Official Half-Life 2 discussion thread.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2005-01-09 11:40am

Hamel wrote:I did enjoy HL2, but I have some issues with it:

[1] The first half of the game felt like a tech demo for the vehicles and Havok.

And why not? The idea is to use such an engine to the max, if it felt like a demo, so be it. I had no qualms with being able to see how beautiful this engine is.

[2] Everyone looked like they had a skin disease, the textures in most places were pretty low res, and some shaders appeared pixelated and blocky.

That was somewhat annoying, but it wasn't noticed much by me unless doing some hard puzzles rather than blasting stuff. I don't find many games today that have super hi-res textures all over the place, so it's not as big a downfall as I expected.

[3] For a game that looked so wide open, it was just as linear as Doom 3. Far Cry rapes both games in the exploration category, if such a category is recognized.

For the story to work, it had to have some linearity to it. Even the biggest games for self-exploration and so on, say, Blade Runner still had to have some line to toe. I'd liked to have a little more freedom.

[4] The ending was fucking lame. It took Valve this many years to make the game and they couldn't wrap up the story?

Valve isn't going to tie up their biggest franchise with one sequel and thus squander an excellent chance at elaborating on the plot with add-ons and hopefully a sequel. Don't be daft, I expected some loose ends to be tied up (perhaps), but never expected a full blown hour's worth of exposition to sum it all up and tie up all the loose ends.

[5] Difficulty was nearly non-existant except for limited ammo. It got fucking stupid, especially with the combine pulse rifle.

Play on hard. I have to say, the last two chapters were easy compared to the bitching areas in Ravenholm and nearing Nova Prospekt.

White Haven · Post by **White Haven** » 2005-01-09 04:26pm

Ravenholm was an armed assault on the playability of the game, and it's a testament to the strength of the rest of the game that it was still good despite that abortion. We get the fucking picture, yes, HEADCRABS BAD, now piss off. And I don't know about you lot, but I found that battle with the four striders to be an iron-clad bitch to get through. Freakin awesome, though, which showcases the differences between 'Hard and fucking obnoxious' and 'Hard and fucking awesome.'

Alyeska · Post by **Alyeska** » 2005-01-09 04:42pm

Hamel wrote:[2] Everyone looked like they had a skin disease, the textures in most places were pretty low res, and some shaders appeared pixelated and blocky.

Actualy there is a very good reason for this. The world is being turned to shit, the enviroment is terrible. Notice how the G-Mans face and even Alyx didn't look all that bad, but the normal citizens were looking pretty bad.

Alyeska · Post by **Alyeska** » 2005-01-09 04:43pm

White Haven wrote:Ravenholm was an armed assault on the playability of the game, and it's a testament to the strength of the rest of the game that it was still good despite that abortion. We get the fucking picture, yes, HEADCRABS BAD, now piss off. And I don't know about you lot, but I found that battle with the four striders to be an iron-clad bitch to get through. Freakin awesome, though, which showcases the differences between 'Hard and fucking obnoxious' and 'Hard and fucking awesome.'

Ravenholm was still fun. And once you've beat it for the first time, going through it again is actualy very fast. You start learning tricks and how to avoid certain enemies.

When the speedy zombies climb the pipes, just lean over the side and blow them away.

Companion Cube · Post by **Companion Cube** » 2005-01-09 05:16pm

Admiral Valdemar wrote:
And given he seems to freeze you until you wake up on a train entering City 17 Darwin knows how many years later, then he may have done something with it, maybe give it to Eli et al and let them modify it.

I'd imagine so, that'd explain the added HUD functions and the thing's initial location. Come to think of it, it fits in well with the way you can see the the G-Man meeting with a rebel commander while travelling Highway 17.

Joe Momma · Post by **Joe Momma** » 2005-01-10 04:49am

Hopefully I'm not repeating something already posted, but here's another website that collects and organizes the story fragments from the Half-Life games and the Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar book into a linear whole.

-- Joe Momma

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2005-01-10 12:25pm

Alyeska wrote:
Ravenholm was still fun. And once you've beat it for the first time, going through it again is actualy very fast. You start learning tricks and how to avoid certain enemies.

When the speedy zombies climb the pipes, just lean over the side and blow them away.

I loved Ravenholm when I kept carrying around my "trusty blade", that is, the circular saw in combination with the gravity gun.

Natorgator · Post by **Natorgator** » 2005-01-10 07:25pm

Admiral Valdemar wrote:
Alyeska wrote:
Ravenholm was still fun. And once you've beat it for the first time, going through it again is actualy very fast. You start learning tricks and how to avoid certain enemies.

