The Half-Life Evolution

[Icarus]

The folks over at HLFallout have written a nice article "The Half-Life Evolution". It's a look at how far we have come since the first Half-Life, comparing weapons, enemies and a little bit more.[br]

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[br]So go check it out here.

 

[PuNcH]

i agree the water is the best improvement.

 

[Feath]

It's a nice read, although I it could've gone into a bit more detail.

EDIT: I think I deserve an idiot award for not realised that there was more than one page. *sigh*

 

[Hazar]

Yeah, good but really just an overview.

 

[Ikerous]

The old zombies and head crabs
Just looked better...

 

[Asuka]

Cool article.

 

[Homie]

A Very nice article never got bored reading it.

 

[Wesisapie]

i still think old crowbar looked better

 

[DarkGhost86]

A Very nice article i have seen!

 

[Gunner]

Nice article, a bit short but good nevertheless

 

[wibblemonster]

i still think old crowbar looked better

it was a nice read, shame it was a bit short, but i think the new crowbar kicks ass,,... & zombie

 

[fez]

nice article

 

[Vinnie_NL]

Very interesting and fun to read. I liked the comparison of the headcrabs the most, Now I see the headcrab in HL1 looks pretty weird when he is in the air with his legs down.

 

[DeltaBlast]

He tells us the mp7 has a zoom function, but iirc it was the suit that zoomed, not the gun?

 

[Dux]

He tells us the mp7 has a zoom function, but iirc it was the suit that zoomed, not the gun?

Er, no, the gun.

 

[Ecthe|ioN]

good read. the water has been improved a little bit, but hardly noticeable.

 

[Burning Fish]

good read. the water has been improved a little bit, but hardly noticeable.

[/sarcasm]

 

[Vinnie_NL]

Oh really? (the only thing better than some sarcasm is even more sarcasm )

 

[affen]

Good read, I read the HL1 and HL² story on the site too and I liked the HL² story-speculation.

 

[The Monkey]

Yes, I saw that yesterday.

 

[LAYP]

of course you did....

 

[Teta_Bonita]

basically stuff we already know, but interesting nontheless.

 

[poofyfinger]

Nice read! Something we all know anyways, but its nice to compare where 7 years of technology has taken us. Another 7 years will make Hl2 look like its original Hl1 !

 

[PriNcE oF SpAcE]

quite honestly I think the article is very lacking especially considering it's written for a HL2 fansite(and the amount of praise it seems to get)...

first of the title "The half-life evolution" isn't very fitting since the article only seems to touch old stuff that has been revamped(even when there were some new stuff that should have been mentioned about the old stuff) and as such a more fitting title would probably have been "face lifts of Half-life" or something to that effect. even if the article set out to only compare things between HL1 & HL2, I find the list of things compared lacking and inconsistent.(e.g. they have Eli vance but not Dr. Kleiner and multiple other things, but I don't want to sound anal about it unless you want me to )

but to get down to the more obvious flaws of the article:

I like how the author mentions that the zombies

"holds and swings his hands in a slightly different manor."

doh! of course it's going to hold and swing it's hands in a slightly new manner! it's a new game and a new model! what's worse is that the "new" swing is hardly an evolution(I could understand if he had mentioned any huge change in a creature's animation) since the zombie still have the double side swipe(it's now able to do them single aswell) and the top down swipe that the old zombie had. but now to the good part...I like how he mentiones this slight difference in animation but totally fails to mention that the zombie is now able to hurl objects at the player and that it can be cut in half(both dying and surviving in the process).

same thing go for the headcrab where he mentiones that

"I can also tell you that the animation for the jump has varied slightly; in HL2 the headcrab seems to have its front 'arms' up for the duration of the jump, while in HL1 it only flicked them up as it was falling."

again of course it will have a slightly different animation(and again it's not a big change, and hardly an evolution) and again he fails to mention interesting new feature of the headcrab; it's ability to detach itself from it's dead host. also there a legit footage of atleast one new variation of the headcrab(that hairy one)

he also forgot to mention the new improved laser guidance for the RPG among other things.

in conclusion although we appreciate the effort, the article isn't very consistant or informative, unless you've been living under a rock and even then it's not as good as half of the already existing articles out there.

 

[DeltaBlast]

Er, no, the gun.

so, how do you propose you zoom then? secondary fire is already a grenade launcher.

