Half-Life & Black Mesa

Alex and Luke talk Half-Life and Black Mesa.

Half-Life is a 1998 first-person shooter game developed by Valve and published by Sierra Studios for Windows. It was Valve's debut product and the first game in the Half-Life series. Players assume the role of Gordon Freeman, a scientist who must escape the Black Mesa Research Facility after it is invaded by aliens. The gameplay consists of combat, exploration and puzzle-solving. Unlike other games of its time, the player has almost uninterrupted control of the player character, and the story is told mostly in scripted sequences rather than cutscenes.

Black Mesa is a 2020 first-person shooter game developed and published by Crowbar Collective. It is a third-party remake of Half-Life (1998) made in the Source game engine. Originally published as a free mod in September 2012, Black Mesa was approved by Half-Life developers Valve for a commercial release; the first commercial version was published as an early-access version in May 2015, followed by a full release in March 2020 for Microsoft Windows and Linux.

Alex played Half-Life and Luke played Black Mesa. This was their first experience with both games.

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Transcript

Alex 0:21

We got another episode of Lo Five Gaming for everybody. Thanks for joining us. Super stoked of y'all coming back, listen to us, or listen to us for the first time. It's a real goatee just for this podcast, dog.

Luke 0:33

Shouts out, cop killing goatees.

Alex 0:34

What's up with that half-life goatee, bro?

Luke 0:37

Oh, goatee. Morgan. Not Morgan Freeman. Uh Gordon. Gordon. Gordon Freeman. Yeah. Gordon Freeman with the goatee. Right. Had to get my Gordon. I don't actually have a goatee. I wouldn't do that to myself. Uh or anyone that sees me ever. Goatees are gross. Oh man. Unless you have one, it looks great on you, person listening. Girls on the non-sanction sponsors, not goatees.

Alex 1:05

Well shit, dude. Like another episode. Welcome back. This time we went back. We went back to 1998. At least I did. I went back to 1998 to play Half-Life. Yep. This is my first experience with Half-Life. You, on the other hand, went back to 2020.

Luke 1:20

Yeah. Black Mesa. Remake, reskin.

Alex 1:22

Yeah, dude. I didn't realize that. For some reason, and I think it's I don't I to be honest, it's one of my gaming sins, dude. Half-Life is a game that I feel that in the zeitgeist and people's, you know, their histories and their whole like gaming anthologies, this is an important game, right? Anthology, nice. Continue. It's an important game, right? So in the game in the world of gamers.

Luke 1:41

If you're reading game blogs and watching silly YouTube videos, you've heard lots of Half-Life game design wise, too. It's because there's a culture that's based around it.

Alex 1:49

And you know, this game, we have to credit this game for where a lot of games have come. If we didn't have Half-Life, then I don't think we would have Kirby.

Luke 1:57

Kirby in the Forgotten Lands.

Alex 1:59

We might have some Kirby, but we wouldn't have you know, Doom wouldn't be the same the way it is now. All of our first-person shooters. Yeah. Uh we'll get into this in a little bit, but you know, there's there's a lot that this game did for the world of gaming, and I think uh it needs to be paid, you know, credit is due for it.

Luke 2:15

We other than Age of Empires, we were not PC gamers. Our father once uh ripped up my bounty hunter uh Star Wars disc because of the violence. That's right. That was back in the GameCube. I was not a six to seven year old grinding away on the keyboard mouse, plucking away aliens that wouldn't have flown in the household. So dog.

Alex 2:34

Our dad straight up on sale on the PlayStation, by the way.

Luke 2:38

Almost bought that shit out of spite. Just bring it over there and play it for him. Check me torch these guys, Dan.

Alex 2:45

You take your PlayStation, throw it out the window.

Luke 2:47

Yeah, he'd he'd just break it over his knee.

Alex 2:49

Dude, straight up that that was I remember that. That was a crazy day.

Luke 2:52

You convinced them to give me like 30 bucks to buy a new game, though. That was a nice older brother movie.

Alex 2:56

He snapped it in half. It was a little dramatic. For dramatic effect. Yeah, it was a little dramatic. I think he knew it afterwards too. That's why he made up.

Luke 3:04

Then later that day he made Alex smoke an entire carton of cigarettes so he'd never do it again.

Alex 3:09

No, that's that's funny. Maybe we'll get to that game one of these days. But today's Half-Life, bro. Yeah, yeah. Stick to the pod. Right, sure. Half-Life, never played it before. One of my gaming sins, I have many, especially now that we have a gaming podcast that people listen to. They just assume that you know, maybe they don't. Maybe they listen to enough to be like, are these guys even gamers? Hell's a collector who games on his collections occasionally. I put it enough hours to be called a gamer now. Sure. Uh speaking of, I've I've only got about 15 hours into this game, 14 roughly. And I feel like you, when I've peeped your steam, are about the same. But before we get into that, you didn't play Half-Life.

Luke 3:47

No, I played Black Mesa. Right. Half-Life was made by Valve. And Valve has been pretty open to letting people mod things. I mean, isn't that how Counter-Strike came out? Counter-Strike to this day is still played based off of like the Half-Life 2 engine.

Alex 4:01

Oh, really? I didn't know that. That was good.

Luke 4:02

I believe so. I could be wrong. Um, we'll get research on it.

Alex 4:06

I'll throw this out there just to like totally continue derailing us. But Half-Life 2, I feel like is gets a little bit more praise than the original Half-Life.

Luke 4:13

I feel like sequels are a lot like that though.

Alex 4:15

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Especially I don't know, interesting. You go Assassin's Creed to Assassin's Creed 2.

Luke 4:21

You oftentimes you lay out the formula and then the next one kind of jumps up on it. Other than Super Mario Bros 2 or Zelda 2. Other than those, it's usually quite true. But Counter-Strike, I want to say like a modded version of Half-Life 2 where you could just do like team fighting. And then I do know for sure though that Crowbar Collective made Black Mesa, and Black Mesa is the name of the research facility in Half-Life. That's correct. And Black Mesa is a reskin and upscale of Half-Life. So it's a far prettier version, smoother version that I have been playing.

Alex 4:56

And it's but it's not like Uber pretty man. Like I've seen some screenshots and I was surprised it came out in 2020. I was like, wait, what? Yeah. But you know, like I'm not like hating on it. I just was for some reason I've been.

Luke 5:05

When I first started playing, I definitely felt that way. Like I forgot that this was the better version of. And then as I continued to play, I just kind of noticed how like smooth and like little details I started to notice more and more. And I was like, there's no way it's nice this nice on Half-Life.

Alex 5:19

Dude, so I listened to a handful of different gaming podcasts. I love people nerding on about this shit. But it's always interesting, you know, when people hit these retro games like we just did.

Luke 5:27

Yeah.

Alex 5:28

I feel like when you sign up for a game like Half-Life, or when you know your brother and co-host is like, we're gonna play Half-Life. Strong arms you into Half-Life. Continue. I feel like you're like signing up for an experience, like because I did like this game, but as you will hear, I have my I have things to say about this game, and I have feelings about this game that maybe aren't like the most positive in the world, but if you look at it in a lens of like what this game was and where it comes, I love the history part of it, right? Sure. I love the I love the background, I love like what you're traveling, man. Totally, totally. And I think that's it.

Luke 5:57

I can see this being the most bitchin' thing in the world in 1999.

Alex 6:00

So there was there was multiple times playing when I was like, dang, that's actually pretty clever. Like that's pretty that's pretty dope. And like you you just respect it for what it is, and it kind of makes me feel like I'm maybe a little desensitized or just I take for granted how far we've come. So this this game dropped in 1998, Half-Life did groundbreaking game. Like it changed, like it added the whole idea of having a story unfold for you through gameplay as opposed to being strong armed by these cutscenes and shit like that, which a lot of games still do, but this was like a very environmentalist uh layer.

Luke 6:31

Submergent is the phrase. There you go.

Alex 6:34

You're trying to take back a capital G status with all this knowledge.

Luke 6:38

It's more like an English social studies major looking ass analysis.

Alex 6:41

Continue. Totally. You know, I just think it's I just think it's really interesting. And I think if you like approach these types of games, like, dude, if you went back and like you played the original Zelda, I'm I'm a bit of a Zelda stand, dude. Sure. But if you're gonna pick up Nest Zelda right now and play that game, you better be ready to go into it looking at it like for an experience. You're looking at it for the experience that people were having then, and you're looking at it for like, okay, I want to taste this and I want to have an idea of like how we got to Breath of the Wild. You know what I mean?

Luke 7:08

Yeah, no, it's it's like super cool. There's absolutely no hand holding. Uh I'd say another way to put it, and especially when we talk about things like Metroid, talk about like gamer logic. This is another one of those games where they developed a lot of the roadmaps for modern gamer logic. Like you can generally know what type of like the noise that the game makes when you can't open a door is the most common noise I know from this game because I'm always just like spamming doors. Like but there are signpostings as to which ones you can actually move.

