# Half life 2 questions



## Groff (Feb 4, 2008)

n00b here.

I have questions because I've never played Half Life 1 before, but i've heard plenty about it, and read a lot too. But I have a few questions to help me better understand the game. (btw, did anyone else notice that the head crabs make a few noises that are DIRECT rips from super metroid? I thought it was awesome!)

I get why the zombies/aliens are there (elaborate Quake 1 rip off ). And I know the government wanted to kill everyone, including Freeman and he's basically a fugitive.

So what's exactly going on? Who are the resistance made out of? What exactly are they resisting? And does it seem like Dr. Breen is just killing everone who isn't his soldiers?

Another thing I noticed that was bothering me, is the city seems to have tall black walls that occasionally "step" inwards and swallow up anything in it's path, as if it's "Eating" the city alive, you have to actually escape being crushed at some point. What the fuck is that all about?

I'll eventually get around to playing the original game, but for now, I don't have time for another game.

Just give me a general idea of what's happening, i'll flesh out the details when I play the game myself, I just want to know wtf is going on


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## Chris (Feb 4, 2008)

Honestly, go play HL1 first before you dive into HL2. You're almost 100% wrong on every assumption that you make man, and HL1 is fucking awesome, better than HL2 in my opinion.


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## Naren (Feb 4, 2008)

In the original game, you play a theoretical physicist named Gordan Freeman who works at the government sponsored experimental lab, Black Mesa, somewhere in the desert in Nevada or Arizona. A portal experiment goes wrong (was actually sabotaged) and connects the portal with a planet on the far side of the universe which ends up sending a ton of aliens into the Black Mesa lab where tons of the scientists are killed. Gordon takes it upon himself to fix the problems, ends up going into the portal to the other planet and defeats the alien leader. Etc. etc. At the end, the government guy kind of infers that the whole thing had been set up by "someone." Gordon gets put into a trance in like space and ends there.

At the beginning of 2, he wakes up to find out it's been like 15 years since he was knocked out and aliens had used the portal to come to Earth and take it over.

I would explain more and in more detail, but my girlfriend is waiting and I gotta go!!


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## djpharoah (Feb 4, 2008)

Def play HL1 before HL2. I also felt the game play and story in HL1 was better however the graphics and physics engine in HL2 are


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## Naren (Feb 4, 2008)

djpharoah said:


> Def play HL1 before HL2. I also felt the game play and story in HL1 was better however the graphics and physics engine in HL2 are



I preferred Half Life 2, but they are both great games. I would rank them in this order: Half Life 2, Half Life 1, Half Life 2: Episode One, Half Life 2: Episode Two. I know there are some people who would put episode 2 first. I thought it was an amazing game and I would rank it above episode one, depending on what parts we're comparing. I thought the parts in the citadel in episode one were really really cool, but I didn't like the parts under the city too much. Episode two had a lot of really cool parts and the episodes in the forest and the underground hive were really cool.

Anyway, everyone has their opinions and mine is that Half Life 2 is better than Half Life 1, but Half Life 1 is really an awesome game.


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## Korbain (Feb 5, 2008)

i found the half life games very overrated. They're solid games don't get me wrong, but i don't think they're all that groundbreaking. Especially half life 2. I compare it to the halo series, fun, solid gameplay, but nothing new. Half life 1 was slightly different when it first came out, but still. 

Anyways, wait a bit, theres a bunch of guys remaking the original half life on the source engine, and it looks really awsome. Its an exact remake, and valve (the makers of half life 1 and 2) are right behind the mod team of it and are saying its going to be good, and i trust em on that  I am seriously excited for this!












Black Mesa: A Half-Life 2 modification


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## Chris (Feb 5, 2008)

Korbain said:


> i found the half life games very overrated. They're solid games don't get me wrong, but i don't think they're all that groundbreaking.



You can't really compare Halo to Half Life, considering Half Life came out in 1998.


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## Pauly (Feb 5, 2008)

Read about it on Wiki, that's the most comprehensive way to understand the universe of Half Life.