 

[JimmehH]

so, how do you propose you zoom then? secondary fire is already a grenade launcher.

Middle mouse button, like Doom 3. It was using the gun's scope in the E3 2004 video though.

 

[Dynasty]

oh look another 'take up time and get people to like us again whilst we make up promises we cant make about the hl2 release date' article

 

[Biozeminade]

Middle mouse button, like Doom 3. It was using the gun's scope in the E3 2004 video though.

WTF? A gun in Doom3 has zoom? I never knew this...

I still have to finish that game too, it's so boring

 

[JimmehH]

WTF? A gun in Doom3 has zoom? I never knew this...

I still have to finish that game too, it's so boring

Middle mouse button zooms in the view. Even with fists.

 

[Mr Bond]

quite honestly I think the article is very lacking especially considering it's written for a HL2 fansite(and the amount of praise it seems to get)...

first of the title "The half-life evolution" isn't very fitting since the article only seems to touch old stuff that has been revamped(even when there were some new stuff that should have been mentioned about the old stuff) and as such a more fitting title would probably have been "face lifts of Half-life" or something to that effect. even if the article set out to only compare things between HL1 & HL2, I find the list of things compared lacking and inconsistent.(e.g. they have Eli vance but not Dr. Kleiner and multiple other things, but I don't want to sound anal about it unless you want me to )

but to get down to the more obvious flaws of the article:

I like how the author mentions that the zombies

"holds and swings his hands in a slightly different manor."

doh! of course it's going to hold and swing it's hands in a slightly new manner! it's a new game and a new model! what's worse is that the "new" swing is hardly an evolution(I could understand if he had mentioned any huge change in a creature's animation) since the zombie still have the double side swipe(it's now able to do them single aswell) and the top down swipe that the old zombie had. but now to the good part...I like how he mentiones this slight difference in animation but totally fails to mention that the zombie is now able to hurl objects at the player and that it can be cut in half(both dying and surviving in the process).

same thing go for the headcrab where he mentiones that

"I can also tell you that the animation for the jump has varied slightly; in HL2 the headcrab seems to have its front 'arms' up for the duration of the jump, while in HL1 it only flicked them up as it was falling."

again of course it will have a slightly different animation(and again it's not a big change, and hardly an evolution) and again he fails to mention interesting new feature of the headcrab; it's ability to detach itself from it's dead host. also there a legit footage of atleast one new variation of the headcrab(that hairy one)

he also forgot to mention the new improved laser guidance for the RPG among other things.

in conclusion although we appreciate the effort, the article isn't very consistant or informative, unless you've been living under a rock and even then it's not as good as half of the already existing articles out there.

If we're going to talk definitions, let me share my own horribly biased opinion

Take a closer look at what evolution actually means. The graphical improvements covered here actually fit the definition closer than "new features". Then again, there's no need to be reading too much into what is meant to be a catchy title.

I think a lot of your complaints come from misunderstanding the scope of the article. It was never meant to explain the new features or abilities in HL2. As stated in the intro, it's a graphical comparison of some of the main weapons and characters. You're right, you can already find a lot of articles and content pages around which explain the new features and improvements among the characters, weapons and enemies. But the point of this article was to provide some direct graphical comparisons by way of a few interesting side-by-side screenshots. The comparison images were the unique part of the article and so the emphasis was on them, not on cataloguing gameplay changes.

With this in mind, the other criticisms don't make sense. By and large, the comparison shots are left to speak for themselves -- there's no point trying to describe a better texture or model when you can easily see it for yourself. Animations are focused on a couple of times because, yes sir, it's a graphics comparison and you can't tell animation differences simply from the screenshots. If you wanted explanations of the new features/capabilities of enemies in HL2, you can already read them in HL2.net's or our enemies pages for example. Whether each subtle animation change is truly an "evolution" is completely subjective... and hardly a major point of the article. And sure, it wasn't a comprehensive comparison of every single creature/character we've seen, but I don't think the omission of Dr. Kleiner and some other misc items was a fatal blow.

In the end, if it doesn't satisfy you, that's not going to change. But you can't criticise an article against goals it never intended to meet.

 

[poofyfinger]

What he said above.... :angel:

 

[Feath]

In the end, if it doesn't satisfy you, that's not going to change. But you can't criticise an article against goals it never intended to meet.

Well, I can! It doesn't have enough Doom 3/Farcry story analyse.