Hard Light Productions Forums
Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: Deepblue on February 12, 2006, 06:55:41 pm
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Overall a good game. I really enjoyed the story, the level design, the puzzle bits, and the sheer interactivity of the environment.
However...
I found the actual shooting in the game to be... lacking. The enemies exhibited less than spectacular intelligence, doing nothing whatsoever to take cover from my fire. Furthermore, the vehicle sections in the game are really bad, as the vehicles do not handle very well at all. Both of these factors make the game suffer in the gameplay department. I found myself completing the game not because I was having a lot of fun, but because I wanted to finish the story... And then there was the ending. I can't believe people complain so much about the ending to Halo 2 yet there is nary a whisper about the end of Half-Life 2.
All in all, it was an enjoyable experience, but it did not quite live up to the hype.
And yes, the gravity gun does indeed rock.
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eh, this was a forgettable game IMO. Although the super green gravity gun was very cool. I had lost all interest in the story long before I reached the end but screwing around with the ragdoll physics in the last level was great fun. Also, make sure you try shooting the hanging legs at the beginning of the Ravenholm level. If you hit them from just the right angle, they simply go ballistic. :D
the level design
You're kidding, right? This was one of the biggest shortcomings of HL2.
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I loved everything about HL2. Guess that makes me a gaming Philistine.
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this is just my opinion, but the storytelling in HL2 sucked, now, i didn't say -story- i meant how it was delivered, i know it's the whole "walk a mile in gordon's HEV suit" and such, you find the story yourself, but, as the old saying goes: "it's all in the execution" there wasn't that greater deal of story bar City 17 itself and a few misc photos and newspaper clippings that you see in various places here and there.
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I also fall into the "HL2 wasn't right for me" bracket.
As an FPS is didn't technically do anything wrong. Heck it's a perfectly good example of the genre. But when I first played through it (and I was paying attention) I felt totally out of place in the world and as such didn't get any enjoyment out of the hoop jumping that I had to do.
In the original Half Life, I knew why I was in Black Mesa and why the whole place was going to hell. In HL2 everything was unexplained.
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the level design
You're kidding, right? This was one of the biggest shortcomings of HL2.
In what way? The lack of any alternative to the 'main' route through the levels?
Yes, but how is that different from the majority of shooters out there? :p
The non-linear games tend to be RPGs anyway.
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knew[/i] why I was in Black Mesa and why the whole place was going to hell. In HL2 everything was unexplained.
yep, HL2 didn't really answer its own questions, and barely answered existing ones. i've heard tell that aftermath will be one in many expansions to HL2, heck, it's going episodic, i just hope they're gonna make it worth our while in terms of story and gameplay..
truth be told, i've always been a little leery of games reputed to have "a great story" 'cuz either they have none, or it's completely cliche'd or just utterly lame.
Pariah is a perfect example of this.. reputed to have a really good story, but in actual play, it didn't have any to speak of.
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I sorta... hijaked my brother's computer a couple days while he was at work and played it. The ending confused me. Are you supposed to shoot those enrergy-booger type things at the teleporter-type thing? I tried that but it got angry asploded at me.
Oh, and there was too much outdoors. Needs to be indoors. Or in canyons and stuff. HL1 was (pretty much) perfect. Surface tension = my favorite level.
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The last few hours of the game are definitely the best. Highway 17 was easily the WORST level in the game.
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Just because you're somewhat inept at driving HL2 vehicals doesn't mean that they are invariably badly designed and/or poory executed in the game. Honestly, I found both the Air-boat and Buggy both easy and damn fun to drive, and really broke up the monotony of aimlessly shooting everyone/-thing in sight.
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I thought the airboat/helicopter chase was quite awesome. :nod:
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I can't decide if HL2 sucked or blew.
Either way a massive transferance of air occured.
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Lmao :lol: Half Life 2's vehicles were pants; get with the times Valve, use a mouse to steer your vehicles. If not that, then at least make them easy and responsive like Far Cry.
And the earlier patches of HL2 (like the one I played through the campaign on) were horrible. Five minutes for a level load? Ten minutes for the main menu? THE MAIN MENU?!
And anyway, the gameplay was pretty boring and formulaic. Woohoo, guns. Random bad guys that look like your basic gas mask human. Yay.
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truth be told, i've always been a little leery of games reputed to have "a great story" 'cuz either they have none, or it's completely cliche'd or just utterly lame.
Pariah is a perfect example of this.. reputed to have a really good story, but in actual play, it didn't have any to speak of.
Wow... someone else paid money (I'm assuming) to play Pariah...
