An examination of the strengths of Half-Life's weapon system, and how the Opposing Force expansion pack both compromised and built upon them.
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This article is an opinion piece written by video game critic and Half-Life mapper David Will, creator of the popular @dot_bsp Twitter account.
In this article David examines the strengths of Half-Life’s weapon system in relation to the Opposing Force expansion pack. All views expressed in this article are his own.
Did Breen truly believe joining the Combine would advance the human race? Or was he merely doing his best to save the species from extinction? We may never know. Or maybe we will… We investigate this enigma in an attempt to bring new theories to light.
Are we being deceived? While unlikely, it’s interesting to speculate that we may be lead astray by the Vortigaunts.
A lot of things can change during the development of a game. Half-Life is rich with lore, and because of this, things have constantly changed during the series development.
Nihilanth is shrouded in mystery. Our first and only encounter with him doesn’t reveal much. We know very little about him – but he is key to the Half-Life story.
From a technical standpoint, Aperture Science and the Combine go together like peas in a prisoner pod. There are some startling similarities between their weapons and equipment that may point to an unseen element of the story.
Phillip Marlowe is the founder of the Half-Life singleplayer modding website RunThinkShootLive.com, formerly known as PlanetPhillip.com. Phillip has been running his site for 13 years, and within that time he has become a well-known individual in the Half-Life modding community.
Phillip got in touch with us recently to voice his opinion regarding Valve’s customer care in relation to the lack of communication about the future state of the Half-Life series, and we thought we’d share it with you. You can discuss your own thoughts on this in the comments after the article. All views expressed in this article are his own.
Sprays are fun player-chosen pictures you can post in Team Fortress 2 (or pretty much any other source game). As it would suggest, the character “sprays” them on the wall like they’re graffiti, and to a lot of people they’re treated not much better. However sprays can have some effective (and rather sneaky) uses.
This is an original editorial piece created by Mimaz. It is the first in a series of editorials that we like to call “The Half-Life Dissertation”, which will aim to extensively cover a wide range of Half-Life related topics and issues.
Valve are looking down the rabbit hole.
This is an editorial by Lilgreenman which analyses the recent development of the “We Want Half-Life 3” fan campaign from a retrospective standpoint. All views expressed in this article are his own.
This is an editorial piece written by Lilgreenman, longtime Half-Life obsessive and Valve community member. It summarizes and recapitulates the events of December 2011 – when it seemed like the whole Internet was aflame with rampant Half-Life speculation. Just in case you didn’t catch that little episode of community history, or maybe if you’re still wondering how the hell we fell for all that fake ARG gibberish.
Oh, and Happy Holidays!
To me, at least, it feels like it’s been much longer than a year since the anticipation for Valve’s Half-Life 3 really kicked off.
Things haven’t been the same since. The doctors say my addiction to Team Fortress 2 (and by extension, my addiction to hats) may never be cured.
So, it’s been almost 5 months since Portal 2 was released. I know what you’re thinking – “what’s the point of making a review now?”. Well, first of all, it isn’t really a review. It’s more of a critique, or an analysis. And second, while I could have made a review a week or so after release, then, I would not have been able to go in depth with this review, and I would have to settle for avoiding the plot points and gameplay details, so as not to spoil the game, within what would be a shallow article. So, I decided to wait and use the time I had to perfect this thing. Besides, I think the main purpose of a review is to provide feedback to the developer. A month or two ago, P2 even had its first price cut – it’s now $30, so I think most of you guys have already bought and played it. However, just in case you haven’t – don’t read on. Spoilers everywhere. Also keep in mind that this critique is very, very long – almost 4000 words long.
I’ve tried to be a bit critical with the game. Make no mistake, I love the game, and I love Valve. But no game is perfect, and every game has its faults. Mostly, I’ve focused on the singleplayer component, because I consider that to be the actual “Portal 2”. That, and I don’t actually have that much against the co-op mode. In some ways, it’s better than the singleplayer mode.
I know it might seem like I hate the game, but I don’t. I love it, but in my opinion, it just doesn’t live up to Portal 1 as a sequel, and it doesn’t live up to Half-Life as a spin-off of the franchise. And that’s what this review is all about. I’m not trying to convince the gaming world that Portal 2 is some sort of disaster. Not at all. I am trying to illustrate why I believe Portal 2 is not as good as the original, and that Valve was wrong to hype Portal 2 up the way they did, by calling it their “best game ever”. So, read on if you’re interested…
Hello and welcome to the Resistance Bulletin. I’m your same old news editor and part-time refugee, Vic, reporting from the inside of an abandoned coastal house just outside of City 17, in mortal fear of a Combine patrol which has stopped nearby.
Excuse if my writing is poor, but I have been forced to drink from the polluted seawater nearby, and some discarded cans of Private Reserve. I can feel my brain cells slowly dying.
As you may or may not know, I wasn’t exactly pleased with Portal 2’s first DLC outing – “Peer Review“. While the Challenge Mode added much-needed replay value to the game, it really should have been in the game from launch. The only other bit of content in there, the new “Art Therapy” co-op course, was rather disappointing, with poor writing and plot, as well as some meager and poorly balanced gameplay offerings.
I don’t subscribe to the school of thought that all free DLC is automatically good – you have to draw the line somewhere. And solid feedback will help make future releases better. For instance, the poor reactions to L4D1’s underwhelming “Crash Course” almost certainly helped Valve build better L4D DLC in the form of L4D2’s “The Passing” (although later on they did let us down again with “The Sacrifice“). So we needn’t be afraid to voice our opinions.
But enough about all that. Here we are, with Portal 2’s second, and perhaps final DLC release almost upon us. The Perpetual Testing Initiative promises to turn Portal 2 into a never-ending house of pure science, providing it with enough replayability and content to feed 5 full-priced Call of Duty games. But does it fulfill that promise?