Half-Life - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Half-Life 2 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Half-Life 2: Episode One - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Half-Life 2: Episode Two - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Portal (video game) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Also there is an actual Half Life Wiki here:
Main Page - Combine OverWiki, a Half-Life wiki - a Wikia Gaming wiki


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## sakeido (Feb 5, 2008)

Wow someone actually does not think Half Life was groundbreaking? What are you comparing it to, games that came out five years later?


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## Metal Ken (Feb 5, 2008)

Korbain said:


> i found the half life games very overrated. They're solid games don't get me wrong, but i don't think they're all that groundbreaking.



Were you playing video games in 1998?


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## Naren (Feb 5, 2008)

sakeido said:


> Wow someone actually does not think Half Life was groundbreaking? What are you comparing it to, games that came out five years later?



 Halo cannot be compared because it came out WAY after Half Life and is a very different kind of FPS. 

I do not think Halo was groundbreaking AT ALL, but I do think that Half Life was very groundbreaking. I heard some person say "Actually Halo was groundbreaking in that it was the first real console-only FPS." and I reminded him of several previous console FPSs such as GoldenEye and he said, "I guess you're right. GoldenEye was a pretty excellent console FPS. So, although Halo wasn't groundbreaking, but it is pretty fun." 

Half Life's most groundbreaking part is how it has the storyline all occurring in continous non-stop scenes that occur regardless of whether you're watching or not or even in the same scene. This made the game much more realistic. Also, Half Life 1 was pretty much the first FPS to have that indepth of a storyline. Several previous FPSs had storylines, but nowhere near the depth of Half Life.


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## Groff (Feb 6, 2008)

Chris said:


> Honestly, go play HL1 first before you dive into HL2. You're almost 100% wrong on every assumption that you make man, and HL1 is fucking awesome, better than HL2 in my opinion.



Unfortunately, at the time of writing my first post, I was on the second to last chapter 

I peeked at the first 5 minutes of Episode 1, and then stopped, cause I was just curious to see where it was going. Later on tonite, i'm going to download the first one off of steam to my computer, before I continue on with episode 1.

I was just confused by things I had read in the wiki that didn't make much sense with what I was seeing in HL2.

HL2 was a great game. My only problem was there was too much filler. By that I mean when you get the air boat... That section is TOO GODDAMN LONG, same with the buggy driving section. And at the end when your in one of those prisoner transportation pod things, after about 5 minutes of floating around I was like "Ok... GET ON WITH IT"

Oh... And I HATED the friggin squads that followed you and would BLOCK EVERY FRIGGIN DOORWAY and sometimes i'd get stuck between two and they wouldn't move >.<

Can't wait to play HL1 for real (i've seen someone play the first 30 minutes of it before)


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## sakeido (Feb 6, 2008)

I thought the game was perfectly paced. The pacing gets even better IMO in Ep1 and Ep2 though.. and the story moves less subtley.


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## Pauly (Feb 6, 2008)

Ep1 is great but slows once you get out the Citadel, and the final fight is a bit limp, Ep2 is just EPIC though. I enjoyed it immensely! The first time you fight the Hunters I was crapping myself, Dog vs. tripod walker, crawling through the crap towards the sentry cannon thing, the view at the beginning, running from that fucking Guardian. Awesome.



TheMissing said:


> Unfortunately, at the time of writing my first post, I was on the second to last chapter
> 
> I peeked at the first 5 minutes of Episode 1, and then stopped, cause I was just curious to see where it was going. Later on tonite, i'm going to download the first one off of steam to my computer, before I continue on with episode 1.
> 
> ...



Dude just wait for Black Mesa: Source, it might be a while coming yet but sadly Half Life looks SO dated now. Plus it's free!


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## thedonutman (Feb 6, 2008)

I always thought that HL1 made you feel isolated, It was just you + barney vs the world. 

Whereas in HL2, even though a lot of it is still you vs combine, having people talking to you seems far more reassuring. And the outdoor ares are also far better.


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## Naren (Feb 6, 2008)

TheMissing said:


> Unfortunately, at the time of writing my first post, I was on the second to last chapter
> 
> I peeked at the first 5 minutes of Episode 1, and then stopped, cause I was just curious to see where it was going. Later on tonite, i'm going to download the first one off of steam to my computer, before I continue on with episode 1.
> 
> ...



