Wow, Half Life 2 is really not that impressive

[JJJ]

Halo 1 multiplayer is awesome - agreed on that. The single-player is pretty bad, even by the era's standards. I think it looked so good at the time though, that most people didn't care.

[Mozgus]

I agree with marurun.
You can afford to cool it a bit, Moz.

How can I possibly "cool it" when I didn't do anything? Did you even read that comment I made? I've done nothing wrong. I can't believe this of all my posts is the one you have an issue with. It's so tame.

My arms are up in the air. No idea what you want me to do, but I'm going to continue saying whatever I want. If I broke some kind of rule, you might actually establish the fucking rule first, so we know. I guess your rule is "You can hate someone, but don't pity them."

[RyaNtheSlayA]

I agree with marurun.
You can afford to cool it a bit, Moz.

How can I possibly "cool it" when I didn't do anything? Did you even read that comment I made? I've done nothing wrong. I can't believe this of all my posts is the one you have an issue with. It's so tame.

My arms are up in the air. No idea what you want me to do, but I'm going to continue saying whatever I want. If I broke some kind of rule, you might actually establish the fucking rule first, so we know. I guess your rule is "You can hate someone, but don't pity them."

No the rule is for one minute keep your mouth shut and stop being a pompous ass-hole when you dont agree with somebody.

[Mozgus]

No the rule is for one minute keep your mouth shut and stop being a pompous ass-hole when you dont agree with somebody.

And here we got this kid always proving my points.

[marurun]

@RyaNtheSlayA

Keep it civil. Name-calling won't improve the level of discussion, here.

@Mozgus

You're right. We don't have a posted rules thread. We need one. I think it should be assumed that we should try to keep a civil tone at least when referring to other board members, but again, there is a need to spell that stuff out. It's something we need to discuss with RB.

[Mozgus]

@RyaNtheSlayA

Keep it civil. Name-calling won't improve the level of discussion, here.

@Mozgus

You're right. We don't have a posted rules thread. We need one. I think it should be assumed that we should try to keep a civil tone at least when referring to other board members, but again, there is a need to spell that stuff out. It's something we need to discuss with RB.

We were trying to that here:

http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopi ... 15&t=11338

Lot of good that did.

[Gamerforlife]

Wow, things got....interesting since my last post. Where do I start?

Let me just say that I do think Mozgus lacks a certain amount of tact. HOWEVER, I have been on the board long enough now that I am sort of used to how Mozgus communicates, which is my way of saying that I'm not upset or angry about his comment toward me although it was a little insulting. Everybody here sort of has their own personality. Ack had a funny post describing Niode's personality and we all know lordofduct always has some interesting stories to tell. One could argue that I do have a tendency to express unpopular opinions, but I'm not TRYING to be a troll as Mozgus said, but I'll admit some of my comments about Half Life 2 were a bit harsh.

Marurun, I kind of agree with your comments regarding Halo's flaws. You are right that is also gets rather repetitive as well. I just kind of felt that Halo did a better job of mixing things up in at least some of its stages, while each stage in Half Life 2 seems built around one idea being done over and over again. However, the library stage in Halo with the flood just goes on FOREVER and is really annoying. Truthfully, I did not like the flood much and find them as boring as the generic zombies in Half Life 2 are.

I think I'm in Half Life 2's final chapter now. The whole section with the human resistance and the striders was pretty damn epic. They clearly tried VERY hard to make this part of the game memorable. I can't help it though, I still have gripes. The NPCs you recruit are pretty useless and despite their presence I still felt like it was just me versus everyone. I kept thinking of Freedom Fighters and how useful your squad was in that game and I loved that you could revive any fallen comrade so nobody was cannon fodder. Getting back to HL 2, I also was really annoyed at how often my team got in my way as I was moving around inside buildings. I can't count how many times I heard, "excuse me", "sorry Freeman", "let me get out of your way", etc. I felt like my squad were just props to try and make everything seem more dramatic, but they were pretty much a non factor in every fight. Still, fighting and being chased by those striders was pretty awesome. I HAVE to give the game props for that and I am certainly having fun with the super gravity gun I just got in Our Benefactors.

