Topic: Half Life 2

[PaLaDiN]

If you haven't seen the reviews at IGN and Gamespot yet, go and check them now.

Anyway, I'm thinking that with this and Metroid Prime 2, I'll be getting the best of what the current generation has to offer.

Just one problem though. Does anybody know if it has subtitles?

[KDR_11k]

I've already read a review (of the final build, of course) in a magazine, a month ago.

So far it doesn't sound very interesting. It's said to be strong in the story and atmosphere department, the gameplay rarely gets a mention (only that the gravgun is fun to use but if that's all I'll just get the Doom 3 gravgun mod). Since I'm pretty immune to atmosphere (to me Eternal Darkness = Diablo 2 and Doom 3 = Quake 1) I don't expect the game to wow me much.

[PaLaDiN]

"It's said to be strong in the story and atmosphere department, the gameplay rarely gets a mention (only that the gravgun is fun to use but if that's all I'll just get the Doom 3 gravgun mod)."

Have you seen the physics engine in this game? I doubt a simple mod could do all the stuff this thing does.

I'm thinking the reason gameplay isn't mentioned is because it's a given that it rocks, same as Half-Life. If it didn't live up to the first one you could bet there'd be a whole lot of bitching. Plus, with a multiplayer component  that's arguably a repackaging of the best FPS multiplayer ever, I don't see how gameplay could go wrong.

[KDR_11k]

Have you seen Doom 3's physics engine? It's not like D3 doesn't have one, it's probably on par with HL2's except for Doom 3's more accurate collision model (per-poly as opposed to hitboxes). Okay, HL2's levels are designed with a gravgun in mind but that's nothing that cannot be fixed.

[Polemistis]

The Half-Life 2 physics engine is the best I've ever seen.

[Hostile Creation]

The Half-life engine seems very well developed and I intend to get it, but it's kind of sad that it took them six years to make it.  I like what they've done, but I give them no credit for originality (everyone knew this would come eventually).
That being said, I'll probably be getting this.  Because in spite of what annoys me, it still looks to be an awesome game.

[AMac2002]

Yup, game looks amazing, getting some great reviews. I'm not in too much of a rush to get it, so I'll probably just ask for it for christmas rather that run to the store anytime soon.

[vudu]

I've been banging my head against the wall for the past week waiting for this game.  Last year I got an ATI Radeon 9600 XT which came with a coupon for a free copy of Half-Life 2.  When I entered the PIN into Steam last week I got an error message saying that the PIN had already been registered to a Steam account.  This is not good, considering I only scratched off the grey box minutes before entering the PIN into Steam.  Now I get to sit around waiting for an ATI customer service representative to get around to fixing the situation.  Pity me.

[mantidor]

I bought the ati 9600 too and I had no problems getting it from Steam.

The game is nice, but I dont see the "superb" physics engine being put to some gameplay use except when I piled boxes to reach tall areas, something Ive been doing in Zelda since Ocarina of Time. Actually I found many things inspired from Nintendo games, like raising and lowering the water level, there are many others but scape my mind right now.

Overall a nice game, the graphics are awesome and it really helps enhancing the atmosphere, but the game loads too often and the load time lasts too long, something that kills the inmersion you had in the game. Is kind of a minor problem but I think its worth mentioning.

[Uglydot]

I got HL2 the day it came out via steam no problem.  The game is probably one of the best FPS games I have ever played on my PC.