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Part 2: Captive Freight Well hey, if it isn't Jon St. John. That's 2 for 2 on me not recognizing his voice, since I also thought they got someone new for Duke Nukem Forever back when there was an LP of that. Not my brightest hour. This time around, he's playing the part of Dr. Rosenberg, who is...slightly different from Duke Nukem. But first, we have to find him, which means a long series of shootouts with the HECU. When you consider the brevity of Barney's journey, he actually does manage to rack up the impressive body count. If all security officers were allowed to use automatic weaponry and grenades, this whole mess would have been sorted out in no time at all. The little easter egg at the start of the video reminds me of another point. I honestly really like how the handgun's model behaves in the HD model pack, especially with how the slide stays retracted once you've expended all the ammo in the magazine. It's really cool stuff, and it's going to be weird to go back to standard models when I do Opposing Force. But that's what I get for doing the games in this order.
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Feb 5, 2021 04:15
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The other scientist (Harold?) that points you towards Rosenberg also sounds like John St. John.Kibayasu posted:I think I'm the only person that actually kind of liked Blue Shift more than Opposing Force. Opposing Force is hardly bad it just felt more scattered, there's some really good stuff but also some really bad stuff whereas Blue Shift just kind of maintained a steady level throughout. Blue Shift is helped a lot by being like 1/3 the length of Opposing Force.
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Feb 5, 2021 17:04
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Laughing Zealot posted:The other scientist (Harold?) that points you towards Rosenberg also sounds like John St. John. Yup, that's him as well. Turns out that being ex-3D Realms means that you can get Duke Nukem on speed-dial.
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Feb 5, 2021 19:10
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Blastinus posted:Part 2: Captive Freight Going downward in visual quality is a kind of order! Have to say though my memories don't recall the marines being this tanky on normal. But I'm just remembering being able to carry around 10 rifle grenades 
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Feb 6, 2021 03:24
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One thing I appreciated about blue shift is something you touched on in the end. You're not trying to save the world, you're not even getting roped into it while trying to survive like Freeman. Barney Calhoun will not be slaying an alien mastermind leading the invasion because he is a normal human whose goals begin and end at get the hell out of here alive.
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Feb 6, 2021 04:10
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I'm a little late with this, but I'm still catching up. You mentioned a couple of things in this video that you said you weren't sure why they happened. The glass shattering sound during the tram ride is the flickering light breaking after you pass it. And the explosion from a bit later was from a scripted sequence you walked right past and i was sad you didn't show it off 
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Feb 7, 2021 19:46
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operative lm posted:I'm a little late with this, but I'm still catching up. You mentioned a couple of things in this video that you said you weren't sure why they happened. The glass shattering sound during the tram ride is the flickering light breaking after you pass it. And the explosion from a bit later was from a scripted sequence you walked right past and i was sad you didn't show it off Honestly, I've redone that sequence like four or five times and from a casual perspective, I've never seen the sources of those noises. Going back and looking at it, the flickering light explodes at a point where you'd have to go to the rear of the train to see it. As for the explosion...alright, that's on me for just rushing past stuff. Thanks for pointing that out, actually. I actually didn't even know that existed. The next episode is actually just a little over 20 minutes, so I can slot that in there.
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Feb 7, 2021 21:10
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So here's a bit of a heads-up, the next issue of Blue Shift is going to probably wait until this weekend due to scheduling conflicts. However, rather than leave everyone waiting for close to two weeks, I figured that it was time for another bonus update. Bonus 2: Hazard Course We're going back to Black Mesa for this one. Not the base game, seeing as the retail version of Black Mesa doesn't have a Hazard Course level, but a very well-crafted game mod for it. I've included a Steam Workshop link for it in the video description if you're curious. As for the content itself, the Hazard Course is the tutorial mission for Half-Life, which includes a number of unique assets that don't appear anywhere else, up to and including holographic training instructors. This particular character who's guiding us through our training is Dr. Gina Cross, another scientist certified with the HEV suit and one who we saw briefly in Blue Shift delivering the fateful cart carrying the crystal sample up to the test chamber. Dr. Cross is going to be a recurring character for future games in the Gearbox canon, and so it's vital that we get her first appearance out of the way early so that we can discuss her subsequent roles in future installments. Not much to say about the Hazard Course itself, other than that it's appeared in multiple games and it's been iterated on progressively over Gearbox's involvement. I tried to show off most of the major differences. Without giving too much away, it's got its own role to play as well, albeit not a major one. It'll be less impactful once we get there if we haven't seen the original version first though.
