Official Half-Life 2 Discussion Thread

Yoshi converted to PC gaming?

 

Yoshi playing a PC game like a true Greek? I don't buy it.

 

Ooookay. Breathe. Be calm.

I'm just taking the oportunity to vent a little of the frustration I'm feeling right now. First let me say that I have no doubts that when (if?) I manage to get Half-Life 2 not only installed, but actually RUNNING, it will kick ass to a degree that is not funny.

However. Allow me to explain my situation. I have 2 computers in this house. One of them is mine, and one is the family's, and is used by my brothers. Obviously, I had planned to install Half-Life 2 on both machines. When I heard about this Steam account and online activation thing, I was slightly concerned, but I looked into it and my concerns were allayed: all that was needed was a Steam account, and the game could be played on any computer. It was all good.

So I get home at 11 this morning having forked over my $130 (Australian) for the colector's edition of HL2 at EB. I'm pretty damn excited. I fire up the family machine, figuring I'll get it installed there, set up the Steam account, then put it on my machine once it's all working. Right? Wrong.

Install the game: couldn't have gone better. DVD-ROM version means no disc changing. Huzzah. Everything went on fine, yippee. Next, set up Steam account.

Before I can do anything, I have to download the latest updates to Steam itself. Now, I have dial-up internet, so this takes a good 15-20 minutes. I'm not pleased, but I figure it can't get any worse. And it appears not to. It downloads, I register my account, password, etc. I hit submit.

I wait.

And wait. And wait.

"Your account could not be registered because the server is too busy at this time." Uh oh. But no, wait: "We will get back to you as soon as your account in varified. In the meantime, you can play Half-Life 2."

Well woo-hoo. I was pleased. I think to myself: "Eh, it's alright, Valve's server must be in meltdown from the other 6 billion people trying to do this at the same time. Sure, dial-up internet makes the process a bit painful, but it's all good. Right?

Wrong.

Wait, wait and wait some more. Now it needs to "unlock game files." That take, oh, say, 40-50 minutes? By this time, I am having a sense of humour failre of epic proportions. But when it was FINALLY done, I was presented with the icing on the cake.

The game doesn't run. I get the Valve logo animation, a loading screen, and then it crashes to the desktop before I even get the main menu. I don't even get an error message.

I am so frustrated I feel like I want to go out and kill someone. I got home with this game at 11:00. It is now going on 1:30 and I have yet to see anything of the magnificent Half-Life 2 except a whole lot of Steam progress bars. I feel like I'm being punished for something. Having dial-up internet? Well yeah, OF COURSE! I'm living in the stone age, I don't DESERVE to play HL2. Or was it for even THINKING that I might install it on 2 computers that I paid for with my own money, just like the game itself? Yeah, I can see how impure that makes me.

Argh.

As I say, I'm sure this game will rule. But I can't play it. It doesn't <many expletives> work. And if it ends up being a dud, I can't take it back to EB because they won't give refunds because of this damn Steam registration thing. I really hope that I'm not the only one having these problems. Has anyone else here wanted to grab their own crowbars and make a pilgramige to Valve for trying to be too damn clever for their own good?

 

The most obvious question is, does your computer fit the minimum requirements.

 

Yes, undoubtably. It crashes before I even get to the main menu, let alone the actual GAME. And that's not the biggest problem. I have to spend an hour connected to Steam unlocking my files and downloading updates for a game that's been in stores for what, 36 hours, and which I have shelled out a LOT of money for, and only THEN do I discover that it won't even boot up. Installing a computer game in this day and age should not be like this.

 

Everything updated? DirectX, graphics cards, motherboard drivers?

 

I had a similar probelm when I first tired HL2, except mine didn't crash to the desktop, it would just hang on a black screen for a long time. My computer is just below the system requirements (Duron 1000). But in the end, it turned out just to be really slow, and by pressing crtl-alt-del, I was inducing a crash. It actually plays fairly well, although it does get a bit choppy outdoors.