I thought Half Life 2 was almost perfect. My first time through the only part I didn't like was the motor boat/air boat, but on my second time through, I actually really enjoyed that part. The buggy driving sections were AWESOME. Just really really fun.

The transportation thing was excellent. It was a complete payoff. I guess for people who don't like the Half Life series, they might get irritated and be like, "OKAY! GET ON WITH IT!" but I think that people who are fans of the series found that last part with the transportation thing to be especially awesome. My three favorite parts of the game were: Ravenholm with the gravity gun, the desert/prison with the antlions under your control, and the last level with the powered up gravity gun.

And the overall pacing and balance in the game was pretty much perfect.

I think Half Life 2 crushes Half Life 1 big time... but I guess I'm just one of those people who thinks that HL2 was a big improvement on HL1 which was a great game.


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## Korbain (Feb 7, 2008)

Chris said:


> You can't really compare Halo to Half Life, considering Half Life came out in 1998.



well, you took it out of context, i was comparing it too the hype, i should have worded it better, my bad. It was more whole "halo is the greatest FPS ever made!!!" when clearly it wasn't. And i put half life like that, what i said, great game, but not ground breaking to make it best FPS ever. It had a great atmosphere, the graphics were pretty solid (though i still think doom 3 had the better graphics in the ID vs Valve graphics battle thing), and the plot was ok (nothing special by any means). Was it revolutionary? no! Duke Nukem 3d, that was something special, doom 2, that was something special. Deus Ex, maybe not a full out FPS, but that was a FPS with a mad twist in it, prob the best game i ever played! 

I try not too look at games as in "oh this was released 98, how can you can compare it to something more recent". A ground breaking FPS takes brains to create something unique, not evolving from something was good a few years ago and adding vehicles etc. Though in saying that, i see where you are coming from lol.



Metal Ken said:


> Were you playing video games in 1998?



dude, i been playing games since like, wolf 3d came out (maybe 3 or 4 years old ) lol. My dad got mad discounts on PC's and shit because he works for xerox, so i've grown up with PC's, and dad always got games from his mates at work. First games i ever played, wolf 3d, dangerous dave, the ninja turtles game *you run around and go down drains and shit lol* and some other random, 80's sorta looking action game, i can't member the name, but you had sunnies and shot big white bullets and had rockets n shit lol. I won't say i'm a nerd, but believe me, i've been a gamer for a mega long time, and proud of it  watching something evolve from how it was say, 15 years ago, its fucking bullshit when you look back on it. So i get a bit passionate about this sorta stuff.


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## goth_fiend (Feb 7, 2008)

all I have to say about episode 2 right now...fucking striders


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## Mastodon (Feb 7, 2008)

Half-Life one felt like it droned on and on to me. I had to force myself to finish it.

I'm about halfway through Hl2 (just haven't had the time to do it) and I have ep1 and 2 waiting on me.


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## sakeido (Feb 7, 2008)

Korbain said:


> well, you took it out of context, i was comparing it too the hype, i should have worded it better, my bad. It was more whole "halo is the greatest FPS ever made!!!" when clearly it wasn't. And i put half life like that, what i said, great game, but not ground breaking to make it best FPS ever. It had a great atmosphere, the graphics were pretty solid (though i still think doom 3 had the better graphics in the ID vs Valve graphics battle thing), and the plot was ok (nothing special by any means). Was it revolutionary? no! Duke Nukem 3d, that was something special, doom 2, that was something special. Deus Ex, maybe not a full out FPS, but that was a FPS with a mad twist in it, prob the best game i ever played!
> 
> I try not too look at games as in "oh this was released 98, how can you can compare it to something more recent". A ground breaking FPS takes brains to create something unique, not evolving from something was good a few years ago and adding vehicles etc. Though in saying that, i see where you are coming from lol.
> 
> ...



