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Part 9: Residue Processing People like me say that Residue Processing is crap. They're wrong. It's actually a woven tapestry of beautiful spiraling patterns circling around a level that is still crap despite it. What you're seeing is the practiced version, the one where I went through it two or three times before and know precisely where to go, what valves to turn, what buttons to press, and when to stop moving so as to not get crushed or melted. It's hard to show what it's like to be constantly falling off things, messing up jumps, and being hopelessly lost without the video not being fun, so for the sake of accuracy, when you watch this video, imagine the myriad number of ways that things could go horribly wrong, and assume that I've done them at least once. Fortunately, the next few videos will more than make up for this one. If you thought that we were a little light on combat before, the game's going to make up for that with compound interest.
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Dec 3, 2020 14:35
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| # ? May 8, 2024 16:25 |
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So, here's the rest of the plan of our master assassins from HECU: 1. Drag Gordon through monster-infested bowels of Black Mesa compound. 2. Take his weapons away, but leave the suit that makes him so scary in a fight. 3. Throw him into the trash compactor with several ladders and conveniently stacked boxes. 4. Turn the crusher on and immediately gently caress off without verifying if Gordon is even unconscious. Also, when comes to Black Mesa being a weird workplace - I remember that near the beginning of the poo poo River, there's a single desk with a chair, computer, some document binders and even a cup. It's not in a separate office, although a metal wall prevents you from feasting your eyes on the creek of brown, unsanitary sludge. Who's supposed to sit there? How are they able to not pass out from sheer stench? How they are able to drink coffee? Where does the beverage come from if there's no kitchen, not a single fridge or a coffee machine in the vicinity?
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Dec 3, 2020 16:20
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Gantolandon posted:Also, when comes to Black Mesa being a weird workplace - I remember that near the beginning of the poo poo River, there's a single desk with a chair, computer, some document binders and even a cup. It's not in a separate office, although a metal wall prevents you from feasting your eyes on the creek of brown, unsanitary sludge. Who's supposed to sit there? How are they able to not pass out from sheer stench? How they are able to drink coffee? Where does the beverage come from if there's no kitchen, not a single fridge or a coffee machine in the vicinity? 
Poil fucked around with this message at 17:07 on Dec 3, 2020 |
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Dec 3, 2020 16:59
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Agreed, for me this was the weakest part of Half-Life 1. The platforming-heavy stuff near the end of the game at least looks pretty, and I'm excited to see what it looks like in this mod/remaster/whatever.
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Dec 3, 2020 17:24
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Loxbourne posted:(On a lighter note, another excellent mod Back In The Day cast you as the security guard who gets shot from behind when the assassins show up! It even recreates that sequence note-perfectly, where Gordon Freeman comes up the lift and you realise OH SHI- and do the fastest 180 in video gaming history. Of course you're a protagonist now and survive this time, but it was brilliantly done). Out of curiosity, does that mean you know what the rest of his message is supposed to be?
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Dec 3, 2020 23:08
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FrenzyTheKillbot posted:Out of curiosity, does that mean you know what the rest of his message is supposed to be? It's a mod, so it wouldn't be "canon". In the actual scene as it plays out, Gordon is a press-E-to-follow NPC who uses the multiplayer model and has a much more impressive arsenal than usual. I don't think Valve had a message in mind, they were just invoking the classic trope of the sidekick who gets killed right before handing over a critical piece of information. My guess was always that it would have been how to get into the Lambda complex, but that is entirely speculation on my part. Perhaps it was "don't swim in the sewerage plant, that place stinks". The mod is still around and was updated to use the HD pack, so it may even still work. It was called Azure Sheep, and was essentially Blue Shift before we had Blue Shift. The wiki entry reminds me that Gordon wasn't the only protagonist you ran into.
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Dec 4, 2020 01:19
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Pretty sure I've played that one but it's been so long so I can't remember for sure.
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Dec 4, 2020 01:53
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Gantolandon posted:Also, when comes to Black Mesa being a weird workplace - I remember that near the beginning of the poo poo River, there's a single desk with a chair, computer, some document binders and even a cup. It's not in a separate office, although a metal wall prevents you from feasting your eyes on the creek of brown, unsanitary sludge. Who's supposed to sit there? How are they able to not pass out from sheer stench? How they are able to drink coffee? Where does the beverage come from if there's no kitchen, not a single fridge or a coffee machine in the vicinity?  Confirmed! For an added bonus, the workstation is adjacent to the flame jets, which audibly go off through the window every few seconds, so if you're not enjoying the unique aromas of the place, you're also being constantly bombarded with noises and semi-bright lights in your peripheral vision.