The game wasn't that great from a story point of view, and the game engine sucked royally (yes, I know it was a modified Unreal 2 engine), but it was fun anyway.
Anyone else sick of games that don't work on dual core CPUs? Yeah, there's no excuse for it. Maybe three or more years ago, when multi-CPU systems were very rarely used for games, but for the last couple of years they've obviously been on the way and should therefore have been catered for. Or are developers really stupid enough to assume that since a game runs on a multithreaded environment on a single CPU it will run fine in the same environment on multiple CPUs? Are these people really stupid enough to think that multithreaded == concurrent code execution? If they are, they should not be writing multithreaded code, but that's the price we pay for letting companies like Microsoft develop 'event-driven' APIs, also known as "let's allow people with no knowledge of concurrency to write code that appears to work but actually has assloads of latent bugs buried in it."
First rule of API development: don't let anyone fiddle with stuff they are able to break. Anyone who breaks this rule shouldn't be doing professional software development, period. In the case of concurrency, if the 'user' of the API doesn't have to consider mutexes they shouldn't be using said API unless all (and I mean ALL) that stuff takes place inside it with NO POSSIBILITY AT ALL of spilling over into luser space.
And here we see the problem with this particular game engine: not only did the developers stupidly let programmers fiddle with concurrency without understanding it, but they also assumed their code would be running on the same core all the time.
IF YOU'RE BASING YOUR TIMING ON A CORE'S INSTRUCTION COUNT, YOU'RE DOING SOMETHING INHERENTLY RETARDED.
Aaaarrrghh, I hate programmers who make arbitrary and stupid assumptions about the execution environment.
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I really liked the athmosphere and story, but the combat lacked certain... rage?
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I think my favorite part of the game was the music. It always got me pretty pumped up. That's about it though.
Oh, I like the engine (well, the physics anyway... that is when they didn't freak out.. okay, maybe I didn't like it so much..) too.
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One of the things I liked was the responsiveness of the pistol. I could mash that button and it'd fire each time I'd mash it, comparing it to say, Wolf ET's Luger. I didn't notice a delay inbetween shots as much as I have in other games. I did like the whole polished look the entire game had, and when I finally got my 9800xt, it was very decently playable with some extra settings conservatively enabled. I didnt care much for the vehicles, but I DID like the crane. Oh boy that was fun. Picking up a boxcar and ramming it into a bunch of those combine soldier thingees.
I honestly felt though the game didnt live up to it's hype, and I absolutely detest the steam system (who doesn't?) It felt kinda blah, with a few spectacular moments. (Under the bridge, out in the sand with a piece of tin, a door, and a pallet to walk across the sand) The engine is quite nice, but I feel the people who really put the Source engine to the test were Troika with VTMB. But, on the flipside, it also shows just how bad coders can goof up a nice engine.
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In what way? The lack of any alternative to the 'main' route through the levels?
Yes, but how is that different from the majority of shooters out there? :p
The linearity was particularly bad in this game though, as the path you had to take always seemed very artificial and unrealistic, frequently going through strangely placed, conveniently located holes in walls and over ramps formed by piles or rubble. There are definitely more nonlinear games out there, like Far Cry.
What I was referring to though was the fact that most of the levels totally lacked any detail or variety, which made it something of a chore to go through them. Look at Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory (or any of the SC games for that matter) for an example of what level design should be like in these respects.
this is just my opinion, but the storytelling in HL2 sucked, now, i didn't say -story- i meant how it was delivered, i know it's the whole "walk a mile in gordon's HEV suit" and such, you find the story yourself, but, as the old saying goes: "it's all in the execution" there wasn't that greater deal of story bar City 17 itself and a few misc photos and newspaper clippings that you see in various places here and there.
Exactly. The problem was that although the handful of cutscene type maps were pretty good and the general premise of the story was quite interesting, there was a complete lack of detail to flesh things out. When you look at the vast amounts of little details in games like FS2 or Deus Ex, and heck, even Doom 3's PDAs, HL2's story is very thin in comparison.
Anyone else sick of games that don't work on dual core CPUs? Yeah, there's no excuse for it.
So there are games actually incompatible with dual cores no matter what you do? You can't just use the processor affinity setting?
It will probably be a little while before I get a dual core myself anyway. I doubt I would get one that can come near my $200 3ghz single core and I'm not that keen on upgrading to SP2 in order to use the Windows dual core hotfix.
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I played it through, it's alright. The story doesn't stick to me like Freespace's or anyything but it's not terrible.
The aiming system is almost funny, in most cases the pistol is better than any other weapon, and it's nearly impossible to miss with it.
