Official Half-Life 2 Discussion Thread

Yeah definatly. It's a little hard to get into at first, but it gets going.

Is the Half Life 2 Expansion going to come for X Box as well, or just the X Box 360?

 

Yeah, I think HL2 is easily one of the best games ever made. Plus the mods of this as with HL1 are amazing.

 

To my knowledge, neither. At least, there's been no announcement by Valve about this. Maybe eventually, but certainly not in the near future.

 

Oh yeah. It's worth far more than the $40-50 price tag. It's probably the best game out. Resident Evil 4 is the only one that can compete and I don't think it is quite as good. Almost, but not quite.

The game has such perfect pacing. You never get bored and just as you are beginning to get bored of one thing they give you something new (the only time I thought something went on too long was the hovercraft level and my best friend said he didn't think it was long enough.) The puzzles are challenging without making you go "**** this bull****! I'm going to gamefaqs." The combat is challenging, but you will never throw you controller (or mouse) in frustration.

I'm having a hard time playing through Halo 2 right now because of how superior Half-Life 2 is. I've quit playing through Halo 2 (for the first time) several times and popped in Half-Life 2 so I can go through Ravenholm (played through a couple times now and played the beginning at least 10 times just to play with the gravity gun) again or even start a new game.

Say what? I admit it takes awhile to get a weapon, but you spend most of that time gaping at how awesome it looks, playing with the physics engine and being scared out of your wits as you are unarmed and running away from Combine.

 

Yup, everything R_W said.

Asking if this game is worth purchasing is like saying, "Air, is it worth breathing?"

 

Absolutely. No matter what the price is, go henceforth and purchace a copy. You'll be glad you did. Half-Life 2 is everything you could ask in a game and is still one of the best games available for purchase.

 

I just love all the physics puzzles. I think the pacing of this is good. I think it's a perfect balance between action and puzzles. Although I did get a little fustrated at the parts with the striders (which I thought was pretty hard), but overall that mission and like the entire game is very fun. If it wasn't for school, I've probably would've played it straight through the night and probably wouldn't have noticed.

 

Found this little blurb on GameSpot pretty much confirming the "episodic" nature of future HL 2 expansions. Suposedly, Aftermath's title has been renamed "Half-Life 2: Episode 1". Hopefully these episodes will have enough content to make them worth the purchase.

Also, Valve is giveing everyone a free weekend to play Day of Defeat: Source, so if any of you are thinking about trying it out, you have the rest of the weekend to play it for free.

 

I have Half-Life 2 now, and is there any way to play it without having to rely on an internet connection? I've had it installed for about a week now and can't get past the STEAM account crap which is pointless as right now I have no net for my PC.

 

Yes there is. IIRC, all you have to do is just make sure that it's 100% completed and that you do not automatically logoff when you exit Steam (this is how I got it to work on offline mode). However, sometimes it doesn't always work out...

Also, since you have Half-Life 2, you should check out Garry's Mod.

Check out the stuff you can do in it:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6148878850469533200&q

 

Try here. There's a link there that'll take you to a page about how to make offline play work. I've never tried it so I can't exactly vouch for whether or not it works.

Oh, and do try out Garry's Mod. It's a blast to play.

 

So HL2: Episode One is coming out June 1 (preload May 1 for those who are so inclined). Anyone still interested in where they take the story from here?

 

Absolutely. I'm pumped for Ep 1, can't wait. The trailer looks bitchin'.

 

SHWING!

 

Anyone still interested in where they take the story from here?

*raises hand and waves it wildly*

This game is looking so freakin' cool it's not even funny.

 

IGN posted a couple days ago an interview concerning Episode I, found here. It does have some potential plot spoilers, just to let you know. Here's a little blurb from it concerning Gordon Freeman:

IGNPC: In the last little audio clip in the recently released trailer the G-Man seems a little upset. What's going on with him? Is he losing his grip on Gordon?

Erik Johnson: The G-Man used the events of Black Mesa to transform Gordon into a powerful tool, and he used that tool to overthrow Dr Breen. In Episode One, the G-Man loses control of Gordon due to the rise of a third power. Clearly, he's not very happy about this.

 

*grumbles about having the Xbox version*

 

Half Life 2 is arguably the best PC game ever made. The developers made every weapon, level, creature and vehicle interesting. Just when you think it can't get better, it does. Love the coast levels in the buggy. Exploring all the ruined houses on the cliff tops is awesome.

 

The accolades this game gets are all well-deserved. I recently reinstalled it (which -- trust me kids -- it's a pain if you only depend of the Backup files the Steam system creates for you instead of having a CD-Rom) just to go through it again without, ahem, any cheats on. So what does this Garry's Mod do to enhance the experience?

 

Garrys Mod is just a fun tool that lets you play with the physics and such. You can weld stuff together, make all sorts of wacky fun stuff. It's really simple, and probably why it's so popular. I can't even count the times that i've welded explosives and cords to the hoverboat and had a friend sit inside, and then BOOM, they launch off into the air flinging all over the place since they're all tied up in the cords. Not to mention that it has a system built in where you can create your own mini-games. Garrys Mod rocks hardcore. I'll probably skip the pay version though, the free one is awesome enough.

Speaking of mods, has anyone here played the newest version of The Hidden? It's kind of like playing the best Predator game you could think of and it's only multiplayer. The story is just, you play as a psycho who's invisible, has infra-red vision, is super fast, and is armed only with a knife and a handful of grenades. The other team plays as a group of marines. One with a shotgun, one with a machine gun, I believe one has a paintball gun, and other ones too. Pretty much The marine that kills the Hidden becomes the Hidden the next round. The paintball gun is pretty ingenius, and the radar for the marines is straight out of Aliens. So you get that "beep beep beep BEEP BEEP BEEPBEEPBEEP" sound going when the Hidden is getting close.

I can't really even describe how awesome it is, just... GO DOWNLOAD IT!

 

Anybody else got Episode 1, formerly known as Aftermath?


Pretty fun, worth it's 20 dollars/euros, even though it's over after 4-5 hours. But it's more Half-Life with quite a few great ideas (entering the citadel is awesome).

Only, the ending is even worse than HL2's But you get a nice teaser for Episode 2!

 

I played it for only about 15 mins last night. Pretty good so far. I really enjoyed the "car ride" over to the citadel.

 

I like playing through it a second time with the commentary track - great idea, pretty insightful (especially design problems they faced) - but you should do it only in a second playing, because they tell you how to solve the puzzles and spoil some exposition

 

I want it. If I had the spare $35, I'd have had it before just about all of you thanks to the wonders of time zones. Glad to hear it's good fun, though I wouldn't expect it to be very long for the money.

 

I'll probably grab this and Sin Episodes Emergence at the next possible opportunity. Seems abit silly to miss out on the ever so lovely exposition/action factor of Episode 1 and the HOLY CRAP GUNS/BOOBS/EXPLOSIONS/THONGS/MUTANTS MONSTERS/MUTANT BOOBS! factor of Emergence.