Alex 7:37

Let's just throw out the quick and dirty internet. Shout out Wikipedia for having the information you all need to know. But Half-Life is a 1998 first-person shooter developed by Valve and published by Sierra Studios. It was Valve's debut product, and it's the first game in the Half-Life series. Players assume the role of Gordon Freeman, a scientist who must escape Black Mesa research facility after it's invaded with that goatee on, after it's invaded by aliens. The gameplay consists of combat, exploration, and puzzle solving.

Luke 9:04

Fairly certain it's the most famous goatee in gaming history.

Alex 9:07

I can't think of a better one.

Luke 9:08

Can I think of greater celebrity culture? Yeah. I'm thinking of greater celebrities. Can you think of a more famous goatee than Gordon Freeman? Whose face you never see other side outside of the box art to, which is fine.

Alex 9:19

That is interesting, because he doesn't talk either. Black Mesa is a 2020 first-person shooter game developed and published by Crowbar Collective. It is a third-party remake of Half-Life.

Luke 9:29

Oh yeah, I was trying to rant on that earlier. The modders, they made it, and then like Valve was like, this is sweet, and they just validized it and just went to the city. Right, which is super cool. You don't usually get that.

Alex 9:38

Like, look at like Nintendo. Nintendo would never go for that.

Luke 9:41

Nintendo might sue you for bringing that up. You better chill, bro. For real. Sorry, Nintendo. I love you, Daddy Tendo.

Alex 9:47

But Black Mesa was originally published as a free mod, and then which is you know cool that it came out of that modder community in September 2012. So that makes a little bit more sense. So it became official in 2020, but they started my working on it in 2020. Black Mesa was approved by Half-Life developers for a commercial release. The first commercial version was published in an early access version in May 2015, followed by a full release in March 2020. So there it is on Windows and Linux. So super, you know, it's interesting.

Luke 10:19

I suppose unless we did like a Pokemon thing where you had like the different versions of but like fire red and red or some shit like that. That or even just like red or blue. You can tell how old we are by our examples being red and red.

Alex 10:31

Dude, red for life. Yeah, sure. Um team leaf. Yeah. Balbazar. Yeah, all day.

Luke 10:38

They never had the green version with Bulby. The homie Bulbazar. But anyway, we're not here for that.

Alex 10:44

Yeah.

Luke 10:45

Very different but similar experience. I'm pretty sure that the reason I have black base is because it was like a deep Steam sale and it was like ridiculously cheap. And I was like, why would I get the crappier version? Might as well get it off scaled.

Alex 10:56

Whereas I went to the same Steam sale, I'm pretty sure. I was like, I'm gonna get Half-Life 1 and 2 the OGs because I want the pure video gaming experience.

Luke 11:05

I did pick up Half-Life 2 and I've played like an hour before, and I was like, this is cool, but there was no like you need to get this game done before a podcast. So I was like, I'll never play this again. Right. Which I've been scolded for. Which once again, kind of like if you're a PC gamer, I think that's the reason. I mean, it's obviously the reason we didn't play it as kids, other than my age and the violence of it, but it's very much like I don't know if it was on the city.

Alex 11:27

Because you would have been what, roughly six? And we would have in 1998, we would have games lingered in. I don't think we had a computer yet. I find I think our family computer came. No, 1999. Like 1998-99 is like when we got our first family computer.

Luke 11:38

Yeah. But like back then, like, you know, there wasn't as many releases.

Alex 11:41

And you'd like to We definitely weren't getting that new release game.

Luke 11:44

No. So like a game would linger forever, but like I was only like a little bit aware of it. You'd see like the orange box, and that's like with the portals in Half-Life 1 and 2. So you'd see the box art and stuff like that. So I was aware of it. But this is like kind of part of like the the PC gamer vibe, or zeitgeist in general, or just pantheon, I guess is the word I was going for there.

Alex 12:06

Dude, and I'll tell you what, when you talk to people that played Half-Life when it came out, it's it's fun, man. It's like true, truly a deep love. It'd make a really cool movie. It would be interesting.

Luke 12:17

People say like there's not enough talking, but like if he was just watching Gordon Freeman do his thing, I'd watch that movie.

Alex 12:23

It took me it took me a little bit to to realize. So like I went into this pretty fresh, you know. Like I I I knew that I needed to respect this game. Like I knew it was up on some fucking pillar or whatever. But I didn't like know a lot about it, and I haven't like read about it that much. I know that there's like a huge community around it, all that stuff, but I went into it relatively fresh, and it was interesting to kind of run into the NPCs or the scientists and stuff.

Luke 12:47

And like at first, the same they do all the time.

Alex 12:51

There's like three three skins, maybe not even. Uh, but like to to have them talk to you. And I at first I'd be like, ah fuck you, scientists, I don't care. Like, I'm just gonna keep running, doing my thing. And then I realized after a little bit, I was like, Oh, like this is how this story is unfolding.

Luke 13:04

Like, literally, like, because you know, you can I'll be spamming around for resources, I'll be like, Oh, you have to like stand next to the guy to hear them too.

Alex 13:12

And I don't know if it's I don't I doubt it's game breaking, but maybe I don't know because I've never tried it. But um, there are certain parts too where like if you run into a security guard or a scientist, you have to talk to them to get them to open a certain door or whatever. But you're also not it's not like you get a game over, you're penalized if you shoot them and kill them. You do. Oh, you do what happened to me recently. Okay, I haven't tried that.

Luke 13:30

Cop jumped up from behind a counter and I blasted him in the face with a shotgun. Did they give you a game over? Yeah, they're like, dude, no. I was like, Well, he spooked me. That's on him. I'd be shooting aliens for hours now. No, and someone comes from around the corner like pa-pa! And I'm like, I just I just let him have it.

Alex 13:46

So oh man, but so that's interesting then. So that does work, that does happen because I realized that after a while, I was like, oh, I can't just be reckless. Like, I you know, I had to make sure that I keep some of these NPCs alive because they're gonna let me soup through some doors. Yeah, some so I've accidentally like shot one and they're like, ow, what did I do to you? But I've also I've heard that uh Black Mesa has a slightly better like interactions with NPCs, like the the talking is like a little bit smoother, so you probably had a slightly smoother smoother.

Luke 14:17

Hear the same voice acting. They got like two dudes to do all of the noises for the voice acting. I mean the noises, like the sound design's actually really cool, but like mine does a weird thing.

Alex 14:26

I think it's a pro I think it's a problem with my computer being too beefy, which is like PC gaming is ridiculous like that, dude. Newer computers powerful jet engine to play your game from 1998, and then they and then it can't do it like because it's like it was made to be run on something with way less RAM and all these other things. That and so like it actually has trouble when you have a when you have too much. It's like it's like putting too big of an engine into a car that can handle it or whatever. So like there are you you bring up sound design, and I agree with you. I think that there are really cool sound design things going on, but uh I was looking up online to see if this is something that's unique to me or not, and I'm I can't be entirely sure, and I can't find out from you because you're playing a slightly different game, but uh, I get this echo effect that goes on, and it's not always there, but it's sometimes and it's like uh it gets worse sometimes.

Luke 15:12

It lends itself to the sci-fi haunted vibe. That's why I'm like, is this is this just me or is this like is it the game?

Alex 15:18

Like, I don't know what's happening. I also get this game, also happens to make me nauseous. I get nausea from playing this game. Okay, so I can do a two-hour stint maybe, and then afterwards I'm like, I have to go sit and like be like, ooh.

Luke 15:28

Mine's not that bad, but um I definitely get tired of it.

Alex 15:32

Dude, this is the first time that I've ever noticed that in the game. I'm like, this is so weird. Like, I've never had a game give me fucking motion sickness before.

Luke 15:38

I had it oddly enough in Zelda Breath of the Wild when I was doing the Divine Beast where you have to like rotate a bunch of stuff. I think it's just because I was getting a little lost in the sauce as I played. And I was just like, I'm so tired of these rotations. Sure. And then I picked it up the next day and crushed the puzzle. I was like, you were not in the right state of mind to finish that divine beast. So there you go.

Alex 15:59

With this man, like I'm trying to think of what it is because like I I did find some forums that definitely other people were like, I also get motion sickness from this from Half-Life 2. Yeah, but then they say it's like probably because it might be because of a frame rate thing. It also could be uh when Morgan Freeman's like head bobs with an animation, but that doesn't that isn't in mind, like I don't really have much of a head bob. But he does move around fast. Like he runs pretty fast, so I think when I'm just zipping around and just moving around, I don't know what it is, dude, but it gives me queasy.

Luke 16:27

Yeah, that's funny. Funny you mentioned a form too, because like I've been doing a lot of video game research for grad school. Oh yeah, sure. Um and like one thing that like any type of video game academic like immediately points to, and it even showed up in the most recent episode of Bob's Burgers. I'm weaving a weird thread here. Just hold tight, my dude. Is that like one of the biggest things that like academics around video games advocate for the power of the video games is like their ability to get people to like look up new information and join forums and like communities essentially, and like the interactions amongst gamers is like one of the like the super positive, like playful things that they always point to. So it's just funny that I'm doing all that reading, it showed up in a Bob's Burgers episode because Gene's obsessed with this stupid little game and he's like on a forum learning different things, and like it was just funny that you were on there being like trying to figure out your motion sickness thing.

