Half-Life 2 and Steam

[Sajt]

Well, that's any first-person shooter nowadays.

When FPSes started, they were non-linear within the maps. You might visit rooms in different order, as you searched for coloured keys for locked doors.

Now they're completely linear and require NO thinking at all. Kids praised the death of the coloured keys, but I find nothing interesting or worthwhile in current FPSes, so maybe some modern version of coloured keys needs to be invented...

[Bank]

Well, Half-Life 2 is just a crappy rail shooter. But sometimes you just want to shoot things in a straight line with no exploration.

[Monster]

I just got hl2 episode 1 and its pissing me off. Says 1 hour I have to wait, now its 45 minutes. w00t!! I paid my 20 bux now let me play my damn game. what is the point of steam really??

Yeah i also agree that HL2 has no replay value. You can't do what you want. I actually did start a new game after I beat it for the first time, the whole thing was just the same, so I said fuck it. I'd rather play a game like Oblivion.

I had no problems with installing the game nor Steam.

I bought the game when it came out, and although I heard many stories about Steam and the trouble people had installing the game etc., on my end everything went very smoothly. I was up and playing the game in half hour (it takes a big to install).

I finished the game, although I did cheat towards the end.
I found it very linear. Not much freedom to explore, the game put you on a straight path that you are following. So one you beat the game, there is little reason to go back and re-play it.

Episode 1 is very tough. I didn't even get past the elevator level. You know in the beggining when you have to hit with the gravity gun the things that fall from the sky, that they don't crash your elevator.

Anyway, I think playing HL2 is enough. To see what the game offers, engine wise, and to view its visuals.

[Baker]

The one true Quake has already outlived many "cooler" games that have come and gone and died.

[scar3crow]

seighten - Honestly, and I say this with my loathing of Valve aside.. that was a friggin beautiful post.

That is one of the wonderful things that Quake has that HalfLife does not, will never have, and so many other games lack as well.

[seighten]

not once was i ever enthralled by the world of half life

yet i was so easily moved by quake

it is a universe so different from our own that it invites my every mental desire to imagine

and so i did, so content i am

[Sajt]

P.S. Bethesda *didn't* make it themselves, they used the Gamebryo 'middleware' engine, and I'm sure they credit it somewhere...

[Monster]

At least they did it all themselves, unlike Valve. The game is very realistic to me, except for the same lines that people say and other minor things. I mean, would you want to go in putting different rumors lines for EVERY NPC in the game??

[Sajt]

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

Hehe, I sure hope this is sarcasm

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.

As much as it was touted, Radiant AI equates to Quake-era AI with a couple lines added to make people pretend to eat and sleep. Although I'm sure Bethesda got some quack software engineers to make a really really complex, slow over-object-oriented framework for the stupid AI.

As for the engine, Oblivion uses Gamebryo, the successor to NetImmerse which was used for Morrowind. I have no idea how fast this engine is, but the Bethesda programmers have never been in tune with the art of programming, and I wouldn't put it past them to bugger up a good engine.

[RocketGuy]

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

[Monster]

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

[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]

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]

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.