just a quick reminder

you know i disagree that source modding didn't live up to its potential. imagine how many people got hired directly as a result of those mods. all teh bigs mods (nuclear dawn, insurgency, black mesa, dystopia, fortress forever) actually released, even if some of them took forever (all of them except dystopia). i would have liked to have seen hull-breach release, and iw ould have rather seen daveL era- nuclear dawn, but... damn. still impressive job by those teams.

i'm replaying black mesa right now and i actually can't believe the level of polish that flew over my head the first time, this is insane.

source modding is the fucking greatest. hl3 modding will make babies poop gold (circa 2030)

source is rubbish ! there i said it !

still half-lfie 2 and portal == contenders for "greatest game ever made"-title !

Source requires a lot more work and gamers have shifted to expecting only total conversions.

Quote

' timestamp='1367821620' post='331355']Well, that's like, the most relative thing ever. Nostalgia, timing, and many other factors can come into play.

Honestly, I wasn't blown away by Half-Life 2. Maybe it's because I went straight into it off the hype-train and staged preview videos. Underwhelming gun play, no enemy variety, long vehicle sections, My First Physics Puzzles, unskippable "cut-scenes," etc. The finale with the improved gravity gun was really cool until the "boss," I guess. I think the episodes are much better, if that's any consolation.

God I dont want to know how old Quakeworld and QTF are.It might cause me to put a downpayment on a dickrocket and try to nab me a 20 year old girlfriend.

I never completed HL2, for some reason it got so boring when you started to come closer to the combine HQ or whatever it was there later on. I really dig the underground facilities of Black Mesa too... sigh. All these memories.

I was 17 when Half-Life 2 came out. Fuck this.

Cool story though guys: I replayed Half-Life 1 so much I wore out the cd. Still kept it and the original box, though. Too good to throw out!

Damn it... I was 8 when HL1 came out and 14 when HL2 was released. What's going on with this thing called time? Stahp

Quote from dux

Still kept it and the original box, though. Too good to throw out!

Same here, it's the only game box (together with HL2's) I kept.

I guess they're both great games in their own way. Personally, I liked HL1's setting more than the Combine thing, but that's just a matter of taste.

I've had the HL1 vs. HL2 discussion sooo many times and I always come back to picking HL1.

HL2 is a better game, probably, but HL1 is so deeply chiselled into my youth like very few other games. Even after finishing HL1 14 times I still love it, and add to that the entire mod movement with CS, DOD and NS + all the other cooky mods, and it's no contest for me. The nostalgia is strong with this one.

1) What Mazy said.

2) 10 year anniversary of mapcore.net forums (later renamed to mapcore.org) is coming up this October.

Time is going fast

I'd have to choose HL1 for the same reasons as Mazy. That game was so influential on me, and it was also about as perfect as it gets as a creative piece in the context of when it came out.

As a game I'm tempted to say that HL2 was more accomplished and did just as much as HL1 to influence the direction of shooters, but the community and it's incredible mods tip things HL1's way every time. It was a wonderful time to be into modding/mapping.

It's funny because given my interest in Eastern Europe now, if I'd had the same hobby back when I first played HL2, I'd probably have lapped it up because of it's Bulgarian influence from Viktor Antonov. As it was I just felt it was so much of a leap into new territory from HL1 (and I still do), there was no real storyline other than Gordon has to do this and that because of what happened at some point during your long sleep and the way it was unravelled was poorly executed imho. The episodes improved on things a lot, One was more of the same but much darker like the original concept for HL2 and Two was a nice fresh change from the gritty urban depression of the Alien Infested Eastern Bloc-esque jungle. Also the gravity gun was fucking awesome.

As it is Black Mesa just worked on every level, an underground government facility experimenting on alien technology that unleashes Pandora's box. An ordinary Joe Blogs grabbing a crowbar and smashing everything up in his path, fighting off extraterrestrial nasties and an elite squad of soldiers and assasins that have to silence the conspiracy... and for the first time in an FPS, the plot is crucial to the experience.

Crazy to think about. It's also 10 years since I started modding, began with Far Cry/Doom3 before getting really interested in Source upon HL2's release.

