pbmax@Posted: Tue Apr 11, 2006 6:49 pm :
http://ep1.half-life2.com/

how many of you are going to buy this?



Blitz@Posted: Wed Apr 19, 2006 3:50 am :
I will likely buy it. Unless the reviews are really terrible which I doubt.



pbmax@Posted: Wed Apr 19, 2006 2:26 pm :
i'm the other way around. i'll buy it if it gets amazing reviews, but if its pretty much the same as hl2 i'll probably pass.



The Happy Friar@Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2006 1:03 am :
i'm not. ti many bad experiences with HL2, Steam, Valve Tech Support & the Steam forums.

and dialup has nothing to do with it. :D



Eddie@Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 8:20 am :
I'll definately buy it, as long as someone finds a way to play it without steam, like I do with HL2! :lol:



BNA!@Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 8:27 am :
I'd really love to play HL2, but still no one can convince me to install Steam.
Tried the HL2 steam demo and never really developed much love for Steam.

The demo itself was fun tho.



BloodRayne@Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 8:41 am :
I've been playing a bit of HL2 this weekend and yesterday, up to the point of Nova Prospekt. Like the first runthrough I'm pretty much *really* dissapointed with the gameplay and constant loadingscreens. Driving, Floating, running and crouching sounds good on paper but the execution was flawed to such extent that it just becomes annoying for me to have to constantly hop onto vehicles and dodge silly gravity puzzles. HL2 is based solely on gimmicks imo. and lacks a solid gameplay experience, or atleast the gameplay experience that I'm looking for.

I have no idea whatsoever how Doom3 can get such silly reviews about archaic gameplay compared to HL2 when HL2 is clearly undergoing a huge identity crisis in the gameplay departement. The common perspective on gameplay is skewed to such an extent that I see most of the reviewers as a flock of sheep running after each others asses in order to consolidate their reviews and make sure not to fall out of tone.

Grab any review on HL2 and you'll see shouting about 'amazing' gameplay where any Doom3 review will use the words 'bland' gameplay, where nothing less is true. Simply put, Doom3 puts you on the edge of your seat, HL2 doesn't. HL2 is a rehash of different gameplay styles roled into one leaving me with a skewed and awkward gameplay experience with many annoyances due to it's execution; not to mention the bad...*BAD* graphics and visuals.

Nope, sorry to digress about HL2's gameplay but that was enough to make me not want to buy any expansion that comes out for it. I was absolutely thrilled about HL1 but HL2 failed imo.



Eddie@Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 9:16 am :
BNA! wrote:
I'd really love to play HL2, but still no one can convince me to install Steam...


You can play HL2 without steam, :wink: - just need to do a bit of google searching.



BNA!@Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 9:58 am :
Eddie wrote:
BNA! wrote:
I'd really love to play HL2, but still no one can convince me to install Steam...


You can play HL2 without steam, :wink: - just need to do a bit of google searching.


True - but I want "out of the box support" for "out of the box" playability.

I can google the hell out of everything, which is exactely what I don't want to do. Go to store -> buy game -> go home -> install -> play instead of doing a gazillion things.

I can even purchase pretty expensive software online which I can burn on a CD without having to install weird clients.



Eddie@Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 11:12 am :
Yeah I know what you mean, I totally agree.

I think at least they could've done is make steam optional and just do a once off cd check/activation thing online, it's only a single player game! Steam for multiplayer games makes sense but it's ridiculous you have to play a single player offline game yet be connected to the internet.



BloodRayne@Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 12:30 pm :
Eddie wrote:
Yeah I know what you mean, I totally agree.

I think at least they could've done is make steam optional and just do a once off cd check/activation thing online, it's only a single player game! Steam for multiplayer games makes sense but it's ridiculous you have to play a single player offline game yet be connected to the internet.


You don't have to be connected to the internet for playing the game. Only for unlocking the gamefiles.



Eddie@Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 1:16 pm :
I have two steam accounts on two different computers and it would never let me play offline for some reason, I don't know if it was a bug that's been fixed by now or what but it wouldn't let me play offline.

Still...even if it does work by now, it doesn't change the fact that I just don't like being forced to use Valve's adware. :lol:



3j@Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 2:25 pm :
I actually really like steam. Preloading of the game, instant playability as soon as the game is released. No sitting at the computer swapping cd's in and out to install a game. If you buy online you don't have to keep track of install CD's or DVD, or even your CD Key, steam remembers it all for you.

Automatic updates, no more manual downloading of point releases ( or manual removal of point releases, e.g. Quake 4 1.1 ).

I've never had any problem with steam, and it's been nothing but a major convenience for me.



