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Half-Life 2 really is f****** brilliant

M

MrPing1000

Member
Playing through it again on expert. AI seem to actually have half a clue as how to fight u on this setting, damn those bastards are accurate with their nades. I've just started anticitzen one.

There are just so many beautiful things about this game. It looks bloody brilliant (I love the grittiness of the source engine), the story is great and a good selection of weapons. Although a linear fps it keeps throwing new things at you so it doesn't get boring, there really isn't a large chunk of the game where things repeat themselves. Things start with you legging it out of town, the water boat broken up with small fighting areas (parts of the boat ride are extremely fun ie the bits where u are getting chased by a helicopter than u cannot kill and your only option is to speed like hell.)

Then the game changes totally with Ravenholm and goes all survival horror. (Me thinks the people at valve liked the They Hunger trilogy.) Then back to another vehicle area although it is different to the water part in that ant lions are prevent u from staying still for long. Then the old switcharoo and the ant lions serve you (also this is the only boss in the game although u end up fighting it 3 times i think.) Nova prospect is dark but also rather amusing as you watch the hordes of your ant lion allies kick the overwatches arses. :lol

The citadel shakes things up a bit (using the turrets is fun i ended up carrying one around for the later areas.)

And that brings me up to where i am now. Still to come street fighting with other people, more dog and a nice tour of the citadel innards. Although I know a lot of people disliked the ending I rather liked the sudden halt. It leaves the door open for sequals and leaves wtf is going on vibes, which i liked. Much better than the originals haha your boned ending.

Damn I suck at writing, just felt like conveying the greatness of this game.
 
It was great the first time around and that's basically it. The game has no replay value, the load times get fucking annoying the second time around and the game is too scripted.
 
load times are pretty short for me, this is the first time I've played through again since it was released though. Multiplayer is where its at though.

my pc aint all that hot barton 2800+ 1gb ram 9800pro and yet i have nearly everything on high and it runs rather smoothly.
 
MrPing1000 said:
load times are pretty short for me, this is the first time I've played through again since it was released though. Multiplayer is where its at though.

my pc aint all that hot barton 2800+ 1gb ram 9800pro and yet i have nearly everything on high and it runs rather smoothly.
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That multi player mode is great for killing brain cells! :lol
 
The game seemed like it was just a repitition of:

1) Talk to people. They express excitement at meeting the famous Gordon Freeman. They tell you you need to go somewhere.

2) You start heading somewhere. You come upon a building/area where you fight stuff. You drive/run/boat some more. Repeat a few times.

3) You arrive at a friendly place.

4) Goto 1)
 
DSN2K said:
one of those games what only amaze you the first time round.
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So not true. I'm going through a second time right now. Such a beautiful game.

The load times are a bit excessive, though.
 
TheInkyVoid said:
The game seemed like it was just a repitition of:

1) Talk to people. They express excitement at meeting the famous Gordon Freeman. They tell you you need to go somewhere.

2) You start heading somewhere. You come upon a building/area where you fight stuff. You drive/run/boat some more. Repeat a few times.

3) You arrive at a friendly place.

4) Goto 1)
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Yea thanks fuckass. Subsitute the name 'Gordon Freeman' and you just described about 99% of the games ever made.
 
demi said:
I couldn't finish it, lost interest.
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Same here, only I did finish it, eventually. I believe that my stunted progression undercut my enjoyment of the title.


My favorite element of the game was it's art direction. The pale, eastern europeon cityscape were so very eyecatching and immersive.

I felt that the actual gunplay lacked a powerful visceral element. Gravity and weight in general seemed to be wanting from the feel of the movement. Someone on this board described the feel as if Gordon was "a camera on a stick" and I felt that was rather accurate.

Dark10x nailed a design flaw during a discussion Saturday night. To paraphrase him:

You're flying down the river in your air boat with the helicopter in hot pursuit. The guns are ripping, the music is pounding, and your adrenaline is flowing. You speed into a large tunnel and can hear the chopper still chasing outside, just overhead, the BAM-

LOAD POINT

The new map loads, your boat is at a standstill, the music is off, and the helicopter can be heard faintly somewhere in the distance
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Apt.
 
