Lets talk about half life 2

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huxley

Pleeze Maik Mee STFU!!
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Buying the Orange Box on sale got me back to playing this game. I decided to give her another go, I have to say the game just isnt that good

Things I like

1. The beginning, the story is quite cool and the environment perfectly suits an occupied area.

2. The physics are obviously good.

3. The return to the city, you really feel like part of the resistance movement and its pretty cool.

The bad

1. The physics engine is so good they have to take every opportunity to use it in every situation. I get sick of locations I see setup just to show off their physics engine, it gets old.

2. Explosions are mediocre, instead of an exploding loud flaming barrel it sounds like a mini firecracker inside a pop can, very underwhelming.

3. The weapons give you no satisfaction. The masked enemies are pretty cool but you get no satisfaction hitting them, you dont really feel that brunt force a shotgun blast to the face should give. They dont even back up, they just keep coming. All the weapons are similar, CoD has spoiled me with realistic shooting but these are just awful.

4. They show you the coolest area in the game and then force you to leave the city for boring vehicle levels and a terrible zombie town full of more physics engine show off scenes.


What else did you think? I know this is old as dirt I just wanted to see if anyone else has replayed it lately.
 
I replayed it recently and to some extent I agree. I preferred the first hl. A lot of the levels were driven on showing off the physics engine, like you said, and although that is really neat, it gets old...and boring....especially the driving levels...god.

I did enjoy how the game put out a certain level of pseudo-realism without going over the top. A lot of the game play was fun too, don't get me wrong.

On another note, did anyone else feel light-headed/vomit-ish when they were playing it?
 
Niteflite said:
I replayed it recently and to some extent I agree. I preferred the first hl. A lot of the levels were driven on showing off the physics engine, like you said, and although that is really neat, it gets old...and boring....especially the driving levels...god.

I did enjoy how the game put out a certain level of pseudo-realism without going over the top. A lot of the game play was fun too, don't get me wrong.

On another note, did anyone else feel light-headed/vomit-ish when they were playing it?
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I was a bit late to the first half life. The first one had a really interesting story and even though most of the levels were inside it seemed like there was a greater variety. A large part of half life 2 is outdoors and ending with fighting a flying ship all the time.

I do remember that the weapons felt similar in half life 1 they didnt have a huge affect on enemy movement and they didnt have that satisfaction feeling like in doom where your shotgun has that great *ka chunk* sound when reloading.

Only time I ever felt woozy at all was once I flipped that damn go cart about a dozen times in a row and my brain was confused as to which way was up anymore.
 
huxley said:
I was a bit late to the first half life. The first one had a really interesting story and even though most of the levels were inside it seemed like there was a greater variety. A large part of half life 2 is outdoors and ending with fighting a flying ship all the time.

I do remember that the weapons felt similar in half life 1 they didnt have a huge affect on enemy movement and they didnt have that satisfaction feeling like in doom where your shotgun has that great *ka chunk* sound when reloading.

Only time I ever felt woozy at all was once I flipped that damn go cart about a dozen times in a row and my brain was confused as to which way was up anymore.
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Ahh yes... I think they wanted to glorify manipulating your environment to kill your enemies rather then the pure joy of rail-gunning them....

Problem was, nothing was really over-the-top enough to make that as fun as killing them with bad ass guns.

But none the less, it was a great game.
 
Brother, I agree with you 110%. Half-Life 2 was pretty good, but not great.
 
huxley said:
What else did you think? I know this is old as dirt I just wanted to see if anyone else has replayed it lately.
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For its time, I thought HL1 was the better game.

HL2 was easy, a bit too short, and the final boss encounter was worse than Xen.
I didn't mind the physics puzzles or driving though.
 
The game was a huge let down. They were just cashing in on the success of HL1. The game had no story at all, probably less of a story than HL1. By now, any halfway decent game should be like an interactive movie.

The only improvements they made over HL1 were technical. Nothing about the game was imaginative or innovative. Crap.
 
my biggest gripe was always the weapons. the "main" gun was a wimpy little smg that feels and sounds like a toy and does beans for damage.

I don't get the anger at the physics though. ravenholm may have been a show off for the physics engine, but killing zombies with exploding paint cans, radiators, toilets, and saw blades is probably the most satisfying thing i've ever done in a game.
 
I always felt the ravenholm was a damn creepy level with great atmosphere. Also quite a challenge to see how many of them you could line up and cut through at one time.
 
I'm not jumping the bandwagon here, just because the OP had a different opinion from the majority. The game kicked ass in every sense. Better single player than any call of duty and Halo game.

You want boring single player? Try Killzone 2. Had to force myself through that one.

I'm still constantly going back and playing half-life 2. There isn't another single player fps I've constantly replayed.