BNA!@Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 5:09 pm :
3j wrote:
I've never had any problem with steam, and it's been nothing but a major convenience for me.


Steam itself isn't a bad idea - if you are comfortable with the underlying concept of Steam then it does the trick for you (as long as you life in a broadband country).

I foresee this distribution method to become continually more popular in the near future - only benefits for the selling party.



pbmax@Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 8:04 pm :
the boat and driving levels in hl2 were nothing but filler to make the game longer. i don't mind drivng around for 15 minutes, its fun. but driving on a boat for an hour or more in a linear map is BORING.

anyway, i'll probably pass on the hl2 episodes . i'm to the point where i'll only buy id games and other truely great games (which means only about one a year).

i wonder how the episodes will sell?



parsonsbear@Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 8:22 pm :
I agree about steam being, well, a steaming pile of crap when it comes to slowly dowloading updates that keep me from playing the game when I feel like it.

OTOH, they have made a nice platform for mod dev support- and as a disto system for smaller developers, it has promise. Hard to say if it would work without the hook that is HL2 to get people to opt into the system. People don't really think about steam's marketing aspects- i'd almost call it adware.



Vladimir@Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 9:26 pm :
I think I’ll buy it. Although, I agree with most of you about many things in HL2, somehow I think that “Valve” will offer us this time a bit different game play concept. HL2 is looking to me like nice game engine presentation and nothing more than that. But since they are working on “Episode ONE” pretty long, I’d like to believe that this time they will offer us (except visual improvements) more interesting game play concept. We’ll see… ;)



goliathvt@Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 3:13 pm :
I was giving thought to buying this until I saw the Feature list:

Quote:
* An all-new episode for one of the best-selling action games of all time.
* Discover what’s become of City 17, Dr. Breen, and the G-Man.
* Incredibly advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI).
* Highly detailed environments, featuring High Dynamic Range lighting, provide amazing gameplay settings.
* Digital Actors: The most sophisticated in-game characters ever witnessed.
* Physical Gameplay: Objects obey the laws of gravity, friction, and buoyancy.
* Design Team Commentary Mode.
* Also includes two multiplayer games: Half-Life 2 Deathmatch and Half-Life Deathmatch: SourceTM.
* Half-Life 2 not required to play.


Could they be any more self-glorifying? Overstate much?

I mean, honestly, let's look at the feature set for HL2, also from their website:

Quote:
The intense, real-time gameplay of Half-Life 2 is made possible only by Source®, Valve's new proprietary engine technology. Source provides major enhancements in:

Characters - Advanced facial animation system delivers the most sophisticated in-game characters ever seen. With 40 distinct facial "muscles," human characters convey the full array of human emotion, and respond to the player with fluidity and intelligence.

Physics - From pebbles to water to 2-ton trucks respond as expected, as they obey the laws of mass, friction, gravity, and buoyancy.

Graphics - Source’s shader-based renderer, like the one used at Pixar to create movies such as Toy Story® and Monster's, Inc.®, creates the most beautiful and realistic environments ever seen in a video game.

AI - Neither friends nor enemies charge blindly into the fray. They can assess threats, navigate tricky terrain, and fashion weapons from whatever is at hand.


Sound familiar? Was I blown away by HL2's AI? No. Was I amazed at the physics? A little bit. Definitely a move in the right direction. Good job Havoc! Was I dumbfounded by the graphics? The models and many of the textures were really well done. The facial animations were better than D3's, but nothing that totally knocked my socks off. The geometry was aweful, and far too simplistic... it just didn't match the rest of the game's visuals.

Bottom line, was HL2 a good game? Yes, for the first run-though. I have tried to get interested in playing it through again, but... meh, it doesn't "do" it for me.

Still, what bothers me the most is that Valve makes these blanket "we're so amazing this will be the best game ever so buy it because we use words like "most sophisticated... ever witnessed.'" I guess I just get turned off by the exaggerations and overstatments that end up being far cries from the truth. I wish Valve would make a game every 5-10 years and let it speak for itself based on the merit of its true features.

After all, Doom 1 had no big budget advertising or PR scene. Look how it did. With Steam in place, the whole shareware thing could really work for Valve, since us lazy gamers wouldn't even have to read the instructions at the end of the demo/episode, write down the address, and mail off for more FPS goodness. We could just click a link, pay and go.

Put your money where your valve is, Valve.

- Goliath



pbmax@Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 3:59 pm :
so basically you can sum it up as: episode 1: more hl2. not surprising though- its a poor man's expansion pack.

what's funny is that every time i read a preview, they always mention the "fantastic looking source engine" as if it was still 2004. since then, there have been several engines that look just as good.

by the way, doom3's box had "killer a.i." as a feature. a play on words for sure.



