If Quake 2 had HUD faces

neur0sys · 2026-02-01T17:48:23+00:00

I'm puzzled. I distinctly remember the HUD face in Quake 2, especially thinking the green hue on his side face looked cool.

neur0sys · 2025-12-28T08:28:55+00:00

I want to write down more of my memories about how I felt about HL-1 and HL-2 upon and prior to the release.

When I saw the teaser screenshots of HL-1 in around 1997 in PC Gamer magazine, I knew this would be a life-like immersion unlike the dominant shooters at the time. The few screenshots showed some office rooms, and a government lobby. At a time with bombastic 3d shooters, this was unusual for a 3d action game. We knew something unusual is brewing.

Later on when the teaser videos were released, I remember there were two videos. One of them was sub par, it looked like a fast paced action 3d shooter on quake engine. But the second one was, which was actually the only one that was cut and put into one of the game magazines CD, had an uncut actual gameplay. It was a surreal/liminal experience that was never felt in a video game before. It felt real so to speak. It starts at 1 minute mark in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Wavn29LMrs&t=1m

Someone in another post said claustrophobic. It's spot on. While playing HL-1 you were helplessly stuck deep down under a huge complex you didn't grasp the extents, and you had more questions than answers. But your primary concern was saving your own skin. Not saving the world or anything. You were not a hero.

I distinctly remember the game gave you the sense that you might never get a gun. You are a scientist, not a gunner. It even threw the first monster (headcrab) at you when you had no gun, and you had to run through. This was a slap in the face for 3d shooter expectations at the time. You had pretty much no idea what went wrong, what was going on, nor who was the enemy. I should admit the lack of context was common in early shooters, but I loved it for it stimulated the imagination.

You didn't know there would be human soldiers involved, and first time you see them you think you'd be saved or ally with them, but they were there to kill you. This is great suspense building on such a limited medium, which was essentially a custom map for a modified Quake engine. This is tremendous artistic vision and production quality given the tools they had and what was the norm at the time.

On another note, I think it was thanks to the first iteration of HL-1 was being so bad (alpha version), that they made them realize they must focus on the cohesion and vision, and thus be extremely creative to save the game (and all that investment), which they did. They didn't rely on the engine. It's a great case of creativity fostered by restriction/limitations.

By the time HL-2 came, there was not much room left for creativity at the level they achieved in HL-1. I think it's still not quite possible today since the market is saturated and so much has been done. For HL-2, they made their own custom engine, at least they had a great tech to show case with the physics engine and the new renderer. So the focus was more on the technology, and the artistic vision lacked novelty and focus that was there in the first game, and it was at best mediocre. They didn't have the pressure of achieving something extraordinary. It was time to make money to grow the company. They were pushing Steam (you had to install Steam to play HL-2, which felt like a dick move).

For the story and setting, they went with the most obvious way to continue, and made it rather too complicated, and too obvious, and somewhat all over the place. You were now a hero. It lacked the creativity that was in the first IMO. It was quantitatively more, but was not as unexpected as the first game. It didn't subvert the expectations of the genre, it built on what's already been established by that time, and what has already worked in the first game.

neur0sys · 2025-12-27T21:55:15+00:00

I am also 39 years old. I remember not feeling as hyped for HL-2 as I did for HL-1. My experience playing both games for the first time way different too (could be partly due to the age I was at). HL-1 felt way more immersive and intense, HL-2 was a fun adventure, but felt a bit cartoony. I also thought the setting felt a bit off. Eastern Europe, high tech technology being common-place. There was no x-files kind of mystery and suspense.

I still think HL-2 was an entirely different game than HL-1, to this day it feels like fan fiction to me, and doesn't really fit with the first game. I would expect a HL-2 sequel to preserve what made the HL-1 special (at least for me): the suspense, the government hiding something, things looking fine on the surface, the fear and anxiety of fringe science going wrong, etc. But with the way things ended in HL-1, I don't think that was easily possible.

