Thank you very much for your review! I'm glad you've enjoyed your playthroughs, seeing people enjoy my work/team work is exactly why I make things and my ultimate goal. Indeed, V2 version of HL2MMod will be a much more focused experience, with majority of options being forced on and pretty much every single post processing option removed, due to putting a bit of strain on the engine and being obsolete due to ReShade being able to replicate and surpass many of HL2MMod additions. This will also allow easier porting to Linux and subsequently to Steam Deck like devices. Thanks to reviews like this one and player feedback we now know what works and what doesn't, feedback and criticism are important to us. It's also being worked on from ground up, meaning almost everything will be brand new. I would also love to put it on Steam, hopefully it'll be easier than putting HL1MMod on Steam, where I had to make a gigantic fuss about it before being noticed by Valve with the help of community. I cannot spend a lot of time on my projects like I used to, so I'm not even sure when you'll see the first footage of V2, but it's been in prototyping stage for couple of years now. Personally, I'm much more proud of HL1MMod, it was quite a challenge to make it in the first place, especially since it has around 4 times more additions than HL2MMod. It was difficult to work with such an old engine and it was difficult to maintain the balance of adding new things and logic without overdoing it. HL1 fanbase is much more dedicated and less forgiving when it comes to tinkering with the OG game and I'm glad you have found most of the stuff to your liking. Thank you for bringing attention to my story too, means a lot to me. I find it quite difficult to work on something that requires being creative these days, that part of me simply stayed in the ruins back home, but I still hope that v2 of HL2MMod will surpass the first version in terms of quality and being more true to HL2 design.
It's very unlikely that you may read this reply, but I think a lot of people (myself included) would prefer you somehow kept the post-processing options in, rather than have us all use Reshade if we all want that sort of stuff. It just feels a lot more natural to have it properly built into the game rather than for use to external software that can end up being more buggy and having undesirable effects. I can understand your reasoning for removing it in v2 of HL2MMOD, but it'd be nice to have it be kept in for those who want it, somehow.
You mention ReShade, but one thing that really kills it is the fact that it can't discern between the game and the HUD, meaning effects get applied to the UI as well, which kinda sucks. Sure, this is apparently fixable with a certain ReShade addon, but I've never gotten it to work properly on any game.
4:35 I don't agree with this, Gordon is NOT meant to be powerless in HL2. He's painted as a savior who almost single-handedly tore his way through the resonance cascade and is tearing his way through the earthbound combine. He's seen as a legend, the game does everything it can to give the player power and tools so that you're always on top. In Half-Life 1 Gordon was just another scientist, in Half-Life 2 he's a living legend.
I guess the word he should have used is "underdog" rather than "powerless". Gordon is resourceful and skillful, this makes up for his initial lack of brute force, wich is supposed to be point of the Half-Life franchise.
@@aubrey5577 You either glaze Mr.Freeman or have The Combine staple someone's balls over your nose and your limbs turned into stumps just so you wouldn't think that everything is sunshine and rainbows.
That addition just honestly makes me mad that the Tau cannon was dropped in the base game. I love HL2 but sometimes it feels like the game was overpolished and cool ideas were dropped for no better reason than to simplify it.
it also has the gluon gun, it's unfinished but with some addons you can add it to maps, make it have an original model and make it so its icon fits with the others
Im honestly all for the increased customization we've seen in mods recently. Hell, I'm already customizing the game by downloading a mod in the 1st place, right?
i was thinking this too, in mods and in games in general. i get his point about games presenting their visions without compromise, but imo extra customization does little to get in the way of that. even if an option nullifies an entire game mechanic, you'd still have to make the decision to turn it on. ppl who want a vanilla experience will always have the default config
I mean, from Gordon's perspective the time between the resonance cascade and the death of Eli Vance was about six days (even though he was in stasis for 20 years and in a teleport for a week, to him he didn't experience time like that), so I imagine even though his vision is probably poor he might not need new glasses.
6:37 As someone who likes to have lots of options to the point of ridiculousness, the answer to this that should please both sides of the debate is simple. Have a "Developer intended settings" config that is very clearly labeled as such. That way you get an auto config for the experience the people making the game _think_ you should have, and if you disagree with any bit of that, the ball is in your court to change it. Heck, even have a "Are you sure? You may get a suboptimal experience as the game was not as thoroughly playtested for these settings!" and then you can click "Yes, I'm sure."
Absolutely, coming from a mainly RTS and city builder background, the "custom" difficulty opening the big tweaking page is likely what has been the foundation of half of my playtime of these games since it allows for so much replayability in by shaking things up in interesting ways. the Sniper Elite series is also pretty good at this, letting you for example have deadly and highly skilled enemies to reward stealth gameplay, but still have full scope assistance for your rifle if you're not into wind guaging. More options in the players' hands, even stuff like easy moddability through XML data files and such, is always something I consider a positive in a game, but should absolutely never be considered the baseline for someone's first playthrough, and be clearly marked as an unintended experience.
Linear "easy, normal, hard" difficulty has never sat well with me. Different people are going to struggle at Different things for different reasons. Mabye you find spongy enemies unsatisfying but still want a challenging experience, so you might want to raise your own weapon damage and increase the number of enemies to compensate.
6:08 My brother in Christ, did you just see Alyx about to get blown to smithereens by a Zombine grenade, then turn around and just assume she'll be fine without your help? Truly you are the Freeman!
i never liked the stunstick's implementation in mmod. it just felt like you got the crowbar and then 2 minutes later it got completely replaced (plus the way it comes after the gravity gun in the hud makes it mildly infuriating to look at ur inventory before getting the gg) i think it wouldve been better if rather than just giving the stunstick a straight damage upgrade (except underwater where using it hurts you), it did more damage to enemies but was borderline useless against inanimate things like boxes. or mayhaps it could have, well, _stunned_ enemies while dealing little-to-no actual damage, making it serve as more of an escape tool than a weapon
12:25 "He's also working on a new version of Half Life MMOD" I wonder if this is the non-canon version he was once working on that would've had stuff from the beta like the OICW and AK47. I would still like to see more for 1's MMOD though, like more chapters being redone (Xen!) but also fixing up some stuff like the Alien Grunts AI being glitchy
@@dualfallen the last media updates on the ModDB page have already confirmed that the Combine sniper, Desert Eagle, and Gluon Gun are coming in V2. These updates were from 2019 though, so I don’t know how plans may have changed.
I actually really like the projectile bullets in MMod. It's not just because it is a bit more realistic. I think it's a gameplay enhancer. It kind of addresses an issue you noted earlier in the video, that being the fact that fights between you and the Combine are just you two trading damage with each other. With projectile bullets, you now have to lead shots on distant moving targets, and it is also possible for you to dodge their shots by strafing. This encourages the player to use their mobility, and it rewards aggressive play. It adds a certain layer of skill to the game. Projectile bullets already exist to some extant in Half-Life 2, being applied to the snipers, who fire projectiles that take time to reach the target. And honestly, I prefer Half-Life 2's projectile based snipers to the aimbot snipers in Half-Life 1. So, I see no issue applying it to all enemies.
@@yuuki671 What do you mean by that? I decided to quickly open up Half-Life 2 just to be sure I am not wrong, and... I don't think I am. The bullets have travel time. You can use the timescale command to slow down time and better see it for yourself. I even tested to see if you can catch the bullet in mid air with a prop or your body AFTER the sniper fires, and you can. It's definitely a projectile. I believe you're mistaken.
Thank you, I love projectile bullets in MMod. I agree with you when it comes to the snipers, but that's because they're barely in the game. The snipers in 2 feel like an actual Obstacle rather than a SURPRISE, DIE! moment.
@@xxfalconarasxx5659 according to him, the sniper first fires a fake bullet (the bullet tracer you see) then an invisible hitscan bullet right after an appropriate time has passed
6:41 while i think a more focused experience is good, i also don't think it should trump accessibility, i think the best way of handling this is to make clear that additional accessibility options aren't and intended part of the core experience, and exist for the sake of inclusivity
Projectile bullets are way better. They encourage movement as Combine can be both accurate but not instant health draining hitscanners. It also requires more skill to lead targets
yes! that's why I always loved the nailgun in quake, projectiles are interesting and in almost every case they are more engaging than hitscan there's a quake mod [quake mod with maps] called arcane dimentions, and it makes all shotguns shoot projectiles (those being ig somewhat slower than hl crossbow) and OH MY GOD does that add lots of impact.
Many of this guys opinions on gameplay lead me to assume he is a low IQ gamer with mediocre skills at best. Half Life is a game to get creative with, and all this man sees is run and gun.
6:30 . There's a middleground where the settings are set to what the developer intends the experience to be, and changing them prompts the player about this, and to change the settings only if the player needs to in order to access the game.
That's pretty much what Pathologic 2 does. You have the developers' intended difficulty on by default, but you can choose to start changing difficulty values for an easier (or harder) experience. There's even an ingame 4th wall break that touches on that.
