What games are you playing now?

If you're playing the 1st game (weren't you playing Half-Life 2? Maybe I misread your post), you'll be missing out on Xen's many improvements too, it's not only the graphics.

Well, or you could go all in and compare both ;)

I played HL2 and expansions years ago, but never played the original.

I'm not sure I'll have the patience to play both. Unless there's significant improvements to Black Mesa. I'll have to see.

Right now I spent 10 minutes just spining around, in the blast pit, after getting the power back on to kill the alien tentacle thing. I couldn't for the life of me figure out where I'm supposed to go. And after watching a youtube playthrough I figured out that I wasn't crouching when trying to crowbar the metal grate blocking my descent int o tube. And then it hit me, that indeed when I tried to crowbar the grate it made no sound. But apparently I never put 2 and 2 together to figure out that I wasn't hitting it. Idiot. :(

Oh, and to make it doubly embarassing, I then had a hard time figuring out I had to jump into the air tunnel to be lifted. Damn, seem I'm rusty in my logic puzzles. I backtracked all the way back thinking that maybe the fuel door had opened for some reason. :(
 
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I'm not sure I'll have the patience to play both. Unless there's significant improvements to Black Mesa.

There is. That's the whole point of it. It's virtually the same game but with modern graphics, sound, movement, etc.

No reason to switch now though if you're enjoying it.
 
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Ok, I've gotten a further after I've launched the satellite in HL. And man is it starting to get on my nerves. All the platforming, sliding on slippery surfaces, the primitive physics, trying to jump from one crushing piston to another, trying to kill giant fish while the camera keeps jerking away (also these same fish, when their with their heads outside water, apparentl they're invulnerable if you shoot them from under water, and vice versa). The last one was trying to get down a frikkin ladder while sliding around, all the while taking cold damage.

While the idea is very cool, the implementation of all of these environment hazards is pretty bad imo. Glad they did away with them in HL2.

EDIT: Oh, I forgot to mention the freaking "puzzle" right before getting to the satellite launch room. The 3 lasers that trigger explosives. So I had to move boxes around trying to build an elevated platform from which to proceed forward without touching the lasers. God those were annoying.

EDIT2: Maybe I'm just getting too sensitive to these sorts of issues, and no longer have the patience to put up with it all. I don't know. Overall I liked my time with it, but it's definately not as streamlined as current games are. But it also has charms that have been done away with during the streamlining of current games. So I guess you win some, you lose some.
 
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I also dislike the platforming sections. Thankfully there aren't many of them.

I don't remember having any problems damaging the Ichthyosaur whether it was above or below the surface. That might be a bug.
 
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I also dislike the platforming sections. Thankfully there aren't many of them.

I constantly find myself in situations where the margin of error for moving around is very slim, and I always miss or slide off a surface. I constantly reload due to issues like that.
I don't remember having any problems damaging the Ichthyosaur whether it was above or below the surface. That might be a bug.

I'm getting very inconsistent behavior when fighting them. Sometimes they seem to take 4+ hits from the crossbow. Other times they go down in 1-2. I almost never be sure when they do or do not get hit.
 
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I'm just bouncing between games really fast atm. I've played:

Silverfall/Earth Awakening
The Dark: Survival RPG
Dungeon Siege 2 (played this the most)
Ortharion project (needs to cook longer in EA)
Heroes of Steel RPG
Blackguards
Sword Coast Legends
Low Magic Age
Last Epoch
D: OS2
Legendary Journeys
Van Helsing

These are all games I've loaded up this since the beginning of the year :D
 
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I've managed to reach the Lambda complex in Half-Life 1, so I guess I'm close to the end? I've had to use a video walkthrough twice since I got stuck not knowing how to proceed. I really wonder if people also had these stoppers when it was initially released? I can't imagine people finding the path a lot easier.

The first time I got stuck was right after I had a security guard open a keypad door for me to an armory of sorts where I really stocked up on ammo. And upon doing that the guard said, something along of lines of "now it's gonna get serious or something" (btw, on a separate reload I actually got locked inside that armory, with the guard on the otherside of the door, and he wouldn't open it anymore. he'd only respond to wait/follow orders; so i had to reload). So I spent 5 minutes running around trying to find out where I'm supposed to go next. The video walkthrough made it known that I had to jump out of a window, and land on the ledge right outside (which I'm not sure I could even know by just looking). Now that was infuriating. Did I miss some telegraphing or is that ledge outside the window really not obvious. It's kind of insane to put a main path across something like that with no hint. Maybe I missed something.