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Feb 10, 2021 23:57
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I always liked the Hazard Course. It has the perfect environmental storytelling tone to make the player wonder "what the heck kind of place IS Black Mesa?", and of course retroactively it makes perfect sense if the idea is to train the exploration teams heading to Xen. That's probably giving it way more forethought than Valve had in mind, but it was nice to see the modern modders run with it.
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Feb 11, 2021 00:54
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That's a neat update to the hazard course. I'm going to assume the security guards are infinite though, you'd still be stuck otherwise.
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Feb 11, 2021 06:16
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I was expecting the HECU to bust in after a certain point.
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Feb 11, 2021 13:57
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And here we are, back on track. Tanz and I have recorded to the end of the game, so we're going to be able to finish up Blue Shift before the end of the week. Part 3: Focal Point When it comes to Barney's jaunt through Xen, there's a lot less obnoxious platforming and it's overall a more straightforward journey than HL1. Still, there's nothing here that we haven't seen before, aside from hearing Dr. Rosenberg explain things that are probably going right over Barney's head. We'll never get a real idea of what Barney's thinking, due to the whole silent protagonist thing, but I'll wager from the little we know about him, he's basically just going wherever he's pointed and hoping there's a convenient button to press.
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Feb 16, 2021 03:37
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For a second, I thought that developer cameo was Randy Pitchford himself, which would be even more terrifying.
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Feb 16, 2021 21:54
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In a way I think it's a shame that Black Mesa is the closest the modern Half-Life games get to Xen, that first level of Xen in Black Mesa is gorgeous and alien, and I think the original round of games just didn't have the graphical capability to do the place justice.
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Feb 16, 2021 22:09
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It's kind of sad but understandable that the expansions just treat Xen as a short stop on the way to more Earth-bound locations. I guess you can't do too much there either because that's Gordon's job.
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Feb 17, 2021 04:53
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Part 4: Power Struggle And here we are! Barney's short tale of passing the buck to someone else has come to an end. I pointed it out in the video, but yeah, ol Mister Calhoun here does actually succeed in saving some folks. Like, he isn't a failure as a hero. It's just that when you compare to what the other protagonists do, his story ends up feeling a bit flat. But I tell you what, sometimes being an underwhelming individual is helpful when there's a mysterious blue-suited man giving folks offers that they can't refuse. He managed to save himself by being unexceptional, and that's praiseworthy in itself. As I said in the video, Barney will return. He and Gordon Freeman have business in the future. But for the time being, let's set them aside. We've got more folks involved in the Black Mesa Incident to deal with. Stay tuned for that.
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Feb 19, 2021 03:01
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Short little expansion, but I liked it well enough for what it is: a low-budget mini-expansion that used almost all preexisting assets. It's more Half-Life if you wanted more Half-Life.
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Feb 19, 2021 03:37
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Woah, woah! Was that an elevator with a safety feature that stops occupants from getting crushed? In MY black mesa? Huh, I guess I forgot the ending to this one besides the car. I mostly remembered swarms of an enemy type that must have been in op force.
