Half Life 2 First Impressions

[General Fuzzy McBitty]

how do i upload it?

[General Fuzzy McBitty]

Nevermind. it's too large.

what i'm talking about is right where the guy throws supplies off the bridge

[General Fuzzy McBitty]

You know, I probably spent the first 10 minutes of game time last night doing this

[Marek]

Ah yeah I was stuck there for a few minutes too. I'll give you a hint.

Throw the blue tonnes in the water. Then try to figure out what you should do with them. Swim around a bit.

Let me know if that helps.

[General Fuzzy McBitty]

Doh. As soon as I read that I knew exactly what to do. I didn't realize I had to throw them in the water.

Laugh at me as you read things that I tried.

1. Ramming the boat into the tunnel. This almost worked, and I got halfway down. 2. Stacking the barrels on the log. This gave me a wallhackish thing, but didn't work. 3. Crossing the radiation with the barrels. This caused 5 deaths before I gave up.

[Marek]

Haha those are pretty extreme. By the way

Crossing radiation with barrels doesn't work, but if you later have a similar situation but with pallets or metal plates nearby, this is in fact a working strategy

[manny_c44]

Yeah I thought that puzzle was pretty cool, all of the physics puzzles are great. But I think the whole fan boat section was a bit too long.

[Erkki]

I managed to get stuck here (looking at the ground, but there's even nothing there to make me stuck). But I coulnd't move. I remember HalfLife 1 had similar bugs.

BTW. What's a wallhack?

[General Fuzzy McBitty]

Well, I used some trash can like things stacked on top of each other to try to climb something.... but I ended up walking on top of the scenery.

[Chris]

This game is extraordinarily fun. That said, there are a couple little annoying things. For the entire game, ammo and guns (including the ones in my hand) flicker on and off almost constantly. Has anyone else had this problem? It's really annoying, and fiddling with graphics settings (which take ages to apply) hasn't changed anything. It's not the end of the world, but it looks pretty goofy.

Also, I'm pretty disappointed with the load times. That's probably the one actual game issue I have issue with. Sometimes you'll be in this crazy action-packed boat race, and there's this crazy music playing, and it's crazy, then everything stops and it says "LOADING" for three minutes. I understand it's the price you pay for having no distinct levels, but it really helps to take me out of the game.

Finally, I have already gotten "stuck" a couple times, which also happened in HL1. By this I mean getting inextricably wedged into a corner or rock or something. You can't do anything except mouselook, and you have to commit suicide or reload.

ANYWAY, BESIDES THOSE FEW THINGS, this game is totally awesome. The object manipulator gun is one of the most fun things I've ever used in a game. I don't even use regular guns anymore if I can help it. There's usually something to throw at zombies with the old gravity gun. Super-fun.

[Erkki]

I didn't have problems with flickering, but yeah getting stuck has happened to me at least 3 times now.

After getting out of Ravenhold I felt that part was a bit too long as well. But that's just my taste maybe. I just feel the parts with NPCs are more fun than the shooting. The next short section before getting to the car looked pretty much like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and was quite cool.

[General Fuzzy McBitty]

I managed to flup the boat over so badly that it got stuck under a rock.

[RLacey]

...nngh...must restrain the urge to buy Half-Life 2...have exams coming up...

Right, I am *not* going to buy this until December. You'll see...

[Marek]

Compared to Half-Life 1, or every other shooter, the different chapters of HL2 are actually super varied. I think it's because the character moments are so damn good it feels like everything in between is too elaborate, but really it isn't.

I have one criticism on the game (namely on the larger story going on), but I will withhold it until I've finished it, as my impressions could still change a lot. So far I'm still completely overwhelmed by the game's awesomeness. Just wait till Doc gets his piece of the action!

[Erkki]

Doc? or Dog?

The segments with the buggy are awesome. And besides an adventure game, someone should make a game based on Tremors with this engine!

[General Fuzzy McBitty]

Someone needs to make a multi player grav gun mod.

[General Fuzzy McBitty]

Also, I agree that the load times are a bit excessive. Especially when you consider that half time it occurs durring a crazy chase scene with the exciting music.

[MrHoatzin]

This game must be good. Or something.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Yeah. The this place has been next to empty today.

I'll probably do another extended disappearance the next week when I get my copy of Bloodlines and HL2. The last thing I want to interrupt my sessions by posting a minute-by-minute progress report here.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Do I have to?

[Erkki]

I'll probably do another extended disappearance the next week when I get my copy of Bloodlines and HL2. The last thing I want to interrupt my sessions by posting a minute-by-minute progress report here.

So you'll get both at the same time after all? Good choice, and who said you can't play two games at the same time.

Whenever I get enough of half-life (it's great, but I want to enjoy it slowly ) I'll drive a few races in FlatOut. or a few tens of races...

[Wormsie]

First I thought these people were talking about Grim Fandango.

I thought HL2 was going to be the worst game ever.

[manny_c44]

I just beat Half-Life 2 (I decided not go the slow enjoyment route ). As you can imagine I have barely done anything for the last two days besides play it (except for that misfortunate bout of university that kept me away for a few hours). I probably logged 10 hours into it today...wierd because it doesn't feel like I've been doing it that long.

What can I say. At this time, having beaten it 2 minutes ago, at 3 in the morning, I have to say it is easily the second best game I have ever played . Everything was fucking incredible. There was a time in the last level that I thought it turned into a cutscene...the whole last section is just pure class, style-wise. The pacing was absolutely impeccable, and its obvious Valve did alot of play testing to make every single moment of the game incredible.

And now for some very vague spoilers and thoughts:

The storytelling is more in the direction of the second matrix or perhaps Metal Gear Solid 2, where everything is still vague and you're kind of shocked that they would end it where they did...knowing the next one may be 5 years away makes it that much harder to accept. (but its much better than MGS2 or M:R, don't worry). Some other things:

The enemy soldier grenades should explode faster. This would make their AI make way more sense, as the grenades are pretty uneffective because they take almost 6 seconds to go off after they hit the ground (Very picky I know but it makes them easier to defeat and generally makes the squad AI less intense than the first game--until later encounters completely blow the lid off of Hl1)

There should've been more physics puzzles, they were probably afraid to offend the hardcore action gamers, but the puzzles were all very clever and I personally think the game would've benifited from it.

There are some instances where the enemies continue to spawn endlessly unless you do something, make an escape etc. I thought they were out of place in HL, but in retrospect they might not annoy other people as much as me.

Blowing shit out of the air with a rocket launcher is absolute fun in this game. The pulse rifle has the best alt-fire of any weapon ever. In general you have less ammo in this game, but you have the Grav Gun, which is just nuts. The weapons are the best since Hl1, and the vehicle parts were suprisingly fun.

In closing, buy this game. Or steal it...just play it.

[Marek]

Doc? or Dog?

Chris wrote Doc in a recent news item, which I corrected, which apparently turned out to be wrong. I'm still not convinced though. Characters call Gordon Doc (as in: Dr. Freeman), but it seems the robot should be called Dog as he lives in a dog house and behaves like some kind of dog slash gorilla.

[Erkki]

Chris wrote Doc in a recent news item, which I corrected, which apparently turned out to be wrong. I'm still not convinced though. Characters call Gordon Doc (as in: Dr. Freeman), but it seems the robot should be called Dog as he lives in a dog house and behaves like some kind of dog slash gorilla.

I'm pretty sure Alyx called her Dog.