cpoint: all-mod

[MikeJ]

AceR. wrote..

think cs2 will be released 1 year after hl2?

let's hope sooner

[thor2488]

I thought it was Havok, and great article. Keep the counter-points coming!

[-:Nighthawk:-]

Nice read fellas.



Hype is a big part of success, really. Who hasn't been comparing everything to Doom 3 for the past year, and following the development? When it finally hits the store shelves, hundreds of thousands of copies will sell simply because we're all hyped up about what it might look like.



But hype alone doesn't do it, there has to be substance and quality to back it up. Half-Life was a quality game, but it didn't have nearly as much hype before the fact to make it huge. Instead, the hype came from gamers and reviewers alike, as they raved about how good their experience playing was. Now throw CS into that mix.



I find it interesting to note in the most recent poll, at the time of this writing, it shows that 13% of our visitors started playing CS after version 1.4 was released. Counter-Strike is a mod of an old game, but there's continually new people joining in to see what their friends have been talking about. That's the power of hype, of people spreading the word of how absolutely good a game is.



Half-Life 2 would have to try very, very hard to do anything other than succeed. Not only is it riding on the reputation of the original Half-Life, but it's also got the collective TFC and CS communities (along with many other notable mod communities) waiting in anticipation for it. We can only speculate about how VALVe will choose to release these titles, but we can be sure that the multiplayer modability will be consistant across them all. As long as these mod communities are supporting HL2, then it's a success story just waiting to happen, revolutionary or not.

[russianmobster]

I actually thought this was a good article. Good job.

I just hope that with the release of HL-2 and CZ, the CS community wont be split. I have played CS for 3 years now, and I'm still addicted. I'm thinking, will there be a CS mod for half life 2? If there is, there will again be some old schoolers and some new schoolers etc. and more complaints about changes. Then with CZ how will that work? Isn't that a whole different engine? So there will be 3 different groups of CS players? I hope that doesn't happen and Valve finds a way to bring them alll together.

As far as hl-2's success, it's guaranteed.

[orphy]

That's pretty interesting. Sure, graphics might help sell a game because they're just so pretty, but it's true; game play matters. I mean, when my friend first saw CS, he was like "wtf, gay graphics". He's addicted now. Lots of good points in the article, keep it up.

[Simplex]

Topic you said that I liked:



TF2 might outsell, or lower sales of HL2. I never thought HL2 was in competition with TF2. I thought that was an interesting concept.



Topic that you didn't touch:



What's stopping VALVe from making HL2 mods compatable with TF2 and vice versa? TF2 is basically a total conversion of HL2 with some rebranding and a new box. It is one company (with a huge mod record) making 2 games in the same engine. What's not to say they roll out patches for both the games at the same time, keeping the base case the same for mods to be written for both games. I can see a mod (CS2?) being for HL2/TF2. It doesn't matter what game you have, just as long as you have one.

[-:Nighthawk:-]

russianmobster wrote..

I just hope that with the release of HL-2 and CZ, the CS community wont be split. I have played CS for 3 years now, and I'm still addicted. I'm thinking, will there be a CS mod for half life 2? If there is, there will again be some old schoolers and some new schoolers etc. and more complaints about changes. Then with CZ how will that work? Isn't that a whole different engine? So there will be 3 different groups of CS players?

CS:CZ isn't a different engine, really, and it'll be compatible with normal CS in terms of multiplayer, so there's only 2 groups to worry about.



It's a valid concern. What's going to happen to maps like dust and aztec and all the others that we've come to know and love? There's a lot of ways this could go, really. On one hand, I want to see more complex and interesting maps brought on by a new engine, but I still love the old ones.



Change has kept the CS community interested and the game fresh and interesting. But CS2 presents the possibility of a huge change in the feel of the game far beyond what we've ever felt in a version change.



Knowing the community, though, even if there's parts of CS we miss in CS2, there's gonna be some mappers who will likely update their maps to be compatible (if there's no automatic import utility) with the new engine. Yeah, it will split up the community, but I think a large portion of us will, at least for a time, play both games until we gradually wean ourselves off of the old CS over a long time. Kind of like how I play 1.5 and 1.6b currently, but find myself more and more drawn to 1.6b as time goes on.



Either way, I think the strong community of CS in general will remain, but only time will tell.