The original Half Life won countless Game of the Year awards and is the best selling PC shooter of all time. The second one is an equally huge critical success. We were talking about the first one here, not the second one, but I think you are talking about the second one now, comparing it to Doom 3. Doom 3 was, like most id games, an elaborate tech demo and it played as such. Half Life still looked great but actually had entertaining gameplay as well, and in the end is the one people are actually still talking about.

What did Duke 3D add to the genre? One liners and a cool protagonist... Doom 2 was just Doom 1 again. Half Life is the first game that really had a story, was very engrossing, had sweet gameplay, good graphics for the time, great enemy AI, some cool puzzles, it was the total package and up to that point and probably until System Shock 2 (which didn't have the widespread appeal of Half Life and its mods) it was the epitome of first person shooters.


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## Metal Ken (Feb 7, 2008)

Korbain said:


> well, you took it out of context, i was comparing it too the hype, i should have worded it better, my bad. It was more whole "halo is the greatest FPS ever made!!!" when clearly it wasn't. And i put half life like that, what i said, great game, but not ground breaking to make it best FPS ever. It had a great atmosphere, the graphics were pretty solid (though i still think doom 3 had the better graphics in the ID vs Valve graphics battle thing), and the plot was ok (nothing special by any means). Was it revolutionary? no! Duke Nukem 3d, that was something special, doom 2, that was something special. Deus Ex, maybe not a full out FPS, but that was a FPS with a mad twist in it, prob the best game i ever played!



Well, of course Doom 3 is gonna look better. Doom 3 came out, what 5-6? years later? If you were into games as you said you were, you'd realize what a big deal HL was. Duke3d was fun, but it was the same engine as every other 3d realms shooter. It was good, but HL was a far more serious game. And once again, Deus Ex came out way After HL.


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## Groff (Feb 7, 2008)

Naren said:


> I guess for people who don't like the Half Life series, they might get irritated and be like, "OKAY! GET ON WITH IT!" but I think that people who are fans of the series found that last part with the transportation thing to be especially awesome.



It's not that I don't like the HL series, I just never played it for whatever reason. I always enjoyed the demo I got out of a PC Gamer magazine, and my machine at the time ran it flawlessly... I dunno, I just never played it. 

But I didn't hate the last transportatio section per se, I found it quite interesting to get a tour of the place (Just as in quake 4 when you get Troggified!) but there were parts that were just bland. When you get a few seconds to see a view of the city, that was awesome, but when you could only see walls and inane objects... lame. If it was half as long I would have 100% enjoyed it.

I played the hell out of Quake 1 and 3 back then though, as well as a lot of doom. I guess I wasn't into the whole story line thing. I'm a big old school shooter fan. I got immense enjoyment out of quake 4, where others thought it was boring. Killing a shit ton of baddies is appealing to me. It hasn't been until recent years (namely Halo) that I got into FPS's with solid stories. (I've read all the books, I'm a huge halo fan)

Oh, and yeah... The most fun I had with the game was the section where you controlled the Antlions, that was uber badass!


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## Naren (Feb 7, 2008)

Metal Ken said:


> Well, of course Doom 3 is gonna look better. Doom 3 came out, what 5-6? years later? If you were into games as you said you were, you'd realize what a big deal HL was. Duke3d was fun, but it was the same engine as every other 3d realms shooter. It was good, but HL was a far more serious game. And once again, Deus Ex came out way After HL.





And Half Life crushed Deus Ex. I think it's hilarious how Korbain thinks that Deus Ex was groundbreaking but Half Life wasn't.  I assume he's either never played Half Life before or is just a huge unquestioning fanboy of Deus Ex. Ask anyone informed at any of the game magazines which was groundbreaking: Half Life or Deus Ex and I doubt anyone would answer "Deus Ex."


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## Pauly (Feb 7, 2008)

goth_fiend said:


> all I have to say about episode 2 right now...fucking striders



Learn the map layout for that battle and where each strider comes from first. Then you just have to put your foot down to each location, run those Hunter fuckers over quickly (or use Grav. Gun + logs) then 90% of the time the striders don't pay attention to you so you can use the Magnesson Devices on them and BAM! Go on YouTube to see people doing it.


