10 yrs since hl2......wow

I think new weapons were added as well, lots of them were silly. I remember having throwing scissors lol

were the weapon changes optional too? I just want it for the textures!
 
I haven't tried the cinematic mod because in my opinion it changes the aesthetic of the game too much. I especially hate the new character designs they made. I think if you're going to do a graphical mod it should only enhance the original, not change it.
 
I haven't tried the cinematic mod because in my opinion it changes the aesthetic of the game too much. I especially hate the new character designs they made. I think if you're going to do a graphical mod it should only enhance the original, not change it.

This is why I don't use the updated models in System Shock 2. I'll use the texture updates because they're simply better versions of the originals. I also use the weapon enhancements, because they also follow the same aesthetics. (also things like enhanced water, space backdrops, etc.) The character model update (while it looks good) strayed too far from the original designs, and kind of looked out of place.
 
I agree nearly all of this, except where the setting is concerned. For D3, it's a science installation on Mars. How varied can the scenery possibly be.
id did try to mix things up as best they could. Each of the different labs, the older facilities and, of course, Hell did end up looking somewhat different from each other.

And, geez, Hell. FarCry can't possibly compare to that experience.
 
The best single player FPS is no doubt RTCW, not HL2.

Wow, another good game from back in the day. Up there with the greatest, not best for me though. The multi player in it was epic though. The original Medal of Honor was up there too. Sunk a major amout of time in MoH, HL2 and CS 7.XX & CS Source.
 
I think new weapons were added as well, lots of them were silly. I remember having throwing scissors lol

No? You can turn off all the extras as well, I kept it because I find it more interesting. (Recoil and iron sights are more interesting to me than original HL guns, which were pretty boring). Pretty much anything they added is optional except the better textures. The only thing that doesn't work for me is SweetFX, always crashes.
 
Another good single player action game from this era was Jedi Knight: Jedi Outcast. It has remained the only Star Wars game I give a hoot about. Great lightsaber action, especially with the limb severing mod. It had some mind bending puzzles, and one really annoying sniper level, but overall I loved it. It really nailed the Star Wars universe too.
 
yes i got it second day of release.i still remember my shitty sapphire 850 xt pe that needed to be replced 2x times.
 
Both great games, but the original Half-Life is the best single player FPS ever. No doubt. :p

Have to agree. Sooooo many future titles would not have existed had it not been for this.

However. Far Cry still looms as one of my favorites. Even installed win xp64 just for this games promise of the extended draw distance.

Desperately need a DX11 remake of farcry.
 
Both great games, but the original Half-Life is the best single player FPS ever. No doubt. :p

Thief is the best single player FPS.

I really really liked the original HL but I didn't enjoy HL2 all that much. It took me ages to finish it because I'd always get bored during the overlong car and airboat driving sections. The physics puzzles were so simple that they weren't any more interesting than looking for keys in Doom. And it was incredibly easy even on the hardest skill level.

I actually like Halo:CE better than HL2; larger levels, no loading screens every 5 minutes, more choices in approaching combat, coop, better AI, the vehicles are optional and enjoyable, and you can skip the cutscenes whereas in HL2 you're stuck watching NPCs talk even though you just watched them on the last playthrough.
 
Another good single player action game from this era was Jedi Knight: Jedi Outcast. It has remained the only Star Wars game I give a hoot about. Great lightsaber action, especially with the limb severing mod. It had some mind bending puzzles, and one really annoying sniper level, but overall I loved it. It really nailed the Star Wars universe too.

+1 to this...Jedi Outcast was excellent. The opening levels were a little repetitive IMO, but after that it's fantastic.

With regards to HL2, it was the first game I ever downloaded on Steam back in 2004 and I've lost track of how many times I've played through it. So there's that. The HL2 cinematic mod looks fantastic, but my install got borked somehow and the original HL2 music doesn't work properly anymore. I use the default Valve model for Alyx, modded/hd for everybody else.
 
The cinematic mods seems ok. for some reason i miss the original version - gives me a warm, giddy feeling like when i first saw the hl2 demo at e3!
 
I'm still convinced that there was a good game hiding under Far Cry 2's bad design.

If they did simple things like a proper fast travel and let you take on more than one mission at once, even the checkpoints wouldn't be so bad.


I never was a big fan of Half-Life 2, but the original Far Cry was a huge game for me. To this day, I still replay it every couple of years (along with other greats like Doom and Descent), and it has held up surprisingly well.

Ahhh Descent. I was going to ask how you were playing this game on the current OS's, searched Steam and found they have all three! Thank you for inadvertently bringing Descent back into my library :p
 
I think a new descent game world be quite refreshing at this point
 
I played Half Life 1 for the first time, about two months before Half Life 2 released. I found HL1 to be a much better game.

