Posts Tagged ‘valve’
RetroActive Episode 2: Half-Life (1998)
For the second episode of RetroActive, we decided to tackle something light: Half-Life. Quite possibly one of the biggest and most influential first-person shooters ever released, Valve not only used the franchise to evolve the genre, but the sequel is also how they made the service Steam a household name. Jamalais (yes, Jam!) returns to discuss this powerhouse title. Also on this episode: hardware guide to the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive and the real deal on framerate analysis. All songs featured in this episode are from the official Half-Life soundtrack.
0:00 – Intro – Closing Theme
0:54 – Editorial: Toxic Behavior
5:52 – Klaxton Beat
6:50 – Hardware: Sega Genesis/Mega Drive
32:10 – Diabolical Adrenaline Guitar
33:10 – Half-Life (1998) Discussion with Guest Jamalais
2:03:03 – Traveling Through Limbo
2:04:03 – Framerate Analysis and Next Episode
2:15:14 – Valve Theme
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Talking Ports: Half Life on the PS2
I’ve always wanted to dedicate an article to Half Life on the Playstation 2 (PS2). However, Half Life is one of those games I genuinely get a bit worried about when reviewing, since so much as mentioning anything negative about this series will cause the entire Valve fan base to storm on you with torches and pitchforks. No where is safe, you are screwed. But since so few people have even played Half Life on the PS2 hopefully, its safe to come out of my Half Life hermit cave and talk about it.
Now here is where I make my first shocking statement: Half Life on PS2 is the first time I ever played Half Life. One redeeming factor maybe that it did lead me to playing the game on the PC later when I was able to. Anyway, I was in day one for Half Life on console. I’d been anticipating the game since the hyped up Dreamcast port which never official surfaced outside of the homebrew scene (despite being advertised in leaflets that game with games at the time). It seems like a lot of the assets used to make the game on the Dreamcast surfaced on the PS2. Whether your a massive fan of the Dreamcast or not, its hard not to argue this game was much more suited to the PS2 due its its dual analogue sticks. This was the time where First Person Shooters (FPS) were finally getting easier to control on consoles, with thanks to Halo, gamers where just no longer stomaching the single analogue nub system famous on the N64 and Dreamcast.
Gaming History 101 