toblix

Half Life 2: Episode 2

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Yeah, I don't know first hand, but I think I remember someone saying something about Steam automatically splicing the chapters together so that when you chose which one to start at you can look at the entire time line and, like you said, play through them all as a single game.

On a completely different note, the cinematic recap of Episode 1 took me completely by surprise at the start of Episode 2. I was so used to HL2's interactive, real-time cut scenes that when I realized I was watching a movie, I felt so helpless.

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On a completely different note, the cinematic recap of Episode 1 took me completely by surprise at the start of Episode 2. I was so used to HL2's interactive, real-time cut scenes that when I realized I was watching a movie, I felt so helpless.

Yeah, I wonder if that could've been handled differently. For example, would a playable recap be possible?

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Yeah, I wonder if that could've been handled differently. For example, would a playable recap be possible?

What would have been neat is if Ep. 2 had checked your account to see if you finished Ep. 1. If you had you'd get another introduction to the game. I didn't really feel that I needed to see the stuff I did in Ep. 1 again, even if some time had passed since I played it.

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What would have been neat is if Ep. 2 had checked your account to see if you finished Ep. 1. If you had you'd get another introduction to the game. I didn't really feel that I needed to see the stuff I did in Ep. 1 again, even if some time had passed since I played it.

That would be cool. I've always liked the idea of sequels (or other related software) being able to read player data from the other games like that. For example, the Quest for Glory games allowed you to save and import characters throughout the series. It didn't change the story, though, but that would also be cool. Of course, it might also be time-consuming and alienating to first-time players or something. Anyway, Steam is the sort of platform that could enable stuff like this. Also, maybe Xbox Live could.

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OO. I feel we might as well go way out there. That would be easy enough for them to do and very convenient, but I always wanted a game that reeeally changed based on the decisions you made in a sort of spore-ish procedural way so that you could play through the entire game and then, depending on how it ended, the sequel could play out in an entirely different local with each run-through.

:yep:

Haha, I can dream.

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God. I just finished Episode Two, and once again I've been utterly blown away by Valve.

It's definitely superior to Episode One in pretty much every way, and the ending was totally ;(. It also left me in great anticipation of what's coming next, while both Half-Life 2 and the ending of Episode One didn't really.

I only actually played Episode One for the first time a month before Christmas and finished it just afterwards, so to me the two episodes have felt more like a proper sequel. I'm now going to have to join everyone else in eagerly awaiting Episode Three for 50 years. :~

I'd almost forgotten just how much I dig the Half-Life experience. I honestly think the last game I enjoyed as much as those two Episodes was Half-Life 2 itself. I've enjoyed other games since, but none have made me come away completely satisfied on every level.

I also now see just how good the episodic format is. It's great that the technology moves on yet remains totally like it was before (ie: the game is glossed up), I wouldn't really want to be playing for much more and appreciate the break (I can't stop myself playing Valve games!), and the pretty powerful ending of Episode Two couldn't really have been done if seconds later you were playing the next chapter.

:tup: :tup: :tup: :tup: :tup:

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I'm frustrated with Ep1 and I haven't even gotten to the really frustrating bits yet.

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Hopefully the next box (blue box perhaps?) will contain Left 4 Dead. Certainly it's current release date coincides with Ep3.

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Hopefully the next box (blue box perhaps?) will contain Left 4 Dead. Certainly it's current release date coincides with Ep3.

Yeah I've heard people speculating that it would be bundled with Left 4 Dead. Let's just hope they don't throw the previous HL games into the mix as well. I don't think I could handle having yet another copy of HL2.

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Especially as, considering how good the Orange Box is, I'm probably not the only one with unclaimed extra copies of HL2 and Episode 1.

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Left 4 Dead, by the way, is sounding great. It seems to have all the best features of both the current HL2 zombie mods (Zombie Panic and Zombie Master) buffed with the usual Valve polish.

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Of everything in Episode Two, I think the moment where Alyx and Gordon meet the

Combine Advisor

in the barn was the most terrifyingly eerie.

It's the first time you see

the Combine up-close, and it's utterly fascinating. They've been absorbing the resources and technology of other worlds for so long that they've evolved into enormous, technology-reliant telekinetic slugs.

Sent shivers up my spine, it did.

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Yeah, that was just a really cool moment -- but the game was full of them! All the physics-heavy collapses and stuff were ace, and I was literally almost shitting myself when the

huge antlion was hunting you down in the caves. I also really liked the big Combine convoy on the bridge.

There were just loads of really cool and memorable moments, while in Episode One I don't really remember as many so fondly. Partially because the city is just nowhere near as interesting as seeing the world outside in total disrepair, I think.

BTW, I present an improved

tag code:

<span style="background: #000; color: #000;">text to be hidden</span>

I often find myself wanting to use them as part of a sentence so other people can get the general gist of what I'm on about. This would let people use them in a sentence or on a new line if they really want it to be on a new line. It would make me very happy if someone implemented this. ;(

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And while you're in there, an onmouseclick to toggle the style.color wouldn't hurt either.

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Look up! Watch out!

I tried Ep1 again and got frustrated again by the droppy things ruining my elevator. Didn't get any further.

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Man, you're rubbish! I died like a few times because of those. :tdown:

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Shitty design. There's no sense of how far the gravity gun will reach when you're looking up and these blocks keep rushing at you. So you click furiously and if you time it wrong you're dead.

Never had problems with FPSs before.

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Right, so instead of clicking furiously you just click it the once when it's about to hit you. Not really difficult enough to take more than a few tries at most. :shifty:

It's a bit lame, but it's really not that bad! A minor grievance at most.

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I never had any problems with that segment; in fact, it was so unremarkable I'd entirely forgotten about it until now.

What I DID have a problem with, however, was that puzzle in Episode Two where the water was electrocuted and you had to find a way across. I tried a million different things before realising that, annoyingly,

you just had to sprint across the broken bridge.

Now that was shitty design.

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Teeee. That was actually Episode One, but yes I had similar problems with it. I didn't ever find the broken bridge solution though, and actually managed to get over with an intricate assortment of stuff to stand on in the water, eventually jumping over to that area to the right of the exit. :yep:

Clearly they learnt their lesson as Episode Two had a lovely balance.

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What I DID have a problem with, however, was that puzzle in Episode Two where the water was electrocuted and you had to find a way across. I tried a million different things before realising that, annoyingly,

you just had to sprint across the broken bridge.

What? I don't remember that. Is there a screenshot or YouTube web 2.0 blog of this?

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It was an indoor part of Episode One. A dark room, where you go to one side and turn the electricity on to power up the door and then have to get back again. There are barnacles in the area.

You couldn't have gotten to the end of the episode without encountering it so you definitely did it. :fart:

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It was in

the hospital, near where you fall through the floor. I think.

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I never had any problems with that segment; in fact, it was so unremarkable I'd entirely forgotten about it until now.

What I DID have a problem with, however, was that puzzle in Episode Two where the water was electrocuted and you had to find a way across. I tried a million different things before realising that, annoyingly,

you just had to sprint across the broken bridge.

Now that was shitty design.

LOL. All you had to do was put a floating barrel under the steel "bridge" while the power is off, to keep it above the electrified water, so simple and nothing wrong with the design. And to the other guy not being able to catch the falling debris is just bad, i passed that bit with ease and dropped the debris for fun, L2P before you talk crap about the game. On another note the ending of Ep 2 had my spectating sisters in tears, cant wait for the next episode, will be hard to top Ep 2 i think but if they pull it off it will be great.

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