New weapons?

[Nibwoddle]

I do think a lot of people want new weapons in Ep 3. My top choices would be a flamethrower and an icepick. We're going to the arctic, anyway.

Anyone else's suggestions?

 

[Gazork0]

There is a lot of talk about wanting a sniper rifle, and also a lot of talk about definately not wanting a sniper rifle. For various reasons. I myself would like to see one. If only briefly, and with limited ammo (1 bullet in the chamber and 5 or so in the magazine), to avoid the "camping gameplay" which is the major argument against a sniper rifle. Seen as Gordon Freeman apparantly is a hands-on fighter, and isn't supposed to be camping around picking off his enemies from miles off.

 

[combine nation]

I don't think there will be any new guns as the current set is already balanced very well. But there will probably be a new weapon which you can't keep on your person, similar to the magnusson device. With regards to the sniper rifle, I don't think one is needed, the crossbow does a similar job and is a lot more fun. The only sniper rifle seen in the game so far is the combine one with the blue laser and I'm not sure but they all look mounted to me.

 

[Asknoone]

I have no interest in new weapons considering the current arsenal is well balanced and pretty much covers the basics. Though maybe some new gravity gun tools.

 

[highlander]

What samon said, got some really nice weapons, gravity gun tools would be pretty f*ckin' sweet.

 

[Atomic_Piggy]

I wouldn't mind new weapons, though I don't really care. TBH I would love to see an icepick which the gravity gun would use, which pins them too the wall like the crossbow.

 

[Darkside55]

While I won't be disappointed if Gordon only has his standard arsenal throughout Episode 3, I think we're due for some new weaponry. What we've had in HL2, Ep1, and Ep2 are the barebones minimum you can get away with: melee weapon, pistol, stronger pistol, machinegun (sub), stronger machinegun (assault rifle), shotgun, sniper weapon (crossbow), rocket launcher, and grenades. The only special weapons have been storyline-essentials limited to a particular area, such as the bugbait, tau cannon, and hunter-chopper gun; and the gravity gun which, in my own opinion, has outlived its novelty as a weapon. Yes, you can pick up things in the environment and shoot them. We get it. It was amazing in HL2, awesome fun for the thousands of hours spent in HL2MP, and still useful in Ep1 and Ep2, but frankly it's gotten stale. Is this all we have to look forward to?

Remember all the weapons in Half-Life 1? You had so many weapons in that game you had to cram 'em up the HEV Mark IV's rear hatch. You had all the weapons in HL2 minus gravity gun, but you also got a handheld tau, a ghostbuster proton pack that ripped your enemies to shreds, voracious alien explodey-bugs, tripmines, satchels, and an alien graft that shot bees. BEES! Did you need any of the weapons past the basics? No, you did not. But damn if it wasn't fun gibbing your enemies with a supercharged yellow laserbeam or watching alien thornets chase them down around corners. A game never needs weaponry beyond what's required, but extra weapons give you that added choice beyond, "Do I want to just shoot this guy with my magnum or use the gravity gun to throw yet another explosive barrel his way?"

Where's my option, "Do I want to shoot this guy, throw a barrel at him, or watch him scream and flail his arms as my bees sting him to death?"

Throw us an innovative bone here, Valve. I don't want more ammo for the gravgun and I don't want to trek through the arctic without anything new. Sure, I COULD, but where's the fun in that?


Oh, and edit: I'm a SCIENTIST, for Breen's sake. Gordon Freeman built a butane tennis ball cannon at the age of six; you're telling me as an MIT graduate at the age of 27 with the resources available at the White Forest I can't cobble together some kind of new weapon? Like a...a xenium-powered laser rifle or incendiary bullets or strap a steel cable and a reel to the crossbow and stick the crowbar on it for long-range face smashing?

 

[Apocalypse89]

I'd like to see a proper sniping weapon...the Crossbow is just a poor man's Magnum with a more powerful scope.

 

[Asknoone]

Half-life 1 had a horribly unbalanced arsenal and I hope most of it doesn't return. I didn't really get much fun out of it, they were all so pointless.

 

[Przemek]

I wouldn't mind finding an old stash filled with AK-47s and ammo. I mean, it's like the best and most spread weapon in the world.

But yeah, I think the weapons in HL2 are balanced well enough that it's gonna be a bit hard to introduce a new weapon that is going to complement what we have already.

 

[Shoes_Buttback03]

I do want new weapons. And this is the weapon I want.

Strider gun

Exept not in glok sp* form.

