Enough with the constant praise of Half Life 2

[Weaver]

You know, I think we should find a way to spice up this thread next time it comes around. Maybe make the OP wear a funny hat or something.

Well at least the weekly HalfLife hate threads break up the monotony of the daily CoD hate threads. And for that at least we should be grateful.

I for one would like the OPs to form their objections in verse.

I'd like to see them too, but I wager it's just going to end up in what is essentially "NO U!!!".

I love HL2, I won't lie. But, the OP would likely say things along the lines of

"I found the shooting mechanics bad, the enemies boring, the boat section was awkward and slow paced. I didn't like the characters and the weapons were uninteresting."

The thing is, as a HL2 advocate, i actually liked all of those things. I find the shooting very tight. The enemies have a wonderful variety. I feel the large variety of set pieces incredibly welcome. I love the old school weapon design and I found them all fun to use.

But, what I was alluding to in my first post here, is that it's all just subjectivity. If the shooting feels wrong to you, it's incredibly difficult to really pinpoint what it is and put it into words.

 

[shrimpcel]

It set a standard and therefore deserves its praise.

 

[Swifty714]

Constant praise? This exact thread is made on here at least once every 48 hours. If anything there is just constant complaining that it gets constant praise.

The "real answer" is that different people like different things. Not liking HL2 isn't some abomination and liking it is not strange.

I, in fact, made the same thread...like a week ago.

Except I actually replied to people, and made a fair argument, if I do say so myself.

 

[Zhukov]

Y'know what's funny?

I don't see people praising HL2 to the skies everywhere. It's generally just referred to as 'that highly regarded game that most people respect, except a few on the lunatic fringe'.

What I do see however, is a constant trickle of people saying, "Waaah! Stop praising HL2 because I didn't like it!" Which of course just results in a bunch of other people lining up to say, "Actually, I think it's pretty good."

Huh, talk about self-defeating.

...

But every person I've ever met that didn't play it around the time it came out gives a resounding "meh" when asked how it was. EVERY. FUCKING. PERSON.

Oh, bullshit.

I played HL2 for the first time in early 2010. Fucking loved it.

I've seen plenty of other people say the same thing. (Usually because whenever I say it a few people will quote me and say something to the effect of "me too".)

PS. You come across as utterly fucking manic.

 

[Zhukov]

I did a thread once a while back, most of the people didn't like it.

"Most"? What happened to "EVERY FUCKING PERSON"?

Hang on a second...

A recent thread asked the Escapists if HL2 deserved the credit thrown at it. OVERWHELMINGLY (79%) said that it did.

Okay, now I'm just confused.

Just out of curiousity, how old are you?

I am 24 years old.

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

You know, I think we should find a way to spice up this thread next time it comes around. Maybe make the OP wear a funny hat or something.

Well at least the weekly HalfLife hate threads break up the monotony of the daily CoD hate threads. And for that at least we should be grateful.

I for one would like the OPs to form their objections in verse.

I'd like to see them too, but I wager it's just going to end up in what is essentially "NO U!!!".

I love HL2, I won't lie. But, the OP would likely say things along the lines of

"I found the shooting mechanics bad, the enemies boring, the boat section was awkward and slow paced. I didn't like the characters and the weapons were uninteresting."

The thing is, as a HL2 advocate, i actually liked all of those things. I find the shooting very tight. The enemies have a wonderful variety. I feel the large variety of set pieces incredibly welcome. I love the old school weapon design and I found them all fun to use.

But, what I was alluding to in my first post here, is that it's all just subjectivity. If the shooting feels wrong to you, it's incredibly difficult to really pinpoint what it is and put it into words.

As you say, it's all down to personal opinion. Now I had HL recommended to me by friends, and found it to be a good shooter - but not quite to my tastes. Fair do's. I won't bash it or anything, as I can see why others would like it. It's just not my cup of tea. Likewise I enjoy the odd afternoon spent in CoD lobbies, but can understand why people could take issue with some of the gameplay elements. I don't take umbrage at people for not liking what I like, but it does wind me up when some people take it upon themselves to try and inform me as to how my own personal opinion is in some way 'wrong'. Different strokes for different folks, and all that.

 

[Weaver]

Constant praise? This exact thread is made on here at least once every 48 hours. If anything there is just constant complaining that it gets constant praise.

The "real answer" is that different people like different things. Not liking HL2 isn't some abomination and liking it is not strange.

NOONONNONnononononoonono.

Wrong.

Wrong.

and wrong again.

I have been flamed so much for simply IMPLYING that HL2 is horrible. A recent thread asked the Escapists if HL2 deserved the credit thrown at it. OVERWHELMINGLY (79%) said that it did.