I feel like fully customizable settings are perfect for second or third play-throughs (which is what mods basically do). Like, the developers create what they intend the experience to be, but after experiencing that they allow the players to alter it to their liking. It could also allow developers to track what settings people play with more so that it can be factored into future games.
@@undeadfrak Plus once there's online conversation about it, the "eh this is gonna be lame/bullshit" can be used to tell people how to get a better experience from the start
Yeah he focuses in on the health chargers 'looking wrong' while ignoring how the rest of the game looks like a blurred muddy mess, there's good reason why most classic game fans prefer texture filtering off and why Valve added the option to turn it off in the menus of the base game
He even contradicts himself by saying the unfiltered textures are shit even though he just said it himself that he's more of a purist literally 30 seconds ago
@@Jo-uy5vf yeah the textures were in HL like that from the start and you know.... When purists review mods better not to listen to them cuz vanilla will ALWAYS come on out on top
6:30 I learned about those options in TLoU while researching about games with accessibility options for blind people. It sucks that they get rid of important mechanics, but if it enables someone to experience the game more fairly, I think it's pretty neat!
I think custom difficulty and accessibility/assist options are two different things. You're right, the more you let players customize exactly how hard the game is, the more you're asking THEM to basically balance it for you. On one hand, developers can't know how good a player is, and they still want everyone to enjoy their games. On the other, how is the player meant to know that more than the developers? They didn't make the game, they don't know how difficult it can be or what would make it easier. Psychonaut's assist features however are something else. Those exist more for players that don't really care about playing the game and just want to get through the story. Or people that really aren't good at games whatsoever. I see these as completely valid, same as Nabbit in Mario games completely negating any and all damage. That's not forcing players to balance the game for themselves, that's allowing them to forego things they already know they don't want. Also, those mods always go SO overboard with the weapon sounds, to the point where they don't sound "satisfying" or "powerful", but just make my ears hurt. They just crank up the bass and volume and voilà, so realistic! Brutal Doom is a big offender in this regard, since if there's a lot of gunfire going on, you can't even hear the music anymore. And those detail textures in HL1 are just bad. They just lay one entire texture over the entire thing, which doesn't make sense if the texture consists of different materials. You can see it well with the pinboard at 8:48, where even the paper has wood grain on it. More detail =/= better. This just reminds me of that "realistic video game characters"-trend.
"projectile bullets are a crime against god" , "no texture filtering is an abhorrent crime against all that is holy" , said nobody ever in the history of shooters except this guy right here. what the fuck?
Also being weirdly proud of playing Doom 3 BFG edition, a game that is far more egregious when it comes to making graphical changes that make the game worse off, the old 2004 version isn't even hard to get running at modern resolutions if you know how to edit a config file, bet he plays Halo CE with Anniversary graphics on because that's the default
i love purplecolonel but yeah he does say some pretty braindead shit sometimes. He tends to speak in absolutes a lot of the time, which whether or not that's just him joking or trying to add flair to his script it comes across and snarky and cuntish
Well when it comes to HL1 and texture filtering hes kinda right, texture filtering enabled is the "original" look for this game - it was and still is what it used by default unless you used the software renderer (or manually turned it off with some config thing). Whether you personally prefer it that way or not is subjective of course.
@@olnnn we always turn it off in quake, did the same in hl and it of course looks better. But yeah I can understand this about half life being the default. But not wanting projectile bullets is straight up the opposite of what everyone's been asking forever, literally never heard anyone saying I want enemies to hitscan me until I'm dead.
For gameplay options in games, I feel like it's good to have options, but you need to make sure the default settings make for a great experience. Anything that's in the default untweaked settings are fair criticism, since a majority of players likely won't change settings.
6:37 I think the rise of modular difficulty settings and mechanics like this is actually a very good thing, because it extends a lot of agency to the player to define what would make the experience actually enjoyable for them. After all, the whole point of a video game is for the player to be able to enjoy themselves, and if they know what aspect of the default experience is preventing them from enjoying it, why not respect their intelligence and let them fix that, rather than telling them they're not enjoying the game the *right* way by calling those cheats or locking them behind a dev console, if you even provide that at all? Sticking to an inflexible, undilutable vision doesn't really benefit the player at all, and only really benefits a developer who can't see the bigger picture. Celeste and Soulsborne games are great examples of this. Celeste's default vision is going through each level grabbing the challenging strawberries, and the controls are tightly crafted to benefit that very challenging experience. But it also gives modular difficulty options to players who want to make the game easier or even harder, both baked into the gameplay itself (levels being significantly easier when not going for the strawberries, including extremely challenging B-side and C-side levels for expert gamers) as well as through the assist mode. I've met a lot of players who never even got into platformers at all, let alone ones that are designed in a Super Meat Boy-esque way, and were able to get a lot of personal value out of Celeste because the assist mode allowed them to enjoy all of the storytelling, theming, and exquisite art/music that Celeste offers. If you can make the game enjoyable for so many more people without compromising the core vision for 90% of players, why not do that? And contrary to popular belief, soulsbornes like Dark Souls and Elden Ring have offered extensive modular difficulty options within their games. They've never really been about being hard as balls boss fights or what not, they're only just hard enough to make you have to think and hit a difficulty sweet spot for yourself. And they give a lot of ways for you to hit that sweet spot; you could go with just the default melee build as the game is advertised around, or you can integrate all sorts of ranged attacks, spells, and buffs into your arsenal to give you an edge against a lot of hallway encounters or bosses. You can spend time leveling up or upgrading your weapons, find a boss's weakness, or even make it harder for yourself by purposefully *not* leveling up (SL 1 runs) or using weaker weapons. In Dark Souls, there's AI summon signs available even in offline mode against many of the toughest bosses in the game such as Bell Gargoyles, Quelaag, Ornstein & Smough, and even Gwyn himself that can trivialize the bosses on a first attempt if you're particularly stuck on them so you can enjoy the rest of the game. Elden Ring goes all-in on this by integrating this into the Spirits Summon system and giving all sorts of options for how effective that summon is, whether it's just as a distraction like a pack of zombies or as a full-on second player or boss fight like the Mimic Tear or Omenkiller. Systems like these are why so many people have played and enjoyed Dark Souls to the point of it becoming a household name. Sekiro is what happens when those modular difficulty options *aren't* there, as there is no player agency at all. The prosthetic weapons are severely neutered to having extremely little impact for your personal playstyle compared to Dark Souls' weapons and spells, the advertised stealth is entirely underbaked, and almost all of the other systems that soulslike games are known for are missing; if you're stuck on a boss, there's nothing else you can really try out or do elsewhere to make each attempt feel more rewarding, your only path forward is to just slam your head against the wall for 20-50 attempts in the exact way the game wants you to play. And it just feels miserable as a result.
That's a big part of the reason I didn't pick up Sekiro. I liked the Soulsborne titles because they're modern-day dungeon crawlers with a lot of build flexibility and player expression, not because "game hard make my dick feel good." It really bums me out too, because Sekiro's world-building, art direction, and characters seem super neat, but I really wish I could be playing my own character rather than Wolf. If I wanted to play a character action game, I'd play Devil May Cry or Bayonetta or literally any other character action than Sekiro.
yeah accessibility options are not the same as normal customizable gameplay. having assist options is basically the only way my friend with CFS (chronic fatigue syndrome) can experience many games and i see no reason why including them should harm anyone else
Agreed. I like when games have a "true ending" kind of mode that the game is meant to be played on, and a tooonn off accessibility options! Those options don't need to be changed, but changing the way a game works does allow someone to play who couldn't normally. It's good that these kinds of options are added!
6:37 Bro why is this even a question? You can tweak it or just let at default values for the original experience lol This is like asking to color-blind/deaf people: "do you like playing the game as intended or adapted to your deficiencies?" And then complain about the existence of subtitles and color-blind options to them
"accessibility" options are great, and its even better when they're clearly marked as such. nobody's confused when they see "assist mode", "invincibility", or "no enemies/story mode difficulty". but lazily designed difficulty options and other optional features just being thrown into the mix with no clear indication can be pretty bad actually. we've all played games that make you pick from easy/medium/hard right from the outset with little to no context. sometimes its more like 5 difficulty options, or even up to 7! you're mostly just picking one at random; and sometimes you can't change the difficulty without making a new file or maybe you're gonna lock yourself out of achievements if you dare try a lower difficulty for a few minutes. even without those restrictions, many players are bound to either be bored to death or extremely frustrated for at least a good while, if not outright hating the game and quitting over a terrible first impression that was thrust upon them. even a game like halo can clearly state "heroic difficulty is the main way to play". but that doesn't mean the other difficulties are somehow well-designed, just stupid stat tweaks haphazardly slapped on with little consideration to the standard gameplay. and oftentimes the "standard" difficulty isn't much to go home about either, since they clearly weren't focused on heavily polishing one single difficulty curve to make it as fun as it can be. options are just one more tool in the game designer's belt to improve an expeirence. tweaking a few variables at the last minute and calling it a day because you need to broaden the appeal of your game is the bare minimum and it usually sucks. there are way better ways to address difficulty and accessibility by coming up with a creative solution that uniquely fits your game. optional challenges, dynamic difficulty, bonus content, noob-friendly alternate playstyles, skill-rewarding point systems; all of them can be much more effective at adapating a game to the player's enjoyment when used at the right place and the right time. but you just throw a million things at the player and say "fix it yourself"; and well, they're typically going to be wrong. that's why its YOUR job to design the game for them.