[cheetarah654]

a good read, but perhaps just slightly geared more toward what revolutionized games then half life 2 mods.



gooseman has been working on cs2 for a while now, my guess is that valve gave him access to the new engine (which i cant fucking remember its name...im so clase but i cant!)



hl2 will be madew to be modable to all hell, and will be. everyone wants to be the new gooseman and half-life has basically been treaded over so many times already that people are waiting for HL2.



as for doom3. omg, did anyone read the Q&A about it on shaknews? the whole "shooting the zombie through the window and down stairs" gave me a great feeling of anticipation and excitement, like "ok, its official, this game is badass" and the whole shadows thing in multiplayer...I DREAMPT I WAS PLAYING IT IN MY NAP THIS AFTERNOON!!! no joke!



im sure a lot of that will be implemented into HL2, aka has been, and will be equally as impressive. but for some reason i just see doom3 being more aesthetically appealing then HL2. maybe because im just used to valve being "blocky"



either way, its sure to sell like hotcakes that are hot and fresh and made of cake stuff

[mister horze]

Half-Life 2 might be the biggest thing since the polygon was invented, or just another knowless FPS with more crap than an incontinent elephant.

[rizzuh]

Glad so many of you like the feature. Be sure to spread the word, we're trying to get some more popularity for the feature. It's getting plenty of views but I think a lot more gamers would be interested in it compared to the amount who are actually reading it.

[Dr Delinquent]

I think it would make sense for VALVe to use the system they're using with HL, CS, TFC, DoD, etc etc etc: when you buy the game in a shop, you effectively buy the engine and a game built on the engine. So maybe they should release two versions of each game - one with the game and the engine, and one with only the parts of the game that aren't common to the other two. See what I'm saying? They all install into the same directory, and all the games and mods built on the engine work seamlessly.



As for the point of 'reality simulation' - I entirely agree. One of the reasons I disliked Deus Ex was not because the game itself was bad, but because it was such a letdown given the way they'd hyped it. I remember one interview in which a developer was claiming that essentially EVERYTHING you did in Deux Ex would affect what happened to the plot. An example I think he used was shooting a pigeon. All the other pigeons would fly off, children in the street would run and tell their parents who would call the police and try to to restrain you, the pigeon trainer would try to get back at you at some point in the game. And you'd be blacklisted by the Pigeon Trainers' Union or something. Nothing like this happens, and I want a game in which it does.



Maybe that's asking a lot too much, but at some point in the future, it'll happen.

[Vassily]

getting back to what the article was actually about, how many more mods can there be? games themselves are already scraping the barrel for new ideas, how much more can mods offer?

CS was and remains a revolution, there's nothing like it. It actually plays like a game, as opposed to a reskinned deathmatch, which is how pretty much all other mods i've played handle. There's no originality except in oddity. We've seen real world mods, we've seen sci-fi mods, we've seen mods from the past and variants on it. They all come and go, some attract dedicated followings but there's nothing to them that most people can get into. I spent a fair amount of time playing the ESF mod for HL but that's because i'm obsessed with DBZ, thousands of others weren't appealed to by the subject matter so they passed it by. We're spoilt for choice. So regardless if HL2 is a success, and i think it can pretty much guarantee itself, the modders are going to have difficulty bringing anything really new to the table. Even the innovators aren't doing it anymore, CS *2* after all can hardly be called innovative.

Also, Counter-Point is the best feature i bother using on here, keep it up rizzuh and asspennies, you make the CS community sound like people who're old enough to buy beer, as opposed to the usual "haha l4mz0r!1!!" stereotype.

Lastly, and I know most of you will have stopped reading now, if CS 1.6 slips much further, it could technically be the sequel to CS :P

[Rambozo]

HL as we know it would be NOTHING without the mods. As someone else mentioned, there are what? 15 HLDM servers and THOUSANDS apon THOUSANDS of CS servers.



The ONLY reason my friend bought HL was because he wanted to play counter-strike. (I told him not to buy retail, for good reason haha).



I hope switching to a new engine does not effect the mouse handling too much, I don't know about you guys, but I feel like my wrist is broke, or my mouse is broke, when I play UT and its mods. In HL I never felt such a direct mouse action, ever.



The only things HL could ever improve on (in terms of mod support) would be 32-bit graphics, and support for more players. Thats all I could possibly think of that I want changed in HL. Oh and the included vehicle support, I am REALLY intrested in seeing how well this can be applied to mods. (I miss the CS APC, didn't miss it getting stuck though).

[the_blur]

penboy_np wrote..

Nothing angers me more than half completed work with a price tag slapped on it.

Rgr that. Esp. if just from what you see, it has the potential to be an absolute masterpiece.

[SinaC]

I posted it as community news on GotFrag, because you told me too. Indirectly, yes. But nonetheless you told me too.