Half-Life & its remakes

[673153eddf589voodoo47]

as ports, remakes, reboots and stuff are all the rage lately, I've decided to have quick look at all the Half-Lives available (steam summer sale making this a very cheap endeavor) - Half-Life (steam), Half-Life Source, and Black Mesa. gave about half a hour each, and here's what I've got;

Half-Life (steam):
-this is the classic game, plus 32bit rendering, widescreen support and steam integration, that's pretty much it.
-one ugliness is that they've couldn't be bothered to actually render the main menu background image in widescreen for some reason. perhaps unimportant, but still wut.
-only opengl and software, d3d support has apparently been dropped (along with the ultra legacy stuff like 3dfx minigl and powervr sgl).
-mouse seems much less smooth than the old non steam version, time to go edit cfgs I guess.

Half-Life Source:
-the classic game ported into the Source engine. feels and plays very close to the classic game.
-enhanced water looks allright.
-better backgrounds/skyboxes.
-improved AI pathfinding, much appreciated.
-the single most annoying HL1 thing fixed, the bloody physics interactions on pushable/pullable objects.
-lighting looks weird sometimes. //this is because it's now dynamic
-few unnecessary additional effects, making some stuff look shiny where not really appropriate.
-shoddy ragdoll effects, I'd take the classic death animations over this any day, sloped surfaces be damned.
-could really use a set of higher res textures and objects with more polys to feel more in line with the updated engine.
-no support for Opposing Force or Blue Shift.
-max mouse sensitivity way too low, time for cfg editing again.

Black Mesa:
-as mentioned, this is a complete reimagining of HL1 using the HL2 engine (and background).
-plays like, well, HL2 running the HL1 story.
-a lot of deviations from vanilla on every field. again, this is HL2 wearing a HL1 coat.
-looks pretty/modern.
-ran into some annoying friendly AI bugs (would not expect that from the full steam version).
-eats cpu cycles like popcorn.
-unwanted new music that doesn't really fit. now where did I hear that lately?
-all voiceovers are new, even ones that did not need replacing. some are ok, some are definitely inferior, and some are straight out of the bad fan mission territory. quality checks, people!
-max mouse sensitivity way too low, time for cfg editing again.


so, which one to pick? I'd probably go for Half-Life Source if you want the classic with just a bit more pepper on the top, the gameplay is vanilla, and the few (engine) fixes are enjoyable. if you don't care about that, the steam port is also perfectly fine. Black Mesa is recommended only if you specifically seek what it offers - playing HL1 through HL2 glasses (yes, I repeat myself sometimes). definitely not your cup of tea if you want classic.


notes: looks like the community is still patching the old WON version, but didn't check it myself (haven't seen my HL1 cd for a long time and I can't be bothered to sail through piratebay). the vanilla game also has a hires pack, but the youtube vids didn't impress me. more of that stuff here. no gameplay/level/bugfix overhaul projects exist as far as I'm aware.

[673153eddfef2Olfred]

Half-Life: Source was/is more like a demonstration.
Valve said any GoldSrc game can easily be ported to the new Source engine. Without any, or just minior tweaks necessary.
To show this they did Half-Life Source. (And probably to rake in some extra cash, because it doesn't needed much work anyway.)

I've played Black Mesa when it was still released as a fan project and not a standalone game for sale.
I was pretty impressed how good they managed to capture the feeling of the old Half-Life. Sure, there are some changes to level design and if you know the old game inside out you will recognize the transition from one level designer to another as some stayed very true to the original level design and some took a little more freedom.
But from beginning to start everything is recognisable and only strayed from the original for "prettying it up".

The only place where they really took the freedom to change things around was the train part. In the original it felt too long, boring, and dragged out. I think in the end they made it a bit shorter and added some stuff to make it more enjoyable.

All in all, I liked Black Mesa and would recommend it. When I played it, I felt at home.
But I have to admit, I haven't bought it on Steam (yet). As I already mentioned I played it when it was still released as a fan project. Xen was missing back then, and it is still missing in the paid version. As long as there is only a promise for it, I don't want to pay for it.

[673153ede0062Valet2]

I still use WON Half-Life 1.1.1.2 with edited exe to support desired resolution.

