Except in multiplayer. On crossfire you can just patrol around and get all the ammo, rarely ever stopping shooting, either for transport, to shot a player directly, to shoot a player following you by hitting a thin corner of the wall or throwing of a shot at a thinwalled room where you hear some fighting and causing an explosion behind the wall that gets you sometimes 2-3 kills. That map is just amazing when you get a couple of people who understand the tau cannon.
The Tau cannon just isn’t clear enough about how it’s supposed to be a high power weapon. Any new player would just assume it to be a novelty and then hate it because it is overpowered in deathmatch.
That's my experience too, as a SP user. Yes it's powerful, but with its charge mechanic is not really easy to use, the ammo ends quickly and in the end you find another weapon which uses the same ammo, but it's easier to use and more powerful. My guess is that they tried to balance it but ended making it not that practical
And yet, during my first Half-Life playthrough, I mostly used Tau Cannon instead of Rocket launcher when I had to fight vehicles. Partially it also makes me sad, though, because I've skipped some really interesting 'boss' fights and completed them within few seconds, instead of having intense battles.
Not really though. You use uranium to power it, which suggests the batteries are used for something trivial like igniting something, starting the motors or powering servos
The Tau Cannon may be a much more versatile weapon, but I find the Gluon Gun more fun to use, shooting a giant beam of energy at enemies instead of having to charge up a shot with the Tau. Perhaps if the Gluon Gun was obtained from a scientist corpse in Xen, like the Displacement Cannon in Half-Life: Opposing Force, the Tau Cannon would get more usage since it would be the only Uranium weapon during Lambda Core. I mean, since Lambda Core is inside, the Tau would be much safer to use than the Rocket Launcher in the many corridors in the last Earthbound chapter.
The reason the tau cannon didnt get much love in hl2 is because the uranium fuel was virtually impossible to come by. Relying on a generator on the buggy to supply power. Which is why it felt underpowered. Give the survivors some credit for even managing to adapt it during an apocalypse!
Could have made it a rare ammo found in Combine areas normally used to supply some sort of weird tech. Nice they brought it back to HL2 instead of just a normal gun on the Buggy!
That looks more like the Muon Solenoid of Particle Colliders, not a Coil for accelerating bullets. The Tau Cannon is not a Gauss Gun. It's never referred to as a Gauss Gun in any of the games. It is referred to as such only in the in-game files for the original Half Life, but this is remnant code for a completely different weapon that was cut from the game.
@@BrunoSantos-jp1lv nah, Tau Cannon sounds cooler and is more accurate. Think about it. Not only is the name Gauss Gun overused, but Gauss Guns in all reality aren't cool laser weapons that vaporize things. They're just another regular gun that uses electricity instead of gunpowder to fire the same bullet. Tau on the other hand is a miniature particle accelerator. Literally a nuclear fusion core in the palm of your hands. No wonder it gibs anything it touches when charged up. Tau is waaay cooler.
@@soggybreadman4035 I never even mentioned accuracy. I was talking about how cool the word sounds and "Tau" is just...tau, while "Gauss" has that sassiness to it, and gauss has 2 Ss to it so you KNOW IT SOUNDS COOL
I some how managed to skip the room with the lasers (maybe the guard from earlier let me into the room with the scientists, I had him with me). When Surface Tension started I was like, "Wait, aren't I supposed to have that thing?" and after 15 minutes of trying to take down that helicopter with like 2 pistol mags, decided to go back and get it. Edit: Turns out I just pressed the button to the scientist room from the other side, skipping the part where you're supposed to get it.
You technically could take down the Apache with two pistol mags lmao. I'm guessing you managed to skip the level if maybe the guard opened the door to the scientist room by being pushed into it, similar to the speedrun exploit used for the WR Half-Life speedrun in We've Got Hostiles.
Happened to me during my first playthrough but with the clowbar during the part where you get thrown into the garbage compartor. Turns out a bit later on there's a section where you need to break a vent to continue as you don't have any weapon but the crowbar, but since I didn't even have that the game became unwinnable... until I looked up online what did I mess up and when I realized what was going on I gave myself the crowbar through console commands.
When you crouch on top of the dead thing and hold mouse1 with the crowbar, theres a sweet spot that will let your striking speed go superfast, turning it to gibs.
3:09 That transition 👌🏻 Well, I would really like the Tau Canon to return in Half-Life 3. But with a bit more… desintegration than in Half-Life 2. Half-Life 3 will most likely be a VR game. And it would be amazing to use this weapon in VR.
Erik,png if half life 3 be vr, then i will be fucked, for not having 10,000 of my country currency to buy a vr device and also it'll be a shoot in the foot for valve, lol
@@awsumpchits that’s your opinion, which is valid, but the vast majority of people disagree with you, so that opinion’s not really something you can use to make a point.
