Half-Life 20 Years Later: An LGR Retrospective

[@Nerdule]

Jesus Christ, 20 years. Half-Life is now as much of a retro game as Space Invaders was at the time of Half-Life's release.

[@salsamancer]

Yeah but it's obviously not as far removed in comparison. Half Life was riding the peak of game technology innovation. Not to say we've reached the end, but things were moving a hell of a lot faster back then

[@Nerdule]

@@salsamancer Oh, no doubt. The end of Moore's Law for serial performance around 2005 didn't help, either.

[@cyberpleb2472]

I'm old enough to remember the release of both. The original Half-Life remains my favorite game of all time. It shocked me and engaged me. I can't imagine ever having a game affect me that way again.

[@peterlamont647]

Eldritch ya, i found that if you tweak your msconfig and match it to safe mode, then turn on things like sound etc. A 2007 laptop with 2gb of ram is more than sufficient to do almost everything. Hence my daily driver laptop is an old dell inspiron 1520. I have an alienware laptop that is very much newer, but it has issues. Namely, the charger/charge port. Since my old dell is adequate for most tasks, i barely use it...and my old dell machine is running great!

[@ElBribri]

holy shit

[@GerbenWijnja]

I remember watching the whole train ride for the first time, assuming it was a prerendered video, and so I didn't touch my keyboard and mouse. When Barney opened the train door at the end ("looks like you're running late!") I realized it was all realtime. So I restarted the game. :)

[@nitehawk4067]

HEV suit Mark IV

[@genadi2850]

Barney didn't open the tram door.

[@Helperbot-2000]

@@genadi2850 barney #25966726

[@yes.2875]

@@genadi2850 oh my god that shit was so annoying in the Steam version. The guard bugging out and not opening the door, leaving you stuck in the train unless you had restarted

[@comedygold2360]

. No, he means Barney as a character opened the door what a *rat*

[@AdamBorseti]

"Throwing science at the wall to see what sticks." Top-notch writing, my man.

[@dafterwho400]

yeah, great portal reference

[@Zereniti77]

I remember when this game was released. I played it, and finally got to the surface. I was thinking "yeah, I guess I'm just about finished with the game, it was really good", and then I realized it just kept going, and going, and going... I actually sent an email to Valve, thanking for the excellent game. Someone called Gabe Newell replied and said "I'm glad you like the game, we worked really hard on it".

[@TheGiantDwarf]

Gabe Newell huh, sounds like a cool guy. Might’ve been an assistant or something.

[@d4vid469]

@@TheGiantDwarf kek

[@alecs69420]

@@TheGiantDwarf LOL

[@codaboggs398]

Zereniti77 you should ask him when the third one will be released

[@jeremiahminear2367]

Did everyone in your house stand up and clap?

[@BudgetBuildsOfficial]

Funfact, most CD Keys for Half Life will still activate on steam, and will even give you the hit game Ricochet with it. (along with a load more Valve Titles) On a serious note that was a brilliant retrospective, and was exactly what the game deserved.

[@LGR]

Thank you! And yeah I love that Valve kept all their old keys valid with Steam. Certainly helped transition to the platform back in the mid-2000s.

[@DeanLawrence_ftw]

Dang, I just tried this with my old copies of the GOTY edition and Opposing force that I bought new when they came out and the keys don't work :-(

[@Ps1ClassicGameplay]

@@DeanLawrence_ftw hitup steam support ive heard ppl got all kinda retail keys working that way

[@broodplank]

In the past I bought the game Gunman Chronicles (for 2 euro), which ran on the Goldsource engine, I activated it on steam and it gave me Half-Life + all mods, better deal than buying Half-Life for 10 euro ;)

[@mickmickymick6927]

But when will we get Ricochet 2?

[@ThePunitiveDamages]

I was 30 when Half life came out. I can't wait to play Half Life 3 when I'm 80.

[@undefishin]

1998-30=1968 1968+80=2048 Theortical Release Date for Half Life 3: 2048 *HALF LIFE 3 CONFIRMED*

[@capralmarines4043]

@@undefishin big brain time

[@wiisus7758]

Do I have some fantastic news for you then

[@thedangboi7198]

Half Life Alyx has files with names hinting at HL3. You may only have to be 60

[@undefishin]

@Capral Marines you must drink a lot of soylent

[@DeckardGames]

That first scene on the train is unforgettable. It was a different way of telling stories within video games. I was also more of a Unreal Tournament kind of guy, but the legacy that Half-Life left is undeniable.

[@Ikelae]

I feel that magic extends to the entire first chapter honestly. You're running around, picking up on conversations while exploring Sector C, this type of pacing for the beginning of an fps was unheard of! It feels like how Old School Sci-Fi used to set up.

[@DeckardGames]

@@Ikelae oh yeah, I absolutely agree.

[@danceswithsheep3058]

I thought it was just a cut scene, I knocked my mouse/tapped a key and well, mind blown.

[@phaolo6]

+Deckard Games I was in awe too about that intro, *but* I was also annoyed that it wasn't skippable for next playthroughs. :P

[@shuboy05]

It's amazing how influential that opening train ride was. Even Skyrim opened with a variation on that intro.

[@svfin]

20 years? Thanks for making me feel old.

[@charlesdorval394]

Exactly what I thought when I saw the title hehehe

[@tallman11282]

I had the same thought.

[@Pi1234561]

iam so happy iam not alone with that feeling

[@renatoigmed]

Im on 44,5 y/old still playing games on my new PC till the end of this f**** world.... or my own end lol

[@RelakS__]

Next year The Matrix will be a 20 years old 'retro' movie. Think about any movie, what were released one year before you are born. Any 18 years old may think in the same way about The Matrix.

[@billgates480]

I remember being scared when the guy with the faucet eye came on the loading screen. In 99 I was 6 years old. This was one of the first PC games I was ever exposed to and I remember it being the most awesome thing I had ever seen. I would think about this game, along with the other half life games, all day during school. It will always be special to me.

[@wta1518]

The Open Your Mind intro scared me the first time I opened up Portal 2. SINCE WHEN DID THAT THING LEARN TO MOVE

[@Lasse3]

Yeah I was a kid too back in the 90ies..! that Valve intro was very unsettling, and I felt like the game had a very dark atmosphere.!

[@ZanderEzekial77]

Gordan Freeman is supposed to be 27? Wow. That's weird. I always took him as middle-aged.