I really really wanna play this game on my PC but when I look at lights I see a purple and black checkers board and it doesnt even show my crowbar in my hands, when I swing all I see is a purple/black arm...

I have a ATI Raedon x800 xl 256mb so its not my card I wouldnt think, I got 1 gig of ram and pentium 4 3ghz,etc. =( My video card driver is up to date also
 
MrPing1000 said:
Playing through it again on expert.
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There's an expert mode? Is it unlocked after beating it on hard or something?

I recently finished the game as well and have much the same sentiment. Although I wish it was less linear I thought the overall pacing and atmosphere was off the charts. I think my favorite was the whole Highway adventure, cruising in a buggy on an almost picture esque beachside wasteland, running from mobs of hungry antlions and taking the occasional reststop to help battle the combine. And then it gets topped off with the amazing ant lion assault on the prison. It kept moving and throwing something new at you.

I only thought it missed the mark in the Nova Prospekt section. They built that prison up earlier in the game and I was expecting something on par with Ravenholm but it ended up being rather repetitive without much personality, and the ant lion gimmicked seemed overused by then. That last turret section in the Citedel was a real bitch to get through as well. Other than that it was a hell of a roller coaster and Im glad I ended up playing the game after all the hype and critics died down and I could just enjoy the ride.

I did hate the ending though. For a series that leaves most of its storytelling to atmosphere and the machinations happening in the background I was expecting a bit more of a payoff, let alone to have it end so abruptly. Hopefully the expansion pack will flesh things out a bit more.

edit- Agreed on the loading issue, boy those were poorly timed. Why couldnt they stream the data somehow?
 
I'm one of the few who had zero problems with Half Life 2 and Steam. It was just a great experience from downloading it to playing it through.

Can't wait for Aftermath.
 
hukasmokincaterpillar said:
Why couldnt they stream the data somehow?
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I'm going to paraphrase Dark again.

Streaming on PC wouldn't work because every instance of HL2 is played on a different combination of hardware with different HD access speeds and RAM capacities. In order to stream data as in a PS2 GTA game, the developers must know exactly how quickly the machine can read that data in order to craft a seamless transition.

This is the same reason why Xbox Halo featured load screens with an attractive dynamic image reveal that transitioned according to the load progress, but the PC version used static load screens.
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This game is pretty great, the only really turn off for me is Steam. Takes 20 minutes to update steam itself, 2 hours to create an account, and 2 more hours to update the game. If the game weren't 19.99 at CompUSA, I would have never bought it because of Steam.

Is there a GAF CSS community server?
 
In halflife 2 the loading sequence takes you out of the game, it's not a problem if it was only every 10 or 20 minutes, but I can't get into the mood or the loading sequence pops up again and I realize I'm just sitting at my computer. I can get very annoyed by things like this.
 
Pimpbaa said:
Streaming on the PC does work. See World of Warcraft.
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Wow's engine is SO different that you shouldn't even be attempting to compare them...

Streaming on the PC IS possible, but it becomes MUCH more difficult when you are dealing with the amount of data in something like Half-Life 2.
 
Pimpbaa said:
Streaming on the PC does work. See World of Warcraft.
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Yes. It is no different on a console than a home computer, you do have to build it into your engine and data/world format from the start realistically though.
 
Couldnt finish it, load times and stutering were too much and performance on my rig wasnt acceptable.
 
HL2 felt like a step back to me. Nothing in that game was near as deadly or fun to fight at HL1s marines. And the vehicles just sucked. Maybe I'm spoiled by Halo or UT2K4, but holy shit the boat and buggy had some sluggish controls.

Game's fucking gorgeous though, and not because of Source, but because Valve spent zillions of dollars and thousands of hours creating phenomenal art.
 
Lost interest too.

I'm still working my way through it. I'll pick it up again every couple months or so. But considering the hype it got, I'm disappointed.

Give me Doom 3 all the way, baby. Its simplicity and amazing atmosphere work wonders for me.
 