The Gluon Gun doesn't actually outshine the Gauss Gun too much when ignoring other abilities of the Gauss Gun. When killing an Alien Grunt, my best results were... Time it takes to kill Half-Life data/Half-Life: Source data Gauss Primary Gluon Secondary 1.03/1.13 1/1.03 3.03/2.93 Ammo used Gauss Primary Gluon Secondary 12/12 9/9 5/5 (The reason I included Source was because it's the version I play the most) The Gluon gun is marginally better of DPS, and better for a DPS ammo consumption balance, but the Gauss gun can be 1.8 times as ammo efficient. Aside from the other methods for using the Gauss Gun in mentioned, in Half-Life: Source, you can keep the charge underwater, and wait to unleash it, making the Gauss Gun the best way to deal with Ichthyosaurs, ignoring any ammo issues. Edit: I forgot how good sachels are against them, although they also have ammo issues if you are just killing an icthyasour using rhem
Speaking of the last sentence, my best way of dealing with Ichtyosaurs is staying the hell away from the bodies of water they inhabit. Ichtyosaurs are terrifying as hell and take a metric ton of hits before dying on top of moving around fast and unpredictably. But yeah, I just wait patiently at the surface and try to hit it with charged shots if it's not aggro'd yet.
Tau Cannon reminds me so much of Half Life death matches with friends and watching them fly round the maps with it and bunny hopping. Then that noise in the distance and then boom, you're dead.
If you think about it, the tau cannon is the first actual instance of realistic gun situations, it can reflect off of surfaces, and it can shoot through walls. Half life really was ahead of it’s time.
I think people really love the video essay format. I go down rabbit holes for hours watching video essays on whatever obscurity I can. Like HL guns I've never seen before. The memey moments pair with your delivery perfectly. You have the format down to a T. Cool transitions, memey moments, and pure information with solid delivery. I'm definitely subscribed :)
Tau cannon is literally made to *annihilate* ambushes, especially in Half-life: Source where if you hold R and charge just 1 unit of ammo - you just annihilate anything you see. A pinpoint precise mininuke in your hands.
You're a fucking national treasure to the Half-Life community. I wish I found you earlier. I'd really like to hear your opinions on Unreal Gold some time. I consider it a sister title to Half-Life considering they both came out swinging with big leaps in technology and design in 1998.
when i was younger, i used the Tau Cannon like crazy, because, at that time, i thought it was the final weapon XD. but still, when i found more weapons i just wanted to get rid of them, because the Tau Cannon is really good, so good in fact that it can even destroy the nihilant (well at least a little bit).
Every now and then, I stop and remember that this game came out only 2 years after Quake. Games evolved faster in the 90s than a single game is being developed today.
Tau Cannon was fun, but in my perspective that term "best" has to at least consider how often the thing gets used. So it relies at least as much on the level and enemy design, and item placement, as it does on the weapon design itself. Even just based on the information you give in this video, the best I could give it is "most interesting weapon". Which it would probably deserve. But I couldn't honestly call it "best" based on the way it's presented in Half-Life. Black Mesa's version of Interloper at least gives it a few places to shine, in its infinite-recharge areas -- even though you'll mostly be using the Gluon, as far as I remember Tau was occasionally better for awkward or long-distance shots. Should note I can only speak about the singleplayer though. Deathmatches without flight are not my thing :)
Me: Hey, that was a fun and complex analysis! I wonder what essay topic his previous video is ab- "Gordon Freeman Pisses Lasers": u wanted smth? Me: Ok...
The transition at 3:10 was VERY well done, good job! I had to watch it a second time to understand what I saw, because the first time caught me off guard - I was like, "wait, what? Was that a portal gun transition? That's so cool!" Alongside this, I'm only part way through the video but the editing, scripting, and music choice go together wonderfully :) good job! All I could suggest to improve the video is captions, but nonetheless, wonderful work! (And my apologies if I've commented something to that effect on this channel before - my memory is slightly blurry when it comes to these things.)
Bro the Spore Launcher is the real shit that keeps me up at night. Okay for real though, my favorite weapons from Half-life are: the Spore Launcher, Tau Cannon, and the m249 because... god damn it puts a smile on my face.
My most favourite weapon of all times is Flak Cannon from Unreal Tournament '99. It's bulky, hefty, looks like a heavy industrial tool, combines functionality of Doom's supershotgun with bouncing shrapnel for trickshots, and arcing grenade that also releases shrapnel in a concentrated direction. I love ssg, bouncing shots and arcing grenades - the later is a bit trickier and more satisfying to use. It also looks and sounds amazing with 2 different loading animations depending on firemode used. So this gun combines all of my favourite shooting methods in one awesome feeling package. The later installments made it look overdesigned, some even fragile looking. UT4 went back to more classic bulky look, but they couldn't hold themselves from adding unnecessary greebles.
