What happened to all the fanboys?

[WaterMelon34]

You know, while waiting for a year and a half (longer for me, might be finally getting it next week) people only screamed about how awesome HL 2 was going to be. They were like : 0mgz00rz!??!111111oneone H4lfl3if t00 will b3 s00000 d0p3~??!111oneone

Now, it's after the release and I ain't hearing no-one saying how awesome HL2 is... Does it suck or something?

 

[Liam]

Well at least we still have trolls.

 

[DiSTuRbEd]

They are probably playing it.....

 

[Hectic Glenn]

They are still playing Halflife 2...its so damn good they are STILL playing...duh? :cheers:

edit: beaten...touche

 

[Zeus]

They fanboys are still here. They're the ones fighting tooth and nail to defend valve and steam from the people who post negative things about them when steam screws up an otherwise perfect game.

 

[Edcrab]

I'm a Half-Life 2 fanboy! Despite my hatred of the bugs. Let me put it plainly- Half-Life 2 is awesome!

I still hate Steam, mind. Hate it with the same passion that I love Half-Life 2. Woo. And weee.

 

[Ennui]

I'm an obsessive Half-Life 2 fanboy, I live eat and breathe Half-Life 2.

I'm just not going around making HL2 R)XORZ GUYZ!11 threads because everyone already knows that it's awesome and that I think it's awesome.

 

[Sharpfish]

// Long post - obviously don't expect many to read it -

I am obviously not a HL2 fanboy (if you read any of my older posts since I got the game), I consider myself in the middle. I can see bad points, and downsides (and parts of frustration and boredom) in the game, and have spoken of these before. And of course I got flamed as a troll. Original.

I also take my hat off to valve for some of the greatest moments (even if some are "set pieces" in FPS history), the GFX improve greatly for me in the middle of the game, then tail off again as you return via the prison to the city area. It is a great game, without the load times, and the stutterings it could have been even better. Without the (in some areas) very basic design it could have been better again. Some of the middle parts and the general sense of Epic-ness in the game bring the game up to the top level for me. Though you will never catch me saying it is the best game of all time, I don't even think it is the best FPS of all time. Again, I don't think there is a "best" , just peoples personal favourites. I have a list of top ten FPS favourites and HL2 really has to fight to get into that list, some may think I'm mad - but a game is more than just "epic-ness", "great physics", "good graphics". I rate other things higer such as Total effect of immersion (not just environments but Load times, cohesion, non linearity) HL2 does in reality fail on a fair few points to "keep you in the game", where other less good looking or less ambitious FPS have managed to keep things smooth and "solid" - like a good film that does eveything it is supposed to correctly and no more. TBH a lot of HL2 inspires you with awe and wonder that, if you let it, you can start to forget about the downsides - until you hit them again - reminders later in the game of the start of the games downsides.

Sometimes the game does feel all a bit too "stop-start" for me. You are getting into the action and then either a load point or a script kicks in and takes control or feeling of freedom from you. None of the competitors to this game are perfect either, and most of them haven't tried to do as much as HL2 so we must allow for that. I know I will have many memories of HL2 and some of it's finer moments, but it will be tempered with the reality check that, a lot of the time, it is a giant pain the ass to work with for the above reasons.

A bitter-sweet experience for me. Definatley ground breaking in some areas, but behind the times in others. Even if the gameplay is more varied than say ... Doom 3, that doesn't make it more fun for everyone - if a lot of that variety of gameplay is either dull or repetitive. D3 was repetive without a doubt, but to me, it still felt solid - as if I would want to go back and experience that environment again the future (like plugging into a horror experience), Far Cry (also with it's downsides) gives a stronger feeling of immersion imo due to how you can play it - regardless of how other areas of it compare to HL2. You can "kind of" play it your way (to a degree) - I admit the mutant monkeys bore me though (the game took a dive after that part) but again, it does other things better than HL2 and D3.

Which is why I am keeping my options open.. Why I still probably rate the classic System Shock 2, and the much derided and under-rated Tron2.0 over all of the above (maybe), because of "feel" - not trying to emulate reality as closely as possible, simulated reality doesn't always equal the best fun. Maybe when it can be done TOTALLY as we expect it, with no closed avenues, or fake backdrops - maybe we can all stand in awe on that day - at that game - and just play around in that enviroment for fun. I have honestly had more "fun" from other FPS that are less reality based (and some that are fairly reality based such as Rainbox six style stuff) and there is quite a lot of variety in methods used to achieve the immersion and fun. Valve have gone mostly for Physics and Textures, Doom went for Geometry and Lighting, Far cry went for vast natural rendering. Far Cry actually felt "more real" to me than HL2 even though it's colours are obviously over saturated, and HL2 in static screenshots can look like photos at times. I suppose that comes down to the freedom feeling in FC, the fact that you could swim up a river, or discover a little clearing that really had no bearing on the drive of the story. Most things In HL2 feel designed purely to be seen as you go, the amount of times I have caught strictly triggered A.I, or set pieces happen at the same time in the same way removes a lot of the reality feeling for me. So imo they didn't quite pull of what they set out to do - I'm sure others (many others) will disagree but there your go.

As for fanboys being present still? I guess the follow ups to my post will be most telling - the fanboys usually will see no wrong in their game, (which isn't in itself bad - if they just want to enjoy it why should someone else try to ruin it for them) but they also usually attack every other game in the genre for some strange, childish reason...

 

[bliink]

fanboys = bad
Dont ask where they went, lest they return

 

[The Mullinator]

The game is great, not what alot of people were completely expecting but it was great.

They have just given up here because they are sick and tired of being constantly flamed by people who think its a "fact" that Valve sucks so they have simply left the boards to wait out the storm.