henke on 17/9/2012 at 20:43
Quote Posted by ZylonBane
There is not enough facepalm in the world.
I'll palm
your face if you don't start giving me some straight answers buddy!
catbarf on 17/9/2012 at 22:54
I was disappointed with the immediate post-cascade segment, mostly because the AI guards seem to stop shooting once something (like a zombie) gets close enough. Does anyone remember what they'd do in the original?
Slasher on 18/9/2012 at 00:02
I don't think the security guards had a melee attack in vanilla Half-Life, so they just kept shooting until they or their target died.
I noticed in BMS the first live security guard I came across refused to fire at point-blank/contact-shot ranges. My guess is that this is a bug rather than intended behavior.
Just started Blast Pit and am having a lot of fun. Nostalgia overload threatens to pop brain cells. So few left...
Livo on 18/9/2012 at 00:18
Quote Posted by catbarf
I was disappointed with the immediate post-cascade segment, mostly because the AI guards seem to stop shooting once something (like a zombie) gets close enough. Does anyone remember what they'd do in the original?
In the original, they'd usually start shooting for a bit, then start running right towards the zombies or whatever (usually stopping a few metres away from them) and start shooting again. I found their behaviour quite annoying since they'd usually block your line of fire and they'd would get killed quite easily.
By comparison, the guards seem smarter in BMS; they usually try to back up and get some space against the zombies, plus they can also shoot whilst moving backwards. I think there's a glitch in the HL2 AI for friendlies because once or twice they started backing up without shooting or didn't shoot, but apart from that, no issues.
I haven't had the chance to try these out, but here's some tweaks from the (
http://forums.blackmesasource.com/showthread.php?t=13545) forums to reduce the Marines' super quick reaction times;
Go to Program Files\Valve\Steam\SteamApps\[username]\half-life 2\hl2\cfg\ and create a blank document in Notepad called autoexec.cfg
Put these commands into the autoexec.cfg file, save it and then run the game.
ai_reaction_delay_alert "0.3"
ai_reaction_delay_idle "0.75"
ANTSHODAN on 18/9/2012 at 11:43
Well, I've just spent the morning playing this and I'm having a lot of fun, though there's an awful lot of niggles. Nothing significant at all, but there's a certain clunkiness to it. Movement seems - I don't know, heavy. Perhaps that's what folks like these days; I'd definitely agree it's maybe more realistic (for want of a better word) than the skateboarding days of old, but I want to be able to jump the fuck around like a lunatic. And I pretty much immediately turned off that slight lean when strafing (:eww:). The particles effects are ugly as sin and overused. The crates break weirdly. For some reason the flashlight doesn't work on geometry or certain props (though that's probably just my hardware or some source fuckup). Eli has an out of place New York twang (Though Kleiner is spot on! -
and I loved the introduction of his headcrab interest; could that be Lamarr?). Crouch jumping is a pain in the ass. And as a number of people have already said, it lacks the aural identity of the original (a health machine just aint a health machine without a seeedeeedeeedeeedeeeedeeee noise!)
I think after the resonance cascade I really started to appreciate what they've achieved, though. I remember thinking just quite how much more horrific it all seemed than Half-Life, which is almost comedic in comparison. For example:
The elevator in Unforeseen Consequences shortly after the test chamber; you hit the button and the whole thing comes crashing down, killing the occupants, I remember laughing my little 10-year-old head off at that. This time around, hearing the pleas and fear from the occupants all the while knowing that my only way to progress was to hit the button to trigger their demise - man, it was quite harrowing.Additionally, increased zombie population and nice use of lighting gave it a far more oppressive and overbearing feel than I remember from the original.
Right now I'm reaching the end of Office Complex. The novelty of HD Half-Life is already wearing off a bit and the atmosphere has been lacking since Unforeseen Consequences. I've managed to (
http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/921241021548897752/EEC6FA2E5574A65E97F5289A7ECFFCD2A5A6DC3F/) accumulate quite an entourage too, which I feel is a bit removed from the original game's spirit. My favourite chapters are on the way - We've Got Hostiles, Powerup, Blast Pit and On a Rail (and of course Questionable Ethics and Surface Tension later on), so I'll be cracking on with this tomorrow.
