Half Life 2 Overrated

[Azeral]

Physics engine IS that inspiring, please offer me any other game before the Half-life 2 engine that had code superior to that of Half-life 2, or anywhere close for that matter. It's overused as much as you decide to use it essentially, except in sections where it's simply convinient to use it anyway. [/QB]

Painkiller has the same physics engine base if I am not mistaken.

[Sythe]

Nice Azeral :hehe

Decent plot? Yeah a decent plot with many holes in them. I beaten the first and second and I was hoping that there would a explanation of what happened between Black Mesa and City 17. And I may have missed this but does it say anywhere that Minor Spoiler: How those electric aliens are in leauge with the Resistance? Wouldn't they be pissed since Gordon commited a geniocide of their race and killed I guess leader or god or superior that was the boss of the first game?

Just please elaborate on how "advanced" the A.I. is.

All the weapons are ok and the gravity gun is sweet and even that I cannot deny.

Regardless it is still an awesome game. But I don't think it deserves the "Best Game Ever" title. Such a game would be perfect with no flaws. No game I have known as achieved this but some has come real close, such as BG 2.

[ 01-06-2005, 05:51 AM: Message edited by: Sythe ]

[Link]

I thought the AI wasn't that special, really. Once they start shooting a salvo they won't follow your movements. They hardly take cover, and usually remain in plain sight. And don't get me started on their response to grenades.

[Sythe]

Originally posted by Link: I thought the AI wasn't that special, really. Once they start shooting a salvo they won't follow your movements. They hardly take cover, and usually remain in plain sight. And don't get me started on their response to grenades.

LOL

Is this the "significantly advanced" Artificial Intellgence Sigmar? [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img]

[Sir Degrader]

Originally posted by Sigmar: quote: Originally posted by Sir Degrader: Is it just me or is every PC gaming publication going absolutely nuts over this game? Is there any thing truly revolutionary about this game? The physics engine isn't that inspiring ( it is cool however, especially with the gravity gun), and terribley over used (with puzzles), while the graphics are the only real strong point. Is there even a decent plot? Not at the beggining, and it sure takes a while to get to the end. The gameplay is tedious, as the guards look, act and fire the same. The AI in half life 1 at least were advanced for their time, in this game they seem the exact same. The weapons aren't anything special (with the exception of the gravity gun). The installion is a major pain in the ass, and downright impossible without an online connection. An 80 % game at most, this isn't the timeless classic it's cranked out to be.

Blasphemy.
Physics engine IS that inspiring, please offer me any other game before the Half-life 2 engine that had code superior to that of Half-life 2, or anywhere close for that matter. It's overused as much as you decide to use it essentially, except in sections where it's simply convinient to use it anyway.
There is a decent plot, you've just played the first part of the game. How are you expected to judge the quality of say a an entire book from the first few chapters? Hardly fair is it?
[/QUOTE]I just finished HL2, and as Sythe says, the story leaves out massive chunks in it.
I'd be perfectly happy if the AI took cover, tap dancing would be way out of context. The weapon's were not very special. Ooooh a machine gun and a "future" machine gun. How interesting. The best linear experiance ever?
Nay. Call of Duty, the UT tournament, Dawn of War, AGE OF BLOODY EMPIRES as well as Diablo 2 and the warcraft series had better linear play. Though you were right about one thing. The mods will be awesome.

[Sigmar]

Originally posted by Sythe: Nice Azeral Decent plot? Yeah a decent plot with many holes in them. I beaten the first and second and I was hoping that there would a explanation of what happened between Black Mesa and City 17. And I may have missed this but does it say anywhere that Minor Spoiler: How those electric aliens are in leauge with the Resistance? Wouldn't they be pissed since Gordon commited a geniocide of their race and killed I guess leader or god or superior that was the boss of the first game? Just please elaborate on how "advanced" the A.I. is. All the weapons are ok and the gravity gun is sweet and even that I cannot deny. Regardless it is still an awesome game. But I don't think it deserves the "Best Game Ever" title. Such a game would be perfect with no flaws. No game I have known as achieved this but some has come real close, such as BG 2.

