You know, I knew the next HL game to come out after Ep2 would be a VR title. It was the most obvious direction Valve could go considering Gabe treats the HL series as a tech demo. Seriously, I think out of anyone at Valve, he has the least respect for the franchise. What I didn’t predict that it would a a VR exclusive title and that it would recon the ending of Ep2 so a character that died(and who’s VA had died), would be alive again. Hell, they didn’t even ask one of the MC’s original VA to reprise her role(or cast into a different character if the age was an issue).

I have way more trust in the fan community to continue the story. Entropy: Zero took some cues from Epistle 3, so I hope the breadman and the Project Borealis are sharing notes, so the can have a shared continuity. I really, really liked the voiced MC of Entropy: Zero and the combat loop, with more enemy types and weapons was superb.

antlion army,

Hey, here’s this cool thing. You can summon Antlions to fight with you, but only in two areas and never again. Oh, that boss fight in Ep2 where you could have gotten it again? Nope, but here’s a Defend Against Waves set piece instead.

What I’m saying is that the combat loop got ignored for the gravity gun. Where’s the Gluon Gun? Why is the Tau Cannon only mounted to the buggy? Why are both the SMG and AR2 full auto, spread weapons? If we’re doing wide open areas, the AR2 should really have a tighter spread for long range engagements.

Halo did wide open environments, did vehicles with mouse or analog stick steering was a joy to drive and actually used them in more then one area before HL2. Keyboard steering sucks.

What HL2 excels at is presentation of the story. It’s really not that deep of a story.

Also, never liked CS or military shooters, so that’s not exactly a going to sell me. And don’t get me started on the hat shit.

There are so many landmark games. I’d say HL1 was more influential then HL2 anyway. Hell, I’d say Portal did more for first person puzzle games then HL2 did for FPS games.

It just handicapped itself by making the gravity gun such busy work and ignoring other aspects.

Half-Life 2 doesn’t even have a good combat loop. Half-Life 1 has more variety in the weapons and the map team in HL1 actually talked to the AI team. Notice how the combine just stand in doorways or out in the open? It’s lost, but I once saw a video showing that the combine can flank the player and do other complex maneuvers if the maps are properly designed, but Gabe was too obsessed with the Gravity Gun and everything else suffered. The “puzzles” are all either busy work or another seesaw task. I remember being hyped when Gabe said that Ep2 would have the biggest physics puzzle in it, but it ended up just being a huge seesaw “puzzle” that was solved just by clearing the cars off of it.

Every time I do a Half Life replay, I always end up getting bored in HL2 and skip to the community made stuff. Half-life Echoes and Entropy: Zero are musts.

I. Do. Not. Care. About. The. Tech.

Gabe, you created an obligation when you ended Episode 2 on a cliff hanger. You should have just let Marc Laidlaw and the game devs just make more games.

As long as it had kept the core writers, I’m sure everyone would be happy. Hell, any “innovation” is being handled by the modding continuity. Breadman of Entropy: Zero created a more fun combat loop then any of the HL2 games have. Singularity has a better physics weapons just by being able to use it independent of the selected weapon and making the object transparent.

You need to start considering the motivation of the villains of the mainstream media that the ultra-rich are rubber stamping. The whole “Hero’s journey” lends itself to Libertarianism. Kingsman is a good example of a Libertarian morality tale, but compare how often an environmentalist is the villain vs how often they’re the hero in other media.

I had to stop watching the Flash tv series because of the causal disregard of the rights of the villains in the first season. Why did the writers mean by having Team Flash run a private, secret prison where the inmates are in perpetual, solitary confinement with no access to a lawyer and no expectation of a trial? The writers really didn’t need to create that scenario.

There’s some slop on youtube that’s either pure AI or really close to it. You need to delved deep into baby youtube to find it though. Five Finger Family would probably be a good starting point.

The Great Adventure of Horus, Prince of the Sun

It was originally suppose to be about the Ainu people of Japan, but that was vetoed by the executives.

Tatsuki’s Kemurikusa is based on

but you don’t realize that until the end.

Hozuki’s Coolheadedness is all about various Japanese and Chinese legends and afterlife myths. Europe’s Satan even pays a visit.

Anno has flat out said that Eva’s religious imagery was just an esthetic. If it’s based on any myth, it’s his fandom of Ultraman.

At this point, anything that hurts Twitter is good. Bluesky may go down in two years, but if twitter dies in one, I’ll be happy. People need to learn to jump platforms again.

I’m sure navy seal teams are trained for aquatic fire fights. But the chances of any of them interacting with aquatic guard units are probably slim and if any have happened, are going to be classified.

People are terrible at infosec.

I can imagine Putin offering a “partnership”, where Russia gets to lease drilling land in Alaska, except the lease will be way too low and Russia will be late on payments.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundations_of_Geopolitics

I also remember reading how there’s evidence that the USSR was funding both sides of the Civil Rights Movement in the US, with the hopes that it would tear the country apart.

Can’t. Even when it was Dorsey’s Twitter, it was too toxic.

I’m more annoyed that he’s still using twitter then anything.

Greta Thunberg and how Americans react to her proves why mature children in America are a rarity.

One, Direct from cow raw milk has way less chances of contamination then mass produced raw milk.

Two, the Amish aren’t going to go into detail about their health issues with someone who’s only spending the night. It’s their normal and what god wants, so why would they?

Reformatting InfoWars as a serious, unironic branch of the Onion that deals with misinformation would just be great.

Zero. Because they don’t need a fake substitute.