Vote for Half-Life 2 as game of the year

Shaviro said:

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II

amen

Shaviro said:

"Game of the year" and "Best new technology" don't even have Doom3 as an option. How dumb. Halo2 (and to some extend HL2) is in almost every category, of course.

Exactly my earlier point. It's all about what's popular -- not what's "right" in this case. OF COURSE DOOM 3's tech blows away HL2's and especially Halo 2's. But no -- it's not in there for some weird, weird reason.

rofl, did any of you guys actually watch the vga's last year? it was a massive, massive joke. everything was so painfully obviously pre-planned and the winner was always the company with the most money. when a tony hawk game won a bunch of skaters came out and put on a show to some music and when a wrestling game won some fags from the WWE came out and wrestled and so on and so on.

biggest joke of an award show ever and that's saying a lot

Mogul said:

OF COURSE DOOM 3's tech blows away HL2's and especially Halo 2's.

Halo 2's, I agree, and that's why its not listed in the best new tech category. However, I strongly disagree with D3's tech blastin away HL2's. Notta chance. Graphically maybe, but in all other respects no. Not only is the gameplay better, but the engine allows for people with not-so-amazing machines to still play the game, simply having to miss out on a lot of cool effects.

Besides, HL2 has the best environments I've seen in a game- just so well-detailed and realistically portrayed. Of course, in D3 there are tech bases etc., which you don't see as often as cities, so that might be a factor. Also so many parts in doom3 really look similar to each other, and in HL2 you can really imagine you're there. So many small details too. But also I haven't seen or played doom3 in action(I mean on a screen in front of me, I have seen the trailers and stuff).

Well, I'd rather have halo 2 (it's good!) than HL2 (I liked some of the mods, but the game sucked ass)

But then again, Doom3 would win aganst Halo 2 (IMHO)

God I hate half life 2, can't believe I wasted all my money on it. But it was worth it because counter-strike source is sweetness.

Nick Perrin said:

Graphically maybe, but in all other respects no. Not only is the gameplay better, but the engine allows for people with not-so-amazing machines to still play the game, simply having to miss out on a lot of cool effects.

Erm, Gameplay has little or nothing to do with a game engine. That's a completely seperate category, really. Same goes for the level of detail put into a level or tiny little features like water dripping from a broken faucet. What's more important are the features and stability/scalability of an engine. The Doom 3 might be a resource hog on slower or older PCs, but graphically it's stunning, not to mention that it's very stable and optimized. It also has built in physics code if I remember correctly, which the Source Engine doesn't have. Just my opinion, really.

Nick Perrin said:

Graphically maybe, but in all other respects no. Not only is the gameplay better, but the engine allows for people with not-so-amazing machines to still play the game, simply having to miss out on a lot of cool effects.

Psst... that's the artists and level designers faults, NOT the engine.

Chronoteeth said:

Well, I'd rather have halo 2 (it's good!) than HL2 (I liked some of the mods, but the game sucked ass)(IMHO)

Um, are you even talking about the right game? HL2 just came out and upon my searching the only new mod available for it is CS:S.(so far)

Snarboo: I mean as in the interactivity and stuff, ie gravity gun and all that. Altogether, although i haven't played doom3, HL2 is probably a better package in the end. It's so damn cinematic and fun!!

Nick Perrin said:

Snarboo: I mean as in the interactivity and stuff, ie gravity gun and all that. Altogether, although i haven't played doom3, HL2 is probably a better package in the end. It's so damn cinematic and fun!!

But that still has nothing to do with the engine. Don't compare how one game plays and the design content within and then say it's because of the engine. That's like saying the Doom 3 engine spontaneously generated the Mars Base and the demons inside of it...although that would be cool if that were the case, heh. So basically, you meant to say that you like how Half-Life 2 plays and looks over Doom 3.

Addendum:
I guess I should clarify what I mean by "gameplay has nothing to do with the engine." How a game looks, plays and feels is all part of the design phase of the game. A little bit of the design is dependant on the engine, but you can still make the game play anyway you would like it to within the limits of the engine. You could probably port Doom 3 over to the Source engine and the game would still play the same, although it would definitely look different. Another example of what I mean is Kronos' Doom 3 Weapons Mod for EDGE. It basically allows you to use the same weapons and experience some of Doom 3's gameplay in the original Doom engine.

Yeah, sorry, that's true. I don't actually necessarily prefer HL2's graphics to doom3's though actually, as I haven't even played doom3 yet and I hear there's a big difference between seeing the videos and actually playing it on your screen, which is of course quite impressive. Gameplay though, I don't know if any game could rival HL2 for me.

I mean, I don't even own the game myself and still love it(but I am a huge fan of games like that, ie the original half-life is one of my favourites, along with a bunch of good mods for it. Of course the enhanced graphics patch that uses the graphics from the PS2 version does help it today, too).

Edit: As for those weapons that kronos made, yes I've tried them, In fact there partially most of the weapons in my mod! I've edited their functions though as my mod is not based on doom3(for example, secondary fire now loads phosphor shells that ignite your enemies, provided you found some phosphor!). I did get Kronos' permission, of course.freewebs.com/mouac

@Epyo: Why do you hate it?