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Feb 19, 2021 05:09
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It's been a while, but I remembered the emergency valve thing going off during the final sequence when Barney is on his own. Maybe it only happens on Hard? Incidentally there WAS a mod where you were a Black Mesa safety inspector! It amuses me that Black Mesa squirreled its way so deeply into the hearts of a generation of gamers that they took it semi-seriously like that. I suppose the game added just enough black comedy and verisimilitude that you can imagine it as a real place.
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Feb 19, 2021 10:14
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Does anyone remember if Blue Shift was sold for the same price as Opposing Force?
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Feb 20, 2021 13:56
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Laughing Zealot posted:Does anyone remember if Blue Shift was sold for the same price as Opposing Force? Y'know, it's surprisingly difficult to find out what a game was originally sold for at the time of release. I had to actually start browsing game reviews, at which point I found this clue from the Gamespot review: Wait, 30bux for THIS?! posted:Otherwise, Blue Shift is a great value if you've never tried Opposing Force--an expansion pack that originally retailed for $10 more than Blue Shift's $30 retail price. However, if you've finished Opposing Force and already spent plenty of time with the original game, you'll find that Blue Shift doesn't have a lot to offer. It's much too short, and it has no multiplayer features--therefore, it won't satisfy your craving for more of the intense action that made Half-Life so remarkable. You can get a $10 rebate for Blue Shift if you've already bought Opposing Force, but that still doesn't make the underachieving Blue Shift worthwhile on its own. So to break it down, Opposing Force was $40 in 1999 (or probably $39.99) and Blue Shift was $29.99 in 2001, and if you showed proof of purchase for Opposing Force, you could get $10 back for your purchase. That's really not a great value for something you can knock out in 2-3 hours, even if it bundles Opposing Force with it.
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Feb 20, 2021 15:00
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I know I bought OpFor separate due to having the manual for it. But I don't think I played Blue Shift until I got Steam and all of the HL1 games with it. Or via the Orange Box or a HL2 preorder.
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Feb 20, 2021 15:05
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Yeah, Noah Gervais mentioned that Blue Shift sold at a normal retail price on its release, which he pegged at $40. These days Blue Shift is something that would sell for ten bucks or less as DLC, but neither the technology or business model really existed in mid-2001, so the game had to be sold as a retail product. Meanwhile, anyone wanting a full-length campaign as a security guard could just download the massive single-player mod Azure Sheep for free.
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Feb 20, 2021 18:44
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Much shorter than I remembered. I don't know if I just made stuff up in my head or what.
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Feb 21, 2021 05:45
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Edit: Forums hosed up
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Feb 21, 2021 06:05
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 Let's rewind a bit, back to 1999 and Gearbox's first collaborative project in the GoldSrc engine: Half-Life: Opposing Force. It wasn't altogether unexpected for an expansion to Half-Life 1 to come out so soon after the original's release. What was unexpected, perhaps, was the sheer scale of what Gearbox was proposing. Opposing Force featured an almost entirely unique suite of weapons, a whole new faction of enemies, allied soldiers packing serious firepower, and new features such as nightvision and rope climbing, to mention a few. Of course, just listing off features doesn't answer the rather vital question of, "Is this game actually fun to play?" And that's where I've got to qualify my praise a little, because this game is tough as nails and more than a little jank. I'll go further into that when we reach the expansion proper, but first, a brief appetizer. Part 1: Boot Camp DMM: David Michael Mertz, designer of the Boot Camp level. 1999: The year this game was released. Opposing Force puts us in the combat boots of newly-recruited HECU marine Cpl. Adrian Shephard as he learns all the techniques that are going to be vital to survival, should he find himself caught in the middle of an invasion from another dimension. I'm going to be doing this one solo, mostly because it's a more fleshed-out story and I want to actually draw attention to a few things. The game manual provides a bit more context to Shephard's training, in particular pointing out that the G-Man is skulking around, monitoring him in particular for some reason. Don't worry if it sounds like the dialogue is buzzing. I wouldn't say it's SUPPOSED to do that, but it is doing it. Fortunately, once the game proper starts, there will be significantly fewer drill sergeants screaming in our ears, which will help normalize the volume levels a bit. And yes, they're ALSO played by Jon St. John. Rule of thumb is: if a game in this series is made by Gearbox, then just assume that most characters are St. John putting on a voice.
