HL2 IGN review

L5

9.7


http://pc.ign.com

Tusky

theres no review up...

secret_squirrel

oh yes it is!

tman

http://pc.ign.com/articles/566/566202p1.html

Dont be at yourself

Haha, I gotta use that chat-up line in your signature tman.

LizardKing

heres direct link ( I think )

http://pc.ign.com/articles/566/566202p1.html?fromint=1

jesus_thats_gre

Interestin review!!

DirtyDog

no MP included? wtf?!

tman

you catch on quick

KdjaCL

DirtyDog wrote:

no MP included? wtf?!

LOL

9.7 when the damn thing finally fukkin installs and steam finsihes doing whatever the hell its doing i may comment on the review score.

kdjac

KdjaCL

this a great game.

kdjac

Giblet

KdjaC wrote:

this a great game.

kdjac

I feel your pain :<

Big Nelly

KdjaC wrote:

this a great game.

kdjac

IS this happening if you bought from Steam or is it just the shops versions???

Giblet

Shop version for me.

Giblet

I restarted and it works

RuggieBear

That ****ing sucks Giblet....tis 9ish east coast USA now so thats another big pop centre getting ready to steam it up.... :eek:

bizmark

Hmm what a massive **** up on behalf of valve they better have it fixed by the time i get the game in a few hours

RuggieBear

bizmark wrote:

Hmm what a massive **** up on behalf of valve they better have it fixed by the time i get the game in a few hours

have to admit that initially i was very impressed as everything went smoothly for me but i think i'd be pulling my hair pout if i got that bull**** message....

KdjaCL

PLAY GAME !!!!!!!!!!!


3 hours bleedin later


kdjac

bizmark

Of course you would its horrible haveing a game you can’t play because of an avoidable problem or problem with the game /me looks at my unusable copy of football manager 2005 until it’s patched and crys

Stephen

woot!

BKtje

kdjac. When that came up i got the option to play now even tho i wasnt subscribed or whatever. Weird. (shop version btw)

Moojuice

so you need an internet connectiuon to play the game? I havent got connected in my place yet but hopefully the new place I move to will be easier to get broadband in.

Moo

Hobbes

Heres my review.

Steam = probably short for "A steaming pile of crap". It has guaranteed that I will never buy another game that requires steam.

Installing = Annoying. From what I can see it installs over the net, which is slow enough on broadband. I pity any SOBs on 56k modem. Add to that it isn't very helpful and would have a kid tearing his hair out. For example I had to install HL2 a second time because Steam didn't see it on the disk and wouldn't register my key.

Did I mention how crap Steam was? Just want to make sure thats clear.

Game/Loading = Horribly slow. At one point I thought it had crashed as there is nothing to show that it hasn't crashed. The game revolves around shooting a few baddies then load screen, then a few baddies and load screen again. I am sure all the fanbois won't notice this as they will be spending 2 hours in each level seeing what things they can pick up.

Game/Storyline = I am at a complete loss as to what the heck is going on. If it wasn't for the linear maps I would still be wandering around the train station. Is there an actual storyline that can fill me in at some point in the game? or as the man said I already drank the water?

Appears some areas require thinking as well.. this does not bode well to the twitch community. The linear gameplay also makes it feel a bit dated (rarely play linear games TBH).

Game/AI = About average. It isn't stupid in some cases. In others it is. For example I was pinned down so the SOBs lobbed in tons of grenades at me. In another instance I was pinned down in a house and rather do the same thing I just mowed them down as they came to the doorway.

The helper AI is ok'ish too. The units helping you are a pain in the backside and immensely stupid. The ant army absolutly rocks though. Had a good laugh with them.

Game/Weapons = Again ok'ish. One point..

The gravity gun looks like it was only created in the game to show off the new graphics engine.

.

Game/Crafts = I have only been in two so far. The boat and the buggy. I found the boat extremly annoying, I don't know why but after about 20 minutes I was waiting for the pain to end and each "Loading" I was screaming "ENOUGH ALREADY".

The buggy was fun though.

Game/Graphics+Sound = This is where the game shines. The graphics are astounding. Seriously haven't seen anything this good outside of one of those movie intros. The physics also makes it intresting as well.

Overall = If it didn't have Steam I would give it a 9/10 but for Steam and insane amount of loading 7/10.

RuggieBear

I agree with most of your review there Hobbes but i thought i'd add my 2 ill thought-out cents....:)

Hobbes wrote:

Heres my review.

Steam = probably short for "A steaming pile of crap". It has guaranteed that I will never buy another game that requires steam.

I had absolutely no problems with Steam but a lot of people seem to be having nightmares with it.