 

I read a review in my PC-Games magazine and when I came to the performance box, I couldn't believe what I saw. I thought it would totally kill my system, but it actually said it would run at 1024 just fine, just with some detail stuff dialed down. I have yet to see it right in front of me on my machine, but what it said about the engine and how downward compatible it seems to be, I'm rather confident.

In 2 weeks I get payment and then I'll have a look around for a new graphics card anyway. Well, maybe after Christmas...

 

Okay: update.

HL2 still doesn't work on the machine I spoke of in my previous post, but I'm not going to try and fix it until tomorrow. The reason: because it DOES work on this machine, which is actually a better one than the family computer. And oh my freakin' god. I wouldn't have thought ANY game would be worth the hassle I went through with this install, but jeez... Half-Life 2 RULES. And it runs way better than I expected it to on my Radeon 9600, which is a mid-to-low-range card. 1024x768, medium detail, runs absolutely fantastically, still looks gorgeous. And the game itself is SO GOOD. Well worth a 5 year wait and a 3 hour install, and that's saying something. Get this game, guys. Play it. You won't regret it.

 

Glad to hear you got it running. I think this may be the best game i've ever played. So far it exceeds my expectations. I'm a bit dissapointed there isn't any true MP yet, but I was never too big on the original's MP. I just hope they complete DOD:Source soon.

 

Apparently the warez scene has yet to release a reliably working copy of Half-Life 2, thanks to the Steam activation requirement. This is a major accomplishment in an industry where most games are distributed by software pirates sometimes weeks before their official release. Rumor has it, most warez groups are throwing in the towel and saying, "Look, if you want to play Half-Life 2, just go out and buy it."

 

Definitely one of the best games I've ever played. As I first booted it up, all I did was walk around and look at the characters, the facial expressions and lipsynch. Absolutely stunning creations.

The best thing about the whole thing is that it runs almost flawlessly at high detail, something Doom 3 didn't even do at medium. And it still looks gorgeous.

One of the few things I have to say against it though, is that I feel slightly lost in the story. I'm not sure what I'm doing or why I'm doing it. Maybe I should have brushed up that backstory, as I never finished Half-Life ( got to the Xen world and hated it, stopped there ).

 

I haven't bought it yet, but I plan to get it within a week or two. The main thing I'm worried about, though, is that my video card might not be up to the task of handling it well. I have an FX 5600 256 meg card, but because it was made by NVIDIA, I don't know how well it'll hold up running a game optimized for an ATI card.

 

I'm running a GeForce 4 Ti4400, silky smooth. You shouldn't have any problems.

 

Okay, so far, I've gotten onto "We don't go to Ravenholm." And I am utterly flabberghasted.

This game has taken me back to my roots, I feel like a little kid again, I'm emoting, screaming and cheering randomly as an impressive set-piece becomes even more impressive.
All the little touches, the tounge-in-cheek humour and the all too ingeneous and ever cinematic set-pieces make the game a fantastic little rollercoaster. It's a shame that it's all too linear

Ooh, and Dog is sooo cute for a 10ft tall killer robot ^_^;;

Regardless, I'll be able to sing more priases once I've completed it.

 

I want to buy it but I'm not convinced that my computer will be able to run it well.

I run a:
1.2 ghz Athlon
512 Megs of Ram
GeForce 4 TI4200 64 Meg card

I want to be able to run it without too much chop. I'm willing to have low graphics (unless someone tells me that low details sucks too much to make the game fun) but I don't want a game that has tons of chop. Doom 3 on my machine played ok enough on low details unless I had a lot of enemies attacking me at once.

Can anyone give me some solid advice on this?

Any word on a demo?

 

Vezner, you will definitely be able to run the game on lower settings with a decent to good framerate. I've played CS Source on my rig, which is a little bit better than yours (1.7 GHz Centrino cpu, 768 MB RAM, GF 5650FX Go) on the medium widescreen resolution (I forget the exact dimensions) with medium graphics to an acceptable framerate. If you can run Doom 3, you'll definitely be able to run HL2.

