HλLF - LIFE Mega Thread

[Adrenaline]

The Megathread

All Games in latest order



Half-Life 2: Episode Two is a first-person shooter video game, the second episode in a series of sequels to the 2004 Half-Life 2. It was developed by Valve Corporation in tandem with Episode One, the first game in the series, and released in 2007 via Valve's Steam content distribution platform.The episode was released both separately and as a part of a bundled package, The Orange Box.
Read more at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-Life_2:_Episode_Two



Half-Life 2: Episode One is a first-person shooter video game, the first in a series of episodes that serve as the sequel for the 2004 Half-Life 2. It was developed by Valve Corporation and released on June 1, 2006. Originally called Half-Life 2: Aftermath, the game was later renamed to Episode One after Valve became confident in using an episodic structure for the game. Similar to Half-Life 2, Episode One also uses the Source game engine. The game debuted new lighting and animation technologies, as well as AI sidekick enhancements.
Read more at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-Life_2:_Episode_One


Half-Life 2 (stylized as HλLF-LIFE2) is a first-person shooter video game and the sequel to Half-Life. Developed by Valve Corporation, it was released on November 16, 2004, following a protracted five-year $40 million development, during which a substantial part of the project was leaked and distributed on the Internet.

The game was developed alongside Valve's Steam software. It introduced the Source game engine and, because of Steam, was the first single-player video game to require online product activation.

Read more about the game on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-Life_2
Read more about the Half Life 2 leak on the Half Life wiki: http://combineoverwiki.net/wiki/Leak



Half-Life is a science fiction first-person shooter video game developed by Valve Corporation, the company's debut product and the first in the Half-Life series. First released in 1998 by Sierra Studios for Windows PCs, the game was also released for the PlayStation 2, Mac OS X and Linux ports became available in January 2013. In Half-Life, players assume the role of Dr. Gordon Freeman, a theoretical physicist who must fight his way out of a secret underground research facility whose research and experiments into teleportation technology have gone disastrously wrong.

Read more about the original Half Life on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-Life_%28video_game%29
There's also a downloadable Half Life alpha: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phTjVY04_k0

anyway, discuss. sorry for the c+p i know
i thought it was right to do it because of hl2 update

[Ad Bot]

[ArmyUnit]

It is quite a coincidence that I randomly decided to play through Black Mesa again right before Half Life 2 Update comes out.

Anyway, I really hope Valve announces something Half-Life/Source-engine-update related this E3. It's been waaay too long

[Filipe]

I need to fresh my Gordons and play the series again.

[Decepticon]

am i the only one who would've preferred the beta's story over the one we have now

[Ceist]

am i the only one who would've preferred the beta's story over the one we have now

i'd prefer the map styles.
the stories were just the same thing with different names.

[McJob]

I must be the only one out there who thinks that Half-Life 2's story is a complete cluster forget.

Half-Life was great because it was about you coming to grips with the world you've been thrown into, and I wish there were more stories that used very subtle story-telling techniques like it did. Half-Life 2 is...meh.

[Ceist]

I must be the only one out there who thinks that Half-Life 2's story is a complete cluster forget.

Half-Life was great because it was about you coming to grips with the world you've been thrown into, and I wish there were more stories that used very subtle story-telling techniques like it did. Half-Life 2 is...meh.

Half-Life 2 did the same thing. Instead of being attacked by aliens, your whole world was conquered by a totalitarian super-race and is enslaving humans in one way or another.

[Dreams_Of_Cheese]

I must be the only one out there who thinks that Half-Life 2's story is a complete cluster forget.

Half-Life was great because it was about you coming to grips with the world you've been thrown into, and I wish there were more stories that used very subtle story-telling techniques like it did. Half-Life 2 is...meh.

HL2 did something really complex that I didn't catch onto until waaay after i played it the first time. While I dislike how it leaves so much ambiguous in regards to the story, I really likes the over-arching story valve made.

The G-man observes you kicking ass and taking names in Black Mesa (with or without his help) and recruits you (pet theory: regardless of final choice in HL1, you still survive and get recruited. not correct, but i like entertaining the idea). He manipulates you through HL2 (notice how little choice you have. lazy level design or story element? you decide!), you get freed in HL2:1 (vortigaunts are aware of the g-man) and in HL2:2 you're finally the free-man, to your knowledge. And now that you're free, things seem to be going a whole lot less well now. Alyx gets stabbed through the gut, Eli gets got and the rebel base gets raided. Whole lotta not-good. It wasn't hamfisted, but it was subtle enough for ten-year-old me to miss it, so i can appreciate it.