I have reitterated time and time again specific reasons why HL2 isn't just not worthy of the praise given it, but is in fact a mediocre game at best. To which people arrogantly proclaim me naive. Arrogantly not because they disagreed with me, but WHY they disagreed with me. It was abundantly clear that they viewed it with rose colored glasses and I doubt they even read what I actually said.

In my 3 years here at the escapists I've learned a couple of things. A. never mention creationism, global warming, or any religion in a positive light. B. NEVER, EVER, EVER talk bad about HL2.

I actually came on here to say how giddy I've been that over the last month (and it has been MONTH, not YEARS) there have been so many topics questioning the quality of HL2. Put simply, it's not that good. I personally believe it's not even that good for games around the time it was made. But every person I've ever met that didn't play it around the time it came out gives a resounding "meh" when asked how it was. EVERY. FUCKING. PERSON.

The point in all of this is that, at least on the escapist, this goes far beyond "oh wow, someone disagrees with popular opinion - yawn." That's just a cheap shot to avoid the issue. Why's HL2 so good? Because it's a polished shooter that is the culmination of FPS mechanics of the previous 15 years before it came out. Since then, the FPS has further evolved, and HL2 doesn't stand well on its own merits. THAT'S a discussion. Not vehemently avoiding the issue.

Maybe it's your age group then? "EVERY. FUCKING. PERSON." as you so eloquently put it that I know (and games, obviously) really enjoyed it.

You're arguing subjectivity as fact. You're arguing your personal experiences in what is an encapsulated life as the norm that everyone surely experienced, and this is not the case. It furthers the question as to why you're comparing Half-Life 2 to modern day games?

The game was judged by it's respective performance at the time and it was highly regarded. The same with the 1931 Dracula, the same with Citizen Kane, the same with Nosferatu, the same with Super Mario.

Things evolve. Classics aren't generally heralded as being "good forever". I love Bella Lugosi, but man Dracula was just paced really slowly. That's how movies were back then.
Citizen Kane was fun, but so much of the cinematographic techniques it either pilfered or invented are absolutely common place now-a-days.

When you are reviewing an old work honestly, you're job is not to remove your rose-tinted glasses but to put them on. Imagine how mind blowing Dracula was in 1931. Audiences just hadn't seen anything like it. Sound? Voices? and such violence!

You need to accept that Half Life 2 is not a modern game but it pioneered many, many of the techniques used heavily in modern games. The level design was, objectively, very good. I ask you to look at Doom and what you think of it's levels. They don't look like much today, but the design of the levels is very, very good. It helps, of course, that they were designed by John Romero; the most prolific map designer in gaming history.

My rambling argument culminates to this: In two years half life 2 will be ten years old. It's time to start playing it like you play and old game, and treat it like the relic it is. Think of the innovations it fostered, and the bold things it did at the time. This is the key to appreciating it, even if you don't like the game.

That is why people hold it in high regard.

 

[Hal10k]

You know, I think we should find a way to spice up this thread next time it comes around. Maybe make the OP wear a funny hat or something.

Well at least the weekly HalfLife hate threads break up the monotony of the daily CoD hate threads. And for that at least we should be grateful.

I for one would like the OPs to form their objections in verse.

I decided to voice my opinion
Upon this highly monotonous day
I speak my words to all my dominion
That game you like, I simply cannot play

No portion of it is as good as said
Nothing holds up to the praise this gathers
Merely playing it made me wish I were dead
Putting it down? Well that I would rather

The mechanics themselves were just antiques
Haven't we learned that regen health is best?
This health pack is so outdated, it creaks
Why should I explore, is this some weird test?

And of the characters, I cannot say
But why do they force you to speak with them?
Shouldn't they let you just skip story, go play?
Interactive cutscenes, those I condemn.

This is one thing that I really don't see.
Let's throw this up and be the new OP!

(Consistent rhyme scheme and meter. I was going for a Shakespearean sonnet, but had to add an extra stanza. Damn you, by the way.)

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

You know, I think we should find a way to spice up this thread next time it comes around. Maybe make the OP wear a funny hat or something.

Well at least the weekly HalfLife hate threads break up the monotony of the daily CoD hate threads. And for that at least we should be grateful.

I for one would like the OPs to form their objections in verse.

I decided to voice my opinion
Upon this highly monotonous day
I speak my words to all my dominion
That game you like, I simply cannot play

No portion of it is as good as said
Nothing holds up to the praise this gathers
Merely playing it made me wish I were dead
Putting it down? Well that I would rather

The mechanics themselves were just antiques
Haven't we learned that regen health is best?
This health pack is so outdated, it creaks
Why should I explore, is this some weird test?

And of the characters, I cannot say
But why do they force you to speak with them?
Shouldn't they let you just skip story, go play?
Interactive cutscenes, those I condemn.

This is one thing that I really don't see.
Let's throw this up and be the new OP!

