Quake 2 Or Half-Life 1?

I haven't even played Quake 2 so Half-Life 1 I guess.

9 hours ago, Graf Zahl said:

Even a HUGE complex has some structure, it's not an endless string of sections that have no recognisable interconnectedness.

It has plenty of interconnectedness, there's even digital maps scattered across the facility showing the structure of various sectors. All looks and feels very connected to me.

10 hours ago, DarnedEnd57 said:

But Valve games are mainly created to make a technological statement. 

*to answer interesting questions, in addition to putting technological advances to good use, like HL1 did and then its successor.

Compared to other games, Valve's games were always much more than glorified tech demos or proofs-of-concept, that's probably the most amazing thing about them, literally everything has a purpose in them.

39 minutes ago, seed said:

Compared to other games, Valve's games were always much more than glorified tech demos or proofs-of-concept, that's probably the most amazing thing about them, literally everything has a purpose in them.

I can't say I agree with this remotely. Fucking boring tech demo that does nothing right describes the game I played :P 

Just now, hybridial said:

I can't say I agree with this remotely. Fucking boring tech demo that does nothing right describes the game I played :P 

I was wondering when you'd show up. It was about time, we didn't have enough hatred for HL in this topic :D .

Just now, seed said:

 

I was wondering when you'd show up. It was about time, we didn't have enough hatred for HL in this topic :D .

And I'm impressed how quick the reply came, almost like you were waiting for me :P

Also you might want to check out a post I'm making on playing Deus Ex on the What you're currently playing thread for more of that contrarian-ness. Although that said, its not out of dislike or anything and more just practicality. 

Just now, hybridial said:

And I'm impressed how quick the reply came, almost like you were waiting for me :P

Oh no, I wasn't, I was just online, replying to other topics when the notification popped up, so I came back here :p .

Having tried both the original PC Q2 and PS2 HL1, I'd say Q2 > HL1 anytime.

9 hours ago, Jello said:

I never knew that the handedness affected the direction of the shot. I always assumed it was centered regardless. Thank you for this new, apparently 23 year old information. It actually feels like cheating, binding mouse 4 and 5 to left and right respectively. I really appreciate you mentioning it.

You could also make it one button with aliases. I put the centered hand into a separate bind for those few rocket jump requiring secrets.

alias handleft "hand 1; bind MOUSE2 handright"
alias handright "hand 0; bind MOUSE2 handleft"
bind MOUSE2 handright
bind MOUSE3 "hand 2"

11 hours ago, Jello said:

I never knew that the handedness affected the direction of the shot. I always assumed it was centered regardless. Thank you for this new, apparently 23 year old information. It actually feels like cheating, binding mouse 4 and 5 to left and right respectively. I really appreciate you mentioning it.

Swapping hands is a godsend when dealing with the turrets in Ground Zero. There is always a sweet spot around corners where the turret can't hit you but you can shoot it. Switch to the blaster, tape down the fire button, go and make some coffee, come back and it's gone. Rinse and repeat.

Both are better than their successors (Quake 4 and HL2).

On a whim I wrote a mod that changes the handedness thing in Quake 2 to make the weapon aim at the crosshair, using a concept inspired from Team Fortress 2 where the shot is aimed at a trace fired from the player's eyes. Like the TF2 implementation, it also turns off and fires perfectly straight if the crosshair is too close to a wall, still allowing you to fire around corners. It's been quite fun to play with, even if it does cause some of that nonsense where projectiles can veer off course if aimed at something that move

I loved the shit out of Q2. And that's coming from someone who had to make do with the playstation port. By comparison, the PC version was amazing. I mean they had to cut so much and water it down for the playstation. Somehow I managed to master freelooking, moving and firing like a pro without the use of analog sticks. The game wasn't compatible with those. They changed the ending too, which I guess was kind of cool. Kill Macron, plant a bomb, escape in an enemy fighter and go back to your ship in orbit, ending with a very relieved sounding "let's get the hell out of here."

I loved the beefiness of the guns too, especially the super shotgun. And, unlike the PS version, you got the energy shield armour. I think that's because there was no inventory system in the port. I don't recall ever playing the expansions, though way wayyyyy back in high school I knew a guy who happened to have the Xaero expansion, so I played that a few times. 

Half Life was good, though it did drag a bit in places. It certainly moved at a slower pace than what I was used to, which I think is what put me off about it. I'm actually struggling to find anything to really say about the game. It was good, but...I dunno. I had the expansions for it too, but compared to Quake II, I've barely touched it. I don't really think it was worth all the praise or accolades it seemed to get in its day. I know which of the two I'd rather play if I had a choice.

3 hours ago, The Strife Commando said:

Both are better than their successors (Quake 4 and HL2).

Oh you didn't just say that Half-Life 2 is worse than HL1. Quake 4, yeah, I agree with you. But trying to say that one of the best games ever made is worse in HL1 is a crime.

10 hours ago, DarnedEnd57 said:

Oh you didn't just say that Half-Life 2 is worse than HL1. Quake 4, yeah, I agree with you. But trying to say that one of the best games ever made is worse in HL1 is a crime.