Half Life 2 has its moments, but its quality just seems uneven to me. I think someone made a good point about how I'm probably less impressed by the game due to all the titles that have emulated it since its release. Most of the things HL 2 does I have seen in some form in other titles and in some cases done better, like the Freedom Fighters example I mentioned before. I haven't talked much about the game's story. The characters are definitely cool, but the plot seems to boil down to aliens took over earth, humans are resisting and Gordon is basically their "Master Chief" hero. Yes, I know there is a bit more to the story to that, but the main plot pretty much amounts to the same thing as Halo and many other Sci Fi shooters so I wasn't too impressed by it but Dog, Alyx, etc. are all pretty cool characters so thumbs up for that. I did research the original Half Life's story, but I suppose not having actually played through it kept me from enjoying Half Life 2's story more

All in all, I guess HL 2 is pretty cool, I just wish I was as blown away by it as a lot of other people were. It's almost like when I played Bioshock. I enjoyed it, but I had some issues with its design and didn't find it to be quite the masterpiece many other people think it is. But I still have Portal to try and I guess I can give Episode 1 and 2 a spin too. I appreciate all the feedback in this thread and I'm sorry if I inadvertently stirred up some conflict. I'm not a troll! Really! I'm not!

[marurun]

We were trying to that here:

http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopi ... 15&t=11338

Lot of good that did.

Yeah, it's about time there was simply a mandate from above. Those tend to work a little better (believe it or not). Forum democracy, or even parliments, tend to be more like committees. Too many opinions and not enough fiat.

[zarathstra]

I think I'm in Half Life 2's final chapter now. The whole section with the human resistance and the striders was pretty damn epic. They clearly tried VERY hard to make this part of the game memorable. I can't help it though, I still have gripes. The NPCs you recruit are pretty useless and despite their presence I still felt like it was just me versus everyone. I kept thinking of Freedom Fighters and how useful your squad was in that game and I loved that you could revive any fallen comrade so nobody was cannon fodder. Getting back to HL 2, I also was really annoyed at how often my team got in my way as I was moving around inside buildings. I can't count how many times I heard, "excuse me", "sorry Freeman", "let me get out of your way", etc. I felt like my squad were just props to try and make everything seem more dramatic, but they were pretty much a non factor in every fight. Still, fighting and being chased by those striders was pretty awesome. I HAVE to give the game props for that and I am certainly having fun with the super gravity gun I just got in Our Benefactors.

Half Life 2 has its moments, but its quality just seems uneven to me. I think someone made a good point about how I'm probably less impressed by the game due to all the titles that have emulated it since its release. Most of the things HL 2 does I have seen in some form in other titles and in some cases done better, like the Freedom Fighters example I mentioned before. I haven't talked much about the game's story. The characters are definitely cool, but the plot seems to boil down to aliens took over earth, humans are resisting and Gordon is basically their "Master Chief" hero. Yes, I know there is a bit more to the story to that, but the main plot pretty much amounts to the same thing as Halo and many other Sci Fi shooters so I wasn't too impressed by it but Dog, Alyx, etc. are all pretty cool characters so thumbs up for that. I did research the original Half Life's story, but I suppose not having actually played through it kept me from enjoying Half Life 2's story more

All in all, I guess HL 2 is pretty cool, I just wish I was as blown away by it as a lot of other people were. It's almost like when I played Bioshock. I enjoyed it, but I had some issues with its design and didn't find it to be quite the masterpiece many other people think it is. But I still have Portal to try and I guess I can give Episode 1 and 2 a spin too. I appreciate all the feedback in this thread and I'm sorry if I inadvertently stirred up some conflict. I'm not a troll! Really! I'm not!

I can kinda see where you're coming from here, but I think part of your problem might be one of expectations. if you really liked how Freedom Fighters worked, then you might be playing the wrong kind of game by throwing HL2 in your machine. Freedom Fighters was a squad based action adventure/rpg, while HL2 is a first person shooter. That would be like saying your compact car sucks because you can't fit a couch in the trunk. If your were looking for cargo capacity, maybe a compact was a bad choice. If you're looking for in depth squad based combat, an FPS might not be your bag.

[Niode]

I'm not ganna "cool" anything. Don't like it? Take it up with Nick. You clearly don't understand how trolling and flaming balance each other out. G4L is trolling pretty well here, and he gets props for that. But we must flame him. He's expecting it. Stop taking it so seriously.

To be honest, I'm kinda hoping Niode joins the fray with a differing, militant opinion, so I can watch the ensuing free-for-all flame fest. And then lordofduct needs to join and remind us why we're all stupid and how much more crazy his life is.

Seriously, better than wrestling. Can you smell what the Mozgus is cooking?

What, my opinions are militant now? I didn't realise you loved me that much, Ack. Personally I agree with the whole "you didn't enjoy because of all the FPS games that have come after it and pretty much ripped all the ideas off from it". You aren't playing something fresh and exciting any more, because you were late to the party you get the dregs from the keg and sloppy seconds. Games are never as exciting or cutting edge as they once were 5 years ago.

You weren't there, man, you don't know what it was like!!!