They were just cashing in on the success of HL1
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Considering all the trouble Valve went through and money they probably spent to get HL2 out the door, I think you should take that back. If they wanted to "cash in" they wouldn't of bothered going through with everything they went through. Not to mention they made an entirely new game engine for half life 2. Do you do your homework at all?
 
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I was pretty disappointed with HL2. Some parts, such as the boat and car levels, seemed painfully long and little more than "filler" material. The only parts I really liked were Ravenholm (the priest was my favorite character) and the Cathedral level... until the ending, which was probably the dumbest I've ever seen. HL1 was a much better game, IMO.
 
Devnull said:
The game had no story at all, probably less of a story than HL1.

The only improvements they made over HL1 were technical. Nothing about the game was imaginative or innovative. Crap.
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Ugh, I can't agree more. I didn't think HL2 was total crap, but after hearing everyone and their brother and their dogs fap over how awesome HL2 is, I was expecting an actual story.

The game didn't give me a single ounce of motivation to get from Point A to Point B.

The entire game's dialog consisted entirely of one giant orgy of fanservice of minor characters giving Freeman a blowjob, one after the other.

I did enjoy HL2ep2 though. There was more actual development of plot and story in the three-ish hours it took me to beat it than HL2 and HL2ep1 combined.
 
Looking back to HL2 it seems nothing like HL1, I probably realised this while playing it but was really overwhelmed by the technology involved to care at the time. It's hard to explain really, it's this completely seperate story which doesn't really expand on the original, it's so epic within its own scope it sort of makes the original feel redundant. HL1 was interesting travel through the bowels of black mesa and sort of seemed believable (plausable) in its own unique way.

HL2 is this big holywood end of the world saga that feels epic yet at the same time you're crammed through largely irrelevent areas of the world where nothing you do means a damn, fighting in tunnels and in places like ravenholm, across stupid cliffside drives and radioactive riverboat rides.

I dunno, I think valve pulled a fast one with HL2, it was epic in its own right, with the technology behind the engine, but the game itself was a bit meh...I prefered HL1
 
My two pennies....

I have to agree that HL2 didn't live up to HL... mainly because the first game was so groundbreaking.... it set the standard for FPSs being more immersive. I also really loved the enemies in HL.

Having said that, I really enjoyed HL2. Yes, it had its issues, but it was still fun (but I hated the end....).

But going back to what the original poster said..... playing COD4 has ruined a lot of FPSs for me. I can't stand having no prone stance and not being able to aim down the site. HL2is at heart an above average shooter, but besides the Gravity Gun (which is great and innovative), it is unremarkable, gameplaywise (is that a word??). But like I said, a lot of shooters are also average in this department.....
 
Half-Life is a hard game to top, that's all. HL2 is an above average game but it needed more oomph to be one of the all-time classics, and it simply had too much vanilla to pull it off.
 
Diesel_Power said:
You want boring single player? Try
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Any Call of Duty. I couldn't force myself to finish any of them. It's the same boring gameplay since MoH AA with a new graphics engine every few years.

Diesel_Power said:
I'm still constantly going back and playing half-life 2. There isn't another single player fps I've constantly replayed.
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I replayed HL2 once, and never wanted to touch it again. What's so replayable about it ?

Diesel_Power said:
Not to mention they made an entirely new game engine for half life 2.
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Carmack said:
There are still bits of early Quake code in Half Life 2
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;)
 
The one thing that really sold me on HL2 was the facial animation system. With the combination of the scripted sequences, the solid animation in general and the groundbreaking (yeah, I used that word) facial animation system, the characters portrayed in HL2 seem like real characters. It was an absolutely astounding improvement over the original, and it was fun seeing characters like Barney being rendered and portrayed in a fairly realistic, less-cartoonish manner.

That being said, the main thing the original had going for it was color. It was a little cartoonish at times, but Valve never seemed to fear throwing in over-the-top color for visual effect. HL2's world seemed to be portrayed a little too realistically for my taste.
 
Diesel_Power said:
Considering all the trouble Valve went through and money they probably spent to get HL2 out the door, I think you should take that back. If they wanted to "cash in" they wouldn't of bothered going through with everything they went through. Not to mention they made an entirely new game engine for half life 2. Do you do your homework at all?
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What do you think they would do? Use the old Half Life engine? I wouldn't go as far as to say that HL2 was a cash in, but I think they would be stupid not to release a sequel, not to mention the large amount of fans from the original Half Life that wanted a sequel and the fact that it won so many GoTYs. It was only a matter of time.
 
I was too young to appreciate HL1... i had played it now but its outdated and I just couldn't get into it.

HL2 was the game that showed me PC gaming > Console gaming.