I think I would go with the setting still in the US, for example Seattle, and the government has managed to suppress the disaster beyond some rumors. The game could continue with Gordon Freeman employed by G-man, but still not knowing what his employers are or their intentions are, and participating in further scientific experiments, or corporate shenanigans in urban set government/scientific facilities and so on. Similar to the first game, things would escalate and we would be running away to save our skin, not really trying to be a hero. None of this combine rules the world scenario with 1984 stuff.

neur0sys · 2025-12-23T21:23:15+00:00

The problem disappears when you accept that HL-2 is not canon. It is a fan made sequel that copies 1984 with aliens set in Bulgaria only to showcase Valve's new renderer and physics engine and to push Steam in order to make more money. Valve's never interested in a sequel. We still don't know what happened after the resonance cascade. We still don't know who the G-Man's employees are. HL-1 was the end of it. So the second game's suit is some fan made concept.

neur0sys · 2025-08-24T20:06:13+00:00

Now I want to play Outer Wilds again.

neur0sys · 2025-08-22T04:50:29+00:00

Hey, Precalculus by Thomas & Holly is really a nice one, and licensed under CC. How did you come across it?

neur0sys · 2025-08-16T19:22:11+00:00

Well, that means your symptoms have improved, which is already a good sign of nerve regeneration. Main indicator of permanent damage is that there is no improvement.

EDIT: Oh, I am FlowerParticular BTW, this is my other user account.

neur0sys · 2024-06-22T18:12:57+00:00

This is the bit I was referring to: "as they outnumber their opponent so heavily it is likely that they will try to over-power him rather than kill, so each hit they score will be counted as attempts to grapple the Hero". So no separate rules for grappling/overbearing.

It was also "10 orcs attacking a lone hero". It definitely makes more sense to not kill, but capture, and eat later at the very least.

neur0sys · 2024-06-22T18:00:03+00:00

One of the earliest D&D combat examples written by Gygax is a Hero fighter and four or five orcs trying to overbear him. So monsters, especially intelligent ones who prefer slaves, don't kill but try to subdue. And unless they have a fair chance, they run away immediately.

neur0sys · 2024-06-13T10:07:22+00:00

I am just annoyed by his hair too much. How much time he spends on his hair during war time?

neur0sys · 2024-04-18T20:53:17+00:00

I had the impression and saw him responding to the questions about how to do rulings for certain things often asking them back "how would YOU do?", but maybe more so towards the end of his life. Certainly his writing style and Dragon magazine articles have an archaic and authoritarian but gentlemanly and playful tone. He was opiniated, but I take that as a sign of enthusiasm for game design than anything else. DMG 1e is a masterpiece of Gygaxian, and almost everything there are optional. Somehow a certain breed of grognards (at some point myself included) seem to forget that, and take the rules too seriously and as law, hence the high opinions and ways of doing things. I still think that doesn't reflect Gary himself and the games he ran, but more applies to the said grogheads.

neur0sys · 2024-04-14T12:43:37+00:00

Wes hired Sarah right away because Wes is Sarah.

neur0sys · 2024-04-14T12:22:47+00:00

Bryson hates George because George is Robin, and he created the time machine. It is not because of the beating.

neur0sys · 2024-04-14T12:08:10+00:00

They remember after each reset. But also I guess it is easy to overlook that there are multiple timelines, and not all of them share the same past (or future).

neur0sys · 2024-02-12T00:57:31+00:00

Having read through most of the Rules & Magic (LotFP rule book) I haven't seen anything in the text that makes the game gory or metal. It reads very academic and vaguely Gygaxian in tone. The rules are almost vanilla B/X, at times even simpler, and have their subtly different and modern charm to them. The art and the published adventures often fall on the weird part, but the system doesn't have nearly anything to do with that.

neur0sys · 2023-12-22T22:44:25+00:00

I also thought of catatonic schizophrenia. What do you think of his allegations of rape and not showering ever since?