I've always been the sort of person that enjoyed having more capacity to customize how a game plays, but I still want to have the option to play through it they way the developers intended the first time.
My favourite part about HL 1 MMod is the HECU/Assassin fight in the beginning of Lambda Core that replaces the regular Assassin fight in the original. It's such a good set piece through its world building and storytelling without any cutscenes or exposition on these guys. At this point, any Marines that haven't escaped Black Mesa after the HECU "pulled out" are just trying to survive like everyone else and these Marines have grouped up with the Black Ops Assassins to setup a sort of "base" to hold out until the foreseeable future. You can even see injured Marines on stretchers. It's a great encounter that builds upon the story and does so as well as the original Half Life games. I love how in the original Half Life 1, during Forget About Freeman, you fight a lot more Alien Grunts and Vortigaunts and you can see more of the Xen Military taking control over the HECU (Snark Mines and that 1 Xen Turret). A great use of story telling to show the player how the Xen Military is overtaking the facility. This extra encounter in MMod's Lambda Core really showcases the last of the Marines and their attempt to hold out just a bit longer alongside with the Black Ops Assassins. (Also I know that the Black Ops and the HECU are supposed to be enemies as introduced in Opposing Force but in Half Life 1 the 2 factions are programmed to not fight with each other. Also are you telling me that Freeman being ambushed by Marines right after the initial Assassins fight in Apprehension is a complete coincidence and that the HECU and Blacks Ops were always meant to be enemies despite having the same goals. Honestly the whole Black Ops vs. HECU plot in Opposing Force really felt stupid to me and just makes more sense if they were allies.)
Really hoping mmod can be converted to the the 20th aniversary update (especially if they can include the new controller settings and big picture menu yo)
I haven't played HL2 MMod yet, however I've played HL1 MMOD about 5 times now. It is one of my favorite games, period. The guns feel so good to shoot and the gameplay is top notch and I really hope we can get more games using this version.
While I always believe in playing the base game first (unless it's particularly egregious gameplay issues), but MMOD is a fantastic addition for a replay. Hell, HL1 MMOD _almost_ got me to replay Xen even.
On the topic of customizing the gameplay experience I'm totally down to give the author's intended experience an honest chance because like you said that's gonna be the most cohesive experience, but at the same time there are some games I just can't be bothered to deal with certain mechanics, and they run the risk of putting me off of the game entirely. It's the same with adding mods to a game - sometimes the developer's artistic vision doesn't *quite* mesh with me for one reason or another and I end up enjoying the experience more if I do some work under the hood first.
MMod for Half-Life 1 would be perfect if not for one mechanic: silencers. They make the Glock and MP5 overpowered, both being able to kill enemies without being noticed. It’s comical seeing a grunt scream “medic!” but otherwise remaining still as you pick him off from afar.
I'd argue the pistol is already busted from having semi automatic mode with no firerate cap. The silencer is only an issue because you get it immediately, instead of as a drop from assassins, or as a pickup manually placed somewhere by the map editor. The mod's MP5 shouldn't have gotten one at all.
I think texture filtering looks horrible cause it just muddies up any intentional detail created, so much detail is lost just to make something that looks "clean" but ends up looking undeliberate and wrong
I think it's fine in HL1 (even if I do keep it off because I just prefer unfiltered textures), but in games like Quake and ESPECIALLY Classic Doom, it looks absolutely atrocious.
Its not lost, it helps give more round shapes to come across as such. Its been very noticeable when valve had unfiltered dust2 textures on classic version of the map on anniversary in CSGO. Filtered textures are the intent. Not pixelated mess of thw software rendering. Every texture is filtered in modern games and everything in 2000s.
I’m honestly a fan of games having all these types of settings, it makes coming back around to mess with them a lot more fun. That being said, it would be nice if more games had better descriptions of which settings the devs thought was the most enjoyable way to play the game.
The big argument I've always heard against the accessibility stuff in Psychonauts 2, TLOU2, and Celeste has been that it represents developers compromising their vision for the sake of (mass appeal, people who aren't good at games, disabled people, the woke left, take your pick), and I don't agree with that. Accessibility is explicitly part of the vision of those games. Those menus tell the player "what is important is that you reach the credits and see the cool stuff we made for you along the way. How you get there is immaterial." Now I play fighting games, I play Dark Souls, I play crusty, fricative, heavy 16 bit action games, and those are my favorite types of games, but I don't think anything outside of that sphere is invalid, and I don't think that completing a video game "the right way" really matters at all. My experience playing Celeste would not be improved by knowing that someone I will never meet got frustrated and gave up at the hotel level.
I think having default options for the intended experience while also letting the player tweak things to their liking is for the best, kinda like how you can have a "normal" difficulty option but still give players the option for a harder or easier experience
I know this video is 4 months old but the reason the Emplacement Gun seems so OP in the early game is because the Metro Cops have less HP than your standard Combine Soldier or Super Soldier
@@chillingchill6823 Don't use settings that add more spread because that will make projectiles suck. I loved projectiles in alot of FPS games like Halo CE's bullets and Doom Eternals.
I have nothing against these "assist features" because they're optional. Don't like 'em turn them all off or adjust them the way the devs intended their game to be played. But if you either suck or just wanna enjoy the story or whatever, do as you like. As much as I think games like Dark Souls and Elden Ring should stay the way they are, as they have options in game to make it slightly less difficult,. I still think accessibility is important.
i hate them because they always tempt me to make it as easy as possible when i know i could take a challenge (since i have 3ag in celeste that took months)
I prefer a focused experience but I also prefer excessive customisation, my hardware has only recently seen an upgrade so I've spent a solid chunk of time in options menus tweaking things to how I prefer them to be, I can not tell you just how many games I'm certain I would have quit if I couldn't turn off motion blur or view bobbing or excessive particles, there's a focused experience and then there's realising that people will probably think it's pretentious garbage if you don't provide the appropriate level of adjustments, you could of course make the mod split into parts you take out and put in as you see fit and scrap the menu but sometimes you have to be in the moment to know what you like and what you don't. I don't mind the cheat code standins that modern games do but it would be neat to bring back the actual cheat code aspect and provide a means of legit unlocking like older lego titles or something. Edit: my personal favourite tweaking mods are the ones that adhere to the limits and resources of the time and seek to refine what we got instead, sometimes hindsight is all you need after all.
Hl1 with mmod and reshade almost feels like a full remaster with the better gameplay and Tweeks of mmod and reshade making general stuff like lights, glowing goo and everything look more vibrant and makes the dated lighting look way better while not being too taxing on low end hardware like rtx would
We had these 'assist' features in game for a significant amount of time; cheats that were more common in games until the late 2000s rolled around and developers discovered you could nickle and dime customers. Moddability and toggleable options are the peak of agency and preference for players. Looking at this philosophically is not productive when preference, ability and experience are objective factors.
your point on difficulty is a very interesting one. I often go back too dunkeys videos on difficulty as they have very good insight into the thought excersize.
I also think the “assist menu” options are a great way to do it-makes it clear that the intended experience is without the assist options, but gives them to people who need them to enjoy the game
games can certainly go overboard with them, but i think a few carefully selected options that mark your save file (the way Celeste does it) offer a lot of value without marring the vision of the game
I like games that have more choosable options. Since becoming an adult I no longer play games to challenge myself, now I play to just get lost from reality for a moment. I also am not as good as them as I used to be. And if that means playing on easy rather than hard, or with choosable options to make the game more comfortable I can gladly accept that
MMod is my absolute go-to for replaying HL2. I love the new animations, sounds, and particles. And the new weapons are fun additions. I’m going to disagree on your point about too much customization being a bad thing. MMod isn’t a new game, it’s just an enhancement for an existing one, so suiting the enhancement to your expectations and playstyle is nice. I like no ironsights and projectile bullets, just because that’s how I prefer to play the game. If either my preferred settings or your preferred settings were the default, and couldn’t be changed, one of us might enjoy the mod less than we do currently.
6:37 Accessibility is super important. Having choices on how to cater your game experience can be the difference between someone still playing and putting the game down. Having options isn’t a bad thing. It can actually allow players to experiment with different mechanics and see what suits them. It isn’t even strictly about making something easier or difficult; players could be trying to replicate a certain feeling such as slowing the pace of the game down or replicating other games of the same genre. Devs are beholden to creating a game of their vision and push a way of experiencing it but they need to realise that not every player is going to be on the same level nor want to experience it the same way others do. There are certain games I’ve soured on in the past because the devs gatekeep progress or attempt to guilt trip the player if they use accessibility options and it just screams childishness on part of the dev team. For me, personally, in this context just let people choose what makes them comfortable and happy. If they want a challenge, they’ll make one. It’s too much mental energy to be meticulous about how people experience games.