 

[Que-Ever]

balanced doesn't necessarily equal fun, imo.

 

[Darkside55]

Balanced is boring. Besides, in a game where helicopters are equipped with unlimited ammo machineguns with energy-coated bullets, striders have a space/time warping deathray, hunters shoot exploding fletchets, and advisors can hold you up with psychic force and destroy the environment around them with a mere thought, you're talking about BALANCE? Yeah, let me assault you with my perfectly balanced, tested and tuned SHOTGUN, Mr. Advisor. Oh, wait, you've psionically glued my hands to my sides and are raping me with your tentacle-straw.

Fuck balance, give me the tau cannon! Give me the gluon gun! Give me the blackhole grenade! GIMME THE BEES! THE ALIEN BEES! I'll take unbalanced fun weaponry anyday over, "Let me pull this radiator out of the wall and hurl it at yet another group of combine soldiers." That's old. Give me something new to play with. Fuck your balance, it's boring. I'm here to have fun and kill things in awesome ways that make me stop and say, "Oh damn that was sick, I feel like hitting F7 and replaying that over."

I have a Ph.D., damn it. I deserve some weapons created by SCIENCE! Not "science," but SCIENCE! with all caps and a goddamn exclamation point at the end. Scientists do what they do because they can, not because it's balanced.

 

[Asknoone]

Yeah I think you're completely missing the point. What you're suggesting is an unbalanced mess that would take a humongous dump on the sophisticated game design from a pretty big height.

 

[Darkside55]

"Sophisticated game design," "unbalanced mess," I don't think you want to play a game, Samon. I think you want to play classical theater.

Half-Life had awesome, fun weapons that did nothing to detract from the story nor gameplay experience. YOU say, "it was unbalanced," everyone ELSE says, "tau cannon was awesome, don't let it overcharge!"

Besides, what's balance anyway? We're throwing that word around, but what was unbalanced about the weapons in Half-Life? Certainly there was nothing overpowering or cheap, nothing that made you an indestructible god. In fact I could very well say the gravity gun is an unbalanced weapon, giving you the power to mow over enemies with everything that isn't bolted down and weighs less than 500lbs. FFS, you can use it to roll a dumpster over people. And most things you use it to hit with are instant kill; throw a chair at someone? Instant kill. Throw a radiator at a combine soldier? Instant kill. Use the gravity gun to catch a hunter's fletchets and throw them back at it? Instant kill. Not to mention the extremely liberal placement of EXPLODAN BARRELS littered throughout this most sophisticated, monocle-wearing game. Not only instant kill, but instant kill crowd-cleaner.

And don't even get me started on the super gravity gun. Actually I will start on it a little: LOL BLUE AURA, I NOW HAVE SUPREME MASTERY OVER THE FORCE I AM A JEDI.

Meanwhile you're saying that a laser gun that takes about 13 energy for a full charge, in a game where energy containers are EXTREMELY sparse, carrying only 20 energy apiece, is UNBALANCED.

 

[Barnz]

I just want the hornetgun (or a similar alien gun).

 

[Omnomnick]

I'm not too fussed about a new weapon, but a nice biological weapon to replace the bugbait in slot 6 would be nice. That space as been empty since the the citadel's weapon retainment system.

 

[Asknoone]

"Sophisticated game design," "unbalanced mess," I don't think you want to play a game, Samon. I think you want to play classical theater.

Half-Life had awesome, fun weapons that did nothing to detract from the story nor gameplay experience. YOU say, "it was unbalanced," everyone ELSE says, "tau cannon was awesome, don't let it overcharge!"

Besides, what's balance anyway? We're throwing that word around, but what was unbalanced about the weapons in Half-Life? Certainly there was nothing overpowering or cheap, nothing that made you an indestructible god. In fact I could very well say the gravity gun is an unbalanced weapon, giving you the power to mow over enemies with everything that isn't bolted down and weighs less than 500lbs. FFS, you can use it to roll a dumpster over people. And most things you use it to hit with are instant kill; throw a chair at someone? Instant kill. Throw a radiator at a combine soldier? Instant kill. Use the gravity gun to catch a hunter's fletchets and throw them back at it? Instant kill. Not to mention the extremely liberal placement of EXPLODAN BARRELS littered throughout this most sophisticated, monocle-wearing game. Not only instant kill, but instant kill crowd-cleaner.

And don't even get me started on the super gravity gun. Actually I will start on it a little: LOL BLUE AURA, I NOW HAVE SUPREME MASTERY OVER THE FORCE I AM A JEDI.

