Half Life 3 wishes

[windfish]

Original Post:

Indicisivegamer's Half Life 2 thread got me thinking "What do I want from Half Life 3?"

Most of the stuff that came to mind dealt with the game interface and some minor gameplay tweaks here is what I came up with:

1. No more driving segments they sucked. They really fucking blew, I wanted to kill myself during the boat segments especially.

2. No more contrived puzzles they are just annoying after the fourth or fifth one

3. No more "Platforming segments" they always end up sucking in games not intended to actually be platformers Half Life is no exception.

4. A redesigned weapons selection UI, Crysis has a pretty good system and one I think is worth emulating. There should be an option to have the game pause while you are in the menu.

5. The gravity gun should be able to pick up people from the start of the game.

6. A cover system because lets face it, it's lame to see a shooter that does not really let the player use the environment to absorb some of the bullets flying in your direction and still shoot back without stepping all the way back into the line of fire.

7. A hybrid regenerating health/shield system. Resistance Fall of Man is a great example of what I would like so see though I would prefer carrying the health packs with me like in Black.

8. Assault rifle and shotgun combo (This is a real system.) weapon. The guns are a bit too muh of standard fare something like that would be something you almost never see in games.

9. Auto-shotgun, just beause pump action shotguns are overdone.

10. An answer to G-man's angle and hopefully his death if it does not happen by the end of episode 3.

What are your wishes for Half Life 3?

So basically, you want it easier, like a console shooter? I don't really think that any of these were problems. In fact, I think I disagree on all accounts:

1) Driving sections - I didn't have a problem with these. They actually reacted a lot like real vehicles - I found the jalopy sections quite intuitive, with the proper punishments for driving like an idiot.

2) Puzzles - personally, I think that HL2 is very fast paced, so sometimes it's nice to kick back and solve a quick puzzle, if for nothing else the prospect of not having to shoot for my life. Also, it's not a sin to have to think in an FPS.

3) "Platforming Sections": dude, there were like three in HL2, EP1, and EP2 combined. And they were easy. Again, not a sin.

4) Weapon selection works fine for me. Keyboard shortcuts and mouse scrolling never get old for me, but I've never played Crysis, so you may have something there. I dunno.

5) All-powerful gravity gun - dude, remember how that made you unbeatable in the final stage of HL2? That would be like God mode. Part of the fun of the G-gun is finding something less obvious to use as a weapon.

6) Cover system - OK, you may have something here, but honestly, I didn't find this an annoyance.

7) Hybrid regeneration/shield system: So like Halo? Personally, I enjoy the simplicity of a Zelda-like Medkit system. It worked in Jedi Knight II, and it still works. Sure, it's simplistic and a little dated, but I really don't mind it so much. I like the feeling that I really might die.

8) Assault rifle and shotgun combo: KK, now this is like making a Smash Bros. Lineup of our choice. They made the Gravity Gun to solve the "original weapon" problem. Frankly, that's enough for me.

9) Auto-shotgun: Right, because the shotgun's not good enough? I think this would make the game too easy.

10) G-man: I like the Tom Bombadil method - no answers.

 

[Easykill]

Never let Shadow skill near half life's developers.

 

[BrunDeign]

10) G-man: I like the Tom Bombadil method - no answers.

F@#king yes. SHOUT FOR THE DEUS EX MACHINAS!!!

Yeah they should answer just a teensy bit every game. Like in Episode Two.

SPOILER
SPOILER
SPOILER

Turns out G-Man gave Eli the thing that started the whole damn mess.

 

[george_berry]

dude, so hard to type without reading spoiler.

Anyway, I just want mad realism. That would be sweeeet. Especially with the new U3 Engine developments shown in the GoW2 tech demo. Siiiick.

 

[shadow skill]

Windfish it would help if you actually read what people write before you respond to their posts.

7) Hybrid regeneration/shield system: So like Halo? Personally, I enjoy the simplicity of a Zelda-like Medkit system. It worked in Jedi Knight II, and it still works. Sure, it's simplistic and a little dated, but I really don't mind it so much. I like the feeling that I really might die.

Now why not ask me about the game I actually referenced originally Resistance Fall of Man which actually has a hybrid system unlike Halo... Resistance uses both a regeneration system and health items, in that game you can regenerate a bar of health as long as it is not completely empty, once that bar is empty it will not come back until you find a health item.

9) Auto-shotgun: Right, because the shotgun's not good enough? I think this would make the game too easy.

