[ChoAnikiFan1994]

[Mr. Mechanical]

Yeah there's totally no new ideas to be explored with portals in a co-op setting.
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[ChoAnikiFan1994]

[another god]

You're a worthwhile poster.
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interdimensional

[ChoAnikiFan1994]

[Dark Age Iron Savior]

in terms of the general evolution of selectbutton posters ATLUS seems pretty normal so far!

[CubaLibre]

Whatever you think of their game design, accusing Valve of creative stagnation is breathtakingly myopic. I can't even begin to wrap my head around it.
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Let's Play, starring me.

[Toups]

I'm hoping they don't bring back the companion cube
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[Broco]

[Winona Ghost Ryder]

Valvonaut Resistance Force:
Booji
Moose
James
Atlus

[Dracko]

[glossolalia]

i'm looking forward to Portal 2. i assume OMM is doing the story and i think i trust them to be better than fanservice humor. they're probably as sick of cake and companion cube references as anyone. that art looks pretty wonderful, too.

[boojiboy7]

I'm looking forward to Portal 2, actually, as long as Valve can avoid falling into the meme-pit formed by part 1.

[klj5j6li]

[idle]

[Broco]

[Dracko]

half-life 2 is like half-life except with only one good setpiece (the bridge)

black mesa: source will own
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[boojiboy7]

...

[klj5j6li]

[idle]

[Broco]

[Dark Age Iron Savior]

[Dracko]

[Broco]

I'd say Another World is more soundly designed in that it naturally keeps you tightly on the rails and there's no expectation of freedom, whereas HL2's great weakness is that the organic feel of the world is constantly threatened by a player trying to go off the beaten path and failing, or staying in place and noticing that the sense of danger disappears completely.

[klj5j6li]

[Dark Age Iron Savior]

[Dracko]

please tell me more about your ideal not-too-ethnic woman gaben
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[Dark Age Iron Savior]

[Toups]

What I mostly admire about Half Life is the way the mechanics fade into the background. The appeal of the game is that it's convincing escapist fantasy -- it's designed to let me forget that I'm playing a videogame. Of course, if you're willing to go out of your way, it's still easy to run into things that take you out of the experience... But if you're willing to play along with the game's unobtrusive requirements for immersion, it's awesome.

So I might play God Hand and try and tear apart the game's finely tuned rules, because that's what they're there for.

To draw a loose analogy, people like listening to a variety of different types of music. One song might consist of a series of intricate and difficult to perform parts which create a spectacle when played proficiently; so you might enjoy hearing the technical ability of the performers. Another song might be based on simple patterns and parts that do not do much on their own, but when arranged correctly produce a certain pleasurable mood or emotion; so you might just enjoy that song because of how it moves you internally.

When it comes to the "legitimacy" of videogames, there is a tendency to only value the former approach... Games which use the latter idea are often rightly considered to be shallow and designed for disposable, mainstream consumption. But Valve's games exhibit unusual talent in arranging basic elements to create a larger feeling, and I think they achieve something special compared to say, your average God of War or Tomb Raider. It's for this reason that I'd broadly classify Half Life 2 with survival horror games like Silent Hill or even Resident Evil instead of other action-oriented first person shooters like Quake or Halo... These are games in which the mechanics are hardly the point and only exist to contribute to mood. The problem with Half Life 2 is it uses a format that is associated with a highly specific genre... First person shooters are almost universally in the "technical" camp, even including things like Deus Ex or System Shock. And yet it embraces aspects of that format that are largely ignored by most first person games.

Of course there are games like Bioshock or Resident Evil 5 that try to both without really knowing how to do either.

I guess I'm kind of just collapsing"pongism" onto a simple spectrum.
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[Dracko]

Unobtrusive requirements for immersion like having no body, not being able to talk and having the barest minimum ability to physically affect people.
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[Dark Age Iron Savior]

FPS is designed like 95% of FPS games, news at eleven

[Mr Mustache]

The body thing never bothers me. I at least prefer it to looking down and seeing a body that isn't mine.
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The people are like wool to me

[Toups]

Those are all genre conventions for a reason. And in Half Life 2's case, allowing more interactivity with the environment or NPC's would inevitably introduce design problems that would hamper the sensation they're going for...

All games involve playing roles. The difference is that in Half Life, your role is more defined.

I'd say Gordon Freeman is more of a Mario than a JC Denton.
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[Toups]

The point about Half Life 2 is that it creates an appealing and effective illusion. I feel like most criticisms of the game boil down to pointing out the many (often obvious) ways in which it's an illusion. You go into the experience knowing it's an illusion. That's what's fun about it.
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[Toups]

About him not talking... what would he say, really? Is there any point in the game where he'd actually have any meaningful input? The only thing I'd imagine him saying is "hell no, I'm not doing this anymore". But if he ever really had cause to say that, there'd be no point in playing. So of course -- it's assumed that he's earnestly trying to help these people out. His motivations don't matter... That's why people are always talking about what an infamous hero he is... to set up the fact This Is Just What He Does. For the kind of story that Half Life 2 is, the protagonist is almost irrelevant.
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[Deadcat]

[Dracko]

[Dark Age Iron Savior]

dracko this battle of insipid one-line posts won't work with toups here

what do you suggest we do about him

[Dracko]

you could try shutting up and know what you're talking about 8)
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[Broco]

[Touran]

Valve made a shooter that at least feels like it was built from the ground up so that all the pieces fit together. While not an amazing feat by any means, there just aren't that many games (let alone an FPS) that can also make that claim.

The actual shooting mechanics are pretty boring, and so are the other physical interactions allocated the player. The major sticking point is that it all works together, the seams and lines are cleverly hidden or difficult to spot so uh, I guess Valve is fantastic at whatever is the videogame equivalent to editing in movies.

OR

There's a shit ton of FPS games out there - most of them are terrible so anything that's competent in all departments is automatically amazing.
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Man, I'm sorry.