You can use several launch keys to enable 32-bit rendering, for example. Here's my config:

hl.exe -console -dev +sv_cheats 1 -gl -full -32bpp

And all mods you play will work that way - with custom resolution (1920x1200 in my case) in 32 bits. Wow, and it also works with surround sound set-up with Alchemy. EAX emulation works too (sounds the way it worked in '99 with SBPCI).

If you use an opengl-d3d wrapper (gldirect 5) you can play HL and mods in stereoscopic 3D using the current nVidia 3D Vision technology. Which sadly doesn't work with Steam version (it checks and restores its own opengl.dll driver, and if you force your file the game will crash upon launch).

[673153ede01a9voodoo47]

I'll probably have a look later, as I definitely prefer a non steam version, but not anytime soon - this was just a very quick trip into the HL land, to see how all the port/remake/reboot stuff is being handled there.

and I have to state that despite having three choices available, none of them is what I would see as the sweet spot. no such thing as perfection in this world.

[673153ede0356Stingm]

I have all 3 versions above. I play the source version for half-life, the steam version for add on mods like opposing force, blue shift, USS Darkstar, they hunger etc and black mesa for fun..
All 3 have different offerings but are realy fun in their own way. And like voodoo47 I haven't seen my half-life cd in years.

[673153ede04b0voodoo47]

also yeah, HL Source does indeed have a few bugs resulting from the conversion, mostly scripted events/scenes not firing up completely as they should. so there's a bit of a tradeoff - some stuff works better, some works worse.

but still worth those two euros, I suppose.

[673153ede0690Aaron]

I followed the development of Black Mesa for over a decade, and most of their design choices don't bother me. Yes, the music is new, and the voice acting is campy (just like the original), but it felt like a seamless addition to the world of Half-Life. The first game was campy, cheesy, and had techno music burst in randomly (but to be fair, some really great and atmospheric pieces later in the game too). The biggest problem with Black Mesa is the AI is still very buggy. My latest playthrough ended prematurely when I discovered that all of the marines were standing around frozen, waiting for me to come blast them apart.

However, I don't take any issue with any of the team's design choices. They worked with the team they had, and most of them turned out to be very talented. Everybody on the forums over there were insisting that the game was developed completely 100% as a graphics and gameplay "remaster," and how dare any of the team have any creativity. To the point that they wanted the original voices imitated as much as possible for all of the barneys and scientists, which they amazingly did a pretty fair job of (except they sound cheesey, as voodoo47 noted) However, that's what you get when you want the same thing recreated 100%. You will have to make compromises, realistically.

[673153ede0833Join2]

Black Mesa...meh. I forgot they butchered the music too. Visually it is impressive, but that's about it.
I wasn't aware of HL: Source. May check that out.

[673153ede0af6Drone-Dragon]

Black Mesa...meh. I forgot they butchered the music too. Visually it is impressive, but that's about it.
I wasn't aware of HL: Source. May check that out.

Yeah I hate that part of it too...the original music was perfect...there was no reason for them to change it other than a case of the stupid.

[673153ede0fceSpAM_CAN]

-unwanted new music that doesn't really fit. now where did I hear that lately?
-all voiceovers are new, even ones that did not need replacing. some are ok, some are definitely inferior, and some are straight out of the bad fan mission territory. quality checks, people!

They legally could not use any voice or music content from the original, it's part of the conditions of releasing a paid Source project; Prospekt had the same deal and had to sort last-minute replacement voice clips. You can get mods on the workshop that replace the new content with the old if you want though.

[673153ede1147voodoo47]

I see. so scratch the music - but anyway, if I was able to get proper voiceactors for the Minstrel, they should also have been able to find ones that don't make you cringe. especially because BM is not a free product (anymore).

on a slightly related note, I've found my Half-Life cd.

[673153ede12b6voodoo47]

http://www.moddb.com/mods/operation-black-mesa
http://www.moddb.com/mods/guardduty

ok, why not - see you 2020, I reckon?

[673153ede1705JDoran]

http://www.moddb.com/mods/operation-black-mesa
http://www.moddb.com/mods/guardduty

ok, why not - see you 2020, I reckon?

