D&D style RPGs were going to be released after Hordes of the Underdark and later NWN2) was my friend who is an English literature major and also one of the most brilliant people I know.

He likes Half Life precisely because the story is understated, without much good writing - without much writing at all - but still well told, through environmental storytelling. He hates all videogame writing because he think it sucks compared to real literature. Yes, even Obsidian/MCA writing.

I too am a brilliant English Lit Major, and I can tell you that your friend is a dumbfuck.

I will second that on both counts. Sorry, no. HL has no story. It's not understated. It just isn't there. There's presentation, and even that is largely absent; HL2 is the game that has a better job pulling off presentation/plot, if anything. HL's story is as involving and descriptive as Doom. You know, like in Doom you have corpses of Marines, each of them telling a unique experience of being a post-colonial marine having been mercilessly de-classed by a throng of repressed feminist imps.

 

[Infinitron]

I was referring to the HL franchise as a whole, not to a particular game.

 

[villain of the story]

Hey leave Doom alone, it at least came with a story in its readme.txt that's longer than the entire script of HL:

------------------------------------------------------------
THE STORY SO FAR
------------------------------------------------------------
You're a marine, one of Earth's toughest, hardened in
combat and trained for action. Three years ago you assaulted
a superior officer for ordering his soldiers to fire upon
civilians. He and his body cast were shipped to Pearl
Harbor, while you were transferred to Mars, home of the
Union Aerospace Corporation.

The UAC is a multi-planetary conglomerate with radioactive
waste facilities on Mars and its two moons, Phobos and
Deimos. With no action for fifty million miles, your day
consisted of suckin' dust and watchin' restricted flicks in
the rec room.

For the last four years the military, UAC's biggest
supplier, has used the remote facilities on Phobos and
Deimos to conduct various secret projects, including
research on inter-dimensional space travel. So far they have
been able to open gateways between Phobos and Deimos,
throwing a few gadgets into one and watching them come out
the other. Recently however, the Gateways have grown
dangerously unstable. Military "volunteers" entering them
have either disappeared or been stricken with a strange form
of insanity--babbling vulgarities, bludgeoning anything that
breathes, and finally suffering an untimely death of full-
body explosion. Matching heads with torsos to send home to
the folks became a full-time job. Latest military reports
state that the research is suffering a small set-back, but
everything is under control.

A few hours ago, Mars received a garbled message from
Phobos. "We require immediate military support. Something
fraggin' evil is coming out of the Gateways! Computer
systems have gone berserk!" The rest was incoherent. Soon
afterwards, Deimos simply vanished from the sky. Since then,
attempts to establish contact with either moon have been
unsuccessful.

You and your buddies, the only combat troop for fifty
million miles were sent up pronto to Phobos. You were
ordered to secure the perimeter of the base while the rest
of the team went inside. For several hours, your radio
picked up the sounds of combat: guns firing, men yelling
orders, screams, bones cracking, then finally, silence.
Seems your buddies are dead.

It's Up To You
Things aren't looking too good. You'll never navigate off
the planet on your own. Plus, all the heavy weapons have
been taken by the assault team leaving you with only a
pistol. If only you could get your hands around a plasma
rifle or even a shotgun you could take a few down on your
way out. Whatever killed your buddies deserves a couple of
pellets in the forehead. Securing your helmet, you exit the
landing pod. Hopefully you can find more substantial
firepower somewhere within the station.

As you walk through the main entrance of the base, you hear
animal-like growls echoing throughout the distant corridors.
They know you're here. There's no turning back now.

 

[Cowboy Moment]

It's funny that you say that.
The person who convinced me to play HL (when I was bored out of my mind when I realized no more traditional D&D style RPGs were going to be released after Hordes of the Underdark and later NWN2) was my friend who is an English literature major and also one of the most brilliant people I know.

He likes Half Life precisely because the story is understated, without much good writing - without much writing at all - but still well told, through environmental storytelling. He hates all videogame writing because he think it sucks compared to real literature. Yes, even Obsidian/MCA writing.

Thing is, the story isn't so much understated, as just really simple. Limbo, for instance, has an understated story told through gameplay and the environment, that actually lends itself to multiple interpretations without being obtuse - and it has no writing at all, neither text nor voice acting. In comparison, HL2's story is just shallow, it basically consists of travelling between locations.

Oh and my sister is working towards a Ph.D. in Classical Philology, and she agrees with everything I post.

 

[MetalCraze]

Villain, there are not as many antiHL posts really as antihipster posts because HL certainly isn't some crap. However it isn't a majestic breakthrough either.

It's like Apple PCs - first they were good and then hipsters turned them into shit.

 

[Menckenstein]

The one thing that I really admired about HL at the time besides the level design was the fact that there were two enemy forces to contend with who also fought each other.

 

[Angthoron]

Villain, there are not as many antiHL posts really as antihipster posts because HL certainly isn't some crap. However it isn't a majestic breakthrough either.

It's like Apple PCs - first they were good and then hipsters turned them into shit.

Yeah, pretty much.

The one thing that I really admired about HL at the time besides the level design was the fact that there were two enemy forces to contend with who also fought each other.

I liked that too. Unfortunately it was also a little too scripted, but still, quite enjoyable. Any game with three-way action can be very enjoyable just because of it being three-way.

 

[Infinitron]

Villain, there are not as many antiHL posts really as antihipster posts because HL certainly isn't some crap. However it isn't a majestic breakthrough either.

It's like Apple PCs - first they were good and then hipsters turned them into shit.