*stretches neck*

Right you lot, no need to be cheeky.

This post will contain spoilers.

Anyway. Let's begin class...

1-First the storyline issue. The fact that they haven't shoved everything into your face and told you "The Evil Dark Lord Bowser has kidnapped Princess Peach and blah blah blah" doesn't neccesarily mean there are plot holes, it means they are being subtle about the whole issue, just like in Half-life 1. The electric aliens, the "Vortigaunts" are in league with the resistance thanks to your actions in the first game (I'm assuming you've all played the first game). In the first games, although not immediately obvious, it turns out that the Vortiguants and their "leader" the N'illianth are being oppressed by another unseen force. When you're fighting the N'illianth you hear him say (although in massive echoey words) "Freeman, free us". In Half-life 2, talking to a few specific Vortigaunts you find out that they were all under Combine control, and by killing the N'illianth that you released all the Vortigaunts from the their control. In Half-life 2 one Vortiguant says they had been shackled, but I haven't played Half-life 1 for such a long time now that I can't remember whether they had physical "shackles" or it was a figure of speech. At the very beginning of the game (half-life 2) when you head right you see a combine soldier forcing a vortiguant to pick up a can and put it in the bin. He's in shackles then.

The Combine is a (Slug-like) alien race which enslaves different worlds throughout the universe and modify's it into a slave race essentially (like those "Humans" you saw at the end of Half-life 2 within the Citadel, the Stalkers. Humans who had all their internal organs removed, replaced with a liquid which their remaining shell and brain could function on, as well as replacing their arms and legs with handy gear shifting metallic limbs.

What happened between Black Mesa and City 17. The point of this game is that you are Gordon Freeman trying to survive some crazy exploits, with typically no idea how you got there or what to do. At the end of Half-life 1 you're basically kept "on ice" by the G-Man until you were reawakened and "entered" (thrown head first)into the World of Half-life 2, Gordon had no idea what's happened either, he'd been stuck in limbo. Nonetheless you can still pick up on what happenend by talking to various characters in the game, specifically Elijah in his lab when you face his notice board (7 Day War etc)

All the dialogue and story are communicated directly to you from characters you interact with in the game. If you choose not to talk to some people, you might not understand some of the subtleties of the plot.

If you want to know more about the story, or you still missed things out check here: http://fragfiles.org/~hlstory// A Valve approved story guide.

2- The A.I everyone seems to be more than willing and eager to throw back in my face. Please note: Notice my carefully worded "significantly advanced" as opposed to say... "THE GREATEST A.I EVAAA1!!!111" My reference was to it being better than Half-life 1's A.I, which together with that of Halo's and Perfect Dark has always been my benchmark for FPS A.I quality.

Once in combat, the computer A.I. takes over from the scripting and each enemy operates with one goal in mind: killing you. While most of the time the A.I. is pretty good, it just doesn’t seem as dynamic as it was in the first Half-Life (before the "Contradiction police" come after me I'd like to emphasise dynamic, i.e when in combat HL2:"Ooo a grenade BAM" HL1:"RUN *actually runs*). Enemies tend to take cover in most situations, but given enough time, will run at you without any care for their safety. They may see a grenade and even yell about it, but for some reason they don’t get out of the way. Changing the difficulty settings only seems to change the amount of damage your weapons do as opposed to changing the behavior of the A.I. Still, compared to other games I've played recently (too many mediocre first person shooters to name) Doom 3, Far Cry. It is significantly advanced A.I, though admittedly flawed (there is a patch in the works, but then isn't there always?), but in truth the most impressive A.I I have seen in any FPS is that of Halo's.

3-Weapons...hoo boy, I lurve these weapons.

Pistol-Perfectly balanced primary firearm, lost some of it's uniqueness by not being one of the few weapons that can fire underwater (unlike in Half-life 1) but since there are no extensive underwater sections this isn't a big loss.

Crowbar-Smashy Smashy.

Magnum-The portable hand cannon's been toned down so that the game is more balanced (especially the deathmatch!)

