Hostile Faceoff: Half-Life vs Jade Empire

Thread: Hostile Faceoff: Half-Life vs Jade Empire

Which is the better game?

  • Total voters
    54
Hostile_18

Hostile_18

Face/Off
Platforms
  1. PC
Each Weekday here on D-Pad we pit two highly rated games against each other, to ultimately find out the best game of all time. Voting is open for 24 hours, with different time zones it's best to just look at the time the first post was made. For a full list of the top 95 qualifying games, along with the results so far, see this thread here.

What is your favourite game and why? Perhaps you can convince others in the comments below.

Today we have;


vs
 
  • Star
  • Like
Reactions: DonDonDonPata and regawdless
Ok googling Gordon Freeman dance gifs is disturbing.

34e6bd921c19cea886d83f335f766dfa94353097.gif
half-life-gordon-freeman.gif

deoo5fk-9499bec8-baa0-4ff9-a0c0-f9a0fdcccd1d.gif
 
  • Funny
  • Triggered
Reactions: Bolivar, Soodanim and Kadayi
Not even kidding, Jade Empire is the thing I think of every time I think back to having a Blockbuster game pass. I brought it home, played maybe an hour, and drove it straight back to the store to swap out for a different game.

Nothing about it appealed to me at all. And Microsoft was buying lots of high review scores for it, so I was confused when I played it and it felt like such a janky pile of shit with boring characters.
 
  • Like
  • Funny
  • Really?
Reactions: teezzy, Dr. Farnsgoth and regawdless
I remember playing HL the day it was released and being blown away. It pretty much became the metric by which all other games were compared in the PC Mags at the time for the next 5 years or so. Paradigm shift.
 
  • Brain
Reactions: Mickmrly
I'm going to stand aside from the crowd here and say Jade Empire is a better game, even though Half Life is undeniably the more popular and influential.

Jade Empire is peak Bioware, before EA really got their hooks in and wokeism poisoned the well of creativity. It's not an easy game to get to grips with, but brilliantly fun once you do. It's a fantastically unique RPG once you get learn it's systems, with a great cast in an creatively imaginative fantasy setting, that remains unique to this day. Loved it.

Saying that, it's an absolutely brilliant game that is going to get completely crushed by Half Life here, and objectively quite rightly so, Jade Empire should not beat Half Life, that's ridiculous to suggest, but as such, I'm going to go with my heart and vote for the game I prefer, safe in the knowledge it won't make a blind bit of difference to the result.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
  • Brain
  • Love
Reactions: Vyse, Night Sky, Bolivar and 6 others
Stilton Disco said:
I'm going to stand aside from the crowd here and say Jade Empire is a better game, even though Half Life is undeniably the more popular and influential.

Jade Empire is peak Bioware, before EA really got their hooks in and wokeism poisoned the well of creativity. It's not an easy game to get to grips with, but brilliantly fun once you do. It's a fantastically unique RPG once you get learn it's systems, with a great cast in an creatively imaginative fantasy setting, that remains unique to this day. Loved it.

Saying that, it's an absolutely brilliant game that is going to get completely crushed by Half Life here, and objectively quite rightly so, Jade Empire should not beat Half Life, that's ridiculous to suggest, but as such, I'm going to go with my heart and vote for the game I prefer, safe in the knowledge it won't make a blind bit of difference to the result.
Click to expand...

You've summed up exactly how I feel about this match and put it in words better than I could have.

Sir, take my hand. I shall stand with you in solidarity. My vote goes to Jade Empire.
 
  • Cheers
  • Like
  • Brain
Reactions: Vyse, Stilton Disco and Zeta Dragoon
Half-Life all the way on this one. Not even close.

To be fair to Jade Empire, I only played it for a couple of hours on P{C many years after it was released, but it just didn't grab me at all.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Nobel 6
I'm going with Half-life even though I never played. I did play the subsequent games in The Orange Box and they were great. I tried to play Jade Empire and it just didn't click for me.
 
Jade Empire could have been Mass Effect/Dragon Age Origins quality had it not been gutted (Very clear in later chapters). One of several games that make me go how the fuck were they never continued? Along with Chrono Trigger/Cross, Alpha Protocol, Skies of Arcadia, Okami and Golden Sun.

Okami has a greater mythological vibe but Jade Empire let's you make certain decisions and choices that do affect the story. Story was good, and had a twist almost on par with Kotors.

This is one game that deserves a remake and a sequel. Still if even the overwhelming icons that are Half Life 1/2 couldn't get a sequel and resolution to their story what hope does Jade Empire have? Valve doesn't seem interested or they would have done it over a decade ago, Bioware did not sign off on the purposed Jade Empire sequel, they are not interested in remastering Dragon Age like they did with Mass Effect Legendary Edition, and the Kotor Remake first impressions were apparently so shit to people in charge it's pretty much vaporware.

Sucks.
 
Last edited:
  • Cheers
  • Like
Reactions: Stilton Disco and Torrent of Pork
By far and away the easiest choice yet. Half-Life is a brilliant game and was a real watershed moment for the industry. I dont want to live in the alternate timeline where it was never released.

Where as Jade empire was fun... but could have never played it and been none the poorer.
 
HL1 and it's not even close though i prefer other shooters that generation. Unreal, Quake 2, Duke 3D and Blood for example
 
I liked Half-Life at the time but the lack of any ending for any of the entries is annoying.

So I voted Jade Empire out of spite.

Also, I think Half-Life's shooting and platforming isn't all that great to begin with. Doom 3 does the same general concept better. lol
 
  • Like
Reactions: Vyse and Musky_Cheese
Jade empire was kinda never really good.
It got good scores riding on Kotor fame.

Half-Life on the other hand... that game changed the pc gaming forever. It is a bit rough to replay but that does not change it
 
  • Really?
Reactions: Vyse
I played Jade Empire so long ago, and I remember being surprised at how it wasn't grabbing me or that compelling, given the general consensus of reviews out at the time. I rarely started games without finishing them back then, but I did drop JE before I reached the end.

Having said that, I'm one of the outliers that never thought the Half-Life series was particularly great. I certainly get its influence, and I'm not intending to minimize that, but for me it was a pretty average experience overall. Not bad, mind you, just not the digital jesus it is for so many.

So, I'll vote Half-Life.
 
Jade Empire is a fantastic CRPG and IMO the best Asian-themed RPG ever (not talking JRPGs.. I mean the actual era).

However, Half-Life changed gaming forever, and there was nothing like it before that. Jade Empire was a 3D Baldur's Gate.

HL1 wins.

HE1NZ said:
Jade Empire is one of those games that stay in your backlog forever.
Click to expand...

Lol I hate to admit it but yeah I got about halfway through on Xbox BC and then shelved it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Zefah
4 More Posts...
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back