Why was Cinematic Mod so hated?

[Mandrew]

I'm just waiting to see some criticism that was invalid because it's optional.


Some criticism I disagree with:
1. It ruins the atmosphere of half-life 2 because of all the plants and trees.
Seriously now, just take a look at white forest. Second of all, it's a mod, it doesn't have to be the same as half-life 2.
2. Porn Graffiti on walls.
While I can understand that some people may not want to see it, all you have to do is look away at it.

[Alin.]

It's just that HL2 fans love very much the vanilla, try to change it, and you will get the whole fanbase on your butt. Which it happend. People mostly complained that the turned Alyx into a h oe with her new looks. They also got mad that a dild0 was in her room. They were mad about the porn graffiti, they were mad that females wore makeup, they were mad that they removed all black npc's. They were mad about the weapons, the soundtrack, the npc's models. The thing is, all of them were optional. But try to explain that to the angry mob.

[rarestMeow]

hello

cinematic mod is a GREAT mod - the amount of new content, redone graphics, reshades is just outstanding, the sole fact that the mod was created by one guy is just unbelievable

people just shunned by the fact how frivolously author came up with original material (remember, Half Life 2 has the status of a golden cow)
1) how dare author to put all those sexy gratifies?
2) how dare author to make city17' citizens look like hos?
3) how dare author to put a d-i-l-d-o into Alex's room
4) how DARE author to make Alex look a DAMN HO!?
5) how dare author to reskin all city 17?
6) ...change original music?
7) ...and recoil of guns?
8) ...and reskin the second smg?
9) ...just to be born?

the amount of overreacting and hate is beyond any lulz. in fact all those nitpicking would be quite funny, it those critics would not be THAT serious

it does NOT ruin the atmosphere of the game. to begin with, Half Life 2 has quite small story, little details and its atmosphere is really overrated. the mod actually improves atmosphere a lot:
1) City17 is now very multi-cultural city, which should be obvious, taking in account that people all around the world come here. you can now find books and posters on various languages here: russian, german, spanish and so on. I now SEE that this is in-fact a big city with lots of culture mixed up
2) City17 citizens' outfits now is way better. not in term of "black is badass", no. in original game I look at those people and I think of stereotypical dictatorship. the game just screams "1982" in my face. with new outfit I see a more deeper idea, it feels more subtle and not that open
3) now I see brands like Coca-Cola everywhere, which is more realistic. of course Valve couldn't put them in real game for trademark reasons, but mod fixed it in a good way
4) being overruled by angry aliens doesn't automatically makes us less people (or animals). our sexual libido is still their and sexual innuendo here and their (women look and gratifies) are nice touch
5) speaking of women look. remember USSR. it was authoritarian government, no argue, but despite Iron Curtain, heavy partism and "there is no sex in USSR"-motto - women here STILL wanted to look pretty. contraband cosmetics and clothes from Poland and Czech came it USSR on daily shedule and everyone knew it. there were beauty salons and malls, despite being ruled by a hard regime. what do we expect that women now will just say "to heck with our look?". people in that city are still loving and hating each other - that is normal behavior
6) lots of greenery is a good idea too. people consider that "aliens wanna destroy our planet and so planet should not be that green". come on! the process of destroying climate of our planet will take a lot time for aliens and whenever people populations come shallow (like after war) - the nature comes in. it is natural that now there is lots of green in the world. also the game takes place somewhere in Eastern Europe - and that region (as well Russia) is VERY green

as for Alex's d-i-l-d-o - it was an Easter egg for those who will spend time in finding every little detail and touch in that mod. the game didn't put that damn d-i-c-k in to your face, in fact there is a fat chance you would never find it in first place, it was a joke for curios ones. on other hand, again, that is quite realistic that Alex, being a 20+ women masturbates. I mean she is FLAT character with no originality and deep (yes!), at least giving her a rubber d-i-c-k, would make her somehow interesting

I didn't like new weapon in the game, maybe I am too used for original weapon, so I choose default ones. I had no problem with new soundtrack, it fits quite well. All those for-lulz naked skins are fun, I played with sexy naked Alex few minutes, had few laughs, then changed it to some "vanilla HD skins" and forget about that porno thing, no big deal

[Mixon]

FULLY

[[Vzla] Mr. Why?]

