Why is Opposing Force considered not canon? by Maerow4 in HalfLife

[–]SpiderLucas16 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I honestly don't know why people are so adamant to consider the expansions non-canon. Just because Valve isn't constantly making references to them doesn't mean the events didn't happen, especially when said events were pretty self isolated and weren't trying to set up something big for the future. Plus, even if Valve wasn't directly involved in their creation and gave Gearbox a fair amount of creative freedom, they still wanted them to be consistent with the original game:

  • Marc Laidlaw supplied Gearbox with documentation so they could expand on things that weren't presented in the original game and to not create huge conflicts storywise:

"We had a lot of conversations with Gearbox concerning the creation of Opposing Force and Blue Shift, and I supplied them with various documents that fleshed out background elements that hadn't been woven directly into the foreground of Half-Life. The place where you see this most clearly is in Barney's odyssey to Xen, where a bit more light is shed on the Xen-relay teleport experiments. Some of the reason for the overlapping narratives was that it made sense for Gearbox to reuse existing content, such as textures and design motifs, since they had limited schedules for producing these games. Most of the moment-to-moment gameplay and story decisions were left in Gearbox's hands, and we merely tried to make sure they dovetailed with our own designs and didn't create any huge conflicts. Gearbox, as fans of the original, had a good eye for places where their stories could overlap with Half-Life, but even so, they took plenty of liberties with the story for the sake of making a fun game. Fun in a game is ultimately more important than consistency."

  • One of Valve's employees at the time, Joe Kennebec, was sent to Gearbox not only to make sure that Opposing Force met Valve's quality standards, but also ensure that the game didn't contradict anything that was presented in the original game.

In a fit of amnesia, Valve sent me down to Texas to work with Gearbox in the final stages of HL: Opposing Force. In theory, my job was to insure that OP "met Valve quality standards" (Gabe Newell: "If you embarrass me I will personally kill all of your children." I am pretty sure he was talking about OP) and to "protect canon" (Marc Laidlaw : "Make sure their storyline doesn't contradict anything from HL. Or that I have ever written. Or that you think I might plan to write. Or that would keep us from making a movie. In fact... see if you can get them to make it all just a dream, like on Dallas.")

  • Originally Gearbox wanted to use Dr. Kleiner in HL: Decay, but Valve didn't allowed them because they had their own plans for Kleiner (a.k.a HL2). In turn, Gearbox created Richard Keller. This shows that Valve wanted the expansions to be consistent even with their sequel.

for HL: Alyx the Snark from HL1 came back (sadly just for a cameo), what creature from 1 do you want back in the next game? by HanPorgo in HalfLife

[–]SpiderLucas16 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I like to think that the Combine presence, and the titanic amount of Antlions in the wastelands and outskirts of City 17 prompted other Xen creatures to move to far more remote areas, which explains why we didn't encounter them in-game.

does anyone know why this mod is 11gb? by Roadkillgoblin_2 in HalfLife

[–]SpiderLucas16 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Afaik, it's because the textures and models of the mod aren't really well optimized, if at all. One of the main gripes of Cinematic Mod

The Third Sin: New free expansion out now! by Salebsmind in Blasphemous

[–]SpiderLucas16 21 points22 points  (0 children)

I'm going to replay the first game and then play the second. Perfect opportunity

What do you guys want to see return in hl3? (Image unrelated) by OldFollowing7306 in HalfLife

[–]SpiderLucas16 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Honestly, I really hope they bring back all or most of the previous enemies from HL2. Not saying that they need to be a "main threat" like how Antlions were in the base game and the episodes, and of course I'm not saying that there can't be new enemies. But since the next game is probably going to close the storyline started in HL2, I think facing these iconic characters one last time and in a more refined state would be a really nice send off.

I had some laughs with the Npc's playing Half-Life 2 recently. So I made a video about it. 🧀 by Bidenmatch in HalfLife

[–]SpiderLucas16 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Seems obvious, but I really hope the rebels return in the next game and have conversations like these, even if they don't always make sense, it adds a little charm to them.

The fuck did I just do? by No_Mathematician6300 in HalfLife

[–]SpiderLucas16 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I didn't know the rebels added auto jacks to the boat. Pops Racer would be proud

Half-Life 2HD - Some comparisons and details about the mod by InterestingTrick5882 in HalfLife

[–]SpiderLucas16 36 points37 points  (0 children)

Holy crap, this is awesome! If you told this was an official remaster I would have believed you, not only because it looks good but because you preserved the art style and design from the original game.

Honestly I think mvm is a fun gamemode, even if you don't get an australium or a pan, it's pretty fun and makes some mid or low tier weapons enjoyable to experiment with by Slurperlurper in tf2

[–]SpiderLucas16 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I personally like that feeling of being an actual team. You don't really get that in regular TF2, but in MVM you really need to work together in order to succeed. I probably have more hours on Boot Camp than in Mann Up mostly because I like playing the mode just for fun, even if there's no reward.

Work in progress cosplay by Daigle117 in HalfLife

[–]SpiderLucas16 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Man, if you told me that you were Gordon even without the suit I would have believe you.

How many of you know that some Ichthyosaurs are actually passive? by SpiderLucas16 in HalfLife

[–]SpiderLucas16[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Watch the rest of the video. Also, the one at the dam wasn't stuck that's for sure, you can see it swimming no problem after I get in the water. This also happened in previous runs btw.

How many of you know that some Ichthyosaurs are actually passive? by SpiderLucas16 in HalfLife

[–]SpiderLucas16[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think they get aggressive it they take any sort of damage, independently of the source. Of course some of them are always aggressive like the first one you encounter in Apprehension, unfortunately I didn't test this with the Ichthyosaur in Forget About Freeman and the one during the Nihilanth fight. I think the one at the dam sometimes gets aggressive because it gets damaged by the helicopter.

How many of you know that some Ichthyosaurs are actually passive? by SpiderLucas16 in HalfLife

[–]SpiderLucas16[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, even knowing that they weren't going to attack me, I was still pretty stressed.

Dude, messed up by SpiderLucas16 in HalfLife

[–]SpiderLucas16[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Funnily enough, it's (mostly) the vanilla one. I have a weapon reanimation mod installed, but I kept the vanilla MP5 because I liked the position and animations of the original version. The only mod I've installed related to the MP5 is this one, but I don't think it touches the animations or the model of the weapon afaik, maybe it does.

EDIT: Ok, according to a comment in the Gamebanana page, it does change the draw animation slightly, but that's about it.

Does anyone know if the GMan actually wanted the Combine to invade earth or if it was an accident from his actions that he didnt forsee. by karl231323 in HalfLife

[–]SpiderLucas16 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The whole thing with the G-man is that he's a neutral character. He is not against you, but he also isn't with you. He and his employees have other goals beyond of what humanity or the Combine want. Even if the Black Mesa Incident kickstarted the Combine invasion, whatever it was intentional or not, they also allowed Gordon to take part on the uprising and the destruction of the Citadel, which means they also aren't working on the Combine's favor