(Consistent rhyme scheme and meter. I was going for a Shakespearean sonnet, but had to add an extra stanza. Damn you, by the way.)

*applaudes*

Very well done sir. I had me a good chuckle to that.

Top marks for dedication to the cause!

 

[Vault101]

.

?...so "stop liking what I dont like" then?

no thanks

 

[Skin]

Except that there is objectivity to game quality. HL2 fails these tests.

Nope, nope, nope. Don't start throwing that objectivity word around. Some idiot tried to persuade me that HL2 was objectively the best FPS ever made. He was wrong too. Please avoid that word like the plague outside of philosophical discussions (and even then I hold to the Nietzschean principles of subjectivity).

I think Halo:CE dug the grave for HL2. It was just a superior game that I just could not put down. Couple that with the fact that I liked the OG HL over the second iteration, and the game has never been anything more to me than a mediocre shooter.

Still I have to accept the fact that people like it, just like I accept the fact that people actually choose to eat at McDonalds. It is entirely subjective.

 

[pilouuuu]

For me Half-Life 2 is the perfect game, but just like Citizen Kane you probably should have experienced it when it was released to fully appreciate its genius. I think it hasn't aged very well. I tried playing it again recently and felt totally underwhelmed. But the experience I had playing it when it was released was outstanding. So, I think that the praise it gets is because people enjoyed it so much and it made so many new things, so well, that it will always be remembered like one of the best games ever.

 

[DioWallachia]

Lazy

People

Dont

Understand

Context (seriously what double standart?)

Not sure why either to be honest. Certain games, which are perfectly good games, are played by people at the right moment in their lives and they achieve a "sacred cow" status to them.

Don't get me wrong. Half Life 2 is a fun game. It's not the best game I've ever played but it is a fun one. However I'm able to play it without the rose colored glasses so many other people have and see the flaws in it.

Half Life 2 isn't the only "sacred cow" thrown around here though. Stick around long enough and somebody will tell you Baldur's Gate is the greatest RPG of all time. I'm playing through it right now for the first time and though it's okay I am feeling as though I'm forcing myself to continue along with it.

Since I'm not one of the people who play Half Life 2 with the rose colored glasses I can't answer your question and since those people seem unwilling to answer it in any way other than to call you a dick or troll your thread I can't help you.

Except you who apparently answered in a honest way rather than pulling the troll car without taking in context what i just said. Because apparently the concept of Hype Aversion didnt cross their minds and i though that i made it clear that i havent played the game
tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HypeAversion
I cant hate something i dont know but i can hate the people who mindlessly tell me to join them because resistance is futile.

By the way, isnt the fact that you dont have the rose colored glasses a good thing?? Because i dont want praise but instead i want someone to tell ME what set this game apart from the others (And not by TODAY standart, but when it was released) I will get into the business perspective later.

Roughly speaking, it's to do with the variety. The enemy variety, the weapon variety, the environment variety.

Stop for a moment and think - how many modern shooters really throw all sorts of soldiers, vehicles and varied aliens at you? Just look at Half Life's roster - the three types of combine soldier, the gunships and cars, the various flavours of headcrab and zomboi, the striders, the barnacles, the antlions etc - the point being that you generally don't get such a mixed bag of antagonists coming at you with such varied design. It's really quite refreshing. After all, don't the Locust get a little dull after the hundredth encounter?

As for the guns, that speaks for itself. Not to mention innovative weapons like the grav gun, which is also a large reason for its popularity, as well as Half Life being one of the pioneers of the Havoc engine and physics based puzzles. People had immense fun watching dead enemies ragdoll when they died. I know i never get old of shooting a soldier and seeing him flop down off the cliff he was standing on, for example.

And the locations? Well, as far as i remember you go from city rooftops, to a trainyard, to an aqueduct, race through on a boat thing, end up in a creepy old town, back in the city, then on sandy beaches, then in a large prison facility etc. Environments change often and it's not like (going back to previous example) Gears whereby it's the same ruined cities every damn level.

I'd also say the fact the narrative is so nonexistant may be a factor. People want to know about the combine about the 3 hour war, what exactly the combine are and how they convert people as well as these weird aliens and how headcrabs work exactly. But none of that is ever explained. The example i'll use to back this up is Silent Hill 2. You don't know what the heck the creatures are or how they work or even where they came from, but they intrigue the hell out of you and you want to know more although you're never told anything concrete - it's only hinted at. Likewise in HL2 you see xray images of people who have turned combine, for example.

That said even back when it was a new release i did think the praise for it was excessive, much in the same way i think Portal praise is ridiculously excessive. But that doesn't stop me from enjoying it now and then.