Really, Gary's Mod is giving me alot of fun with the game.
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I like how you build up speed while bunny hopping and can go around extremely fast like that. It didn't make any sense, but was actually pretty cool and made for some interesting gameplay possibilities. :D
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I really find it funny that I used the pistol as a bloody sniping weapon.
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Anyone else sick of games that don't work on dual core CPUs? Yeah, there's no excuse for it.
So there are games actually incompatible with dual cores no matter what you do? You can't just use the processor affinity setting?
It will probably be a little while before I get a dual core myself anyway. I doubt I would get one that can come near my $200 3ghz single core and I'm not that keen on upgrading to SP2 in order to use the Windows dual core hotfix.
It's usually possible to use imagecfg to set the image affinity, but this really shouldn't be necessary. If the game doesn't work in a truly concurrent environment the image should not be set up to run on multiple CPUs.
Also, some games refuse to run if the executable is changed. Silent Hill 2, for example, will not load if you use imagecfg on it.
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using the crossbow was the most fun part of that game
something about nailing someone to a wall from really far away with a hot reebar pipe just is fun to me
as for looks, well, it was impressive at first, but farcry kicks its ass
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On the subject of looks though, there is one mod for HL2 which is utterly necessary these days:
http://halflife2.filefront.com/file/FakeFactorys_Oggs_Cinematic_Mod;55317
FakeFactorys Cinematic Mod. It makes the game all purdy like.
(http://screenshots.filesnetwork.com/32/files2/56706_8.jpg)
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Has any game ever lived up to it's hype?
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Has any game ever lived up to it's hype?
Freespace 2 goes above and beyond the call of hype!!!!
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Half Life 2 left me a bit cold, but then, most FPS do, it was just the whole feeling of continually being pushed from one section to the next, I prefer games where you can take your time and explore more, but then, I'm more a city-builder person than a shooter ;)
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I think my main bone of contention for HL2 was that it didn't draw me in at all. The story was monotonously boring all the way through, unlike, dare I say, Quake 4's - which I thought was better all round for a game with a similar setting and engine technology.
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Has any game ever lived up to it's hype?
solitaire
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i loved HL2.
great game. couldn't fault anything with it. i've now beaten it 3 times. the last time i did it just to see if i could do it in 12 hours. (7 AM --> 7 PM)
EDIT:
for the record, first time i played it cause i'd just got it
second time i played it because i wanted to explore, take in the great graphics, etc. on my new computer
third time i did it just to set a record. i did it in 8 hours and something minutes ;)
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you would
sorry to keep you waiting
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yeah sorry about that. i realized that this isn't the old HLP... not all the posts have black backgrounds :(
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third time i did it just to set a record. i did it in 8 hours and something minutes ;)
That's pretty good. Try going for the record though: http://speeddemosarchive.com/HalfLife2.html. :D
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watched that video (well, watched like 15 minutes of it. skimmed through it). i DOUBT that was the second time he played the game.
that was just amazing though lol
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Hehe that's nothing. Someone finished Morrowind in less than 8 minutes (http://www.archive.org/details/Morrowind_730) (video links on the left hand side).
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Hehe that's nothing. Someone finished Morrowind in less than 8 minutes (http://www.archive.org/details/Morrowind_730) (video links on the left hand side).
i call bull**** on that.
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i call bull**** on that.
Er... did you bother to watch the video?
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The worst thing to happen to HL2 was the code leak. It effectively led to a whole host of things being redesigned on the fly in some sort of attempt to invalidate the build that had escaped into the wild. Truth is that people would've bough HL2 in it's original form whether there was a leaked version or not.
Valve hit the panic button, and as a result we got a game far less beautiful or entertaining that we should have.
The lesson here children, is stick to the project development plan and content designs you spent years making, as opposed to the ones you drew up in five minutes.
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i call bull**** on that.
Er... did you bother to watch the video?
yes, i did, and i smell cheating, no matter what.
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The worst thing to happen to HL2 was the code leak. It effectively led to a whole host of things being redesigned on the fly in some sort of attempt to invalidate the build that had escaped into the wild. Truth is that people would've bough HL2 in it's original form whether there was a leaked version or not.
Valve hit the panic button, and as a result we got a game far less beautiful or entertaining that we should have.
The lesson here children, is stick to the project development plan and content designs you spent years making, as opposed to the ones you drew up in five minutes.
I heard about that... any idea of specifics?
I know in the leaked build there was a ship level with all sorts of interesting things going on that never saw the light of day in the released game...