I loved every aspect it. I can't wait for HL2EP3.
 
Niteflite said:
On another note, did anyone else feel light-headed/vomit-ish when they were playing it?
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Yes. No idea why. I've played my share of PC games over the years, and this is the only one I've had to limit my play to short periods of time because of the screen sickness.
 
I thought HL2 was average from the first time I played it. The first is one of my favourite FPSes of all time, but HL2 just didn't draw me in the same way. There's far too much filler in the game, and the vehicle sections suck balls (whoever is responsible for the way the vehicles handle should be fired - definitely the worst vehicle physics I've ever seen in a AAA game). Ravenholm was actually probably my favourite part of the game, because you pretty much have to make good use of the gravity gun and the physics engine in order to survive it, and it made sense within the context, compared to most of the other physics puzzles which felt like they were just tossed in.

That's why I like the episodes a lot more than HL2 itself; they basically cut out all the filler crap while retaining the gameplay aspects that are actually really good. Unfortunately, Valve decided to screw up Ep2 by forcing you to use the shitty car during the final battle scene, which really took all the impact out of it since I was focusing more on just driving the car around without crashing it than I was on the things that were actually going on around me. The rest of it was really good though.

Also, I'm not a fan of the Source engine. It looked fairly nice back in 2004, but even then it was fairly outdated in some respects, especially in terms of the lighting model. Sure, they've added a few little tricks like HDR, motion blur, and a new particle system over the years. However, it's pathetic that they didn't implement proper dynamic lighting until Left4Dead (Source 2007 in Ep2 supports a single dynamic light per scene, but the rest is still entirely static). They also still use rather low-resolution textures, and fairly basic geometry. They haven't made a particularly great amount of technology improvements to the engine over the years, which is a little sad considering how much time they take between game releases. And as a result, their games look very dated compared to other modern games. Obviously gameplay is the most important aspect, but having good graphics to go along with that makes a big difference to the overall gameplay experience.
 
I replayed the HL2 games recently too, using the cinematic packs from Fakefactory, and the commentary systems. It's a really cool thing to listen to, especially when Gabe Newell of Valve something to the effect of "This new Episodic gaming release schedule is going to allow us to drastically reduce our production cycles." I couldn't help but grit my teeth when he said it.

The "painfully obvious demonstrations" of their physics engines were supposed to be breaks in the action. The whole commentary system is like a big guide; Developers: how to avoid battle fatigue.
 
I'm just curious. A lot of you guys say you found HL2 to be rather shallow (I found it rather engaging, no cut scenes and moving around while characters interacted with each other).

So for all you HL2 haters, what was the best single player fps you played?

I said FPS, not RPG.
 
half life 1 and Deus Ex. I consider Deus Ex a shooter/rpg hybrid.

Honestly for me it was the vehicle sections that ruined HL2 for me. They were SO LONG and BAD. Also, the story didn't advance the slightest bit in HL2 (just fanservice fapping).
 
Diesel_Power said:
So for all you HL2 haters, what was the best single player fps you played?
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Probably HL1. Honestly, HL2 isn't even comparable. The first one is a superior game in almost every aspect (and by almost every aspect I mean basically everything except for graphics and physics).
 
I could never get far enough into the game to really enjoy it the way other people said it was later in the game due to the "vomit" factor. Ive played tons of FPS type games and never felt dizzy at all. This game though....15min is all I could handle. The puzzle parts of the game, such as manipulating several barrels on top of eachother to reach an otherwise unreachable place kept pissing me off. I could never get the damn barrels to do what I needed them to do. Id want to stand them up on top of eachother but had a hell of a time turning them right side up. And then, when I would get them to stack, Id go to jump up on one and then they'd all fall over cause I barely touched one of them and have to start all over again. Very annoying.

So, couple those 2 things together and I ended up shelving the game.

It would have been a good idea for them to have made moving those barrels an easier chore if once I picked up a barrel, I could use the scroll wheel to turn the barrel 360 degrees to where I wanted it to be. But ohhh no.....hehe.
 
huxley said:
3. The weapons give you no satisfaction. The masked enemies are pretty cool but you get no satisfaction hitting them, you dont really feel that brunt force a shotgun blast to the face should give. They dont even back up, they just keep coming. All the weapons are similar, CoD has spoiled me with realistic shooting but these are just awful.
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Try installing SMOD and some custom maps ;)
 
The Bad:

Episodic Gaming by Valve

Complete and utter failure, it's been how long since the last episode? WTF. I've already forgot the intricate details of what happened in hl2 - ep2 and when the fudge is the 3rd episode coming out. It's not like it takes that long to make a game that already has all the assets and the engine made. And the episodes are short as hell, I've had shits that have taken longer. Waiting that long for that little content borderline insulting. Gabe Newell should get his fatass on ball and finish this shit already. On the other hand, I will be buying ep3, but jesus christ...
 
