Happy 10th Birthday Half-Life 2

Ennui

Ennui

The Freeman
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Happy 10th birthday to HL2. Hard to believe it's been a decade when it feels like we were sitting around here speculating about the game and whining about the release delays. Not to mention arguing incessantly over whether HL2 would be better than Halo 2 or Doom 3.

I remember that night like it was yesterday... I had preordered HL2 Gold and preloaded it all. Steam was hammered so it took hours to decrypt and unlock before I could finally boot it around 9 at night. That night was one of the finest gaming experiences of my life (I got through the sewers and water hazard to about midway through Ravenholm before my 15 year old self got scared and called it a night at 3am). Stuttering issues and all that was a perfect gaming experience.

What do you remember about HL2's release oh so long ago - or the early days of HL2.net / VT for that matter?
 
Those bink trailers. Spent a long time downloading them, and even more discussing them here.
 
Happy Birthday Gordon.
 
Wow, I can't believe Valve hasn't even posted anything about this to their website or Steam... I wasn't expecting a HL3 release date or anything like that but at least something like 'Happy birthday, Half-Life!'. They did that kind of stuff with TF and Counter-Strike.
 
It's still kind of early. They may still do that sometime today.

It's 4:15AM in Seattle at the moment.
 
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Doofcake said:
It's still kind of early. They may still do that sometime today.

It's 4:15AM in Seattle at the moment.
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Oh wow, I forgot they're so much behind my timezone. Silly me. Please excuse my post. But still, if they don't do anything at all then that's really going to suck :\
 
Anticipating HL2's release was a first for me. Before learning of HL2, I had no real conception of the gaming industry. I didn't know anything about the developers of the games I played, and I never thought about them. I also never really sought or even realized that internet communities dedicated to games existed. My exposure to new games came through my older brothers. They had introduced me to Half-Life when playing the demo. Years later, after they had moved on to other games, I was still captivated by it, beginning my ventures into the Worldcraft editor.

Because of the lack of interest from my brothers and my ignorance of any online communities, I had considered Half-Life a niche game that few were interested in. Then one of my brothers showed me the E3 2003 demo for HL2. Needless to say, I was overwhelmed. It was hard to believe that a game I thought so few were interested in was getting a sequel, and not only that, it was the most amazing looking game I'd ever seen. This was my introduction to Valve and their fanbase. I would since go on to re-watch that demo dozens and dozens of times. I annoyed my friends to no end in high school, ranting about all the things I was going to do with the physics engine, drawing map ideas and detailing a play-by-play transcription of the E3 2004 demo.

Of course there were also these forums, a story too long to tell. I matured on these forums, they were my teenage years. My friends, interests, and generally the rest of the internet was brought to me by these forums. All because of a game.
 
Just noticed I still have my HL2: Gold edition box sitting on the shelf in my room!

Eejit said:
Those bink trailers. Spent a long time downloading them, and even more discussing them here.
Click to expand...

Oh man, I had downloaded all of those. I still remember them well. I probably watched all of them 20 times.

Vegeta897 said:
Of course there were also these forums, a story too long to tell. I matured on these forums, they were my teenage years. My friends, interests, and generally the rest of the internet was brought to me by these forums. All because of a game.
Click to expand...
Anticipating the release of HL2 was a first for me as well... I read an article in late 2003 about the source code leak/delay and HL2 in general and it got me so excited (I had played and loved the original Half-Life but didn't pay much attention to the gaming press) and it led me to register here in December 2003.

As for growing up around here... yeah I feel you. I was 14 years old when I joined this forum and I'm 25 now. I can't even begin to count all of the memories and people associated with this place that I have from all those years. It makes me sad to see how grim and dead this place is now, but I guess I'm still here until the bitter end. I will credit this forum with having a huge influence on my music taste - all of us teenagers on here 8-9 years ago listening to idm and stuff together was the only real sense of musical community I ever had since nobody in real life save a few friends growing up had similar electronica tastes (nowadays things are different... "normal" people actually know who Aphex Twin and Boards of Canada are).

It's been a hell of a ride yall.
 
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Welp, my not so short rant on HL2 with my headcannons is almost ready to post on tumblr. I should have written this ealrier, but health issues forced me to spend half of my day in a hospital, trying to get my results. :p

Here was supposed to be my HL3 rant, but due to the fact I started to mumble and mix things up, I had to cut the entire thing. Thankfully HL2 was released in Europe on 18th of November ( at least according to the wikipedia ), so I have some time tomorrow to fix and post it :D

Happy 10th anniversary Half-Life 2 !
 
