Half-Life 2 (PC)

[Manta Ray vs Guitar]

Stop spamming this thread.

What are you talking about?

[Adam]

What's everyones multiplayer expectations? I'm guessing it will be just like Half-Life multiplayer, set in 'arenas' with the weapons found in the single player game but I'm hoping for a bit more interaction with the invironment though, maybe using vehicles and sentry guns like those found in the HL2 footage.

[JibberX]

The thing that sold HL to me was TFC, if we have an update to that, I might jst explode.

[choddo]

What's everyones multiplayer expectations? I'm guessing it will be just like Half-Life multiplayer, set in 'arenas' with the weapons found in the single player game but I'm hoping for a bit more interaction with the invironment though, maybe using vehicles and sentry guns like those found in the HL2 footage.

I expect the multiplayer to follow the same pattern as the first one;

absolute crap out of the box with the least balanced weapons known to man... followed up by a bunch of the best MODs ever written.

[Fire]

Yeah, all PC games usually still come on single or multiple CD-ROMs. It's not really an issue because the only time you'll have to use more than one is when you're installing it, after that you'll just need one disc for copy protection/authetication or preferably you won't need to the the discs again.

You do sometimes get a DVD edition as well as the CDs (HL2 will have both afaik, maybe with the DVD edition coming later) but the problem is that a lot of users have no need for and therefore don't have a DVD drive in their PC, I know I don't.

[nips]

Yeah, as Fire said, most games are CD-ROM... but why not really... It takes a little longer to install as you have to switch discs, but it's not really a problem, and CD-ROMs are so cheap, it doesn't really matter.

But I believe there is definitely a DVD version comming soon. A few forums have been adament that it will come out as a special edition.

In all my years of PC gaming, I've only ever had one game on DVDROM - Blade Runner. Do most DVD players read slower than CD-ROM anyway? So if for example, if you don't have full install and you have to get information off the disc, would it mean that it would take longer to load?

In terms of multiplayer:

I think that Valve may do the same as Half-life. Leave it up to the mods and just release a lot of very good patches to make online and LAN play much quicker etc...

Although, they may well have placed a lot of effort into the online area. They may try to make it good online straight out of the box. We just don't know. Either way, I'm not too bothered. As long as Valve support online play after release like they have with Half-life I'm happy.

But, with Condition Zero just released, maybe it is the single player they are focusing on, so they will have the best of both worlds and everyone is happy.

Hopefully we'll see some good mods soon after release, and they'll only continue to get better... I can imagine the most popular mods such as DOD and TFC etc... getting major overhauls and/or sequels that take advantage of what Valve have to offer. But, to be honest, I'm more interested in the single player game and the SDK to begin with, then after a few months when the online scene is starting to take off, I'll get more interested and start to see what mods are out. The only problem is that I'm on a 56K modem and proper online gaming isn't an option, I'm more of a LAN person or Bot person.

[nips]

How many of you were hyped before the article in EDGE and the drip feed of information? I put HL2 to the back of my mind. I decided that it wasn't worth getting worked up about it and just to let it go, IT would come when it was ready. Now I've seen all these shots and there are supposedly some really good videos to download and I'm just getting more and more hyped everyday.

Do any of you have links to sites that have the HL2 videos for resumable download over night? If you could suggest soem that I Should look at and maybe some links, that would be cool.

[Fire]

Eeeep, you need to download the full quicktime video of the E3 halflife presentation. Forget the bink videos being drip fed over Steam, get this and see them all. It is filmed with a camera off of the plasma screens but the definition is excellent and IMO the game looks even better for it. You also get the commentry from the Valve guys giving the presentation.

600MB of goodness, well worth getting even on 56k, oh and if your ISP cuts you off after 2 hours I recommend getting a program called 'cidial' which sits in the tray and automatically reconnects you. Set getright to stop and resume if no data is received for a few minutes and you're sorted.

ftp://ftp.gaminguk.net/Mirrors/ftp.p...proved_gsi.zip

[Garibaldi Biscuit]

What are you talking about?