[@Fizzlepop72]

Pudgebert The fuck? I'm near his age and he looks like he could be my dad.

[@RaposaCadela]

Yeah! And, if you count every year since the game's release, he by now would be 48 years old.

[@Fizzlepop72]

djchristian82 I'm only 24

[@carloisokessu7756]

So in Half Life 2 he's like the same age like Alyx because he didn't age in "space and time" or what ever the man in a suit called him. Btw how does Eli try to trade him to his daughter if he doesn't know that he's actually that young. Is it just because there's no civilization left anymore

[@chrismilton3240]

@@djchristian82 #rip

[@farterboy]

"Can't really go off the rails" *Shows footage of him playing the "On a rail" chapter*

[@kipptt]

its a bummer that half life’s strongest enemy are ladders.

[@oooweebaby4483]

Psh, how hard could this be-- **SLIP**, BAM! HEV: Major fracture detected....morphine administered.

[@josef5319]

magic ladders that shoot you off wherever they want. Yea, sounds correct.

[@Scarabola]

there really should have been a "climb up" and "climb down" button

[@YCbCr]

@@Scarabola Considering there were "swim up" and "swim down" dedicated controls, it's not far off...

[@Name_cannot_be_blank]

@@Scarabola look where ya wanna go, press w to walk and space to jump where ya where looking

[@marcoguerreiro2760]

Just a small detail that I noticed about the CD cover: there's a chemical equation written in it "ln(2)/lambda" and that is the equation to calculate the half-life time of a substance in a chemical reaction of first order!

[@chrismilton3240]

Yeah that was back when Valve cared about something other than money, and provided quality products. They did some amazing things back in the day, damn is it a sad day thinking about how we will more than likely not get another decent product from them ever again. Who knows maybe one day they will give in to the fans, but I'm not really feeling it.

[@Selvyre]

@@chrismilton3240 More that it's just a detail in regards to the subject of the game. Even modern "soulless" games do stuff like that. Look at how often Assassin's Creed is called a soulless and heartless game series, and then take a look at just how much effort they go through to make the environments accurate (such as the painstaking accuracy of the Notre Dame in Unity). So, I don't get what you're saying unless you just wanted a soapbox?

[@chrismilton3240]

@@Selvyre What are you talking about? I'm talking about how Valve has stopped making games entirely, as they get all the money they want from the steam market place, so they will no longer make games, let alone good games like they did back with Half Life and portal.

[@Selvyre]

@@chrismilton3240 Your post really doesn't come off with that message, at all. Just throwing that out there. It sounds like the same exact thing I see people say about other companies like Blizzard: "They did some amazing things before, now we'll be lucky if we get anything good ever again. Before they made classics, now they just want money."

[@chrismilton3240]

@@Selvyre I see what the problem here is, you are seeing in this message what you want to see, if you would read the messages and take them for what they are, rants about Valves greedy consumerism, instead of reading between whatever lines you think there are. Then you would find my comments arent hiding some hidden agenda, I'm pissed off that Valve doesn't give a shit about making games anymore, all they care about is maintaining their steam marketplace.

[@TylerMcVicker1]

Eh, I guess I like this game.

[@scp8963]

Artifact News Network

[@Ojthemighty]

Said no one ever

[@lounowell4171]

shameless self promotion

[@houghwhite411]

Well you guess, as someone who makes vids about steam news :b

[@gplastic]

Wait, are you not verified?

[@hawyadoin1175]

I still remember the first time I played half life at my friends house. I was so blown away since I only had an N64 at the time and didn’t know games like that existed. I begged my mom for a computer and she somehow scrounged enough for one and got me the half life adrenaline pack for Christmas a few months later. There’s never been another game that had such an impact on me.

[@murderwasthebass1]

Your mom sounds awesome. Hope you and her are doing well.

[@matsv201]

6 years back: Wolfstein 3D 6 years forward: Far Cry This was a epic time in gaming history

[@JoeAyres]

Because you mentioned Wolfenstein 3D, you can have Like! You classy awesome person :)

[@matsv201]

@@JoeAyres haha... well it was a fluke. I was thinking of Far Cry as pretty much the last game before development start slowing down. A lot of people think of Crysis. While crysis have more fidelity then Far Cry... Its not because the engine is more efficent, but really just that it use more hardware (there for "can it run crysis") So what is in the other range of Far cry... 12 year back (6+6year)... well Wolfstein 3D..... That hapens to be the first ... well at least successful FPS.

[@ghost085]

@@matsv201 I think it's more of a diminishing returns thing. You see a big difference between wolfenstein 3d, half life and far cry because each one of those brought something totally new to the scene. Later on its been more of an refinement of stuff we already have: more polygons, better shadows, better lightning, better animations, raytracing. All that, stuff we already have, just of better quality

[@virgosintellect]

It's Red Faction without the action or Geo mod or music or fun.

[@Gnidel]

What a difference. I wish there was a similar jump between 2012 and 2018.

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

Ah yes, the crouch jump. The gaming equivalent of learning to ollie on a skateboard.

[@MrTheil]

That’s a good way of putting it

[@tycho7006]

"What the hell's a crouch jump?"

[@tycho7006]

@Devin Taylor You ever heard of DSP my dude? I'm well aware of what a crouch jump is but a streamer named DSP struggled with a basic jump in HL1 because he didn't know what a crouch jump was

[@dadude001]

Ahh the infamous DSP crouch jump. The meme of all half life videos

[@riki101]

@@tycho7006 thats what a console gamer says lol

[@jkendal]

Some of the banter of the scientists was hilarious. I also loved how you'd turn a corner and a head crab would jump at you, making your heart race.

[@Jack-nm7ve]

Wake up Mr. Freeman, wake up and smell the ashes.

[@drewmandan]

One of the best NPC lines in any game ever IMO.

[@quizboy99]

Gordon, you're alive, thank GOD for that hazard suit

[@thatOOM9]

I'm afraid to move him and all our phones are out.

[@stalinguy2256]

I think the science team will glad they help you

[@Junglebellzzz]

I guess, the suit worked on propane)

[@VibbyABibby]

WOT

[@VDavid003]

Scrientists: Am I a joke to you?

[@mrmou.4893]

(im 18) i played this game during quarantine, and i was surprised on how well a 1998 game can hold up against modern titles, it may not have the best sound or graphics now, but its essence its still as powerfull 20 years later, ive never knew i would have a 1998 game on my top list of all favorites, but its there, and i love it.

