Meh! Aak! How had this not been discussed already?!

[thomashiles]

...and if it has, my apologies..
Has anyone thought that the manipulator should be usable as a grappling device, the same as the barnacle in Op Forces? I can't see any difference - the barnacle would grab organic objects (the manipulator seems to grab and carry anything), and the barnacle would also stick to fixed organic matter and hoist you up - so wouldn't it be damn cool (and make perfect sense) if you could do the same with the manipulator? The manipulator has been shown to lift (or at least shift) things heavier than Gordon.
What made me think of this was the talk about getting up on top of the strider - I can imagine pointing the manipulator at the top of a building, zipping up, disengaging and landing neatly on top of one of those freaky bastards - perhaps there should be some time-out feature, or a limited range, on the manipulator (perhaps it has a finite reservoir of power that has to recharge) so that you wouldn't be able to anything stupid like climb the Combine citadel from outside of town....

 

[Jackal hit]

hmm neat. you could attach to the bottom of a strider, zip your way up it... all you need now is a lightsaber to be a jedi. crowbar works just as well though, rip open a hole, toss a grenade in and jump down... consequently breaking your ankles and shins, and femurs, and crushing your spine. or something. :imu:

 

[Mechagodzilla]

You don't need to though.
The barnacle gun is more likely than not returning for HL2. It was in a Valve E-mail, I think.

 

[Beserker]

Barnacle was a waste of time. It's same as using those three armed green electric bastards as a weapon, just rip one arm off and you can zap everything.

 

[The Dark Elf]

The theory of using the manipulator could work. Pick up and fire off a grapple, attached with a rope/cable to something else, pick that up before the grapple pulls it away then hope for the best. Would be a very iffy method but would certainly teach people skills in using it that way instead of the usual point and shoot.

 

[Mechagodzilla]

Barnacle was a waste of time. It's same as using those three armed green electric bastards as a weapon, just rip one arm off and you can zap everything.

???

You lost me after "Barnacle was a waste of time."

It was actually quite useful anyways. Fastest melee kill yet!

 

[Beserker]

Beh. It was only used to overcome the obstacles in opf(opposing force)

 

[mortiz]

I don't think the Manipulator has the power to lift Gordon, it can only pick up small, fairly light items. Although there could be something else similar to the manipulator that allows you to lift yourself up with it.

 

[StardogChampion]

I'm sure it'll only be a quick mod to make the manipulator do that. There's a grappling hook mod for the original HL that some servers use.

 

[Brian Damage]

Doesn't the Manipulator appear to work on some cross between magnetic and antigravitational principles (Objects are attracted, but Gordon picking up an object ehavier than himself doesn't tip him over). I also think that its power decreases with range, at least from what I'm hearing from these new vids...

Also, the original PC Gamer coverage of HL2 said that the Barnacle grapple is returning... damn, that thing was good for getting rid of headcrabs...

 

[Crushenator 500]

I'm sure it'll only be a quick mod to make the manipulator do that. There's a grappling hook mod for the original HL that some servers use.

i love grapple mod in fact, i was on an opf server last night with it on. hehe.