Half-Life 2 OUT!!!

Doom 3 rulez
HL 2 sucks

Doom 3 sucks
HL2 sucks
Super Mario Bros. 3 rulez

It took me 16 hours and 15 minutes to beat Half-Life 2. I loved every second of it. There are only a couple of things wrong with it, but it's nothing a patch or two can't fix.

1. The sound tends to make he game lag and become a little jerky at times.

2. Sometimes stuff will do that glitch thing where half of it will stick out of a wall while the other is visible.

3. Loading takes a while. << This one probably can't be fixed with a patch.. but it is a minor annoyance. Though I do understand that, the more there is in a game to run, the longer it will take.

HL2 definitely has blown D3 out of the water. That's not to say that Doom 3 is a bad game, simply that HL2 is most definitely superior from almost every aspect. Storyline, maps, graphics, engine, etc...

10/10 game, definitely one I would recommend.

Also, I'd like to add that anyone who says Half-Life 2 sucks, has obviously never played it. I personally didn't care for HL, but I played HL2 and absolutely loved it.

Ralphis said:

You can rent PC games?

At this place down the street I can :)

Just finished the game. I can understand why a lot of people don't like the ending, but I love it. Congrats Valve, as far as I'm concerned they've earned the 500 million Game of the Year awards they're going to get for this.

Unfortunately Halo 2 has the advantage of numbers of players, so it'll probably lose out in the majority of "all platforms" awards...

Most games of the year rewards will probably look something like this (note: I'm not saying this how I would rate them, heck I've only even played one of these games):

1st: Halo 2
2nd: GTA: San Andreas
3rd: Half-life 2
4th: Doom 3
5th: The Sims 2

There's no way GTA will outdue HL2. I'm not saying that to mean rude, I really don't think HL2 will be won by a game like GTA.. Halo 2 and HL2 will be pretty close.

When it comes to "best game of the year polls", which game is actually the best is completely irrelevant. What's important is how many people vote for it, and San Andreas has sold far more units than Half-life 2. It's simply a fact that the average console game sells far more copies than the average PC game.

Here in the UK San Andreas is the fastest selling game (of any platform) EVER and is tipped for the Christmas no.1 spot... and I'm sure the same is true of countless other countries as well.

Thinking about it, the Sims 2 may well top some "best PC game of the year polls"... that is if the hundreds of thousands of housewives who bought it can actually figure out how to vote in on-line polls ;).

Darkstalker said:

I play with 5.1 and I haven't heard anything wrong. What kind of problem do you have ?

I dont seem to be getting sound from the rear speakers in the way that I should. It's more like dual stereo than true surround sound (if that makes any sense). Movies sound fine though, as does doom3.

When I get home I'll try using the normal cables instead of SPDIF to see if that has anything to do with it.

Quast said:

What I want to see is a summon command get found to get the *spoilers* right away in the game...That would own

sv_cheats 1
map d3_citadel_04
changelevel d1_trainstation_01
impulse 101

You'll have to skip certain levels, though.

so far, I'm loving HL2. It runs alot smoother, way smoother, than d3 since the game has less bump maps and less detailed textures. Weapons are awesome, like the grav gun and the visuals in the game are really cool. Models are awesome as well.

Fredrik said:

Doom 3 sucks
HL2 sucks
Super Mario Bros. 3 rulez

Mario Bros 3 sucks

Contra Rulez
Raiden Rulez

I am loving Half Life 2 :)

When I hear people say they think the Source engine is more advanced than the Doom3 engine I have to disagree however. What people seem to like better is the art direction of Half Life 2 more than Doom3's. But yes, Half Life two is a much more fun game even if I did enjoy both ;)

Veddge said:

When I hear people say they think the Source engine is more advanced than the Doom3 engine I have to disagree however

Sure it's more advanced. For one thing, Doom 3 doesn't have an well-integrated, useful physics system. Saying a game is 'advanced' because its renderer executes more complicated per-pixel operations on the graphics card is like saying Fredrik's sexual performance is better than mine because he has a few more inches of dong. Not true.

I'd rather get Metroid Prime 2. I have yet to see a game in the metroid series that was totally dissapointing, and besides, I'm a big Metroid fanboy. I wasn't a big fan of Half-Life, so chances are I won't get Half-Life 2 for some time.

You all know HL2 uses a licensed physics engine, right?

Graphics capabilities - Doom 3 wins in terms of lighting. Half Life 2 wins in terms of water and animation systems (and probably the vast outdoor areas, but there's nothing to compare it against).
Physics - might be about the same capability wise, but HL2 has integrated it quite well in to the game play instead of using it for pure visual effect so it's quite hard to tell.
Sound - D3 uses sound to better effect than HL2, but sound isn't exactly a big area for technical innovation these days.
Loading times - D3 loads for a minute every half hour. HL2 loads for half a minute every five minutes.
Gameplay - D3 imitated HL1's gameplay with spooky bits that imitated Resident Evil (plus some original stuff thanks to the lighting stuff). HL2 has the Gravity Gun - 'nuff said :)

Lord FlatHead said:

Sure it's more advanced. For one thing, Doom 3 doesn't have an well-integrated, useful physics system.