One of the nice things about being a newbie and only getting involved in valve games just recently is that we haven't had to wait as long. For all you guys on here that have been coming to this website regularly for close to 10 years-I'm just in awe.
 
Acurt1982 said:
it's always good to see game developers not giving a shit about their own games
Click to expand...

I read this post, then looked at your avatar, and I laughed a bit too hard.

I actually don't remember a lot of the lead up to HL2's release. I mean, I was certainly excited and keeping an eye on these forums and in the media for news. I remember watching the physics demo BINK video a million times, and watching that HAVOK video that had tons of ragdolls falling down stairs (can't find that video anywhere now). I also remember that my computer didn't have a DVD drive at the time, so I bought it on CD, and I think it used 5 CDs lol. I don't think I participated much in the discussion of the game though. However I distinctly remember playing Vampire The Maquerade: Bloodlines first. The game came out the same day since it was also a Source game and they couldn't release it before HL2. I think it was like a week later that I got HL2. I don't remember why I made that choice, but I know that I had preordered VTM:BL. It was the first game I ever preordered.

So yeah, I guess Happy 10th birthday to Vampire The Maquerade: Bloodlines too.

EDIT: Actually, I remember all the Unlocking BS too. So maybe I bought both on Day 1, but just couldn't play HL2 due to Steam being annihilated.
 
I played Half-Life 2 kind of late, some time in 2006. Battlefield 1942 filled my gaming hours then.
 
I got Counter Strike Source because it was popular, it was the free game along side this HL2 thing.
 
Vegeta897 said:
Anticipating HL2's release was a first for me. Before learning of HL2, I had no real conception of the gaming industry. I didn't know anything about the developers of the games I played, and I never thought about them. I also never really sought or even realized that internet communities dedicated to games existed. My exposure to new games came through my older brothers. They had introduced me to Half-Life when playing the demo. Years later, after they had moved on to other games, I was still captivated by it, beginning my ventures into the Worldcraft editor.

Because of the lack of interest from my brothers and my ignorance of any online communities, I had considered Half-Life a niche game that few were interested in. Then one of my brothers showed me the E3 2003 demo for HL2. Needless to say, I was overwhelmed. It was hard to believe that a game I thought so few were interested in was getting a sequel, and not only that, it was the most amazing looking game I'd ever seen. This was my introduction to Valve and their fanbase. I would since go on to re-watch that demo dozens and dozens of times. I annoyed my friends to no end in high school, ranting about all the things I was going to do with the physics engine, drawing map ideas and detailing a play-by-play transcription of the E3 2004 demo.

Of course there were also these forums, a story too long to tell. I matured on these forums, they were my teenage years. My friends, interests, and generally the rest of the internet was brought to me by these forums. All because of a game.
Click to expand...
it was fun watching your fat ass monstrosity of a chin grow over the last several years
 
Ennui said:
I will credit this forum with having a huge influence on my music taste - all of us teenagers on here 8-9 years ago listening to idm and stuff together was the only real sense of musical community I ever had since nobody in real life save a few friends growing up had similar electronica tastes (nowadays things are different... "normal" people actually know who Aphex Twin and Boards of Canada are).

It's been a hell of a ride yall.
Click to expand...

Hah! Hell yeah, man. Growing up was weird because few people around me shared my taste for music, which was derived almost wholly from here. I have yet to find a lot of people who share my taste although I feel like I'm getting there.

Anyway, I randomly decided to drop by and check on this place, and it's funny how dead it is even though I've yet to read through all the new posts on the lounge. Man. Going through my post history is a trip -- I can't believe this place holds so much of my history of my teenage years. And it's all just a bunch of shitty posts, with a few gems here and there. Even if my imagined absence of desirable company when I was a teenager kind of contributed to me being here, I'm still grateful that there was this place for me to grow. For me to cultivate a love for good music, and to a lesser, but not any less significant extent, for art, literature, and everything, really. I just got done watching Mr. Nobody, and I don't know for sure if there was a "message" it was trying to convey but if I got anything out of it it's the ease that has come through realizing that any decision is the right one. You could argue that there is an optimal one, or ones which lead to less overall suffering, and such. But it helps with regard to letting it be okay, letting there be some natural sort of justification to the things that have happened as a result of your decisions. I didn't have much of a social life (understood in its traditional sense) when I was a teenager which still has its repercussions today but I wonder what kind of person I would be had I surrounded myself with the social groups that there were in my vicinity. I would be someone else entirely. And I'm sure that version of me would have issues with the version that I turned out to be. But it's all okay, you know? It kind of worked out, even if I wouldn't have been able to say that at some low points that I've had.
 
evil^milk said:
Hah! Hell yeah, man. Growing up was weird because few people around me shared my taste for music, which was derived almost wholly from here. I have yet to find a lot of people who share my taste although I feel like I'm getting there.