ScreamingBroccoli said:
The Bad:

Episodic Gaming by Valve

Complete and utter failure, it's been how long since the last episode? WTF. I've already forgot the intricate details of what happened in hl2 - ep2 and when the fudge is the 3rd episode coming out. It's not like it takes that long to make a game that already has all the assets and the engine made. And the episodes are short as hell, I've had shits that have taken longer. Waiting that long for that little content borderline insulting. Gabe Newell should get his fatass on ball and finish this shit already. On the other hand, I will be buying ep3, but jesus christ...
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Half Life isn't all that Valve does anymore, but I agree, they need to get on it and get out EP3.
 
huxley said:
3. The weapons give you no satisfaction. The masked enemies are pretty cool but you get no satisfaction hitting them, you dont really feel that brunt force a shotgun blast to the face should give. They dont even back up, they just keep coming. All the weapons are similar, CoD has spoiled me with realistic shooting but these are just awful.
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Did you run out of magnum and crossbow ammo?

As soon as I think I'm out of magnum range I fire one off anyway at a Combine grunt (they're out of range usually) and KA-THUNK he's blown backwards with his death sound.

Plus anyone sniping with a weapon that pins the enemy's ankle or hand in place and dangle (dead) will be a knock-off.

You can also run/boat over your attackers, sick ant lions on them, lots of turret guns to mow them down, rocket launcher, shotgun.

The machine gun is a bit soft-firing but anything that reloads that fast usually is, and he has 225 belt bullets.
 
HL2 has great music and it comes in exactly at the right time. My favorite aspect of the game.
 
Namakan said:
That's me right now, it's so hard to get into with the terrible graphics.
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you should try the cinematic mod:
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1376063

singe_101 said:
Did you run out of magnum and crossbow ammo?

As soon as I think I'm out of magnum range I fire one off anyway at a Combine grunt (they're out of range usually) and KA-THUNK he's blown backwards with his death sound.

Plus anyone sniping with a weapon that pins the enemy's ankle or hand in place and dangle (dead) will be a knock-off.

You can also run/boat over your attackers, sick ant lions on them, lots of turret guns to mow them down, rocket launcher, shotgun.

The machine gun is a bit soft-firing but anything that reloads that fast usually is, and he has 225 belt bullets.
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Yeah I agree. the regular weapons are... regular. but the crossbow: Valve needed a long range weapon. Whats the obvious choice? Oh of course! A crossbow that loads a red-hot piece of rebar. perfect. Hitting a combine with it, because of its relatively slow rate of travel, made it a blast to use. I only wish I got to use it more often.

And that sound.

That said, one of my first serious FPS gaming experiences was CS:S. And the sound that carbine makes, its just phenominal. Since then its pretty well become the standard, and compared to that the shotgun and MP6 in HL2 do seem a little wimpy.

Yeah, If I had to describe what separates HL2 from all the other shooters out there; its not the sound, its not the cinematic like linear gameplay, its the mood.
 
Mr. Bluntman said:
Half Life isn't all that Valve does anymore, but I agree, they need to get on it and get out EP3.
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The non-HL2 games that Valve has released since they started with the episodes are Portal, TF2, and Left4Dead. TF2 was the only one of those games that Valve developed entirely on their own. Portal was created by a group of developers who had previously created Narbacular Drop and were hired specifically to work on that game, and Left4Dead was developed by Turtle Rock, who were originally a separate studio until they were purchased by Valve at some point during development. So Valve's main development team really didn't have anything else to work on aside from the Episodes. They're just taking a really long time, as they have done with everything.
 
There is the small Matter of the source engine, i think people including someone earlier in the thread don't give enough credit to how well it looks in relation to how well it runs on alot of hardware, even today it still runs well and it isn't because they haven't made changes.
 
Mr. Wolf said:
Try Half-Life when the Black Mesa HL2 mod is ready. http://www.blackmesasource.com/about.html
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Saw a trailer for this about 6 months ago. Looks fantastic. Basically HL1 but with HL2 graphics. Actually it sounds like they're going way beyond mere graphics upgrades.

necrophile said:
There is the small Matter of the source engine, i think people including someone earlier in the thread don't give enough credit to how well it looks in relation to how well it runs on alot of hardware, even today it still runs well and it isn't because they haven't made changes.
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The source engine has never been particularly taxing. I played HL2 on "high" with a 9800pro. They threw on some HDR and a few other upgrades, but it's the same basic engine from almost 5 years ago. Any halfway decent PC should crush source games. Source games run well on anything, but it's not worth bragging about IMO.
 
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