Yeah man, that would make even the Universal Union upset.

10 hours ago, DarnedEnd57 said:

Oh you didn't just say that Half-Life 2 is worse than HL1. Quake 4, yeah, I agree with you. But trying to say that one of the best games ever made is worse in HL1 is a crime.

HL2 was dull as dish water, the extra episodes didn't really improve the experience.

HL 1 for me, the environments, weapons and general theme are great. OP4 being the coolest part of the series.

I remember before HL was released, Q2 vs Unreal was the thing until HL came out and silenced the argument.

13 hours ago, DarnedEnd57 said:

one of the best games ever made

I can't imagine thinking this. I just can't. Here, I'll fix it for you to the truth. 

13 hours ago, DarnedEnd57 said:

one of the boring-est games ever made 

Now you're making sense :D

2 hours ago, Liberation said:

I remember before HL was released, Q2 vs Unreal was the thing until HL came out and silenced the argument.

Forgive the double post, I can't for the life of me figure out how to add proper quotes to the editing box. 

But anyway, my catty reply to this. Whilst that worthless argument was going on, people with taste were too busy playing Blood, Duke Nukem 3D or Shadow Warrior, and then Half Life was pantsed in story and game design by System Shock 2 a mere 9 months later, but that was not embraced by the masses because intelligence was required to both play it and understand why it pantsed Half Life. 

@hybridial As it happens I do prefer SS2 to HL or Q2.

HL1 was cooler the first time but Q2 is better to replay.

No one seems to mention Blue Shift.

8 minutes ago, The Strife Commando said:

No one seems to mention Blue Shift.

That's because Blue Shift didn't really add anything. Op4 is considered the best expansion because it adds to the experience. New weapons, gameplay elements, and enemies. Blue Shift is also a lot shorter. You can finish it in around 2 hours. 

7 minutes ago, DarnedEnd57 said:

That's because Blue Shift didn't really add anything. Op4 is considered the best expansion because it adds to the experience. New weapons, gameplay elements, and enemies. Blue Shift is also a lot shorter. You can finish it in around 2 hours. 

Yep, OP4 was the better expansion, and I daresay it also had the best combat from the original trilogy. But BS is underrated in its own right, it had interesting new characters and using armor instead of an HEV suit did make the experience feel a bit different. It also had the best Xen out of the bunch, with a clear human touch, although just like BS itself it was also very brief.

The length did hurt BS overall, but also the lack of new additions and features unlike OP4, no new weapons and no new enemies. But at least they got Jon st. John voicing Rosenberg.

Blue shift's main selling point imo (at the time) was the Hi-Def model pack that came with it. The campaign was alright, but I was just happy playing HL1 and OP4 with the new models :-)

As much as I like Gordon Freeman adventures, Quake II was my 1st shooter, tons of nostalgia for my beloved Stroggos.

2 hours ago, seed said:

 

Yep, OP4 was the better expansion, and I daresay it also had the best combat from the original trilogy. But BS is underrated in its own right, it had interesting new characters and using armor instead of an HEV suit did make the experience feel a bit different. It also had the best Xen out of the bunch, with a clear human touch, although just like BS itself it was also very brief.

 

The length did hurt BS overall, but also the lack of new additions and features unlike OP4, no new weapons and no new enemies. But at least they got Jon st. John voicing Rosenberg.

They voiced him?

HL1 has atrocious audio and I'm very, very sensitive when it comes to sounds, so Quake 2 wins by a country mile.

Everything in HL1 sounds bad, not just by design, but also by quality. You can hear the crust in everything - footsteps, gunfire, doors opening, and especially speech and fucking monster sounds. Words cannot express how much I hate the sounds monsters make, Vortigaunts and Houndeyes being the worst offenders.

To this day I can't comprehend how Valve managed to fuck up audio this badly considering numerous titles released before HL1 had crispier sounding audio.

HL1 for sure!

Didn’t help that Q2 always had this weird sound glitch that I could never fix as a kid (everything sounded really distorted / kinda robotic like) but even disregarding that, the story behind HL hooked me as a kid and it remains in my top 5 favourite games to this day!

10 hours ago, SuperchargedEuthanasiaDiv said:

HL1 has atrocious audio and I'm very, very sensitive when it comes to sounds, so Quake 2 wins by a country mile.

Everything in HL1 sounds bad, not just by design, but also by quality. You can hear the crust in everything - footsteps, gunfire, doors opening, and especially speech and fucking monster sounds. Words cannot express how much I hate the sounds monsters make, Vortigaunts and Houndeyes being the worst offenders.

To this day I can't comprehend how Valve managed to fuck up audio this badly considering numerous titles released before HL1 had crispier sounding audio.

HL1 has around 2000 sound files (58 MB), how else were they supposed to fit them all into 1 cd?

Besides, I think some folks are really oversensitive to this kind of stuff. Yeah, you can clearly hear the artifacts if you're looking for them, I can clearly hear them on my current shitty audio setup too, but they aren't nearly as bad, and I've heard the game on many different configurations.

In fact, I think it adds to the game's personality. If everything was so crystal clear and smooth it wouldn't be that much better, it would just make everything sterile and boring.