Comments

Thank you Archie I'm honored. Also your review is very good - very detailed I like it.. I see that I improve upon the map transitions for the patch. I suspect the most notable map change happens in map2 to map3. I will let it fade in and delay all the spawns etc... Once again thanks for your very detailed review. You're a well known critic within the Hl community when it comes down to game testing. I would have never suspected to get such a positive review from you.

That makes me even more confident to quickly continue on my other mod Firestorm.

What an enjoyable experience!

Overall this is an incredibly impressive mod. Locations are unique and interesting, whilst still feeling extremely routed within the Half-Life universe. Vanilla assets are used alongside custom content in such a well-balanced way that you instantly accept the world you’ve been dropped into.
The facility feels like it’s alive and NPC scripting and detailing is at an exceptional level. There’s always loads to look at, and that really helps keep the mod fresh over its surprising and impressive length.

So please keep in mind that I am a huge fan of this mod, but I’m now going to focus on a few reasons why I’m not quite putting it in the ‘personal favourite’ category.

Firstly, there are repeated occasions where level transitions are rather jarring. This happens most notably in the intro, but also several times throughout the mod as a whole. Huge changes occur between maps that could be better hidden with a fade or with a more enclosed level change. It’s a minor gripe, but it occasionally left me a little disorientated and unclear on what had happened around me.

Second, I was slightly disappointed at the lack of actual puzzles. The closest we really get to a puzzle is finding a button, pressing it and then only finding out what it unlocked afterwards. More signposting for where you need to go would reduce the feeling of “I wonder what that button did”. Also, more carefully thought out puzzles in general would be welcome relief from gameplay which is unfortunately just combat from start to finish – to the extent that around half way through I was finding it quite grating (though it got a lot fresher again towards the end).

Though there are exceptions, I found the lighting to be somewhat lacklustre throughout. There are some beautiful examples of good lighting, but for the majority of the mod, the lights are simply there to illuminate rooms, rather than to add atmosphere and character to them. The biggest exception to this is in the loading bay where the tram ride finishes – it’s absolutely stunning in both design and lighting. More of this!!

Aside from what I’ve already said about lacking puzzles; gameplay-wise the mod is very strong, albeit with a few irritations. I constantly only just had enough ammo and health to proceed, and that suggests that it’s fantastically balanced. It was a genuine challenge, but never utterly ruthless. Fantastic. The irritations were firstly an overuse of unfair monster spawns right behind you that required quick loading if low on health and secondly a major overuse of barnacles. Barnacles aren’t a challenge, and they’re ok to have occasionally, but in the quantity they’ve been used here they are really annoying.

Finally, though it was clearer towards the end, I felt like a more overarching purpose would have made the mod more enjoyable. You’re told at the start that the objective is to kill witnesses to the Black Mesa disaster, yet doing so actually fails the game at least once (killing a scientist needed for a retinal scanner). This leaves the player somewhat lost for purpose, and lowers their guard when Barneys are first encountered.

I know this seems like a lot of negative points, so again I’d like to stress that I really love this mod! It’s hugely impressive, hugely ambitious and extremely well executed. I’m just being very critical because it’s so close to being perfect!

Congratulations on releasing this, you’ve done brilliantly.

I am kind of concerned about all the people who say they're moving up here. Not only are they going to be sorely disappointed as per Instant's post, but they'll make a big fuss and try to make us go backwards.
Also, most of them seem to be the kind of people who'd be anti-immigration, and I feel like the irony is lost on 'em.

Only the Alien Grunt is nerved on easy he is actually dead in a trigger_hurt only for him.. Tried to have him dead near that Hornet gun at the end of the corridor on hard though he simply wouldn't wanna die without exploding into 100 pieces I may remove him entirely for the patched version.

As for the crashes that other guy did play it on WON... At the current state this mod is not fully WON compatible. I've tested it myself yesterday and get the same crashes.

Feel free to keep playing for the patched version I will just fix few texture glitches & brush glitches I've overlooked - 1 model disappearing in certain angulars. Apparently remove that Alien Grunt and and try to get it WON compatible per pak. file and a light version of the named crash maps.

Crashed at map 6 like everyone else with an 'out of sfx_t' error while trying to pick up the battery in the locker. There also seems to be notable nerfing of enemy health; it's very obvious with the alien grunts. I like how the ally military presence is very strong; something you rarely see in OP4 mods. There also seems to be some other miscellaneous bugs and stuff. But I know that the most important part of your mod is the gameplay/combat. And there seems to be plenty of that. But it only makes the nerfed enemies more noticeable... not sure why you did that. I think I'll upload a video of the first five maps playthru. Please reply and tell me whether I should keep playing (heard theres another crash on another map down the road) or wait for your patch, thanks.

It's fantastic news - only last year we were celebrating the same result in Scotland!

"you actually can't honestly blame 'em with all of the Confederate Flag bullshit happening." Considering what that flag represents, I'm pretty sure we're still allowed to blame 'em. I'm blown away that it's taken this long for a real outcry at the Confederate flag still being flown to happen.

@rufee: I completely agree with you, unless of course you're implying that homosexual marriage is contributing to it.

Maybe. But...I'm totally not a nerd, ok!?
Not that i'm trying to be discriminative towards nerds.I love nerds sooo much; most of my friends are nerds.

Family guy quote?