I have been playing the vr mod for half life 2, since its world is so heavily interactable even compared to some physics based games it maintains a high level of immersion throughout, its one of the best ways to play the game imo
6:36 I feel like flexible game options are a bit better than predefined difficulties, even at a cost of a less distinct experience. It's annoying when Game mechanics are locked or predefined to select difficulties. Like if you *have to play* Halo 2 on heroic or legendary for boss fights that don't end in 3 seconds, but then have to deal with its unfair difficulty. If you don't want villagers dying to zombie infections, you *have to play* on hard difficulty. which ballons the damage output of mobs to an unfair degree. It would be nice for those games if you could play on a normal or easy difficulty but still have the options only seen on hard.
The thing that really bugs me is the pulse rifle animation where it changes the plug every shot. Each plug is supposed to be its own 30 round magazine, and the hook-shape is a box of magazines.
I think it’s important to separate accessibility features like you mention with TLOU and Psychonauts from preferential options like MMOD has. The former experience a game they might not be able to, while the latter can feel like arbitrary changes. Ultimately it comes down to intent
Military Conflict Vietnam is a blast! Been on their discord for over a year and there is almost always at least a gun game match going on in the game! It's getting updated constantly.
I never finished HL2 MMod myself. I'm a diehard SMOD fan, and I was far more interested in the "less canon" or something version of MMod that was teased. It never released, but maybe this new MMod you mentioned at the end is what I'm looking for. I doubt it'll supplant SMOD, but it should still be fun.
5:15 adding million settings is actually nice, because when you clearly mad about something you want to get rid of it, and creating a setting that could remove it or change it to something else, is a good thing, really. if you don't touch it, the dev sets what he thinks are the best for his own vision as default setting, and he understands that somebody will disagree with him and wants certain things to not be changed
I will say this - THE BEST and MOST sincere updates and renditions of the game goes to MMOD. I am never a fan of "mods" that excessively changes the game, but i am completely ALL IN for anything that actually improves, optimize and INCREASE the replayability of the game - that completely wins me over. MMod does an EXCELLENT job at giving me reasons to even re-play older games that i have already completed and already know the ending. (for me it gets dry to play the same game again when i already know and seen the ending multiple times.)
it should be worth noting that there are some bugs ive experienced with Mmod for HL2, notably Lamars animations didn't play when she disrupted the teleporter in red letter day, and theres an unavoidable soft lock when your knocked out and wake up to meet Aylx in point insertion. also all voices seem quieter than normal
project HL2 MMod reanimations plus animated immersive HEV helmet is a GOD tier combo also setting your viewmodel_fov to around 70-90 makes a huge difference
i'm very exited for mmods future, one of the reason being the creator of the mod, he survived thru hell and his mods or games don't have anything political. love this guy
great video purple colonel. i really relate to your more story/less story "gaming zone" chart. i feel the same way about story in games. would you be able to talk about some other games you think fall into that nice gaming zone with hl1 and hl2??? thank you!
I played Half-Life on PS2 before a friend gave me his copy of the original for PC. I never had an issue with the models, nor felt they deterred from the source material. Like in thay exact thumbnail of the two guards, the HD gaurd is modeled to look more like Don Knotts, and I dont have to explain why that isnt really a bad thing. Kids these days prefer black mesa anyways so its a free-for-all. Its not like Doom elietism where its just quantities of monsters in maps used as metrics to stroke egos. Which isnt even that bad in the doom scene.
Been playing HL1 fan since 1999. MMod is now my go-to way of playing HL1 nowadays. I've also added in the more nostalgic menu from HL1's Anniversary Update to kinda make it look like a legit update of the OG HL1. If only we could make other HL1 mods compatible with MMod.
Option sliders are important, as they make ot possible for a wide amont of people to experiment, to challange and to choose. It widens our understabding of what makes a videogame fun, and offers this rare "bt what if I change the enemies to" ootion that then down the line either turns out ti be brutal fun, or way too much. Someone else here said it perfectly: Offer a "developer intended" setting, and then go hard on the options for those who want them.
I don't mind the mounds of options as much, if you're modding a game then you're already tweaking the game to your liking. Especially with MMod, which also functions to allow even more mods added ontop of it.
makes more sense to me. in the base game, the ammo pickups for the AR2 are the giant shield thing, so they clearly intended the thing to be equivelent to a magazine.
My opinion on twickable difficulty is pretty much your opinion on mods. For a first playthrugh I'll want to play on a "canonical" difficulty. Maybe change an aspect only if it's particularly imbalanced (too boring, or so hard it's ruining the rest of the game for me). For replay, everything goes.
Screw it, I'm going to throw in my messy 2 cents on the whole options matter: Ultimately, if we're talking ideals, I think in a way, more options IS a good thing. Especially for PC games. The ability to count for different builds with graphics settings... Providing more accessibility (whether for difficulty, or, even better, accounting for disabilities like color blindness)... Etc It can be done wrong. One can go overboard. etc And looking at the HL2 MMod menu again... yeah I do think that's kind of messy. (This is why I wish more games had Advanced Options tucked away in stuff like sub-menus, and just better options organization in general) I also kind of at least agree on the original vision point. I mean I myself have been going soft-purist when approaching games in recent years, to see how they ticked and felt under original circumstances. And you can easily lose what made something what it was in odd ports, remasters, remakes, etc... Still, done right, I think it's insanely valuable. Ultimately, I feel it's very case-by-case, and dependent on execution. But I love seeing games that strike the perfect balance towards providing a strong, confident, not-so-muddied vision, and the ability to offer some extra control to those who want or need it. There is the usual conundrum though: Art is a vastly varied, and nearly everything about it based in subjectivity. Meaning there is no true right way to go about stuff like this. Just what the largest amount of people find to be agreeable, and/or suits the artist's vision the best.
Thank you very much for your review! I'm glad you've enjoyed your playthroughs, seeing people enjoy my work/team work is exactly why I make things and my ultimate goal.
Indeed, V2 version of HL2MMod will be a much more focused experience, with majority of options being forced on and pretty much every single post processing option removed, due to putting a bit of strain on the engine and being obsolete due to ReShade being able to replicate and surpass many of HL2MMod additions. This will also allow easier porting to Linux and subsequently to Steam Deck like devices.
Thanks to reviews like this one and player feedback we now know what works and what doesn't, feedback and criticism are important to us. It's also being worked on from ground up, meaning almost everything will be brand new. I would also love to put it on Steam, hopefully it'll be easier than putting HL1MMod on Steam, where I had to make a gigantic fuss about it before being noticed by Valve with the help of community. I cannot spend a lot of time on my projects like I used to, so I'm not even sure when you'll see the first footage of V2, but it's been in prototyping stage for couple of years now.
Personally, I'm much more proud of HL1MMod, it was quite a challenge to make it in the first place, especially since it has around 4 times more additions than HL2MMod. It was difficult to work with such an old engine and it was difficult to maintain the balance of adding new things and logic without overdoing it. HL1 fanbase is much more dedicated and less forgiving when it comes to tinkering with the OG game and I'm glad you have found most of the stuff to your liking.
Thank you for bringing attention to my story too, means a lot to me. I find it quite difficult to work on something that requires being creative these days, that part of me simply stayed in the ruins back home, but I still hope that v2 of HL2MMod will surpass the first version in terms of quality and being more true to HL2 design.
Thank you for your work, chief
It's very unlikely that you may read this reply, but I think a lot of people (myself included) would prefer you somehow kept the post-processing options in, rather than have us all use Reshade if we all want that sort of stuff. It just feels a lot more natural to have it properly built into the game rather than for use to external software that can end up being more buggy and having undesirable effects. I can understand your reasoning for removing it in v2 of HL2MMOD, but it'd be nice to have it be kept in for those who want it, somehow.
You mention ReShade, but one thing that really kills it is the fact that it can't discern between the game and the HUD, meaning effects get applied to the UI as well, which kinda sucks.
Sure, this is apparently fixable with a certain ReShade addon, but I've never gotten it to work properly on any game.
HL1 MMod was your magnum opus, it improved the game in every way.
Thank you for your impressive work, and I hope your life is a lot better now
4:35 I don't agree with this, Gordon is NOT meant to be powerless in HL2. He's painted as a savior who almost single-handedly tore his way through the resonance cascade and is tearing his way through the earthbound combine. He's seen as a legend, the game does everything it can to give the player power and tools so that you're always on top. In Half-Life 1 Gordon was just another scientist, in Half-Life 2 he's a living legend.
I guess the word he should have used is "underdog" rather than "powerless". Gordon is resourceful and skillful, this makes up for his initial lack of brute force, wich is supposed to be point of the Half-Life franchise.