Quite simple. Spam comes in various forms, first of all you have your spam which is totally irrelevant to the topic at hand, then you have the lazy one-line comments which add nothing to a conversation. In both of these regards, you scored a double-whammy. A one-line answer which added nothing to the conversation and had nothing to do with the topic at hand;

to protect and serve

That's not mentioning this:

Whenever a FPS is discussed people always bring up things that are stupid and crap. Things like hardware specs, physics, AI and other FPSers (because you have to compare them - it's a rule). Sometimes you get people arguing about bumpmapping, lighting and which of the different games' identical weapon sets has the most detailed modelling. Maybe you'll have some guy getting excited that you can use two weapons at once, or that the flames on one game's flamethrower are more flamey than another. Maybe one clever guy says he's sick of flamethowers because, I guess, they're a relatively recent cliche.

My question is this: is it because everybody is dumb and deserves to die?

Serious question.

People bring up things that are stupid and crap, is this because they are all dumb and deserve to die? Yes, I can see how this is a serious question.

If you have any issues with this please take them up with me via PM so we don't derail this topic further, thanks.

[nips]

600MB of goodness, well worth getting even on 56k, oh and if your ISP cuts you off after 2 hours I recommend getting a program called 'cidial' which sits in the tray and automatically reconnects you. Set getright to stop and resume if no data is received for a few minutes and you're sorted.

ftp://ftp.gaminguk.net/Mirrors/ftp.p...proved_gsi.zip

I use Download Accelerator Pro. And My ISP doesnt cut out after two hours (which is pretty much the only good thing about it).

Do you know if the getright works with DAP as well?

EDIT:

Thanks for the link as well... looks like it may be a 24 hour download!

I was wondering if you could give more information like the resolutionm length and content of the video for example.

[Fire]

It's high a quality Quicktime video. Widescreen 640x360 and lasts about 22 and a half minutes

Basically it's just a long video showing sequences from the game, just about all of the static screenshots about are taken from these sequences so you'll get to see them in action. There's also a few technical demonstrations about the Source engine at the start before you see those gameplay teasers.

[Adam]

You could also try this. It's an 81mb compilation of all 7 bink videos but in wmv format 8)

[Spatial]

Eeeep, you need to download the full quicktime video of the E3 halflife presentation. Forget the bink videos being drip fed over Steam, get this and see them all. It is filmed with a camera off of the plasma screens but the definition is excellent and IMO the game looks even better for it. You also get the commentry from the Valve guys giving the presentation.

600MB of goodness, well worth getting even on 56k, oh and if your ISP cuts you off after 2 hours I recommend getting a program called 'cidial' which sits in the tray and automatically reconnects you. Set getright to stop and resume if no data is received for a few minutes and you're sorted.

ftp://ftp.gaminguk.net/Mirrors/ftp.p...proved_gsi.zip

I've put off watching this because of the size and I didn't want to spoil too much...... but now I may get a friend with broadband to download it and CD it too me.

Are there any real spoiler bits in it ? ( I know there won't be too much as Valve wouldn't allow it )

On the CD issue, I think its fully installable on the hard drive ( as with most games these days ). Gabe Newell has indicated that this time around even the music will be able to be fed off the hard drive cutting down any choppyness in the music and limiting the need for disc access

[Ish]

I've read a lot about the physics and the graphics and the story (as in how great its going to be rather than the detail) - but not a lot about the AI. Have there been any reliable indications as to how good this is?

For me it'll make or break the game... I'm after at least a Halo level of AI (which I thought did a damn convincing job).

[replicant]

God, yeah...Half-Life online was poor. How did they manage to destroy id's network code? Still it did improve thanks to the mods.

The presentation movie that Fire is recommending is fantastic except for the over zealous American wooping and one particuarly annoying one who thinks he is a comedian.

"Will this run on my four-eighty six?"

arghhhhhhhh. nob.