Why would it make the game to easy when the weapon would have a good bit of recoil and slightly less powerful than a pump action shotgun though it makes up for that in terms of rate of fire.

Here is what I said:

5. The gravity gun should be able to pick up people from the start of the game.

How is that the same as:

5) All-powerful gravity gun - dude, remember how that made you unbeatable in the final stage of HL2? That would be like God mode. Part of the fun of the G-gun is finding something less obvious to use as a weapon.

What rule is there that in order to pick people up it would be automatically kill them? There is no reason that a gravity gun capable of lifting people up would require that the gun be given the same amount of power that it had at the end of the game.

8) Assault rifle and shotgun combo: KK, now this is like making a Smash Bros. Lineup of our choice. They made the Gravity Gun to solve the "original weapon" problem. Frankly, that's enough for me.

Right the original weapon that made its appearance in a console game five months before HL2 ever even came out. Is it cool yes, but the other weapons could be more interesting frankly.

 

[Mister_moi]

My wish for half life 3 is a new ubercharged gravity gun in a small part of a level, but something new! not the combine disitigratetion---charge------thingy but something like that the vortigaun wants to help you and so they charge your gravity gun for a new touch to the coolest gun ever.

my idea for a new charge was that you could shoot an orb of gravity, like you shoot at a wall and small things will get pulled towards that spot on the wall at high speeds. Or why not shoot at the combine ot whatever you will be fighting? see how small stones fling towards your target and beat it down. or you need to hit a switch (handbrake like switch) just shoot at one side of it and see how a nearby stone slams the switch so you can continue.

some thing else i wish to see, more hightec weapons or organic weapons like in HL 1 or atleast more different guns. And if there would be more guns, some guns should share ammo, this way you keep the "you never feel like you have more bullets then you need" idea since when depleting one gun you would deplete 2 other guns at the same time.

the rest of the game is fine, if i feel like shooting a large amount of baddies on a way to high diffeculty, i just start halo 3 on legendary with 6 gold skulls on, or try to beat CoD 4 on veteran. But if I would feel like a puzzle shooter with a really nice story (wich i still dont fully understand) i would pop in the orange box and enjoy Halfife 2.

 

[AngryMan]

They claim it makes games easier if you can save anywhere though they miss the fact that even without the ability to save anywhere the enemy strength does not change

Difficulty is not - nor should it be - exclusively a function of "enemy strength" or how hard the bad guys are to kill.

Take Call of Duty 4, for example.

Spoiler

There's a mission in that one, during the first chapter, where the bad guys literally cannot hurt you because you've jumped into the role of the gunner on an AC-130 gunship. You can't be shot at, and the enemies are piss easy to kill.

The challenge in that section of the game comes from the fact that you have certain limitations to follow - don't kill any friendlies, don't damage civilian targets, don't damage the church.

Difficulty can be induced through other means than just throwing more and tougher bad guys with better guns at the player. Things like time limits, environmental hazards, critical resources or persons that must be preserved, certain conditions that must be met... all contribute, as does giving the player a resource - their health - that must be carefully preserved.

Having health that doesn't regenerate does not necessarily make a game innately difficult, but it does add an extra layer of challenge that can contribute to the overall difficulty of the game.

 

[Vigormortis]

Uhhh did you actually read the wikipedia entry?

A coilgun or Gauss gun is a type of projectile accelerator that uses one or more electromagnetic coils to accelerate a magnetic projectile to high velocity. Coilguns accelerate the projectile using contactless means.

Coilguns consist of one or more coils arranged along the barrel that are switched in sequence so as to ensure that the projectile is accelerated quickly along the barrel via magnetic forces. Because coilguns have no sliding contact, no wear or erosion occurs to the barrel, and the working life of a coilgun is potentially infinite.

It is distinctly separate from a railgun, which pass a large current through the projectile or sabot via sliding contacts.

You just repeated what the other guy said and invalidated your whole point.