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Dec 4, 2020 06:25
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Why would anyone ever work at Black Mesa?
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Dec 4, 2020 06:28
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Loxbourne posted:I don't think Valve had a message in mind, they were just invoking the classic trope of the sidekick who gets killed right before handing over a critical piece of information. My guess was always that it would have been how to get into the Lambda complex, but that is entirely speculation on my part. Perhaps it was "don't swim in the sewerage plant, that place stinks". I'm pretty sure the only real message there was "Hey Gordon, I'm foreshadowing a trap!"
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Dec 4, 2020 11:48
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nine-gear crow posted:Why would anyone ever work at Black Mesa? Enjoying the work in "interesting and complex projects in an agile environment". I think that is how they call it in employer-speak. Might be good for your resume?
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Dec 4, 2020 12:17
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I'm not convinced those scientists are people. Nobody really talks like that.
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Dec 4, 2020 13:01
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nine-gear crow posted:Why would anyone ever work at Black Mesa?
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Dec 4, 2020 14:39
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nine-gear crow posted:Why would anyone ever work at Black Mesa? Grant funding doesn't grow on trees.
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Dec 4, 2020 14:41
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nine-gear crow posted:Why would anyone ever work at Black Mesa? Dental plan.
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Dec 4, 2020 19:27
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Loxbourne posted:It's a mod, so it wouldn't be "canon". In the actual scene as it plays out, Gordon is a press-E-to-follow NPC who uses the multiplayer model and has a much more impressive arsenal than usual. Yeah, I recognize that it wouldn't be canon, but I was curious what they came up with for what he shouldn't do.
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Dec 4, 2020 23:09
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My theory on why they left the HEV suit on, at least in Black Mesa, is a combination of two factors. a) they wanted to crush Gordon alive and b) someone really, really, really wanted to use that magnet crane to drop Gordon into the compactor (hence starting at 45 health).
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Dec 5, 2020 03:57
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Loxbourne posted:The rocket launch section never did quite make sense in Half-Life 1. Some people at the time praised this for adding to the sense that Gordon has only his own limited perspective on events and doesn't know the full picture, but it was weird and a little disjointed when you first just told to Launch That Rocket, Don't Ask Why. I never really had that much of a problem with it. The guard tells you that the Lambda Team need a satellite in orbit if they're going to sort out this whole mess; they plan to do something complicated and sciencey and satellites are a thing that let you do complicated science. There's no need to go into any more detail than that, honestly.
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Dec 5, 2020 20:30
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Part 10: Questionable Ethics Questionable Ethics is the big twist of the game, where you start to realize that the Resonance Cascade was not an accident, and in fact, the crystal sample that started this whole mess was probably just as much a stolen sample as the aliens in this lab. It's hard not to see the scientists in a much darker light after this, and yet, for the moment, they're not the ones shooting us in the face. We can deal with the whole matter of dissecting and burning sentient beings later. In addition to playing around with a number of iffy contraptions, we also gain access to a couple new weapons. The Snarks are...a curiosity, I guess. They don't really do much unless you unleash them in large quantities, and if they don't see an enemy straight away, they'll just turn around and attack you instead. The Gauss Gun though, that's a beautiful weapon, albeit hampered by the fact that ammo for it is super rare and it eats through said ammunition at a ridiculous speed. Plus if you hold down the supercharge for too long...well, we saw how that works out. The thing both of these weapons share in common is that they both give you an achievement for killing yourself with them, because of course they do. Last thing: in addition to the top hat, we also now have a pizza box. Despite what I was trying to do, you actually can only take one of these two items with you to the end of the game, so if you're going for all the achievements, that's two separate challenge runs, and they're mutually exclusive with one another. The fun, it never ends...
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Dec 7, 2020 04:51
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Ah yes, that lobby fight gave me quite some issues back when I played it. And I think it was the first release version of the game too. Does have one of the best tracks in the game, even if its a bit too short for the segment in question.