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The worst thing to happen to HL2 was the code leak. It effectively led to a whole host of things being redesigned on the fly in some sort of attempt to invalidate the build that had escaped into the wild. Truth is that people would've bough HL2 in it's original form whether there was a leaked version or not.
Valve hit the panic button, and as a result we got a game far less beautiful or entertaining that we should have.
The lesson here children, is stick to the project development plan and content designs you spent years making, as opposed to the ones you drew up in five minutes.
I heard about that... any idea of specifics?
I know in the leaked build there was a ship level with all sorts of interesting things going on that never saw the light of day in the released game...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half_life_2#Cuts_from_the_game
The book Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar [7] revealed many of the game's original settings and action that were cut down or removed entirely from the final game. Half-Life 2 was originally intended to be a far darker game where the Combine were more obviously draining the oceans for minerals and replacing the atmosphere with noxious, murky gasses. This quote from the book, from an early draft of the introductory sequence, gives a feel for what the game would have been like:
Off to one side, you see another train hurtling through the dusk. It gives you some sense of the train you are riding. The nose of the engine car is protected by a huge, deadly variant of a cow-catcher, a sharpened steel plough designed to shear through herds of whatever creatures might stray across the tracks or try to take the train head-on. Something that resembles the old Gargantua looms up from a fissure, lunging at the parallel train, and the engine slices right through the thing, leaving it in gory pieces on the track.
In addition, the evolution of Nova Prospekt is described: originally as a small Combine rail depot built on an old prison in the wasteland (the depot model remains in the game, visible from the beach and trash compactor) it grew and grew from a stopping-off point along the way to the destination itself.
Promotional shots and gameplay videos released before the game became available showed parts of these scenes, and also showed enemies that do not appear anywhere in the final game, such as a the "Hydra," a massive, gelatinous, translucent, neon-blue creature that lived in the sewers. It was planned as a massive bulk far below the city with tentacles that would reach up and spear through enemies, including Combine soldiers. The Hydra was apparently cut because its AI proved troublesome: while impressive when attacking NPCs, it was less interesting and frustrating for players to fight.
Other enemies cut from the game included Combine assassins (whose AI was salvaged to form the Fast Zombie), various Synths and Combine soldiers. There was also a planned creature called the Cremator who would clean the streets of bodies after a skirmish with a massive flamethrower, which would double as a weapon when the Cremator would become an enemy. The Cremator's head would eventually be featured in Eli's lab in Black Mesa East, encased in a jar of formaldehyde, which Eli will make comments about when the player nears the jar and views it.
The game was originally intended to be much more diverse in settings. Parts of the book detail how Gordon would fight alongside characters such as Odessa Cubbage, albeit under a different name and in a different place, as well as fighting together with Colonel Vance - a character that was later merged with Eli to become Doctor Eli Vance - and Vance's forces. Originally, Eli and Alyx Vance had no relation, and Eli's lab was originally intended to resemble a form of scrapyard and town in a cave than a better equipped laboratory within a hydroelectric power station.
The original journey for the player, as mentioned in Raising the Bar, details the following stages:
* The player meeting Samuel, a character of African descent, on the Wasteland Train. Samuel's character model would eventually be used for a nameless train passenger at the start of the storyline of the final version. In addition, the train ride was originally planned to be much longer, and allowed players to view the wastelands outside the New City (the original name for City 17).
* The player meeting Barney and Kleiner in the New City.
* Encounter with Eli and Dog in "Scrapyard" (Eli's lab), notably without mention of Alyx Vance or Doctor Judith Mossman
* Encounter with Alyx in "Wasteland." At one stage, Gordon takes another train ride which ends in a crash and he is met by Alyx in the desert. Alyx was intended to be a much tougher character and mention is made in Marc Laidlaw's scripts of her using an array of weapons, including grenades.
* Encounter with Captain Vance in the "Air Conditioner." This was a planned section of the game involving a massive scale attack on a Combine building. The Air Conditioner was a massive dome that literally drained Earth of its oxygen. Captain Vance - Alyx's father, but not linked to Eli - was one of the few surviving military leaders and was leading an assault on the building, and Gordon and Alyx join the fight after their journey there on foot.
* Encounter with Owen on the Borealis. The Borealis was a science ship that was, in some versions of the planned game, stranded in the ocean. Owen, sometimes named Odell, was the engineer of the original ship and leader of a group of rebels. His model was later re-used for that of Odessa Cubbage. After the battle fought with Captain Vance, Gordon travels on foot to the Borealis, which in turn takes him across the ocean bay.
* Encounter with Doctor Mossman in the "Kraken." The Kraken was either a stranded science ship, locked in ice or beached in the shallow depths of a nearly dried ocean, or a rebel base of sorts. Judith Mossman met the player here for a period of time before Gordon leaves, on foot, and advances through a Combine Weather Control Complex.
