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Gamespot and IGN review the GOTY (Half-Life 2)

luxsol

Member
Duckhuntdog said:
Also did anyone notice that the gamspot review says that the enemy AI sucks, while the IGN reviews says the enemy AI is great. The only AI they can seem to agree on is that the friendly AI is stupid in close quarters.
So Fart and IGN both say the AI is great while Gamespot says HL1s was better (even though the AI obviously does better things in 2). Is this about opinion now, or just something else?
 

Mooreberg

is sharpening a shovel and digging a ditch
Wow if they ever make a movie based on Half-Life 2 Dean Cain can be Freeman for the outdoor battles, and Scott Peterson can be Freeman for the prison fire fights.

story.cain.jpg

story.peterson.booking.jpg


(images shameless ripped from OT thread)
 
Warm Machine said:
The new rating system

10 Perfection
9.9 Amazing
9.8 Excellent
9.7 Very Good
9.6 Worth Playing but expect a hype backlash
9.5 Average
9.4 Some people might like it
9.3 Miss
9.2 Ugh, get this away from me!
9.1 Not a game
9 Bomb

I read the thread up until this point, only worthy post :lol
 

Eric-GCA

Banned
Jeez, I guess he wouldn't have scored the original Half Life well then, cause that games story had no conclusive end either.

And of course, its quite a safe bet that this game will feature a multitude of expansions in the future. Heck, Doom 3 was just released and it already has an expansion well in the works.
 

Yusaku

Member
9.2 is pretty par for Gamespot, they're always a bit low. But to say that Far Cry is just as good as HL2 blows my mind. If that's true I want my $60 back.
 
D2M15 said:
Originally Posted by FartOfWar:
And, in what must amount to the mother of all that-did-not-just-happen moments, a strider, high on its tripod of telephone-pole-tall legs and unable to flush me out on the ground floor, planted its feet in the walls on either side of the alley and lowered itself to eye level."


I said it before, I'll say it again:

Originally Posted by D2M15:
OH MY GOD THE STRIDERS ARE LOOKING INSIDE MY HOUSE


What a fucking game.
I don't get the sarcasm... what's not impressive about this? To me it sounds incredible, both in terms of atmosphere and AI.

As an aside, I have long lived in fear of the tripods.

white.gif
 

FartOfWar

Banned
Banjo Tango said:
I don't get the sarcasm... what's not impressive about this? To me it sounds incredible, both in terms of atmosphere and AI.

As an aside, I have long lived in fear of the tripods.

white.gif

If only I could post the 100 screens I'm sitting on. Won't happen, but still...got some sweet ish.
 

Bishman

Member
Warm Machine said:
The new rating system

10 Perfection
9.9 Amazing
9.8 Excellent
9.7 Very Good
9.6 Worth Playing but expect a hype backlash
9.5 Average
9.4 Some people might like it
9.3 Miss
9.2 Ugh, get this away from me!
9.1 Not a game
9 Bomb

Hahahaha so true. :lol
 

segasonic

Member
I just ordered a €450 graphics card for HL2 and right now I'm downloading the game via Steam.

And I don't give a fuck about review scores. :)
 

DCharlie

And even i am moderately surprised
"As an aside, I have long lived in fear of the tripods."

:)
i just started rewatching "The Tripods" (based on the White Mountain)

but Half Life 2 reminds me of War of the Worlds more than that - more specifically, not the yee olde AWESOME H.G.Welles novel, but the art that came with the LP. the cities and lighting seem to be quite inspired by some of the inlay illustrations - which for me is awesome as i'm a big WotW nut.

The music sounds very very eerie too...
 

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
We'll see how it pans out, but the guy responsible for the HL2 review also reviewed Far Cry for the PC...

Like I said before, I found the game to be painfully average at best. One of the biggest problems was the AI, which this guy praised in his review of the game. Makes me wonder...
 

Slo

Member
I just sold my gaming PC, my wireless networking equipment, and my laptop at EB for $26.04. Yeah, I got screwed, but I needed money for groceries.
 

Mrbob

Member
dark10x said:
We'll see how it pans out, but the guy responsible for the HL2 review also reviewed Far Cry for the PC...

Like I said before, I found the game to be painfully average at best. One of the biggest problems was the AI, which this guy praised in his review of the game. Makes me wonder...

Oh hell. The same guy gave Farcry a 9.2 as well?

The game with the most sporadic AI of all time?! Pretty to look at, decent fun to play. I feel good playing it 7.0 should be the max score yet it get 9.2 Farcry? Yikes.
 

xabre

Banned
Like I said before, I found the game to be painfully average at best.

Emphasis on you found, because very few other people did. It remains one of the best games this year and one of the best FPS since the original Half Life.

