Well I recommend for you to try half life then move on with others
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^This on one condition... you must change your mind-set and understand that it's a 13 year old game. Don't compare it to today's standards.
Also, pay attention to the scripted scenes and try to soak in the plot (which won't be explained to you much, unless you pay attention).
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I'm struggling to understand what you just said, honestly.
I know Half-Life is a classic and I love it. Half-Life: Source is still based off of a 13 year old game. Physics simulations, better effects and a higher resolution does not change the fact that the map design and overall gameplay is 13 years old.
I'm just reminding him to be aware of that.
BTW, do you know what scripted scenes are?
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He said that because there are idiots who don't play HL 1 because the "graphics suck".
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I don't know about Blue Shift, really. It's Half Life from Barney's perspective and didn't really add much to the plot (or gameplay), as far as I remember.
Opposing Force, on the other hand, had a fresh look at the Black Mesa incident and added many new enemies and weapons to the mix.
@Gregoric: I'd suggest you play HL:OF, if you can accept HL1's dated graphics. HL:BS doesn't add much to the story, imo.
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Yep. And there are High Definition Texture pack here and there on the internet to sweeten Half Life 1.
I would say that Opposing Force and Blue Shift are optional, but if you like the excellent old-school feeling like I do, you will probably play them as well.
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Original HL do support widescreen resolution. It's not perfect but pretty playable though
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I started with Half-Life 2: Episode Two, then Half-Life 2: Episode One, then Half-Life and then Half-Life 2.
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Well, you should play HL1, especially considering it is still great game even despite of it's age. But actually I think you may play HL2 and you'll still be able to enjoy the story (some wiki may be useful though, for understanding the background and references). As for Blue Shift and Opposing Force, they basically expand the plot of first game.
Basically: you better play HL1, OF and BS first, but starting with HL2 is OK too.
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I'm still hoping that Black Mesa Source will be completed sooner or later. HL1's story revisited with passion and present day graphics... yummy.
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How about Half-Life: Source? Anyone checked it out already?
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Source engine aside, it's the same as the original. I've played the original and I've already expressed my thoughts in the comments above^.
EDIT: I might as well expand a little.
I played Half-Life back when it was "the game of the year" on PC-gamer. The game was awesome and thrilling back then, so my point-of-view is biased. However, the Half-Life lore/timeline and Half-Life 2 plot does not explain Half-Life's plot the same way (i.e. it's not the same thing as playing the game, imo), and the the HL-wiki adds things to the story that I didn't even know about.
Anyway, CaspianRoach's post below is probably what this current generation views Half-Life to be (a boring, uninspired FPS), so it all boils down to two questions.
If both answers are yes, then give it a go.
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I really liked Half Life 2 because of many factors:
the 5 year wait (actually, I managed to play it only in 2007 so make that an 8 year wait)
the physics engine and physics-based gameplay and puzzles
the voice acting (Dr Kleiner!!), facial expressions and body language (beautiful)
Ravenholm... that chapter was awesome
the plot (twists)
But I did find some things that weren't as great, such as:
the fact that Gordon Freeman was still awkwardly silent (I have no clue how Valve will pull off HL3 without making him talk once)
the excessive number of vehicle run-an-gun sections (although they were great, they did feel like an "open world" gimmick)
Did I like HL1 more than HL2? hmm... tough to say. I find them both great in their own way.
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HL: Opposing Force is non-canonical and nothing happening in that game is ever mentioned in any of the following ones.
Half-Life 1 is very weak by current standarts and very boring. I would suggest just playing HL2 and reading up on the HL1's plot (especially since it can be summarised in one page, not much is happening there, really).
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Then the right direction would be HL1 -> HL2. OpForce and Blue Shift weren't even made by Valve. You will lose nothing if you skip them.
HL2 was built with the thought that not everybody played HL1 before it, so they explain what has happened quite a lot. And there is very little in common between the plots of the two since they even happen in the different time periods.
As much as many of us liked HL1 it was only because there was nothing better to play at the time, this was the shit. If you look back at it now, it is a very basic first-person shooter with outdated mechanics that were iterated upon and upgraded by over a decade of different developer team's work, leaving HL1 very far behind.
