I think that Half-Life has become to focussed on NPCs in the episodes, especially Episode 2. Valve has gone further and further away from the format of the original Half-Life, sure change is good but... Well, they are forcing the player into bottlenecked situations where we are made to listen to NPC banter before continuing. It takes away from the sense that is Half-Life.

Its 2:30AM so I really can't be bothered carrying on for ages like I would

What are your thoughts?

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That you are right. But at least it's not as character-centric as Metal gear Solid is. It'd be good if they made the set pieces with NPC's skippable with a click of the mouse. Especially if you're playing through a second (or more) time. You don't need to listen to the same shit (again) to follow the story.

Yay. LoL, on SPUF I get flamed quite frequently for my NPC hating Good to see I don't here

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Yeah it's sure annoying having to listen to them.

I liked it how in the original HL you could either choose to listen to them or give them a face full of crowbar and stroll off.

In HL2 it would've been hell, espiecally with all the episodes, to allow the player kill whichever NPC they see fit, but i do hate it how it's like


Move from battle;
Listen to NPC;
NPC unlocks door, presents you with weapon, moves something, unlocks secret exit;
go on your way;

Still, the NPC encounters arn't as bad as Mass Effect [TOO MANY GODAMN WORDS] (but atleast Mass Effects are skippable)

i liked the old half lifes like blue shift and opposing forces

Yup, why couldn't they just leave it with if you killed someone who was needed you got that nice little "Subject Terminated" screen and let you kill all the others...

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Or even better work it so you wouldn't have to be terminated when you decided to bump off some NPC.

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It only happened for plot critical elements and that's how it should be. I mean, if I kill a guy that I needed to progress and it didn't game over me I'd be annoyed because I'd have to press F7

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No.