20-11-2004 03:32									#61
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quote: Originally posted by VJ Bustamike: How good is the plot? Has there been any real surprises so far, or has it been just a typical, predictable half-futuristic POS (like, for example, FarCry was)?

Well, I wouldn't ever compare it to Far Cry (that game sucked except for the graphics). There isn't a whole lot of story to speak of in HL2 so far, but I like how what little story there is has been exposed. At one point, there are a bunch of newspaper clippings pinned to a bulletin board that you can read that give some explaination of why the world is how it is. When you start looking at them, the guy comes over and starts telling you about them, too. So far though, 95% action and 5% story, no surprises so far.

Playing on hard, I have only reached 2 areas of the game so far that have given me any trouble as far as difficulty goes.

spoiler(highlight to read): The first was when I first reached Nova Prospekt. There are two of those bug gunship things that you have to fight at the same time. They take about 8 rockets each to kill, and they will shoot down your rocket if you don't guide it past the guns. Since you can only hold 3 rockets at a time, and you need a minimum of 16, this part was pretty problematic. The second part was much much harder until I figured out how to cheese it. Once you are inside Nova Prospekt, there is a spot where you get locked in to a jail area and soldiers attack from all sides (there's probably a total of 40 that come). You're given 3 stationary guns to set up, but they can be easily knocked over. I kept trying to find the perfect place to set up the guns so they couldn't be knocked over easily, I tried hiding in a cell, I tried tons of stuff, but I died over and over. Finally I figured that I could stack up a bunch of boxes and take the guns and myself up to the second story of the room (where the guys can't reach ever). Then it was cake.

I've made it to the part in the game where you can control your squad. It's cool to have people to fight with, and their reasonably smart. I'm think I'm just getting to the part with those big walker things, so I'm eager to see a guy get impaled.

	20-11-2004 07:02									#62
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I'm totally stuck at the location pictured below, can anyone give me a hint?

spoiler(highlight to read): It's the puzzle where you have to push a washing machine onto a platform to lift a makeshift bridge. The bridge is raised, but when I jump from it onto the wall I cannot pass over - it's as if there one of those "level walls" that prevent you from walking off the edges of the current map. I know the map continues on the other side of the wall because I hit noclip, but when I walk up the people there don't react.

	20-11-2004 08:20									#63
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MattH: It sounds like you did exactly what you needed to do to get past that part. Maybe try hitting the jump from a different angle?

	20-11-2004 08:21									#64
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BustaMike: The second part you mentioned really gave me problems too, until I remembered the boxes. I used them for a different reason, though; I set up a barricade on one side so I could concentrate on one entry point at a time

	20-11-2004 08:24									#65
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quote: Originally posted by ZargonX MattH: It sounds like you did exactly what you needed to do to get past that part. Maybe try hitting the jump from a different angle?

I've tried jumping up and down and crouching and reloading the level, no dice .

	20-11-2004 08:52									#66
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Stupid question.... you are taking the boat with you right? Because if you didn't ramp the boat over that fence, I would assume you would get stuck later without the boat.

	20-11-2004 08:55									#67
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quote: Originally posted by ZargonX BustaMike: The second part you mentioned really gave me problems too, until I remembered the boxes. I used them for a different reason, though; I set up a barricade on one side so I could concentrate on one entry point at a time

Are you playing on hard? When I did this the guys just knocked it down.

	20-11-2004 09:58									#68
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quote: Are you playing on hard? When I did this the guys just knocked it down.

Playing on normal. They did knock them down, but it generally delayed them enough to have them get torn up in some crossfire.

	20-11-2004 15:02									#69
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Beat it.

	20-11-2004 18:24									#70
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I beat the game last night (thanks to a week long national holiday). I'm speechless. While, much to my surprise, some of the stuff that was advertised as being in never made it, the game was fantastic. The story, atmosphere, environments, action, graphics... just about everything. Looks like it even surpasses Doom 3.