* Consul confrontation in the Citadel. After battling through the Weather Control Complex, the player would board "Flight C-130" and travel back across the ocean towards the New City. Here he would either land at or fight into the Citadel to confront the Consul. The Consul was the origin of Doctor Breen's character and his model went through several different incarnations.
Other cuts from the game included a drivable personal water craft and additional weapons. Weapons cut included the OICW seen in an E3 demonstration video and two different models of the Gravity Gun or Physgun, which is seen in another E3 video, also depicting a level cut from Ravenholm, dubbed "Traptown."
It remains unknown if most of the cut Half-Life 2 scenes will eventually be completed and released, or if they are lost forever. A removed section of the original Half-Life was eventually released as the Half-Life: Uplink demo; a similar situation was in place with the HDR technology demo, Lost Coast, which was based on a cut scene from the sequel. It is possible or even likely that more removed sections of HL2 will be seen in expansion packs such as Half-Life 2: Episode One.
The E3 video also shows that at some point in the game's development it was also possible to shoot any gun while using the HEV suit's zoom function and that the player could discard weapons, indicating they could only carry a specified amount of firearms at a time.
I don't think this is comprehensive. For one thing, I remember a scene described in the previews of a Strider spearing rebels on it's legs, and chasing the player - intelligently trying to smash and then ducking under a bridge. I also remember another scene where the player runs down a corridor, and hides in a room; the door is thumped against, and splinters, with an eye-stalk thing poking through. Also, there were screenshots of some very large beached and rusting shell of a cargo ship, replete with ant-lions in the foreground and those flying whale things in the air, which wasn't in the final game.
EDIT; also, AFAIK;
- there were to be cutscenes of Zen wildlife taking over the world; bullsquids running rampant in supermarkets, that big monster thing in a farm, etc, as part of Eli Vance explaining the backstory at his lab
- there was going to be child citizens, and a level centred around a child labour factory (this is the more dubious rumours, so I'm not 100% sure on it)
- the Icythosaur was likely to be an enemy at some point (apparently the version ingame has attack animations partially done)
- there was also likely to be some level set illustrating how the combine 'manufactured' headcrabs, namely showing a sort of sac surrounded in machinery that grew them
All in all, the cut stuff sounds like it'd have made a far, far better game; I found HL2 far too repetitive - whilst not bad - to be held in the best ever type regard the magazines put it in.
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That's a lot of information... thanks :)
And I'm inclined to agree. I also found HL2 to be incredibly repetitive. The variation in monsters was dull and shooting the same combine model over and over eventually proved to be less than interesting. If the game had incorporated some FEAR level AI it might have been at least interesting.
On top of that a lot of the levels were bland at best. The most notable example being the coastal driving levels which involved driving from one small shack / outpost to the next, killing the surrounding Antlions and Combine and then moving on. It might have been nice to have Striders patrolling the roads... that kind of thing. I'd particularly like to have seen the Zen wildlife taking over the planet.. that sort of thing.
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dunno, I have bought a new pc some months ago, so I'm plyaing all the games I've missed since hl1, quake2 etc
I've played medal of honour, doom3, hl2...am playing rtcw..I tryed serious sam2 right after hl2 and I disinstalled it after 5 mins..
I liked both doom3 and hl2, graphically they both shocked me but I always feeled like they both were missing something.
D3 gave lots of mmm hearth attacks and moments of pure fear but the game itself was a bit boring probably (too repetitive and obvious). Hl2 was more cinematic, like a sci-fi film but I found it not too much involving and lacking on the "pure" fps side of the game.
Just to know, what you suggest me to try now? I've heard many talking about far cry
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Far Cry is, imo, the best singe player shooter released in recent memory (about 2-3 years or so). It's simply that fun.
And anyway, Half Life 2 sucked. Simple as that. If Valve hadn't been so high and mighty about protecting it's all important secrets, then we would have a fun game. Instead, they scrapped every good part of the game that was leaked, and replaced it with dull stuff. Why didn't they just release the leaked stuff and new stuff? Because they're retarded.
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Yeah... a *ton* got cut from HL2. I still enjoyed the game a lot, but not as much as I think I would have if the things in this thread (http://www.hlcomic.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=312&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=models) had been left in. I mean, hell they even had models made for the children, and I think that the eye-stalk thing in the window is porbabaly from the old version of the elite. *sigh* I can only hope that some of the elements that got cut make their way into the expansions.