Alex 17:18

Other people having this happen to that.

Luke 17:19

Yeah, no, and it's it's just back in like 19 years, you got your still active community of this game from 98. Like that posting could literally be from like 2002 or over.

Alex 17:30

Honestly, there were some of that stuff I ran into, and that's funny too when you're like trying to figure out well, is this a is this a um like a machine issue or whatever? And then you have people in like you know, 2004, 2008 being like, well, like it turns out like you know this is overpowered, so you have to show this on it like, well, it was overpowered in 2008, like I'm fucked now. Like 2022, like my computer's pretty new. Yeah, uh, and I also like I love that about PC gaming, but at the same time, like I'm I like to tinker with things, but there's an extent to it. Like, I'm not no time for it.

Luke 17:58

Yeah, personally, yeah, I have no time for it.

Alex 18:00

But it's quick, I guess I'll never play. And I've gotten some old games like is it backwards compass. And the thing that's another thing about forums is there's people out there that are super way knowledgeable about this stuff, and thank you so much for having these or YouTube videos or whatever it is. And if if you have a nice YouTube video that can walk me through a problem that I'm experiencing, I I'll give you a like.

Luke 18:19

Yeah, sure. It's the least I could do.

Alex 18:21

The least, the very least. It makes me because that that shit does make me happy when I get something that wasn't working to work. I'm like, oh heck yeah. Dude, that'll after like playing the first couple hours, I'm like, where is this story? Like, I thought this game, I thought people were obsessed with the story of this game. I thought that was the deal. And then I thought. And to be fair, and to be up front with all y'all, we did not finish this game yet.

Luke 19:09

Nah, I'm in chapter 14.

Alex 19:11

So you're just a little you're a little bit ahead of me because I'm I'm still I'm just about to finish surface tension. So I'm on chapter 12.

Luke 19:18

Okay. Fun little moments there, but there are throughout too.

Alex 19:22

Like I'll also be honest though, in the first couple chapters, I was like, eh, this could be this could be a drag. Uh but then they start they and they start like you start figuring out things, and it becomes a little bit more exciting, a little bit more sci-fi, and then you're like, I was getting at that, you you realize like, oh, like this story is unfolding in front of me, but I'm have to use my imagination a little bit for like what's happening. Like, yeah, I don't know what chapter it is, but that's a good way to explain it.

Luke 19:45

You kind of do like, I'm sure there is the proper thing that's actually happening, but you do kind of put your own little storyline in there.

Alex 19:51

Totally, because there's it's ambiguous enough where you're like, all right, um, that was interesting. Like you run into, and I'm sure that he comes in to the you know the final chapters, but and I know for a fact just like picking up weird lore over time, just assimilating it. But there's the weird sign, like the weird, like the what would you call him? Like the man in the X-Files, it's like the man with the the man who smokes or the cigarette. That doesn't help you or all that, does it?

Luke 20:12

No. A lot of people my age have watched X-Files, but I've never driven back to those.

Alex 20:18

Sure, sure. So but he's like the you'll he's that weird dude that kind of like has that stuff uh stiff walk where he just like he'll be out in the distance and you'll see him walk across like a like a uh scaffolding or whatever, and but you never like catch him.

Luke 20:31

I've never seen this man.

Alex 20:32

Oh, interesting. But you could miss that's the thing about this game. There's certain things that like roll out because it's uh simulated gameplay, right? So like once you hit a certain point, like this thing is gonna hit its timer and it's gonna walk. Oh, okay. So like if you're not looking over there, you'll miss it. So there are little things like that are in there, and that's just it.

Luke 20:48

So there's this weird- Let's assume it's another dude trying to shoot me, so I'm like, I'm a fucking Yeah. So he's like, he's got like an OR.

Alex 20:54

He's got like a suit on, it's like strong, like weird, like uh Area 51 type vibes, like this weird like government agent type dude.

Luke 21:00

Which like you start to what you speak speaking of the government in this game, god damn it. Continue though.

Alex 21:06

No, I mean like that that's just it, like the the rollout of these type of things is interesting. I think it was called uh on a rail, where it's you're on this weird, like well, you're literally on like a trolley rail type of thing. You start running into different gameplay elements that are and this goes back to like these cheeky rollouts. It's like I appreciate it for what it is, but it's like what the hell is this? For instance, when you want to take a right, because you because the rail splits, yeah, you shoot the arrow to flip the thing so that like you can take that right. So there's like this thing on the side of the wall, yeah. And you and do you shoot it and it'll flip over, and then the arrow changes so that it'll change the track.

Luke 21:42

They were watching the episode of The Simpsons where Homer gets a gun instead of turning off the lights or turning the channel on the TV, he just shoots it.

Alex 22:24

Dude, as a game mechanic, I was like, alright, cool, like I'm into that. But then, like, when you think about the like real life application of that, it's like, okay, so like anybody that took this trolley just had a fucking gun and they were shooting this arrow that spun around and that's on a big thing.

Luke 22:38

It was broken, right?

Alex 22:39

Yeah, you gotta go turn some power on or whatever, but like you always gotta be doing something, dude. That's just so there's like oh, that's another thing, these puzzles.

Luke 22:47

Let's get a touch into the storyline first.

Alex 22:50

Okay, okay.

Luke 22:50

So you're this scientist, I guess MIT is what the Wookie fandom said. MIT grad, and you're in this really long trolley tram. It's like this long intro where you're like getting just deep into this facility, and then you're in charge of some sort of reaction thing.

Alex 23:05

Dude, yeah, they're like go in, put this power suit on, and then they got this. I don't know. That's just the thing. Most of the time it was like, go do this the whole game. They're like, All right, Gordon, go do this thing. And I'm like, I don't know what the hell that means, but I guess.

Luke 23:16

Yeah, sure. And then you just go, and then there's some sort of accident, and all of a sudden everything's on fire. There's like this invasion of aliens. I guess they're from the planet Zen. Yeah, yeah. X. So, you know, shouts out Metroid for just weird sci-fi planet noise names. And then you're just fighting all these aliens. You got those head crabs, and then the head crabs that have like taken a host body, and then they kind of zombie it up at you, but then you got like the more intense aliens. So mostly you're fighting aliens and you're trying to get up to the surface. You know, and you're just really hopeful that you get up to the surface. But then the government thinks the only way to handle this situation is to kill everybody evolved. So I'm like, cool, soldiers, and then they're like, fucking dive. I was like, What?

Alex 24:02

That happened to me too. I was like, really? I was like, cool, backup, let's go. And then they're like, Nope, you gotta die. Get them. And then I was like, hey, that's not cool. And then, like, eventually, like, scientists you and then eventually that does get rolled out where the scientists or whatever, they're like, or maybe you overhear some soldiers talking or something.

Luke 24:16

Listen, I'm trying to save the world, but at the same time, Gordon Freeman is a one-man genocide. I have killed so many soldiers. Uh yeah, so the government is, and that's kind of the story plan the storyline you were talking about earlier, where you're like, you gotta impose. And I'm like, well, I guess the government's just trying to cover up everything that was happening here. That means that whatever's happening here is probably our fault. Dude, and you you start to like realize though, because there's Freeman doesn't know his section wasn't associated with it, so you're is that you get deeper into the facility because you get right out to the surface, you think that's what the game's gonna be about, and then there's like a helicopter and it's all intense, and like everything's shooting at you, and you like duck back into the facility again. You're like, well, that's what the outside was like.

Alex 24:54

Yeah, I think chapter Yeah, right. I think chapter 11 is it's called Questionable Ethics. And that one, that one was really cool because a lot of storytelling through just the chapter names. Just the chapter names, totally. I was like, okay, this is what's going on because I have a new chapter name, and I was like, okay, that in that imposes how I should be feeling about this. And honestly, because in questionable ethics, like you went from there's there's definitely some signposting that there's weird shit going on with these aliens, and that they definitely knew that they're like toying with some trouble here, you know, some less interdimensional alien trouble, whatever's going on.

Luke 25:23

You've seen a sci-fi movie, you get the point.

Alex 25:25

But in questionable ethics, dude, and like I don't know how it was for you, but in mine, I'm playing with these 1998 graphics, and there's one in part there's just that whole area, like the weird experiment rooms that you have for like aliens, just so fucking there's one in particular that stands out to me. It's uh there's this group of scientists you have to save, and they're next to this room that's essentially a blender.

Luke 25:48

I was like, what the fuck is that?

Alex 25:50

I was like, what kind of tests are you doing? Like, of course they get shredded. Like like this is terrible. Questionable, questionable ethics is right. Swinging blade. You're doing it. You have to like you have to like jump over and stuff, and it's like it's part of that weird platforming that comes into this game. I did alright.

Luke 26:05

But like it like slashed me enough where I just had low health. I'm like, whatever. Not the graceful solution you were looking for.