Gordon Freeman glazer
you dropped this 👑
Gorden Freeman really be actin like Jesus in HL2
@@aubrey5577 You either glaze Mr.Freeman or have The Combine staple someone's balls over your nose and your limbs turned into stumps just so you wouldn't think that everything is sunshine and rainbows.
mmod is my favorite way of playing hl2 because it adds the tau cannon. it gels with the thin-walled level design of hl2 like butter on bread
That addition just honestly makes me mad that the Tau cannon was dropped in the base game. I love HL2 but sometimes it feels like the game was overpolished and cool ideas were dropped for no better reason than to simplify it.
it also has the gluon gun, it's unfinished but with some addons you can add it to maps, make it have an original model and make it so its icon fits with the others
i just started playing hl2 mmod it has the Tau Cannon?!
@@tacticaljunk1608The tau cannon made it all the way to the font weapon icons only to be removed…
@@Eyepoke42 Yep! You can take it off the buggy.
Im honestly all for the increased customization we've seen in mods recently. Hell, I'm already customizing the game by downloading a mod in the 1st place, right?
i was thinking this too, in mods and in games in general. i get his point about games presenting their visions without compromise, but imo extra customization does little to get in the way of that. even if an option nullifies an entire game mechanic, you'd still have to make the decision to turn it on. ppl who want a vanilla experience will always have the default config
Talking about Gordon's glasses, it's a wonder they've stayed on for this long.
Wonder just how bad his eyesight actually is.
He taped them to his head after the resonance cascade.
@@tinyengineshed34probably around Office Complex come to think of it.
He’s got one of those string things so they don’t fall off
I mean, from Gordon's perspective the time between the resonance cascade and the death of Eli Vance was about six days (even though he was in stasis for 20 years and in a teleport for a week, to him he didn't experience time like that), so I imagine even though his vision is probably poor he might not need new glasses.
@@GGPlex_ I sometimes forget glasses have those. I'll probably get that if I ever need glasses.
Best thing about MMod. The MP7 has a grenade tube that count actually fit a grenade
But it's mounted wrong.
*can
@@andyfriederichsenFuture tech.
6:37 As someone who likes to have lots of options to the point of ridiculousness, the answer to this that should please both sides of the debate is simple. Have a "Developer intended settings" config that is very clearly labeled as such. That way you get an auto config for the experience the people making the game _think_ you should have, and if you disagree with any bit of that, the ball is in your court to change it.
Heck, even have a "Are you sure? You may get a suboptimal experience as the game was not as thoroughly playtested for these settings!" and then you can click "Yes, I'm sure."
Absolutely, coming from a mainly RTS and city builder background, the "custom" difficulty opening the big tweaking page is likely what has been the foundation of half of my playtime of these games since it allows for so much replayability in by shaking things up in interesting ways. the Sniper Elite series is also pretty good at this, letting you for example have deadly and highly skilled enemies to reward stealth gameplay, but still have full scope assistance for your rifle if you're not into wind guaging. More options in the players' hands, even stuff like easy moddability through XML data files and such, is always something I consider a positive in a game, but should absolutely never be considered the baseline for someone's first playthrough, and be clearly marked as an unintended experience.
Linear "easy, normal, hard" difficulty has never sat well with me. Different people are going to struggle at Different things for different reasons.
Mabye you find spongy enemies unsatisfying but still want a challenging experience, so you might want to raise your own weapon damage and increase the number of enemies to compensate.
6:08
My brother in Christ, did you just see Alyx about to get blown to smithereens by a Zombine grenade, then turn around and just assume she'll be fine without your help?
Truly you are the Freeman!
well she does have 80 constantly regenerating health.
..and she did survive
@@gamertypeawesome it’s the PRINCIPLE, dammit! Lmao
Ok but I genuinely hate Alyx what should I do then
@@cactusgamingyt9960sv_cheats 1
ent_remove_all npc_alyx
@@cactusgamingyt9960 Stop playing the series at Half-Life 1 hahaha
i never liked the stunstick's implementation in mmod. it just felt like you got the crowbar and then 2 minutes later it got completely replaced (plus the way it comes after the gravity gun in the hud makes it mildly infuriating to look at ur inventory before getting the gg)
i think it wouldve been better if rather than just giving the stunstick a straight damage upgrade (except underwater where using it hurts you), it did more damage to enemies but was borderline useless against inanimate things like boxes. or mayhaps it could have, well, _stunned_ enemies while dealing little-to-no actual damage, making it serve as more of an escape tool than a weapon
The crowbar actually already does more damage to boxes than the stunstick.
Just make the stick use suit's charge as ammo, lol. That way you still retain a powerful melee option, but at a cost.
@@worminator314 really? i distinctly remember the stick one-shotting crates, while the crowbar would take 2 or 3 hits
woaaa strollin stu pfp, that used to be mine before i made it a kitty
I would prefer the Entropy Zero 2 stunstick, as is work kind of like the wrench from Opposing Force.
12:25 "He's also working on a new version of Half Life MMOD"
I wonder if this is the non-canon version he was once working on that would've had stuff from the beta like the OICW and AK47.
I would still like to see more for 1's MMOD though, like more chapters being redone (Xen!) but also fixing up some stuff like the Alien Grunts AI being glitchy
He might add new weapons, but that was an earlier version of MMod. Newer version wouldn't really do it unless the new weapon fits the roaster.
@@dualfallen the last media updates on the ModDB page have already confirmed that the Combine sniper, Desert Eagle, and Gluon Gun are coming in V2. These updates were from 2019 though, so I don’t know how plans may have changed.
Half life *2* MMOD*
I hope he implements graphical improvements, like dynamic world lighting.
I actually really like the projectile bullets in MMod. It's not just because it is a bit more realistic. I think it's a gameplay enhancer. It kind of addresses an issue you noted earlier in the video, that being the fact that fights between you and the Combine are just you two trading damage with each other. With projectile bullets, you now have to lead shots on distant moving targets, and it is also possible for you to dodge their shots by strafing. This encourages the player to use their mobility, and it rewards aggressive play. It adds a certain layer of skill to the game. Projectile bullets already exist to some extant in Half-Life 2, being applied to the snipers, who fire projectiles that take time to reach the target. And honestly, I prefer Half-Life 2's projectile based snipers to the aimbot snipers in Half-Life 1. So, I see no issue applying it to all enemies.
i heard from desinc that the sniper shots are apparently still hitscan bullets with the illusion of being a projectile
@@yuuki671 What do you mean by that? I decided to quickly open up Half-Life 2 just to be sure I am not wrong, and... I don't think I am.
The bullets have travel time. You can use the timescale command to slow down time and better see it for yourself. I even tested to see if you can catch the bullet in mid air with a prop or your body AFTER the sniper fires, and you can. It's definitely a projectile. I believe you're mistaken.
Thank you, I love projectile bullets in MMod.
I agree with you when it comes to the snipers, but that's because they're barely in the game. The snipers in 2 feel like an actual Obstacle rather than a SURPRISE, DIE! moment.
@@xxfalconarasxx5659 according to him, the sniper first fires a fake bullet (the bullet tracer you see) then an invisible hitscan bullet right after an appropriate time has passed
That reminds me why I don’t watch this guy often. He’s kind of a hypocrite with a stick up his bum about some of the tiniest details.
6:41 while i think a more focused experience is good, i also don't think it should trump accessibility, i think the best way of handling this is to make clear that additional accessibility options aren't and intended part of the core experience, and exist for the sake of inclusivity
Projectile bullets are way better. They encourage movement as Combine can be both accurate but not instant health draining hitscanners. It also requires more skill to lead targets
yes! that's why I always loved the nailgun in quake, projectiles are interesting and in almost every case they are more engaging than hitscan
there's a quake mod [quake mod with maps] called arcane dimentions, and it makes all shotguns shoot projectiles (those being ig somewhat slower than hl crossbow) and OH MY GOD does that add lots of impact.
Many of this guys opinions on gameplay lead me to assume he is a low IQ gamer with mediocre skills at best. Half Life is a game to get creative with, and all this man sees is run and gun.
6:30 . There's a middleground where the settings are set to what the developer intends the experience to be, and changing them prompts the player about this, and to change the settings only if the player needs to in order to access the game.
That's pretty much what Pathologic 2 does. You have the developers' intended difficulty on by default, but you can choose to start changing difficulty values for an easier (or harder) experience. There's even an ingame 4th wall break that touches on that.
I feel like fully customizable settings are perfect for second or third play-throughs (which is what mods basically do). Like, the developers create what they intend the experience to be, but after experiencing that they allow the players to alter it to their liking. It could also allow developers to track what settings people play with more so that it can be factored into future games.
@@undeadfrak Plus once there's online conversation about it, the "eh this is gonna be lame/bullshit" can be used to tell people how to get a better experience from the start
8:37 you're wrong. You're just wrong.
