Half-Life 2 - official (9/14 Black Mesa Source?!)

[Frogacuda]

Neat. It does seem odd sometimes to have to crotch crouch jump for getting on top of nearly every single required obstacle, but it's not annoying me so I probably won't bother altering it.

It's not even nearly every object, it's literally every object. As far as I can tell the height at which you can automatically just walk up a step and the jump height are about equal, so there's literally nothing you can jump on without crouch-jumping that you couldn't just walk on. I don't like that.

The modifications I mentioned don't seem to break anything or really make the game easier, even, they just make the jumping feel better, so I'm happier with that.

[dave is ok]

It's really fun to go back and read the first 50 or so pages of this thread.

[MechDeus]

I'm going to wait for the inevitable mod for it that updates the graphics to HL2 levels.

lol

[Frogacuda]

Haha, awesome.

[George]

Having a good time so far. The new areas are pretty well designed and the existing set-pieces are intact. There are a few things that are beginning to really annoy me though:

- Yeah, the jump height. Way too low. Need to crouch jump for everything.

- There are "traps" and enemy spawns that are tailor made to surprise you and outright kill you the first time you encounter them. I mean in a cheap way, a way that's basically inescapable without having seen the environment first, because you'll be instantly vaporized. These existed to some extent in the real HL1 and HL2, but not with this much regularity and not as hopeless as these ones.

- Relating to that, enemy soldiers and vortigaunts are ultra crack shots, hitting you with almost 100% accuracy the moment you hit line of sight, no matter how far. Vortigaunts fire faster than the original game, where you could actually dodge them when they were winding up. Same thing goes for the acid spitters. Their wind-up is really way too fast to be able to avoid damage reliably. Soldiers are bullet sponges with no hit stun, and the machine gun is laughably weak. You basically stand there trading fire when there's little to no cover, and their bullets hit like a truck.

- The above two points really start to grate on your soul in Black Mesa's "On a Rail" level. Dudes on turrets, guys with vests that can take a double barrel shotgun right to the face and not die, and turret camps on elevators that kill you so you know to deal with them once you reload.

Basically, quicksave often!

[kedawa]

It has really long load times and I just had it crash, but other than that it's solid.
That one air duct with the psychedelic freakout in it was unexpected. Is that supposed to be there?

[epmode]

http://www.valvetime.net/threads/new...enholm.243033/

So Half-Life 2 Episode 4 was in development. Ages ago. By Arkane! Return to Ravenholm. Screenshots and some animation above.

I can't believe that we've seen screenshots of Episode 4 before 3.

[Frogacuda]

I don't think Return to Ravenholm was ever meant as Episode 4. It was a side-story thing set during Episode 2, and I don't think it was about Gordon.

Cool to finally see some pics, though. I'd have liked to play it, but I guess things finally worked out for Arkane in the end.

[epmode]

I don't think Return to Ravenholm was ever meant as Episode 4.

From 2006:

http://forums.penny-arcade.com/discu...fficially-dead

Inside Valve, two teams will be responsible for finishing Episode 1-3, a triumvirate that Newell says will wrap up Half-Life 2s current story arc. Episodes 1 and 2 began development simultaneously by separate teams; when Episode 1 goes live, its team will shift gears to Episode 3. Episode 4 will have a stand-alone plot and is being developed outside of Valve.

[MechDeus]

Speaking of old HL development, original alpha time!