Using your hands in Half Life 2

[wendle]

I was just wondering about this a few days ago. I was thinking about if they could implement this into gameplay since there is so much physics. My thoughts were answered by a recent post in INFO FROM VALVE ONLY which confirms that hands can be used to pick things up. I figure I'm going to pick up some pop cans and fruit and anything I can to throw it at the combine. But obviously... not a very creative idea. Anyone else got any better ideas on what might be fun?

 

[Shuzer]

I still don't see how this will work too well.. lol
Will it be Trespasser style (heaven help us), or will it be something like pulling crates in HL, only instead of just being able to pull, you can pick up?

 

[Pi Mu Rho]

It'll probably work like a very short-range manipulator. You can pick up an object in your very immediate vicinity, and then you can weakly throw it, or drop it.

 

[kaf11]

thats how i imagine it. be on your toes, i suspect some beta player will be here any minute now to be gracious enough to tell us all about it.

 

[Shuzer]

thats how i imagine it. be on your toes, i suspect some beta player will be here any minute now to be gracious enough to tell us all about it.

Well, I can tell you from my experiences that I saw no such feature in the afforementioned software.. so, don't worry about that
It's news to me, and it sounds cool. Kinda makes me wanna go and play trespasser again

 

[kaf11]

ok, well i just didnt want someone to tell me exactly how its implemented. it does sound very cool. should be fun using it to solve puzzles.

 

[Varsity]

Eh, I don't understand what the confusion is about. It's bound to be use to pick up, lmb to throw or use again to put down.

 

[el Chi]

I'd always assumed that (extremely cleverly) the Manipulator was your hands (not physically, natch). I thought that was genius. It'll be interesting to use hands (makes perfect sense really...), but it'll probably be like in Deus Ex, where you pick up a chair, for example, and it floats, transparent, in the air...
And I heard Trespasser was abysmal?

 

[Shuzer]

And I heard Trespasser was abysmal?

It is, but it was really ahead of its time with physics lol

 

[Styloid]

It sounds really cool but all I can think of doing right now is picking up junk to beat people with....

 

[LittleB]

Trespasser was a really good and well thought out game, it was just really hard. It only became rewarding and fun to play once you stopped and thought about what you were going to do. Unlike most FPS games, you don't run around shooting everything up.

In the demo you start on a raised platform, and you can't jump down, cuz you die from fall damage. So you have to figure out how to get down without dying (crates or some shit). But then, you know what, 2 raptors down there, ready to eat you! What to do?

So it's really complex and interactive, but hard as hell. Atleast, this is what I gleaned from the demo. :|

 

[flupke]

I've sent an email to gabe concerning this. Just wait and later today we will know the answer

 

[mad max]

Not sure how they implement it; maybe showing hands picking out or throwing grenades, punching people, manipulate things (driving vehicles, machinery), and maybe put your hands on Alyx too ^_^

 

[el Chi]

Hmmm... Punching people would be coool (there's bound to be a bit where you lose all your weapons, so...) as long as it has some oomph to it. Non-lethal take-downs in Half-Life 2? Veeeerrry interesting.

And Shuzer: Yeah I heard the physics were amaaazing. But she could rotate her arm 360 degrees :hmph: Why are there no good Jurassic Park games, why?

 

[Tarkus]

Not sure how they implement it; maybe showing hands picking out or throwing grenades, punching people, manipulate things (driving vehicles, machinery), and maybe put your hands on Alyx too ^_^

i think it was already stated some time ago (in the sep30th release euforia times) that u ouldnt see your hands because when gabe drives he doesnt see his hands :rolling:
lol, yeeeeeeaaahhh, hands on alyx...... shame its just virtual

 

[Pip]

mebbe 'using hands' just means like..remember in half-life when you 'used' a button and all you heard was a beep and a change of colour/depth to the button. Maybe this means youll see one of gordans hands reach out and press the button/turn wheel on blast door etc

Wouldnt that technicly qualify under 'using things' (ive recently reset my half life configeration including the Use key which got me thinking)

 

[Mr.Magnetichead]

I don't want to see arm's and hands (other than those holding weapons) and I don't want to see my body and legs when I look down.

 

[Pi Mu Rho]

I can't see that happening, Pip.

There's so many things that "use" can do - press a switch, pull a lever, turn a wheel, use a computer etc

It would be a nightmare to make that many animations.

 

[el Chi]

I don't want to see arm's and hands (other than those holding weapons) and I don't want to see my body and legs when I look down.

I very much doubt they'll have body and legs I can think of one that did (although I can't think of its name - I am terrible) and I don't think it was implemented terribly well - difficult thing to do, really.
But why wouldn't you want to see his hands press buttons etc?

