im gonna have to quote the broccoli or anal comment again, I played it myself personally Im a big fan of story and the story was REALLY broken for me to enjoy it.
(half life 1, you opened a portal to dimension FUXORZ and your fighting between realities which was cool!)
half life 2, evil nazi dictator took over? Many of the guys you were fighting that couldnt speak any English now speak perfect English or whatever? Combine apparently can use/ control those giant alien/dimensional aliens?
Can someone tell me where between episode 1-2 that this has happened? maybe the expansion episodes explained this but I never thought much to buy the episodes to really get into it, I did enjoy portal/ TF2 but half life was fun for online multiplayer at the time.
I think what it comes down to is this, to me it isnt really the "best" at anything, but hte production values are so high across the board, that it is an extremely tight product.
Wholeheartedly agreed. That said, does that make it as spectacular as it's made out to be? HL2 is considered to be one of the most legendary games of our time, but, as you pointed out, nothing about it stands out too much.
I have personal preferences - for example, I like making choices and talking to people most, but I don't care so much about graphics. Vampire: the Masquerade - Bloodlines, a game that came out at pretty much exactly the same time, is probably worse over the board than HL2, but it hit the sweet spots for me and so I like it much better.
So how does that work for you guys? How can a game that's just good overall be the best game ever?
i played it last year when the orange box came out, amid alot of other fps's, i completed it after quite alot of &*^%£^%££$$ING arduous gun fights involving zombies, but i did complete it and ep1 while i still havent completed bioshock, so there must have been something to get me to come back and finish off the few slogs that there are in it.
i completed ep1 in a couple of evenings and really enjoyed it and im half way through ep2 but have put it on hold cos my 360 has no sound system attached so i dont want to spoil it.
it has an interesting world, thats really been thought about its not a walking cliche like most other fps's
comparitavly
No, the graphics were not top notch. Visually, they were good. In my opinion, the graphics allowed just enough quality to display a very large and detailed environment...but still maintain the optimization required to play on consumer priced low-end machinery of that time. You didn't need to buy the latest and greatest graphics card to play it. With the settings low, it was still and enjoyable experience. Thus, the Steam hardware surveys Vavle collects. I believe, this allowed Valve to hit a much wider demographic of systems and players, giving them the high sales mark they achieved.
Animation was another bar HL2 set higher. Facial animation, fluid movement animations, the Strider's animations. Eyes that follow characters and objects of interest.
Useful physics objects. Not just physics demonstrations. I loved knocking objects loose and throwing or swinging them down on enemies. Without the use of a cutscene. Watching energy blasts bouncing off walls, etc. Throwing enemies at enemies. All very new refreshing experiences to the genre. Using the environment as a weapon. Solving simple physics puzzles. All in a fashion that felt natural and well placed.
The sounds. The sounds of HL2 are very familiar, easy to identify. The music is awesome...for all Valve games.
You could take each individual prop/character/effect in HL2, and judge it's low quality. But, when all those assets were placed together into a whole environment, it made for a very atmostpheric and immersive setting. It wasn't just cool eye candy thrown into square hallways and doors. It felt like I was in a living world.
Alyx was a really annoying character
But, she was a character with a personality. Consider the level and quality of AI interaction in FPS games at the time. And voice acting. Without the use of scripted cutscenes. Can't think of many. Even Dog has personality...without any use of words. Gordon wasn't voiced by some cheesy Duke Nukem/Serious Sam/Marcus Pheonix overacting one-liner badass. Just a guy in a suit who I control at all times. Again, adding to the immersive quality of the game. Games at the time, and today, had just about the depth of storyline and quality of acting as a Uwe Boll film. Such as Far Cry. Which just so happens to be a Uwe Boll film.
I couldn't find anything interesting
Valve has shared their philosophy in designing fun levels. No constant boring hallways, whether covered in slime, or generic SciFi pillars. Resourceful AI enemies that don't always rush a bee line towards you when noticed. The environments had variation. One chapter you're in the city, the next, a twisting road, a coastline, a village filled with zombies, a river, a sewage pipeline, underground, a scifi tower, etc. After you complete the game, it feels like you just completed a long journy. Plus, you've driven cool vehicles along the way. It didn't feel like those vehicles were just conveniently placed for you. They were provided by appealing characters. Unlike, walking into a random street corner, and jumping into a nearly indestructible suit of mech armor...that just happened to be there...waiting. No, it was all part of a consistent storyline.
Worthy of mention, I played through HL2 soon after its release. My gf sat in an uncomfortable chair next to my desk and watched me play through every moment of it. That's something that can only be said about very few popular adventure games. Not often heard about for FPS games.
Also, while Ep1 wasn't an amazing experience, Ep2 definitely is. Ep1 is still worth playing tho for the level of interaction with an AI character. As mentioned, HL2 accomplished everything well across the board, providing for a very solid, refined and consistent gameplay experience within a genre that wasn't taken as seriously.
But, she was a character with a personality. Consider the level and quality of AI interaction in FPS games at the time. And voice acting. Without the use of scripted cutscenes. Can't think of many.
To be fair, they basically were scripted cutscenes. You couldn't do anything to change them in any way; they always played out exactly the same, the only difference being that you could run around jumping on shit and the characters would look at you as you did so. Yeah, it adds immersion, but let's not make it out to be something it wasn't.
Half Life 2, for me is in many ways still the best game to date.
At times it felt not like a half life game, kind of "hard to believe thats the sequel".
From the opening scene to the first steps in city 17, The Leveldesign is pretty excellent, delivering beautiful lighting and atmosphere (at the time, still it pretty good imo).
Overall the game is extremly coherent, visually well designed in respect to gameplay, occasional story tie ins of gameplay, lovely motivated voiceacting, well designed and iconic sound (HEV charger, Medpacks, Revolver), scripted sequences on masse. Wohaaa, its so great on many levels!