Meanwhile you're saying that a laser gun that takes about 13 energy for a full charge, in a game where energy containers are EXTREMELY sparse, carrying only 20 energy apiece, is UNBALANCED.

Everyone says? Do they? Don't think so. And you know, games are more sophisticated these days and Half-life 2 and its episodes are one of the leading examples. Gone are the days when developers could churn out endless weapons with little to no purpose; we are passed the times where pulling the trigger was all you needed to do. Quake 4 is an excellent example of an appalling recent game that applied that age old philosophy and it was utter shite. It was not fun and it had god knows how many weapons.

The Hive Hand is a good example of useless gun. Half-life would not have missed it. Right now, Valve are applying an innovative means of applying new weaponry to the Half-life games. It is sophisticated. We have the basics, the usual stuff that we need, but we are not given more weapons that would be detrimental to the game as a whole. There is a fine, well-adjusted and polished balance to Half-life.

Friendly rollermines, Alyx, Sentry guns, Flares, Hunter Flechettes, Strider Busters - these are original and interesting developments to our arsenal. It is huge. Yes, they all fall under the Gravity Gun banner but it's not old and it certainly isn't dated. It's just Valve constantly developing and innovating a single concept. I wouldn't say no to a new weapon, so long as it served a purpose and was fun to use. But to suggest that they should throw in a **** ton, give balance and sophistication the metaphorical finger and ruin the gameplay - which far from depends on a constant influx of new weapons - is pretty ludicrous.

 

[Iron_cube]

Nitrogen bolts for the crossbow.

Impale enemies to walls with a neat icy effect growing around the lifeless target.

Also, Go DS!

 

[Darkside55]

Quake 4 was a shit game to begin with even if you didn't take the weaponry into account, so your argument's flawed. You seem to be suggesting that the inclusion of weapons would somehow be detrimental to the story and/or pacing of the game, which absolutely isn't true. In fact saying so suggests that the story somehow benefits from the weapons in Gordon's current arsenal, and that modifying that tried-and-true list will somehow throw a wrench into the whole mechanism and wreak untold havoc on this wonderously crafted, magnificently balanced, god's gift to the gaming world.

It won't.

As I said, Half-Life never suffered from a heavy arsenal of weapons. This is because it isn't weapons that made the game, it was the story, the sequences. The weapons were simply a means to an end: dispatch whatever was in front of you. I really can't understand your point of view on this matter because it seems so bizarre. "New weapons would destroy the balance." I just don't get it. What balance? It really sounds like you're just praising Valve for no good reason and you're afraid of anything new (or old, as the case might be) ruining your sophisticated gaming experience. "Valve are innovative! They're creating new and original things! The gravity gun isn't dated!"

Look man, I love the gravity gun as much as the next guy, but come on. Besides, one could say I should be enamored with the thing more than you, because you and I both know that you never really played the multiplayer aspect of the game until I hit you up for a round at dm_overwatch so many years ago. Maybe that's why I feel the damn thing's dated and you don't; there's only so much shit you can throw at somebody else before you're like, "Yeah ok. It's not as wildly entertaining as it used to be." Rollermines in Ep1? We did that in HL2. Sentry guns in the antlion tunnels? Nova Prospekt. Strider busters? Can you really say the strider buster is innovative? It's not like it's genius. You're still grabbing something and firing it at an enemy, the only difference is that you shoot it afterward. And you know what's funny? What does the strider buster do? INSTANT KILL STRIDERS. Just like gravity gun instant kills everything else. Come on, where's the balance in that? Can you imagine that brainstorming session?

"Gravity gun is a great weapon, but it just doesn't instant kill EVERYTHING in the game yet."
"I know! What about some ammo that makes it a one-hit kill against striders?!"
"Striders?! Why, they're practically a boss monster!"
"One-hit kill against a boss monster! AWESOME! People will eat this shit up and call it the greatest thing they've ever seen!"

Meanwhile, the bee gun just chased enemies around a corner.

See, the problem is you don't make any sense at all. You're calling unbalanced weapons balanced and sophisticated, and you're saying that additional weapons will make the game shitty, when at most--at MOST--all they'd do would be additional choices. Maybe useless choices, maybe redundant choices, who knows? I personally found a use for every single one of the guns in Half-Life. Just because you didn't--calling the hivehand a useless weapon just proves what you know--doesn't mean that it was. Or that it was somehow a gamebreaker.