Voodoo47, mate, trust me on this. Instead of playing Blue Shift, or waiting for the above remake (or re-imagining or whatever it is) then play the Half-Life 1 mod Azure Sheep, as it's much, *much* better. Like Blue-Shift, it's a mod where you play as Barney, and it starts you at the same point as Blue-Shift, entering the doorway that Barney is at when Gordon goes past in the tram at the beginning of Half-Life.

Other than that, Azure Sheep is better than Blue-Shift in every way.It's long, imaginitive, you get to fight through the levels that you only previously saw in Half-Life when Gordon went through them on the tram on the way to work, and it does a great job of making Black Mesa feel more expansive than we saw in Half-Life.

On the minus side, it does have slow parts, and make sure you save often - one time a character who was necessary to open a door somehow disappeared, so I had to load from an earlier save (which fixed the problem).

To me it's the best Half-Life mod ever.

[673153ede1859Carnby]

Honestly, I wouldn't really recommend Azure Sheep. Blue Shift may be shorter, but it's much more polished and well made, while Azure Sheep is full of amateurish maps and is really far too long. Often I just wanted it to end, because some sections are plain boring. The mod's author really improved his skills when he released Point of View, now that's something worth playing.

[673153ede1becJDoran]

Honestly, I wouldn't really recommend Azure Sheep. Blue Shift may be shorter, but it's much more polished and well made, while Azure Sheep is full of amateurish maps and is really far too long. Often I just wanted it to end, because some sections are plain boring. The mod's author really improved his skills when he released Point of View, now that's something worth playing.

Seriously? Blue Shift was extremely short, very uninspired (apart from the nice look you got at Black Mesa's living quarters on the tram-ride in), and I'd say at very best it's a second rate mod, not an expansion pack as it was supposed to be. In my opinion, if you miss Blue Shift, then you're not missing anything of value, unlike the fantastic Opposing Force.

Point of View was great, but I think Azure Sheep is much better.

[673153ede1d5eCarnby]

Well, it's not really a bad mod, it's just that the community created so many good mods that Azure Sheep can really be left behind. It's mostly about the mapping, it's usually just going from one featureless empty corridor to another, along with some pointless additions that don't even make it feel like Half-Life anymore (the assault rifle from Aliens, for example, or meeting Shephard in a place where you've never gone in Opposing Force...). I agree with what you said about Blue Shift, and I highly doubt I'll ever replay it anymore, but the same applies for Azure Sheep.

[673153ede1ec2voodoo47]

wasn't Blue Shift bundled with OF = pretty much free at one point? anyway, right now it's available on steam for 5E, which is a ripoff - Blue Shift is fine as a free addon (a bunch of ok levels, some extra HL lore, and you get to relive some scenes from HL from a different point of view), but definitely fails as a full=paid expansion pack.

I'll be having a look at all the mods soonish (off work in less that two weeks, school stuff done in about another month, yaay).

[673153ede2058Valet2]

Speaking of good add-ons, I remember some more from ooold days.

Yeah, Poke 646 (only the first one) and Azure Sheep were good.

There was a well done and pretty hard add-on "Heart of evil" (later re-released on Source engine). Loosely based on Apocalypse Now movie (which I hate) and the book Heart of Darkness.

And They Hunger. The first game is rubbish, but the second has its vibe, pretty atmospheric, with back story which sends shivers down your spine.

Also, Gunman Chronicles (stand-alone game, but I can upload a steam, won or xash3d mod version, with music and intros) was brilliant!

Of course these were the eeeearliest fan-made add-ons. I've played a lot of them in 2000-2003. Didn't know on any good stuff since then. If there's any, let me know.

[673153ede249aCarnby]

Speaking of good add-ons, I remember some more from ooold days.

Yeah, Poke 646 (only the first one) and Azure Sheep were good.

There was a well done and pretty hard add-on "Heart of evil" (later re-released on Source engine). Loosely based on Apocalypse Now movie (which I hate) and the book Heart of Darkness.

And They Hunger. The first game is rubbish, but the second has its vibe, pretty atmospheric, with back story which sends shivers down your spine.

Also, Gunman Chronicles (stand-alone game, but I can upload a steam, won or xash3d mod version, with music and intros) was brilliant!