BloodRayne@Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 5:20 pm :
pbmax wrote:
what's funny is that every time i read a preview, they always mention the "fantastic looking source engine" as if it was still 2004. since then, there have been several engines that look just as good.

There have since been several engines that look much better than that. ;)

I do have to say that now I've played through Nova Prospekt I'm a bit more positive about the gameplay there are some really good moments that I liked, especially the Striders.

But the team AI was awful, I tried to park them in places to keep them alive while I scout ahead and after each corner they'ld scream 'I'm coming after you, Freeman.'. It was worse inside the buildings. At one point I had a team of 6 around me and, due to us being inside a building I, couldn't go forward or backward without having to push into them while they kept saying 'woops' or 'sorry'. :wink:



pbmax@Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 5:39 pm :
BloodRayne wrote:
I do have to say that now I've played through Nova Prospekt I'm a bit more positive about the gameplay there are some really good moments that I liked, especially the Striders.


yes, there were. getting the ant lions to attack your foes was fun.



SnoopJeDi@Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 8:55 pm :
I'll buy it, if for no other reason than to find out what goofy explanation there is for how Alyx makes it out of the end of HL2.


I was so freakin' livid at the end of HL2 :evil:



bkt@Posted: Wed May 10, 2006 2:29 am :
I couldn't have said it any better than blood rayne did on page 1, as I share his view, I definately won't be forking out hard cash for Episode 1. I also don't like the fact that an expansion pegged with 7 hours of gameplay has taken valve 18months to create & aparently doesn't have any notable new content.



butmunch@Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2006 6:22 pm :
Well actually its ONLY 4 hours. I played it at a friend of mine and its not worth the money. All in all theres one new weapon and with a pricetag around 20 bucks i think its safe to say valve hit a new low with this.

On the other hand at least its a pretty fun 4 hours but still i would never buy it.



pbmax@Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2006 7:39 pm :
SnoopJeDi wrote:
I'll buy it, if for no other reason than to find out what goofy explanation there is for how Alyx makes it out of the end of HL2.


i'vd read one of those Vortigaunts freezes time and pulls you away from the blast.

pretty lame, imo.



pbmax@Posted: Sun Jun 25, 2006 12:52 am :
some 700,000 people bought episode1 thus far...



The Happy Friar@Posted: Sun Jun 25, 2006 2:12 am :
i find that really amazing considering most PC games sell under 500,000 easy. Not being sarcastic eigther!



pbmax@Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 5:39 pm :
BloodRayne wrote:
I do have to say that now I've played through Nova Prospekt I'm a bit more positive about the gameplay there are some really good moments that I liked, especially the Striders.


yes, there were. getting the ant lions to attack your foes was fun.



SnoopJeDi@Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 8:55 pm :
I'll buy it, if for no other reason than to find out what goofy explanation there is for how Alyx makes it out of the end of HL2.


I was so freakin' livid at the end of HL2 :evil:



bkt@Posted: Wed May 10, 2006 2:29 am :
I couldn't have said it any better than blood rayne did on page 1, as I share his view, I definately won't be forking out hard cash for Episode 1. I also don't like the fact that an expansion pegged with 7 hours of gameplay has taken valve 18months to create & aparently doesn't have any notable new content.



butmunch@Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2006 6:22 pm :
Well actually its ONLY 4 hours. I played it at a friend of mine and its not worth the money. All in all theres one new weapon and with a pricetag around 20 bucks i think its safe to say valve hit a new low with this.

On the other hand at least its a pretty fun 4 hours but still i would never buy it.



pbmax@Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2006 7:39 pm :
SnoopJeDi wrote:
I'll buy it, if for no other reason than to find out what goofy explanation there is for how Alyx makes it out of the end of HL2.


i'vd read one of those Vortigaunts freezes time and pulls you away from the blast.

pretty lame, imo.



pbmax@Posted: Sun Jun 25, 2006 12:52 am :
some 700,000 people bought episode1 thus far...



The Happy Friar@Posted: Sun Jun 25, 2006 2:12 am :
i find that really amazing considering most PC games sell under 500,000 easy. Not being sarcastic eigther!



pbmax@Posted: Tue Apr 11, 2006 6:49 pm :
http://ep1.half-life2.com/

how many of you are going to buy this?



Blitz@Posted: Wed Apr 19, 2006 3:50 am :
I will likely buy it. Unless the reviews are really terrible which I doubt.



pbmax@Posted: Wed Apr 19, 2006 2:26 pm :
i'm the other way around. i'll buy it if it gets amazing reviews, but if its pretty much the same as hl2 i'll probably pass.