Maybe you just don't like choices. Maybe you just don't need anything beyond "AR2 at long range, shotgun at close range, SMG as a fallback, pistol to conserve ammo, crossbow at extreme long range, RPG for large synths, magnum for precision takedowns, grenades for crowds, and for everything else there's Mastercard (read: gravgun)." It's true, I've said it, that's all you need. But frankly it gets a little formulaic. It takes all the choice out of it. I won't say it takes all the FUN out of it because it doesn't, but man...sometimes, I'm in the heat of battle, fighting with Combine, running low on supplies, getting amped up 'cause the battle music's playing, and sometimes...sometimes I just wish I had a particle gun like the good ol' days. Sometimes there's an enemy lying in wait for me, and I can't quite see where he is or he's behind cover, and instead of rushing over there or throwing a grenade I'd like to send some bees his way. Sometimes, when there are Combine troops on the other side of a door and they set a charge to blow the lock, I'd love to be able to set down a laser tripmine to surprise them rather than right-clicking to roll a frag grenade or lob an SMG HE/AR2 orb at them.

I don't see how any of that would be "detrimental to the game as a whole." Shit, setting up a tripmine trap for a bunch of Overwatch? That'd be downright hilarious, and how's it going to break the game? Enemies are put there to be taken down, and you're gonna take 'em down SOMEHOW, ain'tcha? Might as well do it in a fun way rather than another goddamned radiator to the face. I swear, that radiator, man. You know how many people I've killed with that radiator? THOUSANDS. I'm a one-man radiator massacre machine. I'm wanted in forty-three states and two provinces for radiator-related assaults. If I never kill another Overwatch soldier (or rebel in an MP game) with a radiator I ripped off of some wall, it'll be too soon.

 

[Asknoone]

Oh this is war Darky. This is war.

 

[Darkside55]

It's war, and I'm taking it to the tags!

 

[Rizzo]

Yeah Radiator kills is getting old. But still, the way i see it the this is episode 3 of half life 2... And a whole new arsenal is very, even thou wanted, unlikley. In half life 1 you where at a research facility, and it was logical to have futuristic wepons. I understand Samons point, that they shouldnt just throw in a bunch of wepons just for the heck of it. But if they where to inplant them in a cleaver and fun way, it whould be great.

I mean, there realy should be something new at the gayforest, Magnusson probably had some time to develop something during all that time he spent there.

Edit: damn it. I wrote gayforest, and out of context, that sentence looks wired.

 

[Ennui]

Good lord childrens. Be careful, we wouldn't want to go biting each others faces off over video games now would we?

 

[Darkside55]

Yes we would.

Rizzo, there's an opportunity to gather new weaponry at White Forest and also once we reach the arctic. We definately know there's a facility there, which may or may not still be the Kraken Base, and also the Borealis which, knowing Aperture, probably has some crazy technology onboard.

Speaking of Aperture, and all this talk about balanced weaponry, I had a dream two nights ago about multiplayer HLDM with the portal gun. Holy shit. I woke up and was immensely sad. It might've been cheap, but man, nothing beats opening a portal behind your enemy at one end of the map and another right in front of you, and shooting him in the back with a crossbow. If Gordon ever gets his hands on the portal gun, damn. There will be no words for the kind of ass kicking he'll unleash. New words will have to be invented to even remotely describe it.

 

[stintage]

There is a lot of talk about wanting a sniper rifle, and also a lot of talk about definately not wanting a sniper rifle. For various reasons. I myself would like to see one. If only briefly, and with limited ammo (1 bullet in the chamber and 5 or so in the magazine), to avoid the "camping gameplay" which is the major argument against a sniper rifle. Seen as Gordon Freeman apparantly is a hands-on fighter, and isn't supposed to be camping around picking off his enemies from miles off.

We will only need a sniper rifle if Adrian Shepphard And The black ops come back,which i highly doubt

Anyway My pick for a weapon is
A fire extinguisher It's not a weapon but if the borealis is anything like it was in Half life 2 beta,It will save your life

 

[Ennui]

You might want to not mention the "beta" in the future, admitting to having downloaded HL2 illegally is a bannable offense here

 

[Asknoone]

No beta discussion.

 

[Rizzo]

Yes we would.

Rizzo, there's an opportunity to gather new weaponry at White Forest and also once we reach the arctic. We definately know there's a facility there, which may or may not still be the Kraken Base, and also the Borealis which, knowing Aperture, probably has some crazy technology onboard.

