The inevitable Half-Life 2 Thread

[-JLN-]

Wow, my Dad gave me the money to go out and buy it today rather than waiting until next week! What a nice gesture!
The files are being unlocked now, though looking at it, by the time it's finished I'll be in my grave

 

[JDeezNutz]

i have halflife 2, excellent in my opinion!

CS: S is way better than the normal CS, tried teh beta

now what i do want to try is half life source!

for anyone who doesnt know, it is the original Half Life 1 story writen on the Half Life 2 engine

 

[Sonic the Vampire]

Don't downplay the fascial animations with eye tracking either. It isn't perfect but it's damn good, and the perfect lip syncing works along with it really well. Also, if physics are a novelty, than they have stayed that way for a pretty damn long time. People still bungie jump and ride rollercoasters in real life, I imagine they'll still be throwing cars and bodies at each other in video games for years and years to come. Physics doesn't get tired easily, not when it actually has an impact on the game. I could have a good time just building up something and tossing a grenade into it. It's the kind of gameplay innovation that people are going to copy and that could become a new standard, not something that, in two weeks, will start to annoy you. I mean, it's physics, it's gravity and weight, and how two objects realistically interact when you throw one onto another. It'll become the norm.

 

[Phatslugga]

I completley agree with Sonic here. I haven't had much time to play, but the game is just amazing. The AI is just unbeleivable with some of the tactics they'll use against you... and the hostages in CS:S aren't retarded either! My textures look amazing, as well as the rest of the game. It also runs extremely well on my computer, which is a pleasant suprise. The physics are not a novelty either, yes they do make me scream like a little girl when I shoot a barrel in a field of barrels and watch them disperse everywhere causing a feild of destruction to overwhelm everything in sight. Or when I shoot an enemy and he falls in the water, sinks a bit and floats back up, but it plays an important role in the game. I don't see how I'd ever get tired of the physics in that game, I;ve been having wet dreams about CS:S for months just becuase of those physics. It should be a standard by now, and I'd love to see it more often. The animations are beautiful too, sometimes I just look around watching the npc's do what they do. I loved how smoothly DOG would run around in the yard, and throw those large objects around. It's just great.

As for the story, it's very mysterious right now, but that doesn't mean it's not there. Some of the best storylines keep you confused or wondering what the hell is going on, until the very end, or some inevitable mind-boggling twist. This is without a doubt the best shooter I've played ever, and CS:S comes in a close second.

 

[Enix]

I get payed tomorrow so im gonna run down to Gamestop and get it ASAP.

w00t o/

 

[SaiyanPrideXIX]

I forgot to give it some props on the water. God damn, that is awesome water. PERFECT game water, I think.

Somebody earlier posted in terms of revolutionary games and went from Final Fantasy 7 to Half-Life 1 and completely ignored like, the whole invention of first person shooters and computer gaming in general. I'm not trying to be a tool but I just wanted to point that out.

Back on topic, I've been trying to tweak the game and I haven't had much luck. Physics are cool, I agree on that, but I still find them to be a novelty in games. The reason why is simple enough--that's how they're used.

I'm still early but one thing I really like is the frantic pace of running from the guards in the beginning. I was like, "Oh ****...that's my ass!" and bolted.

It definitely has a good feel.

And here it is people, the mother of all things you never thought ol' Pride would say:

The Half Life Flashlight is much better than the Doom one. Hehe.

This being said, I'm hoping I can tweak it like I did with Doom to make it run like sweet sweet butter. I'd be able to enjoy it a lot more if it worked a little better for me.

Pain--tons of people have that sound skip with systems ranging from worse to better than ours. It's all over the Steam forum.

 

[Gonadz]

Say it pride, i want to hear it from you and smith both. I was right all along. Half-Life 2 > Doom 3 by a very long shot.

I got it, its the best thing i've played since.. half life 1.. or maybe even scarcraft.. who knows..

 

[[SAS]Orion]

cmon now - this thread isn't about comparing halflife to doom3 - its about the game itself.

Yeah I must agree the water is damn sweet - i love just messing around and tossing stuff into it!

also, try creating a loud explosion in a canyon type level - it actually echoes - I wet my pants when I heard that

 

[Ravendust]

The difficulty has a fairly sweet effect on everything, not just damage but some entities are added/removed in different parts of maps (explosive barrels, ammo crates) to give the enemy the advantage, and the AI is more tactical and aggressive, in Easy they basically just stand there, on Hard they almost always position themselves to cover themselves which is really cool and makes firefights more interesting than exciting. I think i'm becoming a HL2 fanboy

 

[SSJ Shin Carl]

I'm not interested in Halflife 2 at all the only reason I got Halflife was for ESF, so as you all know ESF isn't transferring over, so there is no purpose for me to get HL2.

 

[Sonic the Vampire]

Well you could always get it for HL2 mods, or HL2.

