june gloom on 10/11/2008 at 06:23
They've been busy with Left 4 Dead and want Episode 3 to be epic so they're waiting until they can pour all their resources into it. At least that's how it seems to me.
sh0ck3r on 10/11/2008 at 06:28
Yeah, makes sense. I hope Episode Three is nice and long.
I wonder what the real HL 3 will be like (assuming they keep calling HL2 ep 1-3 by the same name). Maybe it will have a Gordon Freeman Jr., son of Alyx.
Thirith on 10/11/2008 at 07:47
I thought Episode 1 was good but not great - it felt like a "Best of Half-Life 2" with tighter pacing being a positive, but there was little about it that was fresh.
In hindsight, if there weren't at least 1 1/2 years between the episodes I'd be more kindly disposed towards Ep1; as it is, it's not bad but it doesn't really justify the long wait. Ep2 had more problems, on the whole, but it also shook up the formula a bit more. However, to me it highlighted the shortcomings of the engine: it doesn't work that well for forests and the like.
Muzman on 10/11/2008 at 09:11
I should probably throw in a few of my own so I'm not a compete tosser
There's a couple from Freelancer I've always liked; There's a section where you're whizzing along on the trade lanes like usual and suddenly they run out. I'd sort of leant on them pretty hard the first couple of plays and this was strangely unnerving. If you kept heading on that course you'd find various trade lane gates under contruction like it was a new section of the freeway.
The other bit was properly out in the boonies with no trade lanes at all (I'd got used to the idea by now), there was one system that was enclosed in this blue gas cloud. You spend ages flying through it with hardly any visibility and the you break through into the middle and it's like you're surrounded by cloudy sky, complete with a binary star system making it look like you're on some gigantic mirror.
I've never forgotten walking down this hill in Vietcong. you just escaped miles of tunnell and a VC village crawling with guys and you have to negotiate a thickly wooded hillside in the middle of the night. Somewhere out there are probably about two enemy. You can't really see a thing and you're basically crawling on your face holding your breath trying to avoid making a sound. After that I nearly wandered in to the government office and tried to collect a returned serviceman's pension.
Antarctica in NOLF 2 is one of the creepiest places in any game ever. It's generally competely empty, but you know it's building to something. After I'd played it a few times it still has me slightly on edge. This was illustrated by some bug placing a guy in a lab coat standing in the doorway. Just standing there in silhouette staring at me. I was trotting around humming to myself, completing the objectives, la de da de da, no this place isn't all that creepy once you know what's going to happen, round a corner GAAAH! *splutter*
I should point out that although I had a pretty good idea what Constantine was all about, what actually happens in that cutscene has always been rather alarming to say the least. 'Escape' really caps this off as it's murderously hard and confusing.
System Shock; It took quite a while to just figure out what to do in that game. You really had to read between the lines and most of the time I was just stumbling around on any clues and land marks hoping to get a better picture of things. And all the while you get these blood curdling stories to go along with them. There was one where they retold the tale of people being dragged off by the robots and turned into cyborgs by the medical bays that had been altered. The place teems with evil things and Shodan is strong etc. They managed to mark it with the word 'here' in red lettering. It's relativelt early in the game and I didn't know what all this stuff was about and how it worked, so when you venture into that new section and turn to look down that long corridoor and right at the end you see the word 'here' scrawled in scarlett letters. Its one of those moments where if it was a movie you'd get a big Vertigo zoom-in and some unpleasant sound.
Tonamel on 10/11/2008 at 09:48
Lots of good ones here. Here's a pile of ones I don't think I've seen yet...
Freespace 2 - The appearance of the Goliath
Need for Speed: Most Wanted - My first major police chase
Freedom Force - "Nuclear Winter! Nuclear Winter! He'll turn your land to snow!"
Dead Space - The asteroid crashing through the bridge
STALKER - The first bloodsucker followed shortly thereafter by the first controller
Earthbound - "If you are against blue, you are against happiness!" (Join the cult!)
Beyond Good and Evil - The first fight being a boss fight
The Typing of the Dead - The first cutscene, where you see Dreamcasts with giant AA batteries strapped to everyone's backs
Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines - The werewolf "fight"
Planescape: Torment - "What can change the nature of a man?"
Dragon Warrior 4 - Being a shopkeeper!
Outcast - Hearing an actual symphony play a game's soundtrack for the first time.
Psychonauts - The burning orphanage
Final Fantasy 3/6 - The opera.
june gloom on 10/11/2008 at 12:31
Bloodsuckers have made for some truly great moments. From my last playthrough:
I'd picked up a job to go find a bloodsucker that was running around in the slightly wooded area near the pig farm in Dark Territory. It was broad daylight, and this particular bloodsucker had been noted for not minding being outside during the day. So I go over there to check it out.
When I get there, I'm noticing a pseudodog running around, and he's got a large collection of fleshes chasing after him. I laugh, because apparently fleshes have strength in numbers and are attempting to run this poor fucker down.
All of a sudden the bloodsucker I was looking for charges the fleshes, and they scatter in panic; the pseudodog begins to chase after them, as he is no longer in serious danger, but that's when the bloodsucker starts to chase after him.
Another incident was a little while later- I was attempting the Storming Abakan quest, and acting on a tip from some forums I was heading over to Agroprom by way of the Garbage (the guy who stole the gun does hang out in Dark Territory, but what the game doesn't tell you is that he eventually wanders over to Agroprom.)
On the west side of the map, bandits are storming the old garage at the end of the tracks again, so I'm helping out the group that's hanging out there; I kill all the bandits except for this one last dude who's standing by the mouth of the tunnel, using an old train car for cover, plinking away at me with an AK. I've got a ZM LR-300ML so I'm plinking right back. Before I know it, a fucking bloodsucker comes out of the tunnel, ruins the guy's shit, then starts coming after me, right as I was reloading. Cue a scream of "HOLY JESUS" and a mad dash for the guys in the garage to help me kill him.
And then there was the time I took a peek in that super-radioactive building in Wild Territory and a bloodsucker just burst out the front door...
Dario on 15/11/2008 at 14:12
(some spoilers, naturally)
Half-Life 2 - when Dog lets you into the Ravenholm tunnel.
Thief 2 - when walking among the prison cells under the guard station. (and then when chased by the Haunt under the cathedral)
Metal Gear Solid 1 - the first level intro.
Quake 4 - realizing you have to destroy something called "The Nexus" to save all humanity.
Gears of War 2 - realizing that the final locust stronghold that you have to destroy is called "Nexus".
lost_soul on 19/11/2008 at 09:16
*Playing doom over a LAN with three other people, sneaking up on one of them with the chainsaw and hearing someone sitting across the room shriek.
*Filling rooms with trip-mines and pipe-bombs in Duke Nukem 3D and getting my friend to open the door. I had one laser facing the door so if someone opened it it would all explode!
*Getting into battles in Duke Nukem 3D multiplayer up in the sky, freezing the other person and watching them fall and shatter. :)
*modifying game behaviour, such as con files in Duke nukem and projectile types/classes in Unreal...
*Playing through the entire game of Unreal in one day with a friend I met in the game (and whom I finally met in person 7 years later).
*Exploring some of the levels in Thief for the first time.
*Playing Quake II all hours of the day and night back in the "90s!
*Finally playing Sin in 2007... I played the demo for this game in the "90s, but never purchased it. It is one of my favorite single-player FPS games.
*Losing all track of time while playing Deus Ex.
