Black Mesa Source

    Who cares about it's age? It's about gameplay. For me, only a couple of titles surpassed or came close to the original Half Life and that's 14 years ago. Graphics don't mean dick if the game itself is bad.

    I'm surprised about this update though. I had given up on this mod a while back. Now they made me hopefull again. It's like being constantly cockteased

    Quote from SpronyvanJohnson

    Who cares about it's age? It's about gameplay. For me, only a couple of titles surpassed or came close to the original Half Life and that's 14 years ago. Graphics don't mean dick if the game itself is bad. I'm surprised about this update though. I had given up on this mod a while back. Now they made me hopefull again. It's like being constantly cockteased

    I think the key thing with BM:S is that it sits on the right side of the 'when games started to look timeless' line. There's a reason few people replay 3D games from pre-2000 and that's because many of them look absolutely atrocious now, including HL1. However well-produced games after that point tend to look quite decent and always will, including HL2.

    The important thing about BM:S is that it comes out, because even if its graphics don't match the latest standards it's always going to look pretty good. I'm glad they're taking their time to get it right because I'm sure if they released earlier builds we'd be disgusted due to areas being completely unfit for play.

    Quote from Thrik

    I think the key thing with BM:S is that it sits on the right side of the 'when games started to look timeless' line. There's a reason few people replay 3D games from pre-2000 and that's because many of them look absolutely atrocious now, including HL1. However well-produced games after that point tend to look quite decent always will, including HL2.

    This is actually quite true.

    And I also agree with you on the fact that I'd prefer getting BM:S in one, polished installment.

    I'd prefer it if the released it in a episodic fashion.

    hl1 is even divided into chapters, so its a natural fit i think. I also think that the game (as a whole) would be finished sooner that way because shit just gets done faster if you show it to people earlier.

    There are downsides to episodes too, though. It's common during the creative process to think of things later that could really enhance something produced earlier, especially in a game like HL1 where similar assets, enemies, and environments are used pretty much continuously. The overall quality of the game could drop significantly, even if it gets done faster. It takes a lot of skill to manage episodic releases of an FPS well, a skill even Valve have totally failed at (Hello, Episode Three?).

    You guys really think Half-Life 1 looks atrocious? I love the look of it still. It's lo-fi, for sure, but it's absolutely still playable. And that's not just nostalgia, I've been replaying Opposing Force recently. And not directly related, but I love the player movement from the original Half-Life. It's more that greased coasters movement from Quake II.

    Quote from Skjalg

    I'd prefer it if the released it in a episodic fashion.hl1 is even divided into chapters, so its a natural fit i think. I also think that the game (as a whole) would be finished sooner that way because shit just gets done faster if you show it to people earlier.

    100% agree with this.

    Quote from SamCom

    You guys really think Half-Life 1 looks atrocious? I love the look of it still. It's lo-fi, for sure, but it's absolutely still playable. And that's not just nostalgia, I've been replaying Opposing Force recently. And not directly related, but I love the player movement from the original Half-Life. It's more that greased coasters movement from Quake II.

    It feels good indeed, it's one of the best games ever that you'll remember forever. But it didn't age very well dude, It looks pretty flat. (Talking looks here, not gameplay. Since gameplay wise, HL1 has more than most of the shooters nowadays, unfortunatly :neutral: )

    Granted tho, we're all biased cos we all love Half Life 1, and the nostalgia clouds our judgement a little.

    [Blocked Image: http://www.psisozone.com/images/files/498-1.jpg]

    Never played HL1 and was sorta waiting for this instead... but it almost doesn't seem worth it anymore. Might just pick up HL1 instead, hope it's not too long though

    Quote from Thrik

    There are downsides to episodes too, though. It's common during the creative process to think of things later that could really enhance something produced earlier, especially in a game like HL1 where similar assets, enemies, and environments are used pretty much continuously. The overall quality of the game could drop significantly, even if it gets done faster. It takes a lot of skill to manage episodic releases of an FPS well, a skill even Valve have totally failed at (Hello, Episode Three?).

