Hard Light Productions Forums
Off-Topic Discussion => Gaming Discussion => Topic started by: Sandwich on July 06, 2006, 08:41:23 pm
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Bought it through Steam, downloaded seamlessly (though of course it did take a considerable amount of time), and just finished it. IMO, quite worth the money - more than HL2 was, even.
Has anyone else played it?
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finished it, played it thru, gotten it for 0.00$, etc...
well, pretty sweet, and zombines were... well, they scared the crap out of me, even more then the fast zombies. and then, those dog-looking creatures... GAAAHH!!! i dont know how i'll be able to play ep2 when it comes out.
overally, pretty fun and worth the bugging to get it to work properly without paying for it. might even play thru it the second time. i really liked it truth to be told.
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Old.
You should know better Sandwich, use the search.
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This might be a stupid question, but do you need an internet connection to play Half-Life 2 et al?
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Yep... that is a stupid question. :p
You can either get it via the rather illegitimate way pecenipicek did, i'm sure he'd be glad to enlighten you as to how he accomplished that, otherwise you'll need an online connection to Steam in order to install/activate it. Well worth it, IMO. As fun if not considerable more so than vanilla HL2, and the added commentary mode is surprisingly entertaining.
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I played throught it, found it quite enjoyable.
Good 4-6 hours of fun.
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Yep... that is a stupid question. :p
You can either get it via the rather illegitimate way pecenipicek did, i'm sure he'd be glad to enlighten you as to how he accomplished that, otherwise you'll need an online connection to Steam in order to install/activate it. Well worth it, IMO. As fun if not considerable more so than vanilla HL2, and the added commentary mode is surprisingly entertaining.
Well, I feel like an idiot. I was referring to the activation process. That's something that really irks me about Steam. When I buy a game like HL2, i.e. a decent singleplayer game of any genre, it's generally to play by myself. The only multiplayer game I've played a lot in recent memory is BF2.
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You're the minority; either Steam's statistics-gatherer is borked, or only 20% of the people who got it actually bothered to finish it.
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If this is similar to HL2, I certainly can't blame them. :p
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I just played through it this morning. Was okay I guess.
I'll probably go through with the commentary mode on next.
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i played it, the game itself felt like it had actual subtance to it, and it was longer (felt like it) than pariah, which was a full game, and not episodic :p
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I played throught it, found it quite enjoyable.
Good 4-6 hours of fun.
Enjoyable, yes. Finished it in half the time, tough.
Still, I didn't like the original HalfLife one bit. But i really enjoy the second chapter. And i can't wait to get my hand on Episode Two.
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Yep... that is a stupid question. :p
You can either get it via the rather illegitimate way pecenipicek did, i'm sure he'd be glad to enlighten you as to how he accomplished that, otherwise you'll need an online connection to Steam in order to install/activate it. Well worth it, IMO. As fun if not considerable more so than vanilla HL2, and the added commentary mode is surprisingly entertaining.
got it thru BT, but i've had a few texture problems, so if you dont already have HL2 installed on the PC, you're borked if getting it illegaly. on the other hand, my HL2 is actually legal. bought the collectors edition :D
but, aye, in agreement with all here, it's actually worth the money you should be paying for it. if i had the money, i would have probably bought it, cause i enjoyed it far more than HL2...
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As I said last time this came up - Ep1 is everything HL2 should have been.
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I'm terrified of Episode Two. Turns out those funny-looking running things in the preview are new super-intelligent enemies with the ability to hunt you in organized packs. Additionally, they can go anywhere you can go, and they get angry.
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The level where you must fight this crazy zombies in the darkness was pretty funny, even though i died there more than once... :D
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Old.
You should know better Sandwich, use the search.
I did. Searched for "half life episode" and found bupkis.
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I can't find it either. Once next version of SMF is released, be it either RC3 or final, I guess it would be for the best to re-generate the search index.
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Having reinstalled it on my new machine, I've got to say again how incredible the visuals are. The models could do with some work (they lack truly high detail and the skins (up close) aren't great - but the effects are absolutely brilliant.