[@nathanbinns6345]

Try Half-life 2, you’ll love it!

[@mrmou.4893]

@@nathanbinns6345 i did!! Holds up so well too, its amazing

[@bobbymcfee2974]

There aren’t many, there’s some, modern games that should be considered in the best games of all time.

[@blaspberry1191]

Proto go beep?

[@mrmou.4893]

@@blaspberry1191 beep boop!!

[@braveitor]

I did the Spanish translation 20 years ago. Man, time flies!

[@ubersoldado]

Hasta luego, Gordon. Te invitare a unas cañas.

[@OrigamiPhoenix]

David Bravo Most of the dialog would have been mundane (famous Woolseyisms came out mostly because of limited hardware and text space but HL wouldn't have been affected by that very much), but who came up with the translations of some of the enemy names (e.g. headcrab)?

[@tjrizvi251]

Heyo!

[@Vandarte_translator]

¿En serio? ¿Tú hacías la voz de Barney?

[@jnicorb]

Gracias!

[@ven1as530]

"One misjudged fart and you're dead" Comment of the year right here.

[@paulk314]

I lol'd :)

[@maxmetalknight]

"Hmmm... It feels like a silent scentless one... Might as well fart...OH CRAP!" Pow!

[@Ojthemighty]

On the other hand if this was chuck Norris we were talking about...

[@MerkinMuffly]

This was the 90s Camry of PC games, built to last forever.

[@MiloĐukan]

I wasn’t even born this was when my dad was 23 made and I think this is a hell of a lot of fun so should I get it and where?

[@volkan7844]

@@MiloĐukan you can get it on steam

[@Mythicregard]

How many 90's Camrys do you still see on the road?

[@MiloĐukan]

@@Mythicregard none

[@GODDAMNLETMEJOIN]

One every few days.

[@indeimaus]

oh hell yeah, I remember having that original release box in my cupboard as a kid - I had the opposing force one as well, I remember back then you didn't really know about level design so you'd try get behind doors that wouldn't open, or wonder what was through them. I then spent 7-8 years creating half-life maps in it's world editor then moving onto sven-coop maps, those were good times man!

[@robertt9342]

You must have been really young then.

[@Thebossstage1]

The waifus of half life map design

[@borknagar5454]

Science and industry was a phenomenal HL mod next to Sven

[@garden0fstone736]

That’s what was so magical as a kid. Not realizing there was nothing behind those doors and letting your imagination run wild.

[@jacobs279]

In STALKER, a dead man on the floor is named “Dr. Freeman”

[@nathanconroy6722]

It was bs they left him with a desert eagle and not the crowbar, though

[@gddr5module904]

You didn't read his accompanied PDA,where he states he needed to sell his crowbar to go further in the zone.

[@turricanrocks1552]

Oh, so it's a "Dead Cameo" then?

[@jonaswolthaus1901]

I was minus 4 years old when it was released and I started playing it this year. The past 6 months have only been HL content for me: I played every game (except for that duo campaign, I need a friend with HL knowledge for that), including Source (I knew it was a bad idea but I just wanted to know for myself) and now I'm close to completing Black Mesa. My conclusion is that the very first game of Half-life is the best one of the series. A lot of people seem to praise the sequel(s) but the first one gives so much more freedom to the player and I love it. I'll probably keep playing this forever

[@Narcan885]

I too played Half Life much later than when it came out. but it doesn't matter, it's got such a good atmosphere, good flow, long variegated campaign that i still prefer it to most contemporary video games. I also played the expansions and some of the mods.... damn people went crazy with single player mods for that game! I remember playing one set in Vietnam era, it was so weird and with more earth than most single players today. And i also agree that the sequels kind of failed it. The sequels feel much more generic, empty, cold, and often.... silly. What with Alyx and all the other character's silly jokes and quips, etc. The sequels are not the same thing.

[@benm3382]

I did the same thing... In 2015 I finally played Half Life all the way through then proceeded to play the expansions, then 2, then those expansions. And it'll probably be a while but one day I'll get to play Alyx!

[@anon_y_mousse]

If you haven't already, you should play the original Unreal and Unreal Tournament. The first Unreal didn't have as good of graphics, but it was a really fun game, and the cheats were easier to enter if you wanted god mode or all weapons and ammo.

[@masteriansun]

Half-life made me like the color orange alot more...is that strange?

[@almostliterally593]

masteriansun Bahahaha

[@teedeeproductions]

Nope

[@Bossix84]

Life is strange

[@DJ_Shmee]

masteriansun it's "enjoyably strange"

[@gxsgdhdhrgdhfhdrdhjdhjtfd]

Not at all, it's a great colour. Second only to a nice introspective deep blue.

[@connecticuter2410]

Wake up Mr.Freeman it's been 20 years

[@Ojthemighty]

That needs to be made into an alarm clock just the g mans big face with a dummys mouth flapping up and down can you imagine waking up to that Glorious

[@Ojthemighty]

@@velkoto1 ah yes cos of half life 2

[@shithappens816]

Wake the fuck up Mr. Freeman we have aliens to burn!

[@MondySpartan]

Wake up, Gordon! She’s gone, Gordon! She’s GONE!

[@BBHexKey]

I wonder how many people here knew that the PlayStation 2 version of Half-Life works with a USB mouse/keyboard?

[@Hellwyck]

a lot of the nerdy ones.

[@forrestpacholke1396]

I have that game, I did not know that

[@bobcatracer]

Same with the cancelled Dreamcast port. Although Sega released an official keyboard and mouse. Certain reproductions of the game exist which you can still get. Apart from loading times it’s impressive.

[@Lifers]

I did not know that, thank you!

[@nat8695]

wait what? life could've been so much easier...

[@6Twisted]

That menu brings back memories... I still love that menu design.

[@MrBigChungus95]

So that's where Steam's screenshot sound effect comes from

[@DeathBringer769]

Yup, it's a classic Valve sound ;)

[@broglang9102]

For some reason they use half life pics and sounds for ALL sorts of different things, still today.

[@KasumiRINA]

@Brog Lang it's not just Valve, A LOT of games ripped off and reused Half-Life assets, its engine being popular helped. Especially so with sounds since a lot of cheap indie games use (illegally)

[@PIKL_Creep]

They reuse sounds all the time.