Ya it is.. It's one that somebody created on game banana "free to use"
I like it..

http://hlof.gamebanana.com/guis

The cover art is a bit of a cluster, but a very cool cluster! Can't wait to try it out, downloading it now!

Good for them. Everyone should have the right to feel equally miserable.

Ooohh. Yeah, like I said, I agree with sentiment, I just thought he was saying legalizing same-sex marriage was a waste of time.

@Dimbloke: Haven't you guys got that whole "separation of church and state" thing?
@Striker: You can't enforce tolerance or acceptance, that's something society has to work out on its own. Equal rights is an important step on that path, though.

I think Bruce was critising marriage in general, not marriage equality. And it's a valid point. But the logic doesn't change how ingrained it is in society.

I'm glad, it's a stepping stone for the LGBT community to slowly not even be recognised at such. There's still plenty of social issues and stigma towards them that hopefully is going to disappear some day, and I'm glad that america anyway have started to help them get there.

I can't help but laugh at the incredibly huge outcry of morons on twitter though, "I hate this country, what about our consitution, I'm moving to canada".. despite canada having legalised same sex marriage for over 10 years. Honestly can't understand how backwards some people can be...

I really try not to care for this topic, but the world is going to shit really fast, that said back to not caring.

@Striker That's clearly getting better over time, but I'd say in the meantime, it's easier to ensure they have the same rights as everyone else.

@Bruce I get what you're saying, but I largely disagree that it was a waste of time/effort.

i think its just a waste of time, if 2 ppl dont really love each other, marriage is only gonna make it worse, if they really love each other, marriage wont change anything

Is gay marriage more important than actual tolerance and acceptance of gay couples?

YAY USA!
It got passed right under my nose, that's for sure.
There was a pastor from Texas that said he was going to set himself on fire in protest: http://www.hngn.com/articles/103690/20150624/texas-pastor-will-set-himself-fire-protest-over-gay-marriage.htm.
That's so ignorant that I almost hope he keeps to his word.
I know a lot of gay people, and this is a great step forward for them.

What's next, LEGALIZED MURDER?!

What a nice sendoff for your dad! I never saw The Who in concert, but I'm sure it was a fabulous show![/jelly]

It sucks you're gonna lose your father for a year or more, at least there is Skype and facetime and whatnot to keep in touch 'till he returns.

A whopping 7 FPS while playing on Intel GMA965 (in software mode).

Hoo, my grandparents sure are pissed!

They see this as a beginning to religious persecution, that the HOMOSEXUAL AGENDA will start revoking the rights of religions by labeling them as "hate speech," and you actually can't honestly blame 'em with all of the Confederate Flag bullshit happening.

Yup, it doesn't matter who we vote for in Australia, neither major party seems to support marriage equality :/

This is a good move for America, hopefully this gives other countries a kick in the ass to move forward with the leaders of the western world.

lololol lolololol

Well let's say that I've been to just 1023 events, Archie.

That's mindblowing to me. I've been to more gigs than I can count - there's nothing quite like live music.
That's pretty damn cool that you've seen The Who, though I can't imagine they rock quite as hard as they used to

Standing gigs always tend to be more fun, and while the big stadium concerts are amazing, I always tend to prefer more intimate performances in venues that'll just about fit a thousand.

I used to go fishing in County Mayo a lot and we'd travel through NI, but aside from roadside services I've never actually explored much of it. The West coast of The Republic of Ireland is utterly beautiful, though.

Heh I did not know you're from Ireland.
I never been to a concert either, perhaps at events but... I never had some favorite artist to be so interested.

Doh!
Credited in the text file included, but totally forgot to mention here i took one of Albertos models and butchered it. Ended up using it partially; i think it was the pad at the base of the twisters. So thanks, Alberto!
@Trempler: I might get around that eventually, have a bunch of other projects open for now. Ocd gonna kick in hard if i start on multiple tasks

This is a really amaizing map. God plz do a singleplayer with this style!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gamebanana mirror if anybody wants it: http://cs.gamebanana.com/maps/157920

We NEED to get this on a server. I will be playing this incredible map with some bots and a couple beers later for sure!! =P

You said it, brother.

It has nothing to do with the compile tools, you just need something like HLFix to handle floating point vertices, -OR- use Sledge ;p

I should have made this more clear in the description, editing now--Sorry! =)

Yep

We're getting frighteningly close to the present!

Let's go to journal 8552.

I posted the new version of the map so you guys can mess with it a bit. I have problems at times with triggering it, but that may be my crappy trigger. If anyone has a better way to trigger it once per round feel free to share the knowhow The actual map I am using this for can randomly bug out and cause the water to snap to the top suddenly. When this happens it causes the water to go down into the floor until it randomly decides to go up again. Not sure why either... If the kinks get worked out there could be some interesting maps made. Lava maps, slime maps, etc... cool stuff. I'll attach the rmf so you can mess with it if you want.

Ahhh, nice and roomy.

www.yourworldoftext.com/bigbutts

Christ, all of these journals are populated.

Hopefully 953 isn't so crowded.

2littlevideogames.

Tell me, how many letters are there in the phrase, "I'm getting tired of this bullshit"?

I'm curious if anyone ever finds this, if they employed the same logic I did.
Journal 412
4 = an upside down H when on a digital display
1 = a lowercase L
2 = ... 2

HL2

If you did, congratulations! You waste as much time on this site as I do!