h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

....but surely Half Life is more than this, there are elements in HL that simply do not appear elsewhere, plus some which date back to 3D monster Maze on the ZX81.

Kadu

Right... while a good article as it stands, it needs a little more emphasis, I think, on the fact that Half-Life was pretty much the *first* First-Person Shooter to actually feature a decent plot, and to make you feel like you're really involved in a story.

In addition, it manages to make you feel like you're exploring a real world... there aren't any 'levels', the game doesn't keep score, and indeed there's no reason to kill *everything* if you don't want to. The weapons are more realistic than before - some of them don't fire underwater - and they hold a limited amount of ammo so they need reloading.

The re-introduction of laser tripmines - gone since Duke Nukem 3D from the world of the FPS - could probably use commenting on. The snarks, too, are bound to be worth a mention

Then again, Half-Life has some bad points. The multiplayer game is largely devoid of skill, compared to classics such as Quake II, at least... the weapons are far too powerful and most of the levels tend to make it easy to simply camp near some big guns and take all comers from there.

On the other hand, Half-Life was playable on-line right from the box, down to finding servers for you... it also brought in custom spray-on tags, useful for scrawling your name all over a level.

If you're going to mention multiplayer, though, you'll really need to mention clan gaming... which reminds me, there's an article on Team Fortress which could probably use a link - especially if you're going to mention that Team Fortress is part of the standard upgrade package for Half-Life which you'll have to download if you want to play on-line.

It might be worth commenting on how, although Half-Life undoubtedly has one of the best single-player games for a FPS, it's unfortunately impossible to play the single-player game multiplayer and cooperatively... there is, in fact, a mod you can download (SvenCoop) which allows this, but there are still a fair number of glitches... which is unfortunate, because cooperative singleplayer Half-Life would be a neat thing indeed if it worked properly.

Finally, I'd mention that System Shock 2 has probably got Half-Life beaten at its own game, being essentially a much deeper FPS with a much better plot...

Just a few thoughts

26199 (who really should get out more)

wow, I go on a lunch break and already...

The snarks are fairly useless in single player, and are completely lacking of tactics in multiplayer, so I don't feel the need to mention them.

I tried to keep a positive look on multiplayer, as I believe Team Fortress Classic is widely accepted as the multiplayer of choice.

I should mention about the frequent problems with cooperative, shouldn't I? I'll keep working...

Thanks, though! I want to have another appro...*ahem* edited article under my belt

damm all this talk of it I went to play and found i'd removed it to free space and my mate has my CD. Curses

But what 26199 says is all true. The no levels thing especially, although on the negative - 2 many bloody pipes to crawl in, to dark at time (well it was till i turned my monitor brightness up) - alien level a bit silly - But again on the +ve the weapons are fun especially crossbow/snipers rifle and the second mode of most weapons.

Keep working.

Kadu