I also noticed that the water is awesome. On huge maps where you see the ocean going out as far as you can see, you can actually fire bullets and zoom in to see them hit water way out further than you'd ever go. It's a nice touch. Also, aside from that sound glitch I hear about every so often, the game is highly polished. I've never been stuck in anything or fallen through anything. They must have spent a long time bug fixing (perhaps that friggin year they delayed) to get to where they are, even with that one bug (which sounds bad) they are working on.

Now I wasn't all hyped up for half life 2 until about a week before it came out when I'd seen some demos using the physics and the graphics, and I'm pretty certain now the hype was deserved (even as enormous as it was). I really want to see what mod makers do with the engine. Hell even a playground with a grav gun and some enemies would be great to screw around in.

 

[owa]

I'm not interested in Halflife 2 at all the only reason I got Halflife was for ESF, so as you all know ESF isn't transferring over, so there is no purpose for me to get HL2.

Does anyone else find this sad?

Anyways. I wanna see a midevil mod made. Imagine attacking a castle, and throwing boulders at the castle, and bricks and walls exploding with the ragdoll bodies flying.

A really cool hunting type game could be made.

 

[Lt.Zack]

play that Phys_Phun map for Counter-Strike lots o fun

 

[Shuyin]

Then you don't know what your missing SSJ_Shin_Carl :S
As the game progressed i've found hl2 to be like an ultra detailed resident evil XD very fun!
Yeah that sound jumping thing even got me too pride. Hopefully steam release a patch or someone finds a better solution. Mine seems a little better now, think either turning v-sync off and changing the heapsize has made it a little better but i cant tell really untill a vehicle chase.

 

[ZariusZer0]

I could probably write several paragraphs praising this game's virtues. It's physics, graphics, AI, and the grasp on you it has is well beyond any game i've played before. But the time it would take to explain it would be more time that i'm not playing it, and frankly, hearing my opinion won't change your mind if you're against it. If you still haven't decided whether it's worth picking up, trust us, it is. It's the best game i've seen in years.

Also, CS: S is actually fun. I stopped playing CS about 8 months ago, because i simply wasn't haveing fun. The new version is fun. I enjoyed playing, and the people playing weren't the arrogant pricks that your average CS player is. I really hope it stays that way, because then i might enjoy playing it....while i wait for other mutliplayer source mods to come out. (and if you haven't been hit with one yet, check out the flashbangs...they're frickin awesome)

 

[Soulicro]

One word.

Amazing.

This game actually lives up to its hype. Im playing it on normal at the moment, and the AI is incredible/getting a little hard. This game was worth every cent, its just too bad I didnt check if I was getting the DVD version or the CD version... I got the CD version... 5 CDs man... Damn.

Off to play it!

 

[Phatslugga]

Does anyone else find this sad?

I do, lol.

I'm loving the vehicles too, the boat in my opinion was cooler than the buggy. Those are the only two I've used so far, I'm hoping there are some more. Love the gravity gun, I find myself trying to use it in every situation. Once you find the saws, those are fun to throw at enemies. Im loving this game more and more as I play.

 

[ZariusZer0]

Yeah, the buggy's annoying, and you're stuck using the thing for a long time it seems. The boat just handled so much better, and seemed more fun to drive. (plus you got to look at all the pretty water).

As for the grav gun...i do the same thing. I went through most of ravenholm using only the gravgun, with the shotgun for those really fast zombies. And if you liked the saws, did you ever try the propeller like things they have on the engine blocks? I shot one and it careened down the street, ripping apart 5-6 zombies. It was great. And Father Grigori was hilarious. If think Ravenholm alone may have been enough to justify this game for me.

 

[Vegeta]

The game is great.

Oh, and by the way...

Steam has installed new technology that allows them to take a picture of you and your surroundings while you are playing the game sitting at your computer desk.

Why they are taking these pictures of us at home or what they will use them for is a mystery.

When we authenticated the CD key we all downloaded extra files to our computer system. These files contain unknown imbedded new technology capable of capturing your image and returning that image back to Steam in real time through the use of the robot camera flying around in the game.

There have been many reports of people "dressing up" while playing the game, wanting to look good on camera kind of thing.

Other people are outraged with this intrusive behavior and refuse to play the game until they can figure out how to play the game offline.

There have been unconfirmed reports that Steam is linked with the CIA of the U.S. Government, the IRS and other governmental agencies in the United States.

State and local officials are now requesting this technology to go after criminals and dead beat husbands in an effort to track down individuals.

Interesting...

 

[Ravendust]

What source is that from? Sounds highly illegal, fortunatley I don't I have a webcam.

I'm not interested in Halflife 2 at all the only reason I got Halflife was for ESF, so as you all know ESF isn't transferring over, so there is no purpose for me to get HL2.

There are several DBZ Mods coming out for Half-Life 2.

I agree with ZariusZer0, I think Ravenholm was the best part in the game so far. (up to chapter 9 now) I just went through it with Dog's 'Ball' and the grav gun, the ball's unbreakable and returns to you, it's like hitting someone with a beachball until they die. Except it's made of metal.