Yeah he focuses in on the health chargers 'looking wrong' while ignoring how the rest of the game looks like a blurred muddy mess, there's good reason why most classic game fans prefer texture filtering off and why Valve added the option to turn it off in the menus of the base game
He even contradicts himself by saying the unfiltered textures are shit even though he just said it himself that he's more of a purist literally 30 seconds ago
@@Jo-uy5vf yeah the textures were in HL like that from the start and you know.... When purists review mods better not to listen to them cuz vanilla will ALWAYS come on out on top
fucking thank you lol
6:30 I learned about those options in TLoU while researching about games with accessibility options for blind people. It sucks that they get rid of important mechanics, but if it enables someone to experience the game more fairly, I think it's pretty neat!
I think custom difficulty and accessibility/assist options are two different things.
You're right, the more you let players customize exactly how hard the game is, the more you're asking THEM to basically balance it for you. On one hand, developers can't know how good a player is, and they still want everyone to enjoy their games. On the other, how is the player meant to know that more than the developers? They didn't make the game, they don't know how difficult it can be or what would make it easier.
Psychonaut's assist features however are something else. Those exist more for players that don't really care about playing the game and just want to get through the story. Or people that really aren't good at games whatsoever. I see these as completely valid, same as Nabbit in Mario games completely negating any and all damage. That's not forcing players to balance the game for themselves, that's allowing them to forego things they already know they don't want.
Also, those mods always go SO overboard with the weapon sounds, to the point where they don't sound "satisfying" or "powerful", but just make my ears hurt. They just crank up the bass and volume and voilà, so realistic! Brutal Doom is a big offender in this regard, since if there's a lot of gunfire going on, you can't even hear the music anymore.
And those detail textures in HL1 are just bad. They just lay one entire texture over the entire thing, which doesn't make sense if the texture consists of different materials. You can see it well with the pinboard at 8:48, where even the paper has wood grain on it. More detail =/= better. This just reminds me of that "realistic video game characters"-trend.
detail textures overlays was a feature taken from unreal 1 where it did the same thing, at least it is era appropriate
"projectile bullets are a crime against god" , "no texture filtering is an abhorrent crime against all that is holy" , said nobody ever in the history of shooters except this guy right here.
what the fuck?
I know right!
Also being weirdly proud of playing Doom 3 BFG edition, a game that is far more egregious when it comes to making graphical changes that make the game worse off, the old 2004 version isn't even hard to get running at modern resolutions if you know how to edit a config file, bet he plays Halo CE with Anniversary graphics on because that's the default
i love purplecolonel but yeah he does say some pretty braindead shit sometimes. He tends to speak in absolutes a lot of the time, which whether or not that's just him joking or trying to add flair to his script it comes across and snarky and cuntish
Well when it comes to HL1 and texture filtering hes kinda right, texture filtering enabled is the "original" look for this game - it was and still is what it used by default unless you used the software renderer (or manually turned it off with some config thing). Whether you personally prefer it that way or not is subjective of course.
@@olnnn we always turn it off in quake, did the same in hl and it of course looks better. But yeah I can understand this about half life being the default.
But not wanting projectile bullets is straight up the opposite of what everyone's been asking forever, literally never heard anyone saying I want enemies to hitscan me until I'm dead.
For gameplay options in games, I feel like it's good to have options, but you need to make sure the default settings make for a great experience. Anything that's in the default untweaked settings are fair criticism, since a majority of players likely won't change settings.
6:37 I think the rise of modular difficulty settings and mechanics like this is actually a very good thing, because it extends a lot of agency to the player to define what would make the experience actually enjoyable for them. After all, the whole point of a video game is for the player to be able to enjoy themselves, and if they know what aspect of the default experience is preventing them from enjoying it, why not respect their intelligence and let them fix that, rather than telling them they're not enjoying the game the *right* way by calling those cheats or locking them behind a dev console, if you even provide that at all? Sticking to an inflexible, undilutable vision doesn't really benefit the player at all, and only really benefits a developer who can't see the bigger picture.
Celeste and Soulsborne games are great examples of this. Celeste's default vision is going through each level grabbing the challenging strawberries, and the controls are tightly crafted to benefit that very challenging experience. But it also gives modular difficulty options to players who want to make the game easier or even harder, both baked into the gameplay itself (levels being significantly easier when not going for the strawberries, including extremely challenging B-side and C-side levels for expert gamers) as well as through the assist mode. I've met a lot of players who never even got into platformers at all, let alone ones that are designed in a Super Meat Boy-esque way, and were able to get a lot of personal value out of Celeste because the assist mode allowed them to enjoy all of the storytelling, theming, and exquisite art/music that Celeste offers. If you can make the game enjoyable for so many more people without compromising the core vision for 90% of players, why not do that?
And contrary to popular belief, soulsbornes like Dark Souls and Elden Ring have offered extensive modular difficulty options within their games. They've never really been about being hard as balls boss fights or what not, they're only just hard enough to make you have to think and hit a difficulty sweet spot for yourself. And they give a lot of ways for you to hit that sweet spot; you could go with just the default melee build as the game is advertised around, or you can integrate all sorts of ranged attacks, spells, and buffs into your arsenal to give you an edge against a lot of hallway encounters or bosses. You can spend time leveling up or upgrading your weapons, find a boss's weakness, or even make it harder for yourself by purposefully *not* leveling up (SL 1 runs) or using weaker weapons. In Dark Souls, there's AI summon signs available even in offline mode against many of the toughest bosses in the game such as Bell Gargoyles, Quelaag, Ornstein & Smough, and even Gwyn himself that can trivialize the bosses on a first attempt if you're particularly stuck on them so you can enjoy the rest of the game. Elden Ring goes all-in on this by integrating this into the Spirits Summon system and giving all sorts of options for how effective that summon is, whether it's just as a distraction like a pack of zombies or as a full-on second player or boss fight like the Mimic Tear or Omenkiller. Systems like these are why so many people have played and enjoyed Dark Souls to the point of it becoming a household name.
Sekiro is what happens when those modular difficulty options *aren't* there, as there is no player agency at all. The prosthetic weapons are severely neutered to having extremely little impact for your personal playstyle compared to Dark Souls' weapons and spells, the advertised stealth is entirely underbaked, and almost all of the other systems that soulslike games are known for are missing; if you're stuck on a boss, there's nothing else you can really try out or do elsewhere to make each attempt feel more rewarding, your only path forward is to just slam your head against the wall for 20-50 attempts in the exact way the game wants you to play. And it just feels miserable as a result.
That's a big part of the reason I didn't pick up Sekiro.
I liked the Soulsborne titles because they're modern-day dungeon crawlers with a lot of build flexibility and player expression, not because "game hard make my dick feel good."
It really bums me out too, because Sekiro's world-building, art direction, and characters seem super neat, but I really wish I could be playing my own character rather than Wolf.
If I wanted to play a character action game, I'd play Devil May Cry or Bayonetta or literally any other character action than Sekiro.
Accessibility is important. I think having options to reduce the difficulty is an absolute benefit
yeah accessibility options are not the same as normal customizable gameplay. having assist options is basically the only way my friend with CFS (chronic fatigue syndrome) can experience many games and i see no reason why including them should harm anyone else
Agreed.
I like when games have a "true ending" kind of mode that the game is meant to be played on, and a tooonn off accessibility options!
Those options don't need to be changed, but changing the way a game works does allow someone to play who couldn't normally.
It's good that these kinds of options are added!
Sounds like a skill issue to me
I don't mind easy modes but I don't get invicibility in assist options
@@theblob1716 Sounds like you can't or won't empathize with people who have disabilities
Projectile bullets are great actually.
Especially for the first game
6:37 Bro why is this even a question? You can tweak it or just let at default values for the original experience lol
This is like asking to color-blind/deaf people: "do you like playing the game as intended or adapted to your deficiencies?" And then complain about the existence of subtitles and color-blind options to them
"accessibility" options are great, and its even better when they're clearly marked as such. nobody's confused when they see "assist mode", "invincibility", or "no enemies/story mode difficulty". but lazily designed difficulty options and other optional features just being thrown into the mix with no clear indication can be pretty bad actually.
we've all played games that make you pick from easy/medium/hard right from the outset with little to no context. sometimes its more like 5 difficulty options, or even up to 7! you're mostly just picking one at random; and sometimes you can't change the difficulty without making a new file or maybe you're gonna lock yourself out of achievements if you dare try a lower difficulty for a few minutes. even without those restrictions, many players are bound to either be bored to death or extremely frustrated for at least a good while, if not outright hating the game and quitting over a terrible first impression that was thrust upon them.
even a game like halo can clearly state "heroic difficulty is the main way to play". but that doesn't mean the other difficulties are somehow well-designed, just stupid stat tweaks haphazardly slapped on with little consideration to the standard gameplay. and oftentimes the "standard" difficulty isn't much to go home about either, since they clearly weren't focused on heavily polishing one single difficulty curve to make it as fun as it can be.
options are just one more tool in the game designer's belt to improve an expeirence. tweaking a few variables at the last minute and calling it a day because you need to broaden the appeal of your game is the bare minimum and it usually sucks. there are way better ways to address difficulty and accessibility by coming up with a creative solution that uniquely fits your game. optional challenges, dynamic difficulty, bonus content, noob-friendly alternate playstyles, skill-rewarding point systems; all of them can be much more effective at adapating a game to the player's enjoyment when used at the right place and the right time. but you just throw a million things at the player and say "fix it yourself"; and well, they're typically going to be wrong. that's why its YOUR job to design the game for them.
