Two guys talk about Half Life... and a bunch of other stuff too

Me and my pal, Berk, find ourselves talking about games all the time, and I thought that one of our discussions might make for an interesting video. Today we're talking about the 1998 PC classic, Half Life, quite possibly one of the best games ever made.
Thanks so much to Wild_Berk for stopping by and chatting with me. Please go check him out:
/ wild_berk
/ themudmanker
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/ bunkerdweller

[@quintonlim4275]

I'd gladly listen to two highly trained professionals

[@thecoolcario9048]

They don't need to hear about this, they are highly trained professionals

[@CoolSs]

why we all need to wear those ridiculous gas masks

[@Gyrfalcon312]

As long as they've assured the Administrator that nothing will go wrong...

[@Abszilla51]

A little detail I like about the tram ride voice-over is that we get to know what temperature Black Mesa is kept at. It's just a little thing but it adds a lot. Like, can you imagine walking in between facilities in a suit and tie with a lab coat on, drenched in sweat, under the 105 degree heat of the New Mexico sun. Only to then walk into a sterile concrete bunker full of dead cream colored office rooms kept at 68 degrees! That's cold, man!

[@casanovafunkenstein5090]

On the subject of Doom 3 not being a natural development of the Id Software canon up to that point, it might be worth comparing it to the design documents for both the original Doom and Quake. Both of those games were pitched as something much more similar in tone and mechanics to Doom 3, but the technical limitations of the engine meant that a lot of the aspirations towards making a story driven and atmospheric game that really pushed boundaries in what could be achieved in terms of storytelling in an action game had to be abandoned. Apparently Wolfenstein 3D was intended to include the stealth and espionage - related mechanics from the original top down games (Wolfenstein 1&2 were about avoiding patrols, procuring disguises, obtaining papers to pass security checkpoints, etc. It was like a weird prototype for something like Hitman, except with rogue like design elements and working within the technical limitations of 80s home computer technology), so it really seems like Id were always coming into projects with ambitions that went far beyond what they could achieve at the time - ultimately pairing things back to being an iteration on the design of the previous big release (tracing back to Hovertank 3D and Catacomb 3D, where those gameplay conventions and the engine technology were established). Half Life is definitely still a game that holds up - other developers just don't seem to be really understand how it manages to balance the need to tell a story with never taking agency away from the player. So many games just get it wrong and either limit the player's movement to a slow walk, place them in an enclosed space for extended periods of time, or directly wrestle camera control away from them. In Half Life, everything you need to know is told in short, efficient bits of dialogue and you can ignore most of it if you have heard it before, or you just aren't interested. Half Life 2 does make some compromises on that front, due to the characters no longer being generic archetypes who all look and sound identical, but it's still snappy and to the point; using the impressive facial expressions and body language to communicate things much more efficiently and naturally than most games can manage. I wish that more games were as good at delivering their story as Half Life. I know that it's a completely linear experience, akin to a roller-coaster, but the way that the story is delivered and paced out really is a cut above pretty much every one of its contemporaries and imitators and that really does a lot to cover for the fact that the environments and levels often don't make any logical sense in the context of being part of a functioning place of work.

[@CoolSs]

the effort in this "chat" type of video is impressive. not only you can enjoy it without watching but it's well edited to show relevant things about the subject. i wish more "podcast" type videos would put this amount of effort. i hate it when people talking about something and the subject is never shown or anything.

[@Gyrfalcon312]

I'm reminded once more that you and Berk make some of the best game-chat videos I've ever come across. No huge panels of presenters - though those can be fun - and talking about older games that gamers in my area have largely forgotten / don't know.

[@anthonyrocha1518]

Really dig the Opposing Force expansion

[@reuben6483]

we can only hope ID software is cooking up a quake reboot on the scale of DOOM 2016 and Eternal

[@critical_confusion]

Ive found your channel very recently and i can say i'm loving these 2 guys talk about x videos they're very relaxing and intriguing.

[@critical_confusion]

I believe not many people know or care for what the "start" of modern fps games is or are, so many people really play as you said only modern games and really only stick to 2-3 but when you do encounter someone who does care or broadened their horizons if they did their homework they will agree Half Life is extremely influential towards the fps genre.