But HL2: Episode 2 was quite good. Certainly the best HL games since HL1.
 
I played Half Life 1 for the first time, about two months before Half Life 2 released. I found HL1 to be a much better game.

But HL2: Episode 2 was quite good. Certainly the best HL games since HL1.

I just got done playing Black Mesa. Amazing. Short of Xen, it's a complete remake of HL using the source engine (none of that Half Life: Source shit that Valve put out).
 
Funny I just played 3 hours worth of CM mod HL2 today. haha.
I remember not knowing anything about half life then watching my friend play Half Life 1 on his PS2 in his basement back in 01. Got hooked and went crazy for HL2 release. I still love it to this day, brings back so many memories.
 
The Half-Life series is iconic. HL2 was one of the games I've been the most hyped about when it was being released. A friend of mine upgraded his hardware and gave me his coupon for HL2, so I've got actual physical cds for the game- they're stored in my box of gaming treasures.

I've always wanted a headcrab hat, but they were always sold out whenever I would check Steam's store for them. last week, I finally bought one! When he's not watching me game from his perch atop my printer, my headcrab enjoys sitting on my head as I chase my children around the house :D
 
I'm still convinced that there was a good game hiding under Far Cry 2's bad design.

Old post, but have to comment. It is. The outpost crap got annoying and repetitive fast, but overall the game was good. The story I though was great, and was a good experience.
 
I remember the months before release when Doom 3 vs HL2 was shaping up to be an epic battle

Yup, and then Far Cry came out of left field and kind of blew everyone away with its visuals.
Doom 3. Never liked it. Didn't feel like Doom at all, and the graphics were a real disappointment to me.

It was too dark, relied too much on closet monsters, and was too damn long. I thought the game was pretty cool but by the time I got to Delta Labs I couldn't bear to play the game any longer. The shadow effects were pretty good although they weren't soft shadows, but the per-pixel lighting effects were *insanely* cool. Watching the heat ripples coming off from the steam escaping from a broken pipe was just beautiful.




Oh and please... the best single player FPS is Halo /s
 
The shadow effects were pretty good although they weren't soft shadows, but the per-pixel lighting effects were *insanely* cool. Watching the heat ripples coming off from the steam escaping from a broken pipe was just beautiful.

The effects still hold up quite well. I've been playing through it yet another time, and was just standing around looking at some of the machinery. It's actually really impressive. Not just the effects, but the actual art design in the levels. I've also been playing through Quake IV again, and while it's good, and I do really enjoy it, the artistic design in Doom 3 is far and a way better. Things like the big reactor, or the giant spinning generator things... tip top... They give a real sense of massive scale and power. Something I don't often get from games. The only thing I can fault them on visually with Doom 3, is that most of the in-game characters look like John Carmack. :D
 
I agree just played hl2 for the first time and honestly enjoyed far cry alot more..

Finally someone else who agrees that HL2 is over rated. But there is a religion behind this game.

Farcry was too hard so I played the latter half of the game in god mode.
 
Finally someone else who agrees that HL2 is over rated. But there is a religion behind this game.

Farcry was too hard so I played the latter half of the game in god mode.

What put you off about hl2? Anyways, which fps got your attention? I thought the original far cry was more of a OK one time experience. Not much to go back to. Must admit, it was very good looking though.
 
I don't think HL2 is overrated at all. Everything that it tried to do, it did exceedingly well. The story was well thought out, the different areas of the game were varied and presented different types of challenges. I also loved how it made you understand just how desolate and isolated many of the areas were. It had characters that were actually fun to interact with. Loved the nut-job on the roof in Ravenholm for instance. The zero point gun was an incredible new mechanic for the time, and while the source engine has aged, it still looks pretty decent. What's not fun about hurling saw-mill blades at head-crab-zombies? :D
 
As much as love hl2, I've got to give credit to hl1. It started the whole thing for me. Including my counterstrike phase. My god I sunk many hours into that.
 
I never played through all of HL1. I still may go back and finish it off at some point. While everyone was into that, I was buried in System Shock 2, which sucked me in like no other game short of SS1. After that, I just couldn't get into HL1. I still play the System Shock games every other year or so. I'll have to try to squeeze HL1 in, in between SS years. :D
 
how was doom 3 not a technical marvel?

It was 100% a technical marvel. Nothing like it had been done before, and it still looks good now. FC, D3, and HL2 were all in that classification really. All of them did things that nobody had really done yet, and were all a major leap forward. That was a really good year for games. Also F.E.A.R the next year was excellent too. Games were still moving forward, unlike now where they seem to have stagnated. Games were still being developed solely for the PC, and then the consoles got them later as an afterthought.
 
Doom 3 was a Shadow tech show showcase for me. The early stages were promising but ended up being repetitive. Still a good game though. But just good. Not great and memorable.
 
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