• Romkslrqusz@lemm.ee
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      42 minutes ago

      In terms of storyline, it doesn’t really matter too much.

      I still think you should play through the first one. If you need something that feels less 1998, Black Mesa is a remake of the original Half Life and it is very fun.

    • morphballganon@lemmy.world
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      43 minutes ago

      Start with HL2 on normal difficulty. Then do 2E1 and 2E2 on normal difficulty.

      Then repeat all of that on hard.

      Then you’ll be where I am. Never bothered with 1.

    • catloaf@lemm.ee
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      1 hour ago

      They each stand completely on their own. Start with 1 if you want the whole lore and like 90s PC games. Start with 2 if you want a slightly more modern experience.

    • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 ℹ️@yiffit.net
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      1 hour ago

      Hl1 and hl2 are not really connected plotwise and can be enjoyed separately. There’s some small references and a couple characters you wouldn’t necessarily know even if you played HL1, because HL1 didn’t have much of a focus on that kind of story-telling.

      The series is certainly a must play because of how much it influenced the industry. Going back to it now may not seem like it’s all that great; but you gotta keep in mind, it was one of the very first FPS games designed this way. Before Half-Life, FPS games were all just basically Doom clones.

    • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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      2 hours ago

      The first is a bit rough. It got a remake with Black Mesa which used to be free, but I don’t think it is any more.

      I’d honestly just start with 2. It’s a better game all round. You can always go back and play Black Mesa later if you like it.

      If you have a VR headset and a decent rig, Half Life Alyx is well worth it. I’d definitely play HL2 plus Episodes 1 and 2 before heading into that one.

      • Ferrous@lemmy.ml
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        55 minutes ago

        Sheeiit I absolutely loved the first one, even only having played it for the first time last year. I was blown away at how well it holds up. I do recommend trying it if you have even a morsel of interest. Just my personal 2 cents tho.

  • missingno@fedia.io
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    4 hours ago

    This new edition concludes the Half-Life 2 development story, with never-before-seen concept art from Episode One and Episode Two, along with ideas and experiments for the third episode that never came to be.

    Not that it should be a surprise to anyone, but is this the first time Valve has openly admitted that Episode 3 is officially cancelled?

    • Kingofthezyx@lemm.ee
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      1 hour ago

      from Episode One and Episode Two, along with ideas and experiments for the third episode that never came to be.

      Emphasis mine. They mean HL2 Ep 3 was planned and canceled. Not HL3.

    • BlemboTheThird@lemmy.ca
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      2 hours ago

      They’ve admitted to cancelling ideas before, getting to various stages of production before going back to the drawing board, but always (and appear to still) insist that it is in development on some level. That’s why Newell’s responses to questions about hl3 are usually some form of “we have nothing new to share.” Valve doesn’t like sharing until they’re in the final stages of development, and hl3 has never made it that far.

    • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 ℹ️@yiffit.net
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      55 minutes ago

      No. They publicly stated the cancellation of episode 3 years ago when it was still relevant, and is one of the reasons I was always confused about every single rumor that HL3 was going to be a thing; they never announced a HL3 and they already said Episode 3 wasn’t coming out. Where the heck did the HL3 rumors come from?

    • PlzGivHugs@sh.itjust.works
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      30 minutes ago

      Well, they implemented some graphical improvements and options, as well as workshop mod support so now would be a good time for a replay.

    • Flamekebab@piefed.social
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      5 hours ago

      Ye gods, 18 years, 4 months for mine. You’d hope that they’d just automatically stop asking if I’m old enough to view store pages, right?

      • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️@lemmy.world
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        4 hours ago

        My account is so old I have (or had, before they normalized the format) a four digit steam ID. I “owned” Half Life 2 for like four months before it released thanks to getting a code free in the box with my Radeon 9800 Pro back in the day. For a short and glorious flash of time in the summer of 2004, I was guaranteed a copy of the most hotly anticipated game ever, even though nobody could play it yet, and also owned an example of the fastest video card on the planet. Damned if I didn’t mow a fuckton of lawns and reinstall Windows and Outlook an a horde of septuagenarians’ computers to afford that card.

        And no, they do not stop asking about your age.

    • NOT_RICK@lemmy.world
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      5 hours ago

      Originally played on orange box on the 360, I’m surprised I didn’t already have it on steam. Glad I stumbled on this post

      • SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de
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        2 hours ago

        I remember downloading it bundled with CS 1.6 - with the download being behind a queing system, so the servers weren’t overloaded.

        was in the queue for a day and the download took over night

      • naticus@lemmy.world
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        5 hours ago

        Oh hell, mine too back in August. Guess I’ll have to take it out drinking next year.

        • FilthyHands@sh.itjust.works
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          2 hours ago

          we old lol.

          I probably have 500+ hours in Counter Strike Source and about the same in Day of Defeat Source, (edit maybe some cs1.6 in there too?) from 2003-2005. All before steam kept track of play time. So many games (including HL2!) show “no recorded activity”. It really irks me but it’s also kind of funny. Took a near total break from gaming until about 2015. Didn’t get a decent PC until 2020. I Was surprised I even remembered my steam login.

  • simple@lemm.ee
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    3 hours ago

    Sweeeeeeet! I had HL2 on my ancient Steam account that I lost ages ago, it feels right to have it back in my library all these years later.

    The anniversary update sounds tempting, but I think I’ll wait for HL2 RTX before replaying it.

  • Björn Tantau@swg-empire.de
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    5 hours ago

    Huh? I wanted to see whether Portal 1 and 2 are free as well to recommend them to family and friends but for the life of me I can’t figure it out. They don’t show any info on purchasing them whether I’m logged in or not.

    • BlemboTheThird@lemmy.ca
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      2 hours ago

      When I look at the steam store Portal has a price tag of $9.99.

      Portal didn’t come out until 2007 with the orange box, which also had hl2: episode 2 (and tf2), but the base game of hl2 came out standalone in 2004. This giveaway is a celebration of hl2’s 20th anniversary, so maybe they’ll do a portal giveaway in 2027.

    • Aatube@kbin.melroy.org
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      5 hours ago

      It says they’re at full price to me; it’s the HL2 anniversary, after all. The Orange Box as a whole is 90% off though.