You can slap, cough, and look at your watch.

January 16, 2012 10:13 AM

Elevator: Source is a Half-Life 2 mod which puts the player on an elevator that visits a number of strange floors. It requires Gary's Mod and HL2:Ep2, but you can sample the experience with this gameplay video.
posted by codacorolla (40 comments total)

Seems like a fulfilling use of one's time.
posted by unixrat at 10:21 AM on January 16, 2012

Looks at least as entertaining as, and probably much more logical than, M. Night Shyamalan's "Devil."
posted by jbickers at 10:30 AM on January 16, 2012 [1 favorite]

I got about 2 minutes into that video before the CONSTANT FIDGETY MOVEMENT started to physically disturb me and I had to close the window. Is this how other people behave in first-person shooters? Nothing's happening, stop running around like a hummingbird on a caffeine overdose within your few feet of elevator space!
posted by Nutri-Matic Drinks Synthesizer at 10:34 AM on January 16, 2012 [13 favorites]

I forced myself to sit through the first five. tediously dull minutes of that gameplay video. Someone owes me a coke or something.
posted by darkstar at 10:35 AM on January 16, 2012 [2 favorites]

You're not even allowed off the elevator?!
posted by steamynachos at 10:42 AM on January 16, 2012

I'm reading the stuff on the website. Am I missing something or...it just stops at random rooms? and you can get on/off the elevator?
posted by jquinby at 11:05 AM on January 16, 2012

It's no Episode 3 or Black Mesa but at least it's out.
posted by infinitewindow at 11:23 AM on January 16, 2012 [4 favorites]

I'll admit it. I play a lot of video games. I have never seen anything like this. It is, simply put, the revolution in gaming that I've been waiting for since I first starting jumping about hitting bricks with my head. The website isn't exaggerating when it says the mod has realistic elevator physics.

Just amazing. As soon as this download is done, I will be looking at my watch and avoiding eye contact with strangers from the comfort of my own home for the foreseeable future.
posted by Ducks or monkeys at 11:26 AM on January 16, 2012 [9 favorites]

Elevator: Source: You'll believe that an elevator can go down!
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 11:28 AM on January 16, 2012

I should be able to play this when I get home. In the mean time (and without having watched the video), I'll admit the premise intrigues me; six years ago I convinced myself that It'd be a good idea to make a mod in which you navigate a procedurally generated nocturnal suburban landscape wherein you can peek through windows and witness an enormous semirandom collection of dioramas and vignettes, at least one of which would consist of a person looking back at you and picking up the phone, and then you'd spend the rest of the game dodging police. I wound up not making that, of course, but it seems like this is working in similar conceptual space, while dodging a few of the technical hurdles my design would have stumbled on.
posted by jsnlxndrlv at 11:28 AM on January 16, 2012 [5 favorites]

Spoiler: they arrive at their floor, where they play pool and watch anime on TV.
posted by alexei at 11:29 AM on January 16, 2012 [1 favorite]

I'm pretty sure the guy's name is 'Garry'. The guy with the mod, that is.

> I got about 2 minutes into that video before the CONSTANT FIDGETY MOVEMENT started to physically disturb me and I had to close the window. Is this how other people behave in first-person shooters? Nothing's happening, stop running around like a hummingbird on a caffeine overdose within your few feet of elevator space!

I can't speak for other gamers but I'm constantly guilty of this. Especially in games like Left 4 Dead 2 Versus mode where you're often waiting for the other team to be ready. Fidgety things done in L4D saferooms include:

- putting obnoxious gamer sprays in weird corners
- shooting all zombies visible from saferoom
- shooting all zombies NOT visible from saferoom, by shooting through the walls
- vandalizing every shootable object
- shooting other peoples' sprays
- repeatedly shoving other players
- abusing your character's most inane/hilarious/annoying possible voice macros (bonus points if you're Rochelle)
- practicing your hurdle jumping with saferoom furniture*
- etc...

*only applies to furnished saferooms
posted by neckro23 at 11:31 AM on January 16, 2012 [5 favorites]

A brief gameplay video eh?

Trapped in a virtual elevator for 45 minutes of awkward dialogue by excited nerds.
posted by Stagger Lee at 11:31 AM on January 16, 2012 [2 favorites]

Having just watched the entire thing, I'm pretty sure I was just as excited and punch-drunk as those dudes by the end. Strangely compelling.
posted by cheap paper at 11:40 AM on January 16, 2012 [1 favorite]

FPS gamers learn to keep their character in constant, random motion in order to throw off snipers. If they know there's no sniper around, they do it anyway, because that's exactly the sort of situation snipers like. (Also Spies.)

I don't do this in games that don't actually have snipers, which probably indicates how much of a noob I am.
posted by LogicalDash at 11:41 AM on January 16, 2012 [3 favorites]

"When I was little, my grandfather used to make me stand in a closet for five minutes without moving. He said it was elevator practice." --Stephen Wright
posted by oneironaut at 11:42 AM on January 16, 2012 [1 favorite]

Awkward misogynist dialogue too. I stopped skipping forward shortly after Heather got into the elevator and the word 'giggity' was used. It degenerated after that.
posted by Hardcore Poser at 11:42 AM on January 16, 2012

abusing your character's most inane/hilarious/annoying possible voice macros (bonus points if you're Rochelle)

I wish I could get that girl some coughdrops.