Just take a look at the whole set pieces, the props, how well they work together and how nicely they are designed within the world. And its not many props they use. its just simply very well designed.
The core gameplay is relatively simple. But I give it to Valve, they made good choices with the weapons, they feel good, sound good, they are varied and placed well (or the ammo of ) within the levels. Gravity Gun was one of the fricken best weapons to be ever included in a game. It fun, its simple and random ! Obviously the Leveldesign takes the most credit for making the gameplay fun, presenting you with interesting situations like Ambush, Defend, Infiltrate, Exploration, Puzzlesolving, Squad, etc...
But, as with any game, there are some downers of course. Volitgaunts feel odd in the world, agreed. Some puzzle levels are not working for me, funwise (I hate electrified water and narrow paths). Others worked very well for me, overall i felt it was tidious at time solving the puzzles over and over again, when failing. But thats me using a xbox 360 controller.
As far as Orange Box Xbox 360 goes. I bought it too. Lets face it, Valve is a PC developer in first place, thats their fans, their investment, their success. Half Life 2 is defintly not a console game, as mentioned earlier. If you want to enjoy the game the way it meant to be played, play hard mode with mouse and keyboard on PC. Its also one of the rare games, where the AI is really tough, intelligent and responsive in Hard mode, unlike many game which simply gives you a handicap or similar.
As I said, the game feels a bit tidious with controller, especially the puzzles.
Last level of Ep2 was a chore with controller. it was clearly designed for PC.
But yeah, i think its really a great series and I hope Valve manages to bring us Ep3 soon, after Ep2 was really fucking awesome
Just recently finished Ep 2 and it's the last time since... zelda/half life 2 I've felt any emotion from a video game... it just drags you in.
To everyone struggling with Ep1, just get it over with to enjoy the goodness that Ep2 is :P
Wholeheartedly agreed. That said, does that make it as spectacular as it's made out to be? HL2 is considered to be one of the most legendary games of our time, but, as you pointed out, nothing about it stands out too much.
I have personal preferences - for example, I like making choices and talking to people most, but I don't care so much about graphics. Vampire: the Masquerade - Bloodlines, a game that came out at pretty much exactly the same time, is probably worse over the board than HL2, but it hit the sweet spots for me and so I like it much better.
So how does that work for you guys? How can a game that's just good overall be the best game ever?
Its simple, i judge a game as the whole experience, and for me, HL2 was a very fun, tense, immersive experience. The best game that i had played since HL1 was HL2. Ep1 i actually stopped halfway through because there was a bit too much filler it seemed, when ep2 came out, it was awesome, the best game i had played since HL2. I actually finally ran through the entirety of EP1 after EP2, to me EP1 was a bit of a let down, but EP2 captured that same magic.
Many games have had excellent systems, brilliant segments, or amazing visuals, etc, but you'de have a hard time arguing that most of them are the best game ever, or even in the top 20. Singular components do not make a quality game to me.
I'm not saying everyone should love it, being such a hugely popular game its only natural that some people will not really enjoy it. I also think a small amount of this is like, reverse hype, people hear so much or put off playing it so long, and constantly hear about it from fanboys that when they actually get around to playing it, its impossible to live up to the hype.
Also, anyone who says they played HL2 on a console should immediately retrack thier opinion, thats like saying you would never want to own a BMW, because you have a friend who put in a 67 VW bug's engine into his 2006 M5, and it ran like shit.
The animation was my favourite part. Few games have gotten that level of quality lip syncing.
The use of normal maps within the game was well done. Usually subtle enough that you didn't always notice they were being used. Character normal maps were quite a bit weaker though due to how subtle they tended to be.
HL2 is a genius game, especially for the level design part. If you played the game in 2004 you would have been in awe with all the puzzles, and really great environments.
Lot's of games released in the meantime took inspiration in HL2.
No matter what people say, HL2 will always be a mark in this gens games!
what's up with you people that have to attack anyone who doesn't like what you like? HL2 was pretty stale (to me) and some of you defend it like it's your religion. I dont care if it was the best or worst game of the century to YOU, disagreeing with that does not qualify you as some retard who only likes frag-fests or puzzle games, or anything else.
I find it really ironic that so many people talk about the story because up until EP2 there really was no story. It was all random mish-moshed chaos. It took a totally different game (portal) to come along and invent reasons for the story to exist, then whimmy wham wham wozzle, all of a sudden all that new shit was magically retconned into HL.
I complete agree that the gameplay felt like a total chore, it felt very slapped together (ravenholm...where the hell did that come from? We never know who the crazy guy is and we never see or hear from him again? Did they just desperately want a zombie town?) and random a lot of the time, and if you look at any one object for more than 10 seconds you see how completely sub-par the artwork is.
And none of that "pretty for the time" bullshit. There's a big difference between really good art and new(ish) tech (water effects, physics, ragdoll) and what's funny is if you take the blinders off you'll find that all of these features were in other games at the time or before.
There's this ridiculous cult that surrounds some games and I'll never understand what forms it, but the herd mentality it creates is mind bogglingly frustrating.
I think people have been doing a fairly good job of justifying the design without attacks, infact... your post is probably the most hostile so far. To anyone whos so anti, why not stepup and say what you thinks better and why. I mean, if HL2 really isn't all that then propose something that is worthy of such attention.
what's up with you people that have to attack anyone who doesn't like what you like? HL2 was pretty stale (to me) and some of you defend it like it's your religion. I dont care if it was the best or worst game of the century to YOU, disagreeing with that does not qualify you as some retard who only likes frag-fests or puzzle games, or anything else.
I find it really ironic that so many people talk about the story because up until EP2 there really was no story. It was all random mish-moshed chaos. It took a totally different game (portal) to come along and invent reasons for the story to exist, then whimmy wham wham wozzle, all of a sudden all that new shit was magically retconned into HL.