The Happy Friar@Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2006 1:03 am :
i'm not. ti many bad experiences with HL2, Steam, Valve Tech Support & the Steam forums.

and dialup has nothing to do with it. :D



Eddie@Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 8:20 am :
I'll definately buy it, as long as someone finds a way to play it without steam, like I do with HL2! :lol:



BNA!@Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 8:27 am :
I'd really love to play HL2, but still no one can convince me to install Steam.
Tried the HL2 steam demo and never really developed much love for Steam.

The demo itself was fun tho.



BloodRayne@Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 8:41 am :
I've been playing a bit of HL2 this weekend and yesterday, up to the point of Nova Prospekt. Like the first runthrough I'm pretty much *really* dissapointed with the gameplay and constant loadingscreens. Driving, Floating, running and crouching sounds good on paper but the execution was flawed to such extent that it just becomes annoying for me to have to constantly hop onto vehicles and dodge silly gravity puzzles. HL2 is based solely on gimmicks imo. and lacks a solid gameplay experience, or atleast the gameplay experience that I'm looking for.

I have no idea whatsoever how Doom3 can get such silly reviews about archaic gameplay compared to HL2 when HL2 is clearly undergoing a huge identity crisis in the gameplay departement. The common perspective on gameplay is skewed to such an extent that I see most of the reviewers as a flock of sheep running after each others asses in order to consolidate their reviews and make sure not to fall out of tone.

Grab any review on HL2 and you'll see shouting about 'amazing' gameplay where any Doom3 review will use the words 'bland' gameplay, where nothing less is true. Simply put, Doom3 puts you on the edge of your seat, HL2 doesn't. HL2 is a rehash of different gameplay styles roled into one leaving me with a skewed and awkward gameplay experience with many annoyances due to it's execution; not to mention the bad...*BAD* graphics and visuals.

Nope, sorry to digress about HL2's gameplay but that was enough to make me not want to buy any expansion that comes out for it. I was absolutely thrilled about HL1 but HL2 failed imo.



Eddie@Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 9:16 am :
BNA! wrote:
I'd really love to play HL2, but still no one can convince me to install Steam...


You can play HL2 without steam, :wink: - just need to do a bit of google searching.



BNA!@Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 9:58 am :
Eddie wrote:
BNA! wrote:
I'd really love to play HL2, but still no one can convince me to install Steam...


You can play HL2 without steam, :wink: - just need to do a bit of google searching.


True - but I want "out of the box support" for "out of the box" playability.

I can google the hell out of everything, which is exactely what I don't want to do. Go to store -> buy game -> go home -> install -> play instead of doing a gazillion things.

I can even purchase pretty expensive software online which I can burn on a CD without having to install weird clients.



Eddie@Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 11:12 am :
Yeah I know what you mean, I totally agree.

I think at least they could've done is make steam optional and just do a once off cd check/activation thing online, it's only a single player game! Steam for multiplayer games makes sense but it's ridiculous you have to play a single player offline game yet be connected to the internet.



BloodRayne@Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 12:30 pm :
Eddie wrote:
Yeah I know what you mean, I totally agree.

I think at least they could've done is make steam optional and just do a once off cd check/activation thing online, it's only a single player game! Steam for multiplayer games makes sense but it's ridiculous you have to play a single player offline game yet be connected to the internet.


You don't have to be connected to the internet for playing the game. Only for unlocking the gamefiles.



Eddie@Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 1:16 pm :
I have two steam accounts on two different computers and it would never let me play offline for some reason, I don't know if it was a bug that's been fixed by now or what but it wouldn't let me play offline.

Still...even if it does work by now, it doesn't change the fact that I just don't like being forced to use Valve's adware. :lol:



3j@Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 2:25 pm :
I actually really like steam. Preloading of the game, instant playability as soon as the game is released. No sitting at the computer swapping cd's in and out to install a game. If you buy online you don't have to keep track of install CD's or DVD, or even your CD Key, steam remembers it all for you.

Automatic updates, no more manual downloading of point releases ( or manual removal of point releases, e.g. Quake 4 1.1 ).

I've never had any problem with steam, and it's been nothing but a major convenience for me.



BNA!@Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 5:09 pm :
3j wrote:
I've never had any problem with steam, and it's been nothing but a major convenience for me.


Steam itself isn't a bad idea - if you are comfortable with the underlying concept of Steam then it does the trick for you (as long as you life in a broadband country).

