Poll: HL2 Cover Systems: Yes or no

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Strafe Mcgee

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shadow skill said:
You really should actually read what people are saying, Why should I limit myself to third person shooters because you have no frame of reference other than those type of games; where as I can point to games like FEAR, Far Cry, Call of Duty 4 (PC version), and Crysis that all have lean commands which is exactly what a cover system is in the first place?
I did read what you were saying. I said
Strafe Mcgee said:
When I say 'tactical action', assume that I'm talking about militaristic third person action games with cover-based systems like the previously mentioned games. (Gears Of War, Army Of Two, Rainbow 6 etc)
The games all feature 'sticky' cover systems that I'm opposed to. I'm not trying to group together all games that have tactical elements into one genre, I'm just making my definition of a certain type of tactical shooter more specific. Half-Life doesn't fit into this genre and neither does Fear. As I said before, a lean function would be fine.

I don't really count lean commands as a proper cover system because they're not as intrusive. Sticky commands that stick you to a wall in games like gears however, make cover an integral part of the gameplay. Half-Life is a more run and gun style of shooter that doesn't require anything more than that.

That's all I'm trying to say!
 

shadow skill

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..............................What rule is there that in order to have a cover system it must be "sticky?" What are you even complaining about then? The point was made a few posts back that "cover systems" are really just ways of placing lean functions onto fewer buttons. I've also made the point in this tread more than once that all I really want is a modifier key for strafe left and strafe right to become lean left and lean right.

Many of the comments in this thread show a lack of good frames of reference with respect to what a cover system really is, and where the whole thing was born and what console games added to the concept to account for the difference in controls.
 

Yaotl

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thejoblot said:
"Half-Life never had the kind of battles where cover is necessary." Ever fight a Strider or a Hunter?

Seems to be a misunderstanding, I said 'cover' as a way of shortening 'cover combat system' or 'auto-cover' systems, I think we all might have different views of what a cover system is, in my book, now that I think about it it's not actually FPS it's 3rd person shooters (and a few FPS games) where like for example Mass Effect you just press the button towards a wall and press the shoot button and they go up or to the side and shoot, release the shoot button and they go back, that's what I picture when hearing cover system anyhow.

And I used the term pseudo-combat game for games like Mass Effect that is mainly an RPG with more action packed combat then perhaps KOTOR.
 

BlackWatch

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when was the last time you played a game with a cover system that had something obviously bullet stopping that wouldnt be classed as cover by the mechanic ... damn annoying i must say, and somewhere if a mechanic was made in ep 3, i would find myself rapping the cover button to get behind that computer console and what would i get?! buggered! No
 

Copter400

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Yeah, right. Gears of War cover system. And a chainsaw. And scantily dressed women. And a macho African-American ally who sacrifices himself for the greater good towards the end.

One of the big things with Half-Life is that you're never playing Gordon Freeman, you are Gordon Freeman. The game never takes you out of the first-person for complete immersion.Also, the guerrilla warfare gives everything a much grittier feel.

A cover system would be in complete violation to everything Valve's done so far.
 

shadow skill

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Copter400 said:
Yeah, right. Gears of War cover system. And a chainsaw. And scantily dressed women. And a macho African-American ally who sacrifices himself for the greater good towards the end.

One of the big things with Half-Life is that you're never playing Gordon Freeman, you are Gordon Freeman. The game never takes you out of the first-person for complete immersion.Also, the guerrilla warfare gives everything a much grittier feel.

A cover system would be in complete violation to everything Valve's done so far.
See Graw 2 when you turn first person view mode on you stay in first person view (Although it does stick you to walls which I don't like too muh, that could have been handled by having the player apply enough pressure to keep himself or herself in cover.), see PC versions of Far Cry, COD 4, FEAR and of course Crysis if your computer can handle it. Gears of War was made by idiots who took a mechanic that GRAW (and probably others before and after it.) had all but perfected save for one minor tweak (for consoles) and completely fucked it up. Gears of War should not be brought up as an example of how to do a cover system in a game since it is one of the absolute worst implementations of such a system. It's controls breakdown completely if you use certain stick options it is really just bad all around.
 

