[Double-A]

Yeah, I noticed that Valve hadn't released Half-Life 2: Episode 3 when I visited their website yesterday. Episode 2 was given to the public back in October of 2007, so in a couple of months, it will have been 6 years since Valve has released a title in the Half-Life franchise. I don't really mind though, I'd rather have them take their time and put out a very good game then rush the development and put out a mediocre game. After all, it was around 6 years after the release of the first Half-Life game that the second one came out, and everyone seems to love that game.

 

[oqvist]

I really don´t think they work to hard on HL 3. I mean Gabe has complainted about how much it sucks developing games. They rather buy in mod teams to do games for them like CS, Portal series, TF 2 and what not instead of making HL 3 and develope their Steam service. Steam box on it´s way too. But of course it will come at some point.
 
It´s not like Half Life is expensive to get these days. Why not just buy it and try it out? Games is more then the sonical cues. If the game is really good you tend to forget being over critical about visuals or sounds. I don´t feel HL is a must play though can just start off with HL 2 if you want. May not be so impressed with HL if you don´t have the nostalgia factor going for you.
 
I recently replayed System Shock 2. Highly recommended. It´s better then Irrational Games Bioshock and Bioshock Infinite in more ways then they are worse. 
 
Portal and Portal 2 was a bit to booring and repetitive for me.

 

[spark3]

Yeah I agree with oqvist, gameplay matters more with games. Your eyes/ears come accustomed after the initial "wow this looks/sounds awful" and you will become engrossed in what your playing if the game itself is good. System Shock 2 is a perfect example as is the Baldurs Gate series. If it's all about visuals/sound then Crysis comes to mind and for me that game is nice visually but it gets boring fast with no depth in the gameplay at all IMO.

 

[chewy4]

Quote:

Yeah, I noticed that Valve hadn't released Half-Life 2: Episode 3 when I visited their website yesterday. Episode 2 was given to the public back in October of 2007, so in a couple of months, it will have been 6 years since Valve has released a title in the Half-Life franchise. I don't really mind though, I'd rather have them take their time and put out a very good game then rush the development and put out a mediocre game. After all, it was around 6 years after the release of the first Half-Life game that the second one came out, and everyone seems to love that game.

Yeah I'll take quality over timeliness any day. If HL3 is as big of a step up as HL2 was I'm gonna be blown away.
 
The thing that sucks though is that Ep2 ends in a cliff hanger.

 

[jackwess]

I enjoyed the whole series of Half life, one of my favorites indeed. Sucks that Valve hasn't released the next episode, been waiting for years now.
 
Rumors say that HL3 is coming with a kickass graphic engine. 

 

[Double-A]

Quote:

I also forgot, there is a mod called Black Mesa which is Half Life 1 remade with the Half Life 2 engine and it's practically identical to Half Life 1 but uses the Source engine of Half Life 2. Check that out.

I just watched a short youtube video that compared the original Half-Life game and the Black Mesa mod and I gotta say: this mod has piqued my interest.

 

[evilhippie]

cause of the new steam trading card beta that was just implemented, I reinstalled Half Life 2 and gave it a shot again.  I forgot how much fun this game is.  I can definitely say that its one that has aged well over the years, its still as fun now as it was nearly a decade ago. 

 

[Argax]

I'd recommend you play both! You'll probably get a whole lot out of playing both of the games and if you play them in order then you might get more out the advancements in Half Life 2.

 

[evilhippie]

Half Life 2 is $2.50 right now on steam and the episodes 1.99 apiece, so theres no reason not to pick it up if you haven't already done so. Totally worth it!

 

[jonyoo]

I still remember when HF2 first came out and I went to buy it right away as a big valve fan. It was a long time ago but oh man it was epic.

 

[deusmeister]

Yes, in fact I'm playing Half-Life right now. Unfortunately I encountered a glitch half way through the game where all the audio cuts off and I have no idea how to fix this. I might just start over but play Black Mesa instead.

 

[chewy4]

Quote:

Yes, in fact I'm playing Half-Life right now. Unfortunately I encountered a glitch half way through the game where all the audio cuts off and I have no idea how to fix this. I might just start over but play Black Mesa instead.

That sucks, are you playing HL:Source or the original?
 
I always had a million saves in HL since it was so damn hard, so I could always roll back on those if anything bad happens. Which I don't remember any game breaking glitches occurring in the 4-5 times I've played through it.

 

[deusmeister]

No, it's the original version. And even when I go back to a previous save it still cuts off the sound near the same area. I think it may be caused by one of the upgraded sound packs that I installed from this page:
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1445333
I also encountered glitch before that where one of the gates that was suppose to open, didn't, so I had to use cheats to hover myself over it.
 

 

[chewy4]

I would try verifying the integrity of the game's cache on Steam, if no luck there just re-install after you saved your saves(I'm guessing HL is cloud supported). I'd say the sound pack is the likely culprit so if you can just re-install that or remove it I'd try that first.

 

[Double-A]

I just now decided to start downloading Black Mesa. I'm sorry, this is probably a stupid question but can I use an Xbox 360 wireless controller to play pc games like Black Mesa on my computer? I've never really played any video games on pc before up until just a couple of days ago so this is a new experience for me. Maybe if I kept playing pc games with my keyboard and mouse I would get used to the setup but right now whenever I play Battlefield 3 on my pc it is a struggle for me to play the game competently. I'm much more accustomed to using a controller.
 
PS: The process of putting Black Mesa on my computer is a pain in the butt.