Crossbow- Just like Painkiller's only decent contribution to the FPS world (aside from being the blatant physics-engine advertisement that it is), the Impaler wood thingy. The Crossbow is a joy to use, especially to impale enemies on walls in various different ways!

Shotgun-Perfect shotgun. Shorter reloading time than in the first, decent damage and the perfect headcrab infestation cleanser.

Standard Machine Gun- The bread and butter of the Half-life 2 world, they did a good job of making it look weedy compared to it's Combine counterpart.

Combine Rifle-Best rifle in any game (except perhaps Perfect Dark's Minigun) ever. The noise, the look, the reloading, poifect. The bouncy ball of doom seconday function is just a nice treat.

Rocket Launcher-I lurve the guiding system, so much better than the crappy fire and forget missiles in (nearly [img]tongue.gif[/img] ) every other game.

"Ant-Lion's"- Genius. Personally felt a bit overused in my opinion.

Gravity Gun+nearly every object in the game-Mindblowing, the game world is your oyster baby with this thing. Best weapon ever....you can kill combine soldiers....WITH A TOILET! Use it to pick up grenades thrown at you and then launch it back at the same enemy. Grab those spinning robot discs of doom, and smash them into walls or each other, or even cut some zombies in half with some higly dubious harvesting equipment left lying around!

Gauss Gun-"mounted on buggy" always felt it was a bit naff in Half-life 1 really. I'm glad they kept it on the buggy.

Greande-Frag grenades have a relatively small explosion radius, and they have some kind of LED on them. Otherwise, they're pretty straightforward. They're great for clearing dug-in Combine soldiers or large groups of less dangerous enemies, like zombies. Also, remember that you can pick them up with the gravity gun and toss them back at Combine that throw them at you. Joy! Better than the "Holy Hand Grenades" that other games portray them as.

Perhaps one of the reasons that the weapons could be misconstrued as not very special was that it was Half-life 1 that first ushered in a weapon set so balanced as to rival Goldeneye's. It's not Valve's fault that every other developer and their auntie's have decided to rip them off in one form or another. So on top of providing us with the brilliant weapon set from the first game, they've also thrown in the lovely Pulse rifle and the Gravity Gun. Plus, it's in the same game universe. So no Serious Sam Hand Cannons, big deal!

If you're still disappointed, I recommend you play through the game a second time with the Ultra Gravity Gun. Brilliant.

4-Physics engine. Forgive my self-induced stupidity in my previous post. The best use of the Havoc Physic's engine...dare I say it...EVVAAAAA!!111.

5-Best linear experience. Probably to contribute that to personal opinion really isn't it? For me, it's Half-life 2 all the way.

I hope that's been of some help to all of you, as well as clearing up some misconceptions. Remember, there's no need to be rude dears.

[ 01-07-2005, 10:57 AM: Message edited by: Sigmar ]

[Sigmar]

Originally posted by Blind_Prophet: BEST FIRST PERSON SHOOTER EVER! HALF LIFE2 = GODLIKE AS WELL AS COUNTERSTRIKE SOURCE GAME WAS AWESOME FOLLOWED FROM HL1 EXACTALLY, GRAPHICS GODLY, AI GODLY, FUN LEVEL GODLY, ENVIORMENT GODLY. THERFORE GAME = GODLY. They put six years of devolpment into the game how about a lil credit.

Man, I can't argue with those calculations!

[Azeral]

I wasent being rude, I am fairly sure that pain killer and halflife 2 has the same physics engine just that halflife 2 has really beefed them up.

[Bozos of Bones]

Not the physics engine, only the HAVOK component. And Half Life 2 uses the most of HAVOK's capabilities, far beyond those of Painkiller. Painkiller's OK but HL2's physics rule.

[Sythe]

I bet it was me being the rude one with my cheeky ( [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img] ) attitude. [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img] See! Sorry about that, I sometimes go on and on without realising what I am really doing. [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img]

And I suppose its the best game ever for some people. Though I still disagree Half Life 2 is the most awesome game in the entire universe even though you cleared many of the misconceptions for me Sigmar.