ElArabDeMagnifico

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What? Don't like crouching behind cover? Cover systems are not that big of a deal for me, I could lean on either side, but overall I prefer no cover system for a game that stays in first person the entire time.
 

MattyDienhoff

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I've said it before, I'll say it again, all Half-Life needs is the ability to lean to allow you to make more realistic use of cover.
 

tino1498

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i agree that there isn't enough use of cover in half life 2. but a cover system would be bad. what they need to do is just make more places where it would be good to use cover. and maybe add a new thing that you could move with the gravity gun to create cover. the barrels are bad for that because they roll around.
 

fix-the-spade

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shadow skill said:
As far as seeing around corners there are a few more realistic ways to handle that, what if Gordon was able to tie a broken car mirror to his crowbar and when he went into cover he could kind of stick the mirror out in order to view where enemies were around the corner while retaining the first person view and logically dealing with the problem of how to see the enemies without exposing major parts of his body?
That's, a pretty good idea actually. Although I think as far as Half life 2 goes cover systems in general aren't really needed.
The enemies aren't particularly bright and Gordon has his rechargable armour to protect him from player's moments of blindness/stupidity/boundless optimism. Plus Gordon Can take quite a bit of punishment anyway.

Although I think the mirror on a stick would be perfect for multiplayer games like CSS and Battlefield, especially with larger teams, when looking round a corner means almost certain death.
 

shadow skill

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Crap_haT said:
shadow skill said:
mwhite67 said:
Half life blows anyway They should just do something to it to make it actually fun
......................
MY reaction to this comment. "Fuck it, I'll Continue with my life and pretend he doesn't exist. But no.... My mind nudges at me, You let him get away with it. YOU let HIM get AWAY with it."

So fuck you mwhite67, you are nothing more than a tumour to this forum. GO HOME. Claiming a game is shit, any game, with no reason to back it up makes you crap and a burden to society.

Waiting eagerly for your retort.
I'm sorry it was just so utterly retarded, he didn't even say what he did not like about the game.
 

mathias53

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shadow skill said:
Crap_haT said:
shadow skill said:
mwhite67 said:
Half life blows anyway They should just do something to it to make it actually fun
......................
MY reaction to this comment. "Fuck it, I'll Continue with my life and pretend he doesn't exist. But no.... My mind nudges at me, You let him get away with it. YOU let HIM get AWAY with it."

So fuck you mwhite67, you are nothing more than a tumour to this forum. GO HOME. Claiming a game is shit, any game, with no reason to back it up makes you crap and a burden to society.

Waiting eagerly for your retort.
I'm sorry it was just so utterly retarded, he didn't even say what he did not like about the game.
Who gives a shit what he thinks, he is obviously retarded if he thinks Half-Life 2 sucked. It and its children (DoDS, CSS, Gmod (yes I know it is a third-party mod), Portal, TF2...) are the greatest things to ever be introduced into the gaming industry. Besides Quake. And Zork (first video game ever). And maybe Starcraft
 

werepossum

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propertyofcobra said:
What the hell do you think that holding items up with the gravity gun to absorb fire is, if not cover?

Half life already has a cover system as long as it has the gravity gun. It doesn't need a bunch of useless cocking up by having you get glued to whatever surface you're slightly near.
Cover systems are useless, QUINTUPLY SO in first person shooters. God, anyone who seriously wants a cover system in an FPS has to get their brain reattached to the fingers they post their crap with.
I'm confused, Cobra, do you like it or not? :D

I have to agree. The whole point of a FPS (only kind I play) is fire and manuever; pressing a button to transfer control of my character to AI would just piss me off. Why not just have a button that controls combat, press it and stand back while your character hides and shoots for you. Why on earth would I pay $50 bucks for a game and want it to play itself for me? I do like the various crouch, prone, and lean commands, which are the same thing manually controlled. And the blind shooting thing wouldn't be bad, either. But for goodness' sake keep the cover systems out of my FPS's.