Wonderful video. You me appreciate a weapon I absolutely love even more, and then made me grief about the fact that it was never used again in any meaningful way (Seriously, why was it cut in Alyx? It would give a much needed third upgrade to the SMG. Oh well, time constraints). To me, the Tau Cannon embodies Black Mesa's essence perfectly- Innovative, prototypical, and very unstable. You deserve much more attention than you are getting.
Update on the situation: I got the same thing happening in the "DAV Train" mod. After I killed a shotgun HECU grunt he dropped his weapon and got back up shortly after. His animations were just as buggy as in the video and he started shooting at me despite having no gun in hands. And I couldn't kill him because he either became invincible or he got a metric fuckton of HP due to number underflow.
I like how the tau cannon fits in thematically. You are up against a highly trained conventional military force, clad in a science exploration armor and wielding an experimental scientific weapon. With the Tau Cannon, you ARE the Black Mesa's rep in a 5-way deathmatch between BM staff, HECU, Xen, Race X and Black Ops.
One of the other reasons for it being cut in Half-Life 2 was trying to figure out how the ammo would work. It uses depleted uranium. Where are you gonna find that in a post-apocalyptic game outside of Fallout? One idea was a vortigaunt super-charging it so it'd have recharging ammo, but that was considered too broken. I didn't even know it could shoot through walls until quite recently. I just thought it was a powerful 'do not use unless in emergency' weapon
So, a puzzle version of Jetpack Joyride? Sounds like the kind of fun I would enjoy, and would provide opportunities for some cool parkour-esque clips and special maps (kinda like CS surf maps, y'know?).
Tau cannon is my favorite weapon too! In the game Black Mesa, it looks so cool and the sounds it makes are so satisfying! Also for Half-Life 2, if you want to be able to detach the weapon from the car, I would recommend to use the mod called Mmod. It's really great and it add a lot of the good stuff from Half-Life 1 or Half-Life 2!
The beta version used to have a handle which makes more sense, and gluon gun had an alt-fire, you can still see it in the animations from the model viewer.
bro as soon as I picked up the tau Cannon I fell in love. I am so, so sad that we haven't been able to play with that outside of half-life. Also, if Team Fortress classic is anything to go off, the coil pistol up thing that the engineer has his quite obviously based off of the tau Cannon. I don't remember if that was originally in the game files and it was restored like a lot of a things in Team Fortress classic but.
This is a really interesting video, I love seeing unique, unspoken weapons talked about in such detail. Discussing their game mechanics and how versatile they actually are as apposed to just saying "it's versatile" or discussing iconic weapons exclusively. Like all in all the master sword (at least in game) Is just a sword, which sometimes shoots projectiles. But the in depth dive into the mechanics, and the multi use cases for a weapon are what truly make a weapon stand apart from a default gun. I would be fascinated to see more videos like these, but your channel seems to focus more on half life content. If you plan to make more videos like this one, I would greatly appreciate a like to this comment and I'd be happy to subscribe for more in depth dives into mechanical based weapon designs.
I've never heard it by the name of Tau Cannon before. And I think it's pronounced Goz. But man, you're right! A game based around this gun sounds like a speedrunner's dream.
DOOM 2016 actually also has a gauss cannon, it even also give a knock back boost that is used in speedrun strat, although significantly weaker to be more realistic. It can also charge to deal more damage
4:19 If i remember correctly there was a half life 2 mod That had a enemy that had an actual tau Cannon strapped on to they're back They used as a form of jetpack
What about making a video on the horde/tower defense gameplay sections in HL2 and its episodes? Like in Nova Prospekt when you wait for Alyx in the room with the turrets and when you wait for the teleporter to recharge, in Anticitizen One when you fend off soldiers while Alyx hacks a terminal, the Vortal Combat part, or the final act of Episode 2.
The beat drop of the intro was epic. I personally find the Tao Canon and Gluon Gun to be equal in design, (but I love any gun design in most games so don't listen to me lol) but I do find the Tao Canon slightly more interesting and most scientific then the gluon gun. The way you described the Tao Canon as a mini conductor or what it was you said (to lazy to check) was nice, gluon gun being real is less likely than the tao, basically I agree
a weapon and a mobility item is just the goat. Embodies the idea of futuristic ballistics with kickback, penetration and ricochet. A noob like me can get through sven map quick with it.
