[Roanoke]

^graphics whore^

[Rictor]

^innovation whore^

[karajorma]

What comes in the Half Life 2 boxes?

Pure evil that threatens to consume the gaming world.

[mitac]

Originally posted by Sandwich
Far Cry was good...

Indeed. Though I didn't like this mutant-stuff. Annoying beasts. Mercs were a lot more fun. As for HL2 : I'm just playing the demo. Looks good, but it's hard to tell from a two level demo.

Apart from that : anyone placed that Chronicles of Riddick game?

[diamondgeezer]

My will to live was largely drained by the sham that was DX2. The disappointment was so great that I was forced to replay the original five or six times.

But I do wonder what Zylon thinks of HL2; he seemed to be a rather dedicated HL fanboi. He theorised that I didn't appreciate the plot because I wasn't intelligent enough (my opinion is that the DX plot spoilt me) so I'd like to know how he rates the HL2 story which you lot seem so dismissive of...

__________________
Diamond Geezer always prefers a stealthy approach

[Rictor]

I for one really like the ending of HL2, though they could have done a better job on asnwering even some of the basic questions regarding the Combine and Breen and so forth.

From what I can make out, the Combine are human, and are just regular people (remember at the beggining when the people are standing in the food line "Almost makes you want to join Civil Protection just to get a decent meal")

...and whats up with the Vortigons?

[Unknown Target]

Gah! Dude, watch the spoilers! *afraid to read your post* I'm still playing through the game!

And I really loved Doom 3. Sure, it was repetitive, but it was indeed scary and fun, and the graphics certainly top HL2's by a mile in my opinion.

Also, Thief III, from the demo, seemed pretty cool!

[Cyker]

HL2 is freakin' weird.

I get the impression you're SUPPOSED to feel disoriented and confused, since Gordon is just dropped in the middle of it all out of the blue by that freaky g-man guy.

The ending is more or less right too - There will be a HL3 don't forget, so cliff-hangers are good

My biggest gripe was the game was so ****ing boring. I mean, it looked fantastic, and the kinda stuff you could do with a small crowd and several grenades...! Phew, haven't had that much fun since Max Payne 2 and that part where you have to defend Baseball Bad Boy from a bunch of guy who are climbing over a wall (Into my grenades :evil grin:)

However, the whole game was basically me running away from... well... everything and shooting lots of stuff. HL1, as a game, was MUCH better - It had a VASTLY bigger variety to the kind of things you had to do.

I'd say HL2 compares to HL1 the way Deus Ex 2 compares to Deus Ex 1, or the new Starwars Trilogy compares to the Original Trilogy.

It ain't *really* bad, but it it ain't that great except for the eyecandy...

And it CERTAINLY wasn't worth the amount of ****e I had to go through to get it running.

In fact I ended up borrowing my mate's pirate version since I never managed to get my LEGIT one running after 3 days ot trying... like Tiara I took it back for a refund after I completed it. Whenever I wanna look at the game again I just watch the HL2 speed-run AVI on the PlanetQuake SDA, it's a lot more entertaining than playing the game, and that is a really bad sign...

I also found out that you need a STEAM account just to play the DEMO... if more games mfgs. start doing this I think I'm just gonna boycott them all... it's not that hard atm since I have bought maybe 3 games in the last year (It's depressing how nobody seems to be able to make a game that grabs me anymore... and to think Bubble Bobble once had me addicted enough that I played it's entirety without stopping, whereas no game this year has come even close to that...)

[KS_Al]

The game is pretty good it self.  Many ways in killing enemies, the gravity gun was the best weapon I've seen.  hey what's more fun slicing a zombie in half with a thrown razor by the gravity gun.  