Alex 26:11

That is like one of the that's like a pure example of where that's they've tied they're tying in the story with some like interesting gameplay mechanics and platforming, but it's also like it's such a stretch. I'm like that thing was cool to jump through and get through, but I'm like, okay, this is beyond questionable ethics. This is just ridiculous.

Luke 26:31

But there would be like a bunch of whiteboards where they'd I don't know if the graphics are good enough for you where you could like read their notes and stuff.

Alex 26:37

And uh if they were, I didn't pay attention, but I doubt it. I bet you that's some policy. So I think they developed how many small bits can we blend them into. But other fun things like in that code that dude, I honestly, so and granted, I I have done some peaking, I haven't done a bunch of like looking forward. We've like I'm like I mentioned, I'm on surface tension chapter 12, so I'm about roughly three quarters of the way through a little bit of a lot of. Oh man, we we would hit each other up on our Discord and be like, please play. So yeah, play this. Uh it is enjoyable, but I'm also extremely frustrated by this silly, like because that's what it is, right? So it's it's it's these things I appreciate, like this platforming or whatever. Just not a fan of first person 3D platforms. No, and I never have been either. So, like, and there's a lot of that in there, so it's like that's just not for me. To be honest, that's not like the type of gameplay for me. There's the I just don't my the when I approach a game like this, I'm always so confused because you look at like a you have to scale like there's this there's certain parts we have to scale these like little like ramps or whatever, or like it'll be the side wheels.

Luke 27:47

And you're like, am I supposed to land on that?

Alex 27:49

Well, yeah, and you are, but the thing is is like the the spatial reasoning doesn't make any sense, like because you have this first person thing, you don't get to see your legs or anything.

Luke 27:56

So, like when you don't know if I'm gonna hit these tripwires. Oh my god.

Alex 28:00

And dude, yeah, it's that explosion factory.

Luke 28:03

Who put all these explosives next to all these tripwires?

Alex 28:06

I remember that part too, man.

Luke 28:08

Who built this place? You know, it's funny as probably the blender guy got another job.

Alex 28:12

Right, I swear, dude. That the scientist before that one, you because you were you running all these scientists, and this one you talk I talked to him, and he was like, I was trying to make my way through too, but uh once you go through that door, you'll see I'm just staying right here.

Luke 28:24

And I was like, I opened that door and I saw that barrel, and I was like, I'm gonna shoot this barrel to get this out of the way. Everything I was like, oh, that's why he um okay.

Alex 28:33

Right, because there's so one of the weapons you get is the are these mines that have uh like little like tripwire, but it's they're lasers or whatever. So ever use those? I haven't yet, but I mean for yeah, a couple times because you can like get enemies to follow you or whatever. So I've like done it toyfully or whatever.

Luke 28:47

Yeah, I'm always spazzing out, running around.

Alex 28:50

What do you usually use?

Luke 28:51

We can get into favorite weapons later.

Alex 28:53

Yeah.

Luke 28:54

Right now, right now it's the shotgun dog.

Alex 28:56

Oh, interesting. Okay, we'll talk about that in a little bit then. Yeah, were you looking for a different answer? Well, I have it, everyone, so yeah. Um, but those so those those uh laser trips that reminds me, dude. Loot boxes, yo. This is totally okay. This is just me just bullshitting out of my ass. But this I feel like this is like the advent of loot box. How? Because you smash open the boxes and they give you loot, like two literal boxes that drop loot for you. And like this probably the first game that did that. It's like what else did that Zelda throwing pots and getting rupees? That'd be a loot box. Uh loot box, dude. That'd be a loot box, dude. This is a loot box, bro. This is not what boxes give me loot, it's gotta be. I'll put it out there.

Luke 29:38

Low five gaming says it's because even like Call of Duty Black Ops where you'd have like the loot box.

Alex 29:44

What game first?

Luke 29:45

There's no mystery box, you get some health upgrades when you smash open a box that has a health upgrade logo on it.

Alex 29:51

Hey, send us an email, hit us on Discord. Loot box. I swear to god, loot box gotta be from Half-Life. Anyway, I'm feeling it.

Luke 30:00

So the platforming makes me want to die sometimes. Uh the puzzles, if everything's just like emergent, right? And everything's like you have to like use your gamer logic and different things. There's some times where I'll be in a room, I'm like, what do they want me to do? And I'm just about to look something up. Yeah. Where you put those uh those orange buoys under the ramp to elevate the ramp. Oh. Do you remember that? No, that took me so long. You were like underwater, and you had to grab these different orange buoys from different areas and throw it up under this ramp that had blown up just so the ramp would rise up so you could make a jump. And it took me like a half an hour to get through it. I'm not even sure if I had to do that. And so the puzzles kind of drive me nuts, but they are a little bit gratifying.

Alex 30:44

The platforming is that's just it is when you finish them, you're like, nice. But then you're like, I don't think I think I'm happy I don't have to do it anymore.

Luke 30:52

No, the disposal facility area where you have like the little grinder things, the conveyor belts that you're walking on. Yeah. And then you get up past that like fire chamber thing, and then you jump from one rail to the next rail, avoiding the grinder belt things. That took me a hundred tries. Oh, that thing fell into the water a thousand times, and I hated it so much. That part. I was like, just give me a save state where I can do that. That was frustrating.

Alex 31:18

I didn't have as much. Do you use F6?

Luke 31:22

No, I don't think they have that, or I haven't.

Alex 31:24

Dude, that was that was uh that helped me a lot. So, like, this game at the get go, I was like, okay, I die a lot. In this game. But it has a very generous autosave, right? Okay. So if you, you know, you never like lose that much progress because your autosave is pretty nice. Yeah. But and then later was like, there's gotta be a quick save. Why wouldn't there be? Yeah. There is. It's F6. No, no. F12. Okay. I think it's F12. Super close. Maybe it's one of the fucking F ones. But uh but dude, what that does, if you I've and like, you know, different players are gonna take a different takes on this, but it's safe's coming, and that helps.

Luke 32:05

I don't give a fuck. I know what the game wants me to do. It's 1998 3D first person platforming. I don't give a fuck. Let me shoot some aliens again.

Alex 32:14

This is the dude the the gunplay and stuff is super crazy. Gunplay's great. Gunplay's great. But I agree with you. The platform.

Luke 32:20

Let me aim down the sights though. Uh two weapons. The little MP, like the automatic gun that you have, like has some sights on it. Let me look through those sites. The alien hand thing? Is that what you're talking about? No, but what the fuck is with those alien guns? Yeah, they kind of suck. Like the one where you can throw like the little things that just attack you later on. I'm like, what the fuck? That was like they're cheeky. Like, I don't know what I mean. Sneaking up on some human douche soldiers. That's what they are, douche soldiers. I should be helping me out, not using all your fucking energy to kill me.

Alex 32:51

Dude, it's interesting, dude. Like I was I was going through and uh it was back on that on a rail chapter. I think it was maybe the the introduction of um you have already by this time figured out the soldiers are not gonna help you. But then but then there's I walk into this room and it's like I don't know, it's it's like die, Freeman, or something. Like they the spray painted shit on the wall or whatever, like leaving messages. I was like, ooh, that's dark and weird. Yeah. Uh and kind of creepy. I was like, respect. That's like another one of those like little like things of this game. I was like, you know what? That is I like that. I like that, I like that little like but you know, it makes me like if that wasn't a new game, like Doom Eternal is a game that I we might have to play someday because I mean it's different than this, but we have an excuse to get through all of it.

Luke 33:33

That too.

Alex 33:34

But dude, like the gunplay and doom, I don't want to like uh swoon over Doom too much, but it's like the PhD level though, like Doom this, right? And like I bet you have like Alex and stuff. I bet you I bet you like you know that it's probably that's all VR and stuff, and I'm sure it's super immersive and awesome. But the I guess my point that I'd like to make though is that type of thing in a new game, I would take for granted. Whereas it's something like this back in '98 that was like doing this immersive gameplay, and like it's a it's it's not like a beautiful, like, but it's it's a cool, it's a cool touch. And I was like, I was like, interesting. Like that it gave me like a guttural, like, you know what? Fuck these soldiers that try to scare me for trying to like, yeah, what the heck? I mean, I I would I'd be personally if I was a soldier and like if I found out this Gordon Freeman had killed, I'm like a thousand months. Did I capture you? Oh, dude, though, is that the cutscene that you hit me up? You're just like, I think I just got a cutscene.

Luke 34:27

Yeah, it's like there's one cutscene that I know of, they finally capture you, and then they're like, why don't we just kill them? And I'm like, Yeah, yeah, you should. Probably I mean, like, if you ever watched a movie in your life, killed I was like, I'm gonna kill you and every other fucking soldier in this building. Uh it should be mentioned, like the they stripped all my gear at that point, too.

Alex 34:46

I was a little pissed.

Luke 34:46

Dude, reset, and I was like, some bullshit platforming coming from here. And I was right.

Alex 34:53

Uh dude, which mind you, the uh I think it's in the yeah, so that that would have been the spot. Uh shot out Star Wars. Yeah.