I think there should be a mod where it’s just puzzles with the tau cannon aperture decides to steal from black Mesa as revenge for black Mesa stealing from them so you solve puzzles with it like using its knock back for momentum to go through a portal at the right speed or even implement a new feature like needing to shoot at something to turn something like how energy pellets work in the first portal game
the canon is my favourite weapon, though it works a lot better on repeat playthroughs when you know where the ammo is and when you should use it like, i use it to take out the helicopter on the dam and i use the knockback to jump over the dam rather than swim under it i like it so much that i never use the gluon gun, it looks and sounds and feels so cool
Развлечения
The ammo was too scarce for it really to be a viable weapon choice for more than a minute or two at a time
Except in multiplayer. On crossfire you can just patrol around and get all the ammo, rarely ever stopping shooting, either for transport, to shot a player directly, to shoot a player following you by hitting a thin corner of the wall or throwing of a shot at a thinwalled room where you hear some fighting and causing an explosion behind the wall that gets you sometimes 2-3 kills. That map is just amazing when you get a couple of people who understand the tau cannon.
The Tau cannon just isn’t clear enough about how it’s supposed to be a high power weapon. Any new player would just assume it to be a novelty and then hate it because it is overpowered in deathmatch.
That's my experience too, as a SP user. Yes it's powerful, but with its charge mechanic is not really easy to use, the ammo ends quickly and in the end you find another weapon which uses the same ammo, but it's easier to use and more powerful.
My guess is that they tried to balance it but ended making it not that practical
It's like choosing the Unmaykr over the BFG
And yet, during my first Half-Life playthrough, I mostly used Tau Cannon instead of Rocket launcher when I had to fight vehicles. Partially it also makes me sad, though, because I've skipped some really interesting 'boss' fights and completed them within few seconds, instead of having intense battles.
Useless fact: tau gun is powered by 6 A batteries
and uranium
and H2
+where did you get the 6 batteries fact? it was 2 if you look on guns top back side
@@niggacockball7995 I looked at the model, and I saw 6
@@alexkubrat3868 where are the rest 4?
Not really though. You use uranium to power it, which suggests the batteries are used for something trivial like igniting something, starting the motors or powering servos
7:02 That Tau Cannon shot was so strong it's shock both killed and resuscitated that soldier.
omg it actually did
And then Half Life 2's unused tau cannon icon was used for the Physics Gun in Garry's Mod.
I SWER I DIDIT TRY TO COPY YOU AHHHHHHHH!!!!!
damn i wonder why
The Tau Cannon may be a much more versatile weapon, but I find the Gluon Gun more fun to use, shooting a giant beam of energy at enemies instead of having to charge up a shot with the Tau. Perhaps if the Gluon Gun was obtained from a scientist corpse in Xen, like the Displacement Cannon in Half-Life: Opposing Force, the Tau Cannon would get more usage since it would be the only Uranium weapon during Lambda Core. I mean, since Lambda Core is inside, the Tau would be much safer to use than the Rocket Launcher in the many corridors in the last Earthbound chapter.
Henry it’s Oisin
It was more satisfying to land a shot though to me than the gluon gun.
@@wraydan8908 I like both, but focusing the Gluon Gun's beam down on the Gonarch and Nihilanth is really cool
@J It's worse in Deathmatch now, but in the main campaign it's still OP as fuck
Except Lambda Core has a bunch of flooded parts, and Tau + Water = Dead Gordon.
The reason the tau cannon didnt get much love in hl2 is because the uranium fuel was virtually impossible to come by. Relying on a generator on the buggy to supply power. Which is why it felt underpowered. Give the survivors some credit for even managing to adapt it during an apocalypse!
Could have made it a rare ammo found in Combine areas normally used to supply some sort of weird tech. Nice they brought it back to HL2 instead of just a normal gun on the Buggy!
Why doesn't this guy have more subscribers? He puts a lot of effort into these videos.
Good voice and writing as well
@@maxsfax9707 Yeah, he really does his best
@Jonas Bech Yeah I'm going to try to focus on these sorts of videos and just add memes and stuff to playlists
I don't know, why don't RUclipsrs learn to not make the most vacuous, oft-repeated comments?
yeah pretty fun to watch hehehe
1:40 you can literally see coils in it in those hexagon things
That looks more like the Muon Solenoid of Particle Colliders, not a Coil for accelerating bullets. The Tau Cannon is not a Gauss Gun. It's never referred to as a Gauss Gun in any of the games. It is referred to as such only in the in-game files for the original Half Life, but this is remnant code for a completely different weapon that was cut from the game.
@@xxfalconarasxx5659 but gauss gun sounds cooler tho
@@BrunoSantos-jp1lv nah, Tau Cannon sounds cooler and is more accurate.
Think about it.