[@WK-47]

That, or they place all the emphasis on Doom despite its not being the first (quasi-)3D FPS. Even doing the same for Wolf doesn't tell the whole story. I think it's best to see these things as milestones, which they are, rather than focusing on origin points/grandfathers/whatever. The reality is that everything in gaming has some overlap and doesn't exist in a vacuum. HL for instance is Quake in its bones, then there's the interplay between console and PC that's more or less apparent nowadays, and even arcade before that had some overlap (Pacman originating there before appearing on console, etc.) On a slight tangent but keeping it nerdy, there's the topic of the fall of the Roman Empire. People generally point to 476 AD, which disregards Constantinople or the slow decay since the 200s. That's why it's better to think of it as a historical process more than an event. The FPS and gaming in general should maybe be seen the same way, developing as a sequence of processes that aren't always linear. I guess it's trickier with gaming compared to other mediums because of how strong the technological component is, even next to film where it's a driver but arguably not to the same degree.

[@Ironclad17]

Half-Life did push the genre forward but it builds on previous FPS is and a victim of its own popularity. It very much looks like a modified Quake Engine. John Carmack famously said "Story in a game is like story in a porn movie. It's expected to be there, but its not that important." Well the market showed there was a demand for more story focus at the time but I believe these trends are cyclical. Many developers copied their formula and now similar set pieces and cinematic segments are often criticized for being on-rails or too scripted. Since Doom 2016, we're in a renaissance of indie arena shooters and while many are incredibly polished mechanically and a fantastic spectacle, I also see people disappointed narrative campaign driven FPS have had such a poor showing recently. Last point, people often attribute the birth of multiplayer fps to Unreal Tournament and Quake III, but I think Half-Life's mods that became full titles like Counter-Strike and Team Fortress Classic do not get the credit they deserve for how foundational they are. I have many fond memories of one CS mod that added a class, leveling system, and spells based on Warcraft 3 hero units. I think it's pretty obvious how these kinds of mods lead to the hero shooters and looter shooters which dominate the industry today.

[@EpicplayerBlueShift]

The funny thing about the bug at 19:22 is that it used to NOT be out of sync. At some point bugs like this got introduced to the Steam release.

[@certifiedcretin]

one of the few things half-life source actually fixed

[@seth3491]

The scientist screams never get old

[@DabroodThompson]

I really liked the exchange you guys had at around 23:00 where you say "people would just want half-life 2 or 1 again for half-life 3" and the other guy says "well that's basically what they did for half-life 2, it was a 1 to 1 translation with more tech added" and then you basically answer with "nuh-uh". It can sometimes be jarring when your co-host doesn't play right into your talking points but it's so much more authentic to real life conversations.

[@knightofthenight789]

Hey bro just wanted to say i love your videos. Your retrospectives are awesome and i often find myself listening to them for an hour or so after having done with my studies. Just wanted to ask a question that i would be glad if you answered. I primarily found out your channel because of the Halo 4 video but i saw your Halo CE retrospective as well and absolutely loved it i can't find it anymore. Did you take it down? If so do you plan on remaking that video?

[@BunkerDweller]

I'm glad you enjoyed the content! As for the CE vid, it's unlisted but it's available in a public playlist (check out my Reviews playlist) A lot of my old videos got demonetized and delisted thanks to copyrighted music

[@knightofthenight789]

@@BunkerDweller Alright now i see what happened and yeah youtube's copyright system is awful. Recently another youtuber named Installation 00 is suffering a lot because of that as well. Thanks for replying and have a nice day.

[@slimysomething]

"The body isn't in sync with the tentacle" That isn't just one of those source port bugs?

[@BlueKunai]

Another great chat, lads. I've played through HL1 more times than I can count and I can't believe it never clicked to me that Inbound served as a sneak peek of all the levels to come. And shout-out to Ross Scott, stumbling upon Freeman's Mind back in 2008 is what got me to play the Half-Life games and they've been some of my favourites ever since.

