Half-Life 2 is the game of the DECADE!

[Mazty]

Scoobes said:

Mazty said:

Mass Effect has a huge backstory and a vast, diverse amount of characters whilst also not having a black-and-white morality. HL2 is short and cliche. 

HL2's story is still piss small and clich regardless of how it is told. There are bad alien invaders. You are going to lead the resistance to stop them. Nope, this is HL2, not Resistance. I don't see Resistance praised for it's story....

Yes I know RF:G was released afterwards but that's beside the point. The point is the physics in HL2 was just a bit of polish and glitz - it didn't really do anything for the gameplay as a whole. The vehicles in Halo handled brillaintly. The vehicles in HL2 handled like dodgems. Either way HL2's physics is no better then praising a game for having good graphics. It's nice, but not necessary and doesn't make up for gameplay. 

What has HL2 influenced??? Almost all the exsiting FPS' of this generation have much more in common with CoD or Halo. How many games nowadays have multiple weapons and life packs? None. Almost all have iron sights and some sort of life regen, as well as quick access grenades and melee. None of that exists in HL2. Halo was nothing like HL2....In any conceivable way. 

If you praise a game for it's good story, then you either have a very charitable idea of what constitudes a good story, or are reading into something that just isn't there. I can't see how "short and cliche" can be considered good as they generally regarded as negative aspects of a story. 

We're going round in circles now and you're now asking questions that I've already answered. You're obviously ignoring what I've written.

I've already explained how the physics was implemented into the gameplay. I've already explained some of the rather substantial backstory; not all the aliens are bad (the ant lions are simply wildlife, the vortigants are refugees that become allies etc.) and there are as many species as Mass Effect has (that's also ignoring the fact that ME series are RPG where story is even more important). I've already explained how HL2 has influenced video games (including CoD from 4 onwards) and even given specific examples of devs explaining how they're taking influence from HL2. I've even explained some of the more obvious details of the story that you completely missed. Makes me wonder if you actually played the game.

Please go back and read my previous posts instead of willfully ignoring them. If you're just going to ask stuff I've already answered then there's no point in answering.

@ bolded: So two things Valve decided to not include in the game mean it's not been influential? That just means they decided not to copy others (and for PC, having multiple weapons is better; makes use of multiple shortcuts). Quick access to grenades, iron sights and quick melee were all introduced before Halo and CoD btw. Both games took them from mildly successful titles and incorporated them into their game. Only regen health was new out of the stuff you listed. 

I played HL2 from start to end. I saw the notes saying "seven hour war" etc and still the story is piss thin. I'm not going to write here how Halo has the best storyline evar when, in the grand schemes of gaming, it's merely adequate. I feel that is exactly what HL2 fans are doing - giving undue praise to the HL2 story. Adequate/good for an FPS? Sure. Good for a game? Nope. 

Okay, let's go back to the beginning as no HL2 advocate has ever given me a direct answer to the below:
What precisely makes HL2 a good story when we consider it is quite thin and cliche? Surely those features make it pretty poor on the grand scheme of game storylines?

Making the grav-gun essential for a few missions is hardly ground-breaking in terms of gameplay. Technologically, sure, but since when did we hold games in high esteem for just tech reasons?

Two things? 
1) Weapon limit from unlimited down to two.
2) Melee
3) Regen health
4) Quick access grenade.
5) Iron sights

That's five things. Five MAJOR features that drastically alter gameplay and has been in almost every FPS since Halo. What games had those features? Even TS didn't if I remember things correctly. Quake, doom, CS....Which FPS' you thinking of?