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What bothers me though is that F.E.A.R still loads quicker/larger maps than HL2 does and its often got twice the visual detail. :wtf:
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Does anyone know the pretty good HL2-Mod Minerva: Metastasis 2?
I think the level design in this modification is even better than in the real HL2. :D
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It's alright, but I wouldn't rate it as better than the valve maps. It maatches them, no argument there, but I don't think it surpasses them.
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What bothers me though is that F.E.A.R still loads quicker/larger maps than HL2 does and its often got twice the visual detail. :wtf:
on what resolution and setting can i hope to play fear with this rig?
AthlonXP 2800+
512 megs of ram
FX5700 256 megs
medium 800x600 or a bit better? i dont care too much about resolution, anitaliasing or AF... so....
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You should be fine, just make sure you force it to use DirectX 8 shaders as opposed to DX9. Don't push it too far or you'll find yourself stuttering at the most combat intensive moments - and you WILL die.
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kay, thanks :)
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just a note, it looks absolutely GLORIOUS with HDR on.
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Oh definitely. My Radeon 9800 could do quite well with the HDR shaders on. It really does look incredible. I'm curious to see how Cryteks new offering will fair now.
(Oh, and if you're looking to play FEAR I'd think about having at least 1GB of RAM. It'll make a nice difference in load times etc.)
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well, are you willing to donate 2 sticks of 512 megs? :p
;)
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Well that's where it all falls down of course.... no :p
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damn :p
:lol:
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Oh definitely. My Radeon 9800 could do quite well with the HDR shaders on. It really does look incredible. I'm curious to see how Cryteks new offering will fair now.
(Oh, and if you're looking to play FEAR I'd think about having at least 1GB of RAM. It'll make a nice difference in load times etc.)
:wtf: HL2, HL2:LC or HL2:E1 does not enable any HDR effects on my Radeon 9800XT but loads up some on my Radeon X850 Pro. X850 still won't compare to effects that are loaded if you have GeForce 6 or 7 series card.
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HL2 doesn't have any HDR effects as far as I know - but HL2:E1 does. They seemed to load up with my R9800 but now I have a GeForce 7600GT and they definitely do.
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random boredom :p (http://img467.imageshack.us/img467/4117/gljupost5sv.jpg)
well, its HL2 related :p
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Now do Gordon Freeman vs Shivan.
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gimme a mesh of freeman and i'll do it :p
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So are we going to see Team Fortress for the HL2 engine?
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Yeah, I am necroing this, sue me.
Anyways, in the vein of all the new media from Valve this week (TF2 trailer, Portal trailer), well they released one last tidbit. Thats right ladies and gents, the Episode 2 trailer is hitting the web. Right now, it apears that only Gamevideos (http://www.gamevideos.com/video/id/4716) has it up, but give it time and I'm sure everyone and their grandma will have it.
Anyways, enjoy!
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/me picks up question hat
Why the hell isn't this on steam?
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What, Ep2? Or the trailer?
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Well, this trailer isn't 100% new. If you have Episode 1, and beat it all the way through wait until after the credits. There is a small trailer, and some of the footage (mainly Alyx falling and the Vort carrying her) has been reused in the new one. I imagine thats why it hasn't been put up on Steam yet.
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What bothers me though is that F.E.A.R still loads quicker/larger maps than HL2 does and its often got twice the visual detail. :wtf:
after starting to play F.E.A.R., its unoptimised as hell. i've gotten much better graphics and framerates out of HL2 on 1024x768 on my rig, yet on in FEAR, i have to play in 800x600, with everything at medium.
i play HL2 with everything on high except textures, cause i dont have enough memory for high-res textures.
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This is the first time seeing the extended version. I think it is awesome. Give you a better idea about what EPII is going to be about.
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I loved episode 1, alot better than HL2 imo. Episode 2 looks like it will be really good because of the change in scenery, city fighting was getting boring.
Oh definitely. My Radeon 9800 could do quite well with the HDR shaders on. It really does look incredible. I'm curious to see how Cryteks new offering will fair now.