I complete agree that the gameplay felt like a total chore, it felt very slapped together (ravenholm...where the hell did that come from? We never know who the crazy guy is and we never see or hear from him again? Did they just desperately want a zombie town?) and random a lot of the time, and if you look at any one object for more than 10 seconds you see how completely sub-par the artwork is.
And none of that "pretty for the time" bullshit. There's a big difference between really good art and new(ish) tech (water effects, physics, ragdoll) and what's funny is if you take the blinders off you'll find that all of these features were in other games at the time or before.
There's this ridiculous cult that surrounds some games and I'll never understand what forms it, but the herd mentality it creates is mind bogglingly frustrating.
attacking? I havent seen anyone criticize the op for his opinion, at least not in a serious tone, and people like EQ are actually making good points, ironically I did find your post a bit rude
I'll skip the points where you become worse then the people you accuse of flaming... Who actually where answering the OP'ers question. Honestly its like you read another thread...
ravenholm...where the hell did that come from? We never know who the crazy guy is and we never see or hear from him again? Did they just desperately want a zombie town?
If I remember correctly (and I could be way off) the first half of the game is about getting out of the city, being chased out. Then you reenter the city and take down those who chased you out. Ravenholm is part of the area around the city you explore while you're out.
It was pretty cool to see what it was like outside of the tightly controlled city. The priest guy does explain who he is and explains he's going to stay in the town when you leave. You might have blown through the area and missed those parts? That can happen when they don't rip control out of your hands and force you to listen to them blabber for 2min in some horrible in game cut scene, like every other game. Looking at you Assassins Creed.
half life 2 is like a drawing you did 5 years ago , when you drew it the drawing looked awesome go back to that drawing now and you might still like it a little but its lost its charm.
My best advice is play episode 1 and 2 there pretty awesome episode 2 is the best in the series of the episodes so far.
half life 2 is like a drawing you did 5 years ago , when you drew it the drawing looked awesome go back to that drawing now and you might still like it a little but its lost its charm.
I think some people here have trouble seperating a game from it's technology. I was never talking about it how it looked.
The levels in Quake were fun and full of imagination.
Most of the content in HL2 were not (for me).
So I have trouble seeing why it was so highly rated.
Reminds me of NWN, where after building that engine for x years, they failed miserably at making a fun game out of it, and most of the players had more fun with the player made content than the official campaign, which was boring beyond belief.
I've played through it twice (once when it came out in 2004, and then again in 2007). Over time it has lost some of it's visual luster, but I can't think of a single "realistically" rendered game that will be able to withstand the test of time. It's usually the more cartoony or 2d games that are able to do that). The gameplay still holds up pretty well though.
It was the game's great pacing and subtle exposition that drew me in. Instead of telling you via cutscene that you are an average citizen ruled by an oppressive dictatorship, they threw you into that world and let you experience it. The way the plot was slowly revealed and kept slightly vague reminds me of Shadow of the Colossus. You get enough story to keep you interested, but are never bombarded by the lead designer's need to explain everything to the player. Having not played HL1, it left a lot to the imagination.
The designers did a great job of varying the player's tasks, and gave a linear world a non-linear feeling. The sound design is solid too, the world and physics objects had a great sense of depth. Also, Doctor Breen's "instinct" speech is some of the finest writing I've seen in a game.
what's up with you people that have to attack anyone who doesn't like what you like? HL2 was pretty stale (to me) and some of you defend it like it's your religion. I dont care if it was the best or worst game of the century to YOU, disagreeing with that does not qualify you as some retard who only likes frag-fests or puzzle games, or anything else.
I find it really ironic that so many people talk about the story because up until EP2 there really was no story. It was all random mish-moshed chaos. It took a totally different game (portal) to come along and invent reasons for the story to exist, then whimmy wham wham wozzle, all of a sudden all that new shit was magically retconned into HL.
I complete agree that the gameplay felt like a total chore, it felt very slapped together (ravenholm...where the hell did that come from? We never know who the crazy guy is and we never see or hear from him again? Did they just desperately want a zombie town?) and random a lot of the time, and if you look at any one object for more than 10 seconds you see how completely sub-par the artwork is.
And none of that "pretty for the time" bullshit. There's a big difference between really good art and new(ish) tech (water effects, physics, ragdoll) and what's funny is if you take the blinders off you'll find that all of these features were in other games at the time or before.
There's this ridiculous cult that surrounds some games and I'll never understand what forms it, but the herd mentality it creates is mind bogglingly frustrating.
Who was attacking?
Do you ever make a post that doesnt have something to do with "herd mentality"? Honestly, are you one of those emo little kids who thinks that they are a big non-conformist because they constantly take the counter opinion on, oh i dont know, virtually every topic?
Oh and guys. Ravenholm was amazing. Father gregori was brilliant. If you haven´t reached that part of Half life 2 you´re in for a treat. That´s like videogame history right there and it´s probably the best area in the game for me.
yeah ravenholm was great, really don't understand you people calling it just another generic zombie section. Using the contraptions to drop cars on them and set them on fire, shoot the zombies on half with the sawblades or paint them white by throwing paint cans at them. Running on the roofs, seeing the rainpipes shake where the fast zombies are climbing towards you... it was an awesome experience, rivalled only by left 4 dead imo .
Ravenholm was a great detour from the game's storyline. Suddenly you're in a horror shooter. Not the best...but entertaining. Quick climbing zombies. Crazy...at the time. And you're introduced, and say goodbye, to a fascinating polygonal character along the way. It was something out of nowhere, but still very satisfying. Now we have Left4Dead.