Originally posted by Mixon:

FULLY

Wow a Deimoss' pfp, i see you have culture

[Spagootnoodels]

Mod's great and all, but nobody likes an a-hole developer let alone a horny a-hole developer. It's easily ignored and the mod enjoyed like I did, but it keeps coming up over and over again in the game how horny this guy really is and it gets kinda weird and off-putting. People will defend it for some reason saying everything is optional or whatever, but that doesn't really mean anything. Overall good mod and I'll recommend it, but you should take it with a grain of salt given what I've said and how the atmosphere makes zero sense, but that's debatable.

Also too many ferns.
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ferns.

[PsyWarVeteran]

Here you go pal, no words are necessary:

http://i.imgur.com/0Qnkuu2.jpg

[Ghidrah1]

Optional or not why go through all the unnecessary effort in the 1st place?

It's a dystopian planet under siege for 20 plus years all human manufacturing, industry, electrical power has been crushed, no medicine, no clothing, ??? female makeup, tube tops, sun glasses??? Unless they existed within the "MATRIX" none of those contemporary items would exist, it's dialectic to the reality of the story

Remember the planet has been under the anti reproduction field, no one in the story ever exhibits any sexual desire let alone promote it with street walker attire.

Improving graphics and sound, (realistic colors richer sounds on both sides of the scale of the make sense.

As for all the foliage, (trees, overgrowth) for that area of NE Europe that is most likely reliable for the latitude where the story takes place, the equatorial end of the temperate zone has moved north due to the receding oceans accelerating desertification

[Mandrew]

I don't think all the character models looked bad. But unnecessary effort? Some people might like the custom models. I know that a lot of people say that they are bad and ugly, I wouldn't say that with all of the models.

But here is the point, I like some of them but not all which is why I was happy to be given the choice to choose what I want.

So basically, I might not like some optional things but others might. It's not all a waste of time.

[Charla Chilla]

I think the cirtisim is because it adds NSFW stuff.

[Flappy Pannus]

Because he didn't know when to stop. If it was added detail, lighting and shadows, it would have been beloved - but he went completely overboard and devoted so much time to character models which didn't fit with the game at all and from a design perspective were horrendous.

[Tap W]

A long list of out-of-place or poor changes that go against Half-Life 2's gameplay, themes, design, etc.
These changes are only optional from a binary position because every one of these changes is still downloaded with the installer; a whopping 54GB for what looks like less than half of that.
Oh, and fully modeled coochie up to the cervix.

[Mandrew]

Originally posted by Tap W:

A long list of out-of-place or poor changes that go against Half-Life 2's gameplay, themes, design, etc.

It's a mod it, doesn't have to be exactly like half-life 2. We play mods to get a different experience, not to have the exact same thing.

Originally posted by Flappy Pannus:

Because he didn't know when to stop. If it was added detail, lighting and shadows, it would have been beloved - but he went completely overboard and devoted so much time to character models which didn't fit with the game at all and from a design perspective were horrendous.

I didn't think all the character models looked that bad. I chose the ones I liked and used them. It's not a waste of time if some other people want to play with it. I might not like them but some other people might like it.

[Tap W]

Originally posted by Mandrew - Wonderland_War:

It's a mod it, doesn't have to be exactly like half-life 2. We play mods to get a different experience, not to have the exact same thing.

It doesn't, but some of the changes made go against the purpose of the mod, which was to make HL2 a more cinematic experience.
I'm not saying changing the game is bad or wrong, or even that all the changes in CM are bad, I'm saying that changes made shouldn't hurt the game or go against the mod's purpose.

[Saul Goodman]

m o d e l e d
B 0 0 B I E S

[Hicks - ITA (Girolamo)]

Basically, the artistic choice made in the mod are different from the one in the original.

Alyx's boobs are a nice example. In the original HL Alyx model it's not curvy for avoid to focalize too much the attention of the player on her apparence instead of her personality.