I've always been the sort of person that enjoyed having more capacity to customize how a game plays, but I still want to have the option to play through it they way the developers intended the first time.
I'm a control freak, i always prefer tweaking everything to my liking so seeing sliders and such is always welcome for me.
My favourite part about HL 1 MMod is the HECU/Assassin fight in the beginning of Lambda Core that replaces the regular Assassin fight in the original. It's such a good set piece through its world building and storytelling without any cutscenes or exposition on these guys. At this point, any Marines that haven't escaped Black Mesa after the HECU "pulled out" are just trying to survive like everyone else and these Marines have grouped up with the Black Ops Assassins to setup a sort of "base" to hold out until the foreseeable future. You can even see injured Marines on stretchers. It's a great encounter that builds upon the story and does so as well as the original Half Life games.
I love how in the original Half Life 1, during Forget About Freeman, you fight a lot more Alien Grunts and Vortigaunts and you can see more of the Xen Military taking control over the HECU (Snark Mines and that 1 Xen Turret). A great use of story telling to show the player how the Xen Military is overtaking the facility. This extra encounter in MMod's Lambda Core really showcases the last of the Marines and their attempt to hold out just a bit longer alongside with the Black Ops Assassins.
(Also I know that the Black Ops and the HECU are supposed to be enemies as introduced in Opposing Force but in Half Life 1 the 2 factions are programmed to not fight with each other. Also are you telling me that Freeman being ambushed by Marines right after the initial Assassins fight in Apprehension is a complete coincidence and that the HECU and Blacks Ops were always meant to be enemies despite having the same goals. Honestly the whole Black Ops vs. HECU plot in Opposing Force really felt stupid to me and just makes more sense if they were allies.)
Really hoping mmod can be converted to the the 20th aniversary update (especially if they can include the new controller settings and big picture menu yo)
I haven't played HL2 MMod yet, however I've played HL1 MMOD about 5 times now. It is one of my favorite games, period. The guns feel so good to shoot and the gameplay is top notch and I really hope we can get more games using this version.
While I always believe in playing the base game first (unless it's particularly egregious gameplay issues), but MMOD is a fantastic addition for a replay. Hell, HL1 MMOD _almost_ got me to replay Xen even.
Can't wait for Portal: MMod
FULLY-MODELED-
Finally... sex
god please no
NO
DEAR GOD NO.
Thank you for this utterly original joke
Mm... Kentucky Fried Headcrabs...
On the topic of customizing the gameplay experience I'm totally down to give the author's intended experience an honest chance because like you said that's gonna be the most cohesive experience, but at the same time there are some games I just can't be bothered to deal with certain mechanics, and they run the risk of putting me off of the game entirely. It's the same with adding mods to a game - sometimes the developer's artistic vision doesn't *quite* mesh with me for one reason or another and I end up enjoying the experience more if I do some work under the hood first.
MMod for Half-Life 1 would be perfect if not for one mechanic: silencers. They make the Glock and MP5 overpowered, both being able to kill enemies without being noticed. It’s comical seeing a grunt scream “medic!” but otherwise remaining still as you pick him off from afar.
I asked Gunship and they don't do that fort now. They're mostly for aesthetics.
I'd argue the pistol is already busted from having semi automatic mode with no firerate cap.
The silencer is only an issue because you get it immediately, instead of as a drop from assassins, or as a pickup manually placed somewhere by the map editor. The mod's MP5 shouldn't have gotten one at all.
@@XenoSpyro I’d argue that the pistol’s firerate is balanced out by its bloom and low mag size
@@EvilNMessedUp also the pistol in mmod is not 100% accurate.
It also does nothing to buff the shotgun at all. To be fair to the mod, the MP5 in vanilla Half-Life is way too weak.
I think texture filtering looks horrible cause it just muddies up any intentional detail created, so much detail is lost just to make something that looks "clean" but ends up looking undeliberate and wrong
I think it's fine in HL1 (even if I do keep it off because I just prefer unfiltered textures), but in games like Quake and ESPECIALLY Classic Doom, it looks absolutely atrocious.
Its not lost, it helps give more round shapes to come across as such. Its been very noticeable when valve had unfiltered dust2 textures on classic version of the map on anniversary in CSGO.
Filtered textures are the intent. Not pixelated mess of thw software rendering. Every texture is filtered in modern games and everything in 2000s.
I’m honestly a fan of games having all these types of settings, it makes coming back around to mess with them a lot more fun. That being said, it would be nice if more games had better descriptions of which settings the devs thought was the most enjoyable way to play the game.
The big argument I've always heard against the accessibility stuff in Psychonauts 2, TLOU2, and Celeste has been that it represents developers compromising their vision for the sake of (mass appeal, people who aren't good at games, disabled people, the woke left, take your pick), and I don't agree with that. Accessibility is explicitly part of the vision of those games. Those menus tell the player "what is important is that you reach the credits and see the cool stuff we made for you along the way. How you get there is immaterial." Now I play fighting games, I play Dark Souls, I play crusty, fricative, heavy 16 bit action games, and those are my favorite types of games, but I don't think anything outside of that sphere is invalid, and I don't think that completing a video game "the right way" really matters at all. My experience playing Celeste would not be improved by knowing that someone I will never meet got frustrated and gave up at the hotel level.
Your videos are always a treat to watch they are so good
I think having default options for the intended experience while also letting the player tweak things to their liking is for the best, kinda like how you can have a "normal" difficulty option but still give players the option for a harder or easier experience
I know this video is 4 months old but the reason the Emplacement Gun seems so OP in the early game is because the Metro Cops have less HP than your standard Combine Soldier or Super Soldier
Projectile bullets and the semi auto spas-12 are the best way to play.
Not really, I liked projectile bullets at first but then some encounter becomes unbearable to play
@@chillingchill6823 Don't use settings that add more spread because that will make projectiles suck.
I loved projectiles in alot of FPS games like Halo CE's bullets and Doom Eternals.
I have nothing against these "assist features" because they're optional. Don't like 'em turn them all off or adjust them the way the devs intended their game to be played. But if you either suck or just wanna enjoy the story or whatever, do as you like.
As much as I think games like Dark Souls and Elden Ring should stay the way they are, as they have options in game to make it slightly less difficult,. I still think accessibility is important.
i hate them because they always tempt me to make it as easy as possible when i know i could take a challenge (since i have 3ag in celeste that took months)
so now with the 20th Anniversary update is it still great to add? Does it still work?
so you like blurry textures that make everything look flat?
I prefer a focused experience but I also prefer excessive customisation, my hardware has only recently seen an upgrade so I've spent a solid chunk of time in options menus tweaking things to how I prefer them to be, I can not tell you just how many games I'm certain I would have quit if I couldn't turn off motion blur or view bobbing or excessive particles, there's a focused experience and then there's realising that people will probably think it's pretentious garbage if you don't provide the appropriate level of adjustments, you could of course make the mod split into parts you take out and put in as you see fit and scrap the menu but sometimes you have to be in the moment to know what you like and what you don't.
I don't mind the cheat code standins that modern games do but it would be neat to bring back the actual cheat code aspect and provide a means of legit unlocking like older lego titles or something.
Edit: my personal favourite tweaking mods are the ones that adhere to the limits and resources of the time and seek to refine what we got instead, sometimes hindsight is all you need after all.
Never criticize modularity, it's essential, especially for mods.
In mods sure, in actual games its pretty shit
4:19 yeah uhm. there's something wrong.
Omg, finally Ironsights!
Hl1 with mmod and reshade almost feels like a full remaster with the better gameplay and Tweeks of mmod and reshade making general stuff like lights, glowing goo and everything look more vibrant and makes the dated lighting look way better while not being too taxing on low end hardware like rtx would
I'm glad the unfiltered textures are making a comeback.
We had these 'assist' features in game for a significant amount of time; cheats that were more common in games until the late 2000s rolled around and developers discovered you could nickle and dime customers.
Moddability and toggleable options are the peak of agency and preference for players. Looking at this philosophically is not productive when preference, ability and experience are objective factors.
your point on difficulty is a very interesting one. I often go back too dunkeys videos on difficulty as they have very good insight into the thought excersize.
Phantasmagoria 2 reference? cool. 0:38
I'm a fake fan, I've only seen Ross's game dungeon
@@PurpleColonel I can't lie, same.