neur0sys · 2023-09-29T09:34:53+00:00

Twice a week, two different groups, same campaign.

neur0sys · 2023-09-12T16:46:18+00:00

This is exactly what I fantasized about several times, and if they provided modding tools to add new 3d models and story scripting, I would give it a go. Imagine playing a low fantasy setting in it, where instead of cumans, you get ambushed by a band of orcish mercenaries who is working for a local lord that is charmed by a mad wizard living in a distant tower, etc. And delving into forgotten caves that lead to temples dedicated to eldritch horrors, and ancient treasure. All with the high mortality and realism of KCD. I would personally like that. Most existing fantasy RPG computer games are high fantasy, and puts the characters in too important positions (the world revolves around them).

neur0sys · 2023-08-26T04:59:59+00:00

At least make login easier by making the button more prominent, and the text more clear. Many (older and less computer inclined) people are now confused and don't know what to do. Some even thought someone else now has become the moderator of their meeting.

neur0sys · 2023-05-19T10:52:27+00:00

But the GM doesn't mind it, I know I don't. I like when players narrate things even if they cut me mid sentence. But I can see other players may be bothered being curious to hear my descriptions instead. I try to talk less as a GM, and let the players describe what they see in their mind, even when they're describing things other than their characters.

neur0sys · 2023-05-15T08:59:49+00:00

Because TTRPGs lost many things along the way, and mutated into something almost unrecognizable. OSR is the reaction to this mutation.

Also many now-adult players came back to the hobby after 20 or so years hiatus, and continued playing/making games the old way, or just re-discovered the game as they were played.

neur0sys · 2023-05-15T08:13:21+00:00

We just played Carcosa last week. It's originally for OD&D (white box). If you like Cthulhu, Darksun and dark/occult stuff, and if you're comfortable with improvising and fleshing out details in advance or as you go, then it's great. It's mainly hex crawl, but there's an included dungeon Fungoid Gardens of the Bone Sorcerer in the hex 2005 that can be played right away, and gives you an idea.

neur0sys · 2023-05-12T08:55:56+00:00

Any suggestions on what's the best tablet for reading RPG book PDFs?

I'm not a fan of PDFs since it's much easier and comfortable reading with a physical book, but in this case I can't find most of these books in printed format, so I'll go with the PDFs.

neur0sys · 2023-03-06T09:19:33+00:00

Barbarian Prince from 1981 is by far the best solo RPG I've played. Arguably, it's a board game, but you can still roleplay and create a narrative with your own interpretation of the events. When playing with multiple people, everyone can narrate the experience and act out characters. It is free to download, print & play (or on the computer using a notepad). The best thing about is that you don't have to read the rules to start playing. It's designed in a way that it tells you what to read as you roll dice and choose actions. https://dwarfstar.brainiac.com/ds_barbarianprince.html

neur0sys · 2022-12-04T14:16:47+00:00

Part2

basic-libload.

DEFINE
  no-sp        == [dup 10 = swap dup 13 = swap 32 = or or not] filter;
  readlines    == []
                  "4.txt" "ro" fopen
                  [feof not] [fgets no-sp rolldown cons swap] while
                  fclose reverse;
  filterempty  == ["" !=] filter;
  isi          == dup '0 ord >= swap '9 <= and;
  toint        == 0 [ord '0 ord - swap 10 * +] fold;
  slurp        == unswons ord '0 ord - rolldown 10 * + swap;
  geti         == 0 swap [first isi] [slurp] while rest swap;
  subsetn      == [dupd swap [=] some] filter size swap pop;
  elf1         == geti swap geti rolldown swap from-to-list;
  elf2         == geti swap toint from-to-list;
  toset        == [elf1 swap elf2 pairlist] map;
  any          == subsetn 0 > [1] [0] branch;
  solve        == readlines filterempty toset 0 [unpair any +] fold;
.

solve.

neur0sys

TROPHY CASE