EDIT: There was also a part of the game where the player stumbles across a facility somewhat like the headcrab launcher in the Lost Coast. Where the Combine have these machines hooked up to the eggs of the Gornarchs (From hl1) and that was how they got the headcrabs for the canisters. I saw an image from the leaked beta SDK that had one of the eggs hooked up to some Combine machinery, but I can't seem to find it anywhere.
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Just to know, what you suggest me to try now? I've heard many talking about far cry
Far Cry is definitely worth playing. The story is nonexistent but the gameplay is a lot better than most of the other well known FPSs. I think the best overall singleplayer game of recent times is easily Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, although that's not really a conventional shooter. Chronicles of Riddick is also looking very good to me. I've just started playing it.
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Yeah... a *ton* got cut from HL2. I still enjoyed the game a lot, but not as much as I think I would have if the things in this thread (http://www.hlcomic.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=312&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=models) had been left in. I mean, hell they even had models made for the children, and I think that the eye-stalk thing in the window is porbabaly from the old version of the elite. *sigh* I can only hope that some of the elements that got cut make their way into the expansions.
EDIT: There was also a part of the game where the player stumbles across a facility somewhat like the headcrab launcher in the Lost Coast. Where the Combine have these machines hooked up to the eggs of the Gornarchs (From hl1) and that was how they got the headcrabs for the canisters. I saw an image from the leaked beta SDK that had one of the eggs hooked up to some Combine machinery, but I can't seem to find it anywhere.
Interesting. Kind of obvious some of those models were wips or betas, of course. Cremator looks interesting, that's about it.
NB: the Gonarch egg sac thing is pictured somewhere in the wikipedia entrys; it's not massively impressive TBH.
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Playing the last level again, I can say without a doubt that the whole end of the game blew.
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The worst thing to happen to HL2 was the code leak. It effectively led to a whole host of things being redesigned on the fly in some sort of attempt to invalidate the build that had escaped into the wild. Truth is that people would've bough HL2 in it's original form whether there was a leaked version or not.
Valve hit the panic button, and as a result we got a game far less beautiful or entertaining that we should have.
The lesson here children, is stick to the project development plan and content designs you spent years making, as opposed to the ones you drew up in five minutes.
I think I actually understand exactly why they would have had to restart effectively from scratch - and it's their own fault. I'd imagine that hardcoding Steam so heavily into HL2, meant that by losing the beta code, every Steam user could be exploited to massive security risks from people exploting HL2s code, whether through pirate versions or hacks for the eventual retail game. And it's all because Steam gives itself a ridiculous amount of permissions across the user computer, without asking.
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It was an ok game, but I can say I only bought it for the engine. The mod community will treat it well, as they are already doing some quality mods.
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The worst thing to happen to HL2 was the code leak. It effectively led to a whole host of things being redesigned on the fly in some sort of attempt to invalidate the build that had escaped into the wild. Truth is that people would've bough HL2 in it's original form whether there was a leaked version or not.
Valve hit the panic button, and as a result we got a game far less beautiful or entertaining that we should have.
The lesson here children, is stick to the project development plan and content designs you spent years making, as opposed to the ones you drew up in five minutes.
I think I actually understand exactly why they would have had to restart effectively from scratch - and it's their own fault. I'd imagine that hardcoding Steam so heavily into HL2, meant that by losing the beta code, every Steam user could be exploited to massive security risks from people exploting HL2s code, whether through pirate versions or hacks for the eventual retail game. And it's all because Steam gives itself a ridiculous amount of permissions across the user computer, without asking.
it's their own fault for not securing the beta code in the first place
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I'm inclined to take the side of the indignant customer on this one.
I got hold of and played the HL2 leaked code at a LAN party back when it was fresh out. The only result of this was that it made me want to buy and play the game more. Then, to my horror, I found out that the leaked code was very different and chopped about from the final release.
I consider it to be like releasing a demo for a game, then changing fundamental elements of the game without mentioning it to anyone. Granted the alpha code was no promise - but it's now a known fact that they made changes as a result of its being released.
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I'm inclined to take the side of the indignant customer on this one.
I got hold of and played the HL2 leaked code at a LAN party back when it was fresh out. The only result of this was that it made me want to buy and play the game more. Then, to my horror, I found out that the leaked code was very different and chopped about from the final release.
I consider it to be like releasing a demo for a game, then changing fundamental elements of the game without mentioning it to anyone. Granted the alpha code was no promise - but it's now a known fact that they made changes as a result of its being released.
indeed, i think HL2's content delivery system was it's achillies heel in this case, Steam, works great in concept, but then again, so did communism. :p
hopefully the "episodic" content that valve is planning may address this problem with the inherant lack of cohesive story
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Has any game ever lived up to it's hype?