[@magnusm4]

@@broglang9102 Cause they're great and memorable for nostalgia

[@Colin-kh6kp]

Interesting that you mentioned the Mist as being an inspiration. The game was actually going to be called “Quiver”, which is a reference to the Mist’s project Arrowhead, which led to the dimensional rift. Half Life was definitely a better title though.

[@alexb.e7498]

@ 3:44.. I just realized that those two Rooms up there, have no doors.. So, those people working there, had to be lifted up there

[@planescaped]

...You're right!

[@Ray-dw3wg]

There was another train going by, probably would drop people off in those rooms. No railings, seems Osha safe to me :)

[@Wesleym134]

3:28 Freeman (Thinking): Ah, looks like I'm not the only one who's late! SUCKER! Announcer: The time is 8:47AM Freeman (Thinking): Shit! I didn't realize I was that late!

[@rinoz47]

Bowling certificate? Baby picture? Where's my stash!?

[@Brainless_VT]

Robert Rocco IS BRILLIANT! he's on hl2 and working to get more episodes out soon even tho its been 6 months since the last one

[@blacklung3501]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/jJysaYCwr8-Bgpo

[@Ojthemighty]

@@expendableround6186 im still making my way through it on season 2 now geez i remember when i first came across it on machinima like in 2007-09 was still in secondary school

[@joshuab5272]

10-15 hour story? My first playthrough took 31!

[@raresmacovei8382]

31? 15 hours? Lmao.

[@freeman2511]

bruh was it your first time using a computer?

[@IAm-zo1bo]

It took me 30 too

[@rich1ell]

Well a few years back I watched in awe on an early youtube video a player completing HL1 in 30 minutes. No cheat just map exploits

[@garden0fstone736]

Mine took 5 years!

[@noferblatz]

Accursed Farms did a whole long walk-through called "Freeman's Mind", where there is a lot of snarky narration (Freeman talking to himself internally). Funny and worth watching.

[@vanilla3464]

Half-Life 3: I want to believe.

[@rookstar3177]

We all do

[@MordecaiWalfish]

many new rumors of VR

[@charlesdorval394]

I believed in Duke Nukem Forever... and we know how that went.

[@someone28]

@@MordecaiWalfish rumor is confirmed as prequel

[@DecibelAlex]

you should check out project boreal and boreal alyph

[@SRGIProductions]

Had to come back to this after Half-Life on Steam had its 25th anniversary update. The menu from the original '98 release has been restored and several bugs have been fixed, among many other things.

[@GVGVIT]

4:15 on early pirated versions of the game this guy died at this moment and you could not continue playing because you was trapped in the train forever. This was hilarious Easter egg for pirates LOL.

[@anonybunny2543]

How do you know

[@GVGVIT]

@@anonybunny2543 arrrr

[@JMNTLRDRX]

@@GVGVIT arrr... Yee be ghey...

[@themoronnextdoor6548]

Yes but the multiplayer worked just fine and it came with counter Strike 1.6 sooo

[@MrAsdf127]

I guess back then people had no idea noclip existed....

[@AndersEngerJensen]

The autumn of 1997 when my cousin brought a demo of Half-Life ... 😱😱😱💖 Man, I miss game experiences like that!! And I must add, my 1st person shooter setup freaks everybody out: I walk forward/backward with the mouse buttons, inverted look (it’s logical man!!) and primary/secondary fire using CTRL / SHIFT, ducking with ALT, jumping with SPACE, strafing Z and X, reload with C and using items A. etc... ;)

[@fatboymachinegun]

Fucking Freak :D

[@AndersEngerJensen]

fatboymachinegun Indeed! But it stems from Wolfenstein 3D and when I first got Unreal in 1997. My first mouse controlled fps. I tried various combinations and found this to work in my favour really. ;)

[@Crocogator]

It took me a long time to graduate to WASD from arrow keys + number pad. Also totally with you on inverted, it just makes sense.

[@AndersEngerJensen]

@@c.jarmstrong3111 yeah, I do. I can't play with WASD config at all.. and especially not if mouse control is normal. But I haven't been playing much these last years.. too much music and other stuff to do. ;) Also.. I'm patiently waiting for Gabe to continue HL2E2 ... at least a closing the cliffhanger they ended on. F***ng Combine Advisors! :P (Yeah, I know I'll end up like a skeleton over my computer for that to happen, but still...)

[@xander1052]

Anders its actually a comfortable setup too! that setup sounds insane but it means that you have your hands in comfortable postions and you are not having to reach all over the place, and its much better than the setup I have for playing Quake 2 for PS1 on my PC :P

[@hbaldinr]

This game is such a masterpiece, the intro in that train car is simply brilliant

[@justinkagan5050]

This game had a bigger impact on me than any other piece of entertainment- movie, book, game, whatever.

[@gastonalvarodorrego6559]

Godfather, every movie by Stanley Kurbrick, Akira Kurosawa, AKIRA(favourite metaphor), How to kill a mockingbird, The chronicles of Narnia, Lord Of The Rings, etc, you sure, unless it’s a game, then yes, Half Life is a masterpiece of a game

[@chrisossu2070]

That might be overselling it, but the game did codify a lot of now-mainstay FPS tropes, in particular, how narratives could be presented in an FPS game. A number of story and setting-focused first-person games owe their existence to Half-Life.

[@VictorCampos87]

My first girlfriend boobs, Chrono Trigger and Half-Life definitely had a bigger impact on me than any other piece of entertainment.

[@gastonalvarodorrego6559]

Half Life is definitely one of the Greatest Games in history

[@Ar1AnX1x]

can't blame you

[@kinoromantic]

Makes me sad and nostalgic. We may never see another Half-Life release. Ever.

[@kinoromantic]

Ghufran Naseer That’s a defeatist statement. Half-Life franchise is more than ready for a new game. Technology is already advanced enough to warrant superiority of new instalment, at least on a technological level. But I agree with statements that say about Half-Life needing to be cutting edge for it so satisfy the gaming community. However, I do not think that Valve isn’t doing another HL because they’re afraid of never being able to satisfy the gaming community. I think that they have their heads turned to other projects, and there hasn’t been enough passion or initiative in regard to bringing Half Life back on the par of the team to warrant superior quality of outcome.

