Half-Life Turns 10

I forgot to make a thread about this on the Snarkpit :dizzy:.

On Wednesday, 19th of November 1998, a game called Half-Life was released. It was Valve's (founded by two ex Microsoft programmers) very first attempt at a game. It wasn't all smooth sailing. One year after Valve started Half-Life, they weren't happy with what they had produced and decided to remake the whole game from scratch. Perhaps if this decision wasn't made, Half-Life and its successors wouldn't be quite what it is as we know it. Happy accident?

Happy Birthday Half-Life!

10 years on, Half-Life alone is still a strong game with a loyal community of fans and designers making custom content for the game. Do you think the Half-Life 2 will have the equivalent of the Half-Life 1 community after 10 years? I guess we won't know until 2014.

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Aaron's Stuff

WHAT Aaron said!

WOOOt; Half-Life RoX! :aaatrigger::crate::aaatrigger:

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Blog: www.playingarchitecture.net
LinkedIn: Eric Lancon
Twitter:@Riven202

"aaron_da_killa" said:
10 years on, Half-Life alone is still a strong game with a loyal community of fans and designers making custom content for the game. Do you think the Half-Life 2 will have the equivalent of the Half-Life 1 community after 10 years? I guess we won't know until 2014.

I think thats because of the VHE and the HL Source Code flying around the Internet.
Happy birth day from me too,Half Life!

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I was actually going to start a thread about this thing a few days before Half-Life's birthday. However, I had some really bad problems with my account and was out for about a month before the wonderful Gwil fixed my problem.

I've read a lot about Half-Life and played it over and over and over.. and over again, and by far, the Half-Life saga is the best game series ever created in my opinion. Every time a new Half-Life game has come out, it's set a new level of standard in the game industry. I wasn't very old when Half-Life came out but I remember that it was the best damn game I ever played. When Half-Life 2 came out... god the graphics, physics, AI... everything just made my jaw drop. The satisfaction of rolling a barrel down the stairs and it behaving like real life objects and the atmosphere created by the characters in the game is what makes it so unique. It was so much more than I expected, as no other game had done such a good job prior to then. From Wikipedia: "The game has been critically praised for its advances in computer animation, sound, narration, computer graphics, artificial intelligence (AI), and physics."

I still think that Half-Life 2.. and in particular Episode Two has the most beautiful water detail by far. Also Episode Two has to be applauded for the advancement in trees and the natural world in general.

But I have taken a detour from Half-Life 1, whose succes we are celebrating in these weeks.

I sincerely hope Valve is lying about Episode Three being the final game of the saga.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HALF LIFE!

ps. This should also be noted. From Wikipedia: "According to GameSpy, Half-Life 2 is the second most played online computer game (excluding MMOGs), surpassed only by Half-Life."
-It's wonderful isn't it, how Half-Life is the most played game, and it's very decendant is the second most played.

I must agree with you **Dedi**. I think Valve could have done better with Half-Life 2 Episode 1 but I really enjoyed the original environments in Half-Life 2 Episode 2, it gets a little dull fighting in City 17 after two games and many mods.

I wonder when Valve are going to announce Episode 3, I mean now that Left 4 Dead is released I think an announcement for Half-Life 2 Episode 3 is imminent.

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Aaron's Stuff

**Dedi** said:
I sincerely hope Valve is lying about Episode Three being the final game of the saga.

Well, they only said that it would be the last episode, but they also said (and I quote) "Half-Life will not end with episode 3") -Doug Lombardi

^What does that mean? Probably more games based on the story, or novels, or a movie, who knows? But it certainly confirms that Half-Life is not over with the conclusion of episode 3.

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Blog: www.playingarchitecture.net
LinkedIn: Eric Lancon
Twitter:@Riven202

Yes, I have thought many many times, how wonderful it would be if movies started being created, parallel to the games. Just imagine the millions queuing at the cinemas. Even better is the thought of starring in such movies

Your words reassure me very much Riven. Thanks

Aaron_da_killa, I also found Episode One to be less eventful than all the other games, but Valve more than delivered on Episode Two in my opinion. I guess we could look at Episode One as a set up to Episode Two. Having said that Episode One is less eventful, I still found it very enjoyable and the atmosphere created by characters was just as great as with the other games. Perhaps sometimes it's good to have a bit of a 'break' between great events. A bit of breathing room. Honestly, I cannot wait for Ep3!!

no
no
no
no movies pleeeeez EVER gagh

MAYBE a TV show. The games are far more entertaining than most movies I've seen anyway, by dint of their pro-level design. Some of my most memorable gaming moments are of hanging by a 10-point health thread somewhere in Black Mesa with my agitated friend beside me yelling at me to "do this ! No ! do that!"

hahaha.. Now that you mention, it would sort of destroy the games' playability and enjoyability, as movies often do to books and such...Only have to say 4 words to support my argument. Lord of The Rings. Even though I've never read the books I hear they are excellent.. but I can NOT sit down and watch a LOTR movie

Hmm, A Half-Life movie? I don't know how I would react to that. I guess it would be a pretty good thing for the fans, and it actually has potential to be a good movie, might have to be some tweaks to the story like perhaps Alyx being around mute Gordon (oh and Gordon wouldn't be mute) alot more and them meeting up with rebals and such and them following, and dying one by one only to be replaced by other rebels. Yeah, I see potential .

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Aaron's Stuff

I came to Half-Life from Tomb Raider. I loved the Half-Life graphics. I loved the attention to detail in their environments. I loved the way there were scenes were entire concrete roofs were blown down by heavy fire (bare in mind this is from someone who came from Tomb Raider, right?) I loved how Gordon actually pulled the old magazine out of the guns out slotted a new one in. Half-Life 2 was a big disappointment in that respect.

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Just Kidding

Just Kidding

On the contrary, I think Half-Life 2 impressed just as much as Half-Life did in it's time. Go now and play through Half-Life 2, you'll find attention to detail is amazing... Another thing I find is, no matter how many times I play a Half-Life game over and over, EVERY time I'll find a secret location or a detail I missed the previous time. Right now I'm playing Half-Life 2 again, and just a few days ago I came across a hidden cave at the Dam prior to Black Mesa East, where a Vortigaunt was isolated and to access him you have to walk across toxic waste. When I got there, he was cooking a headcrab and when I approached him, he talked about the Nihilanth.. something I didn't find the previous 3-4 times I played Half-Life 2. Something new I come across amazes me every time I play a Half-Life game.. That's one of the aspects that makes them so unique and re-playable. There is not much deepnes to games nowdays, and Half-Life has retained that over the years.

Half-Life turns 5

"Forceflow" said:
Half-Life turns 5

You must mean Half-Life 2 turns 4 years and 1 month, do you?

**Dedi** said:

"Forceflow" said:
Half-Life turns 5

You must mean Half-Life 2 turns 4 years and 1 month, do you?

half... life...

I remember seeing the "Children of Man" trailer and for just a moment it looked like a HL2 movie. The part when he is on the train.

Anyways, I think the story is wide enough where a movie could be made in the HL universe but not follow freeman. Like a movie about the rebels in city 17 where Freeman is only spoken of but never seen.