    I agree with you, but we're talking about a game that is a very close remake to a game already in existence. It would be a hell of a lot easier to plan and produce reusable content when you are 100% sure what the story/chapters/scenes/maps will do and play like. Plus, they could just release each new episode as a patch to the original mod. So if you have it installed on steam you could just update it and get the "latest" episodes, which also could patch the old content if bugs were found etc..

    Quote

    ":3cxxtlak]It feels good indeed, it's one of the best games ever that you'll remember forever. But it didn't age very well dude, It looks pretty flat. (Talking looks here, not gameplay. Since gameplay wise, HL1 has more than most of the shooters nowadays, unfortunatly :neutral: )Granted tho, we're all biased cos we all love Half Life 1, and the nostalgia clouds our judgement a little.

    You're right, it's technically inferior, no question. I just mean aesthetically, it's still pleasing to the eye. And maybe it is just rose colored glasses, and memories of my first playthroughs years ago are overriding logic. There's a sort of charm to the low fidelity of the assets. Your brain is sort of forced to fill in the blanks - models and textures are more abstract. Kind of like MineCraft - it's all blocks, but it can still be very visually appealing. Maybe I'm just crazy, that's a distinct possibility.

    I had a brief period in my life where I was collecting old classics that I didn't play before. I just read or heard great things about them. Most of these game were pre 2002. I did not finish a single one of them because to me, they all looked atrocious. Even too atrocious to see if the gameplay could change my mind. On the other side, if I did play them before [back when they came out] I could still play them now and have the same amount of fun and never even think of them being atrocious. I replayed Diablo last summer and I had a blast. So it must be nostalgia. At least for me it is.

    Kids these days thinking that it's OK to not have played the games we had when we were younger. You want to talk about games here? Go check out a little something called Miner 49er and get back to me, child.

    Quote

    ":2vhkp6jk]

    It feels good indeed, it's one of the best games ever that you'll remember forever. But it didn't age very well dude, It looks pretty flat. (Talking looks here, not gameplay. Since gameplay wise, HL1 has more than most of the shooters nowadays, unfortunatly :neutral: )

    Granted tho, we're all biased cos we all love Half Life 1, and the nostalgia clouds our judgement a little.

    [Blocked Image: http://www.psisozone.com/images/files/498-1.jpg]

    That's a bad screenshot to show, you find bland areas like that in any game...

    [Blocked Image: http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/half-life/en/images/f/f3/HL_BMRF_OldRailSystem.jpg]

    [Blocked Image: http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100322232218/half-life/en/images/b/bb/Test_chamber.jpg]

    [Blocked Image: http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100215011235/half-life/en/images/9/9c/LambdaTeleportationSystem.jpg]

    [Blocked Image: http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100217221841/half-life/en/images/c/c1/Sterilizer_2_powerup.jpg]

    That's more like it

    HL1 looked great in its day, but HP's screenshot is actually pretty representative of what you find yourself looking at 90% of the time in the game. I know because I tried to replay HL1 in recent years after pretty much giving up on BM:S (been waiting since 2004 lol), and I just couldn't get into it because of how basic everything was. Yes the player physics and interactions with enemies hold up great, but visually it's like trying to go back to this:

    [Blocked Image: http://games.sandoreus.net/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/screenshot-the-secret-of-monkey-island-spanish-dos-ega.png]

    Amazing game, but it's just a bit difficult to immerse yourself in (good job it had a later higher-colour version plus a complete remake). Fortunately nostalgia can help cloud some of these issues, but in HL1's case it's just not enough for me. Comparable gameplay with a fresh coat of paint is pretty much exactly what the game needs, and if BM:S delivers it'll open HL1 up not only to those of us who remember it but also a whole new generation of gamers who just can't handle playing such a primitive-looking game.

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