Official Half-Life 2 discussion thread.

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2004-11-21 02:44am

Pcm979 wrote:Closing Xen's portal hasn't done much, going by the Headcrabs, Barnacles and Vortigaunts everywhere. I see your point, however.

The Xen stuff is different from the Race X stuff. The Race X came here by choice: they had a portal set up. The Xen teleportations were caused by the Resonance Cascade: These teleportations were not voluntary, nor could they be stopped. The Cascade spread worldwide, forcing humanity into cities where they could be easily protected. (Note: I don't know if teleportations still occur regularly, or if they've stopped and the life is simply part of the ecosystem now.)

Pcm979 · Post by **Pcm979** » 2004-11-21 02:52am

Yeah, I know. I said I could see your point. I didn't see any evidence of teleportations in HL2. If HL:Decay is 'canon' then yet *another* group of plucky scientists closed the dimensional rift caused by the resonance cascade; Presumably the Nillianth kept it open personally after that until it's death, and enough mini-cascades popped up worldwide (Maybe as a side-effect of it's death?) to cause a severe threat to humankind. I do wonder how the Headcrabs reproduced after you killed the queen-thing at the end of HL, though..

Argh, I'm rambling. Ignore me.

SPOOFE · Post by **SPOOFE** » 2004-11-21 02:53am

I suppose I was really thinking of the stage 2 Zombies introduced in OpFor. I was expecting to see at least one.

Well, we saw different versions of zombies, at least (mangy fuckers...)

And we really don't know if Xen is the only alternate dimension that the aliens came from... it was just the one that Gordon got to. It's been speculated for a long time, now... maybe the Combine and Earth are from two dimensions that are connected via the "Border World"?

Pcm979 · Post by **Pcm979** » 2004-11-21 02:57am

Well, Xen has always been implied as the multiversal teleportation hub, so that makes sense.

Anyway, in HL2 there is one type of Zombie per breed of 'Crab, no mutations within a breed.

Spyder · Post by **Spyder** » 2004-11-21 03:57am

Grand Admiral Thrawn wrote:Well, I found it in the windmill, none in cars though. And how long is the Ant Lion sand part? Its getting tedious.

Keep at it. One thing Valve like to do when you have to go through a somewhat tedious part is reward you with an amazingly cool part soon afterwards. Trust me, this reward's worth it.

SPOOFE · Post by **SPOOFE** » 2004-11-21 04:43am

Anyway, in HL2 there is one type of Zombie per breed of 'Crab, no mutations within a breed.

When I first encountered the larger type that throws the poison headcrabs, I think it was the second-gen... but they're totally different.

I wonder what it is about the speedy-headcrabs that make their hosts flay off their flesh? Maybe they're just so cracked-out (or whatever) that they don't notice when they, say, get a nasty gash on their arm, and the damage just adds up?

Pcm979 · Post by **Pcm979** » 2004-11-21 04:47am

SPOOFE wrote:When I first encountered the larger type that throws the poison headcrabs, I think it was the second-gen... but they're totally different.

No, that's the poison 'Crab first-gen.

SPOOFE wrote:I wonder what it is about the speedy-headcrabs that make their hosts flay off their flesh? Maybe they're just so cracked-out (or whatever) that they don't notice when they, say, get a nasty gash on their arm, and the damage just adds up?

Appearently the itty crabbies eat the flesh. Yeah, it doesn't make sense to me either. Maybe the flesh is used to feed baby 'Crabs?

Pcm979 · Post by **Pcm979** » 2004-11-21 08:15am

As long as we're on the subject of Headcrabs, one of my favorite game moments that nearly offsets Ravenholm's formulaicness was that one bit where you get to a trap, hear shuffling.. Ho hum.. Duck, crawl towards trap, activate... Whir whirr whirrr SPROING! "Fuck!"

Then, of course, I used the blades and the gravity gun to lop 'em all in half.

Brother-Captain Gaius · Post by **Brother-Captain Gaius** » 2004-11-21 08:22am

My favorite moment was undoubtedly watching Father Grigori howling with maniacal laughter as he and the encroaching horde of zombies were engulfed in flame. The music set to that scene was perfect.

Shinova · Post by **Shinova** » 2004-11-21 08:28am

If you stay and watch, he ducks back into the crypt and apparently escapes.

He's just cool, in that insane, preacher with a boomstick kind of way.

Pcm979 · Post by **Pcm979** » 2004-11-21 08:30am

Say what you like, my favorite characters are still the Vortigaunts. Who says 'Yonder' nowadays, anyway?

Brother-Captain Gaius · Post by **Brother-Captain Gaius** » 2004-11-21 08:30am

Pcm979 wrote:Say what you like, my favorite characters are still the Vortigaunts. Who says 'Yonder' nowadays, anyway?

I do.

Pcm979 · Post by **Pcm979** » 2004-11-21 08:33am

Well, I must admit, I've been saying it alot. In the past few days.