	21-11-2004 06:03									#71
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I'm about ~4 hours in (after the mines). I'm glad they didn't opt for the Doom 3 kind of "scary", I think sudden surprises are too easy and cheap. The gravity gun is incredibly hilarious and useful at the same time, and I'm on Normal happy to find myself striving to spare ammo as much as possible lest I end up throwing small blocks of concrete at the enemies.

	21-11-2004 06:37									#72
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quote: happy to find myself striving to spare ammo as much as possible lest I end up throwing small blocks of concrete at the enemies.

But you know, I think pegging a combine troop with a cinder block from across the room is one of the most satisfying things you can do to them

	21-11-2004 06:47									#73
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Ah, but I haven't had too many chances to use the grav gun against Combine forces yet. I did toss a few grenades back at them when I had one though.

	21-11-2004 11:12									#74
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I never had a problem with ammo or health. There seems to be a TON of it lying around.

I do like pegging soldiers with bricks though, or even better pegging them with one of those flying camera robots or a manhack.

spoiler(highlight to read): At the end you can even pick up guys with the grav gun and toss them around.

	21-11-2004 11:29									#75
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Ooh, I was wondering if I could do that at some point. Yay.

As I've played on, health has been more plentiful, but I did keep running out of shotgun cartridges in Ravenholm.

	21-11-2004 11:49									#76
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Yeah, in a few areas there guys respawn forever. I didn't bother killing too many guys there. Also, I use the crowbar only for the headcrabs (1 hit kill) so I still had plenty of ammo.

	21-11-2004 15:31									#77
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What a game ! It reminds me of hunter back in the amiga days, but a billion times better. The graphics are mind blowing, but what really gets me is the way objects react as if they are in the real world, shoot corpses and they move about, throwing objects etc.

Ive found nothing as yet particularly difficult, thank God you can use the torch at the same time as your gun.

There are a few scarey area's though, don't really want to give much away .. Ive got quite far through, but as ive yet to finish, don't really know how far that is in relation to the end, but there are certainly some spooky bits.

For me, this game is much better than Doom3, more detail, more atmosphere, less shooting things you can't see .. but saying that, a little easier.

Well worth the money !

	21-11-2004 15:54									#78
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Hmm I'm going to play this next I think. Have they sorted out the opening day jitters?

	21-11-2004 17:19									#79
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This is the greatest game I have ever played (In terms of fun). Physics is now a must have in FPS'ers.

I'm only half way through I think, I'm at Nova Prospekt, is that half way?


I am constantly surprised by the physics. For example, shortly after I got the crossbow, I fired at a combine soldier who was standing next to a building. My arrow hit his elbow. Later, when I walked up to the dead combine soldier, I noticed that the arrow had pulled and attached this guys elbow to the wooden house behind him and the guy ended up dangling from the arrow.

Another moment:
I built my own sea-saw. I grabbed a drum, put it down on its side; smashed down a fence and took a large plank of wood, placed it over the drum. I placed a health pack on one end and used the gravity gun to blast the other end. The health pack flew right over the top of me, over my car and into the ocean.

This game is just one big ass fun-factory.

And Solver....LOOKS LIKE it even surpasses Doom 3? .. it is obvious Half Life 2 puts Doom 3 to shame.

	21-11-2004 17:22									#80
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Oh and Viceroy: I remember Hunter, that was a great game!

	21-11-2004 18:47									#81
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Wow, I wasn't sure if anybody else had played Hunter .. for its day, it was pretty amazing stuff.

Another detail i noticed was, earlier on i was getting shot to shreds, and when I moved away, I noticed my own blood up against some corrigated iron sheets behind me...

I placed a load of explosive barrels and when the bridge fell, the iron runs shot over the top of my head (just missing me) and landed just behind me .. Its realism gone mad.

I have to say, I only play doom 3 for multiplayer and thats got well boring, the level designs are very poor..

	21-11-2004 19:07									#82
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quote: And Solver....LOOKS LIKE it even surpasses Doom 3? .. it is obvious Half Life 2 puts Doom 3 to shame.

