I compare it to today’s standards because people inevitably compare old games to newer ones, and often imagine old games to be better than they were, because of nostalgia.

People often overrate the past. There’s the classic style of phrase “in the old days, we had real games”, with people claiming that today’s games can’t compete. This article was designed to point out: no, actually, the old game, whilst having neat features and being good for the time, isn’t as good, and it’s not just graphics, it’s gameplay.

Consider your statement: “It was an amazing game back then, and, frankly, it still is.” Yes, it was an amazing game back then. But after playing HL2, and then playing through HL1 again, I feel it lacked the “it still is” part. Yes, it *was* good… but I honestly never want to play it again. We have come to expect more, and playing it now feels like I’m in a struggle against lousy level design and poor AI. I didn’t enjoy it as once as I once did. For me, that crosses off the “still is” part. *That* was the point of this article.

As to the stupidity… yes, I was a bit stupid at times. But good game design often reduces the effect of stupidity. There were a few too many confusing things… and the maze of vents was really quite bad.

In the standard way of developers looking at their past work, I think many of the HL1 designers would probably look back at some of it and cringe. What’s important is they acknowledged the issues, and learnt from them, with future games like HL2 solving many of the problems HL1 had.

Also, lol @ Halo comment.

Regardless, thank you for your response.

I compare it to today’s standards because people inevitably compare old games to newer ones, and often imagine old games to be better than they were, because of nostalgia.

People often overrate the past. There’s the classic style of phrase “in the old days, we had real games”, with people claiming that today’s games can’t compete. This article was designed to point out: no, actually, the old game, whilst having neat features and being good for the time, isn’t as good, and it’s not just graphics, it’s gameplay.

Consider your statement: “It was an amazing game back then, and, frankly, it still is.” Yes, it was an amazing game back then. But after playing HL2, and then playing through HL1 again, I feel it lacked the “it still is” part. Yes, it *was* good… but I honestly never want to play it again. We have come to expect more, and playing it now feels like I’m in a struggle against lousy level design and poor AI. I didn’t enjoy it as once as I once did. For me, that crosses off the “still is” part. *That* was the point of this article.

As to the stupidity… yes, I was a bit stupid at times. But good game design often reduces the effect of stupidity. There were a few too many confusing things… and the maze of vents was really quite bad.

In the standard way of developers looking at their past work, I think many of the HL1 designers would probably look back at some of it and cringe. What’s important is they acknowledged the issues, and learnt from them, with future games like HL2 solving many of the problems HL1 had.

Also, lol @ Halo comment.

Regardless, thank you for your response.

That being said, let us start.

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… Why are you comparing a game from 1998 to modern day standards? It was an amazing game back then, and, frankly, it still is. Not only that, but some of the things that pissed you off were pretty much caused by your own stupidity (no offence meant by this). To be honest, even the argument of Halo Fanboys (oh, wait…) that “omg but hl is lyk ghey shooter its not gud story as in haylo” is better than yours.

Again, no offence intended by this.

That being said, let us start.

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…

…

… Why are you comparing a game from 1998 to modern day standards? It was an amazing game back then, and, frankly, it still is. Not only that, but some of the things that pissed you off were pretty much caused by your own stupidity (no offence meant by this). To be honest, even the argument of Halo Fanboys (oh, wait…) that “omg but hl is lyk ghey shooter its not gud story as in haylo” is better than yours.

Again, no offence intended by this.

That should make your game look better and run better.

That should make your game look better and run better.