I don't think I can easily pick between the two games. HL1 was an awesome experience for me at that young age, and it really got me interested in modding. At that point I didn't have the patience to learn properly, but I certainly got stuck in to the community and played all the greats. By HL2's release, I was more prepared to dedicate the time it was going to take to make my own stuff, and so I did. Winding up spending 6 years working on making HL1 in the source engine, meaning both games almost merge into 1 as far as impact on my life is concerned.

As far as peoples comments on which era had the best mods. It might be because I dropped out of playing every mod I could get my hands on with HL2, but to me HL1 wins hands down. There was such a breadth of experiences you could get from the mods around HL1, Sven Co-Op which was pretty revolutionary to me as a gamer, and I feel still hasn't really been matched. Hostile-Intent was another big favourite of mine for it's tactical gameplay. Also Science and Industry, a game which really needs to see a remake or re-envisioning, the democratic upgrade system added a wonderful dynamic to what was essentially capture the flag. Then Brain Bread and Zombie Panic, because multilayer zombies just wasn't a thing back then. And of course the big ones such as CS, DoD and NS.

That being said HL2 has also had some greats, Eternal Silence, Dystopia and Empires spring to mind as excitingly different multilayer games I really enjoyed, each bringing a totally unique gameplay experience from anything else around. I do feel however that HL2 has managed more impressive single-player modifications, such as Dear Esther, Research and Development, the Minerva Series and Mission Improbable, to name a few. Maybe that is down to the industry maturing as a whole though.

One thing I do remember really striking me about HL2 was the variety and execution of its environments. There is such a huge difference between the oppressive and noisy city streets, the unforgettable claustrophobia of Ravenholm, and the isolation and quiet of the coast. Then there're countless locations that fit inbetween: the prison, Citadel, rivers, etc.

I think HL2 nailed delivering a long, uninterrupted journey through a believable, desperate world just as much as HL1 accomplished the same with a remote research facility.

Valve's biggest stroke of genius with HL2 was making it largely nothing like HL1, making it hard for people to say either is implicitly superior. They are both kings of their own domain.

What Thrik and Jenn0 said.

Quote from Jenn0_Bing

As far as peoples comments on which era had the best mods. It might be because I dropped out of playing every mod I could get my hands on with HL2, but to me HL1 wins hands down.

I don't have numbers, but it appears quite clear to me that even sp add-ons became much less popular with HL2. Sure, along more possibilities, it became more time consuming producing those, but still... it was the same with multiplayer maps: before HL2 I was an hardcore player of DoD and CS and there were a ton of maps around, with the Source versions I still played a lot, but community was less receptive. I think it was because of Steam, stuff came down the wire by itself so newcomers didn't bothered about installing maps.

Now with the Workshop, i wouldn't say there's much more stuff (but i'd guess so), but for sure more people is inclined to adopt it.

i don't think i've ever had the hl1 vs hl2 discussion. i'd probably pick hl1 though. i loved certain parts of hl1 beyond anything, like questionable ethics and surface tension. PLUS, it's set in a desert!!! which is awesome because deserts are cool.

that doesn't mean that hl2 isn't good, however, but many parts are less memorable and probably more bland. that being said, ravenholm was amazing, as were some of the tunnel sections with the buggy. something that would have been interesting would be having a vehicle inside of the city.

Lets get super nerdy guys. How did you first play hl1? For me it was on a cyrix 200 @ 480 res in software mode at like 25fps

On my dad's computer.. I have no idea what spec it was, because I was too young to care It was awesome.

Quote from dux

Lets get super nerdy guys. How did you first play hl1? For me it was on a cyrix 200 @ 480 res in software mode at like 25fps

I started playing it on my dad's computer*, he had a Pentium 333Mhz (those placed on those awkward slot-in cards) and I think we had an nVidia TNT (so played in OpenGL @ 1024x768 on a 15"). I remember I was loving playing with the ergonomic Logitech mice

*we even tried to play together (me at the mouse, he at keys or taking turns) and i remember that, after the first couple of sessions together, he went on by himself just because he hadn't to go to bed early like me

After finishing it on there, I built myself a machine on AMD 450Mhz and started mapping.