Half-Life 2 (PC)

[Nijo]

You are the Free Man, aka Master Chief, sent randomly off around the countryside because things always hit the fan when you're somewhere 'safe'. Nobody wants such a liability hanging around so they show you the quickest way out.
Nobody wants you.

If only Barney had a stash of guns in that room he hides you in at the start...

[JibberX]

The narrative, and complexity therof is completely down to you, the player, to discover as you go, with major points being fleshed out, when you can't escape (air locks, etc etc). Some guys give an entire KOTOR'esque diatribe if you talk to them, and I saved one guy and he just didn't stop yammering on, I just wandered off, to his dismay. The context sensitive giblets of this game are phenominal.

[Chadruharazzeb]

Roffle... y'all probably found this ages ago, but you can use the gravity gun on facehuggers... sorry, headcrabs. When they LEAP! towards you just give them a quick blast and watch them go hurtling backwards through the air.

[Spatial]

facehuggers... sorry, headcrabs.

I prefer Barney's term `headhumpers`

[Ish]

Have you finished yet Spatial?

[ascender]

Just been playing this for the first time. I resisted the tempation to put on my HL2 hat whilst doing so as I don't want to appear to be a total w*nker, especially if the wife comes home and discovers me....

First impressions are pretty much * wow *. Graphics are stunning - facial animation & detail second to none. Only been playing for an hour or so but I love all the little nods to the first game. And I've never seen such an immersive city being rendered - so lifelike and believable. The little glimpse of striders and taller buildings hint at what's to come.

Only complaint so far is the loading times.

Right, back to it....

[Tom Salter]

Can someone assure me that a plot becomes apparent at some point? I'm near the end of Ravenholm and I still don't have a clue what the point of it all is, other than I was being chased for some reason, now I'm stranded in some ****ed-up village en route to somewhere...??

Read some of my previous posts. I had to go hunting around www.hl2fallout.net to find some of the answers. :| Most of the answers to the questions you've been searching for are on the wall in Eli's hideaway. Apart from that...little else gets revealed. More questions, if anyone can answer them:

What has Gordon been doing for the past few years? What has Gman at the end, made Gordon do? What did his speech mean? Where from now? Are the Combine destroyed on Earth, or what? The ending made bugger-all sense.

Apparently on HL2fallout.net they talk about a scene that was deleted, with Eli telling Gordon about the "Seven Hour War" that ended with Breen declaring that the human race had given up. Well, why don't we get told this in the game? Why did they delete this scene? They could have made such an amazing plot for this game, but they totally ignored it. Why did the Citadels just "appear" in the main cities? How the fsck could that happen? Grr, wish they'd explained the game a bit more. The plot was one of the main reasons I wanted this game. The actual game part is *amazing* but the plot sucked ass.

Rant over.

[csuzw]

Anyone have any good tactics (weapons,places to aim for etc) for the huge ant lion things? I'm currently somewhere in Nova Prospekt and I hate the big guys - I seem to waste all my ammo on them and trying to shoot them from behind seems to have as much affect as shooting them from the front.

[Kotatsu Neko]

Roffle... y'all probably found this ages ago, but you can use the gravity gun on facehuggers... sorry, headcrabs. When they LEAP! towards you just give them a quick blast and watch them go hurtling backwards through the air.

It also works amazingly well on those spinning blade flying robot things.

[Len]

Anyone have any good tactics (weapons,places to aim for etc) for the huge ant lion things? I'm currently somewhere in Nova Prospekt and I hate the big guys - I seem to waste all my ammo on them and trying to shoot them from behind seems to have as much affect as shooting them from the front.

Ermm my tactic involves blasting them with everthing I've got starting with rockets and working down, whilst backpedalling in a cricle...lol! Also if there are any explosive barrels in the room get them in on the act.

On other thing I'm surprised nobodies mentioned, though I may have missed it is...

...the secondary fire on the combine machine gun. How cool is that, especially in an enclosed space...? Just sends out that ball of energy which vapourises (in a very cool way) anything it touches. 8)

[marcus]

Im having real problems with an area in Nova Prospect whereby I have to standoff against a continual flow of enemy guards armed with 3 x combine machine gun turrets. Ive tried this about a dozen times now, and always end up being wasted. Whilst its a brilliant moment, Id really like to progress in the game now.