[@kinoromantic]

AnonHeX Left for Dead 3 Portal 3 Half-Life 3. Black Box. 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

[@Vandarte_translator]

It seems that PROJECT 🅱OREALIS could cheer you up

[@UnRec0gnizabl3]

@@Vandarte_translator there is A NEW HALF LIFE GAME!! ITS CALLED HALFLIFE VR!!

[@Gideon_the_Seraph]

@@UnRec0gnizabl3 dont get your hopes up. knowing valve and vr, its probably just some gimmicky shit like vr always is

[@MasterJay1985]

That sound of the doors opening triggered a whole bunch of pleasend childhood memories. Thanks a lot for this great video!

[@barry-allenthe-flash8396]

If you haven't read it or heard of it, I highly recommend checking out the book "Half Life 2: Raising the Bar" sometime if you can find a reasonably priced copy nowadays - it's A MUST READ for fans of both games. It's got loads of interesting concept art and development notes and stories about the development of both games, like how Half-Life even gained the story/narrative focus that made it unique and famous in the first place. The short version: they had 2 teams working on 2 games: one a Myst-style adventure and the other an FPS, and eventually to save money they squashed both teams & work from both projects together into one ambitious title. It's a fantastic book, really. I also like the story of how Gearbox got the job to make Half-Life's expansion. While Half-Life was in development, Gearbox was coincidentally making on a very similar game called 'Prax War', and their publisher (EA, of course) cancelled it when they saw the competition after Half-Life was revealed. So Randy & Co. went to Valve and pitched them on the idea for Opposing Force, having Prax War as a sort of proof-of-concept "See what we can do on our own? Let us make the expansion for your thing." That's how they got Valve onboard, and they went to Sierra and _bam,_ Gearbox got the job despite being a total newcomer. Learned that from this KZbin vid: kzbin.info/www/bejne/j2fVapWAeNuLrck And then there's stuff like you said about them hiring people who had modded theirs, and other, games... man, there's so many great stories surrounding Valve in the early days and Half-Life in general, in addition to it just being great :) Anyway, awesome video dude. So happy to see LGR tackle Half-Life finally :D

[@SalehGfx]

Wtf it's like a £100

[@barry-allenthe-flash8396]

@@SalehGfx Is that so? * _Looks up prices_ * Holy crap, a lot of these prices ARE outrageous. I'm just checking eBay & Amazon real quick right now and - while I see this one $50 listing from a Goodwill that's not too bad on eBay, and Amazon have some pre-owned copies for $45 atm - yeah, nearly everything else is just ridiculous. People jack up prices for everything these days, jeez. I've had mine for years and I don't remember how much I paid for it, but I definitely know it was pretty reasonable. It certainly wasn't anywhere near * _looks at ebay listings again_ * $90 - $200, holy sh**! Not to mention the freakin' psycho who wants nearly $300 + $20 shipping. Fuck _that_ guy, especially. I'm editing my original comment a bit: I gotta say, "... if you can find one for a reasonable price" or something :P

[@DandJinPG]

thanks ! il take a look price be dammed

[@externaIdomain]

I will look this up because I am curious about some plot holes etc. One example why do we have to kill vortagaunts (prob.spelled that wrong but f it) in the first game and in the second they are our biggest allies. Plus not sure who but someone years ago mentioned this book have the real ending in it since the games never ended properly and knowing valve doesnt bother making proper games anymore I want to know what exactly is the true ending in this forsaken franchise.

[@toph72548]

@@externaIdomain It kind of explains it in Half-life 2, the Vortigaunts were enslaved by the Nihilanth (The first game's end boss) and when Gordon killed him, he pretty much freed the Vortigaunts, and since then they've seen him as a hero, somewhat. But I believe there is one Vort in Half-Life 2 that criticizes Freeman because he killed Vorts in the first game.

[@Jamesamong007]

Going berzerk on the scientists with the weapons cheat never gets old. "My god, what are you doing!?"

[@kingneutron1]

Best way to play is with God-mode and all the weapons :)

[@Feroxing12]

half life was on another level back then. I was thinking all new games will be like half-life but I was wrong.

[@drunkdonkeydude]

I was six years old when I played this for the first time with my legally blind father. And we were sold on all of it from there onward. Blue Shift, Opposing Force, Team Fortress, Counter Strike, even the weird mods of 2000 (Sven-coop

[@murc9733]

drunkdonkeydude my father is *illegally* blind

[@op-force9937]

Well, from now till the next year you'll probably : "Balck Mesa:xen", project borealis and Boreal alyph. I hope that you'll pass a good time with your father.

[@hayley9747]

Ah yes, Team Fortress Classic spent so many hours on that game mastering the various classes. Were in multiple clans for CS and TFC and DOD over the years (remember that one ?) good times indeed. HL may look by todays standards, but then actually when you compare it to PUBG it doesn't.

[@GostodePiscina]

Boy do I have some news for you and your father

[@MeestahBinks]

Half life alyx and source 2, things are looking promising.

[@MrRadar]

Gordon was supposed to be 27?! I'm older than that now and I haven't even saved the world once :(

[@icky_thump]

He always appeared to me as like mid-late 30s from the box art lol

[@AdmiralHorror]

Did you at least get your PHD?

[@kraexlix]

As Gordon you did. Because he is you.

[@greensmurf9623]

Well get to it. Before you age more and people die.

[@theguardian8317]

Well Doctors in theoretical physics usually are not pushing carts with dangerous materials into beams of weird energy with powered exoskeletons. Instead they are often just sitting in front of a computer entering data in a keyboard.. or teaching classes in the University from where they graduated from.

[@rock2k14]

These videos are always so good...so good at making me realise I'm getting old :(

[@greenhowie]

I loved xen. It felt properly, completely alien to anything I'd ever experienced and I really felt that I didn't belong in that place. After kicking ass on earth it was a proper survival experience with more than a little horror.

[@ChadKirk]

greenhowie Yeah I agree. It really feels like you SHOULD NOT be there. You are DEFINITELY a fish out of water lol.

[@iroquoiskaram8639]

SantaOMG I wish Half Life 2 had a Xen level, I'd love to see Xen with the new awesome graphics of Half Life 2

[@greenhowie]

@@iroquoiskaram8639 I agree, Black Mesa was a really good experience but they pussied out of xen, then sold it as a completed game. Wasn't happy with that. Edit: oops, my bad. It's still in early access apparently, with xen as a free update at... some point...