I was almost positive it DOES, however it was just never put to use in the game. Am I wrong in assuming that Valve did not make the physics engine used in Half Life 2? I was able to play Half Life 2 for the first (and last) time a few days ago and it was great... but the physics engine was no greater than most new games, except scripted events and the environment were built to take advantage of it. The few times in Doom 3 I saw (and the few times I played it :P) physics actually used, they worked extremely well.

Mlah, who cares.

Physics engines are pretty dull on their own though; there's not an infinite amount of fun to be had from stacking boxes and them shooting them down again. HL2's physics aren't revolutionary in any way, everyone's seen a ragdoll and jeep and a realistic moving crate before; the way it makes it fun it by giving you a tool to manipulate them in ridiculous ways, ie the gravity gun. I can't count the number of times I cleared a room by throwing a wardrobe through it at 50 mph - and the descision to drop bandsaw blades in every room in Ravenholm was blessed by god :)

GooberMan said:

Half Life 2 wins in terms of water and animation systems (and probably the vast outdoor areas, but there's nothing to compare it against).

Far Cry has bigger outdoors levels than HL2. HL2 simply splits the large levels into miniature maps like HL1, and the loading times still suck.

Sound - D3 uses sound to better effect than HL2, but sound isn't exactly a big area for technical innovation these days.

I'd argue that completely immersive positional sound like in Doom 3 is a technical innovation. However, HL2's ear-ringing explosions are very tasty.

Can the Doom3 engine render water properly? It wasn't in the game. Maybe there's a big performance hit.

Or maybe Mars is simply a very dry planet.

On the other hand, all that machinery ought to require some powerful cooling.

On a third hand, Mars is pretty cold too.

Three hands, you must be a vortigon slave.

I am pretty satisfied with the game. even if it doesn't explain what the hell is going on.
maybe the game should have been called "city 17" but that would not sell as well as "half-life 2"

it looks and runs great. almost no major bugs. unlike the first game, i remember some of the rather nasty bugs. the elevator one being the worst.

however i think doom3 can show more and has a more beefy engine. HL2 sacrificed some of this to get more speed and open spaces.

the dead body physics can be a bit strange. i miss being able to gib people. however i loved catching headcrab zombies on fire or cutting them in half with saw blades of death.

Arioch said:

However, HL2's ear-ringing explosions are very tasty.

Didn't Far Cry have something like that as well?

the elevator one being the worst.

Which elevator bug was that one?

From what I played of FC (the demo anyway) I thought the explosions were pretty cool as well. Pity the game was such a system hog.

Shaviro said:

Didn't Far Cry have something like that as well?

Far Cry's weapon sounds are indeed awesome. They got the reverb down and everything.

GooberMan said:
Sound - D3 uses sound to better effect than HL2, but sound isn't exactly a big area for technical innovation these days.

Ignoring the innovation part, I gotta say this one thing: Playing an FPS, means that the main emphasis is on shooting things (that's the "Shooter" in FPS). What you do the most in any FPS is to shoot stuff, therefore weapon design and sounds has everything to do with gameplay. HL2 has good sounds and the grav gun is a good weapon, but I gotta say that D3 beats it in sheer pleasure of gunning down stuff because of sound among other things.

Gameplay - D3 imitated HL1's gameplay with spooky bits that imitated Resident Evil (plus some original stuff thanks to the lighting stuff). HL2 has the Gravity Gun - 'nuff said :)

Doom 3 has a chaingun, and a darn well-designed one - that's all the motivation I need :-)

I am pretty satisfied with the game. even if it doesn't explain what the hell is going on.

It doesn't need to - the situation is pretty evident and I gotta say that HL2 has a kickass setting. The whole fascist government thing oppressing the civilian population is something I don't remember having experienced all that much in an FPS. How it went from Black Mesa to a fascist government ruled by the Black Mesa Admin remains a mystery, but imho that's exactly the charm of it.

however i loved catching headcrab zombies on fire or cutting them in half with saw blades of death.

Yep, the sawblade+grav gun combination was pretty cool :-D

dsm said:

It doesn't need to - the situation is pretty evident and I gotta say that HL2 has a kickass setting. The whole fascist government thing oppressing the civilian population is something I don't remember having experienced all that much in an FPS. How it went from Black Mesa to a fascist government ruled by the Black Mesa Admin remains a mystery, but imho that's exactly the charm of it.

/me agrees
I also like the ending more than most people.
Though it's not a masterpiece, it's certainly better than "OMG FREEMAN YOU HAVE SAVED EARTH ONCE AGAIN. LET'S GO ON A WELL-DESERVED VACATION"
I think it adds some mystery to the whole game.

Yah, the ending was all right.

*Spoiler warning*






I really liked the visual side of it and the way that evilgatewaygeneratorcorethingy suddenly begins to explode...and then time slows to a stop. Nice.

But aside from that the ending wasn't anything I didn't already expect it to be.

I've got a friend who's stuck on the Dr Mossman section:

We are next introduced to another new character, Dr. Mossman, who works with Eli Vance, one of the scientists we met in last year’s demo. Dr. Mossman is talking while she and Gordon are riding an elevator down to meet Eli.

Except that she won't get in the damn elevator. Either he's missed something or there's a bug with his copy of the game. Is there a way to skip past that bit?