[@WK-47]

Same - not just never noticing it but only picking up the series in 2008. HL is one of those special games/series that's possible to play time after time, dig into things out with the game like cut content and dev history, and still discover new things decades after the fact. Fallout is another good example. Just goes to show that attention to detail, craftsmanship, and good design in general transcend genre and are universal and timeless. Gotta love it.

[@foreignuser_]

Great conversation boys. I appreciate the editing that went into the video portion of this as well. Really nice video. I vividly remember as a young teen the first time I played half-life on my sister's boyfriend's computer. It was with headphones and it was amazing. Before this I had only played FPS games on N64 or DOOM with keyboard controls. The mouse movement was just unreal! (Pun intended, for another game of the era) To answer the question at the end, I think that those who know, know how important and good both of the Half-Life games were and are. You can't embark on an FPS development journey without playing these games. That said, I have also seen that it is a little bit cool to hate on Half-Life these days, but like I said... these are people who just don't know. Cool to Hate is also a good The Offspring song from around that time period.

[@CoolSs]

7:32 wow, i grew up what the game and never realized the foreshadowing of this line. good catch.

[@RoamersArchive]

I'd thought you might find this interesting. Around the 20:00 minute mark where you're talking about the tentacle animation being out of sync, the original version of the game on the actual disc that problem wasn't there, the reason the animation is broken is something to do with the steam port, I cannot remember what specifically causes it though

[@phalxor]

halflife has been rotting slowly over the years with basically no upkeep, just more and more broken sht

[@iansanchez331]

RIP Berk colorblindedness 2023

[@TCrag]

HL1 MMod has updated the game without messing with the design intent, it's free on Steam and well worth a try. HL2 Update is also free on Steam and really adds to the experience. A contender for the first-ever type of this game in my opinion is Strife.

[@WK-47]

I'm planning to hit up Update for my next run of HL2. Does it contain the episodes plus Lost Coast? It wasn't clear from the store page. Looking forward to it anyway, but I still need to finish BM (of course I got stuck in one of the new areas in Xen...)

[@mrsubject1]

Half life 2 MMOD is my favourite mod, such a great way to re-experience that game

[@Th3Nexus]

Any plans to do a Halo 5 review, in order to complete the 343 trilogy?

[@nagger8216]

I'd rather have a video about MCC, everything that's been said about Halo 5 has been said already. Plus there's not that many people calling it a good game compared to 4 and Infinite

[@Nighterac]

25:06 G-Man was actually supposed to be the Administrator in HL1 according to the Half Life audio script Sierra released back in 99. Wish I could link here but KZbin isn't letting me, so just look up the Valve Archive and it'll be in there. There's also a line in Decay that gets overlooked that even mentions the Administrator is a "bureaucrat, not a scientist". The definition of a bureaucrat is as follows: "an official in a government department, in particular one perceived as being concerned with procedural correctness at the expense of people's needs." Government official? Like.. a G-Man of sorts? One perceived as being concerned with procedural correctness? At the expense of people's needs? Like how G-Man doesn't actually care what happens to the world or anyone as long as he gets his own way? He doesn't care about an individual's needs or suffering, as long as somehow humanity wins in the end. G-Man was also the one who found the crystal in the first place that causes the Resonance Cascade, and going by him being the Administrator, it would also mean he pushed for the capacitors to be well over capacity (105%). It's obvious Gearbox had access to design documents and other major plot points that would end up showing up later on, like how Kleiner is established as a character in that expansion (with Dr. Keller saying to Gina/Colette that he doesn't know what Kleiner sees in Gordon) as well as Marc Laidlaw being behind the Black Mesa being nuked plot point too. Also the Barney we play as in Blue Shift is referred to as "Calhoun", and we all know that he's named that in HL2. But this ended up getting retconned in HL2 with Wallace Breen (which was previously the Consul in the beta and had no connection to Black Mesa)

[@manlykitten123]

I feel like in recent years, Doom has reclaimed the spotlight as *the* classic fps.

[@WK-47]

The classical FPS and a classic, sure, certainly after Doom 2016. I wouldn't call either HL1 or 2 that, though. A modern/cerebral/narrative-driven FPS and definitely a classic but not a classical FPS in the sense Doom is.