The thing I liked the most about the original Half-Life wasn't how it was cinematic, but how it actually felt like you were just trying to survive a horrible day. The mission packs also expanded on this by showing how other people in the Facility coped with the accident. It lended a sense of drama and realism to the game that made it enjoyable. Half-Life made it feel like something of that magnitude could actually happen. Although overall the game played rather average and didn't really innovate too much.

But the people talking about H-L2 are probably right. It's amazing how fast, balanced, not to mention fun gameplay and good ambience give a game lasting appeal. I've actually dug out Quake recently because it has some of the same qualities that I just mentioned, except it's more arcadey rather than realistic. :)

I agree with you on the stuff about HL1 and its mission packs. I didn't really find HL1 that cinematic anyway, I like the way the mission packs showed it from so many sides of the story, really (like you said) made it seem like it really could happen.

As for HL2, well, fat chance of that story happening anytime soon, but the game is just so awesome.

I just started playing Half Life 2 and I haven't gotten one level into it yet, but I found it odd that they made Barney reference the "Catch me later, I'll buy you a beer" line from the first game when, if you've played Blue Shift, you'd know that Barney never met Gordon face to face, much less spoke to him.

I'm already confused about the story. :(

You didn't play as Barney in Blue Shift.

Speaking from a mod developer's viewpoint, I'd take Doom3's GUI system over HL2's physics ANY day :]

Numbermind said:

You didn't play as Barney in Blue Shift.

Didn't you play as Barney Calhoun in Blue Shift? That's the same name of the Barney in Half-Life 2 if I recall correctly...unless Black Mesa had some sort of wierd policy about hiring security guards who only had the name Barney Calhoun. :p

The security guards were unofficially named "Barney" in the original HL. In Blue Shift, the manual names you as "Officer Calhoun". At any rate-- if it wasn't THE Barney, maybe it was one of the 200 clones of himself walking around the facility.

WoW is game of the year!

I don't have Blue Shift installed right now to get a picture, but I'm positive that during the opening scene of Blue Shift when you're on the tram and the credits are being shown, it tells you your name is Barney Calhoun ("Subject: Calhoun, Barney" or something). The guards may have all been nicknamed Barney (it was the model name), but the Barney you play in Blue Shift is in fact the Barney. And according to Blue Shift, the only time Gordon actually sees Barney is pounding on the security door right at the beginning of his own tram ride through Black Mesa.

Knowing the character's name in Blue Shift is a moot point-- the point I'm making is that you didn't play as the Barney who said, "Catch me later, I'll buy you a beer". But one security guard who-- for the reason of being first-- is the original and official Barney (along with every other security guard in the complex) said those words.

Anyway, why is this a point of discussion? The character Barney obviously wasn't important enough to have a unique personality or appearance. If the Barney you're talking about in HL2 is definitely the one from Blue Shift AND references the beer thing, you might as well assume he's mistaken you for someone else or suffered some sort of head trauma as a child-- seeing as how buying people beers makes up 1/4th of his entire vocabulary. Or maybe Gordon was known around the facility for being a real party guy and EVERYONE wanted to buy him a beer. Or some other reason out of hundreds that I can pull out of my ass which can't be refuted.

Who's to say Barney and Gordon didn't meet before the original Half-life even took place?

Nick Perrin said:

@Epyo: Why do you hate it?

I found the beginning of the game boring and frustrating. Here I was wanting to shoot people and I wait to walk around and figure out what the hell I was supposed to do. At last I get a gun and I find that the gameplay is sort of boring. When I get to shoot people that actually have guns it's ok, but sometimes I'm just shooting mindless aliens walking blindly towards me. At least in D3 they try to scare me with mindless zombies. It needs more fast action heart pumping firefights bam bam bam bam bam ahhhhh run!

The vehicles are indeed a blast to play on. They did an awesome job on the vehicles I've rode on so far. Sometimes they make you get off and do stuff for a bit and that kinda makes me sad to get off my purdy vehicle.

Puzzles are all over this game. I think puzzles are cool for powerups or health or armor or something like that, but to make me HAVE to do the puzzles to continue with the level is sort of poopoo platter. Please let me shoot something in the face.

The gravity gun is neat and fun to kill people with. Neat addition. The moving around objects is ok but it's more of an excuse to add more puzzles.

Oh and I don't see the big woop about the graphics, they look only a little better than halo's to me.

My brother likes the game. He says it just might be a lil better than halo, one of his favorite games.

Epyo said:

It needs more fast action heart pumping firefights bam bam bam bam bam ahhhhh run!

You just wait.

hee hee.

"STRIDER!"

Epyo said:

me want shoot bang bang me no like thinking

Linguica said:

Quote about Epyo being brain dead or something

So moving boxes around with a gun that shoots gravity is thinking? Kinda ironic that you still have to shoot something to solve puzzles in Half-Life 2. :p And who the hell plays an FPS game to think, anyway? They're not called FPT games, you know!

Now that I've played through the original (just last night), I want to play the sequel even less.

Does HL2, btw, still have some annoyances in it such as getting stuck on the archetecture? Or having things that should trigger not work?

Snarboo said:

And who the hell plays an FPS game to think, anyway? They're not called FPT games, you know!

Even if some company did bring out a game they described as an FPT, I bet there'd still be some idiots whining that there isn't enough killing in it.

Snarboo said:

And who the hell plays an FPS game to think, anyway? They're not called FPT games, you know!

Thats what I do in Operation Flashpoint all the time