Luke 35:04

Garbage disposal thing where the walls smash you and you get out just beforehand. I was like, unreal. It's so funny. The second I was putting there, I was like, I know what this is.

Alex 35:12

Right. Me too. I was like, all right, I better get out of here before I get smashed. Is there any like tentacle monster in here too? I gotta worry about it.

Luke 35:18

I was worried about that. There was not, unfortunately. The crowbar is tight in the beginning, and it's like iconic to the game, but like you don't use it once you get it.

Alex 35:27

You once you're smashing up those loot boxes.

Luke 35:29

Yeah, but those fucking fucking idiot. Fucking idiot. You were so excited to be like, I just thought of this. That's loot boxes.

Alex 35:38

Dude, I thought of this like a week or two ago. I was like, loot boxes, I love it. Yes, it is. I don't care about games of the service, all this other shit. Like original loot box half-life.

Luke 35:48

Like three finally comes out, and the fans are so excited, and they're like, the birth of the loot boxes, and there would be anarchy.

Alex 35:55

Dude, so you mentioned you mentioned the uh the little cutscene. I thought that was cheeky. I bet you it looked a little cooler for you, but it was like it was like cheesy for me. But I kind of kind of enjoyed it. The next thing that happened was in the uh what would have been it been in uh probably chapter six, which was Blast Pit, where you have to which by the way, they're like, You have to go blast off this rocket, which I did, but why? I don't know. What did that even do? Was that like what did they they probably told me?

Luke 36:17

I read on this wiki that that that didn't work, and I was like, tight. Oh, what do they mean it didn't work? I I was reading the chapter about the one I'm just on. Okay, interesting. Yeah, you do these things and it's like these these moments within the game where you kind of build up to it and struggling to think. It's like you're in chapters, so it these kind of pivotal moments, so like you have like kind of quote unquote bosses. Yeah. Like the pincer thing where it's coming out of this blast pit. Is that what you meant? Uh when. There's like this pit, and that's where those arms were like.

Alex 36:46

Yeah, like uh I remember that. That's in the same, that's like during that level, yeah, for sure.

Luke 36:50

And it turns out that the that thing is activated by sound where I just ran and just sprinted and took some blows to get past it, but then you kill it. Tentacle is what they call those. Yeah, and then there's that one guy a little later on where you just pump all your grenades at him before you realize that like he's just not gonna die, and you have to turn on the power to a bunch of things.

Alex 37:09

Which is like do some stuff. Those are the type of things where I'm like, okay, I appreciate this, but I also just spent so much time figuring that out, and I'm annoyed that that's what I had to do.

Luke 37:17

Yeah, the game does no hand holding, like there's never a waypoint. There's another that's the other part of it that like I appreciate it, yeah. But I don't for you, Elden Ring stands out there, like you probably loved Half-Life. Um, but just like they don't tell you a damn thing, and you just figure it out, and you're like, if it's a if it's oddly enough, like red is usually a color of some level of you see like a red light over a ladder, you probably have to crawl on it. Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. A lot of stuff like that. Um the music is so tasteful in the sense where like it's usually just kind of dark or just like some moody music, but then like they'll just be like some nice kind of hardcore butt rock.

Alex 37:56

Little house. I get like a little house technically.

Luke 37:59

Yeah, yeah, this is nice. Like, oh, it's about to be an intense movie.

unknown 38:17

Cool.

Luke 38:17

So when you start to hear the music, you're like, oh shit. You're like, I'm probably gonna have to fight like a fucking helicopter or like helicopters, dude. So annoying. But like also really bitching when you fucking.

Alex 38:27

I'm taken down, but I can't even figure out like yeah, yeah, yeah. There's tanks too. Yeah, they're tough. And that's the thing. So it's interesting because uh this game, like, they make the enemies pretty hard.

Luke 38:36

They're at least I thought the AI is pretty decent. It is, yeah.

Alex 38:39

I think it's I think yours is a little better, but perhaps, but I'll that's what I've read.

Luke 38:44

Oh, okay.

Alex 38:44

Yeah, I've read that the AI is slightly better.

Luke 38:46

I mean, it's not that much of a difference, but the aliens aren't like the aliens are so clear with their patterns that I generally I'm never afraid. Where the humans with the fucking assault rifles are so annoying, dude.

Alex 38:56

Like uh for sure.

Luke 38:59

Uh sun boys come running at you, like I'm like, oh, shotgun duel.

Alex 39:03

Wait, so you were talking about you're talking about the little cutscene. The next big thing was that rocket deal that we were just talking about, and not I don't know, it was like for me, it was like it was super charming. I was like in this like shitty little room graphics, and I was like, hit my button, it's all closed, I'm waiting for the countdown. Like you can look out this window, and it's like it looks shitty and stuff, but like there's something about it where I was like, that's actually kind of dope because this is probably fire back in '98. Dude, that's just it. So I was like, I and I really appreciated that. I was like, that's actually kind of dope. Like, you know, so those those moments were really dope. Uh, there's another part too where you're like crawling through some tunnel or whatever, and you're on the side of this big canon. You do, it's so weird, but that's part of it, right? It's high security, so like the the scientists are like, Oh, if you go this other way, like there's not as much security.

Luke 39:47

Architects now like just look at a lot of movies and video games. They're like, We gotta defend these vents. Yeah, no shit. There's no way we can have these super strong vents. That's the first way we get infiltrated.

Alex 39:58

Uh looking out that window in the blast thing, uh, that was super dope. And the next moment, I think some of that techno popped in. I was like just about to go out and like in this canyon. And dude, the graphics are so shit. You can like see the panels. Uh, but at the same time, it was awesome. Uh, and granted, you're playing Black Maces were probably different.

Luke 40:15

It reminded me of Goldeneye out there. You get some strong ass Goldeneye vibes. Totally.

Alex 40:19

Yeah, because it's like it's it's the idea of having these assets that like I don't know, they're 2D, and it's like clearly it's like here's one picture, two picture, three picture, and then it's next to each other, and they're stitched together, and you can see the stitch. Oh no. Uh yeah, mine's way cleaner than that. Sure, yeah. But like just going out though, out of this, to you've been doing this like tunnel fucking crawl, and then all of a sudden you you look out and it's like I was like, oh, this is it is the graphics aren't cool, but it was fucking cool, man.

Luke 40:43

Especially very cool to not just be in the balls deep in this facility and the business.

Alex 40:47

And that was a thing, like, even though I even though I haven't gotten through the end, and then I actually do want to complete this game because as I have progressed, the more interesting it has become, the more the level design and everything has just been more enjoyable. And I know for I just like peeked at a couple screens uh screenshots of chapter 15.

Luke 41:04

You're not on Zen yet at this point.

Alex 41:06

Are you on Zen yet? No, yeah, that's that's good, that's a cool point, though. The language of the game, dude. You say it's starting to unfold and I'm starting to understand how it works and what's coming. And that is why, even though I haven't beat this game yet, I will continue to have it on the back burner and because I would like to finish it.

Luke 41:19

I'll finish it, but there's no way I jump right into Half-Life 2. Oh no, get it a little break. You gotta give it a little break.

Alex 41:25

Uh, because like I was looking at the some pictures of Zen because I was trying to, I was just crunching some numbers and I was like, how long is it actually gonna take me to beat this game? Am I gonna be able to do it before we cut pot audio? And then I was like, no. No, uh, because like and then I was looking at I thought of the platforming sequence I'd have to do, and I'll just we ain't doing that. That's just it is like I did the numbers and I was like, I could if I just put a sod like four hours or five hours in right now, and then I was like, yeah, but that also means that I would have to like cleanly do all the platforming. And I was getting I actually so where I left off, I'm I'm still on uh I'm still on surface tension, and I'm right at this point where there's this big um carrier helicopter or whatever that drops soldiers down on a loop.

Luke 42:02

You can blow that thing up, you know that, right?

Alex 42:04

Dude, I I've been trying to, like, I don't know what the hell, like, why it won't blow up. And I actually went to I watched like a playthrough of that, like a walkthrough. And the dude online that I was watching has that little, and I have it too, but that gun, the alien gun that has like shoots out the weird homie missiles that are way underpowered. Yeah. Uh, and he like, so he what they did is they went, they backtracked and went on top of the building, and they literally like just shot at it with that thing for like 10 minutes until it went down. And to be honest, I like I was like, okay, that's a strategy. I could try that. I got so impatient, I was like, fuck that. And then I like went back. No time for that. No, exactly. And then I was like, no time for that. So that and then I've been trying to take it down with uh, but like my save state.

Luke 42:45

Um I think I have like Do you not have any rockets? There's like rockets over in the corner over there.

Alex 42:50

Uh maybe I should go find I don't think I have I use rockets. I think I depleted my rockets on the tank before that, so maybe I should go check out. Have you been playing on easy or normal or hard?

Luke 43:03

I don't remember setting a setting, so I'm gonna assume it's normal.