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Dec 7, 2020 13:09
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Yeah when I said the old marine AI was murderous outdoors, it's this upcoming section where it really killed you. The weapons did a lot more damage too, I think at Counterstrike levels. The experiments have been shuffled around a bit in the labs, likely to give the player more time to get used to the gauss/tau cannon. I recall getting into the habitat being a bit of a secret. It had something to do with using one of the computers, from extremely dim memory. It was our first glimpse of how the new dev team were going to handle alien environments so there was a lot of anticipation.
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Dec 7, 2020 14:10
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Loxbourne posted:Yeah when I said the old marine AI was murderous outdoors, it's this upcoming section where it really killed you. The weapons did a lot more damage too, I think at Counterstrike levels. As I said earlier, the part where I completely dropped the game happened later and it was an outdoors gauntlet against Marines.
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Dec 7, 2020 14:38
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Cooked Auto posted:As I said earlier, the part where I completely dropped the game happened later and it was an outdoors gauntlet against Marines. Probably the chapter Surface Tension. My favorite part of the game, but probably the hardest.
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Dec 7, 2020 14:40
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Loxbourne posted:The experiments have been shuffled around a bit in the labs, likely to give the player more time to get used to the gauss/tau cannon. I recall getting into the habitat being a bit of a secret. It had something to do with using one of the computers, from extremely dim memory. It was our first glimpse of how the new dev team were going to handle alien environments so there was a lot of anticipation. I actually went back during my top hat run to see if I was missing something, and it turned out that the answer was simpler even than that. All you have to do to get into the habitat is don't insert the gas canister. The door's unlocked and you can just walk in otherwise. I have a bad habit of assuming that everything's a puzzle. Sometimes the simplest solutions are the ones that elude me.
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Dec 7, 2020 15:08
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Goofy achievements aside the detail Black Mesa got to add to Questionable Ethics really helps sell the level.Cythereal posted:Probably the chapter Surface Tension. My favorite part of the game, but probably the hardest. The entire two next levels is just one long outdoors gauntlet against marines so really it could be a lot of parts
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Dec 8, 2020 06:05
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All I really need to know about Surface Tension is whether or not the armored vehicles can still be destroyed with the crowbar. 
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Dec 8, 2020 06:16
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Meaty Ore posted:All I really need to know about Surface Tension is whether or not the armored vehicles can still be destroyed with the crowbar. They cannot, unfortunately. But thanks for reminding me about the best part of HL: Source. I had to include it! Part 11: Surface Tension Pt.1 Yessir, it's time to get into the heftier chunk of the game. Surface Tension was a sizable chapter in its original form, but Black Mesa's expanded it out in all directions, possibly as an apology for what they did to On a Rail. That means more gunfights, more setpieces, more explosions. Surface Tension is so big, in fact, that for the first time in this LP, we're having to divide a chapter into multiple parts. It won't be the last time either. For this portion, we're covering up until our first couple of encounters with tanks. Or at least, what I assume are tanks. It's no exaggeration to say that I couldn't tell a Bradley from a Sherman, and I suspect that the vehicles in this episode are neither of those things. All you need to know is they've got a turret on the top that swivels and makes booms happen. Even with Black Mesa giving them proper movement instead of having them just be stationary artillery, they're still not that hard to take down.
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Dec 11, 2020 05:21
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That tank can actually blow out walls in that garage part of the level. It took me a few deaths where I suddenly just died while hiding behind a corner to figure that out.
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Dec 11, 2020 09:04
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Obligatory military hardware nerd chat: The first tank you encountered in that episode was an M1 Abrams, the standard main battle tank of the US military. The second vehicle, which you identified as an APC, is an LAV-25, a wheeled (not tracked, you can briefly see that it's a wheeled vehicle) amphibious recon vehicle used by the US Marines. In a nice touch, it replaces an M2 Bradley in the same spot from the original Half-Life, but the M2 Bradley isn't actually used by the Marine Corps so the Black Mesa devs substituted in a vehicle the Marines actually use. A touch which is undercut by the helicopters attacking you throughout the level being Apaches, which are not used by the Marines - a more accurate vehicle would be a Cobra, if the devs were insistent on being accurate to this being a purely US Marine Corps operation. I didn't get a good enough look at the jets to make an ID.
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Dec 11, 2020 15:14
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Thanks for the information! Military hardware isn't really my forte, so it's nice to have someone who can set me straight on that. Although that means that Opposing Force is going to be loads of fun. I'm going to have no idea what I'm talking about there.
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Dec 11, 2020 15:22
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I think the jets in HL1 was F-16s so I guess they stuck to that here as well. Even if I didn't get a good eye on them either during that flyby.