[@iroquoiskaram8639]

greenhowie I played Black Mesa and got to the part where you teleport to Xen, And when the credits showed up I was so dissapointed, there is a new update coming pretty soon that will introduce Xen, I still have the 2015 version tho

[@greenhowie]

@@iroquoiskaram8639 Yeah me too, it's on my wishlist now for when they get around to it.

[@Freehotdawgs]

I loved half life as a kid. Downloading new mods for it was the best part. I played the heck out of team fortress classic. Definitely one of my all time favorite games.

[@misterspitfire6564]

Perfect timing - just started to play this again a few days ago to show my eight year old son what games used to look like. He loves it, and I'm having a ton of fun!

[@deptusmechanikus7362]

oh man, seeing those CDs and old boxes made me feel like a kid again 🤗

[@RarefoilB]

WARNING: LONG COMMENT AHEAD Half-Life is one of my favorite gaming experiences of all time, and I have so many memories with the game. I had just beaten Portal 1 & 2 and they were probably my first First-Person games, so I was blown away by how engrossing a game could be from that perspective. I wanted to get more out of it's universe, and I knew they took place in the same world as the Half-Life series, so when I saw the Game of the Year Edition for 1 on one of my PC gaming veteran Dad's bookshelf, I knew the next step. I was 16 at the time, pretty close to my 17th birthday, but because I'm a good boy, I asked my Dad if it was okay for me to play (he said yes), marking the first time I played an M-Rated game. Those first couple of hours of playing are burned into my mind. I was not prepared for how frightening it was to me, I shrieked at every headcrab appearance. The feeling of inching my way through a dangerous, moody environment that was falling apart around me was something I had never experienced before, and I ate it up. I had never felt this immersed in a game before, not even with the Portal games. That spice of danger that Portal didn't give me really was a game-changer. And the memories just keep piling on! Trying in vain to fight off the surface bombing in "We've Got Hostiles", it not penetrating my thick skull that I was supposed to run away, the long and satisfying journey of killing the Tentacles, and my anger at the military for taking all my stuff! The regret at not being able to save the two guys who kill themselves with the Gaus Cannon, being curbstomped by the Gargantuan in the second encounter and after a reload, realizing I could use the technical map to bomb his ass, augh! The time I spent huddled scared in a cave fighting off the Gargantuan in Interloper and _killing it_ from that cave! That was awesome! And the glitches! The scientists shuffling in place, the sliding door that slid out of place and across the room, the laser in Questionable Ethics not working so I accidentally opened a door from the outside and thought that was how you cleared it, and that *godforsaken elevator bug!* Even those I remember fondly, damn that's powerful nostalgia! Yeah, Half-Life was never perfect, and has it's flaws, I saw it even on the first playthrough. I think I'm one of the few people on Earth that can tolerate first-person platforming, but even with my tolerance, it overstays its welcome and that little slide you do when you land forward is not pleasant. On A Rail just dragged and dragged for me, too much of a brown-colored maze for my liking. I actually consider it worse than all of Xen for that reason alone. And screw ladders. And who the hell programmed how you operate those trams? But that never got in the way of my overall enjoyment of the game. Fun fact, I actually played my own soundtrack to this game, starting around the epilogue of "We've Got Hostiles". The songs I picked were from other game soundtracks, and they take a more arcade approach, with a song looping forever in a specific part of the level. While that does sound contradictory to me praising the immersion, well, I was still immersed, all throughout even with "my" soundtrack, but the visible polygons still said to me "video game" so I was still thrown off enough by the lack of a more video-gamey soundtrack. Or at least, that's my theory on why I wanted looping songs. I could have just been stubborn and wanted what I was used to in games. Trying to pick a song as I first entered an area didn't make things super smooth, but I still got to the end. Looking back, I wonder if my Half-Life experience would have been changed all that much if I didn't create another soundtrack, and if it would have been a positive or negative change. Well, right or wrong, I still did so, and now that soundtrack is permanently tied along with my Half-Life memories and I try to play the game with it when possible. Oh well. I still have all the saves from my first time, I saved every time I breathed in that game I was so nervous in it. I have over 300 save files of that playthrough, it's ridiculous. (I still have a bad habit of excessive saving in PC games because of this) Those save files I will cherish forever. Half-Life is the game responsible to making me interested in other FPS games, and without it blowing me away, I probably never would have played Doom 1, Doom 2, Serious Sam The First Encounter, Quake 1, or Quake 2. Those are some of the most fun I've ever had with video games. And without Half-Life giving me the thrill of being scared, who knows if I would've been open to giving this Resident Evil thing a try or other horror experiences. Half-Life broadened my horizons immensely and showed me another part of video games I couldn't comprehend before, and on its 20th anniversary, I can't think of a better honor than it finally getting a review on LGR. Here's to you, Half-Life. I look forward to playing Blue Shift sometime in the future with you. And here's to you, Clint, for making another great video and reminding me of some cherished memories.

[@iblowsnow]

Bravo!

[@DandJinPG]

this comment needs more more love you painted a great picture

[@straighttothep01nt55]

I heard they are working on Half-Life 3 Mobile. You have a phone, don't you?

[@gravellergear4703]

Amen

[@SpilledMilkk]

@@straighttothep01nt55 no

[@pfzt]

I love this channel so much, no one else on YT gives me so much warm and bittersweet nostalgia feelings. I can't wait for your retrospective on Half-Life 2, although i'm going crazy about the fact that this will not happen until 2024. Please make a pinky promise that you stay around that long and that this retrospective will happen!!

[@OrangeDied]

are you ready

[@BDalyPeoples]

Wow great job! Half-Life will always be my favourite game, best parts of my childhood spent playing it. Just subbed :)

[@JoshuaSabourin]

2 seconds in, already smashed the like button. Been waiting for this forever! One of my best memories was playing deathmatch in school. Had an A+ Cert course that we would play it often in, even the teacher played. lol

[@borknagar5454]

HL deathmatch was unmatched. The levels. Bounce, gasworks...if i could go back it would be that moment right there.

[@clawhammr666]

I remember playing HL deathmatch, then later quake3/early cs version/TFC in computer class in school, were always allowed to play when we finished our assignments and was ton of fun playing.