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## Groff (Feb 7, 2008)

Metal Ken said:


> Well, of course Doom 3 is gonna look better. Doom 3 came out, what 5-6? years later?



I think he was comparing HL2 to Doom 3.

They were both good games. Graphics don't matter to me. 
I mean, I began playing the original Half Life last night, and the graphics are fine to me. Well, except the HIDEOUS looking human models... Their faces just look like they've been smacked with a crowbar.


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## sakeido (Feb 7, 2008)

goth_fiend said:


> all I have to say about episode 2 right now...fucking striders



It took me awhile to beat that fight but man oh man it was spectacular... best end boss battle I have played since fuckin Super Metroid, and hands down the best in a first person shooter. Plus there was some good "wow" moments in there, like when they blow up the sawmill.


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## Chris (Feb 7, 2008)

Naren said:


> And Half Life crushed Deus Ex. I think it's hilarious how Korbain thinks that Deus Ex was groundbreaking but Half Life wasn't.  I assume he's either never played Half Life before or is just a huge unquestioning fanboy of Deus Ex. Ask anyone informed at any of the game magazines which was groundbreaking: Half Life or Deus Ex and I doubt anyone would answer "Deus Ex."



Well, truth be told Deus Ex copped Thief's vibe, and imo Thief's stealth engine/gameplay was pretty much the most groundbreaking FPS moment to me. I still am yet to play a game that even comes close to it.


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## Pauly (Feb 7, 2008)

sakeido said:


> It took me awhile to beat that fight but man oh man it was spectacular... best end boss battle I have played since fuckin Super Metroid, and hands down the best in a first person shooter. Plus there was some good "wow" moments in there, like when they blow up the sawmill.



It's cool, they use pre-rendered physics simulations rather than one in real-time so while it always looks exactly the same each time you play, it won't rape your processor doing calculations.

Also pro-tip here. Vid+commentary on how to get the 'Neighbourhood Watch' achievement on that final battle.


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## Naren (Feb 7, 2008)

sakeido said:


> It took me awhile to beat that fight but man oh man it was spectacular... best end boss battle I have played since fuckin Super Metroid, and hands down the best in a first person shooter. Plus there was some good "wow" moments in there, like when they blow up the sawmill.



You let them blow up the sawmill? I didn't let them blow up any of the buildings. I felt like I failed if I did, so I just wasted most of the striders the moment I saw them on my screen.

So maybe I didn't get to see any of those "wow" moments. 



Chris said:


> Well, truth be told Deus Ex copped Thief's vibe, and imo Thief's stealth engine/gameplay was pretty much the most groundbreaking FPS moment to me. I still am yet to play a game that even comes close to it.



Thief was a very groundbreaking FPS. I wouldn't say "the most," but it definitely was quite groundbreaking. 

Deus Ex, while a rather fun game, was not groundbreaking in any way.


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## Korbain (Feb 10, 2008)

Naren said:


> And Half Life crushed Deus Ex. I think it's hilarious how Korbain thinks that Deus Ex was groundbreaking but Half Life wasn't.  I assume he's either never played Half Life before or is just a huge unquestioning fanboy of Deus Ex. Ask anyone informed at any of the game magazines which was groundbreaking: Half Life or Deus Ex and I doubt anyone would answer "Deus Ex."



Whats funny? i got a different oppinion on a game too you? I don't think i said deus ex was ground breaking (though it was in its own right, alot of people would agree with that), i said it was a FPS with a mad twist in it, and it was enjoyable for me. I could say i think its hilarious you think half life was ground breaking but deus ex wasn't, but its your oppinion, and i respect that. I came on here to post my oppinion, not be a little bitch and mock someone because they don't agree a games ground breaking while another one is, etc. Saying i haven't played half life or that i'm just a huge fanboy of deus ex was a rather childish thing to say, but its the internet, what can i expect. I have played half life, and deus ex, i'm not a fan boy, i like deus ex more. Anyways, deus ex and half life both won a shitload of achievements, so i'd like to see you go ask "anyone informed at any of the game magazines."

In the end i don't need an informed person from a game magazine to decide which game is good or not for me. I have a brain that decides for me



TheMissing said:


> I think he was comparing HL2 to Doom 3.



