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Half Life 2:Episode 1...

post #1 of 33
6/1/06 at 10:44am
Thread Starter 
...unlocks in just over 3 hours time.

Anyone else looking forward to it as much as I am?
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post #2 of 33
6/1/06 at 10:57am
I'd completely forgotten about this.

Good news, indeed. I'll probably play it this weekend.
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post #3 of 33
6/1/06 at 11:09am
Oh, yes. Glad to see the episodes are (theoretically) only six months apart, too.

We could probably have a whole discussion about episodic content (anyone?), and while you're ultimately paying more for the entire game ($60 in this case), I think there's a lot of upside for the game content. Besides making game development more manageable, it also keeps the developers on their toes since the consumers can "opt out" of the rest of the game. This goes especially for the final hours, when developers tend to get lazy and/or rushed for time. I suspect we won't be seeing anything like the infamous Xen levels of HL1 in episode 3.

This would probably be more annoying if the episodes just went on and on, but I don't think three easy payments of $20 for a full-length Half-Life game is a bad idea.
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post #4 of 33
6/1/06 at 11:43am
I hope they left out the sidekicks this time or widened the hallways so it's easier to get around when them. They nearly ruined HL2.
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post #5 of 33
6/1/06 at 11:48am
Quote:
Originally Posted by ChunkyLover53
I hope they left out the sidekicks this time or widened the hallways so it's easier to get around when them. They nearly ruined HL2.
Heh, um, the "hook" for the entire episode is that you're fighting alongside Alyx.
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post #6 of 33
6/1/06 at 12:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ChunkyLover53
I hope they left out the sidekicks this time or widened the hallways so it's easier to get around when them. They nearly ruined HL2.
From what I read on Gamespot Alyx's AI is pretty damn good, so hopefully it won't be a problem. If it is, the game will need a "get the fuck out of my way!" command.

I'll post that Gamespot info if I can find it. The coolest bit to me was that there are apparently... SPOILER(?) Combine soldiers who've been overtaken by headcrabs, and they'll run at you suicide bomber style with live grenades. END SPOILER(?) Not really a spoiler so much, but I put it in black because it would have been a neat little surprise had I not read about it.
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post #7 of 33
6/1/06 at 1:11pm
Review: http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=65249
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post #8 of 33
6/1/06 at 2:41pm
I can't wait to get home and play HL2: EP1!
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post #9 of 33
6/2/06 at 11:30am
This game rocks. Immersive experience like you're playing a movie. Very exciting.

rwmega
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post #10 of 33
6/2/06 at 12:38pm
I'll be getting this for the weekend, looking forward to more Chewer opinions.
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post #11 of 33
6/2/06 at 12:47pm
Only had a chance to play the first chapter (about 45 minutes), but it's intense, despite there not being much to fight yet. I remember Gabe Newell saying the level design mantra for HL2 was, "How long has it been since something cool happened?" For the expansion they seemed to have shortened the gap to, oh, every thirty seconds or so.

The Source engine overhaul is gorgeous, too.
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post #12 of 33
6/2/06 at 12:53pm
(double post)
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post #13 of 33
6/2/06 at 5:15pm
It was so short. But you know, it was good enough that I don't even care.
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post #14 of 33
6/2/06 at 5:27pm
I hope this makes it (someday) to the xbox/xbox 360?
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post #15 of 33
6/2/06 at 6:50pm
Jesus. Jake, Half-Life 2 fans, you are in for a serious treat. Oblivion made me forget. Within 5 minutes of booting this puppy up I was experiencing the 'I'm-controlling-a-movie' feeling only HL2 has thus far managed to give me. I upgraded my machine a couple of months ago and it auto-detected every setting on maximum. The fucking lighting, guys. The HDRI, blooming effects, shadowing, particles, Alyx's facial expressions - all just...man. Too many superlatives spring to mind. Incredible stuff. Gonna stop playing now - I blitzed through HL2 and regretted it - gotta ration the goodness! Enjoy folks!
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post #16 of 33
6/3/06 at 4:12am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil Connors
Alyx's facial expressions - all just...man. Too many superlatives spring to mind. Incredible stuff. Gonna stop playing now - I blitzed through HL2 and regretted it - gotta ration the goodness! Enjoy folks!

IMO ALyx is the best female video game character i've encountered. she has a GREAT design. a girl-next-door type but in a kick-butt way... she's smart, funny... very well thought out by the creators. its weird she is just a fictional character.
anyhoo, i am green with envy with you guys playing. i, like others am waitng for the 360 version if it ever comes out.
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post #17 of 33
6/3/06 at 11:17am
This is great. I can't believe how great both the technology and writing is for Alyx. So far she seems to always respond intelligenty to the situation with the enemies, and I'm loving the humor. This is probably the first time I've cared as much about a computer game character as a character in a film. They've got my $40 for episodes 2 and 3.