I couldn't finish it, lost interest.

Other friends who bought it couldn't finish it, lost interest.
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You, your friends and demi should all have an orgy. After the horrors of that, you'll realise how lucky you are to have a game like Half Life 2.
----


I agree (With original post ) 2nd best pc game of all time, behind Desu Ex.

I played through it all on a 800mhz 256mb machine...and it was worth it.
 
Kolgar said:
Lost interest too.

I'm still working my way through it. I'll pick it up again every couple months or so. But considering the hype it got, I'm disappointed.

Give me Doom 3 all the way, baby. Its simplicity and amazing atmosphere work wonders for me.
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I agree, although very shallow and repetitive Doom 3 not only runs better but plays better as well.
 
Pimpbaa said:
Streaming on the PC does work. See World of Warcraft.
Click to expand...

WoW hitches plenty. Plenty! I don't care if you have the fastest machine on the planet, it hitches.

Now, I am fine with it because of such a big world as WoW is. HL2 on the other hand doesn't get a pass.

HL2 annoyed the living shit out of me. Sorry, an FPS shouldn't be that hitchy. It's simply not acceptable. I would rather items slowly fade into existance like in GTA than it hitch like a mofo especially when I trying to take out an enemy.

HL2 was a joke from a technical standpoint IMO - and I couldn't get over that.
 
Dr_Cogent said:
WoW hitches plenty. Plenty! I don't care if you have the fastest machine on the planet, it hitches.

Now, I am fine with it because of such a big world as WoW is. HL2 on the other hand doesn't get a pass.

HL2 annoyed the living shit out of me. Sorry, an FPS shouldn't be that hitchy. It's simply not acceptable. I would rather items slowly fade into existance like in GTA than it hitch like a mofo especially when I trying to take out an enemy.

HL2 was a joke from a technical standpoint IMO - and I couldn't get over that.
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On my new machine WoW only hitches in the 2 cities with auction houses, and HL2 doesn't hitch at all.
 
It really is, I was just thinking this last night. It such an immersive experience to play through, in particular I was thinking of the part with the pheromones and where you had to skip over the rocks.

Bring on the Lost Coast!!
 
Game's fucking gorgeous though, and not because of Source, but because Valve spent zillions of dollars and thousands of hours creating phenomenal art.
Click to expand...

Best-looking game I've ever played, no doubt.

It's the best single-player FPS I've played. HL1 probably did have a few spots of amazing combat that HL2 didn't, but the presentation skyrocketed HL2 beyond anything I can think of.
 
soul.less said:
Half-Life 2 is the best first-person shooter I've ever played for any platform.
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The game is good enough that I could see someone feeling this way, but do you think you could describe why? I think I enjoyed it more than most people in this thread (Based on the responses), but at the same time, there were a lot of disappointing segments.
 
I didn't finish it either. All I remember is getting pretty fuckin far on the Final Fantasy 1 remake inbetween load times. Most of the time I'd keep playing FF1 even after the loading...

I liked Doom III more than Half Life 2.

Yeah I just went there.
 
dark10x said:
The game is good enough that I could see someone feeling this way, but do you think you could describe why? I think I enjoyed it more than most people in this thread (Based on the responses), but at the same time, there were a lot of disappointing segments.
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Compared to past first-person shooters I've played, like GoldenEye and the Halo series, just to mention a few, the experience Half-Life 2 presented to me felt like a geniune one -- like I was actually Gordon Freeman, like I was actually a part of his "video game world." Sure, Halo -- and Halo 2 even moreso -- may have been a bit similar in that regard, but on an overall scale, Half-Life 2 just blew them both away.

Also, it helped that the game looked as good as it did/does, because without those truly exceptional graphics, the experience would not have been as geniune as it was to me.

The way that the story developed was also a big part of the reason why I consider the game to be the best FPS ever, as well as the characters and their overall development in the game.
 
Im 1/2 through, I think, Im at the end buggy part, how far is that?

but great game, I agree its hard to beat Half life
 
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