All that is only a sub-plot to the rest of the tangible game. You fight to free humanity (free-man) while you yourself are not free in any circumstance. You fight to survive and so that others might survive. You meet memorable character, some who know you and others who don't. You explore a post-apocalyptic balkan city, and the forests all around, fleeing humanity's overbearing alien masters whose motives are completely unknown. They stop humanity from breeding, regularly execute citizens and suppress the general population. The only human to gain their favor is the man who made the peace-treaty and sold out all man-kind, Dr. Breen.

IMO, Half-Life 2 and its episodes are a must-play. I recommend them whenever I can.

am i the only one who would've preferred the beta's story over the one we have now

Eh, I could stand not having it. Leaving the combine's motive ambiguous and mysterious does the game a lot of good. One of the levels involved a factory (or something like that, i dont remember completely) that replaced our atmosphere with something that wasn't breathable. Another would have had citizens playing a videogame where they kill each-other with manhacks that they don't think are real. A kinda "you kill in the game, you kill in real life" sorta thing. It wouldn't have been as engaging or believable that the combine simply rolled up to earth simply to randomly kill it's inhabitants. It's better if you can speculate about what exactly it is the alien want from Earth, and it leaves the story much more open to developers. HL2's beta story would have gimped it greatly from what it can be now.

[Anybody]

woah spoilers much?

[Dreams_Of_Cheese]

woah spoilers much?

man what are you doing in the half-life thread if you aren't ready for half-life discussion

[Ceist]

I wonder how useful humans are really to the combine. If you notice their nonhuman-Synths aren't absolutely everywhere, and most of their military consists of human synths. HL2 gives off the Humanity forget Yeah vibe.

From what I read in the wiki, the first thing they did when they conquered Earth was steal its resources. Mostly basic things like water, plant life, and any technology they may have missed *coughreferencecough*

But if you notice, they also took notice the human physiology. They could have just wiped humanity out or use them to clean stuff or just purely experiment on them. They could have had Hunters and Stryders just walking everywhere with all the humans gone, and nothing would have gone wrong. But they chose to instead let us live in their confines. That means we as humans provide a use for them their other synths can't do.

Look around the landscape and you'll notice the only animals that are alive are the ones that persist. Ones that prove useful or are just otherwise hard to kill, or are useless but not a problem with the Combine's motives. Humans are hard to kill, they persist, and can none the less prove useful if manipulated properly.

The only other intelligent creature the combine have is the Vortigaunts, but they haven't been used as weapons. They've been normal slaves, but on the low end of the spectrum. No where near any facilities or Combine outposts. They're in human areas, cleaning, or moving things. There's no synths of them at all. I suspect this is because they're just to powerful to tame without killing them, and they're too smart to be placed anywhere near an installation. They can communicate via Vortesence and send messages to each other without the Combine knowing.

Humans aren't as evolved as Vortigaunts, and so they have to communicate via 'primitive' means like Radio or in person. But Humans are far enough in their evolutionary path to prove extremely useful to the Combine. We're smart, can perceive things, can come up with plans and alternative plans. Get out of a situation quickly. All other synths rely on manipulation by the Combine or their own instinct. Humans also breed quickly enough to produce a large population of soldiers. There's a ton of more reasons why we can be useful.

But so far, for the story, Humans have been a pain in the Combine's collective ass. So technically, with all the power and technology and knowledge the Combine have, they have apparently underestimated Humans.

So you go Humanity, kick Combine ass.

[The Resonte!]

way way back in Half-Life, i need some very detailed information on how to defeat the Gonarch

what weapons are capable of harming him and how much damage i need to do for him to run away and such

[Trogtor]

half life: remastered

[Mouse droidz 21]

way way back in Half-Life, i need some very detailed information on how to defeat the Gonarch

what weapons are capable of harming him and how much damage i need to do for him to run away and such

use the crossbow, rpg and satchel charge. You want to throw a lot of satchel charges at the bottom of it and it should start to die easily.

[hodot]

hurf lurf 3 will never be made