Alex 43:06

Okay. See, I I have mine on uh it's either easy or normal. Um, but all it really does, which from what I've read is uh like the different levels, you get less and less, you get less ammo the harder the gets.

Luke 43:19

That's cool.

Alex 43:20

Not really the fucking ammo sparseness game. I ain't trying to run around with my loot box opener the whole time.

unknown 43:27

Get the fuck out of here.

Luke 43:29

But yeah, your favorite gun. We've delayed this long enough.

Alex 43:31

Yeah, dude. What is your favorite gun?

Luke 43:33

The shotgun. It's always the shotgun. It's a good shotgun. Not every game is gonna be a good one.

Alex 43:36

Not as good as the Doom shotgun. Tell you right now.

Luke 43:41

Probably should be. Yeah, like even the original Doom shotgun is like way cooler than that shotgun.

Alex 43:46

I don't like this shotgun. This shotgun's good.

Luke 43:48

It's fine. You use it all the time, and there's like a lot of times like you're in a lot of narrow corridors, and there's like a lot of like little things like and you're like, ah, pow. Where like against the humans, I use that uh assault rifle the right.

Alex 43:59

I use assault rifle almost the whole time.

Luke 44:00

And I love the grenade launching action.

Alex 44:02

You know you share ammo between the like the handgun and the assault rifle. That's incredibly stupid.

Luke 44:07

Yeah, I don't like it either. The Magnum gun is cool against the aliens. Like you kind of need to be precise so like the humans move too much to use that against them effectively too well. In general, the game, the gunplay, especially where it's era top natch.

Alex 44:22

It is very cool.

Luke 44:23

Um I really wish there was like a sniper rifle or like a different machine gun where I could aim a little better. But I like those. The alien guns are stupid to me.

Alex 44:35

Uh I don't love them. I like I like their I like the I just they should be I don't understand why they're not overpowered.

Luke 44:41

Like that's what we've been doing all this research for. Yeah. That one guy gives you like his little like pet. Yeah, we didn't blend.

Alex 44:50

Whereas, whereas the the the crossbow that's like a sniper crossbow is super overpowered. And like, that's weird. Yeah, I did that. I was like, is this a tranquilizer? I'm pretty sure it's a tank dart or whatever, but it's like when you hit people, they're like, that's it. One hit kill everywhere. Which is cool, but uh, you know, it's just weird. I'm not like hating on it, it's just like my experience with it. I'm like, whatever. Uh enemies though. Yeah. What enemies are you liking? Like to fight.

Luke 45:13

Yeah. Um, I hate those little head crabs. Oh, dude. Drive me absolutely insane. Yeah, those suck. Uh the sentry guns can go die in hell. Uh super annoying. The little fucking little whoop boys is what I'm gonna call them. The hoot and eye or whatever. The whoop boys. Oh, they have the like the sound thing to go with. Although just plowing those with a shotgun is incredibly uh the hound eye. Yeah, those are incredibly that's gratifying. Um, I don't like any of them, but yeah, I like fuck them all up.

Alex 45:46

But uh dude, those assassins though.

Luke 45:48

Oh my god, they suck.

Alex 45:49

Uh they are tough, but I when I've I've only encountered them for sure one time. Well, I think they are. That's just but when you first encounter them, you're like, oh, the are these good I'm sure that there's an actual answer to this for someone that beat the game or someone that's into the lore. But from from the story that I has been unfolded for me and the way that I experienced that, anyways, is you I assumed at first they're like special ops, and I think I I was doing a little bit of reading and it's like they're either special ops or aliens. Yeah, but the way they move, they're so fast, dude.

Luke 46:18

I assumed it was like either like an experiment or yeah, that could be too.

Alex 46:21

Uh, but that was like a fun that was a fun area because there's all these ramps and stuff, and I was like, I was running around Goldeneye style where I was just like just sprinting and trying to take them out. And then the cool thing about even though you can't aim with with your gun with a lot of the guns, like the M16 or whatever, the this the right click button uh shoots a grenade out. Yeah. Like a gren or uh you know, like a grenade launcher. On that one, yeah. Uh so like even with those, like I was trying to hit them with uh hit with bullets that they move so fast where I luckily I had enough grenades where I could like they'd finally like they could do a sprint stop or turn or whatever, and then I would like get them with a grenade, and I'm like, got him.

Luke 47:00

Dude, I'm like, hell yeah. That's awesome.

Alex 47:01

I didn't oh you get a oh yeah, I don't get achievements.

Luke 47:04

That's like another big thing with black mesa as you get achievements, people are excited about that. Right on.

Alex 47:08

That's cool.

Luke 47:09

So yeah, shotgun. You don't like the shotgun, huh? You never use it?

Alex 47:12

Uh I use it sometimes, but I just prefer the uh just running in with my M16.

Luke 47:17

I find it intense. I probably is especially close quarters, you're like, wow.

Alex 47:23

It's gratifying, totally kills it. So what do you think, dude? Like we've been we've been playing this game. Uh already kinda I already kind of mentioned uh where are you at in 2022? Would you how would you recommend this game to someone?

Luke 47:36

Would you would you not if I was talking to like a Gen Zier, I'd be like, if you really love history. Right. Although Jonah like was like, you haven't played the Half-Life games, like super into a message. That's your brother-in-law. Yeah, he's like a PC boy though, so like once again, kind of part of that PC boy pantheon. It reminds me. Wait, he did he has or has not? Both of them, he loves them. Oh, yeah, okay. And please a big counter-strike guy too, though. But if you think back to some some late millennials, so like not the earlier ones, but just like the ones who were more so on the edge of Gen Z and millennialism, like myself. There was this era of like early 2000s to mid-2000s where like the first person story-based shooter was just like they made like a hundred of them a year. So, like Medal of Honor or like the early Call of Duty. So, like there was something like wholesome's definitely not the right word. There's something like maybe just nostalgic about going back and playing a game that was just like it wasn't all about some multiplayer lobby, it wasn't all about this or that or some craziness. It was just like here is a linear environmental shooter.

Alex 48:44

Right. So this is one of the this is like the first.

Luke 48:47

This is like the best one as far as the design and all those things. So like it's fascinating to play for those reasons and the whole like they don't tell you anything, and you're just kind of guided by the gameplay. So I'd say it's interesting enough where absolutely it's a good thing.

Alex 48:59

Dude, I picked this shit up for like three bucks or something like that on Steve. It is well I'm well worth it. It's like I've gotten my money's worth out of it, that's for sure.

Luke 49:06

Yeah, if you find it on those deep discounts, it's like worth it just for like how I played an hour or two of Half-Life 2 once. It's just like, you know, if you're into it, you're into it. But other than that, like sometimes like people like Borderlands these days, it's kind of like Borderlands has a bunch of RPG mechanics, so it is different, but that's like the closest comp of like, do you just want like a story where you like pick, grip it, and rip it, my dear and like you're just doing stuff and figuring things out, and it's just it's uh it's an artifact of a different era. Totally. I'd say that, yeah, I do, but also like if none of that sounded appealing to you, no, right?

Alex 49:42

No, totally that's how I feel about it. You know, it's like I went into this, this is not like I didn't love my experience, but I really liked it.

Luke 49:51

I'm glad we played it.

Alex 49:52

I am too, and I and I like I said I want to finish it because it's it's it's getting juicier, and I can realize like I really respect it. I think that's what it is. I respect it a lot.

Luke 50:00

The lore around is pretty cool.

Alex 50:01

The lore is great, and I just think that the the lore and the history is so cool. So, like if you're someone like me that like nerds out on like the whole like this is where we've come with gaming and like understanding the history of why we have games like Doom Eternal that are so fucking cool. Um, or you know, any of your who I don't know, whatever. Any of your French.

Luke 50:19

It's kind of weird to compare it to like Wolfenstein and Doom because they came out of it, and they're their own thing too. But it's also like the closest modern comp, but they're also all from the same era. It's just that those games grew up. Right. Whereas Half-Life people are still just begging for the third one.

Alex 50:33

I do I would say, yeah. Check it out. Check it out if you're into the history. But if you like or game design, or just like you know, like if you want to know where how we've gotten to where we are today, it's weird. Right. Do you like goatees? What is do you like pain? Are you a masochist? Yeah, I might be a masochist. That's what it goes about as well.

Luke 50:52

Yeah, this game isn't difficult enough for that. Totally.

Alex 50:55

Totally. But it's you know, it's it's for the experience. I would not, if you're like, if you're like, you know, kind of a casual gamer that's looking to pick up a nice little romp, play Kirby.

unknown 51:04

Right.

Luke 51:05

If you're a PC boy, I don't know.

Alex 51:07

Or you know, Fortnite or whatever, if you just want to do like a super like easy first-person shooter. Easy's not right. I don't know. I don't play Fortnite.

Luke 51:15

Oh, that's that is correct, actually. You're right, you're right. It's just, yeah. If you grew up in the PS2 Xbox era, this game just kind of feels like a throwback to that.

Alex 51:29

I respect this game. I think it's cool. Yeah, it's fun. It's not my favorite in the world, but you know what?

