You do know the campaign for Duke Nukem Forever was finished in 07 or 08, right?

Gearbox said they wanted treat 3D Realms right, and released THEIR game, and then they're going to carry on with the franchise.

That still doesn't excuse poor level design, boring bosses or uninspired visuals. I have a lot more fun playing Half-Life 2 than I do Duke Nukem and that was first released in 2004.

Half-life 2 is the MOST perfect game ever. How they integrate plot without cut scenes was revolutionary at the time. The town of Ravenholm?

Those two games should never be compared.

HL1 was pretty ****ing great though. And have you ever played Counter Strike?? I realize its a different type of game but many similarities do appear.

bought these yesterday (for the PS2):-

Combat Queen - Jap-only release of an FMV on-rails shooter
Rogue Ops - Japanese variant of Splinter Cell (but in English)
IndyCar Series - really good uber-realistic Indianapolis 500 driving game, from the Darling Bros (Codemasters)
Blowout - extremely frenetic and difficult Contra variant

Did I play counter strike? I still play counter strike with friends :). The servers stay surprising busy for an old game (speaks to how perfect it is).

Damnit id play with you but i got banned for hacking. And before you say what a terible person... i must say i didnt try to hide it. I spun in circles headshoting spawn points, and then got banned right away.

I used to play in the Cal-m league though. Then I realized I needed a life and should just have fun.

You can do both. I promise. What other PC games do you play? Actually do you have steam?

Yea I have steam. I play a little source but havnt recently. Been wanting to start up again but dont really know anyone that plays like I used to.

Half-Life is the greatest game of all time. So great, that it was able to spawn several other good games like Counter-Strike and Team Fortress.

Half-Life 2 wasn't as good as the original, but it's one of the most worthy sequels to a linear plot based video game I've ever seen. Man, I really wish they would finish remaking HL1 already.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Skies at the moment.

[quote=crash_override;1077400would finish remaking hl1 already.[/quote]

what?

Black Mesa project, they have been remaking Half Life 1 using the HL2 engine for better graphics, it's supposed to be epic. It should be after taking like 6-7 years already.

Black Mesa (video game) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Damn, I didn't know about that. Awesome.

I keep wishing they would make episode 3. I was hoping at the end of portal that would be the big surprise--a whole other long awaited game. You know the connection between Portal and Half-life right?

I wouldn't be surprised if they scrapped Episode 3 and just did HL3. Either way, I hope they are working on something.

I read something that said they aren't working on Half Life at all right now. Most people say Steam is to blame, because it takes so many resources to keep running.


Right now, I've been playing...

F.E.A.R. 3
Trenched (I'm beginning to think that Double Fine can't do anything wrong).
Peggle
Sonic Adventure DX


Going to start soon:
Shadows of the Damned
Alice: Madness Returns

They were in the Orange Box together?

No, they have not. I mod a half-life forum that is very connected with valve and I can reassure you that it has not been scrapped.

:) Almost.

Originally, the plot lines between the two games were going to be way more connected; however, when they were making Portal 2 valve decided to step away from being so intertwined.

Their connections:
1) They are the same world

2) When the deadly neurotoxin was released into Apertures labs it was never realized by the outside world because during the same time the events of the first Half-life (combine invasion) were going on. Basically because of the events of Half-Life aperture labs lay the forgotten wasteland that it was.


3) Aperture Science was in direct competition with Black Mesa to create the portal technology. Hence all the jokes about Black Mesa being a failure.

4) Borealis the ship (which was originally supposed to be a level in Half-life 2 but was scrapped) that was mentioned in Half-life 2 as belonging to aperture labs but having mysteriously disappeared (with its crew) is an easter egg in Portal 2. In case you are curious, where you find potato GLadoS there is a cabinet you can move back that takes takes you down a hallway where there is a door that opens up into a giant room where they kept that ship. It is pretty neat. Experiments with portal technology is how the ship disappeared and ended up at the arctic.

5) Also lots of people like to say the cave johnson is g-man. Eh, I'm not a big fan of this comparison.