The second time I got stuck was when the giant Alien was running after me in the garage, and I led him to the airstrike control panel. Where, I dispatched of him after being told by the guys on the radio that they had some final payload and that I could select the target. All fine and dandy. What wasn't obvious was that I could reuse the airstrike multiple times (I didn't even think that it could be possible since the guys on the radio made it sound urgent; I couldn't imagine they would stick around for however many airstrikes I had in mind). So I again wasted 5-10 minutes just spinning my motors running back and forth between the garage and the base, looking for where to go next; until I watched the video walkthrough (also, is it me or ar the objectives in this game not really properly pointed out? Beside the initial goal of launching the satellite and getting to the Lambda complex, I constantly strugle with questions like "what am I searching for now? I have no idea. I'll just push forward.". This seems like bad design.)

Oh, another thing that drives me insane is the crosshair they used (and can't change, unless I'm missing some options?). Most of the time I don't see it and I'm not sure where I'm aiming. I just strive to keep the target in the center of my screen. Really annoying. Especailly in desert/rock textured areas.

Having said all that, I'm still mostly having fun going through it. But issues like this really make it a pain in the ass.
 
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I've reached Xen. The portal levels were a lot of fun. Is this where Portal was inspired from? Or was Portal an external game they took in?

So, I guess now I'm really close to the end. And according to Mr. Gervais, the new world of Xen is a pain in the ass to get through, with an annoying boss fight at the end? I can hardly wait. :-/

Yeah, I took a quick look at what's in store in Xen, and I'm not too excited to trudge through it. Is it worth it? Is it indeed a pain in the ass, or is it fun? How have other people taken to it. I might either be burned out on Half Life since I kind of sprinted it in 12h in 2 days or so, or maybe it's just the late hour (4am here). I'll decide later.
 
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The second time I got stuck was when the giant Alien was running after me in the garage, and I led him to the airstrike control panel. Where, I dispatched of him after being told by the guys on the radio that they had some final payload and that I could select the target. All fine and dandy. What wasn't obvious was that I could reuse the airstrike multiple times (I didn't even think that it could be possible since the guys on the radio made it sound urgent; I couldn't imagine they would stick around for however many airstrikes I had in mind). So I again wasted 5-10 minutes just spinning my motors running back and forth between the garage and the base, looking for where to go next; until I watched the video walkthrough (also, is it me or ar the objectives in this game not really properly pointed out? Beside the initial goal of launching the satellite and getting to the Lambda complex, I constantly strugle with questions like "what am I searching for now? I have no idea. I'll just push forward.". This seems like bad design.)

It sounds like you've grown accustomed to being coddled by modern games. ;)

Scenarios like you describe are one of the things that made Half-Life (and other games from that era) so great to me. I vastly prefer having to discover some things on my own as opposed to being led around by the hand like we are in today's AAA games.

So, I guess now I'm really close to the end. And according to Mr. Gervais, the new world of Xen is a pain in the ass to get through, with an annoying boss fight at the end? I can hardly wait. :-/

Not sure who Mr. Gervais is, but you seem to worry a lot about what other people say. Who cares what he thought of it? Just play and decide for yourself instead of letting some dude on YouTube or whatever make up your mind for you.
 
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It sounds like you've grown accustomed to being coddled by modern games. ;)

Scenarios like you describe are one of the things that made Half-Life (and other games from that era) so great to me. I vastly prefer having to discover some things on my own as opposed to being led around by the hand like we are in today's AAA games.

Oh, I'm sure I've been coddled and gotten used to never being stopped in my tracks. But as I said, I spent 5-10min going in circles, and the more you go in circles the less attentive to little details you become. I'm geniunely curious if anyone else had issues finding that ledge for the first time. I'm timestamped the link to the playthrough to just before you need to jump the ledge, to make sure we're talking about the same thing.

Now that I think about it, maybe the ladder hanging off of the nearby broken staircase should've been a hint to start working backwards and find how can I get on top of those control panels. So, maybe I'm in the wrong.

The ledge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoV9o6b91Sc&t=2h54s (@2h and 54sec in case the url doesn't work).

Not sure who Mr. Gervais is, but you seem to worry a lot about what other people say. Who cares what he thought of it? Just play and decide for yourself instead of letting some dude on YouTube or whatever make up your mind for you.