MMOD is my preferred way to replay them both
They animated the pulse rifle wrong. It's shooting the entire casing, which contains 30 shots each, so the shots should be 30x more powerful
I also think the “assist menu” options are a great way to do it-makes it clear that the intended experience is without the assist options, but gives them to people who need them to enjoy the game
games can certainly go overboard with them, but i think a few carefully selected options that mark your save file (the way Celeste does it) offer a lot of value without marring the vision of the game
I like games that have more choosable options. Since becoming an adult I no longer play games to challenge myself, now I play to just get lost from reality for a moment. I also am not as good as them as I used to be. And if that means playing on easy rather than hard, or with choosable options to make the game more comfortable I can gladly accept that
MMod is my absolute go-to for replaying HL2. I love the new animations, sounds, and particles. And the new weapons are fun additions.
I’m going to disagree on your point about too much customization being a bad thing. MMod isn’t a new game, it’s just an enhancement for an existing one, so suiting the enhancement to your expectations and playstyle is nice. I like no ironsights and projectile bullets, just because that’s how I prefer to play the game. If either my preferred settings or your preferred settings were the default, and couldn’t be changed, one of us might enjoy the mod less than we do currently.
Hl2 mmod. Level where you gotta protect alyx while she downs the shield. On hard it's next to impossible
6:37 Accessibility is super important. Having choices on how to cater your game experience can be the difference between someone still playing and putting the game down. Having options isn’t a bad thing. It can actually allow players to experiment with different mechanics and see what suits them.
It isn’t even strictly about making something easier or difficult; players could be trying to replicate a certain feeling such as slowing the pace of the game down or replicating other games of the same genre.
Devs are beholden to creating a game of their vision and push a way of experiencing it but they need to realise that not every player is going to be on the same level nor want to experience it the same way others do.
There are certain games I’ve soured on in the past because the devs gatekeep progress or attempt to guilt trip the player if they use accessibility options and it just screams childishness on part of the dev team.
For me, personally, in this context just let people choose what makes them comfortable and happy. If they want a challenge, they’ll make one. It’s too much mental energy to be meticulous about how people experience games.
I have been playing the vr mod for half life 2, since its world is so heavily interactable even compared to some physics based games it maintains a high level of immersion throughout, its one of the best ways to play the game imo
6:36 I feel like flexible game options are a bit better than predefined difficulties, even at a cost of a less distinct experience. It's annoying when Game mechanics are locked or predefined to select difficulties.
Like if you *have to play* Halo 2 on heroic or legendary for boss fights that don't end in 3 seconds, but then have to deal with its unfair difficulty.
If you don't want villagers dying to zombie infections, you *have to play* on hard difficulty. which ballons the damage output of mobs to an unfair degree.
It would be nice for those games if you could play on a normal or easy difficulty but still have the options only seen on hard.
HL2 MMod getting ready to buff the hell out of that one generator siege
The thing that really bugs me is the pulse rifle animation where it changes the plug every shot. Each plug is supposed to be its own 30 round magazine, and the hook-shape is a box of magazines.
4:24 Skibidi-Toilet 2 is crazy 🤣
I think it’s important to separate accessibility features like you mention with TLOU and Psychonauts from preferential options like MMOD has. The former experience a game they might not be able to, while the latter can feel like arbitrary changes. Ultimately it comes down to intent
Military Conflict Vietnam is a blast! Been on their discord for over a year and there is almost always at least a gun game match going on in the game! It's getting updated constantly.
I never finished HL2 MMod myself. I'm a diehard SMOD fan, and I was far more interested in the "less canon" or something version of MMod that was teased. It never released, but maybe this new MMod you mentioned at the end is what I'm looking for. I doubt it'll supplant SMOD, but it should still be fun.
5:15 adding million settings is actually nice, because when you clearly mad about something you want to get rid of it, and creating a setting that could remove it or change it to something else, is a good thing, really. if you don't touch it, the dev sets what he thinks are the best for his own vision as default setting, and he understands that somebody will disagree with him and wants certain things to not be changed
I prefer to smudge my glasses and play half life so I can emulate gordon's POV more closely
I will say this - THE BEST and MOST sincere updates and renditions of the game goes to MMOD. I am never a fan of "mods" that excessively changes the game, but i am completely ALL IN for anything that actually improves, optimize and INCREASE the replayability of the game - that completely wins me over. MMod does an EXCELLENT job at giving me reasons to even re-play older games that i have already completed and already know the ending. (for me it gets dry to play the same game again when i already know and seen the ending multiple times.)
I like the glowing Combine eyes
MMOD + HL2 VR would be amazing
For the customisation issue you relayed: I would add "developer presets" that would be truly best of both worlds
Hope mmod gets updated to hl2s current version
it should be worth noting that there are some bugs ive experienced with Mmod for HL2, notably Lamars animations didn't play when she disrupted the teleporter in red letter day, and theres an unavoidable soft lock when your knocked out and wake up to meet Aylx in point insertion. also all voices seem quieter than normal
Great video, very comprehensive. I love your voice!!
project HL2 MMod reanimations plus animated immersive HEV helmet is a GOD tier combo also setting your viewmodel_fov to around 70-90 makes a huge difference
dude i look away for like 5 seconds and i see isaac
If there is a mod to make the combine act like the HECU Marines then my life it theirs
i'm very exited for mmods future, one of the reason being the creator of the mod, he survived thru hell and his mods or games don't have anything political. love this guy
9:00 I find it neat seeing it a older game that isn't Unreal/Unreal Tournament 99, I think even indies should do that
great video purple colonel. i really relate to your more story/less story "gaming zone" chart. i feel the same way about story in games. would you be able to talk about some other games you think fall into that nice gaming zone with hl1 and hl2??? thank you!
3:11 That is how i play Half-life 2 normally, it makes it much more fun
I played Half-Life on PS2 before a friend gave me his copy of the original for PC. I never had an issue with the models, nor felt they deterred from the source material.
Like in thay exact thumbnail of the two guards, the HD gaurd is modeled to look more like Don Knotts, and I dont have to explain why that isnt really a bad thing.
Kids these days prefer black mesa anyways so its a free-for-all. Its not like Doom elietism where its just quantities of monsters in maps used as metrics to stroke egos. Which isnt even that bad in the doom scene.
Been playing HL1 fan since 1999. MMod is now my go-to way of playing HL1 nowadays. I've also added in the more nostalgic menu from HL1's Anniversary Update to kinda make it look like a legit update of the OG HL1.
If only we could make other HL1 mods compatible with MMod.
Option sliders are important, as they make ot possible for a wide amont of people to experiment, to challange and to choose. It widens our understabding of what makes a videogame fun, and offers this rare "bt what if I change the enemies to" ootion that then down the line either turns out ti be brutal fun, or way too much.
Someone else here said it perfectly: Offer a "developer intended" setting, and then go hard on the options for those who want them.
"it kills a balance but... It's a mod and who really cares?"
I do
gay
I don't mind the mounds of options as much, if you're modding a game then you're already tweaking the game to your liking. Especially with MMod, which also functions to allow even more mods added ontop of it.
3:48 the AR doesn’t reload like that
makes more sense to me. in the base game, the ammo pickups for the AR2 are the giant shield thing, so they clearly intended the thing to be equivelent to a magazine.
@@durandal76 yeah, but the individual cells maximised rounds and the auto loader would make the reload faster and more efficient
My opinion on twickable difficulty is pretty much your opinion on mods. For a first playthrugh I'll want to play on a "canonical" difficulty. Maybe change an aspect only if it's particularly imbalanced (too boring, or so hard it's ruining the rest of the game for me). For replay, everything goes.
Screw it, I'm going to throw in my messy 2 cents on the whole options matter:
Ultimately, if we're talking ideals, I think in a way, more options IS a good thing. Especially for PC games.
The ability to count for different builds with graphics settings...
Providing more accessibility (whether for difficulty, or, even better, accounting for disabilities like color blindness)...
Etc
It can be done wrong. One can go overboard. etc
And looking at the HL2 MMod menu again... yeah I do think that's kind of messy.
(This is why I wish more games had Advanced Options tucked away in stuff like sub-menus, and just better options organization in general)
I also kind of at least agree on the original vision point. I mean I myself have been going soft-purist when approaching games in recent years, to see how they ticked and felt under original circumstances.
And you can easily lose what made something what it was in odd ports, remasters, remakes, etc...
Still, done right, I think it's insanely valuable.
Ultimately, I feel it's very case-by-case, and dependent on execution.
But I love seeing games that strike the perfect balance towards providing a strong, confident, not-so-muddied vision, and the ability to offer some extra control to those who want or need it.
There is the usual conundrum though:
Art is a vastly varied, and nearly everything about it based in subjectivity. Meaning there is no true right way to go about stuff like this. Just what the largest amount of people find to be agreeable, and/or suits the artist's vision the best.
besides black mesa which is the definitive half-life, mmod is a close second, i love it, genuinely rly fun
Have you ever tried brutal half life?
I swear I watched this video like 3 months ago
Just remember, I carried ur stream.
5:29 not only that, but you can't compare a carefully crafted game to a DIY game
Long story short:
It is.
I dont want to waste your time :3
8:36 you should check out Voices of the Void, i think it does that unfiltered pixel aesthetic perfectly