I foresee this distribution method to become continually more popular in the near future - only benefits for the selling party.



pbmax@Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 8:04 pm :
the boat and driving levels in hl2 were nothing but filler to make the game longer. i don't mind drivng around for 15 minutes, its fun. but driving on a boat for an hour or more in a linear map is BORING.

anyway, i'll probably pass on the hl2 episodes . i'm to the point where i'll only buy id games and other truely great games (which means only about one a year).

i wonder how the episodes will sell?



parsonsbear@Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 8:22 pm :
I agree about steam being, well, a steaming pile of crap when it comes to slowly dowloading updates that keep me from playing the game when I feel like it.

OTOH, they have made a nice platform for mod dev support- and as a disto system for smaller developers, it has promise. Hard to say if it would work without the hook that is HL2 to get people to opt into the system. People don't really think about steam's marketing aspects- i'd almost call it adware.



Vladimir@Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 9:26 pm :
I think I’ll buy it. Although, I agree with most of you about many things in HL2, somehow I think that “Valve” will offer us this time a bit different game play concept. HL2 is looking to me like nice game engine presentation and nothing more than that. But since they are working on “Episode ONE” pretty long, I’d like to believe that this time they will offer us (except visual improvements) more interesting game play concept. We’ll see… ;)



goliathvt@Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 3:13 pm :
I was giving thought to buying this until I saw the Feature list:

Quote:
* An all-new episode for one of the best-selling action games of all time.
* Discover what’s become of City 17, Dr. Breen, and the G-Man.
* Incredibly advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI).
* Highly detailed environments, featuring High Dynamic Range lighting, provide amazing gameplay settings.
* Digital Actors: The most sophisticated in-game characters ever witnessed.
* Physical Gameplay: Objects obey the laws of gravity, friction, and buoyancy.
* Design Team Commentary Mode.
* Also includes two multiplayer games: Half-Life 2 Deathmatch and Half-Life Deathmatch: SourceTM.
* Half-Life 2 not required to play.


Could they be any more self-glorifying? Overstate much?

I mean, honestly, let's look at the feature set for HL2, also from their website:

Quote:
The intense, real-time gameplay of Half-Life 2 is made possible only by Source®, Valve's new proprietary engine technology. Source provides major enhancements in:

Characters - Advanced facial animation system delivers the most sophisticated in-game characters ever seen. With 40 distinct facial "muscles," human characters convey the full array of human emotion, and respond to the player with fluidity and intelligence.

Physics - From pebbles to water to 2-ton trucks respond as expected, as they obey the laws of mass, friction, gravity, and buoyancy.

Graphics - Source’s shader-based renderer, like the one used at Pixar to create movies such as Toy Story® and Monster's, Inc.®, creates the most beautiful and realistic environments ever seen in a video game.

AI - Neither friends nor enemies charge blindly into the fray. They can assess threats, navigate tricky terrain, and fashion weapons from whatever is at hand.


Sound familiar? Was I blown away by HL2's AI? No. Was I amazed at the physics? A little bit. Definitely a move in the right direction. Good job Havoc! Was I dumbfounded by the graphics? The models and many of the textures were really well done. The facial animations were better than D3's, but nothing that totally knocked my socks off. The geometry was aweful, and far too simplistic... it just didn't match the rest of the game's visuals.

Bottom line, was HL2 a good game? Yes, for the first run-though. I have tried to get interested in playing it through again, but... meh, it doesn't "do" it for me.

Still, what bothers me the most is that Valve makes these blanket "we're so amazing this will be the best game ever so buy it because we use words like "most sophisticated... ever witnessed.'" I guess I just get turned off by the exaggerations and overstatments that end up being far cries from the truth. I wish Valve would make a game every 5-10 years and let it speak for itself based on the merit of its true features.

After all, Doom 1 had no big budget advertising or PR scene. Look how it did. With Steam in place, the whole shareware thing could really work for Valve, since us lazy gamers wouldn't even have to read the instructions at the end of the demo/episode, write down the address, and mail off for more FPS goodness. We could just click a link, pay and go.

Put your money where your valve is, Valve.

- Goliath



pbmax@Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 3:59 pm :
so basically you can sum it up as: episode 1: more hl2. not surprising though- its a poor man's expansion pack.

what's funny is that every time i read a preview, they always mention the "fantastic looking source engine" as if it was still 2004. since then, there have been several engines that look just as good.

by the way, doom3's box had "killer a.i." as a feature. a play on words for sure.



BloodRayne@Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 5:20 pm :
pbmax wrote:
what's funny is that every time i read a preview, they always mention the "fantastic looking source engine" as if it was still 2004. since then, there have been several engines that look just as good.

There have since been several engines that look much better than that. ;)

I do have to say that now I've played through Nova Prospekt I'm a bit more positive about the gameplay there are some really good moments that I liked, especially the Striders.