Not only is the name Gauss Gun overused, but Gauss Guns in all reality aren't cool laser weapons that vaporize things. They're just another regular gun that uses electricity instead of gunpowder to fire the same bullet.
Tau on the other hand is a miniature particle accelerator. Literally a nuclear fusion core in the palm of your hands. No wonder it gibs anything it touches when charged up.
Tau is waaay cooler.
@@soggybreadman4035 I never even mentioned accuracy. I was talking about how cool the word sounds and "Tau" is just...tau, while "Gauss" has that sassiness to it, and gauss has 2 Ss to it so you KNOW IT SOUNDS COOL
@@BrunoSantos-jp1lv You're probably a child.
I some how managed to skip the room with the lasers (maybe the guard from earlier let me into the room with the scientists, I had him with me). When Surface Tension started I was like, "Wait, aren't I supposed to have that thing?" and after 15 minutes of trying to take down that helicopter with like 2 pistol mags, decided to go back and get it.
Edit: Turns out I just pressed the button to the scientist room from the other side, skipping the part where you're supposed to get it.
You technically could take down the Apache with two pistol mags lmao.
I'm guessing you managed to skip the level if maybe the guard opened the door to the scientist room by being pushed into it, similar to the speedrun exploit used for the WR Half-Life speedrun in We've Got Hostiles.
Happened to me during my first playthrough but with the clowbar during the part where you get thrown into the garbage compartor. Turns out a bit later on there's a section where you need to break a vent to continue as you don't have any weapon but the crowbar, but since I didn't even have that the game became unwinnable... until I looked up online what did I mess up and when I realized what was going on I gave myself the crowbar through console commands.
Are you sure you can go back inside? I tried it and the map loads but the doors won't open. At least in hl source
@@inendlesspain4724 How did you get out of the compactor without the crowbar?
@@bloodleader5 I don't know.
7:05 How did that recon HECU got up??!
Bro didn't feel like dying that day
he built different
Just knocked out
Well, there's a reason of why he's got that beret and not the other soldiers around that area
2 years constantly playing half-life, expansions and mods, and never see that in my life
THIS VIDEO IS FUELING ME WITH ENERGY I CAN NOT EXPLAIN
something secret steers you...
@@TheSonsuwee96 ?
@@aleda257 the name of the second iteration of the the tau cannon song
probably uranium tbh
"Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light." ~Egon Spengler
I tried Half Life a while back and the Tau cannon was my favorite. I was sad it was just reduced to a turret in Half Life 2
You can still charge it in hl2.
Pfffff... Everyone knows that the real best weapon in Half-Life is the crowbar.
When you crouch on top of the dead thing and hold mouse1 with the crowbar, theres a sweet spot that will let your striking speed go superfast, turning it to gibs.
@@robot_enjoyer69 I know it's fucking amazing. Turns out the HEV Suit Mark IV has a secret blender feature.
@@nmperdue4637 Ahem, _What about the Wrench?_
@@turricanrocks1552 wrench is not iconic
@@TheOnlyZober Still, it was a pretty good weapon.
6:25 I always wondered where that image came from, seeing it in Gmod all the time.
3:09
That transition 👌🏻
Well, I would really like the Tau Canon to return in Half-Life 3. But with a bit more… desintegration than in Half-Life 2. Half-Life 3 will most likely be a VR game. And it would be amazing to use this weapon in VR.
Erik,png if half life 3 be vr, then i will be fucked, for not having 10,000 of my country currency to buy a vr device and also it'll be a shoot in the foot for valve, lol
@@alexsandroangel half life alyx wasn’t
@@NeedyBoBeedy it's a shit game though
doubt hl3 will be VR, since vr means no crowbar.
@@awsumpchits that’s your opinion, which is valid, but the vast majority of people disagree with you, so that opinion’s not really something you can use to make a point.
The Gluon Gun doesn't actually outshine the Gauss Gun too much when ignoring other abilities of the Gauss Gun.
When killing an Alien Grunt, my best results were...
Time it takes to kill
Half-Life data/Half-Life: Source data
Gauss Primary Gluon
Secondary
1.03/1.13 1/1.03
3.03/2.93
Ammo used
Gauss Primary Gluon
Secondary
12/12 9/9
5/5
(The reason I included Source was because it's the version I play the most)
The Gluon gun is marginally better of DPS, and better for a DPS ammo consumption balance, but the Gauss gun can be 1.8 times as ammo efficient. Aside from the other methods for using the Gauss Gun in mentioned, in Half-Life: Source, you can keep the charge underwater, and wait to unleash it, making the Gauss Gun the best way to deal with Ichthyosaurs, ignoring any ammo issues.