 

[iamaelephant]

I liked the Deus Ex system of picking stuff up, just so much fun hiffing bottles and glasses and chairs at random people in night clubs.

 

[Mr.Magnetichead]

I very much doubt they'll have body and legs I can think of one that did (although I can't think of its name - I am terrible) and I don't think it was implemented terribly well - difficult thing to do, really.
But why wouldn't you want to see his hands press buttons etc?

It was in Tribes 1.

 

[Pi Mu Rho]

I've never really seen the point in it myself.

One thing that does irk me though, is the way you can clmb a ladder while holding a gun. In both hands. While reloading it. Facing behind you.

 

[crabcakes66]

mebbe 'using hands' just means like..remember in half-life when you 'used' a button and all you heard was a beep and a change of colour/depth to the button. Maybe this means youll see one of gordans hands reach out and press the button/turn wheel on blast door etc

Wouldnt that technicly qualify under 'using things' (ive recently reset my half life configeration including the Use key which got me thinking)

Thats what i was thinking....i wish they would have clarified in that e-mail.

 

[Wesisapie]

umm you picked things up with the use button. end of story.

 

[crabcakes66]

umm you picked things up with the use button. end of story.

I dont remember being able to pick up innanimate objects.

 

[el Chi]

One thing that does irk me though, is the way you can clmb a ladder while holding a gun. In both hands. While reloading it. Facing behind you.

It was even better in Op4, when you could swing on a rope. Whilst holding a gun. In both hands. While reloading it. Being able to turn 360 degrees. Mmm-hmmmm...
DX (and DX:IW) had it so you fell off if you turned too far, but this was sometimes too sensitive and thus occasionally annoying.
Personally I don't care too much, but seeing as Gordon is a genuinely simulated physical object, then I'm almost positive that he'd fall off a ladder...

 

[Varsity]

Trespasser was a really good and well thought out game, it was just really hard. It only became rewarding and fun to play once you stopped and thought about what you were going to do. Unlike most FPS games, you don't run around shooting everything up.

In the demo you start on a raised platform, and you can't jump down, cuz you die from fall damage. So you have to figure out how to get down without dying (crates or some shit). But then, you know what, 2 raptors down there, ready to eat you! What to do?

So it's really complex and interactive, but hard as hell. Atleast, this is what I gleaned from the demo. :|

I just downloaded it from Fileplanet...woah. It might be software-only and amazingly hard but it's got an incredible physics engine. You can put out your hand and wave it around to knock boxes off, and pic up guns properly, by grasping them through the controls. Amazing stuff.

 

[Brian Damage]

I liked the Deus Ex system of picking stuff up, just so much fun hiffing bottles and glasses and chairs at random people in night clubs.

For once, I agree with the elephant here.

I recall reading (And I've said this before) in PCGamer or one of the online previews, that some of the previewers had been shown a player making Gordon pick up a manhole cover and use it as a shield. The cover was then thrown at an autogun, knocking it over. The general description didn't seem to indicate that this was done using the manipulator.

And is Trespasser abandonware yet?

 

[Rupertvdb]

so no wanking? is that what you're trying to say?

 

[Varsity]

Don't. Even. Go there.

 

[EvilInside]

Throwing objects to distract enemies and sneak throught, like in thief with the noisemaker arrows?

 

[el Chi]

Very cool idea... But HL2 doesn't seem like it'll be that stealthy. Although I'd love it if there were some elements like that...

 

[EvilInside]

could make use of that to ambush big groups of enemies or some other tactics

 

[Sparta]

I hope there's some element of stealth gameplay, which i'm sure there is given the TrapTown video, which has guards patrolling areas in large groups and what not

 

[Brian Damage]

I liked the way that you could creep up behind the grunts in HL and dump explosive packs at their feet... Hope we can do that sort of thing in HL2...

 

[EVIL]

Well, I can tell you from my experiences that I saw no such feature in the afforementioned software.. so, don't worry about that
It's news to me, and it sounds cool. Kinda makes me wanna go and play trespasser again

there is.. check your controlls.

 

[Brian Damage]

Yes, someone else said the stolen build has Picking Up Objects in it...

 

[Shuzer]

I just downloaded it from Fileplanet...woah. It might be software-only and amazingly hard but it's got an incredible physics engine. You can put out your hand and wave it around to knock boxes off, and pic up guns properly, by grasping them through the controls. Amazing stuff.

There's a hardware renderer.. kinda hard to find, you have to switch to it ingame, I believe.

 

[Sprafa]

I guess that if it was somehing like PiMunRho said, it would be nice.

 

[Pi Mu Rho]

There's no "n" in my name.