Also, I'm probably going to make a MFC thread about this, since this game seems to be right up our alley.
posted by hellojed at 11:50 AM on January 16, 2012

Wasn't this a minigame in Mass Effect?
posted by demiurge at 12:00 PM on January 16, 2012 [12 favorites]

Previous joke credited to neckro
posted by demiurge at 12:11 PM on January 16, 2012

"Can you cough and have your watch out at the same time?"

"No, that would be overpowered."
posted by Ducks or monkeys at 12:12 PM on January 16, 2012 [2 favorites]

In other mod news, Dear Esther's getting a makeover. It's due in mid-February.

Still, it's definitely worth checking out the original (you'll need Garry's mod and HL2 for this as well).
posted by mammary16 at 12:32 PM on January 16, 2012

BUT WHERE ARE THE BEES
posted by Ron Thanagar at 12:34 PM on January 16, 2012 [1 favorite]

I downloaded the mod and played a singleplayer game. This game accurately simulates what it's like to be in an elevator with someone else while embarrassingly bad music plays.
posted by hellojed at 12:48 PM on January 16, 2012

I like their reactions here and here.
posted by Acey at 12:51 PM on January 16, 2012

korsakovia is #1
posted by This, of course, alludes to you at 1:07 PM on January 16, 2012

Ah, the missing Source engine remake: Desert BusElevator.
posted by Mayor West at 1:07 PM on January 16, 2012

The source game engine is nice, but some really amazing stuff (in the way of graphics) is being done with the Crysis 2 game engine.
posted by Mr Mister at 1:44 PM on January 16, 2012 [7 favorites]

The source game engine is nice, but some really amazing stuff (in the way of graphics) is being done with the Crysis 2 game engine.

Holy moley, that is amazing. Looks photo realistic. Does the Titanic sink at some point?

*glares at four-year-old desktop* You're never gonna run that, are ya?
posted by zardoz at 1:57 PM on January 16, 2012

NEED A DISPENSAH HEAH!
posted by cosmicbandito at 2:03 PM on January 16, 2012

That titanic video linked by Mr Mister looks photorealistic, yet weirdly plasticky or something. Reminds me of Myst or Starship Titanic... Maybe the lighting is a little too shiny and veers into a sort of uncanny-valley? I'm also flabbergasted by the amount of work someone has spent modelling ALL of those detailed objects.

Also, thanks LogicalDash for a reasonable explanation of the haywire behaviour. I tend toward single-player (maybe because I'm such a poor FPS player?), so snipers aren't usually an issue for me.

I started trying to play quake years ago, and I gave up because I realized that you had to be jumping ALL OF THE TIME just to survive more than a few seconds. It just seemed so unrealistic, and sort of a cheap way of winning. And if a single person was doing it, everyone else would have to follow, otherwise the jumper would have an unfair advantage. THANKS FOR RUINING IT FOR THE REST OF US, PERSON WHO FIRST STARTED THE ALWAYS JUMPING IN DEATHMATCH GAMES!

Man, I had no idea I had all that rage in me over quake 3 arena!
posted by Nutri-Matic Drinks Synthesizer at 3:26 PM on January 16, 2012

I'm hopping around even as I type this. No telling when a sniper might be watching.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 3:37 PM on January 16, 2012

Am I the only one disappointed this is not an updated version of Cloak & Dagger?
posted by P.o.B. at 3:55 PM on January 16, 2012 [1 favorite]

God, that Crysis video is terrifying. I watched the whole thing knowing some hideously detailed zombie thing was going to lurch out from the toilet cubicle and splash my blood all over the urinal where it would diffuse into the flush water in a highly realistic manner.
posted by cromagnon at 4:16 PM on January 16, 2012

I'm pretty sure the hyper movements are just your typical testing-the-bounds-of-the-game-world behavior. In video games, there is frequently a disconnect between how something looks and how it behaves. Can I jump on this object? Can I walk through that one? Is there something invisible here? What happens if I stress these three inputs at once? If the primary goal (which appeared to be "sit here on an elevator") isn't terribly engaging, you can often still get an interesting response by testing the boundaries. Plus there's some "Oh, you're going to tell me I can't leave the elevator? Well, we'll see about that!"
posted by Sibrax at 4:26 PM on January 16, 2012 [1 favorite]

Watched all 45 minutes of it. No regrets.
posted by SollosQ at 5:06 PM on January 16, 2012 [1 favorite]

Watched all 45 minutes of it. Some regrets.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 6:48 PM on January 16, 2012

What happens if I stress these three inputs at once?

Easy there Casanova.
posted by Splunge at 6:39 AM on January 17, 2012

Nutri-Matic, if you really want a trace of realism, you should probably avoid FPSing in general, ARMA excepted. Even including a jump button is fairly absurd by any realistic standard, considering the load that your character always hauls around.
posted by LogicalDash at 11:59 AM on January 17, 2012

A-ha! I'd actually just heard about ARMA and it really piqued my interest, I'll have to give it a shot. For now, I'm playing fallout 3, a game so far at the other end of the spectrum that I can make the battles almost turn-based!

PS - there is an entire Wikipedia article on bunny hopping, although it's more focused on making you go faster by glitching out a game's max movement speed, rather than avoiding headshots. I'll stop the total derail now!
posted by Nutri-Matic Drinks Synthesizer at 2:47 PM on January 17, 2012