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Dec 11, 2020 15:25
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Cooked Auto posted:I think the jets in HL1 was F-16s so I guess they stuck to that here as well. Even if I didn't get a good eye on them either during that flyby. I watched the video again, and the most I can say is that they're single-engine planes, which suggests F-16s or AV-88s. AV-88 Harriers would be in theme with this being a purely Marine operation, F-16s would mean the US Air Force is supporting the Marines (and would probably mean the Apache presence is a US Army detachment). Depends on what you think the Black Mesa devs were going for, I guess, either this being a purely Marine Corps operation or if this is a joint operation between the US armed forces.
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Dec 11, 2020 15:28
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Cythereal posted:Depends on what you think the Black Mesa devs were going for IIRC the chopper in Half-life was an Apache as well.
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Dec 11, 2020 16:07
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anilEhilated posted:"Whatever looks cool". The same could be said about Valve in this case. Also yeah, the helo in 1 is an Apache. I think people would be too surly if they bothered changing that because by now its become sorta rooted in peoples minds as one of those things the original game had.
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Dec 11, 2020 16:18
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That Apache is an interesting thing. In the original Half-Life, the game spawned an Apache in several areas to shoot at the player and produce a sense of a running chase. It seemed to be supposed to be the same helicopter chasing the player across the surface until a specific set-piece when you finally bring it down. The problem of course was that players had the gauss/tau cannon and the rocket launcher, so they'd shoot it down and then be annoyed when "another" helicopter showed up after a loading transition. The Source engine now has a ready-made helicopter entity that can be damaged and driven off, so this encounter could be cleaned up a bit and turned into a conventional boss fight. (And as regards the US military, Valve clearly picked whatever was cool).
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Dec 11, 2020 18:23
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I'm pretty sure the jets are Harriers, but it's a bit hard to be absolutely sure given the slight compression errors; they don't appear to be F-16's at the very least.
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Dec 11, 2020 18:50
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Ah, and here we meet that headcrab (at 26:28). My single most hated enemy in the whole series. Up until now, the game has trained you that the best way to handle being surprised by a headcrab is to immediately backpedal away from its jump, then switch to the crowbar to intercept its next attack. That headcrab - and I am 100% certain that some bastard of a level designer was really pleased with himself with this one - is perfectly positioned to make you run backwards over the cliff and fall to your death. And it got me every time.
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Dec 11, 2020 19:35
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Another military hardware note: the 'RPG' in Half-Life is based on a real-world recoilless launcher called the Armbrust. Which was used by Germany and leased to Singapore in the 70s. Why Black Mesa should have a large stock of decades-old German anti-tank weapons, either already on site or brought by the Marines, is a riddle for the ages.
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Dec 12, 2020 15:45
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Cythereal posted:Another military hardware note: the 'RPG' in Half-Life is based on a real-world recoilless launcher called the Armbrust. Which was used by Germany and leased to Singapore in the 70s. Well, they appear to have modified the design so that it fires laser-guided missiles, so maybe they just took surplus hardware and used it for their tests. Or, you know... anilEhilated posted:"Whatever looks cool".
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Dec 12, 2020 16:33
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| # ? May 8, 2024 16:25 |
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Part 12: Surface Tension Pt.2 There's a little bit more of Surface Tension after this video's over, but for the most part, this concludes our long, tiring romp through what has effectively become a war zone, and humanity as a whole seems to be on the losing side. Seeing control of the situation steadily break down as the marines become isolated and overwhelmed is a sobering spectacle to behold...at least until they turn right around and start shooting at us, at which point all the sympathy's gone. Not much to say here otherwise. As I said in the video, there are only two "soldier" types of alien invaders, and so you're not going to see a lot of mixed confrontations with a variety of enemy types. If there's a complaint to make about Half-Life, and one that carries into Black Mesa as well, it's that the emphasis on this being a survival story means that enemies are really bullet sponge-y and that there's a sense of dread that comes with looking around the next corner instead of an excitement for the next battle. It's effective for the story they're trying to tell, but it also means that the gunplay isn't the game's strong point, which might be just a wee bit problematic for something called a First Person Shooter. Regardless, the next chapter will wind things down slightly once we get back under cover. Surface Tension is the big crescendo of the story, and it doesn't get as crazy as this.
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Dec 13, 2020 23:32
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