Edit: I forgot how good sachels are against them, although they also have ammo issues if you are just killing an icthyasour using rhem
You mentioned that you play Half-Life: Source. Did you find a way to fix the bugs?
No, it's just the first version I played, so I'm used to it
Speaking of the last sentence, my best way of dealing with Ichtyosaurs is staying the hell away from the bodies of water they inhabit. Ichtyosaurs are terrifying as hell and take a metric ton of hits before dying on top of moving around fast and unpredictably. But yeah, I just wait patiently at the surface and try to hit it with charged shots if it's not aggro'd yet.
half life source 🤢🤢🤮🤮
@@nmperdue4637 True chads ignore bugs
“…but I just can’t bring myself to use it on a living creature.”
Freeman: I sure can!
Tau Cannon reminds me so much of Half Life death matches with friends and watching them fly round the maps with it and bunny hopping. Then that noise in the distance and then boom, you're dead.
If you think about it, the tau cannon is the first actual instance of realistic gun situations, it can reflect off of surfaces, and it can shoot through walls. Half life really was ahead of it’s time.
I think people really love the video essay format. I go down rabbit holes for hours watching video essays on whatever obscurity I can. Like HL guns I've never seen before. The memey moments pair with your delivery perfectly. You have the format down to a T. Cool transitions, memey moments, and pure information with solid delivery. I'm definitely subscribed :)
5:45 lol that Mr. Plinkett "...oh".
How embarrassing.......
Fun Fact: The Tau Cannon's icon in HL2 was later used in Garry's Mod as the icon for the Physics Gun.
It has indeed a theme song - Moskau by Rammstein. If you listen careful, you can hear the charge sound of the Gaus cannon.
6:41
"Teleport Gun"
[BREATHES DEEPLY IN OPPOSING FORCE]
5:56 the moment you've all been waiting for
6:26 17 years of playing Gmod and now I know that's where the physgun icon came from
Oh my gosh the transition from the Gun Charging to this Badass Music was so frickin good!
A real goosebumps moment
Tau cannon is literally made to *annihilate* ambushes, especially in Half-life: Source where if you hold R and charge just 1 unit of ammo - you just annihilate anything you see.
A pinpoint precise mininuke in your hands.
I feel it necessary to say that in Black Mesa, you get to see the guard's fucking smoking boots
please keep up the best informational type video, this was posted on my birthday and im just realizing this!
ROCKET JUMPING BEFORE TEAM FORTRESS 3:48
Rocket Jumping was a tech in Quake
6:26 That’s the HUD icon for the Phys Gun in GMod.
You're a fucking national treasure to the Half-Life community. I wish I found you earlier.
I'd really like to hear your opinions on Unreal Gold some time. I consider it a sister title to Half-Life considering they both came out swinging with big leaps in technology and design in 1998.
OH HELL YES
Unreal deserve more love
when i was younger, i used the Tau Cannon like crazy, because, at that time, i thought it was the final weapon XD.
but still, when i found more weapons i just wanted to get rid of them, because the Tau Cannon is really good, so good in fact that it can even destroy the nihilant (well at least a little bit).
Did you cheat to get more ammo, then?
@@DiggitySlice I think they're a small boy.
You deserve way more views on these Half Life videos dude. Really good presentation and editing.
This was really good. Looking forward to what you have next.
Another underrated channel, subscribed bro
Every now and then, I stop and remember that this game came out only 2 years after Quake.
Games evolved faster in the 90s than a single game is being developed today.
Context changed.
Honestly this video is very well made, i got goose bumps when the tau/gauss gun fired and it’s theme roars in. Yes, this is the best weapon in a game.
Tau Cannon was fun, but in my perspective that term "best" has to at least consider how often the thing gets used.
So it relies at least as much on the level and enemy design, and item placement, as it does on the weapon design itself.
Even just based on the information you give in this video, the best I could give it is "most interesting weapon". Which it would probably deserve. But I couldn't honestly call it "best" based on the way it's presented in Half-Life.
Black Mesa's version of Interloper at least gives it a few places to shine, in its infinite-recharge areas -- even though you'll mostly be using the Gluon, as far as I remember Tau was occasionally better for awkward or long-distance shots.
Should note I can only speak about the singleplayer though. Deathmatches without flight are not my thing :)
Me: Hey, that was a fun and complex analysis! I wonder what essay topic his previous video is ab-
"Gordon Freeman Pisses Lasers": u wanted smth?
Me: Ok...
The transition at 3:10 was VERY well done, good job! I had to watch it a second time to understand what I saw, because the first time caught me off guard - I was like, "wait, what? Was that a portal gun transition? That's so cool!" Alongside this, I'm only part way through the video but the editing, scripting, and music choice go together wonderfully :) good job!