I want to reply more to Sandbag...but then again, he's entirely missed the point...and the conversation. Thanks for attacking those who are simply answering a question. Hypocrisy?
attacking? I havent seen anyone criticize the op for his opinion, at least not in a serious tone, and people like EQ are actually making good points, ironically I did find your post a bit rude
Not to stir the pot or anything because it's all in good fun and I don't take anything to heart but I think Sandbag might have been referring more to some of the comments from when i posted my opinion and others joked about it. :P.
All of you have convinced me to give the HL another chance (3rd time's the charm after all). So after I finish off Fallout 3 I will go through the original HL again and then onto HL2.
Oh and @Jackwhat, I think people aren't stepping up to say other games is because this is a thread about HL2 and people want to stay on-topic for the most part :P. Just because someone can't make something better or offer up an example of something better doesn't mean they don't know that they don't like something.
For me I just seemed to become very bored playing it very quickly is all. Just because it was a different world with every level didn't mean they were fun to play through. But everyone has their own taste and i am definitely in the minority here as has been shown . The game is not bad by any means, I just don't see the reason for the amazing praise...same with the halo series, but I guess that's for a different post, haha.
"There must be somethign wrong with you...that like saying you hate Videogame Jesus"
"now thats a big joke. doom 3 more enjoyable? that must've been one of the worst troll-in-a-box shooters ever. "
"I guess if you are the sort of gamer who needs 300 kills per hour, HL2 would seem dull. "
That not good enough? It's ok if it's not, the heard comes in to attack anyway. Some of you guys are pretty funny little sheep. I hate to burst the fantasy but I'm not of the goth appearance either, nor an angry fattie or a lazy pothead. It's funny how some of you can come at me with a theory that I'm exactly what you're acting out.
Sorry if "attacked" is to harsh of a word, I just dont like being treated like a retard so I see that kind of treatment in a pretty negative light.
i played for first time hl2 a couple months back, and i loved it (a friend of mine send it to me as a gift in steam + ep1). It's not so beautiful as Crysis and Warhead (i love crysis), but what the heck, hl2 is totally fun. The gameplay with those "ants", those alien insects is a madness, really funny, very very original. The enemies are very repetitive, but all is very funny, and the zombie village is hilarious. The interaction in the game is very nice. I like it so much, that the game was so short for me (like almost all shooters).
The game can be obsolete now, but it's a good game actually.
I'm still waiting to see more titles with the quality of Crysis, but i think Crytek walks like with 20 steps of advantage. I don't see games as before, and with so high quality levels of graphics like crysis, is very hard to play old games. Graphics are not all in a game, mmorgps are visually... err ya know, and we play them.
Sorry if "attacked" is to harsh of a word, I just dont like being treated like a retard so I see that kind of treatment in a pretty negative light.
I think in grade school someone once told me "treat others how you would want to be treated". I would also add "if you're being treated harshly maybe the first thing you should do is look at how you're treating others"
Funny how we forget the basics as we get older. This isn't necessarily aimed at you, but it felt like a good time to insert into what was a pretty civil thread.
It's odd for me, because I can see moments where the game is really great. I liked the point where Alex takes you outside and you can play fetch and basketball in the yard.
But I just didn't like playing through most of the levels. The basic gameplay felt like such a chore.
Man, how about those sewer tunnels with the pimped out hover-scooter-whatever. That made the game un-replayable for me right there and then. I hated that part so much, that I'd never play the game again even though Ravenholm is the best map ever created for any game ever.
Yea the ski boat thing was horrible. It cornered like a pig and the level design was kind of lacking, easy to get lost and caught on things. I think they almost made up for it with the buggy, which was a blast to play around in. I remember being impressed and frustrated with the mounted gun. I forget what impressed me... might have been that it looked where I was? Its the simple things sometimes ha!
Honestly I pretty much stopped after the boat part, it was such a chore to get through that i didn't even feel like picking it up again once i finally got past it. So it's good to hear that I'm not completely crazy after all :P.
Perhaps its your rig or something. Skiboat leave was a blast the first time playing it. You were on the lam. It was a chase.
most people might say that HL2 is dated now that its 2009, but shit. I still love it. I still love HL! I still play HL1 every 2 years or so.
Ive met a lot of people whom never playing any of the Half-lifes; pick it up , and love it or hate it. Who knows, personal taste. mabey depends on how much you like FPS
But shit man, my favorite games of all time for sure.
see, the thing about HL2 was that it had great immediate replay value
how many times did you play through an action set piece, and once it was done blow yourself up with your own grenade launcher so you'd go through it again? I did this almost constantly. Often it was cos i thought i'd lost too much health or too much ammo and felt it could be done better, but just as often because it was just bloody good fun.
that said - just finished ep1, but not once did i do the grenade-replay thing. All the set pieces seemed like rehashes or just horribly contrived (knock a car into the ant lion hole ... but this time there are three holes and three cars but - aha! - the cars are increasingly well hidden) ... and whats the point in replaying a section to come through with better health when you know there's three hundred health packs and an infinite ammo crate around the next corner? Boo
pulled down ep2 immediately after and cranked through about an hour of it - its ace so far. Looks lovely too.
If we're talking strictly Orange Box here...TF2 has got to be one of, if not, THE best game in the past decade.
Solid Gameplay
Unmatched Style
Character Balance
Great Level Design
Free/Constant Updates
As far as Half-Life is concerned...meh, it's a good game, but I could never really get too into it.
Don't forget the 2 hours of enjoyment that Portal brings to the table also.
I feel the same - Usually online FPS's dont hold my attention because I get bored of Unreal Tournament style play where your just shooting anything that moves. I havent played another fps thats even similar enough to compare to tf2 in terms of the style and tactics of the game.
Well, basically:
- the CINEMATIC experience!
