Half-Life 2 and Steam

[Sajt]

I thought I'd bring it up, it would've been eventually brought up anyway. Actually, it most likely wouldn't. But Steam sucks though I thought I'd bring it up.

Have any of you played HL2? I thought it was pretty crappy, high production value but still crap. I was going to buy HL2: episode 1 just because it's $20, but Steam is a pile of crap and whenever I try to purchase something off Steam or even download a free mod or trailer, it brings up an IE 'page not found' page (it's only typical that Valve would have an IE window in Steam, seeing as how Valve is just another baby of Microsoft, and just as evil too).

Apparently Steam is supposed to install a steam:// protocol, but somehow forgot about it when I installed Steam. So anytime I click a link in Steam, I get page not found. This is gay, and stupid, and crap. Perhaps it's fate telling me not to waste my money, but hey hey what can I say.

[Monster]

Steam is a bunch of shit. You have to have an actice internet connection and a stupid username/password just to play the damn game.

[Bank]

Of course Steam is garbage, and so is Valve. I bought a fresh copy of Hl2, and they gave me an activation code that doesnt work. Now I have a 50 dollar paperweight.

[scar3crow]

Bank - You did before you found out the key didnt work honestly.

Half Life2 is a lot like Myst. Good textures running on now very old tech with a shiny wrapper. Only Myst has more depth to its plotline and poses a challenge.

If they release a non-steam version ever, at a reasonable price, I might get it, but only for when I get tired of the freeform subtle gameplay that Area 51, House of the Dead, and Revolution X can offer.

[Bank]

Bank - You did before you found out the key didnt work honestly.

Half Life2 is a lot like Myst. Good textures running on now very old tech with a shiny wrapper. Only Myst has more depth to its plotline and poses a challenge.

If they release a non-steam version ever, at a reasonable price, I might get it, but only for when I get tired of the freeform subtle gameplay that Area 51, House of the Dead, and Revolution X can offer.

What's that supposed to mean? I did everything they asked me, I bought the game, I installed it, and the key that THEY gave me didnt work. Now they want to charge me more to get another key that possibly wont work.

[scar3crow]

It means I thought it was more fun as boxart than as a game.

[Sajt]

My parents gave me HL2 for my birthday because the guy at the store said it was the best game ever. What a noob. It came with a HL2 t-shirt, which I gave away.

[R00k]

I didnt have any problems with steam, nor HL2, and actually it was kinda fun!

I wasnt running top of the line hardware either, and I still got good framerates.
Yes the game was kinda short in some areas and the last level was pure noobified cause i just blasted every1 with the gravity gun and those glowing orbs. I think the zombie level was my favorite, though they had that map in the demo anyways its not the worse game that year though I liked it better then doom3

[scar3crow]

I dont see why it has any system requirements at all beyond texture memory honestly though, thats the only thing really doing anything behind it... that and some number crunching for the Havok physics engine. Theoretically, it should be the fastest commercial game in years, because it uses such an old engine.

[Yellow No. 5]

Such and old engine? What are you newbs talking about? HL2 debuted the spankin new source engine.

I just installed it 2 weeks ago. Stream is a stupid pain in the ass, it took like 30 minutes to install and installed about 6 billion files. It was like installing windows. As for the game, I thought it was pretty sweet. Excellent graphics and physics, and runs very nice on my mediocre hardware.


To each his own, but it seems most people like HL2 a lot:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half_life_2#Reception

[scar3crow]

Critics who applauded the game cited the advanced graphics and physics along with the relatively lax system requirements.

High res textures because they do have a good art department, good physics because they bought a physics package, Havok physics, which is also seen in Painkiller and Oblivion. Nevermind that in Doom3 they wrote their own physics package, and used it properly in the game - as part of the environment. Things exist, if they are moved, they move realistically. Even with the introduction of the gravity gun in Resurrection of Evil it was done tastefully with game design in mind.

Relatively lax system requirements come from it being the Quake engine with a DX9 water shader, a terrain engine, and they licensed physics and lip syncing.

HL2 would impress me more if the ai didnt breakdown if you managed to explore (despite all the clip brushes and obstacles to keep you on a narrow path), if the story was more impressive than Sci-Fi's Frankenfish, if the weapons werent overpowered, if the overpowered weapons werent destroyed by the imbalanced gravity gun upon its introduction, and if it mattered whether or not I was even playing the game really because its just a conveyor belt with no choice. Give me Half Life2 or give me Area-51, only one of them means I have to hold W to watch the purchased technology.

[Monster]

I don't understand why HL2 runs so smoothly, whilst Oblivion doesn't. The graphics in Oblivion are just as good looking as HL2. Maybe it is because all of the detail put into the landscapes.

[scar3crow]

Bethesda isnt exactly renowned for their fast engines, but it is also completely new tech in their case. Also Radiant AI is a bit more involved, and then it also has Havok physics involved. That and Oblivion is rather large with lots of large expansive outdoor environments.

Its entirely different tech though, its made to play a continent, not a series of hallways (or clipbrushed beaches).

[Monster]

Interesting... I want a new video card. Whats the top-of-the-line Nvidia one as of now?

[RocketGuy]

depends.
if you're AGP then GeForce 7800 GS
if you're PCI-E then GeForce 7950 GX2