Indeed thats what i did mean, thank you  i don't know why metal ken thought i'd compare doom 3's graphics too the original half lifes, oh well, no ones perfect.


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## Naren (Feb 10, 2008)

Korbain said:


> Whats funny? i got a different oppinion on a game too you? I don't think i said deus ex was ground breaking (though it was in its own right, alot of people would agree with that), i said it was a FPS with a mad twist in it, and it was enjoyable for me. I could say i think its hilarious you think half life was ground breaking but deus ex wasn't, but its your oppinion, and i respect that. I came on here to post my oppinion, not be a little bitch and mock someone because they don't agree a games ground breaking while another one is, etc. Saying i haven't played half life or that i'm just a huge fanboy of deus ex was a rather childish thing to say, but its the internet, what can i expect. I have played half life, and deus ex, i'm not a fan boy, i like deus ex more. Anyways, deus ex and half life both won a shitload of achievements, so i'd like to see you go ask "anyone informed at any of the game magazines."
> 
> In the end i don't need an informed person from a game magazine to decide which game is good or not for me. I have a brain that decides for me



Which you like better is a matter of opinion. Which was more revolutionary is not. You were saying that Half Life really didn't do anything special or anything new, which is not true - and that has nothing to do with opinions. I could say that "Captain Commando was a more revolutionary game than Super Mario Brothers," but I'd be wrong. 

It is your right to prefer Deus Ex to Half Life. I prefer Half Life 2 to Half Life 1 and Chris prefers Half Life 1 to Half Life 2. That's an opinionated thing. I prefer the Silent Hill series to the Resident Evil series, but if we're talking about which was/is more revolutionary and influential, the Resident Evil series would win there.

I did find it funny that you were inferring that Deus Ex was more revolutionary than Half Life simply because you like Deus Ex and don't like Half Life. That's ignoring the facts. Obviously no gaming magazines are going to argue about whether Korbain prefers Half Life or Deus Ex or which he SHOULD prefer. In fact, they're not going to argue about anything because there's no question about which game was revolutionary. As for fun and enjoyment, I like both Half Life 1 and Deus Ex, and they both won quite a few awards.


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## Chris (Feb 10, 2008)

HL2 would have been better than HL1 if not for obnoxiously long load times and WAY too many levels with the buggy/airboat that just seemed to go on forever. I'm never one to use godmode cheats in a game until I've beaten it, and I ended up doing just that for HL2 every time the buggy/boat came up. 2 hours of airboating through the same aqueduct shooting the same guys is not fun.


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## Stitch (Feb 10, 2008)

Going back three steps, what the hell happened to System Shock 2? It was an absolutely great game, but just seemed to get totally lost under everything else at the time...but looking back I can't remember any of those games that came out at that time apart from MechWarrior 3 that was worth mentioning.


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## Korbain (Feb 11, 2008)

Stitch said:


> Going back three steps, what the hell happened to System Shock 2? It was an absolutely great game, but just seemed to get totally lost under everything else at the time...



I really enjoyed system shock 2, it was pretty freaky, what i loved and hated, was the whole ration ammo shit lol. But thats what added too its intensity, so word! I sorta found Deus Ex a tiny bit similar too System shock 2, in its own way.


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## Chris (Feb 11, 2008)

Stitch said:


> Going back three steps, what the hell happened to System Shock 2? It was an absolutely great game, but just seemed to get totally lost under everything else at the time...but looking back I can't remember any of those games that came out at that time apart from MechWarrior 3 that was worth mentioning.



iirc from back in the day, SS2 ran really, really badly on all but the highest end gaming rigs, so a lot of the people that purchased it were pissed off. Great game though. 

Looking Glass folding was like, the shittiest VG moment ever.


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## Korbain (Feb 11, 2008)

Chris said:


> HL2 would have been better than HL1 if not for obnoxiously long load times and WAY too many levels with the buggy/airboat that just seemed to go on forever. I'm never one to use godmode cheats in a game until I've beaten it, and I ended up doing just that for HL2 every time the buggy/boat came up. 2 hours of airboating through the same aqueduct shooting the same guys is not fun.



