[Multiplatform] Half Life

The Valve guys define the standards in all things FPS, at least on PC.
HL2 is an incredible effort in terms of interactive storytelling, and that alone makes it one of the best franchises out there, because it manages to tell a story through gameplay alone without the help of other media. Of course you could argue that there are "masked" cutscenes, especially in EP2, but even though EP2 is a bit heavier on the story-feeding side it still remains within the boundaries of one medium - even if through some neat tricks.
Gameplay wise it's doing what FPS should do. There are some innovations in the sector that have gone past HL2, but that's excuseable, as it's the standard, the basic shooter that's the measure for all others, so there can indeed be some that are better in some parts (Crysis and FEAR exel with some neat additions to baseline gameplay mechanics - for example).

As a franchise, Half Life has grown out of the in retroperspective very colorful shooter into the more mature, highly polished and streamlined feature of HL2. City 17 is much darker, a lot greyer, grittier than Black Mesa ever was. For me, HL2 features some similiarities with the Metal Gear Solid franchise, in so far that it uses "generic game figures" from previous games as fully fleshed out characters (if that term applies to the likes of Barney, Eli and so on...).
What's important about it as a franchise is that it's readily distinguishable as, well, a Half-Life game. For example, we never see Gordon's hands or feet as he interacts with the environment, though we know they're there and modeled. I take it that this is indeed a conscious design decision, as many other FPS these days feature (a lot better) body awareness, where Gordon turns (steering)wheels without any manipulators seen, seemingly with the power of his mind. Then there is the overall optical identity of the game, City 17, the Combine, the Vortigaunts and so on and so forth which all elevates it from being "Ghost Recon with Aliens" to something with an own identity.

Sheesh, I could go on for hours writing about this...

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by KrelEN

No they aren't. Try using the thirdperson console command and you'll see what I mean. The hands are parts of each usable weapon model, and the rest of his body just isn't there. There's no Gordon Freeman character model outside of HL2: DM.

I meant more in a psychological way.
We see them using weapons, and see the gloves as he puts on the HEV. Thus, we the players know that there "are" hands. He just doesn't seem to be in need of using them for anything but, well, shooting.

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by KrelEN

Oh. Sorry, but the "they're there and modeled" part kind of threw me.

Yeah, I take it that was a bit misleading, as I was practically putting two thoughts into one statement.
The one part is "We know Gordon has Hands as he is a human being."
The other part is "We know that to some extent Gordon's extremities have been modeled" - thus we could theoretically expect to see more of them, especially since there have been other games with a much higher degree of body awareness before HL2. Thief 3 especially.

Anyway, it obviously doesn't matter that much. HL2 is still one of the best FPS out there, and "body awareness" seems to be something not everybody likes. I do though, and I'm always wondering why I have no feet when playing HL2... *_*

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

After playing some HL1 a few days ago, I find it a bit peculiar that HL2 didn't feature a few things HL1 did. For example, Zombies feeding on corpses, and some of the more prominent monstrosities - yeah, I kinda miss the Bullsquid, though the Acidlion has now more or less taken up its place in the HL foodchain.

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