(Oh, and if you're looking to play FEAR I'd think about having at least 1GB of RAM. It'll make a nice difference in load times etc.)
um you do know that anything pre X800 from ATi can't do HDR? only HDRish (aka bloom).
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You know, all this HDR craze is, in my eyes, a load of BS. "High Dynamic Range"? It's like saying that this whole time, our monitors weren't rendering things as really, really white, but now, they are. It's BS. All it does (and correct me if I'm wrong so I don't have to continue sounding like an idiot here) is calculate and render effects similar to what we get when we look at bright light sources... the light bleeds over onto darker areas around the light source, thus making the light appear even brighter. How this is different that adding the equivalent of a simple Photoshop outer glow layer effect to anything bright, I don't know.
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it is a load of BS in its entirety. its just real-time outer glow.
that said, its very annoying in my opinion. a sad waste of resources.
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*Snip*
The basic idea is to have it looking a bit better, while doing relatively little to it. I like it, because it's shiny, and I like shiny. The trick is not to overthink it, it's just a cool-looking effect added to make everything shiny.
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You know, all this HDR craze is, in my eyes, a load of BS. "High Dynamic Range"? It's like saying that this whole time, our monitors weren't rendering things as really, really white, but now, they are. It's BS. All it does (and correct me if I'm wrong so I don't have to continue sounding like an idiot here) is calculate and render effects similar to what we get when we look at bright light sources... the light bleeds over onto darker areas around the light source, thus making the light appear even brighter. How this is different that adding the equivalent of a simple Photoshop outer glow layer effect to anything bright, I don't know.
If by bull**** you refer to the marketing name, then you are correct. If by bull**** you mean that it's no different from a photoshop effect, then you are wrong. A photoshop effect is not rendered in real-time. An efficient rendering of light sources in real-time is no small task because you also need to calculate light reflections which become exponentially more complex with HDR enabled.
Also, to render real HDR you would need a monitor that is capable of displaying contrast ratio of 50 000:1. Most monitors only display 500:1 or 1000:1 at most. So in games HDR has to be rendered to what your eyes would see in the situation, not what your eyes see.
that said, its very annoying in my opinion. a sad waste of resources.
It so depends how HDR is utilized and what kind of visual setting it is used in. You really can't cast off a feature based on poor use of it. Personally I think HDR is quite good visual rendering effect, it can make hell a lot of difference in the visual atmosphere when used right.
At the moment I think the best demo of HDR is Half Life 2: Lost Coast. If you have the chance, I recommend to play it.
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You know, all this HDR craze is, in my eyes, a load of BS. "High Dynamic Range"? It's like saying that this whole time, our monitors weren't rendering things as really, really white, but now, they are. It's BS. All it does (and correct me if I'm wrong so I don't have to continue sounding like an idiot here) is calculate and render effects similar to what we get when we look at bright light sources... the light bleeds over onto darker areas around the light source, thus making the light appear even brighter. How this is different that adding the equivalent of a simple Photoshop outer glow layer effect to anything bright, I don't know.
If by bull**** you refer to the marketing name, then you are correct. If by bull**** you mean that it's no different from a photoshop effect, then you are wrong. A photoshop effect is not rendered in real-time. An efficient rendering of light sources in real-time is no small task because you also need to calculate light reflections which become exponentially more complex with HDR enabled.
Also, to render real HDR you would need a monitor that is capable of displaying contrast ratio of 50 000:1. Most monitors only display 500:1 or 1000:1 at most. So in games HDR has to be rendered to what your eyes would see in the situation, not what your eyes see.
that said, its very annoying in my opinion. a sad waste of resources.
It so depends how HDR is utilized and what kind of visual setting it is used in. You really can't cast off a feature based on poor use of it. Personally I think HDR is quite good visual rendering effect, it can make hell a lot of difference in the visual atmosphere when used right.