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Feb 25, 2021 06:39
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So based on the tutorial, if I had to guess at a serious in-setting explanation for the HECU, I'd wager that they're meant as a specialist unit to operate in environments with severe NBC (Nuclear, Biological, Chemical) contamination. Given that this was the 90s, I could see environments like oil refineries, chemical plants, and possibly active nuclear reactors being deemed likely areas of operations. The presence of the engineers with torches and cutting open doors is probably a part of this, the HECU is envisioned as fighting in, well, hazardous environments that have suffered extensive damage - the HECU would be the kind of people you'd send into an Iraqi chemical weapons plant or an Iranian nuclear enrichment facility or the like. Of course, given the 90s, I'd further assume that that's only a cover for the original Half-Life's hint at the end that the HECU was actually meant for incursions into Xen.
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Feb 25, 2021 20:06
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I'd guess Xen or some other clandestine thing like problems at Area 51 or similar.
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Feb 25, 2021 20:23
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Also, I have really fond memories of Opposing Force. It gets weird in places, in really fun ways. In particular, I think it's a crying shame that this game's particular notion of a grappling hook gun never made it into another Half-Life game.
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Feb 25, 2021 20:25
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"As you can see, you are not dead!" - Hehe, classic. Shepherd's diary in the manual mentions that the HECU are being drilled over and over again for some kind of upcoming deployment in urban and underground environments, and base scuttlebutt is talking about some kind of "test" coming up. The obvious implication is that the G-man is fully aware that something is going to go down at Black Mesa. Just a little more fuel for the conspiracy tone. Cythereal posted:Also, I have really fond memories of Opposing Force. It gets weird in places, in really fun ways. Gearbox's take on Black Mesa as a place was a bit more wild and fantastical than the other Half-Life games. The result is a place that feels a bit less realistic and lived-in than the main game, but leans into the idea of BM as a top-secret Dodgy Research Institute doing Weird Experiments out in the desert.
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Feb 25, 2021 20:48
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I like you commenting on the ai intelligence as the npc lit his blowtorch with the cigarette he was still smoking.
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Feb 26, 2021 03:18
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FoolyCharged posted:I like you commenting on the ai intelligence as the npc lit his blowtorch with the cigarette he was still smoking. That's actually not the dumbest thing about the engineer, believe it or not. We'll get to that though.
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Feb 26, 2021 03:31
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Oh man I forgot how bad the audio could get in boot camp.
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Feb 26, 2021 03:35
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The fun part for me about the Boot Camp level is just how much like a Counterstrike map it feels and sounds.