DX 1, but that assumes the it was pimped before launch.
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On the subject of looks though, there is one mod for HL2 which is utterly necessary these days:
http://halflife2.filefront.com/file/FakeFactorys_Oggs_Cinematic_Mod;55317
FakeFactorys Cinematic Mod. It makes the game all purdy like.
*snip*
Dunno. Low res looks fairly decent. And High Res makes that tank/cyllinder in the back look very low poly.
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Deus Ex was mildly pimped before it was released. It did have it's own preview website with some comments from Warren, but that's about it. It always seems that the sleeper hits, or the ones that don't get a ton of publicity tend to be the best damn games out there.
I think John Romero started spreading the virus of "Believe the hype" by putting that exact line into his overly delayed Daikatana, and when it was released, it WOULD have lived up to the hype if it was released two years earlier on schedule. Same, unfortunately with Descent 3, as it missed it's 1998 release date and was released sometime in 99, I believe. A lot of so-called "great" games which recieve tons of hype (Quake 4, FEAR) are only mildly entertaining, and can be finished in a weekend. Half Life 2, for me takes longer than a weekend to finish, but is just not that satisfying. Lots of spectacular visuals, sprinkled with a few interesting parts, but I haven't loaded it up again to play through yet.
Real great games that were plagued with delays never got to really live up to what they could have been. Other games, such as the absolutely entertaining Anachronox had the worst thing that could happen to a game: cutbacks. Ion storm was forced to cut a lot of content out of the game in order for it to ship at all. I read rumours that you would have to learn a "language" in the game in order to solve certain puzzles and such, which was dumbed down by the Cordicom Translator. It's a shame really, as the game had so much going for it, and never really was totally finished/polished up.
Oh and speaking of never finished, yet overhyped (a long time ago that is), anyone still waiting for Duke Nukem Forever? :rolleyes:
(DNF... Did Not Finish... woah, too much olympics...)
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Deus Ex was mildly pimped before it was released. It did have it's own preview website with some comments from Warren, but that's about it. It always seems that the sleeper hits, or the ones that don't get a ton of publicity tend to be the best damn games out there.
I think John Romero started spreading the virus of "Believe the hype" by putting that exact line into his overly delayed Daikatana, and when it was released, it WOULD have lived up to the hype if it was released two years earlier on schedule. Same, unfortunately with Descent 3, as it missed it's 1998 release date and was released sometime in 99, I believe. A lot of so-called "great" games which recieve tons of hype (Quake 4, FEAR) are only mildly entertaining, and can be finished in a weekend. Half Life 2, for me takes longer than a weekend to finish, but is just not that satisfying. Lots of spectacular visuals, sprinkled with a few interesting parts, but I haven't loaded it up again to play through yet.
Real great games that were plagued with delays never got to really live up to what they could have been. Other games, such as the absolutely entertaining Anachronox had the worst thing that could happen to a game: cutbacks. Ion storm was forced to cut a lot of content out of the game in order for it to ship at all. I read rumours that you would have to learn a "language" in the game in order to solve certain puzzles and such, which was dumbed down by the Cordicom Translator. It's a shame really, as the game had so much going for it, and never really was totally finished/polished up.
Oh and speaking of never finished, yet overhyped (a long time ago that is), anyone still waiting for Duke Nukem Forever? :rolleyes:
(DNF... Did Not Finish... woah, too much olympics...)
i like to think that "PREY" is what became of DNF, really.
to be honest, time constraints are a double-edged sword, while some titles are ambitious in design, some, are too ambitious and some of what's slated is taken out due to lack of time. Kotor2 is a brilliant example of that, with an entire level taken out (the droid factory, aparrently it's there, just not accessable) prolly due to lucasart's ludicrous deadline (which was 12 months if i remember rightly).
so, what i'd say, is take any advertised hype with a grain of salt, the proof is in the playing, after all, killer advertising strategy maketh not the game.
personally, i'd think 3drealms would do well to have a big publisher breathing down their neck now and again.
and remember, folks, pariah was said to have a killer storyline, instead all we got was a purdy UT2004 mod and prerendered cutscene vids, and a storyline that could fit neatly on the back of a cd cover
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(http://screenshots.filesnetwork.com/32/files2/55317_3.jpg)
Jack?
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Eh?
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It's Tom Selleck with a Shotgun!
Always wondered what he did after Magnum ;)
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My God, he's right!
(http://images.art.com/images/-/Tom-Selleck---Magnum-PI--C10102602.jpeg)
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It's Jack Black fools!