Of course these were the eeeearliest fan-made add-ons. I've played a lot of them in 2000-2003. Didn't know on any good stuff since then. If there's any, let me know.

You aren't really missing much, most good Half-Life mods are from the era you mentioned. There's very little stuff released recently that is worth playing. Maybe the Half-Rats series, but I personally didn't really like those.

Why didn't you like the second Poke646? I actually think it's better, in some ways, even if in the end, they're more or less the same. I used to play tons of mods years ago, I think I managed to play almost everything that was uploaded for Half-Life on ModDB...although looking back at it, there's very little that I would consider still worth replaying today. I think I remember one called Black Ops, it had a Poke646-like theme but with lots of inspiration from the first Max Payne. Weird how nobody on Steam seems to remember these actually good mods and always mention stuff like Crack Life or Scientist Slaughterhouse.

[673153ede25e2voodoo47]

I vaguely remember trying Gunman Chronicles a little, and then never returning to it for some reason. I did play quite a bit of MP back in the day though - Action Half-Life, HL Firearms, and a wild west themed mp mod whose name escapes me at the moment.

fair bit of Day of Defeat and Couter-Strike too.

[673153ede2764Olfred]

Blue-Shift was supposed to be the added singleplayer campaign for the Dreamcast release. Much like Decay on the Playstation 2 (just without the co-op, duh).
But as the release got cancelled they took whatever was left and jumbled it together to something you could release. IIRC it was supposed to be much longer, but now it's only Blue-Short.
I still kind of liked it. But yeah, they should by now give it away to anyone who owns Half-Life.

My most favourite multiplayer mod is Science and Industries.
Others I liked and played a lot were Sven Co-op, Action HL and The Opera.

[673153ede2ac3unn_atropos]

The Western one may be Wanted?
Has a great "capture the chicken" mode.

A Reason to play Gunman.
I think that the highly modifiable weapons are a bit wasted on this very linear game. And it never took off in multiplayer, it seems.
And I don't have a clue why this game is not on steam...

[673153ede2bd1voodoo47]

yep, pretty sure it was Wanted all right.

[673153ede2f8cJDoran]

Valet2, have you played the third part of the They Hunger trilogy? That was great too, the trilogy got better with each episode. The Timeline trilogy was like that too, although not nearly as good as the They Hunger trilogy, but still worth playing.

USS Darkstar (by the bloke who made the They Hunger trilogy) was very good too.

I can't remember the name of some of the mods I really liked, but Peaces Like Us, Redemption (when you get past the first part), and Haunted seem (via a quick google) to be three that I remember liking. I think I like liked Todesangst 1 and 2, but I might be wrong. There was also a surprisingly atmospheric (if I remember rightly) mod that did good things (in a bad way!) with total darkness and lots of barnacles hanging in your path, can anyone remember which mod this is?

Regarding Haunted, did anyone complete it? I got stuck in an invisible room (or rather, nothing was visible, just a blank area with invisible walls blocking movement, and no matter how I tried to move, jump, press USE, or crowbar/shoot I just couldn't  find out how to proceed. I always meant to try and find a walkthrough guide/video, but I don't think I got around to trying. Then again, it was a sort of horror mod, so maybe that was the end of the mod, but there was no message or indication that that was the end.

Haunted is available from it's MODDB page, if anyone wants to try to complete it.

Also, the Jumbot mod was a great bot for playing multiplayer on your own (well, against bots instead of humans). The only problem was, it didn't have a real front-end menu system. I used to hope the author (or someone else) would add a menu system, so that it was as user friendly when playing against bots as Unreal Tournament, but if anyone did write such a front-end, then I never found it. Still, the next version of XDM (X-Half-Life Deathmatch) is due out literally any day now, it's basically Half-Life made to play like Unreal Tournament, with lots of features and a proper menu system for ease of use.

For some reason, I always thought that the Half-Life 2 mods were overall not nearly as good as Half-Life 1 mods. Still, at least HL2 had mods, unlike other  deserving games like Bioshock 1 and 2, Singularity, and Timeshock. I was disappointed that modding tools were never released for those games.

Edit: I wrongly listed a mod as "Escape from Darkness", when I meant the mod called "Haunted"