FMPONE

Finally, hype! Rip

Even if numbers dwindled quickly they have a bunch of content ready to go, we’ve already heard of a map enclave and I think survival island. They’ll be good for 2019 I’m sure I agree the mode needs some tweaks and suggested on twitter making a non-random loot map for a try at a competitive version. But tbh the fact that they’ve been developing all of this content (a ton of work) and the fact that it resulted in a nice player gain, you can rest assured they’ll keep improving it.

This is cool and unexpected on top of the other cool and unexpected good stuff lately.

Expected. Next step will be Valve being bought out by Microsoft sometime in the next 3-5 years.

Not sure some of those Valve releases really count as notable first party releases (Alien Swarm [im a big valve fan and I never heard of it until years after the fact]/The Lab [15 minute game]). But anyway my point is Nintendo’s commitment to first-party stuff has actually earned them a lot of criticism from the games press over the years. People felt like they weren’t being open enough to more mature releases, or just non-first party exclusives such as what Sony or Microsoft do by pursuing big partnerships with someone like Hideo Kojima or Bungie, etc. Despite the criticism it seems to have served them very well however, through the good times and the bad, they’ve weathered every storm (GameCube, Wii U), only to bounce back stronger. I think it’s because people know their next console will feature a blockbuster set of Mario/Zelda/Pokémon games and that ultimately it will be worth the purchase. Even Sony or Microsoft has struggled to create stuff people care about so reliably and dependably. Steam has Dota 2/CS/TF2, but it’s a very thin first party list compared to the console scene and especially compared to Nintendo’s first party offerings, which are always timely and almost always critically acclaimed. So yes, I love Valve games, they have the quality IP, but the lessons from Nintendo should extend beyond just hardware innovation. It’s also about how Nintendo makes the most of their IP by thrilling their player base and fans combining innovative hardware with new installments of their biggest franchises every time. You just don’t see Nintendo letting their biggest franchises sleep for 10 years at a time.

Forgetting l4d2... WOOPS

I put this together given Gabe Newell's open admiration of Nintendo, I think the differences between Valve and Nintendo are really obvious both in terms of quantity of successful IP and also how Nintendo treats their IP much better in terms of frequent, timely releases

It looks like a really fun game, but I’m gonna be honest, the screen door effect hurts my eyes

A cool map/mod! I enjoyed this from a pure Half-Life fan perspective, the goal of Half-Life stuff always being to drive you along a linear path. But that's also where I'd say my biggest critique lies from a gameplay standpoint. The one big thing this map could use more of is narrative beats. When it gives you even a smidge (like the radio call from a friendly NPC) I was definitely hoping to get some juicy narrative moments. The lack of friendly NPCs, an overall "narrative" (what does the title mean? what is the protagonist actually trying to achieve?), and a pretty thin puzzle layer took it down a notch IMO. I felt it got a little repetitive with how you were gating players (using grenades to blow stuff up, taking elevators) and that wasn't a particularly satisfying gameplay beat for me. I would also say the ending is a bit of an anticlimax. Don't want to sound harsh, clearly a lot of work went into this one, and it does what it tries to do fairly well in terms of encouraging players on a linear path using different combat beats and setpieces. But I would say that it didn't dial back the years for Half-Life 2, it felt a bit limited from a big picture perspective with its pure focus on combat and forward momentum. I liked the wood falling onto enemies, the flaming barrels rolling down the sewer, there were some cool moments for sure, but it was hard to care about the journey despite these interesting bumps in the road. There were areas where you tried to do some cool classic Half-Life stuff (showing the G-Man through a window) but it falls a bit flat because the surroundings and build up and mood don't really combine to provide much of a thrill when you get that good moment. There was also a lack of enemy diversity I would say for such a short map, it focuses a lot on killing the same types of enemies over and over. On the plus side, everything that it sets out to do it does pretty well in terms of sound design, visuals, diversity of locales. It's just that there isn't much to hang your hat on in terms of "new" features, story, or stuff that would appeal to someone who isn't already a fan of Half-Life. I know you said this is an older project, but a good hypothetical project might be to design a mod without any combat at all, and then compare that to what you've got here. There would be a lot of room for improvement working more of that style of gameplay into this style of gameplay, because I really feel like you need both (puzzles/combat) and then a nice human layer on top of that with a story and interesting goals for players. Hope this helps!

Looks really cool! The church shots in particular seem to pop quite a bit.

This is awesome!

Downloading now, will play tonight. Very excited.

They are so full of shit with their engine. People have been saying it's an outdated buggy mess since Oblivion. It's time to get a new fucking engine already

This seems a bit premature. I can’t picture them walking away from an IP as big as Fallout. Its worth pointing out though that they’ve now struck out on both Wolfenstein AND Fallout sequels. What’s next, fucking up an Elder Scrolls? That would be devastating. Definitely something seems a bit off with their quality control lately...

Thanks for pointing these out! Bouncing smoothly off this wall isn’t ideal IMO because sometimes when you peek an angle you want to tuck into it rather than glide off smoothly. Not ideal for every situation but I think it’s better to tuck here than to slide off unintentionally into mid