Oh boy, i feared this one. Why you people ALWAYS compare this game with the current standard of FPS?? Because its easy to compare shit with a FPS of the past of any kind and not precisely HL2 (its kind of cheating you know)
It baffles me how going back to basics is considered a innovation today (Reverse Innovation??) See Serious Sam 3 or Rayman Origins (nice art btw)
The point is that you said HL2 has variety of enemies...........so? the FPS that came before it had the same lvl of colorful people to kill to the point that HAVING many exotic enemies and weapons was kind of a obligation back then. Like the game being in first person to BE classified as a First Person Shooter in the first place but again if you compare it to today's FPS then of course it looks like gold (then again, Painkiller had more colors)

Not going to question the Grav Gun and the Ragdoll physics if they trully came from this game. Its like questioning that Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver DIDNT have a superior 3D platformer for the poligon era of Playstation or wasnt the first game to have dual 3D world environment for puzzle solving.

The location things seems also something standart from FPS from before, but dont know if it counts since those games have an episodic related stages that may or may not differ

The Silent Hill 2 comparation doesnt hold up (for me) because the monsters there are designed around the psyche of the person that is seing them. In other words they are designed around simbolism that represents a part of the main character and since this is a psychological survival horror i think it pretty much a minimum.

So what could be so innovative?? Its the fact that you can fuck around the "cutscenes" when other games have the power to take your freedom away?? I dont know, it seems like i am not doing any impact on their lives regardless if i take a piss on their coffees. It fells more like a ghost from System Shock 2 or Bioshock that plays when i reach a certain point and i cant interact with them. Then again, maybe HL2 needs to use the Star Wars kind of logic, where we just need to know just enough for the plot to make sense (it would be nice to know why other options like finding a cure for headcrabs or something doesnt work, it cience fiction after all so maybe there is a solution)

No need for this topic really. No game developers (except Valve) are going back to the HL formula, so all is well.

Except for Resistance 3 plot apparently but still, how can you be sure? How many people have actually taken notes from Valve? As i promised to "aftohsix" i will NOW talk about the bussiness perspective.

You see, i have a pretty basic understanding of the decisions of the producers of games and i think that a game that is SO GOOD as HL2 and Portal would get more riped off over the very few years that passed. After all, Doom was ripped off over and over with the many FPS that followed with their "own" identity, so games like Portal and HL2 should have become the standard for all the FPS to come. Why not? They didnt seem to care when the producers did it to Doom so may as well. Unless the ability to rip off the structure of a game was limited thanks to the rise of the internet, where people can call BULLSHIT more quickly than in the 90's
When i compared HL2 to Citizen Kane i actually mean it but the comparation of mine is around the hype that they got. They are both "criticaly aclaimed" and "innovative" for their time and i dare to say that in their respective mediums (games and movies) are better regarded than films/games of today.
Now, i know CK used the cinematography and lightning effects in a way that was "innovative" for a film but the producers AVOIDED using anything related to CK because this movie bombed at the box office and coping a formula that doesnt make money isnt going to pay for an island in the caribean nor even let you pay the entry fee for the Illuminaty.
So how about HL2?? i am pretty sure that it DIDNT bombed and it had good reviews so that means that everyone is going to copy the shit out of it, right?? ............ Aparently no and that is weird. They had NO REASON to NOT copy the winning formula of HL2. Did the producers though its just as generic as the other games?? Or was it because it came in the Orange Box with other games and couldnt point out what game was the source of success?? I dont know.

Well i guess that is all that i can remember for now. I will like to see the people that pulled the troll card to be serious this time.

Wait, what i am wrong about??

........... Citizen Kane bombed at the box office when it came out. I am sorry, but check out the rest of this post

Lazy comment without taking in context what i said? no thanks

*applaudes*

Well done, another joins the top below of this comment for not make any sence and not taking things in context just like the others

What part of i havent played it you didnt understand??

See my quote on Gralian here for the same moderm shooter problem

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Whatever. It doesn't change the fact that you are whining about Half Life 2, and pulling out all of the classic "Why is this game so popular when I think it sucks?" dribble. Nobody cares that you dislike it, and this topic has come up enough times (WAY too many) for people to be bothered to give you an answer. We're just sick of this topic to death.

You think that the My Little Pony complaints are annoying? They are nothing compared to the sheer volume of Half Life complaints.

 

[DioWallachia]

Whatever. It doesn't change the fact that you are whining about Half Life 2, and pulling out all of the classic "Why is this game so popular when I think it sucks?" dribble. Nobody cares that you dislike it, and this topic has come up enough times (WAY too many) for people to be bothered to give you an answer. We're just sick of this topic to death.

You think that the My Little Pony complaints are annoying? They are nothing compared to the sheer volume of Half Life complaints.

It doesnt suck, you people just keep telling me that its good and innovative but compared to modern FPS instead of something when it came out.

If you people had the decency of telling exactly why then this wont even happen without someone saying that they see the nostalgia googles on the people that like HL2.