[@frozarburst6350]

Of all things that got me back into Half Life, it's actually Black Mesa and the mods of Half Life 1. Half Life has such a huge and dedicated modding scene that had me interested in the technical side of goldsrc and how Valve was able to pull it off. When it came to Black Mesa, same thing, except now I was impressed how they managed to make it play almost identical to HL1 but a bit better and with graphics that compete with even modern titles. But HL1 always has a special place to me because you can easily boot it up even if your computer isn't that powerful, you don't get dropped into a shootout immediately so you have time to process everything, and it just feels like a timeless classic even if bits of it are outdated

[@ReachTea]

34:27 Absolutely talking out of your ass in that sentence dawg

[@EthanTheDinoNerd]

With Source 2 I wonder if they'll make a Garry's mod 2 or update the Garry's mod with it

[@Gyrfalcon312]

Valve would be fools to not update _Garry's Mod_ with Source 2 tech. I never got to play it, but I've seen hundreds of testimonials as to its influence on the base game, and other games.

[@foreignuser_]

it would have been really funny if the actual soundtrack for XEN was like the music @ 45:40

[@batyr123_]

Kelski video was good👍

[@bennettfender9927]

I’m surprised y’all didn’t mention Jurassic Park Trespasser when talking about 1998 games that attempted to change the fps genre and yet ultimately failed. Trespasser in fact brought in physics 6 years before Half Life 2 did on top of having big open levels 3 years before Halo CE and regenerating health among other features. Too bad the game was rushed and ended up being a failure could have easily been one of the best FPS games ever made had they taken their time.

[@Goatlowski]

LETS GO LETS GO LETS GO LETS GO

[@MusicaX79]

Ah Half-Life my childhood.

[@CoolSs]

i believe that those two guys can beat half life decay irl, such professionals.

[@waddlesp7102]

Hey Andy, are you ever going to do a video about Unreal Gold?

[@exposedbrainfilms7897]

source remake is fun, i like seeing how much shit breaks as the source engine ages.

[@cyberen]

We don't need to call Half-Life a "pillar" or anything. Those who played it loved it, and will remember it always.

[@monolith4653]

I tried to play it twice and I loved it.. until Xen.. Never was able to finish the game and I don't think I will ever bother

[@dogofwar6769]

I played the hell out of the original HL1 trilogy and beat them all. But then valve created steam and I shunned the company for like 10 years because I lived in the absolute middle of nowhere and my only internet access with a spotty cellular model that didn't work for about a 3rd of the year. Even now that internet access is pretty much ubiquitous I still avoid steam. Stick with GOG whenever possible. At least with them I can just download the installer.

[@Phantom_Aspekt]

I still highly regard HL1 even though there is a lot about it that is janky, I don't like fighting the marines because of their hitscan attacks, and the entire final quarter of the game is awful. But even after all that it is still a pillar of FPS history because of what came after it. Counter-Strike, HL1's foundation was so great that Counter-Strike has barely changed in over 20 years. Half-Life 2 on the other hand I feel is incredibly overrated and gets way too much praise, it's just an extended tech demo IMHO. Halo 2 released that same year and was a far superior FPS game, it also brought us the modern matchmaking system which is still in use by pretty much every online game today.

[@panzershreck8077]

Glad to see you make a half life video especially after playing through HL1 and 2 recently for the first time ever last month. I also wanted to ask you your thoughts on destiny 2 or the series as a whole really if you've been apart of it at all or have looked in from an outsiders view. Reason why i'm asking is cus after watching ur halo infinite retrospective vids again, I thought how nice it'd be to have someone shit on the destiny community as much as you did to the 343 shills. Seriously I can't fuckin stand destiny players for the constant dick sucking of modern bungie, if u thought 343 fans were bad, they're nothing compared to how much u can shit in a d2 player's mouth and get away with it. I've been hoping I can hear someone go on a hour long rant about how re*arded the d2 community and bungie are as a whole. That's all keep up the great videos 👍

[@ShishouDzukiZaManako]

Bueorq

[@Dommy610]

I'm still in highschool, so I think I have a little merit in saying that the majority of younger people think either Fortnite or Overwatch is "that pillar." It's damn sad that they don't play older games.