Hobbes wrote:

Installing = Annoying. From what I can see it installs over the net, which is slow enough on broadband. I pity any SOBs on 56k modem. Add to that it isn't very helpful and would have a kid tearing his hair out. For example I had to install HL2 a second time because Steam didn't see it on the disk and wouldn't register my key.

Did I mention how crap Steam was? Just want to make sure thats clear.

My install took 25mins with BB...thought that was a bit ****e. not sure if it was the dowloading or the installation that was taking so long as it wasn't really clear to me. God help 56k'ers:eek:

Hobbes wrote:

Game/Loading = Horribly slow. At one point I thought it had crashed as there is nothing to show that it hasn't crashed. The game revolves around shooting a few baddies then load screen, then a few baddies and load screen again. I am sure all the fanbois won't notice this as they will be spending 2 hours in each level seeing what things they can pick up.

I thought my machine had crashed too when loading up initially...As nice as the title screens are (very pretty), i would trade in the 40 or so secionds it takes to load (on my aging machine) for a static menu/options which loaded instantly. I thought a gig of RAM would reduce the loading times within each level and often takes 10-15 seconds which is just long enough to destroy your immersion within the game.

Hobbes wrote:

Game/Storyline = I am at a complete loss as to what the heck is going on. If it wasn't for the linear maps I would still be wandering around the train station. Is there an actual storyline that can fill me in at some point in the game? or as the man said I already drank the water?
Appears some areas require thinking as well.. this does not bode well to the twitch community. The linear gameplay also makes it feel a bit dated (rarely play linear games TBH).

I agree. Had a vague notion what the story was but it wasn't particularly clear. as for the ending...

WTF? and i'll repeat this....WTF!!!?

Hobbes wrote:

Game/AI = About average. It isn't stupid in some cases. In others it is. For example I was pinned down so the SOBs lobbed in tons of grenades at me. In another instance I was pinned down in a house and rather do the same thing I just mowed them down as they came to the doorway.

The helper AI is ok'ish too. The units helping you are a pain in the backside and immensely stupid. The ant army absolutly rocks though. Had a good laugh with them.

Agree 100%. Also with the units helping you...

Notice how when they are killed they are more or less immeadiately replaced and notice how there is no friendly fire and the important NPCs can only be killed at set piece defensive moments and not in general gameplay

Hobbes wrote:

Game/Weapons = Again ok'ish. One point..

The gravity gun looks like it was only created in the game to show off the new graphics engine.

.

I thought they sounded brilliant...as for your point

did you mean physics engine? I found the gravity gun only levels a bit boring

Hobbes wrote:

Game/Crafts = I have only been in two so far. The boat and the buggy. I found the boat extremly annoying, I don't know why but after about 20 minutes I was waiting for the pain to end and each "Loading" I was screaming "ENOUGH ALREADY".

The buggy was fun though.

Agree about the boat level being looooong....also found the buggy level got a bit boring after a while but still the initial thrill of the vehicles was brilliant

Hobbes wrote:

Game/Graphics+Sound = This is where the game shines. The graphics are astounding. Seriously haven't seen anything this good outside of one of those movie intros. The physics also makes it intresting as well.

Agree 100%.

Hobbes wrote:

Overall = If it didn't have Steam I would give it a 9/10 but for Steam and insane amount of loading 7/10.

I had no problems with Steam:) and i can kinda understand the loading time coz this engine will be around for a little while, in future games that will need ultra modern powerful machines to play.....

monument

Hobbes wrote:

Steam = probably short for "A steaming pile of crap". It has guaranteed that I will never buy another game that requires steam.

And if Steam keeps doing it's main job, as apprently it has done so-far, nobody will never get another game that requires Steam without buying it.

secret_squirrel

Finally got my copy unlocked today (had since Tues) - really not impressed with the length of time it took 15+ mins - anyone know if this is due to bandwidth for downloading the uncrippling code or is it de-encrypting the files after they codes have been downloaded? If its the first I pity any modem users....

Hobbes

monument wrote:

And if Steam keeps doing it's main job, as apprently it has done so-far, nobody will never get another game that requires Steam without buying it.

It is simple. I will not buy any game that uses Steam. Being forced to register your game to your registration key (by logging in) just having to play single player is pure stupidty.

There is also rumours that Steam will go subscription based at some stage. So you want to play CS2 your going to have to pay.

Squirrel, it is based on the download.

Btw... Either the Steam forums are total crap as well or they are actively banning people. I post my comments on the forum, 1 minute later I am banned with a "Server Busy". I open up IE (no cookies) and can read the forums fine in that browser. Log in, locked out again.

So I cleaned all the cookies and I can log in again for about a minute then bam, locked out again.

Hard to tell if it is intentional or just piss poor forum coding.

Anima

If you add "-console" to the launch options for hl2, it will get rid of that loading when you first start the game.