eh...I played Doom3 too...it sucks kinda is ask any other player who play FPS I ask every 10 people say best shooter of the year either Halo 2 or Half-life 2..Doom 3 was boring repetitive and unreplayable. Graphics are on par and basically just a run and gun a kind of genre we PC gamers are getting tired of and is very old since the 1st days of PC gaming started...we enjoyed it when it 1st came out but then stashed it away. Even ask the pros who reviews the games they say it's boring after shooting another and another old style which Half-life 2 there are many other ways to kill....Valve made a great game and deserves best PC gamer of the year as it should while doom 3 is eh...an ok game. after playing 3 hours of Doom 3 eh boring.........run and gun seen that done that uh boring. Half-life 2 oooo grav gun slicing zombies in half with a razor or shotgun or throwing barrels countless ways of killing while doom 3 shoot shoot shoot shoot. Doom 3 barely any story and while HL2 a least a story while D3 sucks. D3 had no major characters really while HL2 had characters we loved and had a connection to in the game. in HL2 we had to find out the stories by searching around corners or look on the walls or newspapers the new way of finding out the story and filling in the blanks. If you couldn't fill in the blanks then ya not looking hard enough.  Of course still leaves us of questions to answer.  It's up to us to speculate.  we're too used to cinematics these days.  D3 just sucks to tell you the truth. Even ask your friends and look on Gamespy and Gamespot  and IGN for what they said for PC GOTY and shooters.
Steam is ok and does have its problems to no avail.  Most of the time though it can be the users problems not Steams.  Remember you bought the license to play not own the game.  I've argue this many times on the Steam forums but they gave me crap.... of it ....

[Ransom]

Eh... I liked HL2 more than D3, probably because to me D3 was such a disappointment. They said they were making a decent story, even had some professional author to do it. But it still sucked and was nearly as non-existant as Far Cry's. And the game wasn't even scary (the biggest disappointment), nor was the action fun. HL2 wasn't much of an improvement story-wise, but I at least enjoyed the gameplay, and overall I enjoyed it a hell of a lot more than I did HL1 (in which the story, while told quite well, I thought was just not interesting, and I didn't find the game much fun either). And I happen to like Thief 3 more than I'm liking Thief 1 so far (After finishing 3 I got the first two to see what I'd missed. The gameplay is better in 1, but I'm not liking the story at all). Overall, this year HL2 and Thief 3 were the only ones that didn't disappoint me, but that's probably only because I had extremely low expectations of HL2 because of my dislike of HL1.

On the other hand, this year gave the fourth Myst and Silent Hill games. Both better than this mainstream stuff if you ask me.

[Carl]

I just got it today, and i'm only at the part where Gordon is introduced to dog, so this thread really needs a spoiler warning.

and so far, I like HL2. it's pretty fun and neato

[Rictor]

the part I mentioned happens about 10 minutes into the game, and isn't really important (its quite possible to miss it if you just rush through) so I didn't think a spoiler warning was necessary.

[KS_Al]

Originally posted by Rictor
I for one really like the ending of HL2, though they could have done a better job on asnwering even some of the basic questions regarding the Combine and Breen and so forth.

From what I can make out, the Combine are human, and are just regular people (remember at the beggining when the people are standing in the food line "Almost makes you want to join Civil Protection just to get a decent meal")

...and whats up with the Vortigons?

Combine are aliens and the Combine police and soldiers are modified humans kinda freaky....disected and put on those masks as servants there's a picture in the game that shows that I have to find that....

Vortiguants were former slaves aliens of Xen in the 1st game if you played remember killing that big baby boss?  After killing that boss they were free and end up joining the humans against the combine...

[Rictor]

Yeah, I got stuck and couldn't kill the big baby head thing, but that was AFAIK right before the end so I didn't miss much. And I know what the ending is anyway, from talking to other people.

[Stealth]

I thought HL2 was great, personally :-/

[Stealth]

and for the record, the HL2 box comes with:

(5) CDs
(1) card.

pretty damn bland for a $54.99 game at Best Buy.  i'd have expected a lot more.  but the game itself i thought was good.

[WMCoolmon]

Personally, I thought HL2 was a very nice game. It really has a playing-a-movie feel and there are some excellent moments as well.

The engine is nothing short of superb. I can't think of any other game that has such a superb physics engine and really uses it.

And like I say, just try playing Ravenholm alone on a dark night. If that isn't freaky, I don't know what is.

[Ransom]

Originally posted by WMCoolmon
And like I say, just try playing Ravenholm alone on a dark night. If that isn't freaky, I don't know what is.

It's not freaky. It's annoying, cause in some areas they just keep respawning. Try playing any of the Silent Hill games under those conditions and suddenly you'll be desensitised to that mild stuff. (Same goes for Doom 3)

[WMCoolmon]

Silent Hill...that'd be the game I remember by the fact you have to fish around in toilets with your bare hands for clues?

[Ransom]

Originally posted by WMCoolmon
Silent Hill...that'd be the game I remember by the fact you have to fish around in toilets with your bare hands for clues?

Heh. That was one part right at the beginning of Silent Hill 2. An optional part at that. And there's been a joke reference to it in all the games after. Don't tell me that's only as far as you played?

Half Life... that'd be the game I remember by the fact you have to talk to scientists?