You proved my point from before that you don't read someone's entire post. I again reiterate, the Gauss gun from Half-Life did not fire a solid projectile. It fires only a beam of energy. Your little repost of the railgun/coilgun definition states that those weapons fire solid projectiles using magnetic acceleration. Well done on making an ass of yourself mate. Either way, no point in arguing over something so trivial, seeing as it's not the topic of this thread. As to the other part of your post (omitted to save space) Gabe said that the Half-Life story is about Gordon. Therefore, if Ep3 is the end of Gordon's story, then it's the end of Half-Life. His statements about wanting to explore other aspects or characters of the story universe does not mean they will continue with the name. Case in point, FEAR's true sequel is called Project Origin. Now there were legal issues that led to the name change, but the point is a game can follow the same setting and even revisit a previous time-line within the story of the first games, but that doesn't mean it will have the same moniker as them. Now they may well make a game with the Half-Life title in it, but seeing as Gabe said they want to move onto other things, I truly doubt it will be used again. Consider that Portal takes place within the Half-Life universe. It's not some off-shoot but a tale of relevant events that pertain to what's happening in the current games. It doesn't say Half-Life in it's title or anywhere else for that matter. I've said my piece, and I'm growing weary of this pointless debate. I think most of us can agree that what ever Valve has in store for us beyond Half-Life, what ever it may be, it will be fun.

 

[thejoblot]

Why are we even arguing about this? Some of your suggestions, as stupid as I find them to be, may in fact make Half-Life a better game that will still satisfy its fans but completely defeat the purpose of the Half-Life series: to be a deliberately old-school type of shooter. None of this even makes sense.

Funny I thought the purpose of Half Life was to kick ass and not fit into any kind of pigeon hole category...... The driving missions and the squad segments, not to mention the platforming, and physics puzzles (as bad as they are.) were certainly innovative when Valve implemented them and definitely do not fit the mold of "old school" shooter at least not to me. Especially when put next to Doom, Quake and Unreal.

You're actually arguing that Half-Life is not an old-school shooter at heart? That's unbelievable. None of those were particularly innovative and they're all still very simple. Look at the squad segments; you point the cursor at a spot and they move. That's it. The puzzles are very basic as well.

 

[shadow skill]

What I'm arguing is that Half Life does alot of things that other "old school" shooters don't do. The simplicity of certain mechanics is not at issue here, in fact it is a separate issue. Besides as I stated previously the purpose of the game is to be kick ass not be pigeon holed into being "old school" or "new school" so in the end such definitions are meaningless.

Vigormortis this is rich

You proved my point from before that you don't read someone's entire post. I again reiterate, the Gauss gun from Half-Life did not fire a solid projectile. It fires only a beam of energy. Your little repost of the railgun/coilgun definition states that those weapons fire solid projectiles using magnetic acceleration. Well done on making an ass of yourself mate. Either way, no point in arguing over something so trivial, seeing as it's not the topic of this thread.

I would suggest you look in the mirror because I never stated that the Gauss gun in Half Life 1 was an accurate representation of the kind that actually do exist. So stating that a real life Gauss gun fires solid ammo and therefore does not exist is just stating the obvious. It makes me wonder why you even brought it up since the statement that the Gauss gun does not exist in any form is demonstrably false, and when you restrict it to what the Gauss gun did in HL 1 it goes right back to the fact that I never actually said that te representation of the Gauss gun in Half Life was an accurate representation. I mean really why even attempt to argue the point in the first place?

Quoting myself:

Spartan I hate to tell you this but the MP5 (might be an mp7) is a real weapon (Though it doesn't support a grenade launcher attachment as far as I know.), the rocket launcher is also a real weapon as is the laser guiding feature, the pulse rifle is the only weapon in half life 2 (I'm not counting the pheromone pod as it is not really a gun) that does not actually exist in some form. (Though it is a very plausible weapon.) Hell the Gauss gun from the first game is a real gun though I do not think it is used in an offensive capacity it functions on a principle not entirely dissimilar to that of a Rail gun which is also real. Frankly I miss the weird alien arm thing from the first game and the Snarks which were just adorable and explosivey I loved those things...sniff.

 

[fix-the-spade]

I want the Xen creatures back! Or rather, I want the Gargantua and race X back!

It one of those little arguments that springs up from time to time, what would happen if a Gargantua wondered out of the forest and started sitting on Hunters whilst munching on a Strider's leg? Or How would the antlions get along with a group of houndeye or a bullsquid?

It seems odd that all those creatures would just vanish without trace, given that Barnacles and headcrabs have persisted in spit of the Combine's presence.

Most of all I want the return of Snarks, Thornets and the squid-bazooka-thing that Shephard got in OpFor. To give us alien guns in HL1 but not HL2 was just plain mean.

 

[shadow skill]

Most of all I want the return of Snarks, Thornets and the squid-bazooka-thing that Shephard got in OpFor. To give us alien guns in HL1 but not HL2 was just plain mean.

Agreed.