All I could suggest to improve the video is captions, but nonetheless, wonderful work! (And my apologies if I've commented something to that effect on this channel before - my memory is slightly blurry when it comes to these things.)
Thank you very much! I've found that youtubes generated captions tend to do pretty well for these...
Bro the Spore Launcher is the real shit that keeps me up at night.
Okay for real though, my favorite weapons from Half-life are: the Spore Launcher, Tau Cannon, and the m249 because... god damn it puts a smile on my face.
Yeeeesss. I would add the Displacer (basically the BFG) and the Snarks.
@@Shrek_es_mi_pastor :) yes
Magnum, HD pack assault rifle and M249 are my favourite
@@Zmeeed01 Most people hate the HD pack, however, I like hearing second opinion. I personally dig the HD shotgun a lot
My most favourite weapon of all times is Flak Cannon from Unreal Tournament '99. It's bulky, hefty, looks like a heavy industrial tool, combines functionality of Doom's supershotgun with bouncing shrapnel for trickshots, and arcing grenade that also releases shrapnel in a concentrated direction.
I love ssg, bouncing shots and arcing grenades - the later is a bit trickier and more satisfying to use.
It also looks and sounds amazing with 2 different loading animations depending on firemode used. So this gun combines all of my favourite shooting methods in one awesome feeling package.
The later installments made it look overdesigned, some even fragile looking. UT4 went back to more classic bulky look, but they couldn't hold themselves from adding unnecessary greebles.
Love the channel love what you do
Wonderful video. You me appreciate a weapon I absolutely love even more, and then made me grief about the fact that it was never used again in any meaningful way (Seriously, why was it cut in Alyx? It would give a much needed third upgrade to the SMG. Oh well, time constraints). To me, the Tau Cannon embodies Black Mesa's essence perfectly- Innovative, prototypical, and very unstable. You deserve much more attention than you are getting.
3:45 just gonna put this here. I'm gonna see this on loop cuz it's so awesome. I got goosebumps
5:09 XD
7:04 - what the heck is going on with that soldier?
he tried to play dead but it didnt work
Update on the situation: I got the same thing happening in the "DAV Train" mod. After I killed a shotgun HECU grunt he dropped his weapon and got back up shortly after. His animations were just as buggy as in the video and he started shooting at me despite having no gun in hands. And I couldn't kill him because he either became invincible or he got a metric fuckton of HP due to number underflow.
He used the dead ringer from the Spy.
@@snackermantm105 from tf2 you mean?
@@raxor_ in this time of year in this time of this month, yes.
The sounds effects man you forgot! Most satisfying sound ever
Love the fact that the nerf double punch and the tau cannon share the same power battery.
Lol
Even Valve knew the gun was under appreciated so they gave it a smaller role as the Scout Cars Gun
As for the game I don't know, but Tau Cannon focused gameplay would make for a great mod
These Cascade videos are fantastic
Tau jumping is still the most satisfying mechanic in any game ever
someone once put their head in a particle accelerator and lived.
3:09 that transition was smoother than a popular girl’s thighs
A popular girls thighs? Wtf does this even mean.
@@FrankOfSerendipity MO
@Mialisus yeah, Wheatley
the tau cannon is really fun especcially in VR. just some what difficult to aim with at long range.
Half life restored gave the handle back to the tau cannon, as it's a free mod that well restores cut content from the game the handle one of them
I like how the tau cannon fits in thematically. You are up against a highly trained conventional military force, clad in a science exploration armor and wielding an experimental scientific weapon. With the Tau Cannon, you ARE the Black Mesa's rep in a 5-way deathmatch between BM staff, HECU, Xen, Race X and Black Ops.
One of the other reasons for it being cut in Half-Life 2 was trying to figure out how the ammo would work. It uses depleted uranium. Where are you gonna find that in a post-apocalyptic game outside of Fallout?
One idea was a vortigaunt super-charging it so it'd have recharging ammo, but that was considered too broken.
I didn't even know it could shoot through walls until quite recently. I just thought it was a powerful 'do not use unless in emergency' weapon
“it even has an unused HUD icon”
“hey where i have i seen that before”
I FREAKING LOVE THE TAU CANNON :)
Very useful for speedrunning :)
So, a puzzle version of Jetpack Joyride? Sounds like the kind of fun I would enjoy, and would provide opportunities for some cool parkour-esque clips and special maps (kinda like CS surf maps, y'know?).
Tau cannon is my favorite weapon too! In the game Black Mesa, it looks so cool and the sounds it makes are so satisfying! Also for Half-Life 2, if you want to be able to detach the weapon from the car, I would recommend to use the mod called Mmod. It's really great and it add a lot of the good stuff from Half-Life 1 or Half-Life 2!