Anyway, I randomly decided to drop by and check on this place, and it's funny how dead it is even though I've yet to read through all the new posts on the lounge. Man. Going through my post history is a trip -- I can't believe this place holds so much of my history of my teenage years. And it's all just a bunch of shitty posts, with a few gems here and there. Even if my imagined absence of desirable company when I was a teenager kind of contributed to me being here, I'm still grateful that there was this place for me to grow. For me to cultivate a love for good music, and to a lesser, but not any less significant extent, for art, literature, and everything, really. I just got done watching Mr. Nobody, and I don't know for sure if there was a "message" it was trying to convey but if I got anything out of it it's the ease that has come through realizing that any decision is the right one. You could argue that there is an optimal one, or ones which lead to less overall suffering, and such. But it helps with regard to letting it be okay, letting there be some natural sort of justification to the things that have happened as a result of your decisions. I didn't have much of a social life (understood in its traditional sense) when I was a teenager which still has its repercussions today but I wonder what kind of person I would be had I surrounded myself with the social groups that there were in my vicinity. I would be someone else entirely. And I'm sure that version of me would have issues with the version that I turned out to be. But it's all okay, you know? It kind of worked out, even if I wouldn't have been able to say that at some low points that I've had.
Click to expand...
hot damn I've missed you
 
You know that perfect girlfriend who screws you over and leaves you bitter, cynical and broken for any future SO unfortunate enough to love you? That's HL2 for me.

I have bought a ton of games on Steam which reviews tell me I should love, my first couple of hours of playtime tell me I enjoy, and yet all I can think these days is yep... polygons... bloom filter... particle physics. I can't get sucked into the gameworld like I used to because I know that the game makers might sour the whole experience by ending on a cliffhanger or deus ex machina to squeeze out shitty sequels or worse, no sequel at all. I'm not willing now to get emotionally invested in a story that the developer might treat like an unwelcome stepchild after it becomes popular and his attention moves to another project. Halflife was a universe I spent YEARS getting into - I drew the art, I wrote fanfiction, I read the science behind it, all of that. I don't know if any game will ever get me fired up the same way. I'm ready, all I need is a great story told in good faith by people who care.

TL;DR I'm getting old. Yarr.
 
You want something that does not exist.
 
99.vikram said:
You know that perfect girlfriend who screws you over and leaves you bitter, cynical and broken for any future SO unfortunate enough to love you? That's HL2 for me.

I have bought a ton of games on Steam which reviews tell me I should love, my first couple of hours of playtime tell me I enjoy, and yet all I can think these days is yep... polygons... bloom filter... particle physics. I can't get sucked into the gameworld like I used to because I know that the game makers might sour the whole experience by ending on a cliffhanger or deus ex machina to squeeze out shitty sequels or worse, no sequel at all. I'm not willing now to get emotionally invested in a story that the developer might treat like an unwelcome stepchild after it becomes popular and his attention moves to another project. Halflife was a universe I spent YEARS getting into - I drew the art, I wrote fanfiction, I read the science behind it, all of that. I don't know if any game will ever get me fired up the same way. I'm ready, all I need is a great story told in good faith by people who care.

TL;DR I'm getting old. Yarr.
Click to expand...
I've gotten so jaded that, in retrospect, I've grown to view Half-Life 2 less as a great and technologically advanced game and narrative breakthrough and more as a run of the mill corridor shooter, yet something keeps me hooked to it just barely. It is weird seeing something that as a major part of your childhood and teen years become something less than stellar in your mind, not even because of Valve's obsession with making money.

I talked to some friends in the student union hall of my community college, who all turned out to be HL fans with intricate thoughts into the identity of the G-Man and knowledge of everything's workings thus far, whom even acknowledged Half-Life is nothing more than a game that made Valve popular and, now that they have money, no longer feel obligated to finish it, because who the f*ck cares about Half-Life anymore besides the most die hard of fans or those struggling to hold onto the last shreds of their memories tied to a game that shaped their minds so much that they joined forums once dedicated to it, now dedicated to shitty F2P games and spin offs and games Valve bought and made money off of?

I'm drunk, I'm tired, I'm just fart and piss. ive lost track of what I have been saying
the point i am trying to get across is

how much of Half-Life is just blind nostalgia and how long is that gonna keep people going until they move on

just lay Lambda Wars, it is a f*Cking great mod and feels like a full Half-Life in a new perspective http://lambdawars.com/

call 911
 
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