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Feb 26, 2021 13:53
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(Note: the opening cinematic of this game contains incredibly dated concepts of masculinity, but those characters go kaboom anyway, so at least we're not stuck with them for long) Part 2: We Are Pulling Out So if you've ever played a game where you have a briefing inside a helicopter approaching a place with unusual activity going on, you can probably guess how it goes. I don't know if Opposing Force codified this trope in video games, but nowadays, you don't have to look too far to find a game where riding in any kind of flying machine is effectively a kiss of death for the poor vehicle. Cpl. Adrian Shephard's story has been interpreted by many folks as him being ignorant of the HECU's true goals, thereby preventing him from becoming a villain entirely by accident or because circumstances contrived to force him down that path. I don't think that's entirely true, but I can see some justification in taking that stance on it. Unlike Gordon who was given the illusion of choice but effectively only one path to go on, Shephard very explicitly has his paths closed off from him, sending him down a road of someone else's design. It's also a case of framing their motivations. Gordon's actions place him on the side of the science team, doing things that help to progress his fellow scientists' goals, while Shephard primarily is just concerned with finding a way out of Black Mesa. Survival isn't an evil goal, but it doesn't really make Adrian feel like a hero, if you know what I mean. Let's also talk a bit about the timeline as we know it. Day 1 spans from the start of Gordon and Barney's respective shifts to the rocket launch at the end of On a Rail, which takes place in the late evening. Barney's knocked out for almost an entire day, apparently waking up near the start of Day 2, around the same time that Shephard and his buddies were being flown in as reinforcements, only to get shot down. Shephard wakes up as the sun's going down on Day 2, near the conclusion of Gordon's rampage across the Surface Tension level, and the radio broadcast near the end of this update places him right at the point where Gordon has to use a mortar to defeat a Gargantua and gain access to the Lambda Labs for the chapter Forget About Freeman. Put simply, Adrian's story is starting dangerously close to where Gordon's story on Earth ended. You know what that means? We're going into overtime! Blastinus fucked around with this message at 14:16 on Mar 2, 2021 |
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Mar 2, 2021 14:13
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And here we have OpFor's careful stitching around the player being part of a war crime. The opening does a subtle job of establishing that Shepherd is a soldier with at least some idea of what he is doing, rather than a scientist. Gordon would have solved that laser thing by adjusting mirrors and reflecting the beam - Shep bashes it with a wrench. Likewise, our starting weapon kills headcrabs in a single whack and our starting gun kills Vortigaunts with a single shot. You feel notably more powerful in OpFor, as befits a player who will be much more confident with the game and controls after finishing HL1. One fun thing that came up during Black Mesa's development is that yes, the water table of the New Mexico desert is remarkably high. If you built a huge underground rocket complex it would indeed need this much drainage. But the reason that particular vat exists is that Gordon went past it on his tram ride in! It's the one that broke and spilled goo everywhere (and Black Mesa lovingly recreated the very spot). Someone has set up worklights and a toolbox, and the side of the vat has a temporary repair patch-job on it.
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Mar 2, 2021 14:49
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I think a part of this is that if I had to guess, the fundamental idea behind Opposing Force was "What happens back on Earth after Gordon leaves?" That's an excellent question, which then demands another: who are you playing as, then? The HECU is evacuating, and it sounds like the only civilians left are in the Lambda labs. So, enter Shepard and his mildly contrived introduction that tries to skate around how the HECU is otherwise depicted.
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Mar 2, 2021 14:55
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Loxbourne posted:But the reason that particular vat exists is that Gordon went past it on his tram ride in! It's the one that broke and spilled goo everywhere (and Black Mesa lovingly recreated the very spot). Someone has set up worklights and a toolbox, and the side of the vat has a temporary repair patch-job on it. Oh yeah, you're right! Nice catch! I didn't even notice that.
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Mar 2, 2021 15:49
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Now that I've actually watched the whole episode: I've heard that in development, Corporal Shepard was actually Captain Shepard, which would explain the high regard everyone holds him in and why everyone follows his orders. Supposedly it was changed to Corporal, and Shepard made younger, to dodge the fact that a Captain would have been briefed much more thoroughly and Gearbox wanted to keep Shepard a clueless relative everyman like Freeman. While I like the wrench as a weapon, I don't get why it and the knife are both in the game, especially when you get one right after the other. Otis always seems to use a heavier weapon than Barney as NPCs. In Blue Shift, Otises (Otes?) always have revolvers IIRC where Barneys have the regular pistols, and in Opposing Force they likewise carry desert eagles in contrast to the Barneys' pistols, adjusting for which weapon is in the game.
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Mar 2, 2021 15:58
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For something that only appears like 2-3 times over the whole course of the og Half life series, the loading bot model is really well made. As shown a bit when moving that cart to get into the tram, moving stuff in goldsrc is a stuff of nightmares that Gearbox forces the player into a bit much. Laughing Zealot fucked around with this message at 17:00 on Mar 2, 2021 |
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Mar 2, 2021 16:51
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