Speaking of Aperture, and all this talk about balanced weaponry, I had a dream two nights ago about multiplayer HLDM with the portal gun. Holy shit. I woke up and was immensely sad. It might've been cheap, but man, nothing beats opening a portal behind your enemy at one end of the map and another right in front of you, and shooting him in the back with a crossbow. If Gordon ever gets his hands on the portal gun, damn. There will be no words for the kind of ass kicking he'll unleash. New words will have to be invented to even remotely describe it.

`Yes, i know that we will have a chance to get new wepon(s) at grayforest, and i really hope we do, but whouldnt be suprised if we didn't. With the whole episodic content thing. I don't really count Alyx and the rollermines as new wepons, thou new content, they are not wepons i can keep in inventory.

<3 combining portal gun action with some grenades/crossbow/whatever,
but that, as we all now by now will never happen. since we will never see the Gordon model.
Or will we?

Edit: Whats so forbidden about the beta? Wasn't most of that information in RtB?

 

[Darkside55]

Valve did MAKE a Gordon model. And technically we've already seen Gordon: there was a Gordon model in HLMP.

 

[Rizzo]

True...
But seeing him in half life 1/2 episode 1/2/3 will crap your experiance of "beein" Gordon or whatever. I personally wouldn't mind seeing him in a mirror/surveillance tape or something.

Another point on the whole balance issue here, Gordon is able to carry around alot of heavy stuff, and run around suprisingly fast with perfect aim

 

[lord_raken]

I think some new weapons would be cool. The base arsenal is very balanced and much of its features still have a "kick" to this (AR2 alt fire) but some new toys would be great. As always the Grav-gun is a useful and fun tool that, while most of the novelty has worn off, never gets old. any new weapon would have to have an unconventional ammo or use. not sure what that could be but Valve is very creative.
Any way I was looking up the Tau Gun and read the description of its effects and use and I suspect that the AR2 may be the Tau Gun's descendant. The two have many similarities in function such as: powerful but inaccurate primary fire, Powerful ricocheting alt fire.... what do you think?

 

[Justincase3]

May sound stupid, but I want to get my hands on the sniper rifle. I don't think we'll use it or even see it in the Episode, but it just sounds a bit fun.

Honestly, though, I don't think Valve will be going anywhere special with weapons until Half-Life 3. Half-Life 2 and its episodes are straight-forward when it comes to shooting. They don't like to throw in so many new weapons to fly around in in your inventory, and it is probably the right move to go by. Half-Life is simplistic immediately, but then allows players to have a nice amount of experimental possibilities with their physics. I wouldn't expect anything new to speak of as a shooting gun, but rather maybe more items like the Strider-Buster or the hacked rollermines. But most of all, I'm expecting more physics items more than anything. And that's fine by me, I love the new explosive propane tank thingamajig.

 

[-Kashmir-]

Oh this is war Darky. This is war.

Your avatar fits perfectly with your post!

 

[Ennui]

I think it's time Gordon got to handle a gatling gun.

 

[Emporius]

It would be interesting to recieve some sort of vort built technology. Obviously they have very little need for conventional weapons, but I would love to see what sort of design/functionality it would have.

 

[SpectreBlofeld]

The weapons in HL1 came across as being 'balanced' because of the metered fashion in which the player was given them. They didn't unload them all on the player in the beginning, you really had to get pretty far into the game to get the advanced 'experimental' weapons. And, of course, you're deprived of all your weapons on occassion; being knocked out by the soliders and thrown in a trash compactor, for instance. You then had to acquire them all again.

I miss the tripmines, and I miss an important feature of the original grenades - you used to be able to 'hold' a grenade before throwing it so as to shorten its fuse. This was useful. HL2 grenades are frustrating because of the way the Combine run away from the grenade goes off because it takes too damn long. I miss being able to hold in the fire button for a few seconds, release it to throw, and have the 'nade go off only two seconds later.

 

[Trevelyan]

Flamethrower! or some ultra cold CO2/liquid oxygen spray that freeze's things like Mr Freeze from Batman had! (this would tie in with my idea of a deranged Mr Freeze type scientist guarding the Borealis!) You could then use the gravity gun to wang the icey corpse's about, or smash them with the crowbar!

& I do love the shotgun in CS

tbh though, its a pretty balanced set of weapons at the mo imo, i like them alot

 

[saratos]

I see no need for new weapons, but it would be cool. Maybe a grav gun toggle that gives you the old one that kept the items at a distance, like in Elebits.

 

[Nomad]

I think we should start a poll on this!