Post by **Mr Bean** » 2004-11-21 11:13am

InnocentBystander wrote:
Pcm979 wrote:Bah! I want more Cpl. Adrian Shephard! Although I'm not sure if HL2 takes the events of OpFor or Blue Shift into account...
As for shepard, well it'd be a little hard to find a good spot for him. He's a soldier, ya he survived some tough shit, but he's a soldier he's trained to do that; Gordon Freeman on the other hand is just some schlub scientist who just "saves the world", so to speak.
Not only that, there is no more army, poor shepard is going to be a little out of his element.
We have to keep 1 thing in mind, the G-man is not on Earth's side! There's no US army for him to go back to, he doesn't know anyone (like Freeman does), the most he might be useful for is to, perhaps, join the rebellion and do a bit of ass kicking. Or at least, that's all I can think of!

A expansion pack with a diffrent City say City 14 with Sheppard as part of the Resistance would work well game wise

Story wise sure Sheppard does not have a Army to go back to but going on past events give him an m16 and a enemy to fight and he should be right at home

Or even better the G-Man using Sheppard to "Reforce" Gorden at some point keep in mind he had control of both Gordon and Sheppard but as far as we know Sheppard is still off floating in infinity

Companion Cube · Post by **Companion Cube** » 2004-11-21 11:18am

City 17 Times:Combine Forces depart Earth; Ant-Lions selected to accompany them to mysterious new home in the sky.

Early this morning, Dr. Breen, our glorious administrator, proudly announced that the Combine had finally judged humanity worthy of governing itself. The breeding ban around all major population centres has now been ceased, and all citizens may now commence not being so fucking miserable.

Panzer Grenadier · Post by **Panzer Grenadier** » 2004-11-21 12:32pm

I think any expansion with Shepard should take place during the inital combine invasion. Lets say for some strange reason the G-man decides to drop shepard into a army base right before the citadels start showing up. Then he could join up with his fellow marine buddies who survived black mesa, and try to take out the combine, then when the humans lose the 7 hour war, the second half of the game involves shepard trying to escape the city he is in and heading for the hills. This would work both in terms of filling in the gaps of what happened between HL and HL2 in more detail, and showing what life is like farther out from the cities.

Companion Cube · Post by **Companion Cube** » 2004-11-21 04:02pm

Woot, much fun to be had on "Sandtraps" spawning combine troops in easily defensible places.

In case others were wondering, and do not want to spend the time looking around for the info, you can enable the console by ticking the relevant box in the "advanced" area at the bottom of the key-bindings menu. Having done this, press the tilde key next to the "1" and type "sv_cheats 1" in the console, exluding quotations.

Having done this, look at the ground nearby and enter "npc_create npc_combine_s" (w/out quotes) into the console, and there you have an unarmed combine soldier to toy with. Typing "npc_create_equipment weapon_AR2" beforehand will equip all spawned soldiers with the Overwatch rifle. (Using ...weapon_smg1 and weapon_shotgun is also possible.)

It may be helpful to use the "notarget" cheat before doing this, especially if you want to set up a Starship-Trooperesqe battle.

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2004-11-21 07:11pm

Ohhh, now I have to try this!

Post by **Mr Bean** » 2004-11-21 08:23pm

Finaly, Finaly beat the game and all I have to say is G-Man you cockmonkey!

save the world, blow the tower, beat the bastard, have the ultimate in shinny toys and you stop it right there. At least he did not snap his fingers and/or say thats all folks

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2004-11-22 07:49am

http://www.gamespy.com/articles/489/489780p1.html

Can't stop laughing, the story of Gordan

Tolya · Post by **Tolya** » 2004-11-22 02:21pm

Okay, you guys managed to convince me that this game is worth getting. A bit of a question before I whip out my $. Will the game run on AMD2000XP+, Radeon 9500 Omega softmod and 512ddram? Or should I go Pong instead?

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2004-11-22 02:24pm

Minimum Requirements:
1.2 GHz Processor
256MB RAM
DirectX 7 graphics Card
5.5 GB HD space

Reccomended Requirements:
2.4 GHz
512MB RAM
DirectX9 graphics Card
5.5 GB HD space

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2004-11-22 02:34pm

DPDarkPrimus wrote:Minimum Requirements:
1.2 GHz Processor
256MB RAM
DirectX 7 graphics Card
5.5 GB HD space

Reccomended Requirements:
2.4 GHz
512MB RAM
DirectX9 graphics Card
5.5 GB HD space

I.E he fits, nicely. though the CPU might pull you dwn to 800X600.

Tolya · Post by **Tolya** » 2004-11-22 02:36pm

Yes yes, the box specs say all. Apart from the thing that bugs me the most: will I be able to play this game and have some decent fun or will it be rather watching a bunch of pixels making a wild chase on the screen?

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2004-11-22 02:38pm

EmKay wrote:Yes yes, the box specs say all. Apart from the thing that bugs me the most: will I be able to play this game and have some decent fun or will it be rather watching a bunch of pixels making a wild chase on the screen?

Decent fun, your CPU will be the only limiting factor.