- GRAVITY GUN!!! OMG revolutionary! Along with your just-as-revolutionary smg (machinegun #1),pulse rifle (machinegun #2) shotgun, grenades (this time they ROLL for REAL), crowbar, pistol (pistol #1), magnum (pistol #2), rpg and crossbow. Hornet gun? Egon gun? Gauss gun? Satchels? pft who needs those, they require timing and thinking.
- DX9 reflective water! THIS IS DONE RIGHT! I mean just one water surface!
- Real lifelike facial expressions and lip sync!
- EASIEST most versatile engine ever! (This is press hype, it's actually one of the worst pipelines to work with lately. Thanks to the hype of the engine we have a load of dead 'blah some ip: Source' mods that can't find artists or coders.)
- INSTANT LOAD TIMES (more press hype)
- ALYX the most iconic VIDEO GAME WOMAN to hit the history of video gaming
- the only game where you play THE ONE FREE MAN which is better than master chief, jack carver, doomguy, and all those wannabes like master chief.
- Valve made it, they made half-life and they "made" counter-strike so everything they make is gold!!
- not only that but the engine is WRITTEN from SCRATCH! (a silly lie from e3 2003, still inherits quake code such as most of the bsp format, player physics, etc)
- no HL2DM (at the time), but a remade Counter-Strike as CS:Source so it's BEST THING SINCE SLICED BRED!
- HL: Source with Silver/Gold editions puts detail texture, ragdolls and SHINY WATER in Half-Life!
- NO BUGS WHATSOEVER! (hyped at release. mmm audio stutters, validations, clipping errors, and sounds getting stuck oh my. there's still some fatal bugs in the current version too.)
note, the above is 2004 talking, and how things were percieved at the time. It really took away from the spotlight of Far Cry, UT2004 and Doom3 (ugh PC GAMER review score gauging)
hl2:lost coast, hl2:ep1, portal and hl2:ep2 are also hyped more than its worth, the only recent valve product that deserves the recognition is TF2 IMO
And then what, how many years for TF2? So yeah I would kind of hope it would be a really well polished developer-mod.
Like Leilei said with CS: Source (as well as DoD: Source and Portal), it's funny to see Valve get so much credit for stuff bought, or bought and remade...
Like Leilei said with CS: Source (as well as DoD: Source and Portal), it's funny to see Valve get so much credit for stuff bought, or bought and remade...
Valve did hire a lot of the people that made those mods, including the original team fortress developers.
The animation was my favourite part. Few games have gotten that level of quality lip syncing.
Gotta disagree with you there. Lip-synching is easy (and I have never seen a game do it well; but at least HL2 does it better than Resident Evil 5) and can't really be called good animation. As much as I love HL2, the character animation was ropey at best. the cycles were average and whenever Alyx was performing in front of you, she was twinning badly. Thats the only thing that pulled me out of the game.
Yep, hardly anyone bothers to re-sync an entire game from its native language, if they do you normally you'll get low level stuff that's easy to farm out, but despite what Blenderhead thinks, facial expressions and lip sync aren't all that easy to do especially a few times over for different langs. Unless hes talking about parsing sound or text files like Fallout, or Mass Effect. But that's normally fugly and not really doing the work.
Especially with real time restrictions and lots of dialog, that's no easy task.
It gets a little easier if you're doing pre-rendered work and can use a mish mash of methods, bones, morphs, control board bla blba lba. What they're able to pull off now in source, is much more realistic and easy to work with, but its still a bitch.
I think there is a small amount of fudging that goes on when they localize but I don't think the same care is ever given. It's also hard to sync for another language that isn't your native lang.
part of HL2's appeal could be attributed to the same thing that makes World of Warcraft appeal to so many people over other games: it ran/runs on your machine. you didn't need a brand new 300$ video card to play HL2 like you did with Doom3.
the graphics were good.
Alyx was one the best portrayed females characters in any game.
the story was good and present unlike Doom3's boast of hiring a scifi author then having no story outside the first 10 minutes.
the game play and enviroments were varied and flowed into each other in a realistic way.
Re5, Could be because the voices were japanese to begin with? Or am i making shit up again?
Naw, it is definitely synching to the american track (I think some games in Japan are released with American voice work because its more 'cinematic' and they just read the subtitles) but I think the problem was, the animators are obviously not native english speakers. But it was still ridiculously broad. In the last trailer there, there is some footage of Wesker towards the end, and the lip-synch is bloody brutal. A person would rip a muscle if they talked like that.
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(half life 1, you opened a portal to dimension FUXORZ and your fighting between realities which was cool!)
half life 2, evil nazi dictator took over? Many of the guys you were fighting that couldnt speak any English now speak perfect English or whatever? Combine apparently can use/ control those giant alien/dimensional aliens?
Can someone tell me where between episode 1-2 that this has happened? maybe the expansion episodes explained this but I never thought much to buy the episodes to really get into it, I did enjoy portal/ TF2 but half life was fun for online multiplayer at the time.
But dunno got me as well people
I have personal preferences - for example, I like making choices and talking to people most, but I don't care so much about graphics. Vampire: the Masquerade - Bloodlines, a game that came out at pretty much exactly the same time, is probably worse over the board than HL2, but it hit the sweet spots for me and so I like it much better.
So how does that work for you guys? How can a game that's just good overall be the best game ever?
i completed ep1 in a couple of evenings and really enjoyed it and im half way through ep2 but have put it on hold cos my 360 has no sound system attached so i dont want to spoil it.
it has an interesting world, thats really been thought about its not a walking cliche like most other fps's
comparitavly
The basic gameplay, though, was hitscan turret combine soldiers and the magical medpack journey. Did not age well at all.
No, the graphics were not top notch. Visually, they were good. In my opinion, the graphics allowed just enough quality to display a very large and detailed environment...but still maintain the optimization required to play on consumer priced low-end machinery of that time. You didn't need to buy the latest and greatest graphics card to play it. With the settings low, it was still and enjoyable experience. Thus, the Steam hardware surveys Vavle collects. I believe, this allowed Valve to hit a much wider demographic of systems and players, giving them the high sales mark they achieved.