I particularly liked "Is Doctor Kliner telling everyone to get busy?"
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post #18 of 33
6/3/06 at 1:47pm
I liked in one of the earlier chapters when you gotta do the flashlight thing for Alyx to shoot the combine. After we killed them all and my flashlight had to recharge she starts making ghost sounds in the dark....it sounds really lame now trying to explain it but it was pretty funny at the time.
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post #19 of 33
6/3/06 at 9:30pm
Just finished. That was like a cut of FPS filet mignon.
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post #20 of 33
6/5/06 at 12:01pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil Connors
I upgraded my machine a couple of months ago and it auto-detected every setting on maximum.
Which video card are you running? I'm still using a 6600 GT (MSI) w/128Mb and definitely could use more horsepower. I think my CPU is still up to snuff.
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post #21 of 33
6/5/06 at 12:17pm
I have a 2.8Ghz CPU (no hyperthreading) and I have to say that it really seems to bottleneck in Source. That's not quite top of the line but it should still be better than it seems. Havok physics, well, wreak havoc on it. There's always a huge stutter before explosions or any complicated physics reactions. I have an ATI X800XT and when barrels and zombies aren't flying all over the place it runs beautifully.

I just mention this in case that appears to be the "horsepower" problem for you. HL2 ran very well even on my Radeon 9800 Pro--it seems to be very video-card friendly but CPU-intensive.
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post #22 of 33
6/5/06 at 12:18pm
So is it worth the money, or it's more of a get it on the side type of game ?
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post #23 of 33
6/5/06 at 12:32pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Winterfell
So is it worth the money, or it's more of a get it on the side type of game ?
It's a no-brainer if you liked HL2. I'm a little torn about the price--it just seems a hair too expensive for five hours of game, but believe me it is five hours of game polished like a diamond. It's "more of the same" but minus everything that was even slightly annoying or dull about HL2.

So I think it's too expensive and totally worth it at the same time.
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post #24 of 33
6/5/06 at 2:06pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by theslik1
Which video card are you running? I'm still using a 6600 GT (MSI) w/128Mb and definitely could use more horsepower. I think my CPU is still up to snuff.
I have a 256MB Radeon X850XT Platinum and 3 Gigs of RAM - not top of the range by any means but more than enough to run everything at maximum. Jesus this game is a beautiful thing.
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post #25 of 33
6/5/06 at 3:16pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Winterfell
So is it worth the money, or it's more of a get it on the side type of game ?
It's absolutely worth the money. Like others have said, it's about 5 hours long, but every second is pretty much the FPS equivalent of fellatio.
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post #26 of 33
6/5/06 at 5:18pm
Don't forget to play it through with the commentary after you've finished it normally. Adds a lot of insight as to the developers' choices when making the game.
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post #27 of 33
6/6/06 at 2:50pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Count Floyd
Just finished. That was like a cut of FPS filet mignon.
I couldn't agree more! It might be small but it's packed with quality I was going to say 'like a diamond' but thats a lame example compared to your Filet comment... considering the value of a good cut of beef.
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post #28 of 33
6/7/06 at 2:01pm
My dial-up related hatred for Steam blazes brighter than ever, but after three-and-a-half hours of trying to install the game off a retail CD and then two separate nights of all-night downloading, all it took was the menu shot of the top of the Citadel and then Dog holding his arm out as an antenna and I was back to drinking the Valve Kool Aid again.

I'm not very far into it, but it's been fun and beautiful. There's really this weird hazy line between FPS and interactive movie due to all the scripted stuff, but I *like it*.

And although I think the potential for future abuse of episodic content is pretty extreme, twenty bucks and a six-month wait for releases of this quality are fine by me. I think the days of expansion packs with four new weapons, six new enemies and a couple of reskinned ones, and ten new maps are probably behind us.
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post #29 of 33
6/7/06 at 9:18pm
This game is so damn pretty, and I'm running it on a 9800 pro.
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post #30 of 33
6/10/06 at 2:50pm

wtf am I not playing.

well shit then. count me among the rare few that can't even play the game. bought it thursday. installed/validated/decrypted the files. loaded it up - saw the neato intro. tried doing something with the gravity gun. the game crashed with looping sounds. rebooted the computer, verified the game files, reloaded the game - got an inch further than the previous attempt. Another crash.

Made sure my drivers were up to date. Ran the source/steam browser scan. Eliminated offending entries in the list. Loaded the game up, same crash.

Deleted local game files. Reinstalled from the net last night. Tried loading the game up today. Froze at loading screen (after the title screen).

fuck pc gaming in the ass. I'll wait for the 360 conversion. Just strange. All the other steam games run fine. HL2, Counterstrike, DoD, Lost Coast, and Sin ran without a hitch.
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post #31 of 33
6/10/06 at 9:33pm
My copy suffered from the same crashes as mentioned above, but I could easily kill Half-Life 2 through Task Manager, and just start it up again. I learned to loathe the long wait times, but frankly, I just didn't care since this game held my attention so badly. Put up with the crashes, the ending is really worth it.

It's really impressive how they upgraded the engine for the game, and I'd love to see them re-code HL2 with that spectacular lighting; it was really much more well done than in the Lost Coast level. This was some of the best 20$ that I've spent on a videogame.
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post #32 of 33
6/11/06 at 6:24pm
Circuit City has them on sale for $8. I'm having mine sent to me because they were out at he store.
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post #33 of 33
6/11/06 at 8:59pm
saw the ads this morning. 8 bucks is a steal if you're lucky enough to get it to run. finally managed to get it running...don't know how. only after reinstalling directx, downloading all over again, defragmenting the hard drive (was barely fragmented to begin with) it loaded up and didn't crash.

seeing some good stuff so far. maybe an hour into it. I pray it loads up when I try it again tonight.
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