But the team AI was awful, I tried to park them in places to keep them alive while I scout ahead and after each corner they'ld scream 'I'm coming after you, Freeman.'. It was worse inside the buildings. At one point I had a team of 6 around me and, due to us being inside a building I, couldn't go forward or backward without having to push into them while they kept saying 'woops' or 'sorry'. :wink:



pbmax@Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 6:39 pm :
BloodRayne wrote:
I do have to say that now I've played through Nova Prospekt I'm a bit more positive about the gameplay there are some really good moments that I liked, especially the Striders.


yes, there were. getting the ant lions to attack your foes was fun.



SnoopJeDi@Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 9:55 pm :
I'll buy it, if for no other reason than to find out what goofy explanation there is for how Alyx makes it out of the end of HL2.


I was so freakin' livid at the end of HL2 :evil:



bkt@Posted: Wed May 10, 2006 3:29 am :
I couldn't have said it any better than blood rayne did on page 1, as I share his view, I definately won't be forking out hard cash for Episode 1. I also don't like the fact that an expansion pegged with 7 hours of gameplay has taken valve 18months to create & aparently doesn't have any notable new content.



butmunch@Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2006 7:22 pm :
Well actually its ONLY 4 hours. I played it at a friend of mine and its not worth the money. All in all theres one new weapon and with a pricetag around 20 bucks i think its safe to say valve hit a new low with this.

On the other hand at least its a pretty fun 4 hours but still i would never buy it.



pbmax@Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2006 8:39 pm :
SnoopJeDi wrote:
I'll buy it, if for no other reason than to find out what goofy explanation there is for how Alyx makes it out of the end of HL2.


i'vd read one of those Vortigaunts freezes time and pulls you away from the blast.

pretty lame, imo.



pbmax@Posted: Sun Jun 25, 2006 1:52 am :
some 700,000 people bought episode1 thus far...



The Happy Friar@Posted: Sun Jun 25, 2006 3:12 am :
i find that really amazing considering most PC games sell under 500,000 easy. Not being sarcastic eigther!



pbmax@Posted: Tue Apr 11, 2006 6:49 pm :
http://ep1.half-life2.com/

how many of you are going to buy this?



Blitz@Posted: Wed Apr 19, 2006 3:50 am :
I will likely buy it. Unless the reviews are really terrible which I doubt.



pbmax@Posted: Wed Apr 19, 2006 2:26 pm :
i'm the other way around. i'll buy it if it gets amazing reviews, but if its pretty much the same as hl2 i'll probably pass.



The Happy Friar@Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2006 1:03 am :
i'm not. ti many bad experiences with HL2, Steam, Valve Tech Support & the Steam forums.

and dialup has nothing to do with it. :D



Eddie@Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 8:20 am :
I'll definately buy it, as long as someone finds a way to play it without steam, like I do with HL2! :lol:



BNA!@Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 8:27 am :
I'd really love to play HL2, but still no one can convince me to install Steam.
Tried the HL2 steam demo and never really developed much love for Steam.

The demo itself was fun tho.



BloodRayne@Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 8:41 am :
I've been playing a bit of HL2 this weekend and yesterday, up to the point of Nova Prospekt. Like the first runthrough I'm pretty much *really* dissapointed with the gameplay and constant loadingscreens. Driving, Floating, running and crouching sounds good on paper but the execution was flawed to such extent that it just becomes annoying for me to have to constantly hop onto vehicles and dodge silly gravity puzzles. HL2 is based solely on gimmicks imo. and lacks a solid gameplay experience, or atleast the gameplay experience that I'm looking for.

I have no idea whatsoever how Doom3 can get such silly reviews about archaic gameplay compared to HL2 when HL2 is clearly undergoing a huge identity crisis in the gameplay departement. The common perspective on gameplay is skewed to such an extent that I see most of the reviewers as a flock of sheep running after each others asses in order to consolidate their reviews and make sure not to fall out of tone.

Grab any review on HL2 and you'll see shouting about 'amazing' gameplay where any Doom3 review will use the words 'bland' gameplay, where nothing less is true. Simply put, Doom3 puts you on the edge of your seat, HL2 doesn't. HL2 is a rehash of different gameplay styles roled into one leaving me with a skewed and awkward gameplay experience with many annoyances due to it's execution; not to mention the bad...*BAD* graphics and visuals.

Nope, sorry to digress about HL2's gameplay but that was enough to make me not want to buy any expansion that comes out for it. I was absolutely thrilled about HL1 but HL2 failed imo.