Luke 51:34

I respect it highly. Yeah, if you have an excuse to play it, like if you and your brother start a podcast, your brother sets up a pole and then rigs the pole to play the game he wants to play. All of those factors.

Alex 51:48

The homies made their boat.

Luke 51:51

But it's cool. And like I could see like getting done with this, I'm so close. There's like two, three more chapters for it to go. I'm on 14. I think there's 18 total. So like I'm right there and I've invested enough where I'll totally finish. But I don't know if I'll have I know Half-Life 2 is supposed to be better, so like I should probably find a reason to play.

Alex 52:10

I I I know that most of the high praise I find are on the internet is around Half-Life 2, and when I when I listen to different pods and stuff like that, people are always like Half-Life 2 holds up. No, I I've never like nowhere have I read Half-Life 1 holds up. No, no, but Half-Life 2. But that that's how I am, though, is like I would like to play Half-Life 1 before I play Half-Life 2. So that's what that's why we did this. So next month, Half-Life 2. Let's go. Just play it. We're gonna take a little break. We might get there someday. Uh, but do be on the lookout for future non-main pod content because uh I do think that I very much would like to finish this game and I'll I'll just share some of my experience with that.

Luke 52:42

Al's gonna shirtlessly stream in a hot tub himself playing Half-Life 2. I'd pay for that.

Alex 52:48

I'll even grow out a Gordon Freeman fucking goatee.

Luke 52:50

That's a better gimmick.

Alex 52:52

All right, man. Let's take a little break. Let's take a little break, holler at our unstation sponsor, and then we'll come back with some side questing. Dude, you know it's fucking tight. What's that? Coffee and sweets. This is your unsection sponsor coffee and sweets. Dude, some coffee and some pastries.

Luke 53:17

Shout out to Blue Heron, Winona, delicious coffee, maple scones. Makes me want to take the two-hour drive to Winona just to get me a maple.

Alex 53:25

That's what I'm saying, dude. You're you you thought I was playing. But coffee and pastries. There's always a joint in your local area that's gonna have fucking fire, coffee and pastries, or just okay ones, but there's an experience to be had there. Going to the local joint, getting you some coffee, getting you some pastries, and being happy about life.

Luke 53:42

And you know, just in defense of scones, they get a bad rap. Scones are delicious. I'm just scones bougie enough to enjoy scones. Sorry, I'm on this elevated plane of existence, so I think scones are delicious. But you got a flavor of scone, bro? Yeah, maple scone. I just always go. Yeah, you know, the maple scones from the blue heron slap so hard.

Alex 54:01

Blue heron. We were just at Mary Ellen's. I got me a tall glass of fucking cold brew.

Luke 54:06

Yeah.

Alex 54:07

Dope. Their cinnamon? That's all right. That's cool. The coffee made it better, though. Coffee made it so good, dude. And I'm saying that combo coffee and some pastries. Coffee and pastry. Got some other shops, dude. Dogwood. I've been going to Dogwood, getting that stuff. And you know what? These are these are some places where we're at. I know you guys and gals have been getting some coffee, eating some pastries. If you got a coffee and pastry place that you love, holler at me. I'll tweet it out or some shit because I want to know. Dude, let's go. That's what's up.

Luke 54:35

A little espresso, a little uh almond croissant. Croissant might be the best. Uh croissant. Croissant might be the best. Uh give me that croissant money. Yeah, give me all the buttery, flaky croissant money.

Alex 54:47

Dude, almond croissant, chocolate, dude, Trader Joe's. You listening? Here's the deal. I don't like love Trader Joe's, but I'll tell you what, they got these like self-rising. Yeah, I mess with their Trader Joe's too. I ain't gonna lie. They ain't messing with this podcast yet, though. They're just getting free advertising. What up, Trader Joe's, with your chocolate, slash, and or almond croissants that self-rise overnight. You put them in the oven in the morning, you bake them for like, I don't know, 15 minutes. Ooh, so good. You make that coffee at home, you don't even need to go to coffee and the pastry shop because you make that shit at home.

Luke 55:19

Nice. This man's very excited about coffee.

Alex 55:22

Coffee and pastries. I got a lot of cold pressing me to death.

Luke 55:24

Yeah, he's jittering before this pod, so that was his nice. He's like, This is gonna be my last response. Coffee and pastries. Coffee and pastries.

Alex 55:31

I'm the first one to think this is a delicious combo. If you love this combo of coffee and pastries, have y'all heard of coffee and send us send us an email and I will give that place that you love to go to some love on the internet. You can listen to this in 3018. Will I be alive? That's right. Definitely not. Definitely. My kids. Well, kids want me to get that fucking trap some love, even if it doesn't exist. No kids, kids. All right, that's it. Thanks, copy and paste trees. Dumb ass. We've been side questing. Easy dead boy. I'm playing Red Dead.

Luke 56:15

So if we do a Red Dead pot, I'm just gonna just do it's alright. Easy dad. Hey there. Tell me a little bit. Just just uh just cobble all the time.

Alex 56:27

Dude, I've been the horse I because I've been doing a little bit because you started.

Luke 56:31

You gotta brush the horse, you gotta you gotta feed the horse. You know, it's basically horse dad simulator. Uh playing Red Dead, first time I've played it since when it was released in 2018, put a huge chunk into it there, beat it, did the extended stuff, loved it. But in high, I was always like, ah, I like Red Dead Redemption 1 better. And now that I'm replaying 2, I'm replaying it with an entirely different mindset, and I can just deeply appreciate every inch of that game. Like the first time you play, there's like a story where you just get bombed out, blackout, drunk, and you run away and you're in the middle of nowhere without your horse, and it's so far back to camp that you're like on real. So you see like a yellow icon, which is your missions on your mini-year. You don't run that fast in this game either. No, you do not. There's vast expanses. So you see this yellow circle next to you. So like you're bombed out, blacked out, woke up under a tree, and then you walk to this area, and then it's your priest friend buddy who is like basically blacking out himself in the middle of this poker match, and these dudes are like, We'll take his place. So you're just this dude who just got tore up, blacked out, woke up, and you're like, and then you have to save your friend and then play poker for him. And it just teaches you the poker mini mechanic of the game. But like just that, like, kind of if you want to talk about like some like half-life you just kind of like guiding you on this little experience that makes it feel like it was uh it was um what's it natural or whatever. Yeah, well, I was trying to think of that spontaneous, spontaneous spontaneous, like really the same. But they definitely kind of I feel like they designed it for you to have that happen. Right. But I like to add my own storytelling and I like to imagine that I just smell like piss and whiskey. Uh then your wife's like, take a shower. Right. I have to be immersed with the gameplay, so I pissed myself and drank whiskey. No, uh, so then you play poker and then you can leave after like a hand or two. Yeah. But like this time around, you went all in. I'm just like, no, I'm not leaving this table until I take all these men's monies. Did you? Yeah. I've spent like an hour playing poker and probably earned six to twelve bucks. There you go. So like dead money. The game has Yeah, right. Which isn't even a ton of money in the game. So like the game just has all of these deep layers that I appreciated upon the first play. But upon the second play, you just really slow down. And like I know what's gonna happen with the storyline, I know all the beats, so like I still do those things and enjoy it, but like what I'm truly enjoying is just like the immersion. Yeah, I'm just gonna head in this direction, I'm gonna go hunting. That's cool. And then the game does a lot of cool stuff. Like, games are doing this more and more now where you just like run into random events, so there'll be a little gray blip on your radar, and it'll be these dudes, and you'll just like interact with these dudes, and whatever that leads you to, it leads you to. But you just have a lot of fun doing goofy stuff, and I just love being a cowboy petting my horse. That's what Barry Witcher 3 for me. Sure. But like it's his canned, like, you can have boy or girl horses, and he just says the same thing, but with the other gender or whatever. And it's so funny when I was playing back in 2018, my buddy Carter, he's ESP in my room, and we were working together, and like kids would be like yelling, we'd be like, We were just like having all these jokes just to ourselves. The kids are like, What the heck? And they're like, I don't want to do this homework, and we're like, it's alright. So kind of remembering those stupid moments from when I first played it, and then just like really diving deep and like shaving. Oh, that's funny. They have this delightful shaving mechanic where like I'm growing out my mustache to like max, so like when you get back to your base camp, you can shave your beard, your goatee. Maybe I should do a Gordon Freeman beard. Maybe I should give him a goatee. Second most infamous goatee game. And your like hair grows out, so you have to like go to the barber if you want, and like it's just it's a very fun game to just play at my own. It's just cowboy simulator now with a storyline attached. So I'm looking for the clan. I want to throw some dynamite at the clan. You can see like a random clan gathering if you're down in the south. So I'm like that was that was the last thing I was looking. So that what? Just throw some dynamite sticks at him. Yeah, so there's like a morality system in the game. So like if you kill some randos, like your morality goes down. But if you see a clan rally, you can kill them all and nothing happens. It might actually go up a tiny bit. I like it a lot. I really want to disrupt a rally and like just like I've done that before, and like it's a pretty popular thing to do. But you like walk in on them and they're like having a big clan gathering, like burning across, and you can like throw some dinosaurs. Take them down. Yeah, it's tight.