At the moment I think the best demo of HDR is Half Life 2: Lost Coast. If you have the chance, I recommend to play it.
quite frankly, i seriously doubt my machine could take lost coast... -.-
but, using the HDR name itself is by far the most bull****ting thing ever done.
if i remember correctly, HDR stands for High Dynamic Range and when used in 3D, its used to simulate the surrounding of a shiny/semi-shiny/reflective object, to simulate realistic lightning.
HDR in games doesnt have anything in common with the aforementioned usage.
and i think that it hasnt yet been implemented properly. all the screenies show me its just overexposure of the pics...
HDR pics consist of many pics taken at different exposures, or something like that, no?
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:wtf: You really should play Lost Coast or something else equal.
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I for one appreciate that there is no monopoly on acronyms, as shown by the tem FTW. Which started in prisons.
[trivia for ya]
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quite frankly, i seriously doubt my machine could take lost coast... -.-
but, using the HDR name itself is by far the most bull****ting thing ever done.
if i remember correctly, HDR stands for High Dynamic Range and when used in 3D, its used to simulate the surrounding of a shiny/semi-shiny/reflective object, to simulate realistic lightning.
HDR in games doesnt have anything in common with the aforementioned usage.
and i think that it hasnt yet been implemented properly. all the screenies show me its just overexposure of the pics...
HDR pics consist of many pics taken at different exposures, or something like that, no?
If you're going to b**** so vehemently against HDR, perhaps you could have at least attempted to see one of the best showings of the technology in recent times. However, i'm going to assume in the past you've only ever seen either just bloom or very badly done HDR, so i'll give you the benefit of the doubt.
Now, here's a rather nice shot of Lost Coast, not much of a glory shot, but it gets the point across.
(http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/9804/hdr1zf2.png)
See, the Valve lads use HDR to simulate realistic light on the environment - such as the sand and rocks on the beach as you can see - pushing the visible light in areas up to 100% of monitor brightness, and then using bloom in areas where brightness exceeds that 100%. I'm not entirely sure how what you see about doesn't really equate to your "definition" of HDR, but make what you want of it. Honestly, it's a nice effect, so perhaps you should try a game where it is implemented properly [Lost Coast or Episode 1 being prime examples] before you condemn this rather significant leap in gaming graphical technology.
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Hate to bump again but I've just finished Ep1 for the second time (first time with my new rig) and I have to say... damn. It's good. I kind of wish I hadn't played HL2 and had skipped straight to Ep1 as it's everything HL2 should have been. The pace and combat are great and the intro/outros are truly special.
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I just finished Half-Life 2 and serprisingly loved most of it. I think some sections were dragged out way too far, like the boat sequence. Other than that I thought it was very fun all the way through, even the boring bits were way worth it for the super gravity gun.
Is that in Episode One? Or do you revert back to boring old grav gun?
Best parts of Half-Life 2 for me would be Ravenholm (of course), that huge steel bridge, storming Nova Prospeckt with an army of Antlions and the last level with the super gravity gun. Love it.
This brings me to another question; I've been able to get all of the sounds out of Half-Life 2, but I'm trying to get the music to no avail, Hammer wont play MP3s. I want the music when you attack the Nova Prospeckt beach, it was great, but like I said I can't get hold of them. Anyone know?
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Episode one picks up right after the closing events at the top of the Citadel, the events of which are explained with a damn cool cutscene that undoubtedly foreshadows some very, very plot developments to be seen in future episodes. From there, you work your way through the crumbling Citadel in an unarmed exposition section, before regaining your super-gravgun, and entering one of the most visually stunning gameplay areas i've seen in recent times. You of course lose the super-gravgun shortly thereafter as regular gameplay commences.
Can't help you with music extraction, though.
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I think one thing that really justifies playing Ep1 twice is that there is a development commentary.
Not only do you get some valuable plot insights that you might have missed while playing through without it, it's also really interesting to learn about the design process behind a game. Little things like "we put in those poles and wires to focus the players attention on the exploding Citidal" are things that never conciously occured to me but seem clear now that they're explained. That sort of thing really helps if you like to design your own games or work in other media areas.