It was one of the best at its time, yes, but there were good black and white movies, too, and barely anybody likes them now because the technology allows for much more now. Bear in mind that the gaming industry grows far faster than television or any other media have ever grown yet and you will see the point I'm making. Here's another analogy: It's like eating your first ever pancake. It tastes great, because you barely have any points of comparison but then you discover that you can have much more better and fancier pancakes very easily and you will scoff at the plebeian pancakes you ate before.
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I think I know what do you mean. But I am pretty sure that the 'technology jump' that games have made since HL release won't make me dislike it.
I will show you other example, first WarCraft game I've played was WarCraft 3 with full 3D, fancy magic effects and all that stuff. Then I played WoW. Graphics were even better but plot sucked. So I came back to WarCraft 1 and 2. I didn't enjoy the very first part only because resolution - it made my eyes painful and my head explode :). But - WarCraft 2 was pretty fun. So, I can say I like playing classic games even if they suck at graphics or all the newish stuff.
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I doubt you can buy them now, so here's the first links in google for query "old games warcraft":
http://www.bestoldgames.net/eng/old-games/warcraft-2.php
http://www.bestoldgames.net/eng/old-games/warcraft.php
The music is probably cut out from them though.
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I still enjoy playing HL1 and especially OpFor even now, after all these years. Play at least HL1.
Saying you can skip it is like saying you can skip playing DeusEx1 and just read the plot in the wiki. Though maybe that is not the right comparison.
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Nostalgia.
Also I haven't played DX1 and enjoyed HR a lot. I watched the videos of DX1 and cringed at the ugly and clunky mechanics and out of date game systems.
Also I couldn't bear to play Mass Effect 1 because it was horrible to play, especially the inventory system was something else; it was downright idiotic. So I just read up on the story and downloaded a savefile to import. We have wikias for every major franchise now, it's not that difficult to read up on anything you've missed, really, especially since steam overlay has a web browser.
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agreed, but if RPG is not your thing then ok i guess, but ME2 was a shooter, there is no getting around it and in most peoples'opinions ME1 was the best of the 3. everyone is entitled to their opinions though. Personally I skipped ME2 because it was just run here , shoot, go there shoot, go here, talk, then shoot some more.
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The removal of inventory does not make an RPG a shooter. And inventory was still there, just obscured and in a different format (armory + laboratory). It still has dialogues and dialogue choices, leveling up, different skills to choose from and branching skills and upgrades/morality/etc. It is an RPG. A little lighter than your average one perhaps, but it is still an RPG.
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ME2/3 is an RPG only because you are playing the role of sheppard. from a gameplay perspective you can't call 6 or 8 perks an RPG. Perhaps you consider darkness 2 and COD RPGs? they have the same branching skils and upgrades that you talk about.
make no mistake ME series is great but the first is the benchmark, it's a "star trek" RPG the first of it's kind.
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Do Darkness 2 and COD have branching dialogues with difficult/moral choices? Do they have an inventory system? And yes, collecting upgrades and resources is the inventory system in ME2. If you don't have a screen listing everything you have in your pockets that doesn't mean it isn't there. And playing the role of Shepard and making decisions for her is enough to qualify the game as RPG.
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Darkness 2 has one major choice, metro 2033 also has several choices which affect the ending. it's true that there's no need for an inventory in an RPG but that inventory gives you customization which is essencial in role play.ME1 is clearly an RPG. ME2/3 while they are RPG because you play the role of sheppard, from a gameplay perspective there's no diference between ME2 and for example gears of war.For me choices are not what makes an RPG, gameplay does. Essencially i expect 3 things from an RPG:
1)awesome storyline and lot's of "mythos"
2)lots of customization. i expect the game to be complex, lot's of item and tallents plus several classes and hopeffuly something like the trinity
3)tactical gameplay. i expext the game to punish me heavely when i make stupid mistakes while rewarding me when i make good strategies.
I might be wrong but it seems that you just like WRPG while "ignore" JRPG, TRPGs(disgaea types)...
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Just because it's shooting and not swordfighting doesn't mean it isn't an RPG. There are RPGs without visible inventory. It's not a "YOU NEED TO HAVE THIS TO BE ONE" kind of thing.