I can't help but think they accidentally overhyped this. They mostly kept quiet for the past few years, sure, but I seem to recall them saying that this would be more of a re imagining of HL than a remake. I've found a hell of a lot of the layouts and geometry to be almost identical to the original (which probably pleases most folks, I guess), but I really was holding out for something a little more. Heck, I'm not really complaining, I'm having a blast and I look forward to seeing the rest of it.
henke on 18/9/2012 at 12:14
Quote Posted by ANTSHODAN
Movement seems - I don't know, heavy. Perhaps that's what folks like these days
Yup. My first impression of the movement was that it was way too fast, like I was speed-walking everywhere when I was supposed to be just regular-walking. I got used to it after a few minutes though.
ZylonBane on 18/9/2012 at 15:13
Must have been a while since you played the original Half-Life. In the original, Gordon's default movement speed is running.
Renzatic on 18/9/2012 at 16:22
I beat it last night, and I thought it was...yeah...pretty damn good. ZB is right about the overall feel of the game. It doesn't have quite the same visceral punch as Half-Life.
That's not to say it's horrible. Far from it. Valve is the best at what they do. They're about the only studio I've seen that can make a game feel truly cinematic without falling back on cheap gimmicks or taking too much control from the player. The fact that a bunch of free time modders managed to come within spitting distance of the gold standard is impressive enough.
Really, the only complaint besides having to endure residue processing again would be the eagle eyed soldiers with catlike reflexes sporting marksmanship skills that makes Simo Häyhä look like a mildly retarded myopic cross eyed kid with a cheap BB gun. Seriously, you couldn't even take a quick peek around a corner without some random guy pegging you right between the eyes from 600 feet away the very instant you showed enough forehead to give him a clear shot. And with a machine gun no less.
That scene with the Osprey right before you reach Lambda? Yeah. I'm not ashamed to admit that I had to godmode it towards the end. I mean how the hell could I take out their air support when I had at least 6 guys hitting me with 99 shots out of 100 through a hole in a wall a story up and a football field away. I'd die before I could even take the 2.5 seconds required to aim the rocket launcher properly.
Beyond that one GLARING FUCKING PROBLEM...yeah it was pretty good. If HL was 100, I'd give BM a solid 75-80.
Also, anyone notice that the assassins are wearing the same footgear as Chell from Portal? Among other things, it makes me believe the mod is going to make an attempt to tie the story into HL2 a little better.
Inline Image:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3018396/BM_Chell.jpgZylonBane on 18/9/2012 at 16:44
Quote Posted by Renzatic
That scene with the Osprey right before you reach Lambda? Yeah. I'm not ashamed to admit that I had to godmode it towards the end.
Are you talking about the part where you have to fight about six Marines at a time up a ramp, that are constantly being refreshed by Osprey drops, and once you finally clear them out you have to take out a couple of the big alien warriors?
If so, yes, fuck that part. Only way I could get through it was to hang all the way back and snipe the first wave with the crossbow, then haul ass up the ramp with a fully-charged Tau Cannon and blast the Osprey before it finishes dropping off the second wave. And if you somehow make it through that, then you have to trade shots with a frickin' TANK, trying to take it out with that awful manual-load mortar launcher.
In the original this was a fun setpiece, because you could pretty much just hang back and watch the Marines and aliens take each other out if you wanted.
Renzatic on 18/9/2012 at 17:04
That's the part. I held back on the ramp for the first, I'm guessing, three waves. I used up the Tau and crossbow bolts for quick kills, and the three rockets I had handy to take them out en masse whenever they happened to bunch together. Never once did I think that the helicopter noise I was hearing in the background was the Osprey dropping off more and more and more of them behind the scenes. I didn't find out about that until I figured I killed everyone there was to kill, and headed out to discover...
...a shit ton more waiting up top for me.
That was about the time things quit being fun.