Animation was another bar HL2 set higher. Facial animation, fluid movement animations, the Strider's animations. Eyes that follow characters and objects of interest.
Useful physics objects. Not just physics demonstrations. I loved knocking objects loose and throwing or swinging them down on enemies. Without the use of a cutscene. Watching energy blasts bouncing off walls, etc. Throwing enemies at enemies. All very new refreshing experiences to the genre. Using the environment as a weapon. Solving simple physics puzzles. All in a fashion that felt natural and well placed.
The sounds. The sounds of HL2 are very familiar, easy to identify. The music is awesome...for all Valve games.
You could take each individual prop/character/effect in HL2, and judge it's low quality. But, when all those assets were placed together into a whole environment, it made for a very atmostpheric and immersive setting. It wasn't just cool eye candy thrown into square hallways and doors. It felt like I was in a living world.
Alyx was a really annoying character
But, she was a character with a personality. Consider the level and quality of AI interaction in FPS games at the time. And voice acting. Without the use of scripted cutscenes. Can't think of many. Even Dog has personality...without any use of words. Gordon wasn't voiced by some cheesy Duke Nukem/Serious Sam/Marcus Pheonix overacting one-liner badass. Just a guy in a suit who I control at all times. Again, adding to the immersive quality of the game. Games at the time, and today, had just about the depth of storyline and quality of acting as a Uwe Boll film. Such as Far Cry. Which just so happens to be a Uwe Boll film.
I couldn't find anything interesting
Valve has shared their philosophy in designing fun levels. No constant boring hallways, whether covered in slime, or generic SciFi pillars. Resourceful AI enemies that don't always rush a bee line towards you when noticed. The environments had variation. One chapter you're in the city, the next, a twisting road, a coastline, a village filled with zombies, a river, a sewage pipeline, underground, a scifi tower, etc. After you complete the game, it feels like you just completed a long journy. Plus, you've driven cool vehicles along the way. It didn't feel like those vehicles were just conveniently placed for you. They were provided by appealing characters. Unlike, walking into a random street corner, and jumping into a nearly indestructible suit of mech armor...that just happened to be there...waiting. No, it was all part of a consistent storyline.
Worthy of mention, I played through HL2 soon after its release. My gf sat in an uncomfortable chair next to my desk and watched me play through every moment of it. That's something that can only be said about very few popular adventure games. Not often heard about for FPS games.
Also, while Ep1 wasn't an amazing experience, Ep2 definitely is. Ep1 is still worth playing tho for the level of interaction with an AI character. As mentioned, HL2 accomplished everything well across the board, providing for a very solid, refined and consistent gameplay experience within a genre that wasn't taken as seriously.
Now, try to keep up!
Half Life 2, for me is in many ways still the best game to date.
At times it felt not like a half life game, kind of "hard to believe thats the sequel".
From the opening scene to the first steps in city 17, The Leveldesign is pretty excellent, delivering beautiful lighting and atmosphere (at the time, still it pretty good imo).
Overall the game is extremly coherent, visually well designed in respect to gameplay, occasional story tie ins of gameplay, lovely motivated voiceacting, well designed and iconic sound (HEV charger, Medpacks, Revolver), scripted sequences on masse. Wohaaa, its so great on many levels!
Just take a look at the whole set pieces, the props, how well they work together and how nicely they are designed within the world. And its not many props they use. its just simply very well designed.
The core gameplay is relatively simple. But I give it to Valve, they made good choices with the weapons, they feel good, sound good, they are varied and placed well (or the ammo of ) within the levels. Gravity Gun was one of the fricken best weapons to be ever included in a game. It fun, its simple and random ! Obviously the Leveldesign takes the most credit for making the gameplay fun, presenting you with interesting situations like Ambush, Defend, Infiltrate, Exploration, Puzzlesolving, Squad, etc...
But, as with any game, there are some downers of course. Volitgaunts feel odd in the world, agreed. Some puzzle levels are not working for me, funwise (I hate electrified water and narrow paths). Others worked very well for me, overall i felt it was tidious at time solving the puzzles over and over again, when failing. But thats me using a xbox 360 controller.
As far as Orange Box Xbox 360 goes. I bought it too. Lets face it, Valve is a PC developer in first place, thats their fans, their investment, their success. Half Life 2 is defintly not a console game, as mentioned earlier. If you want to enjoy the game the way it meant to be played, play hard mode with mouse and keyboard on PC. Its also one of the rare games, where the AI is really tough, intelligent and responsive in Hard mode, unlike many game which simply gives you a handicap or similar.
As I said, the game feels a bit tidious with controller, especially the puzzles.
Last level of Ep2 was a chore with controller. it was clearly designed for PC.
But yeah, i think its really a great series and I hope Valve manages to bring us Ep3 soon, after Ep2 was really fucking awesome
To everyone struggling with Ep1, just get it over with to enjoy the goodness that Ep2 is :P
Its simple, i judge a game as the whole experience, and for me, HL2 was a very fun, tense, immersive experience. The best game that i had played since HL1 was HL2. Ep1 i actually stopped halfway through because there was a bit too much filler it seemed, when ep2 came out, it was awesome, the best game i had played since HL2. I actually finally ran through the entirety of EP1 after EP2, to me EP1 was a bit of a let down, but EP2 captured that same magic.
Many games have had excellent systems, brilliant segments, or amazing visuals, etc, but you'de have a hard time arguing that most of them are the best game ever, or even in the top 20. Singular components do not make a quality game to me.
I'm not saying everyone should love it, being such a hugely popular game its only natural that some people will not really enjoy it. I also think a small amount of this is like, reverse hype, people hear so much or put off playing it so long, and constantly hear about it from fanboys that when they actually get around to playing it, its impossible to live up to the hype.