[mr_sockochris]

Finished it today and barring any suprises it'll be my Game of the Year. Simply stunning from start to finish. I won't go into details as it's best not knowing of the delights that wait ahead but the fact i'm already itching to play through it again can only be a good sign.

Im having real problems with an area in Nova Prospect whereby I have to standoff against a continual flow of enemy guards armed with 3 x combine machine gun turrets. Ive tried this about a dozen times now, and always end up being wasted. Whilst its a brilliant moment, Id really like to progress in the game now.

You could put it on Easy just for that part, it's the hardest part of the game.I nearly did it myself but ended up just doing it with 9% energy left. Protecting the turrets is key so watch for any guard pushing them over and have your gravity gun ready to toss away any grenades. I found putting the turrets in the corners the best tactic (you'll have to manually push them to get them right into the corner), they were less likely to fall over that way.

[H-Man]

I'm loving everything except the combat, which is a little easy/dull, the weapons, which (bar the magnum and shotgun) feel rather puny/clumsey, and the lack plot details (where you're going and why etc)

The lack of story isn't an issue though - and provided a weird sense of replay value when starting again with the benefit of hindsight. Piecing together various clues and coming up with your own sense of purpose for your/Gordons actions in the game can be quite satisfying (so much so that i'm enjoying the return visit more than the original)

It's when there's no action going on that I enjoy HL2 the most - when it's quiet and there's time to walk about, soak in the wonderfully realised locations, meet the npcs and play with the physics.

(The first few chapters are worth the asking price alone - and are the most amazing gaming experience i've had in years)

[Concept]

Im having real problems with an area in Nova Prospect whereby I have to standoff against a continual flow of enemy guards armed with 3 x combine machine gun turrets. Ive tried this about a dozen times now, and always end up being wasted. Whilst its a brilliant moment, Id really like to progress in the game now.

I'm not sure which part you mean so ignore the following advice if it's not in correct reference, but if you're in the multi-branched cell area (and not a little later on when you get an easier section following the same pattern), then try this...

Basically, forget about the turrets. Place them at three of the electric gates, then back yourself into one of the empty cells near a wall and and arm yourself with the shotgun. Keep blasting away and alternate between which side of the cell to hide behind depending on which combine guards come in either direction. Also, when the manhacks appear switch to either your machine gun or the combine rifle to deal with them.

I agree it's the hardest part of the game, but keep going. When you get back into City 17, the following three hours are quite possibly some of the finest gaming-wise you're ever likely to experience. I'm not over exaggerating either.

Having just completed the game once again, I'm still trying to catch my breath back. The game just goes off the scale (even more so than the other amazing parts) towards the conclusion.

[Spatial]

Have you finished yet Spatial?

Nope, not yet. I'm now up to the start of Entanglement so I've got a fair few chapters to go - but they probably won't last me very long. I hope to have got to the end - or near to it at least - by the end of this weekend.

I've said it before but I've been flying through this game on hard setting which is a bit disconcerting as I did expect more of a challenge. Even Nova Prospekt which some of you seem to be having trouble with didn't pose me too much of a problem (and I'm not brilliant when it comes to FPS I might add )

It also doesn't seem to be anywhere near as long as the first game, but then I think Valve have tried to create a different game here.

The first game was esentially a string of underground ( and some overground ) sections with some (fantastically staged ) set pieces.

This game is more like a distilled version. More fantastic set pieces and environments, but all the slightly monotonus environments removed (ie:- corridor after corridor ). Through some great level designs and ideas Valve seem to have achieved some great levels and gameplay.

Because of this variation I think the game feels fresher and as a result seems to be lasting a shorter period of time. Though having said that, I think my sense of time is distorted badly when playing this game - I've had it since Tuesday and have been playing it around 2 hours stints (and usually twice ) each day - that makes around 16 hours so far. Because I haven't played it through on normal I guess I've got no way of assessing how difficult the game mode is (how long did it take you all on normal ? )

But then its testament again to Valve that I've been playing through it on hard and never got frustrated