Doom 3 has a few superior things. It's still more scary. Not the monsters jumping out at you, but the general atmosphere like in Delta Labs. Also, the lighting in Doom3 is far beyond HL2. But gameplay... yeah... this is the thinking man's FPS, HL2 has it. It will win all GOTY awards. And the way it uses physics is a revolution of the genre, this is the first time that physics matter always, not just as eye candy or on limited occasions.

	21-11-2004 20:25									#83
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quote: Originally posted by BustaMike Stupid question.... you are taking the boat with you right? Because if you didn't ramp the boat over that fence, I would assume you would get stuck later without the boat.

I tried one and not again, that was my mistake. I must have not gotten enough speed so I decided to jump it. All's well.

Except I have the flicker problem a lot of other people have.

	21-11-2004 20:26									#84
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damn, I'll have to upgrade just to play this game...

	22-11-2004 04:07									#85
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quote: Originally posted by Solver quote: And Solver....LOOKS LIKE it even surpasses Doom 3? .. it is obvious Half Life 2 puts Doom 3 to shame. Doom 3 has a few superior things. It's still more scary. Not the monsters jumping out at you, but the general atmosphere like in Delta Labs. Also, the lighting in Doom3 is far beyond HL2. But gameplay... yeah... this is the thinking man's FPS, HL2 has it. It will win all GOTY awards. And the way it uses physics is a revolution of the genre, this is the first time that physics matter always, not just as eye candy or on limited occasions.

Hmm.. I'm not sure about Doom 3's lighting. Many a time I came across lighting that just looked like fake lighting effects.

Half Life 2's lighting effects seem much more refined.
When I picked up one of those blades with the Gravity Gun and fired the blade into a wall, it would cast a long shadow against the wall leading down to a small shadow on the floor, accurately casting the correct shape of the blade. Most of Doom 3's shadows were completely black, but most of HL2's shadows are transparent, which is far more realistic.

The only thing Doom 3 really has going for it is its fear factor, but I didn't find that very fun.

	22-11-2004 04:22									#86
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quote: Originally posted by Sn00py Oh and Viceroy: I remember Hunter, that was a great game!

As do I Wasn't it mentioned in Name the Game once?


As for HL2 I wouldn't dream of playing it on my system. Maybe in a year or two?

	22-11-2004 04:29									#87
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I would give the edge in lighting effects slightly to Doom 3. That's the only edge it gets. Otherwise, there is no comparison in any aspect of the game. HL2 surpasses it in every other way.

Funny Half-Life Moment
There's a part in the driving section where you have to get some batteries to open a door. Well, 2 of the batteries are right there, but the other is waaaaay up on some platform that you can't reach. So, I took a barrel and lobbed it up there. It hit the bottom of the platform and sent the battery shooting up in the air. Like a dumbass, I watched it the whole time, until it hit me square in the face and took off 10 health .

	22-11-2004 05:04									#88
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I've tossed a few ammo packs up like that just to see what happens. Managed to dodge them by the last minute though.

	22-11-2004 05:08									#89
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All the street signs and store signs and stuff are in Russian, yes, and there are places called Nova Prospekt and New Little Odessa and so on. I have no idea why that is, at least not yet. Heck, there's a town called Ravenholm with a clearly Orthodox Christian church building. I'm hoping it's not a strictly aesthetical choice (ooh, "Nova Prospekt" sounds neat, it has "nova", and it's almost like "prospect" but it has a "k"!).

	22-11-2004 05:16									#90
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I do have a theory, though.

spoiler(highlight to read): The events actually take place in an alien world. All the subjugated humans and vortigaunts have been relocated there from Earth and Planet Vortigaunt (or whatever) by the evil Combine. The place the game takes place in is a portion of the planet where most people were originally Russian, which explains the signs and the place names. That would explain the strange ecology. The only problem with this is that Dr. Breen calls City 17 "one of the last remaining urban centres". Either there has been a nasty war of resistance on this alien world, or the game actually happens on an Earth that has been devastated by the war operations that resulted from the alien incursion.