What Video Games Are You Currently Playing

  On 11/21/2019 at 9:15 PM, Joyrex said:

• Half Life 2 ended on a cliffhanger
• Half Life 2 was a good game and a sequel was expected
• Valve said something to the effect they were working on or planning a third installment?

Yes to all three. They left the story unfinished and were actually working on the next instalment for many years.

  On 11/21/2019 at 9:15 PM, Joyrex said:

I've never played the Half Life series, so someone explain to me this - is a HL3 so heavily desired because:

• Half Life 2 ended on a cliffhanger
• Half Life 2 was a good game and a sequel was expected
• Valve said something to the effect they were working on or planning a third installment?

I mean, there are a lot of games that get one or two installments and that's it - and they're good games - and don't have fans acting rabid over the lack of another installment.

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Half-Life pushed storytelling in FPS games forward and it was amazing (back then) to play a game that took its world so serious even though it shit the bed near the end. Half-Life 2 took a leap forward with physics and the world-building was amazing.

Also, this was back when people were filming E3 presentations and threw them up online. It made the whole thing that much more mystical.

But yeah, they were planning three additional episodes to HL2 but ended up only releasing two and it has now been 12 years since Episode 2 and you know how gamers are... they were PROMISED three episodes so they will threaten the shit out of Gabe Newell and the rest of the Valve employees until they get some news.

  On 11/21/2019 at 9:19 PM, Enthusiast said:

Yes to all three. They left the story unfinished and were actually working on the next instalment for many years.

Ah, okay - I probably read about all the controversy back when it was a thing (and hadn't evolved into a meme), but when you get old like me you tend to forget shit like that. Thanks!

  On 11/21/2019 at 9:31 PM, Joyrex said:

Ah, okay - I probably read about all the controversy back when it was a thing (and hadn't evolved into a meme), but when you get old like me you tend to forget shit like that. Thanks!

Just watch this

  On 11/21/2019 at 8:56 PM, StephenG said:

lol I'm buying VR just to play this. 

In 2030, the eventual sequel to Half life 2 will be called:

Half-Life: More than 2, Less than 4.

  On 11/21/2019 at 9:19 PM, Enthusiast said:

Yes to all three. They left the story unfinished and were actually working on the next instalment for many years.

yes@ what others said.  and for me hl1 was the most amazing, a breath of fresh air considering where the genre was at the time (95% beefcake quake clones).  also the way it embraced open-source and mod community, i have fond memories of tweaking things behind the scenes and playing tons of mods (some good, some just hilariously bad).  And hammer being free/included.. I remember modelling my house as a counterstrike map which was my first introduction to 3d modeling, which is somehow relevant to what i do now (architecture)

Also, my previous post sounded rather like complaining, but im really not bummed..  Ill surely play it someday when vr is more readily available.  And im stoked that valve is continuing their open source values, releasing an updated hammer was probably the most exciting part about the news for me.  Maybe some mod like the next garrys mod will convince me to upgrade..

  On 11/21/2019 at 10:14 PM, Brisbot said:

In 2030, the eventual sequel to Half life 2 will be called:

Half-Life: More than 2, Less than 4.

Whole Life - The Final Chapter

After seeing the HL: The Pre-Sequel Alyx trailer, I'm suddenly more interested in VR. Honestly, I was not disappointed.

My biggest worry is having to by a VR set, let alone new PC to be able to play it. My laptop is unfortunately in that potato phase as of the last year or two.

I've put in 100+ hours on my current No Man's Sky playthrough. Supposed to venture to the Galactic Core. I'm still trying to expand my home base, but the game won't let me hire an armourer for some reason. So I've decided to take a break and try Wrath: Aeon of Ruin instead. It's the next big indie throwback "boomer" shooter. Digging it so far.

  On 11/22/2019 at 5:03 AM, ambergonk said:

After seeing the HL: The Pre-Sequel Alyx trailer, I'm suddenly more interested in VR. Honestly, I was not disappointed.

My biggest worry is having to by a VR set, let alone new PC to be able to play it. My laptop is unfortunately in that potato phase as of the last year or two.

Going to get back into Death Stranding over the thanksgiving break

What's the best vr headset these days? Valve index looks great but it's the price of a PC. 