As for Half Life 2, I wait to play it tonight before disputing this Gamespot review. It runs contrary to most reviews I've read on the game. One thing though, is how you could give the monotonous repetitive boredom of Halo a 9.7 and give HL2 with its slew of accolades lavishing its wonderful physics engine and varied gameplay a low 9.2 by comparison. It’s one thing to be tough on reviews, it’s another to be bullshit with them. But I'll play the game before following up on this point further.
 

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
Emphasis on you found, because very few other people did. It remains one of the best games this year and one of the best FPS since the original Half Life

I'll never figure out why, though...

The AI is pretty awful most of the time, the game is unpolished as hell, the Trigen are awful (and can kill you from 10 feet away without ever coming any closer), the play mechanics aren't anything special, and most of the missions have a very poor flow to them. There are a few missions where the game shines, but those moments are rare.

I just can't figure out what anyone saw in the game BESIDES the visuals. I can't help but think that some people allowed the visuals to carry the game. Sneaking around in the woods was awesome because of the visuals...not because of stellar gameplay design. If the game failed to provide those visuals, I'd bet the ratings would have been a whole lot lower...

Of course, it seems to me that you're a "visual variety" kinda guy (what with that Halo bash and all). Halo's gameplay mechanics absolutely CRUSH Far Cry into the ground and provide more unique and interesting scenarios than Far Cry ever could. Oh, but Far Cry LOOKS as if it has great gameplay...

I would appreciate some reasoning as to why you love the game so much. When people spout off reasons as to why they hate Halo (and it always involves the repetitive levels), I can explain why the game was great. Can you explain what makes the GAMEPLAY of Far Cry so good? What makes it unique? Explain that to me without mentioning the visuals, as I'm quite curious...
 

DCharlie

And even i am moderately surprised
by the same token, how can Halo be 9.7 when Halo 2 knocks every aspect of the original into a cocked hat, and then adds an amazingly tight implementation of online play in 9.4?

Conclusion : Scores are bullshit. they should just use a random word.

Halo = Lettuce
GTA:SA = Thimble
Halo 2 = Calculator
Half life 2 = Sheep

"NO WAY... How can Half life 2 be "Sheep"?!?! Halo was LETTUCE man, ffs!"

It really is almost that irrelevant.
 

Mrbob

Member
DCharlie said:
by the same token, how can Halo be 9.7 when Halo 2 knocks every aspect of the original into a cocked hat, and then adds an amazingly tight implementation of online play in 9.4?

Conclusion : Scores are bullshit. they should just use a random word.

Halo = Lettuce
GTA:SA = Thimble
Halo 2 = Calculator
Half life 2 = Sheep

"NO WAY... How can Half life 2 be "Sheep"?!?! Halo was LETTUCE man, ffs!"

It really is almost that irrelevant.

My dream is for one day to have review scores obliterated from reviews.
 

xabre

Banned
Can you explain what makes the GAMEPLAY of Far Cry so good? What makes it unique? Explain that to me without mentioning the visuals, as I'm quite curious...

I can, and have done as I've debated Halo vs Far Cry in the past with you. I haven't got the time to explin things now as I'm at work so by all means do a search. I'll get back to you on this later.
 

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
xabre said:
I can, and have done as I've debated Halo vs Far Cry in the past with you. I haven't got the time to explin things now as I'm at work so by all means do a search. I'll get back to you on this later.

I don't care about Far Cry VS Halo. This isn't about Halo.
 

firex

Member
The only good thing about far cry's AI is that when they detect you, they don't disengage if you magically walk 50 feet away like in the deus ex games. Otherwise it's the same "enemies duck behind corners occasionally but spend most of the time charging at you and always peek out from behind a rock so you can snipe them" AI from most other games.

so if the same gamespot reviewer is going to count against HL2's AI but praise far cry's then this guy is a fucking joke.
 

Oni Jazar

Member
Haven't played HL2 yet but I have yet to see some of HL1's AI bested by ANY FPS out there. And I've gone through Halo on Legendary single player. It's pathetic in a way but also a testament to how great HL1's AI was.
 

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
firex said:
The only good thing about far cry's AI is that when they detect you, they don't disengage if you magically walk 50 feet away like in the deus ex games. Otherwise it's the same "enemies duck behind corners occasionally but spend most of the time charging at you and always peek out from behind a rock so you can snipe them" AI from most other games.

so if the same gamespot reviewer is going to count against HL2's AI but praise far cry's then this guy is a fucking joke.

No, Far Cry's AI has serious detection problems...

If you stand on the other side of a river, far FAR away from any enemies, and hide inside of a cabin...one sniper shot will alert virtually everyone remotely near that area and they will all IMMEDIATELY know your location. That's just stupid and annoying. It isn't realistic and it isn't fun. The AI is way too trigger happy and really never does anything intelligent.

They SOUND intelligent at times, but if you actually watch them...they pretty much only follow their most common line and try to "shoot you in the face".

In a Farcry vs Halo thread I'm obviously going to be arguing the merits of Far Cry aren't I?