Gervais is the dude that did the 2h retrospective of Half Life 1/2/alyx, that motivated this playthrough for me. I think I was just deadtired last night after playing it for so long, that I felt like calling it quits. But I'm all better this morning, so I think I'll carry on and see what happens.
 
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@danutz_plusplus;: I made a replay of all Half Life parts a few weeks ago and I got stuck at the same places you mentioned in your posts, even though I played Half Life several times near release. However, it is worthwhile to try and find the solutions for yourself instead of looking in walk throughs. After finding the solution I always thought: Yes of course, it is so obvious…

I tried Black Mesa yesterday, by the way. It is really a huge improvement not only graphically (the scientists have individual faces now, for example), but also in the game mechanics and interaction. At least I don't remember that you could help out a fellow scientist with toilet paper in the original game …
So I will eventually play black mesa some time in the future (not now because my last play of the original is not long enough ago).

Edit: The only really annoying thing in Half life 1 is the end boss fight. Nearly as bad as the notorious piranha bytes bosses in the Risens.
 
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Well if you liked the original you might as well try Blue shift and Opposing force. There were some HD/remakes in the works years ago (similar to black mesa) but I'm not sure what's the status on that.
 
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@danutz_plusplus;: I made a replay of all Half Life parts a few weeks ago and I got stuck at the same places you mentioned in your posts, even though I played Half Life several times near release. However, it is worthwhile to try and find the solutions for yourself instead of looking in walk throughs. After finding the solution I always thought: Yes of course, it is so obvious…

Thanks for mentioning this. Indeed, games required a lot more from gamers in the past. Which is definitely not wrong. I definitely have been spoiled by streamlined games made so that the gamer faces no stops in progress.
I tried Black Mesa yesterday, by the way. It is really a huge improvement not only graphically (the scientists have individual faces now, for example), but also in the game mechanics and interaction. At least I don't remember that you could help out a fellow scientist with toilet paper in the original game …
So I will eventually play black mesa some time in the future (not now because my last play of the original is not long enough ago).

Yeah, I just skipped around during a video playthrough of Black Mesa, and I knew it was an improvement, but had no idea how much. Fans really are a dedicated bunch, to go and rebuild a whole game.

EDIT: Out of curiousity I downloaded Black Mesa and started a run. Not sure if I'll actually advance through it, but it's definitely impressive how much work went into it. Dedicated fans indeed.
 
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Ok, Black Mesa is just fantastic. I'm actually kind of sad I didn't take @JDR13;'s recommendation and didn't play this instead of the original. And there are various little touches that they did which add flavour. @bkrueger; mentioned the toiled paper. I just found that I had to re-attach a door control panel back in order to operate the door. Little flourishes like that are really nice.

It's amazing how much of a technological leap Source Engine was. I forgot how good the lighting/shadows look. And they did away with the flashlight limit. One thing that's still an issue is getting off ladders. Usually it works ok, but once in a while I either can't get off them easily. Or I just jump to my death. Oh well.

I have a good mind to stop the original HL, even though I reached Xen, and maybe restart it. I'll have to see.
 
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One thing that's still an issue is getting off ladders. Usually it works ok, but once in a while I either can't get off them easily. Or I just jump to my death. Oh well.
At least in Black Mesa you learn that you can use and leave ladders with the use-key (usually "e"), instead of running against it and jumping off. While not perfect it is better in some places.
 
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At least in Black Mesa you learn that you can use and leave ladders with the use-key (usually "e"), instead of running against it and jumping off. While not perfect it is better in some places.

Indeed. But I did have one instance where even "e" wouldn't take me off the ladder. Also, I once got caught between sliding doors and only got out using a reload.
 
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I've been trying some demos from the Steam Game Festival the last few days. So far I've played...

Alien AI
Almighty: Kill Your Gods
Geneforge 1 - Mutagen
No Place for Bravery
Beyond Mankind
Starsand
The Last Stand: Aftermath
Hazel Sky
Hidden Deep
Space Wreck
Trail of Ayash
The Riftbreaker

It's been a mixed bag so far. The only one of those that I can say I'll be getting for sure is The Riftbreaker which really impressed me.

Starsand, The Last Stand, and Space Wreck seem to have good potential.
 
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I'm looking forward to finding out if @HiddenX; thinks Hidden Deep is a hidden gem.
 
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I loved these 2D games on the C64 and Amiga, but nowadays - to be honest - I rarely play them.
 
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