[@JoshuaSabourin]

​@@clawhammr666 Thanks for the comment. HL and HL2 were always iconic and groundbreaking to me. But the replay-ability aspect of HL DM and TFC are what stick with me the most. I will never forget back in the day when I actually had to buy a NIC for each of my computers and thinking how amazing it was to play HL DM with my dad for the first time. Being on two different computers and in the same game, in the same house, together was just incredible to me. Prior to this my only online multi-player experience was with Duke 3D over TEN (Total Entertainment Network). Anybody remember that? The little alien in the corner would change colors to tell you how good your connection was.

[@LetFreedomSPK]

i miss late 1990's early 2000's games.

[@ErikEhrlemark]

Ahhh, good old EAX... EAX - ”It’s in the church, or hallway or whatever,”

[@benknights286]

Stadium ium um um um um.. .. ..

[@Dawwwg]

EAX worked great with a 4.0 speaker setup ...

[@MongooseTacticool]

"Who ordered this operation anyway?"

[@tycho7006]

"Man, my dogs are barkin'!"

[@Crrrow]

@@tycho7006 "Do you know who ate all the donuts?"

[@Nk_-1993]

"I've killed 12 dumbass Scientists and not one of them fought back this sucks!" H.E.C.U Marine.

[@sage7309]

@@Nk_-1993 The moment I heard him say that I mowed those bastards down. How about these scientists fighting back now mister marine? I watched this video a couple of months ago and in response put half life on my wish list on steam, fortunately they finally had a sale a couple of days ago.

[@thetrashmann8140]

"Looks like the brass bit off more than they can chew." - H.E.C.U. Marine in Opposing Force

[@Povilaz]

And yet, tomorrow they should unveil Half-Life: Alyx... Has it really been this long?

[@LungMing23]

Another great vid LGR. Thanks for doing this and all that you do.

[@morlasa]

This is making me really want to rewatch Freeman's Mind by Accursedfarms

[@theweddingsinger1970]

Epic: We have made the most ambitious single player fps of '98 Valve: Hold my crowbar

[@thehamster0520]

Epic: we have made the most ambitious FPS of 2004 Valve: hold my crowbar

[@xsychoreese9877]

i mean yes and no

[@jessehill9993]

Unreal was good. The music and environment still blows me away especially the outdoor scenes. But Half-Life? If I could spend a month in Black Mesa with full access id love to see exactly how big the place really is.

[@KeradSnake]

Epic: We've made the most ambitious Battle Royale game Valve: Hold my crowbar in VR

[@zoltankovai1839]

KZbin: I guess this would be all endlessly recycled cliche youtube comments for today. theweddingsinger1970 : Hold my originality.

[@fakshen1973]

It was a great franchise. It's a shame that Valve just left it to rot. The AI was very good for the time. You couldn't juts go in guns blazing. There was also reactive music. If you started to go on a high damage per second run, you'd get some really aggressive them music. Speaking of, the music and sound effects were top notch. The music always set the stage nicely.

[@Derfel95]

You're saying they should have milked it?

[@0Blueaura]

"There was also reactive music" What? never heard of that?

[@filegrabber1]

It may seem to you Valve left HL to rot, but they actually saved the francise by not letting mediocracy take over. And this HL VR that is underway most likely will be as groundbreaking HL and HL2 were. Yes my expectations are high.

[@Marko-wi1lb]

Gabe still saving for his weight reduction program.. apparently he's only worth about half a billion atm, so not quite there..

[@Missaw94]

pancakes No, he's saying they did the complete opposite, which (imo) is just as bad.

[@Deathshuck]

Isn't it crazy that Gordon is so unidentifiable in the actual game that they later gave him glasses and it literally didn't affect anything in the game? I think he even had ponytail at one point in time. It's just interesting that a game with such a iconic protagonist, we've NEVER actually seen him with our own eyes, except in artwork. We've seen Mario a gazillion times, but Gordon only lives inside an artwork.

[@Hishmars]

I mean you see him in both blue shift and opposing force, and you can see yourself in security cameras in HL2.

[@911WASanINSIDEjob420]

@@MarphitimusBlackimus no he doesn't

[@ObsoleteVodka]

He does, unless they removed it from the Steam version... But in the original you can even use the third-person command in single player and see for yourself.

[@El_Descarriado]

We may get realistic mirror textures in (snort) Half Life 3, as technology has pretty much got there. It'd be fun seeing an in-game Gordon.

[@voteZDLR]

If you look it up there's plenty of images of him and if you can get one that shows his back he definitely has a little, LITTLE ponytail. It's like a little pig tail

[@MrNvona]

This game changed my life

[@theohaschronic9341]

How? Lol

[@SuperTrisset]

@@theohaschronic9341 Perhaps gaming became his passion?

[@freeman2511]

I know right. Half life was the first real video game I played outside of sh1t like tetris and what not. It was incredible for the 6 year old me. It's still my favourite game of all time.

[@robertreckeweg8533]

Half life was one of the first fps games u have beaten on the hardest difficulty and yet to this day it's one of the only games where every single gun feels unique in a way where they never become obsolete, even the crow bar and the pistol, never lose their usefulness I do recommend checking out the half life mod community c:

[@tycho7006]

The MP5 and shotgun are incredible. I actually think HL1 aged better than 2 and one of the several reasons why is because the combat and guns all feel a lot better in HL1

[@Grim_Pinata]

LGR and Half-Life oh my goshhh The two best things ever

[@Ikelae]

Nice Profile Pic!

[@mpptaj]

Dude, its like a overload of nostalgia every video of yours i watch, super jealous of your collection, keep up the awesome content!!!

[@naveedclifton]

_"No...don't leave me."_ *NEVER* forget, boys and girls.

[@NovaDelta]

maybe with the original boxart he was cleaning his glasses

[@Ojthemighty]

Out of frame cleaning of the glasses Imagine if it panned out that would be such a weird picture just for the fact that gordan was cleaning his glasses pulling that face while all that murder death is goin on around him

[@NovaDelta]

@@Ojthemighty just another day back at black mesa

[@Ojthemighty]

@@NovaDelta i c thats i hate mondays face ha ha

[@daveadams6421]

When I first got this game, from the intro onwards, I couldn't believe what I was looking at - it was mind-blowing and addictive 👍👍👍😀

[@CheapSushi]

I loved going to the store with my dad buying a PC game in the large boxes and spending the car ride home reading the manuals and everything in the box. I miss those times. I also miss when sound was more than just about fidelity, amps and dacs but true soundscapes with raytracing-like realism from sound hardware acceleration!