6) Oh, also there are a few portal cubes around the half-life setting.

do you know why it's taking them so long to finish Episode 3? Are they making a new engine or something? cause damn, if it's only 3 hours of gameplay like Episode 1 and 2 it shouldn't be taking this long.

^ That's why I just figured they were making HL3. I doubt they would make a new engine just for episode 3.

They are not making a new engine; however they are tinkering with it quite a bit for Half-life 3. It is a 7 year old game engine and they are trying to do something revolutionary with it for Half-life 3.

It is not the gameplay or the story they are working on, it is how they can use this final installment to do something revolutionary. Look at it like this:

The original half-life: Started a revolutionary way of first-player story telling and no cut scenes.

Half-life 2: Refined first-player story telling and introduced the gravity gun (which introduced a whole new way of level manipulation and importance).

Portal: The portal gun. Showed gameplay could be more important than graphics/a hero's story (chell never speaks)/complex narrative plot. This step reversed a trend that was in the making (rising popularity of those god awful final fantasy games).

Portal 2: Created a world in which the environment told more of the back story than actual words did.


So Valve is sitting on a predicament, which is why you are probably going to be waiting awhile. They are looking for something groundbreaking that will (like their other games) shatter your notion about gameplay and design while keeping with their original engine (which is still a bit buggy).

Also, my friend who is a fairly good source for all this info says his theory is that valve is going to come out with a much bigger game than we expect. And it is going to be more of an Half-life 3 than a half life episode 3. But he also says who know? so take that as you will.

Also if you are interested someone of the forum put together a list of everything that is known for sure about Half-life 3 and i'm just copying and pasting it in here:

Half-Life 2: Episode Three is the third and final instalment in a series of episodes following Half-Life 2. It is currently in development and Valve have said we may see something from it at the end of this year. The project has been labelled 'highly ambitious' by Doug Lombardi, and release is still a while off. We are most likely to see something from Valve at next years E3 conference.

What we know, and what to expect?
We know the episode is going to be set in the northern reaches of the world of Half-Life, these will be cold places filled with ice and snow, oh and a Borealis.

The Borealis is that great ship that disappeared during some experimentation by the same sort of scientists that caused the Resonance Cascade from the original Half-Life. From what we have seen from Portal and the previous Episodes the Borealis is a scientific ship that was involved in teleportation tests at the Aperture Science labs. Something went wrong which led to the ship disappearing completely from its original location. It is only during the events of Episode 2 that we find out that it has returned, this time in the coldest reaches of the world.

Speculation
The question that will be answered (we hope) in Episode 3 is what happened to the ship, did it appear instantly after the experiment in the north? If that is so then why haven’t we heard about it until now? Is it simply down to the fact that the resistance couldn’t detect it?

We also know the scientists on the Borealis performed their experiments and the ship got sent somewhere, maybe Xen? Or maybe it just disappeared out of the time loop? We know that during the course of Half-Life 2 Gordon takes seven days to travel from Nova Prospekt back to City 17, a 'slow teleport' according to Dr Kleiner.

The Borealis contains something that Eli wishes Gordon to destroy for fear of a repeat of the events at Black Mesa, Dr Kleiner feels it is destined to be a useful asset in the future. The differing views between these two eminent scientists is intriguing. Is caution the best bet, or should Gordon use whatever he can find on the ship to aid in the destruction of the Combine once and for all?

Flora, Fauna and Everything Else
Enough of this speculation, Episode 3 will be set in an area of snow and ice, this is going to pose some new gameplay challenges and maybe even some new aliens. Who knows whether Ant-lions can survive in the cold? Headcrabs and Zombies are a given, but many other creatures may be different.

How will the death of such a key character as Eli impact on the story, and more importantly for some, on the relationship between Gordon and Alyx. What role is the G-Man going to play, he seems to be getting a bit impatient with things not progressing as he wants them to. His message he gives to Alyx, the same message he gave to Eli back in Black Mesa may be a sign that he foresees grave peril in the future, or maybe he is just toying with Alyx.