  On 11/25/2019 at 6:37 PM, Enthusiast said:

What's the best vr headset these days? Valve index looks great but it's the price of a PC. 

anybody tried fallout 76? lately? friend gave it for my birthday and everything i've read is that it's absolute trash and bethesda is a greedy company etc. etc. but then again gamers are whiny as shit (see the response to HL)

ps never played any fallout myself so comparisons won't help much

  On 11/25/2019 at 7:25 PM, splbt said:

anybody tried fallout 76? lately? friend gave it for my birthday and everything i've read is that it's absolute trash and bethesda is a greedy company etc. etc. but then again gamers are whiny as shit (see the response to HL)

Never played it, but it has been an interesting project to follow. Anyway, here's a "1 year later" article
https://kotaku.com/fallout-76-one-year-later-1839873134

am mostly wondering if it takes a lot of time to get into and learn as i've got other games im already interested in. i've gathered there's something about base building? could never get into that part in NMS and i doubt i would in another game, so what's there left to do? exploring?

oh and thanks squee, didn't see your reply before posting this

If you've got other games in your pipeline then ignore the living shit out of Fallout 76 and play another game that you're guaranteed to like.

yeah the kotaku article didn't really put a damper on my suspicions. seems the whinery is correct. i was pretty disgusted myself when i heard about the paid subscription ordeal. and something about new players being shredded by higher leveled, experienced and geared players in pvp?

lol he gave me fallout 4 not 76. crisis averted

Haha Google Stadia

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2019/11/25/google-stadia-is-reportedly-burning-out-some-chromecast-ultras/

  On 11/21/2019 at 9:15 PM, Joyrex said:

I've never played the Half Life series, so someone explain to me this - is a HL3 so heavily desired because:

• Half Life 2 ended on a cliffhanger
• Half Life 2 was a good game and a sequel was expected
• Valve said something to the effect they were working on or planning a third installment?

I mean, there are a lot of games that get one or two installments and that's it - and they're good games - and don't have fans acting rabid over the lack of another installment.

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Yes to all 3. Now that I think of it, the two 'semi-sequels' to Hl2, HL2: Episode 1 and 2, ended on cliffhangers as well.

Playing HL2 today still feels more complex, fun, and engaging than the majority of video games today. Especially with the emphasis on traversing interesting environments in HL2. Also played HL2 in VR and it was probably one of the funnest VR experiences I've had even though the game was not made for VR. Partially due to feeling like I was in the game.

  On 11/25/2019 at 6:37 PM, Enthusiast said:

What's the best vr headset these days? Valve index looks great but it's the price of a PC. 

Best bang for your buck is probably the Oculus Quest. Standalone HMD but they just released a "link" cable so you can tether to a PC and play games outside the normal Quest line-up (including SteamVR and Viveport titles). Less than half the price of an Index. Only downside is losing the individual finger tracking, but most games don't utilize that anyway and those that do can be played just fine w/ the touch controllers. 

Rift S might be a good choice if you don't care about wireless, but it seems like it's getting phased out pretty quick..

fwiw, despite a lot of talk about how you'll need a $2000 gaming PC to run VR games, that's not at all the case. I built my rig 2 years ago and still have a 1060 6gb gpu, and most games run well. Some poorly optimized titles (I'm looking at you, FO4) stutter hard, but that's about it. No doubt I'm gonna need to upgrade to play Alyx, but I'm about due for a few new bits in the tower anyway.

  On 11/25/2019 at 8:31 PM, splbt said:

lol he gave me fallout 4 not 76. crisis averted

Good. Yeah FO4 is the last decent product Bethesda Game Studios have produced. More than a year later I'm still giving FO76 a wide berth. BGS upper management seemingly know no boundaries when it comes to scamming players for a still-broken game. At least FO4 has a highly active mod community, who help maintain replay value.

When a delay announcement for a game you've already put hours and hours in is more interesting than any release trailer this year (well, maybe except HL:Alyx)

played through Rage 2 this week, good high-octane nonsense, very much could have been a mad max re-skin. Luckily I'm a huge mad max fan. Short campaign, pretty repetitive outside of that, but it doesn't overstay its welcome like so many open world games lately

anybody here played Disco Elysium?