[@Stoneysilence]

Yeah, I really miss hardware based sound, I was so pissed when MS removed it from DirectX.

[@TheSilentFool]

Oh snap, until I watched the two opening sequences back to back, I never put it together that in Blue Shift you're the security guard from the opening scene on the tram.

[@chubbycatfish4573]

Oh wow, that hazard course at the beginning brings back a flood of memories.

[@nosoyporta]

Since i played this game everytime i see a crowbar i just cannot stop thinking about Half life

[@DiggyDax92]

An absolute classic

[@DefiantPunk0810]

I love how it's revealed in Half-Life 2: Episode 2 that Gordon ruining the casserole is canon in lore.

[@Thraim.]

The memories of watching my big brother play that... (I was too young at the time) Friendly reminder that the huge ass robot we see on the train ride at the beginning never shows up again. They animated that whole thing for a few seconds of on-screen goodness. Damn, that's dedication.

[@MichVaugier]

I played Doom before Half-LifeI loved Doom, but for me the best FPS I ever played was Half-Life. Thanks for the nostalgia. Peace!.

[@cloudsbelow9285]

I was so proud of myself beating this game at 9 years old

[@ortzinator]

I originally got this game pirated from a friend of my dad's. It was a few years before I could actually play it, not only because my PC wasn't fast enough, but also it scared the bejeezus out of me!

[@vect0r85]

Oh yeah! I remember doing the training course on the demo version and feeling my heart race when the turrets dropped. It was my first real FPS as a kid. I was so scared to die the first time!

[@ortzinator]

@@vect0r85 for me it was the alien screeching and gurgling sounds of lurking headcrabs and vortigaunts

[@KeMeEscupaUnPollo]

Man... hearing the marines around was also pure fear... and when they tried to ambush you and throw the grenades back at you... sweet mother of fuck was that tense.

[@FairPlay137]

The Steam version of Half-Life tries to reproduce the audio effects using the Miles Sound System, but the effects aren't exactly the same. However, Sven Co-op (a very popular Half-Life mod which allowed for co-op play, *and* is available for free on Steam) replaced those effects with new, more accurate effects using FMOD.

[@MrShurik3n]

The way this game made me feel has seldomly achieved.

[@Darrell9000]

"Ominous Valve theme plays" in the subtitles. lol.

[@F7GOS]

Great retrospective, so many hours spent in pretty much every version. Have a huge fondness for the PS2 version though complete with its weird purple CD.

[@dhwwiiexpert]

3:28 “Suckeeeeerr!!”

[@aaadj2744]

That's real Barney knocking the door....

[@petroklaxis]

If the half life is 20 years, then does that mean a full life is 40 years? (Also, today is the 14th anniversary of Half-Life 2's release, so that's cool)

[@Hishmars]

nah see half life is logarithmic, so half of half life is gone after 20 years. We'll have a quarter of the original in another 20 and an eighth in 40. We'll need to wait another 120 years for less than 1% of the original half life is left, most of it having decayed into more stable particles of halo and CoD.

[@TennysonPesco]

Half-life is always a constant factor. Even when you have 1/512 of the original sample, the half-life will be the same value - a 'full life' wouldn't be double the half-life. If you have any sort of familiarity with exponentials: ln(N/No) = (-ln(2) * t)/half-life. Hence, rearranging for t/half-life will show that for each half of N, t/half-life will increase by 1, essentially meaning that another half-life has occurred. It also shows that halving N will always take a constant amount of time, in order to make t/half-life increment by 1 each time.

[@Ojthemighty]

@@Hishmars 😂 very witty sir

[@Ojthemighty]

@@TennysonPesco yes hes talking but is he really saying anything? No not really no.

[@TennysonPesco]

@@Ojthemighty What?

[@BoostedPastime]

I just started playing it for my first time in 2021 and I have to say, the game play is so smooth and fun it is really impressive just how ahead of its time it was!

[@benm3382]

Yeah, I first played Half-Life and Far Cry in the past few years and both of them were so well made that I'd rather play them than most modern FPS games.

[@BoostedPastime]

@@benm3382 yeah they put modern games to shame. You can tell that they were made in a time where video games were crafted with great passion and care.

[@syrus3k]

It's hard to state just how cool and original this game was.. it was the first time I felt like I was playing in a film, and it was more immersive than anything before.

[@TheAziMax]

One of the true games of my life. I will never forget this adventure. What a moment for me in 2000. This will be a game always in my heart.

[@MKR3238]

The sound when selecting a menu point sounds an awful lot like the F12 Screenshot sound from the Steam overlay, neat

[@deployedkitty]

They do sound a bit alike, but they're not exactly the same, I think. Wouldn't surprise me at all, if they both came from the same raw sound file.

[@cambreaKer]

they are the same sound

[@GROENAASMusic]

It's the exact same sound effect, fyi.

[@DeathBringer769]

It's one of the classic Valve sound effects. They've reused it in quite a few places ;)

[@theDarkElfX]

DUDE! You remind me sooo much of the voice that narrated A Christmas Story! MAIN REASON I SUBSCRIBED!!! =D

[@KingALBoy]

I remember my boss at work showing me this game commenting on how good the water animation was. Thats what I remember for some reason

[@MrMistery101]

My God, What are you doing!?

[@chimpwithagun]

Do you know who ate all the donuts?

[@G_Sergeant]

Come on gordon, you trying to get me into trouble?

[@Snauss]

How come we have to wear these ridiculous ties?

[@sernikb]

WEEAGH STAPH!

[@bitrot-sf5vh]

Good Morning Gordon

[@-42-47]

Ahh Half-Life, I've loved you since your release and still do, what a wonderful game. I still remember finding it in a present that wonderful Christmas I also got a Voodoo 2 graphics card, one of the best days in my life.

[@fzbk4143]

This was my childhood and used to talk about it with the boys...now we've all gone our separate ways, sadly turned our backs on each other too, and now there's just no one i can talk about this fond childhood memory and the nostalgia. Well, guess this is life in the real world.

[@thelazygamer7303]

That's sucks dude

[@garden0fstone736]

My buddies never had the luxury of being able to play this, I used to play with them one person controls movement, other person has the mouse

[@mymarci]

The same here, i know how you feel when watching nostalgia videos about half-life.