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Age has nothing to do with that. I started playing 18 years ago and my first PC had Intel 80386 as a CP. I've played a lot of games and a lot of them were good but if you asked me to play them today I wouldn't tolerate most of them. If I can have a juicy moist pie, why would I ever want a old stale cookie?
Inventory system was not normal in ME1 at all. It required too much time to do the simplest tasks, you always had loads of garbage loot and you needed to manually assign everything to everyone. It could have been fine if it was lighter and didn't shower you in millions of miniscule upgrades every five minutes.
Yes, the removal of inventory altogether was stupid, but leaving it in this state would have been worse. There are tons of different games (not even RPGs) who have sane, interesting and comfortable inventories. ME1 isn't one of them.
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it seems you have more play time then me.i only have around 15 years of core gamming.
while i agree that there are certain inovations that make old games obsolete there are also some that make old games more liberating. look at morrowind, warcraft 3,warlords battlecry,homeworld,shadow of the collossus,x-com, kingdoms under fire,etc. all these games are unique, currently there are no "modern" counterparts and if even there were there are sometimes good old games like the original UT, Quake, Doom, etc.
Old games normally are a bit more clunky but since they normally don't "hold" my hand i prefer them to modern games. of course the inverse is also true. look at fifa 12, it's simply outsanding you just can't go back to play 11 or 10 and that's in the same console generation.
My point is: there are old games that are masterpieces which will hold out through the ages (at least for a very long time) while some will be surpassed and probably forgotten.Personally i see the gameplay as king, all else is secundary therefore as long as the gameplay (even if clunky) is the best it won't matter the game age.
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Well I suppose it's even acceptable for you to read the movie's plot instead of watching it. Not for me, eh.
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If the movie is horribly edited/directed then damn I right i won't watch that piece of shit because it will be physically painful. Why would I punish myself for no reason?
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I actually just started with the half life series myself. I played through Half life 1 SOURCE, which actually wasn't half bad. Then I tried playing Blue Shift and Opposing Force, which don't use the Source Engine. I did not enjoy them one bit. Maybe it was the engine, maybe it was the story, I don't know. I would recommend playing Half Life 1, and just skip Blue Shift/Opposing Force. Maybe just read up on the story for the two games (which doesn't involve much). HL1 was actually very fun and there's a lot of backstory in there. If you have an extra 7 or 8 hours, play it. If you don't have a lot of free time just skip it.
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I highly recommend to play them all. And believe me when I say that even if they are pretty old games they aren't boring at all. I myself played all the series just one year ago and I enjoyed them a lot. Valve really set the standards for all the modern FPS with those games.
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That Anthology is a must buy for you. Even if you don't play Blue Shift and Opposing Force (although you should), the first one is a must play.
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start with Hl1 it's an amazing game. opposing force and blue shift are expansions to HL. they are basically the "same story" but from a different perspective. In HL1 you are gordon freeman, a scientist.in opposing forces you are one of the soldiers that comes to black mesa. in blue shift you are one of the security officers in black mesa.
HL2 and the "several episodes" are a direct sequel to HL1.
Personally HL1 when launched was a masterpiece. HL2 i found it boring, but it seems a lot of people like it. EP2 was the only one that i enjoyed it.
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The first game I played from the series was Half Life 2, and I did feel like I was missing something at the beginning, since I had no idea and no context to whats going on. It was still awesome of course. I played Half Life shortly after I finished all the HL2 games, and I still thought it was excellent. Blue shift and opposing force.... eh, I started those, but they weren't of great interest to me. Maybe I'll get round to finishing those some day...
So I would suggest starting with the original half life, because as long as you can get past the dated graphics, it's an amazing and fun game.
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-finish hl1, forget about opposing fronts & bs
-finish hl2
-finish hl2 ep1
-finish hl2 ep2
-finish hl2 ep3 !???
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Well, topic says everything. I am not sure if it has sense to start with 2nd part of HL (I do not own classic HL) to make spoilers etc. Should I first get the HL and then play those games in right order? How about the Blue Shift and Opposing Force? Of course, when to play Episodes for HL2 is pretty obvious for me :).
Don't call me noob because I had not played HLs, just answer :).
Regards
Thanks for so many replies. After reading and taking all your opinions under consideration, I decided to play only Codename Gordon*. Thanks
*steam://install/92
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