Yes, but I'd hope that any further argument will remove Halo from the discussion.
 

firex

Member
dark10x said:
No, Far Cry's AI has serious detection problems...

If you stand on the other side of a river, far FAR away from any enemies, and hide inside of a cabin...one sniper shot will alert virtually everyone remotely near that area and they will all IMMEDIATELY know your location. That's just stupid and annoying. It isn't realistic and it isn't fun. The AI is way too trigger happy and really never does anything intelligent.

They SOUND intelligent at times, but if you actually watch them...they pretty much only follow their most common line and try to "shoot you in the face".

well, yeah. what I was saying is the only thing about the far cry AI that isn't terrible is that they don't just give up when you run away if they find you (assuming you play sneaky like I did for most of the game). I'm not saying it was good AI, I'm just saying at least they didn't have the retarded pitfall of most other games with stealth options where they'll just all of a sudden forget you even exist because you ran past some boundary and hid behind a crate for 5 seconds. It's otherwise atrocious and built around cheating to make up for poor design, as you said.
 

SaitoH

Member
dark10x said:
If you stand on the other side of a river, far FAR away from any enemies, and hide inside of a cabin...one sniper shot will alert virtually everyone remotely near that area and they will all IMMEDIATELY know your location.

That drove me nuts.

Which reminds me ... after beating that helicopter boss, I just kinda stopped playing Far Cry again. Maybe I should finally beat it, after I finish Half-life 2 of course.

^w^
 
dark10x said:
I just can't figure out what anyone saw in the game BESIDES the visuals. I can't help but think that some people allowed the visuals to carry the game. Sneaking around in the woods was awesome because of the visuals...not because of stellar gameplay design. If the game failed to provide those visuals, I'd bet the ratings would have been a whole lot lower...

I remember border recommending that I upgrade my computer to fully appreciate what FarCry has to offer. For what purpose? So it looks better? How does that make it a better game?

I did upgrade my computer and it did make it a better experience, only because the framerate was far better and easier on the eyes. It was the same exact game though, same exact gameplay regardless of how nice the graphics are.

I also don't understand the implied "openness" of Farcry. It does limit you to a path in a lot of areas, if not multiple paths but paths nonetheless. If not for water or mountain "fences" to lock you to a path, there's always a problem with being bored senseless because you missed a vehicle you were supposed to take and have to walk quite a way to a next enemy checkpoint. I call them checkpoints because that's how they feel. A pocket of enemies, travel, a pocket of enemies, rinse/repeat.

And yeah, the AI didn't really impress me all that much. It's nothing I haven't seen before anyway. You make a sound and they go into a "suspect" search just like in Deus Ex. Like fire said though, they persist a lot of the time instead of break off. OMG REVOLUTIONARY. Once your location is known, they rush right at you. It doesn't matter if you're 5 feet or 50 feet away, they know where you are the instant you fire a gun. The AI is seemingly worse when you're inside, rushing at any gunfire because of the close proximity. Of course the Trigen AI doesn't even have a "suspect" script. They're either just standing or walking around or they're charging right at you as soon as they see you.

And as technically impressive as the graphics are, I still can't shake the feeling of how generic it looks. I mean skin and bump mapping make it look nice but the creature and character designs look pretty bland and uninspired. I don't think they could have made the Trigens look any more generic. People bash the monster designs in Doom 3 but frankly I was far more disappointed with the way things looked in Farcry. It's not the tech, it's how you use it. I hate when japanophiles make fun of western design because of their short-sightedness but really, Farcry is a very good reason why those kinds of ideas persist.

Overall I liked Farcry and I had fun playing it but it's hardly the revolutionary game people make it out to be and it's definitely not GotY material.
 

Oni Jazar

Member
firex said:
well, yeah. what I was saying is the only thing about the far cry AI that isn't terrible is that they don't just give up when you run away if they find you (assuming you play sneaky like I did for most of the game). I'm not saying it was good AI, I'm just saying at least they didn't have the retarded pitfall of most other games with stealth options where they'll just all of a sudden forget you even exist because you ran past some boundary and hid behind a crate for 5 seconds. It's otherwise atrocious and built around cheating to make up for poor design, as you said.

You realize that it's like that for most games (DX, Thief, MGS) as a design choice sacrificing realism for gameplay. Otherwise you either completely lose your stealth aspect or have to reload all the time. It's a design choice I agree with wholeheartedly.
 

firex

Member
actually it's like that for most games because they're too lazy. Thief at least doesn't make the guards just all of a sudden go away if you hide long enough like DX and MGS - they realistically search as far as they could see/hear you go and can still uncover you sometimes, and spend a lot longer searching before giving up. DX and MGS could do stealth as well as that, at least, especially since they're fond of giving you tons of guns and ammo to kill anybody who does find you. but in DX's case they just quite frankly were too lazy, and in MGS's case Kojima is a hack who pretends hiding in cardboard boxes in the open, and tapping your hand against metal walls makes you a superspy.
 
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