(http://www.digitalentropy.net/Internapse/img/dbz/Mov/Yaj-JackBlack1.jpg)
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I'm still waiting to find out what all the fuss was over the original HL.
Did anyone buy HL2 over the counter BTW ? I'm wondering if I should, given I'm stuck on 56k at the moment.
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I did, and found it much more pleasent to own a "hard" copy.
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I was more worried about STEAM registration on dial up. :sigh:
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Steam registration took a long time for me on my 56k dialup. It should be noted that I installed two days after HL2 was released so server traffic was probably kinda high, but it took several hours for it to finish unlocking the files for the game. Fortunately I was lucky enough to get the offline mode to work so it didn't have to log into the Steam servers everytime I wanted to play singleplayer, but Steam itself started up whenever I used HL2, and combined with the loading time for the levels and the main menu, it took a while to get from clicking the executable to actually playing the game.
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I hate Steam. Most recent reason is when it tries (tried - removed it now) to update the game, takes an eternity downloading said update, and then crashes midway through the actual patch process, becoming unresponsive and forcing a task-manager shutdown.
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Steam and HL2's not-so-small HDD bootprint prompted me to uninstall the game last summer. HL1, in comparison, was on every one of my computers' hard drives from 1998 until late last year. Seven years versus seven months. I wasn't impressed.
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I'm still waiting to find out what all the fuss was over the original HL.
The mod community was what all the fuss was about.
Or am I just the only person who didnt care for the single player part of both HL1 & HL2?
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NB: does the original version of Blue-Shift install Steam? Because there's an errant copy of that lying about my office, and I might
nick borrow it before I leave.......
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The original copies of Blue-Shift produced waaay back in 2001 didn't come with Steam.
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True but Steam will assimilate it and attempt to 'verify' it if you install it.
Gits.
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steam's a lot like communism, good in concept, bad in practice. :p
i did find it holding onto my CD keys in my account to be a small blessing, not enough to make steam any good, mind you, it just takes away a minor annoyance.
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The only reason i'm leaving HL2 installed at the moment is 'Dystopia', definitely one of the cooler mods i've played.
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The multiplayer is pretty fun, that's the only reason it's still on my machine.
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Or am I just the only person who didnt care for the single player part of both HL1 & HL2?
While I'd agree with that re: HL2... I really did enjoy HL1s single player game. When you get right down to it, it was still the same old FPS point and shoot - but all the weapons felt right, the AI gave the appearence of working really nicely and there were lots of wonderful immersive moments that pulled you further into the game (scientists being slaughtered by the Xen creatures / troops etc. for example).
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ok so I will never finish this game, and my parents dont want me playing it. Can anyone tell me the ending?
Everyone is saying the ending was horrible.
I'm telling you, Far Cry is one of the best shooters made. I wonder if FEAR is better....
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ok so I will never finish this game, and my parents dont want me playing it. Can anyone tell me the ending?
Everyone is saying the ending was horrible.
I'm telling you, Far Cry is one of the best shooters made. I wonder if FEAR is better....
The ending goes like this. The place you are in starts to explode. The frames then slow down and stop before the explosion kills you. Then "G-man" talks about how you wont be needed until your time comes again blah blah blah. END.
BTW, FEAR is much better than Far Cry(still a great game though) IMO. This is due to the AI in FEAR. They bring the gunfights to life with how smart they are. Hands down they are the best AI (according to most people and game experts) ever seen in a FPS.
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Ill sneak the demo download onto my PC and give it a shot!!
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Good choice :yes:
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It appears that an intrepid group of modders is looking to bring the deleted content and unused plotlines of Half-Life 2 into the full version of the game. They got a sort of beta release with the complete Borelas level, and a majorty (if not all) of the E3 tech demos in it. Here is the site (http://www.love-tub.com/nuke/index.php), but you might want to make it quick to get the file as I don't think that its going to be up very long after valve catches wind of it.
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HL2 made me cry in real life. Just.... ugh.
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and my parents dont want me playing it.
I can't help but ask - why?
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and my parents dont want me playing it.
I can't help but ask - why?
It has guns in it or something, and all guns are evil. Except real guns, which are a good thing and every american should have one.
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Theres a lot of legislation on the boards regarding the classification of Video games and violence related to them. Utah, for example has one on the books that doesn't just violate the First Amendment, it urinates on it. It, by it's wording, ban's any kind of violent media, including books (which leaves the Bible a bit buggered).
http://www.le.state.ut.us/~2006/bills/hbillint/hb0257.htm
It's already been passed by the State Reps :/