7:05 did the HECU Grunt just raised himself from the dead
I always use this thing to finish off the Nihilanth.
The beta version used to have a handle which makes more sense, and gluon gun had an alt-fire, you can still see it in the animations from the model viewer.
I can't wait for Half Life: Tau Cannon
Its called Black Mesa: Xen 🤣
Dayum dude nice and accurate video!!
On the G-mod valina sandbox server (witch has the tau cannon) i love using it like a jetpack and fly across the map
3:10 love how these two scenes flowed
bro as soon as I picked up the tau Cannon I fell in love. I am so, so sad that we haven't been able to play with that outside of half-life.
Also, if Team Fortress classic is anything to go off, the coil pistol up thing that the engineer has his quite obviously based off of the tau Cannon. I don't remember if that was originally in the game files and it was restored like a lot of a things in Team Fortress classic but.
i got goosebumps 0:44 , such a good editing, i love you8
"What do you mean overcharge"
TOP 10 Famous last words
Man that takes me back to them old days playing death match i used that thing more that the cross bow or gluon gun
This is a really interesting video, I love seeing unique, unspoken weapons talked about in such detail. Discussing their game mechanics and how versatile they actually are as apposed to just saying "it's versatile" or discussing iconic weapons exclusively. Like all in all the master sword (at least in game) Is just a sword, which sometimes shoots projectiles. But the in depth dive into the mechanics, and the multi use cases for a weapon are what truly make a weapon stand apart from a default gun. I would be fascinated to see more videos like these, but your channel seems to focus more on half life content. If you plan to make more videos like this one, I would greatly appreciate a like to this comment and I'd be happy to subscribe for more in depth dives into mechanical based weapon designs.
I really enjoyed this video !
Closest thing to a game that's centered around a gun that can propel you would be tribes. Amazing game series.
I've never heard it by the name of Tau Cannon before. And I think it's pronounced Goz.
But man, you're right! A game based around this gun sounds like a speedrunner's dream.
DOOM 2016 actually also has a gauss cannon, it even also give a knock back boost that is used in speedrun strat, although significantly weaker to be more realistic. It can also charge to deal more damage
4:19
If i remember correctly there was a half life 2 mod
That had a enemy that had an actual tau Cannon strapped on to they're back
They used as a form of jetpack
Entropy zero 2 ???
@@WhatWhatcher yeah that one
What about making a video on the horde/tower defense gameplay sections in HL2 and its episodes? Like in Nova Prospekt when you wait for Alyx in the room with the turrets and when you wait for the teleporter to recharge, in Anticitizen One when you fend off soldiers while Alyx hacks a terminal, the Vortal Combat part, or the final act of Episode 2.
The beat drop of the intro was epic. I personally find the Tao Canon and Gluon Gun to be equal in design, (but I love any gun design in most games so don't listen to me lol) but I do find the Tao Canon slightly more interesting and most scientific then the gluon gun. The way you described the Tao Canon as a mini conductor or what it was you said (to lazy to check) was nice, gluon gun being real is less likely than the tao, basically I agree
something worth mentioning about the tau cannon's wall penetration, it can kill anyone behind the wall you are looking at. it's stupid and OP
I always thought it looked like a miniaturized version of the anti-mass spectrometer, turned inside-out.
a weapon and a mobility item is just the goat. Embodies the idea of futuristic ballistics with kickback, penetration and ricochet. A noob like me can get through sven map quick with it.
i spent 60 hrs on half life 1 playing over and over but when i saw this video, it made me wanna replay just to hear that thing in action again
This dude is underrated
this gun is what happens when you fk with the science team.
I’m glad this video exists.
Thanks
Fun fact: I didn’t use the charge once while playing half-life the first time I played
More embarrasing is that i didn't even realise there was an alt fire until forget about freeman
7:05 that hgrunt got back up after dying
Just discovered this channel and between the excellently made cascade videos and quality shitposting, this might just be the best channel on RUclips.
that grunt at 7 05 died and then got up...jesus grunt
7:05
I think there should be a mod where it’s just puzzles with the tau cannon aperture decides to steal from black Mesa as revenge for black Mesa stealing from them so you solve puzzles with it like using its knock back for momentum to go through a portal at the right speed or even implement a new feature like needing to shoot at something to turn something like how energy pellets work in the first portal game
the canon is my favourite weapon, though it works a lot better on repeat playthroughs when you know where the ammo is and when you should use it
like, i use it to take out the helicopter on the dam and i use the knockback to jump over the dam rather than swim under it
i like it so much that i never use the gluon gun, it looks and sounds and feels so cool
The hl2 beta cut tau canon hud icon was re-used as the hud icon for the phys gun in gmod
This channel is so underrated