Eddie@Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 9:16 am :
BNA! wrote:
I'd really love to play HL2, but still no one can convince me to install Steam...


You can play HL2 without steam, :wink: - just need to do a bit of google searching.



BNA!@Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 9:58 am :
Eddie wrote:
BNA! wrote:
I'd really love to play HL2, but still no one can convince me to install Steam...


You can play HL2 without steam, :wink: - just need to do a bit of google searching.


True - but I want "out of the box support" for "out of the box" playability.

I can google the hell out of everything, which is exactely what I don't want to do. Go to store -> buy game -> go home -> install -> play instead of doing a gazillion things.

I can even purchase pretty expensive software online which I can burn on a CD without having to install weird clients.



Eddie@Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 11:12 am :
Yeah I know what you mean, I totally agree.

I think at least they could've done is make steam optional and just do a once off cd check/activation thing online, it's only a single player game! Steam for multiplayer games makes sense but it's ridiculous you have to play a single player offline game yet be connected to the internet.



BloodRayne@Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 12:30 pm :
Eddie wrote:
Yeah I know what you mean, I totally agree.

I think at least they could've done is make steam optional and just do a once off cd check/activation thing online, it's only a single player game! Steam for multiplayer games makes sense but it's ridiculous you have to play a single player offline game yet be connected to the internet.


You don't have to be connected to the internet for playing the game. Only for unlocking the gamefiles.



Eddie@Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 1:16 pm :
I have two steam accounts on two different computers and it would never let me play offline for some reason, I don't know if it was a bug that's been fixed by now or what but it wouldn't let me play offline.

Still...even if it does work by now, it doesn't change the fact that I just don't like being forced to use Valve's adware. :lol:



3j@Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 2:25 pm :
I actually really like steam. Preloading of the game, instant playability as soon as the game is released. No sitting at the computer swapping cd's in and out to install a game. If you buy online you don't have to keep track of install CD's or DVD, or even your CD Key, steam remembers it all for you.

Automatic updates, no more manual downloading of point releases ( or manual removal of point releases, e.g. Quake 4 1.1 ).

I've never had any problem with steam, and it's been nothing but a major convenience for me.



BNA!@Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 5:09 pm :
3j wrote:
I've never had any problem with steam, and it's been nothing but a major convenience for me.


Steam itself isn't a bad idea - if you are comfortable with the underlying concept of Steam then it does the trick for you (as long as you life in a broadband country).

I foresee this distribution method to become continually more popular in the near future - only benefits for the selling party.



pbmax@Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 8:04 pm :
the boat and driving levels in hl2 were nothing but filler to make the game longer. i don't mind drivng around for 15 minutes, its fun. but driving on a boat for an hour or more in a linear map is BORING.

anyway, i'll probably pass on the hl2 episodes . i'm to the point where i'll only buy id games and other truely great games (which means only about one a year).

i wonder how the episodes will sell?



parsonsbear@Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 8:22 pm :
I agree about steam being, well, a steaming pile of crap when it comes to slowly dowloading updates that keep me from playing the game when I feel like it.

OTOH, they have made a nice platform for mod dev support- and as a disto system for smaller developers, it has promise. Hard to say if it would work without the hook that is HL2 to get people to opt into the system. People don't really think about steam's marketing aspects- i'd almost call it adware.



Vladimir@Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 9:26 pm :
I think I’ll buy it. Although, I agree with most of you about many things in HL2, somehow I think that “Valve” will offer us this time a bit different game play concept. HL2 is looking to me like nice game engine presentation and nothing more than that. But since they are working on “Episode ONE” pretty long, I’d like to believe that this time they will offer us (except visual improvements) more interesting game play concept. We’ll see… ;)



goliathvt@Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 3:13 pm :
I was giving thought to buying this until I saw the Feature list:

Quote:
* An all-new episode for one of the best-selling action games of all time.
* Discover what’s become of City 17, Dr. Breen, and the G-Man.
* Incredibly advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI).
* Highly detailed environments, featuring High Dynamic Range lighting, provide amazing gameplay settings.
* Digital Actors: The most sophisticated in-game characters ever witnessed.
* Physical Gameplay: Objects obey the laws of gravity, friction, and buoyancy.
* Design Team Commentary Mode.
* Also includes two multiplayer games: Half-Life 2 Deathmatch and Half-Life Deathmatch: SourceTM.
* Half-Life 2 not required to play.


Could they be any more self-glorifying? Overstate much?

I mean, honestly, let's look at the feature set for HL2, also from their website:

Quote:
The intense, real-time gameplay of Half-Life 2 is made possible only by Source®, Valve's new proprietary engine technology. Source provides major enhancements in:

Characters - Advanced facial animation system delivers the most sophisticated in-game characters ever seen. With 40 distinct facial "muscles," human characters convey the full array of human emotion, and respond to the player with fluidity and intelligence.