Alex 1:01:09

Dude, Rockstar. They're an interesting, yeah. Rockstar Games. That's funny. That's my side quest as well. Rockstar game. Oh, you got it. Grand Theft Add of 4. Grand Theft Add of Four. I've been talking about how that's been my backburner game. Sure. Finally took it down, bro.

Luke 1:01:24

Took it down. Don't worry, last time we did this, I taught them how to steal the Lamborghini and jump out the top floor and how fucking cool it is. Did you do that on your own ever? No.

Alex 1:01:34

Dude, I'll tell you what though, uh, driving in Grand Theft Auto 4, it gets some hate. Uh, but I love it. It's my favorite.

Luke 1:01:39

It's my favorite Grand Theft Auto game.

Alex 1:01:42

Take I've got some things to say about my side quest with the Grand Theft Auto 4. But I will say this quickly about the driving. I um, you know, I have a GTA 5 and I haven't beat that one either. So I was like, you know, I was like, I'll pop this in just to see what's going on, play a little bit of it right after playing four. Uh GTA 5 is obviously cool, but what the hell, man? They they like made it cruising USA style driving. They leaned heavy into these simulation. Oh man. Dude, I was so good at like hitting that handbrake and like doing fishtails and like getting around and getting GTA 4. It's sick, yeah.

Luke 1:02:12

And like, upsh. So uh it's because like every kid in the world plays Grand Theft Auto, which is hilarious and ironic, but like so like if you're in more sophisticated driving game, right?

Alex 1:02:23

Yeah, dude. The driving Grand Theft on Session sponsored driving in GTA 4. It's the best.

Luke 1:02:30

Only slightly better than Kirby forgotten.

Alex 1:02:32

Dude, I got so good at it, like you're right. Oh, bad driving. It took a while. Uh, but here's here's what I want to say about this game, dude. It took me a long time. You know, it was one of those games that I I wasn't like putting hours and hours into. I'd pick it up when I because like that's the thing about Grand Theft Auto and Rockstar games in general, is a lot of them are really good about I can you can go into it to tackle the storyline, you can go in just to drive around, like it's cool, man. And it's uh but so like you know, it's one that I would pick up, and but it's it's an old enough game where I would get frustrated at some of the quality of life things that they've added to like GTA 5 and stuff with drive me nuts and four, like just because I would be doing fine at whatever mission, but there'd be like a weird thing that trips. Like uh a good example would be there's this one mission where you're uh you're with one of these mob guys. That really narrows it down. Uh but anyways, you're like, yeah, but you're like chasing this car, and the way that simulation goes is the car that you're chasing, you're not allowed to destroy it because these they've got this bag, and you have to retrieve the bag, right? Uh full of money or whatever. Typical. Right. Yeah. Still not really narrowing it down, Alex. Uh, but the thing is, is like you you so you don't want to shoot the thing, blow it up because you'll destroy the bag. Yeah, so you gotta keep following it, and you gotta make sure your driving's fine, you gotta stay far enough behind them. And then like there's all these other things that lead up to that. You have to go to the meat, you have to protect them with the with the uh the sniper rifle from a distance, and you have to go take out the enemies after they attack and stuff, uh, which is all fine and good. But if you die or if you mess up, you have to go back to like where the whole thing started. You gotta drive to one area, you gotta drive back to that area.

Luke 1:04:02

Storylines where they do all the disposition dumps through your listen to everything again.

Alex 1:04:06

It's just like it's not terrible, but it's also like, man, I already did this three times.

Luke 1:04:09

What game was it where they switched up the conversations? So I think this one they do a little bit. Oh, they do, okay. Yeah, but it's I feel like we had that conversation since maybe last year.

Alex 1:04:18

But like, so that was kind of I mean, like, there's bet that that part's kind of type. Like, so, anyways, like I was too close to the car, and because I pushed the car into the point where it's like supposed to crash, it was like you like you lose, you destroy the bag. I was like, No, are you kidding me? Like, the no, I haven't shot them anything, and my car was just like touching their car when it crashed, so therefore it's like crediting me for the kill. Like, that's not ah so you have to only a bump is all it takes. Yeah, dude, but things like that were driving me crazy. And then the final mission, man, I ran into a game-breaking bug, and it was so terrible. So it's like this angry. And I won't I won't like blow like the whole storyline for folks, you know. I'm so you know, I'm not gonna like it. But there's a part where you're you have to take this dirt bike, and you know, after all this other shit, you have to do this other thing, you know. So, anyways, like so you're doing this thing, you get on this dirt bike. The first time I effed it up myself. Like, I just skidded too hard on the dirt bike, fell off, so I missed the jump. So I was like, alright, do it over, that's fair. But you also have to do this back and forth, whatever it is.

Luke 1:05:20

That's exactly what you're doing. That's how every Grand Theft Auto game eventually. Right, yeah, totally. It's like did you at one point jump onto a moving helicopter?

Alex 1:05:27

So this this is like the final mission in the in the choice that I made or whatever, which is to save your cousin or save your you know girlfriend, girlfriend or whatever. Uh your love interest. But anyways, uh dude, and this is in this in this fucking deal, uh, you had to tap the A button or whatever it is super fast to have Roman pull you into the helicopter. Who's your cousin? Oh, Roman's your cousin. Who's Nico? Are you Nico? You're Nico. Okay. Roman's. So, dude, I'm tapping it and I can't get in. I'm like, okay, I'll do it again. I did it like three more times. I couldn't get the helicopter. I was like, this is ridiculous. I can't get in this helicopter. Like, what's the throws controller? Dude, uh, so like finally I look it up and they're like, yeah, there's a problem with the game. Like, you can't progress, like it just won't work. And it was like, it's a problem with like an X, the Xbox port and the uh or the Xbox 360 or whatever, and then apparently on the Steam PC version.

Luke 1:06:23

And I was like, Well, so playing this on my PlayStation 3. Dude, and I didn't make it this.

Alex 1:06:27

I didn't make enough save states to go to the other branch to like make the other decision that would bring me to another final mission, a different final mission. So I fucked that up. So I was like, Are you serious? Like I I put this much time and this has been my backburner game going, and I'm not gonna be able to beat this game because of this stupid like thing, and I can't patch stupid like Rockstar dude. Rockstar hasn't put in like Rockstar doesn't care. They're like, We're not gonna patch this for anybody.

Luke 1:06:48

Not until they resell it 15 more times.

Alex 1:06:50

Yeah, dude, that they uh they might no that one's still for sale. Like, so they they remastered the for the initial trilogy or whatever, but this one's not remastered. Dude, great game. I'm just really frustrated at this little part.

Luke 1:07:02

I like Liberty City better than I like uh Los Santos.

Alex 1:07:06

That's not what it's called. Liberty City. Oh no, no, no. Oh no, I know what you're talking about. Yeah, no, uh Liberty City is cool. But anyways, dude, so like I figured it out and I did enough deep back to the forums. I did enough deep diving and uh YouTubeing to figure out that if I went into my she my graphic card settings and I capped the the frame rate at 60 FPS, then I wouldn't run into that problem. Yeah. Which I was like, alright, cool. Yeah, yeah, no, it's fine. You don't need that game to run any higher. So and it's uh but that did the trick. And then I progressed, and then you're in the helicopter, and the game's uh the game tells you to stay low and chase this thing. And I got blown up like four times because they got a rocket launcher. Sure. And then but then I figured out that you don't actually have to listen and stay low, like you can actually fly high and avoid the rockets, right?

unknown 1:08:04

Whatever.

Alex 1:08:05

So I so I get so I get past that. I get past this little this whole ordeal, and I'm on the final stretch where you're you're you're running after this dude, and I got my gun out, and I Roman gets in my crosshairs, and I accidentally shoot him right in the head. So it's like Roman has died. I was like, what? I have to restart this again, I have to do all this shit over again. This whole deal. Oh man. And then I finally beat it, and I was happy I got to put that game to rest. Hell yeah.

Luke 1:08:32

Good game. Underrated for some reason.

Alex 1:08:35

I think that's it, bud. All right. Till next time, y'all. Thanks for tuning in. It's all right. Uh yeah, no, thanks for listening. It's super cool. You can find us on our Discord. You can send us an email at hello at low5gaming.com. Check out our website, low5 gaming. Uh, thanks so much for listening, everybody. It's super cool. If you got this far, uh, it would be super appreciated if you left us a rating. If you are on a podcatcher that does ratings, so if you're on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, good pods, whatever. Give us some love. You know, send us a note. It's super cool that you that you're still with us here right now, whether it's your first time or whether this is your, I believe this is episode 10, dude. That's kind of tight. Thanks so much. Thanks so much for listening. We appreciate it. It's been super cool. It's been super cool to see so many people listening to us. Uh, we're having a lot of fun with it. Uh, holler at us. Till next time. Ouija. Can't fucking talk, dude. Ouija, Luigi is all that damn coffee hit the prize.