I'm jealous of all you guys that are getting to play it no though.

Glad to hear you enjoy it, Simpson. And Dum, we'll definitely have to play some DoD rounds when it comes out.

 

I'm downloading it, having decided that Steam is quicker than Amazon- 244 minutes vs. 2 to 3 days...

#Sits patiently...#

 

I got lucky my pc sits about in the middle of min and recomended reqs. Even in medium settings this game looks BADASS and I am only working my way around on the first vehicle level, the water skiff like thing. Just had a gun mounted to it. I still hate the fact I need to be on line to play SP its kind of unfair if a person does not have internet or if they even loose the net for a day or month like I was once then you are you know what up the tail pipe.

 

Halo 2's better...





No really, I find it more entertaining.

*takes cover*

Seriously, though, I'm impressed about how this game runs smoothly on so many old and new graphic cards. My rig has a 2ghz P4 CPU, 512 RAM...and an antique GeForce2 440Mx card. Yet the game runs on it without a hitch. I was actually considering spending some serious money on a graphics card to play HL2 but I'm thankful that wasn't necessary. Anyhoo, I'll play this again sometime in the weekend.

*Goes back to Halo2 bliss*

 

I was a bit annoyed that Doom 3 ran so badly on my machine. I ended up getting a so so performance on medium. The action was fine unless outside or with several enemies.

Is HL2 supposed to run better? Looks a lot more detailed and seems to have a lot of big outside environments. Looking forward to this one.

 

One of the few things I have to say against it though, is that I feel slightly lost in the story. I'm not sure what I'm doing or why I'm doing it. Maybe I should have brushed up that backstory, as I never finished Half-Life ( got to the Xen world and hated it, stopped there ).

Valve has stated before that you're supposed to feel confused at the beginning. I didn't like the Xen world also, so I just used cheat codes to get to the end of HL.

 

I play it on a FX5200 and it runs. That's why I was surprised by the performance thing I read about.

The game set the graphic details automatically. But I thought the textrues looked to crappy, so I set them a bit higher. It stutters when it has to load a lot, but that's a price I'm willing to pay for such a gorgeous game. I didn't play Doom3 because I feared it would kill my system and I couldn't really play FarCry (not that I liked it anyway)
I love the Source Engine


The game itself is fun. Played from 6 to 3 last night. Just left the buggy, shot down the dropship from the lighthouse and look out at the cliffs.
The physic puzzles are kinda cool. It's something "new" for a change. Beats switch&key puzzles
The gravity gun is a lot of fun. Dangerous, but hey
And my favorite weapon is still the shotgun. I was so happy when that old guy in Ravenholm threw it to me.

I'm getting a tiny little bit sick of the coast now, though. But I'm sure it'll change soon.

 

Made it to Ravenholm two days ago, haven't had time to play more really.

Nice thing to hear about the story, it's not just me, hehe.

 

I still hate the fact I need to be on line to play SP its kind of unfair if a person does not have internet or if they even loose the net for a day or month like I was once then you are you know what up the tail pipe.

You and me both. But you should be able to play the game in offline mode if you've got everything fully updated and Valve has processed your ownership of that CD key. And if not, you can fake it out by dialing up, starting the game, then alt-escaping and disconecting, then firing the game back up again. That's the best way to go if you have dial-up, like myself, and can't get offline mode to work. I have offline working properly now, and it works just fine.

I'm just getting to the end of Sand Trap, about to go busting into Nova Prospekt, which should be interesting. I think I can honestly say that this is the best game I've ever played. It's just so IMMERSIVE. The world design, the atmosphere, the enemy AI, the physics, and the hands down best character animation in a game ever. It just makes the gameworld come to life in a way unlike anything else I've played.

Now I just need to get it working on the other computer so my brothers can use that one to play, rather than my machine... Going to fully reinstall it tomorrow, see what that achieves.