Also, anyone who says they played HL2 on a console should immediately retrack thier opinion, thats like saying you would never want to own a BMW, because you have a friend who put in a 67 VW bug's engine into his 2006 M5, and it ran like shit.
The use of normal maps within the game was well done. Usually subtle enough that you didn't always notice they were being used. Character normal maps were quite a bit weaker though due to how subtle they tended to be.
Lot's of games released in the meantime took inspiration in HL2.
No matter what people say, HL2 will always be a mark in this gens games!
I still like replaying it sometimes, I don't know. Level design, immersion...
I find it really ironic that so many people talk about the story because up until EP2 there really was no story. It was all random mish-moshed chaos. It took a totally different game (portal) to come along and invent reasons for the story to exist, then whimmy wham wham wozzle, all of a sudden all that new shit was magically retconned into HL.
I complete agree that the gameplay felt like a total chore, it felt very slapped together (ravenholm...where the hell did that come from? We never know who the crazy guy is and we never see or hear from him again? Did they just desperately want a zombie town?) and random a lot of the time, and if you look at any one object for more than 10 seconds you see how completely sub-par the artwork is.
And none of that "pretty for the time" bullshit. There's a big difference between really good art and new(ish) tech (water effects, physics, ragdoll) and what's funny is if you take the blinders off you'll find that all of these features were in other games at the time or before.
There's this ridiculous cult that surrounds some games and I'll never understand what forms it, but the herd mentality it creates is mind bogglingly frustrating.
HL2 still looks nice even though its age and that's due to top art direction it had
attacking? I havent seen anyone criticize the op for his opinion, at least not in a serious tone, and people like EQ are actually making good points, ironically I did find your post a bit rude
If I remember correctly (and I could be way off) the first half of the game is about getting out of the city, being chased out. Then you reenter the city and take down those who chased you out. Ravenholm is part of the area around the city you explore while you're out.
It was pretty cool to see what it was like outside of the tightly controlled city. The priest guy does explain who he is and explains he's going to stay in the town when you leave. You might have blown through the area and missed those parts? That can happen when they don't rip control out of your hands and force you to listen to them blabber for 2min in some horrible in game cut scene, like every other game. Looking at you Assassins Creed.
My best advice is play episode 1 and 2 there pretty awesome episode 2 is the best in the series of the episodes so far.
now that's just too much :poly127:
The levels in Quake were fun and full of imagination.
Most of the content in HL2 were not (for me).
So I have trouble seeing why it was so highly rated.
Reminds me of NWN, where after building that engine for x years, they failed miserably at making a fun game out of it, and most of the players had more fun with the player made content than the official campaign, which was boring beyond belief.
Are you sure?
It was the game's great pacing and subtle exposition that drew me in. Instead of telling you via cutscene that you are an average citizen ruled by an oppressive dictatorship, they threw you into that world and let you experience it. The way the plot was slowly revealed and kept slightly vague reminds me of Shadow of the Colossus. You get enough story to keep you interested, but are never bombarded by the lead designer's need to explain everything to the player. Having not played HL1, it left a lot to the imagination.
The designers did a great job of varying the player's tasks, and gave a linear world a non-linear feeling. The sound design is solid too, the world and physics objects had a great sense of depth. Also, Doctor Breen's "instinct" speech is some of the finest writing I've seen in a game.
Who was attacking?
Do you ever make a post that doesnt have something to do with "herd mentality"? Honestly, are you one of those emo little kids who thinks that they are a big non-conformist because they constantly take the counter opinion on, oh i dont know, virtually every topic?
Here´s an example.
http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,668202/Screenshots-of-Half-Life-2-texture-mod-Cinematic-Mod-95-compare-with-original-graphics/Imagegallery/
Oh and guys. Ravenholm was amazing. Father gregori was brilliant. If you haven´t reached that part of Half life 2 you´re in for a treat. That´s like videogame history right there and it´s probably the best area in the game for me.
I want to reply more to Sandbag...but then again, he's entirely missed the point...and the conversation. Thanks for attacking those who are simply answering a question. Hypocrisy?
If you want to try again...check out this timeline of events. http://members.shaw.ca/halflifestory/timeline.htm
If it doesn't suit you...continue playing FarCry 2.
Not to stir the pot or anything because it's all in good fun and I don't take anything to heart but I think Sandbag might have been referring more to some of the comments from when i posted my opinion and others joked about it. :P.
All of you have convinced me to give the HL another chance (3rd time's the charm after all). So after I finish off Fallout 3 I will go through the original HL again and then onto HL2.
Oh and @Jackwhat, I think people aren't stepping up to say other games is because this is a thread about HL2 and people want to stay on-topic for the most part :P. Just because someone can't make something better or offer up an example of something better doesn't mean they don't know that they don't like something.
For me I just seemed to become very bored playing it very quickly is all. Just because it was a different world with every level didn't mean they were fun to play through. But everyone has their own taste and i am definitely in the minority here as has been shown
Oh and |Buddy|, hahaha just wanted to say
"non-stop killing gallery shootfests is my bet."
"There must be somethign wrong with you...that like saying you hate Videogame Jesus"
"now thats a big joke. doom 3 more enjoyable? that must've been one of the worst troll-in-a-box shooters ever. "
"I guess if you are the sort of gamer who needs 300 kills per hour, HL2 would seem dull. "
That not good enough? It's ok if it's not, the heard comes in to attack anyway. Some of you guys are pretty funny little sheep. I hate to burst the fantasy but I'm not of the goth appearance either, nor an angry fattie or a lazy pothead. It's funny how some of you can come at me with a theory that I'm exactly what you're acting out.
Sorry if "attacked" is to harsh of a word, I just dont like being treated like a retard so I see that kind of treatment in a pretty negative light.
