Half-Life 2 (PC)

[Sarkster]

Been playing this in 5 minute bouts every now and then since activation (too busy playing World of Warcraft to invest hours and hours into it atm) and the game is fantastic, only playing it on the medium level and slowly advancing my way through it.

The only bad thing really is that Halo2 arrived yesterday, I turned it on, played shambolically (Tom and the blokes from his first meet saw how bad I am on joypad FPS) for a few minutes, laughed at the graphics, then loaded HL2 again. I doubt ill ever boot halo2 again.

Was it just me, or did anyone else spend a silly amount of time on that kids playground right at the start, trying to balance the see saw with the 2 breeze blocks?

[neoglow]

Was it just me, or did anyone else spend a silly amount of time on that kids playground right at the start, trying to balance the see saw with the 2 breeze blocks?

I decided to do a little community service by finding a crate and filling it with rubbish, found the physics to be a little 'volitile' when picking it up (wonder if there's a way to make the collision detection less extreme) And then proceed to throw it at a guard, or with a quick push of the mouse, throw the contents in the air and try and catch it again. Great fun.

[Chadruharazzeb]

I catapulted the doll on the see-saw by dropping breeze block on the other end.

Fun!

[Concept]

I've been thinking the same thing. Even though I'm playing through it on hard I've yet to come to a section where I've gone "This is impossible" and been tempted to turn down the difficulty.

To put it into contrast to when I first played Halo - I think this is a good thing.

Although Halo was a revelation, I remember being incredibly frustrated with a few key segments which I had to repeat over and over and over and over and over again. That soured it's intial impact for me.

Even Half-Life had it's frustrating moments - (Namely the Xen levels towards the end of the game).

Whereas Half-Life 2... There's been no frustration in it for me. There were a few challenging moments towards the end of the game back in City 17 on normal that were tricky, but it's virtually fluid and continous. That for me is always the hallmark of a great game - When you're not stuck in a rut, or in the position of the same moments repeatedly echoing, being forced to heavily use the quick save function.

I know this won't probably go down well with the we-like-our-difficulty-levels-insanely-hard brigade, but for me the experience of playing Half-Life 2 fluidly was important for the game to have the impact it has had. It seriously preserved and enhanced my sense of immersion to be able to flow through the game without hitting a dozen or so brick walls.

I'm not the best gamer skill-level wise with first-person shooters, so I'm actually relieved Half-Life 2 didn't punish the player by expecting them to meet a large number of pre-requisites.

[neoglow]

Does anyone know how to record an in-game demo? And secondly export that recorded demo to quicktime or movie file?
To capture those 'funny' moments.

[Number45]

Download the eval version of FRAPS mate.

[neoglow]

Download the eval version of FRAPS mate.

You my friend are a star.

[Tobal]

Decided to buy HL2 inside of download or i'll be there forever getting it (it took long enough to install and unlock), great game so far, it just seems like a rollercoaster of well done set-pieces one after the other, i find im always looking for barrel to shoot at moe than trying to pop a bullet in the head of those grunts. As for the actual combat, at the moment it seems a little crap (im on normal) often it just a case of enemy standing still waiting to take a bullet in the head, im little disppointed after a few reviews raving about the A.I. but strategy seems to be out the window and its case of hitting them with the biggest weapon you have while they run through the scripted routines like kicking flaming barrel other(im hoping things will change when i get gravity gun)

Also had a crack counterstrike after a long break (stopped play like a nutter around ver.6, so it s been a while), im little disappointed so little has changed including maps, but as always it's gameplay shines through . Ended up on it 3hrs straight. Also wheres the Half-life 2 multiplayer? its abit stupid to just have counterstrike...

[Ratso]

I still got them Half-Life 2 blues (for those of you who recall my earlier post back on page 185 or something):

Got logged on to the net via my 56k (again at only a painful 28.8kbps - must be my local exchange I think).

Managed to get Steam past the first 'updating platform' xx% stage and got to create a user name and password.

Then it went to another 'updating steam platform' type message, with an empty bar in it. One yellow block filled in quite quickly, but then I left it while I had dinner and though the modem traffic was constant, the bar filled up no further and no 'percentage complete' type message appeared.

Task manager described Steam as 'Not responding' though the modem traffic continued apace. I left it a bit longer but then decided to retry from the 'log-in' stage of Steam. Same thing - lots of modem traffic but Steam 'not responding'.

Then I had to go out.
GAH!

Please help me someone... I'd REALLY love to play this tonight.

Cheers,

Ratso

[Ish]

Just finished it.

What a superb game. I was hooked for every single minute all the way through and I can't say that about many games.

Ending was great but I didn't like the way it left it with Alyx there looking like she was about to be blown into smithereens. Essentially I'd have liked a bit more closure on the whole thing.

And I would liked to have known a bit more about the combine.

The 'upgraded' gravity gun in the citadel was absolutely awesome. So so sooooo much fun throwing people around.


Anyhoo - I think thats just won the title of "Best Game Ever". At least for me. Fantastic. Absolutely fantastic.

The only, and I mean only niggle I have with it is the head crabs. Too many of them at times and, simply, they're not fun to fight.

[Kotatsu Neko]

The only bad thing really is that Halo2 arrived yesterday, I turned it on, played shambolically (Tom and the blokes from his first meet saw how bad I am on joypad FPS) for a few minutes, laughed at the graphics, then loaded HL2 again. I doubt ill ever boot halo2 again.

Your loss. You'd be denying yourself one of the best FPS in years, and (in my honest opinion) the best Xbox game to date.

The opening level isn't graphically particularly impressive, but it gets a LOT better as you progress.

Play it on Heroic for a decent challenge or Legendary for a major challenge and revel in the majesty of it all. I loved Halo 2, it has a much more cinematic, epic feel to it than Half Life 2. The soundtrack is outstanding, the battles are epic and it's nice and diverse.

[Ratso]

Yep, what he said.

Halo 2 is excellent but is suffering from a bad case of over-anticipation backlash.

I still wanna play Half-Life 2 though (sobs)...

[JibberX]

Crowbar them headcrabs.... there were lots of them in the first, blue and opposing force too. Hours wise, how many Ish?

[Sarkster]

yea, but as I said, im actually **** at it with a joypad. if I could play it with kb and mouse, then it might be a different story

[Ish]

I think around 15. I finished it in three sittings. But to be honest I was that wrapped up in it I didn't keep very good track of time.

I played through on normal. Gonna start again on hard now

I was using the crowbar on the crabs but they're just annoying ya know. Pinging around tiny things. Still it was hardly a big deal.... and it was my only niggle!