How things are likely to develop...
When we find out about the Borealis in Episode 2 this is from the transmission Alyx intercepted from the Combine. Therefore we know the Combine have located the vessel. They were extremely aggressive and put a lot of resources into attempting to prevent this transmission getting back to the resistance and have hunted Alyx desperately since the interception. We can assume the combine want to use the Borealis and Aperture Science's possible developments in teleportation / portal technology to bring extra troops to Earth to recapture it or evacuate. The latter...seems unlikely!

We have already seen some early concept art for the game. The image from the ‘Into The Pixel’ exhibition shows Gordon challenging a Combine Advisor in a heavily industrialised environment and earlier concept art from PC Gamer US shows further Advisors around the Borealis. So expect a hugely exciting episode 3 with the same fantastic Half-life formula with a mighty cold twist.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...IXBoxArtJP.png

So, I'm a huge RPG fan, and I got this about 2 weeks ago and beat it out, now I'm doing post-game quests. Pretty awesome RPG for the DS and a lot of classic similarities to the older versions of the dragon quest franchise. If you've got a DS, and you like turn based RPG's, this one won't disappoint. 8/10

yeah I need to pick that up soon and the latest Golden Sun

What are your top DS RPG's in general? I'm getting a few games. So far I have:

Mario & Luigi games
Golden Sun: Dark Dawn
The World Ends With You

I actually have all those 3, and they're all pretty good. The World Ends with You and Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story are both pretty awesome.

If you don't have these, you should get:

Chrono Trigger (One of my definite favourites)
Final Fantasy IV
Final Fantasy: Ring of Fates (Really good replay value, beat this about 3 times)

I'm more inclined to turn-based RPG's, not so much the strategy ones.

Yeah, definitely get this. I've already racked up 100+ hours on this thing, lol

i have Dragonquest VIII on the PS2

it's great but i really hate the level-grinding

Well, dude, the level grinding in this one is even more intense. Basically every character you have can change their "vocation" or job, if you will. And every time you change their vocation, they go to level 1. And there are 12 fucking vocations. But the thing is, you can change from vocation to vocation, and whatever you level up each one, well that level remains. Now hear this next bit, when the character reaches level 99, they can fucking re-vocate, which brings them BACK to level 1, so that you can get more "skill points".

Level grinding in this one is. A. Bitch.

Thanks for the tips, I haven't played a good rpg for a long time.

Go for Chrono Trigger first man, it has that classic RPG feel, and it's one of my personal favourites.

Awesome thanks for the link I am pretty excited for that release.

Hehe same here! I've been playing AOE since I was nine years-old. Such a good game. I totally agree that the nostalgia associated with the older games. :love:

The newer versions are cool, but limited IMO. I do prefer the ancient style.

Age of Empires was also a big part of my childhood and one of the earliest things my dad and I ever really bonded over. He tried to teach me strategy like having a healthy economy as well as a formidable army, but I was more interested in putting in the cheat that give you the pink lowrider that shot rockets. Regardless of our differences, the game still holds a very special place in my heart.

I definitely agree with the general consensus on AoE3, the move into a more modern setting just didn't work as well, especially when I don't think they did a good enough job focusing on the Roman era in the Rise of Rome expansion.

I've been playing AoE since I was 7... truly an amazing game that I still enjoy playing from time to time.

Almost everyone I know hates AoE3.

I actually still have big lan parties (ha, party) with friends occasionally with AoE and AoE2. Weirdly enough never Age of Mythology although I think that was a great game.

I wish they would come out with a slow RTS like those games again, just so a new generation can get hooked on its complex nature without having to learn at the absurdly fast RTS speeds like starcraft.

i don't think i've played Age of Empires

i love Civilisation, though

fun fact, civilization is not an RTS, it is a turn-based strategy. But they do have similarities.

bioshock infinite will be the best game ever made, I'm calling it now!

Yeah, I'll be getting that one when it drops.