Physics - From pebbles to water to 2-ton trucks respond as expected, as they obey the laws of mass, friction, gravity, and buoyancy.

Graphics - Source’s shader-based renderer, like the one used at Pixar to create movies such as Toy Story® and Monster's, Inc.®, creates the most beautiful and realistic environments ever seen in a video game.

AI - Neither friends nor enemies charge blindly into the fray. They can assess threats, navigate tricky terrain, and fashion weapons from whatever is at hand.


Sound familiar? Was I blown away by HL2's AI? No. Was I amazed at the physics? A little bit. Definitely a move in the right direction. Good job Havoc! Was I dumbfounded by the graphics? The models and many of the textures were really well done. The facial animations were better than D3's, but nothing that totally knocked my socks off. The geometry was aweful, and far too simplistic... it just didn't match the rest of the game's visuals.

Bottom line, was HL2 a good game? Yes, for the first run-though. I have tried to get interested in playing it through again, but... meh, it doesn't "do" it for me.

Still, what bothers me the most is that Valve makes these blanket "we're so amazing this will be the best game ever so buy it because we use words like "most sophisticated... ever witnessed.'" I guess I just get turned off by the exaggerations and overstatments that end up being far cries from the truth. I wish Valve would make a game every 5-10 years and let it speak for itself based on the merit of its true features.

After all, Doom 1 had no big budget advertising or PR scene. Look how it did. With Steam in place, the whole shareware thing could really work for Valve, since us lazy gamers wouldn't even have to read the instructions at the end of the demo/episode, write down the address, and mail off for more FPS goodness. We could just click a link, pay and go.

Put your money where your valve is, Valve.

- Goliath



pbmax@Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 3:59 pm :
so basically you can sum it up as: episode 1: more hl2. not surprising though- its a poor man's expansion pack.

what's funny is that every time i read a preview, they always mention the "fantastic looking source engine" as if it was still 2004. since then, there have been several engines that look just as good.

by the way, doom3's box had "killer a.i." as a feature. a play on words for sure.



BloodRayne@Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 5:20 pm :
pbmax wrote:
what's funny is that every time i read a preview, they always mention the "fantastic looking source engine" as if it was still 2004. since then, there have been several engines that look just as good.

There have since been several engines that look much better than that. ;)

I do have to say that now I've played through Nova Prospekt I'm a bit more positive about the gameplay there are some really good moments that I liked, especially the Striders.

But the team AI was awful, I tried to park them in places to keep them alive while I scout ahead and after each corner they'ld scream 'I'm coming after you, Freeman.'. It was worse inside the buildings. At one point I had a team of 6 around me and, due to us being inside a building I, couldn't go forward or backward without having to push into them while they kept saying 'woops' or 'sorry'. :wink:



pbmax@Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 6:39 pm :
BloodRayne wrote:
I do have to say that now I've played through Nova Prospekt I'm a bit more positive about the gameplay there are some really good moments that I liked, especially the Striders.


yes, there were. getting the ant lions to attack your foes was fun.



SnoopJeDi@Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 9:55 pm :
I'll buy it, if for no other reason than to find out what goofy explanation there is for how Alyx makes it out of the end of HL2.


I was so freakin' livid at the end of HL2 :evil:



bkt@Posted: Wed May 10, 2006 3:29 am :
I couldn't have said it any better than blood rayne did on page 1, as I share his view, I definately won't be forking out hard cash for Episode 1. I also don't like the fact that an expansion pegged with 7 hours of gameplay has taken valve 18months to create & aparently doesn't have any notable new content.



butmunch@Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2006 7:22 pm :
Well actually its ONLY 4 hours. I played it at a friend of mine and its not worth the money. All in all theres one new weapon and with a pricetag around 20 bucks i think its safe to say valve hit a new low with this.

On the other hand at least its a pretty fun 4 hours but still i would never buy it.



pbmax@Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2006 8:39 pm :
SnoopJeDi wrote:
I'll buy it, if for no other reason than to find out what goofy explanation there is for how Alyx makes it out of the end of HL2.


i'vd read one of those Vortigaunts freezes time and pulls you away from the blast.

pretty lame, imo.



pbmax@Posted: Sun Jun 25, 2006 1:52 am :
some 700,000 people bought episode1 thus far...



The Happy Friar@Posted: Sun Jun 25, 2006 3:12 am :
i find that really amazing considering most PC games sell under 500,000 easy. Not being sarcastic eigther!