Half-Life 2

**jamcat** · 11-13-2004, 02:27 AM

Wow, it's amazing how quickly the hype changes. I see Half-Life 2 is now the hyped, flavor of the day game at Gamespot.

Though as far as Gamespot goes, they used to be cool, but now they suck big time. Nothing but a bunch of biased fanboys. And Greg Kasavin is such a pud!

As for Half-Life, I don't see what the appeal is. The first game was nothing special. Just a typical FPS. But as with Doom 3 and Halo 2, I'm sure Half-Life 2 will offer nothing but more of the same old stuff that's been done before.

But for fans of Half-Life, if there are any, I'll pass this along. A papercraft model of the Black Mesa Transit System train from the first game:

http://www.cardboard.de.vu/

**kittendaddy** · 11-14-2004, 12:15 PM

But for fans of Half-Life, if there are any,

"if there are any"? It's widely considered the best single-player FPS released for any platform for fully 3 years after it was released. And by widely, it means "yes, there are some".

I've always been a fan of well-told stories in games to tie things together, as long as the underlying game is also good, and I really liked the way they told the story in Half Life. They never took the controller away from you. And they didn't really tell you a lot about what was going on or who you were, you were left to discover a lot of it. It actually felt personal when, midway through the game, you see a message the military spraypaints on a wall for your benefit: "Give up Freeman", and that added to the game for me.

As for Gamespot, or any other media outlet, the preview hype is to be expected, especially with all these high-profile titles coming out right now. Maybe they'll end up being as good as advertised (Halo 2), and maybe they won't (Doom 3), and as long as they ultimately review the games fairly, I don't begrudge them their pre-game hype.

Doom 3 got a good review overall, but Gamespot made a point of emphasizing that it was mostly as a spectacle - there was nothing new in the gameplay department - so your mileage would vary. They weren't blinded by hype.

**jamcat** · 11-15-2004, 02:01 AM

Well, I did play Half-Life 1 on the PS2. Saw it in the bargain bin for $19.99 and figured I'd get it and see what all the hype over the game was about.

And, sad to say, I don't see what the big deal was. The game was ok. But it was your typical FPS game with the typical lone survivor against aliens that invade/over run millitary/scientific base story that has been seen before. And the X-Files-ish ending was lame.

The only thing I liked about the PS2 version of Half-Life was the extra game where you had to get 2 characters through a mission together.

For me, the best FPS experience I had was playing System Shock 2. Now that game scared the crap out of me. So far no FPS game has matched the experience I had in System Shock 2.

Right now, the only FPS game I have any interest in looking forward to is Midway's Area 51. Even though Area 51 is another "lone survivor against aliens that invade/over run millitary/scientific base story", it looks to be a lot of fun judging from the trailer.

**Sean_resg** · 11-15-2004, 06:48 PM

For you guys thinking of buying the game... Let me share a little bit of experience.

I picked up a copy of the game on the way home (yeah I know a day early). I couldn't even play it, I had to install the stupid online steam component that links the game to the web. Then after that I had to install 5 cds! Which got screwed up on the first attempt and I had to try again after a restart...

So I finally got the game loaded, clicked the icon. It asked for the key which I put in and expected to play. Nope. It launched steam and listed HL2 as a coming soon title, I clicked on the icon to see what would happen and it turns out that only 78% of the game was loaded off the cds. It needed to download the rest off the website!!!!! Ok this is crazy, if I didn't have broadband it would take like 5 hours to download the rest of the game. Imagine if you didn't even have internet! They should post right on the front of the box, REQUIRES AN INTERNET CONNECTION TO PLAY! On the bottom in small print it says that but, the average user won't see that.

This takes the buy the game, download the patch off the website to install to a whole new level!! Companies now think they can sell a game in an incomplete format (at full price) and just have the users download the actual game later "when its done". Shane, I think you mentioned something like this on the show.

Thats why consoles will always be the platform of choice for me. If I wasen't such a whore I would take the game back and go back to playing my CD32.

**Shane R. Monroe** · 11-15-2004, 08:52 PM

That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard.

Congratulations, Valve. You've made a game that ISN'T WORTH THE TIME IT TAKES TO INSTALL.

Damn, I have a rant topic ...

**yuckymucky** · 11-15-2004, 08:52 PM

Originally Posted by kittendaddy

As for Gamespot, or any other media outlet, the preview hype is to be expected, especially with all these high-profile titles coming out right now. Maybe they'll end up being as good as advertised (Halo 2), and maybe they won't (Doom 3), and as long as they ultimately review the games fairly, I don't begrudge them their pre-game hype.

You are the first person that I have heard say Halo 2 was as good as advertised. Most everybody I know say it was way over hyped, especially the single player.

Also, Half-Life 2 requires an internet connection because they are using an activation system same as WinXP. From what I have heard the data transfer is very small, like as in 1-2mb.

**kittendaddy** · 11-15-2004, 11:42 PM

Yeah, I'm definitely not feeling the love for Steam. I know they want to cut out the middle man, but c'mon. I hated it for XP, and it's even worse to do it for game software.

**Demolition Man** · 11-16-2004, 03:40 AM

That has to be the dumbest thing I have ever heard of. And with no warning on the box it is going to piss some people off big time that are not on a broadband connection... and even then, people do have a right to know about this. Right?

**Shane R. Monroe** · 11-16-2004, 04:52 AM

Here is where we find out JUST HOW STUPID the public is. Will they PUT THE HELL UP with this in order to play the same game with some better physics? If they do, gaming TRULY is over.

**Sean_resg** · 11-16-2004, 08:23 AM

One thing I discovered is that with the new steam you can preload all the games and then back them up to file. Thats not a bad feature for people without broadband, they could get a friend to download the game. Throw it onto a dvd or cd, take it home and load it on their machine. Still a pain in the butt.