When the speedy zombies climb the pipes, just lean over the side and blow them away.
I loved Ravenholm when I kept carrying around my "trusty blade", that is, the circular saw in combination with the gravity gun.

I wised up and did that the second time around. It really helps with ammo since it's so sparse in that level.

Alyeska · Post by **Alyeska** » 2005-01-10 07:59pm

Ravenholm actualy has a lot of Shotgun ammo.

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2005-01-10 08:17pm

Alyeska wrote:Ravenholm actualy has a lot of Shotgun ammo.

The Magnum is so much better for pegging those fast zombies at a distance.

White Haven · Post by **White Haven** » 2005-01-10 08:39pm

The whole game had a nasty habit of hemmoraging headcrabs, it got real bloody old in very short order. And yes, the sawblade was fun, but you could have slashed Ravenholm to half the length and STILL had fun with sawblades. Especially given how...dubious it became to have that many large circular-saw blades lying around the entire town.

Alyeska · Post by **Alyeska** » 2005-01-10 08:45pm

I was rather irritated that you never got to use sawblades against the Combine. Also irritated me how the saw blade would just bounce off stronger enemies (the Posion zombie).

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2005-01-10 08:53pm

Ravenholm was definatly a "See that gravity gun we gave you? Go to town with it! Seriously, kill shit with it! It's a blast! There, you've had your fun with it, now lets get back to the game, eah?". Honestly, it was perfect when I played it the first time, I had just gotten this cool toy, and by god I wanted to kill everything with it (and lo, valved delivered).

White Haven · Post by **White Haven** » 2005-01-10 09:10pm

The /FIRST/ half of Ravenholm was like that. The second half, you A) are frappin tired of it, and B) are all out sawblades, and it's just obnoxious.

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2005-01-10 09:21pm

Bah, I carried the first sawblade I encountered with me through the entire map!

Stravo · Post by **Stravo** » 2005-01-10 09:58pm

When I run the game I get really serious Audio errors like the dialogue repeats like a scratched record and more annoying the video runs like I'm on a laggy videogame too so I'll be in the midst of a great battle but the lag just makes it unbearable. I've shelved the game for now in exchange for GTA. I figure my rig isn't up to it -Odd that I have a NVidia 200 Ti 64Meg card, 256Meg Ram and P4 1.7 processor - even when I've cranked all the goodies down to the minimum. If anyone knows what might be causing it and get me back on track playing the game I'd appreciate it.

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2005-01-10 10:05pm

Have you considered doubling your memory? You can find some very cheap memory at new egg and I'm sure you'll see a massive performance gain.

Stravo · Post by **Stravo** » 2005-01-10 10:13pm

InnocentBystander wrote:Have you considered doubling your memory? You can find some very cheap memory at new egg and I'm sure you'll see a massive performance gain.

I've been thinking about it but holding off on any upgrades since I'm shopping for a new machine in the next 3-4 months. I figure I'll just hold out until then.

Alyeska · Post by **Alyeska** » 2005-01-10 10:21pm

FUCKING STEAM AUTO UPDATES!!!!!!!!

I want to play Half-Life 2. But Steam won't fucking let me play the game without installing a new update. And its going to take 30 minutes. I have to wait 30 fucking minutes for an update to a SINGLE PLAYER GAME!?!?!?

White Haven · Post by **White Haven** » 2005-01-10 10:54pm

Yeah, I'm afraid you're USC there Stravo. Memory is low, and that video card could have been employed in ENIAC.

Stravo · Post by **Stravo** » 2005-01-10 10:59pm

White Haven wrote:Yeah, I'm afraid you're USC there Stravo. Memory is low, and that video card could have been employed in ENIAC.

Yeah I noticed the latest games just don't run the same on my old girl as they used to - at least my digital crack aka Rome Total War runs just fine and dandy on her.

Alyeska · Post by **Alyeska** » 2005-01-10 11:35pm

You know how the game makes you abandon the Buggy once you get to the light house? I decided to try and do something about that.

Now only the plywood came from the light house. I had to import the car and sheet metal from the wrecking yard just a map before. I must say, driving the buggy with three pieces of sheet metal blocking your vision is rather interesting.

Anyway I sadly came to find out that you can't avoid the map trigger. I got the buggy where it wasn't supposed to be and the map didn't progress.

Alyeska · Post by **Alyeska** » 2005-01-10 11:44pm

Who can tell me whats wrong with that pic?

Alex Moon · Post by **Alex Moon** » 2005-01-10 11:47pm

Alyeska wrote: Who can tell me whats wrong with that pic?

You aren't supposed to be there?

Alyeska · Post by **Alyeska** » 2005-01-10 11:56pm

The Buggy is supposed to be locked in the Garage, and yet it isn't...