The game can be obsolete now, but it's a good game actually.
I'm still waiting to see more titles with the quality of Crysis, but i think Crytek walks like with 20 steps of advantage. I don't see games as before, and with so high quality levels of graphics like crysis, is very hard to play old games. Graphics are not all in a game, mmorgps are visually... err ya know, and we play them.
Funny how we forget the basics as we get older. This isn't necessarily aimed at you, but it felt like a good time to insert into what was a pretty civil thread.
Man, how about those sewer tunnels with the pimped out hover-scooter-whatever. That made the game un-replayable for me right there and then. I hated that part so much, that I'd never play the game again even though Ravenholm is the best map ever created for any game ever.
most people might say that HL2 is dated now that its 2009, but shit. I still love it. I still love HL! I still play HL1 every 2 years or so.
Ive met a lot of people whom never playing any of the Half-lifes; pick it up , and love it or hate it. Who knows, personal taste. mabey depends on how much you like FPS
But shit man, my favorite games of all time for sure.
how many times did you play through an action set piece, and once it was done blow yourself up with your own grenade launcher so you'd go through it again? I did this almost constantly. Often it was cos i thought i'd lost too much health or too much ammo and felt it could be done better, but just as often because it was just bloody good fun.
that said - just finished ep1, but not once did i do the grenade-replay thing. All the set pieces seemed like rehashes or just horribly contrived (knock a car into the ant lion hole ... but this time there are three holes and three cars but - aha! - the cars are increasingly well hidden) ... and whats the point in replaying a section to come through with better health when you know there's three hundred health packs and an infinite ammo crate around the next corner? Boo
pulled down ep2 immediately after and cranked through about an hour of it - its ace so far. Looks lovely too.
Solid Gameplay
Unmatched Style
Character Balance
Great Level Design
Free/Constant Updates
As far as Half-Life is concerned...meh, it's a good game, but I could never really get too into it.
Don't forget the 2 hours of enjoyment that Portal brings to the table also.
It's all about the Teee Efff Tewww!
-N
- the CINEMATIC experience!
- GRAVITY GUN!!! OMG revolutionary! Along with your just-as-revolutionary smg (machinegun #1),pulse rifle (machinegun #2) shotgun, grenades (this time they ROLL for REAL), crowbar, pistol (pistol #1), magnum (pistol #2), rpg and crossbow. Hornet gun? Egon gun? Gauss gun? Satchels? pft who needs those, they require timing and thinking.
- DX9 reflective water! THIS IS DONE RIGHT! I mean just one water surface!
- Real lifelike facial expressions and lip sync!
- EASIEST most versatile engine ever! (This is press hype, it's actually one of the worst pipelines to work with lately. Thanks to the hype of the engine we have a load of dead 'blah some ip: Source' mods that can't find artists or coders.)
- INSTANT LOAD TIMES (more press hype)
- ALYX the most iconic VIDEO GAME WOMAN to hit the history of video gaming
- the only game where you play THE ONE FREE MAN which is better than master chief, jack carver, doomguy, and all those wannabes like master chief.
- Valve made it, they made half-life and they "made" counter-strike so everything they make is gold!!
- not only that but the engine is WRITTEN from SCRATCH! (a silly lie from e3 2003, still inherits quake code such as most of the bsp format, player physics, etc)
- no HL2DM (at the time), but a remade Counter-Strike as CS:Source so it's BEST THING SINCE SLICED BRED!
- HL: Source with Silver/Gold editions puts detail texture, ragdolls and SHINY WATER in Half-Life!
- NO BUGS WHATSOEVER! (hyped at release. mmm audio stutters, validations, clipping errors, and sounds getting stuck oh my. there's still some fatal bugs in the current version too.)
note, the above is 2004 talking, and how things were percieved at the time. It really took away from the spotlight of Far Cry, UT2004 and Doom3 (ugh PC GAMER review score gauging)
hl2:lost coast, hl2:ep1, portal and hl2:ep2 are also hyped more than its worth, the only recent valve product that deserves the recognition is TF2 IMO
TF (Quake)
Quake3 Fortress
TFC (HL1)
Unreal Fortress
And then what, how many years for TF2? So yeah I would kind of hope it would be a really well polished developer-mod.
Like Leilei said with CS: Source (as well as DoD: Source and Portal), it's funny to see Valve get so much credit for stuff bought, or bought and remade...
Valve did hire a lot of the people that made those mods, including the original team fortress developers.
Gotta disagree with you there. Lip-synching is easy (and I have never seen a game do it well; but at least HL2 does it better than Resident Evil 5) and can't really be called good animation. As much as I love HL2, the character animation was ropey at best. the cycles were average and whenever Alyx was performing in front of you, she was twinning badly. Thats the only thing that pulled me out of the game.
That cinematic mod looks bloody nice.
Especially with real time restrictions and lots of dialog, that's no easy task.
It gets a little easier if you're doing pre-rendered work and can use a mish mash of methods, bones, morphs, control board bla blba lba. What they're able to pull off now in source, is much more realistic and easy to work with, but its still a bitch.
I think there is a small amount of fudging that goes on when they localize but I don't think the same care is ever given. It's also hard to sync for another language that isn't your native lang.
the graphics were good.
Alyx was one the best portrayed females characters in any game.
the story was good and present unlike Doom3's boast of hiring a scifi author then having no story outside the first 10 minutes.
the game play and enviroments were varied and flowed into each other in a realistic way.
Naw, it is definitely synching to the american track (I think some games in Japan are released with American voice work because its more 'cinematic' and they just read the subtitles) but I think the problem was, the animators are obviously not native english speakers. But it was still ridiculously broad. In the last trailer there, there is some footage of Wesker towards the end, and the lip-synch is bloody brutal. A person would rip a muscle if they talked like that.