"I liked Half Life before it was popular. FUCK THOSE HIPSTERS"

 

[villain of the story]

The point is something more like that a single game from the past gets hyped beyond reason, new generations who couldn't possibly be bothered check any game older than three years hear about this mythical game, play it and are surprised that there is practically no difference between a NEXT-GEN(TR) MODERN(TR) contemporary title and this ancient title from 10+ years ago and they go "OMG SO BEYOND ITS TIME I SEE NOW THAT IT SET THE STANDARDS FOR FUTUR!".

 

[hiver]

Oh, yes, quite clear mr. "I think HL1 is a subpar game because it doesnt exhibit all the features of modern shooters, especially some that took direct inspiration from it - and because its possible to find a couple of exploits!"

You guys are so fucking dumb that im reading these answers and i just dont know what could be possibly said to you fucks. Youre all just a bunch of incredibly stupid morons.
How many of you even know what games inspired HL1 especially, in terms of gameplay?

And since you are so retarded now you dont have any option but to just assume i think HL is totally majestic and super duper perfectly awesome.

 

[MetalCraze]

HL is literally Quake with cutscenes. Same engine even. Relax, CoD kid poseur.
Thanks to you we now know that HL is special because it basically gave birth to Call of Duty

The point is something more like that a single game from the past gets hyped beyond reason, new generations who couldn't possibly be bothered check any game older than three years hear about this mythical game, play it and are surprised that there is practically no difference between a NEXT-GEN(TR) MODERN(TR) contemporary title and this ancient title from 10+ years ago and they go "OMG SO BEYOND ITS TIME I SEE NOW THAT IT SET THE STANDARDS FOR FUTUR!".

That very much explains it.

 

[hiver]

ah fuck off shithead newfag

 

[SoupNazi]

Hey Hiver, I thought you didn't care about if people disagree? Why are you still arguing then? Why don't you go whiteknight some internet chick with magical left-hand friends while wishing you were even remotely as cool as them?

 

[Sceptic]

Whatever did happen to hiver? I don't remember him being so full of rage a month ago.

 

[villain of the story]

What's wrong, Hiver? Why fail your reading comprehension? Got a problem?

By the way, if you haven't played They Hunger for HL, go and play it now. Brilliant mod that's almost a full game unto itself and it packs some serious professional grade content now and then.

 

[Phelot]

The one thing that I really admired about HL at the time besides the level design was the fact that there were two enemy forces to contend with who also fought each other.

Yeah, and then Halo did it better

As a fellow Bungie fanboi, what do you think of Halo's story? Does it tie in with Marathon beyond a few homages?

For the most part, I was completely put off by Halo, never played it and from what I saw of it, I was happy that I didn't. Bungie getting bought by Microsoft caused me massive bleeding butthurt and the company that emerged from it doesn't appear to be the same.

 

[Menckenstein]

Yeah, and then Halo did it better

As a fellow Bungie fanboi, what do you think of Halo's story? Does it tie in with Marathon beyond a few homages?

For the most part, I was completely put off by Halo, never played it and from what I saw of it, I was happy that I didn't. Bungie getting bought by Microsoft caused me massive bleeding butthurt and the company that emerged from it doesn't appear to be the same.

Didn't Bungie make Oni before that?

 

[Phelot]

Yeah, and then Halo did it better

As a fellow Bungie fanboi, what do you think of Halo's story? Does it tie in with Marathon beyond a few homages?

For the most part, I was completely put off by Halo, never played it and from what I saw of it, I was happy that I didn't. Bungie getting bought by Microsoft caused me massive bleeding butthurt and the company that emerged from it doesn't appear to be the same.

Didn't Bungie make Oni before that?

Yes. I believe Halo was their first game under Microsoft and it was suppose to be one of the exclusives for XBox or something.

 

[Menckenstein]

I watched some Bungie documentary dealie on Halo and it's pretty safe to say Microsoft saved that project. Bungie had no clue what they wanted to do with it. End result wasn't great but it didn't join Grimoire in vaporware heavan.

 

[The Boring Incarnation]

Wasn't it supposed to be an RTS?

 

[Menckenstein]

Wasn't it supposed to be an RTS?

Third Person adventure game.

 

[Infinitron]

How can you talk so much about Bungie and not mention Myth
Also, wasn't this thread about Half-Life

 

[Phelot]

It was strongly implied they were part of the same universe.

http://halostory.bungie.org/marathon.html

Honestly I lost interest in the RAMPANT speculation around Halo 2 or so. Even if Bungie originally planned for it to all tie together in the way Pathways/Marathon did, there were so many canonical merchandizing tie-ins that it would've been impossible for the writers to retain a sufficient level of creative control over the setting. Besides, what's left of the studio don't own the IP anymore.

What's funny is that after Infinity pretty much everyone at Bungie felt they had concluded the series and wanted to do something different. Besides that, Greg Kirkpatrick left and he pretty much wrote the entire Marathon universe or at least Infinity. I wonder what he's up to now?

I always liked Bungie for having fun with their lore and keeping things vague and fun, but still serious enough not to be a complete joke. The tie ins with PiD and Marathon seem kind of stretched. I suspect they simply reused cool names, but just went with it. It's fun thinking that the player in Marathon is using tech the "ancient" US government got from some alien race called the Jjaro back in the 1990's (I like picturing Bill Clinton watching an alien hologram while getting a BJ from Monica ) in which they had to put to sleep a dreaming alien god.

Anyway, here is a link to a retrospective on Infinity and here is Randy Reddig's little reaction to it, in case anyone is interested. Reddig did a lot of the levels for Infinity and went on to work on a few other games.