LOl that killed it for me too, it was cool cruising around at first, fucking shit up and admiring the cool level design, but, god they bled it out hard. The buggy bit, wasn't toooooo bad, but still bled out. The boat, jesus, i almost thought i'd be driving the boat to the end of the game lol. It was cool how it built up and you got the machine gun to take down the helicopter (because you were like "ohhh i'm gonna fuck you up helicopter"), but it just took fucking long, if they cut the boat bit in half, it would be a great little vehicle action sequence. I just found hl2 got repetitive, like each bit went a fraction too long, it was still fun though. Though i can only shoot so much "carbine" or whatever they're called before i start getting sick of it lol. 
I liked the starship trooper looking alien things you get and you throw the scent grenades on the bad guys lol.


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## Chris (Feb 11, 2008)

Korbain said:


> out. The boat, jesus, i almost thought i'd be driving the boat to the end of the game lol.



  So friggin' true.


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## Naren (Feb 11, 2008)

Chris said:


> HL2 would have been better than HL1 if not for obnoxiously long load times and WAY too many levels with the buggy/airboat that just seemed to go on forever. I'm never one to use godmode cheats in a game until I've beaten it, and I ended up doing just that for HL2 every time the buggy/boat came up. 2 hours of airboating through the same aqueduct shooting the same guys is not fun.



Yeah, the airboat is the only part of Half Life 2 I didn't like. I didn't think it was hard. I beat it easily enough. I just... didn't like it. The buggy, however, I thought was really really cool. I kinda wish the buggy part of the game had been longer. The airboat part I wish had been shorter.


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## Korbain (Feb 11, 2008)

Naren said:


> Yeah, the airboat is the only part of Half Life 2 I didn't like. I didn't think it was hard.



It was the challenging part in the game, keeping focused and interested lol. I really liked how it was cool to cruise around and just look at how kick ass the scenery and shit was on the boat, i loved the water effects. I liked how the little buggy bit sorted, had bits where you got out and shot people and shit. Then kept going. 

They're apparently making half life 3 now? I read a few things, you know how valve are, they like, say it, without really saying it lol. They just hint at shit and fuck with peoples heads. I thought the episode stuff was a bit silly, they were just missions packs. I wish they did like, an opposing force sorta thing for hl2, if it were possible...


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## Naren (Feb 11, 2008)

Korbain said:


> They're apparently making half life 3 now? I read a few things, you know how valve are, they like, say it, without really saying it lol. They just hint at shit and fuck with peoples heads. I thought the episode stuff was a bit silly, they were just missions packs. I wish they did like, an opposing force sorta thing for hl2, if it were possible...



They said that the reason for the episodes is that fans were getting too anxious waiting for the next game which takes a long long time to make, but they could make episodes a lot faster because they're only about 1/3rd the size of a normal game.

They are making Half Life 2: Episode Three right now. I've never heard anything about a Half Life 3. My friend told me that Half Life 2: Episodes 1, 2, and 3 would pretty much BE "Half Life 3." I doubt they've started work on a Half Life 3 yet, but if you have any sources for this information, post the links. I'd be interested in it.


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## Pauly (Feb 11, 2008)

One thing I often still find with Half Life 2 and the episodes is I don't treat it like a typical FPS, I like to stop and admire the scenery or look at little details and not just run around guns blazing. I think it's a testament to the people at Valve that you can snoop around and find all these little details instead of half-assed areas where they didn't think the player would ever stop to look at. Also I only find the vehicle sections a little dry after repeated play-throughs, although I still always like to stop at every opportunity to check out the buildings and stuff.

Also check the HL2 commentary thread out! 

http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/co...8428-since-there-lot-half-life-fans-here.html


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## Groff (Feb 11, 2008)

Ok, so last night I finished Half Life 1... And honestly, it didn't answer any of my questions about HL2 

There really wasn't as much dialog as I thought there would be. I sorta got the ending with G-man, enough to understand what was going on. But unless I'm blind, I didn't find anything in the game about Dr. Breen (although I knew who he was anyway), I found nothing about the combine... Taking the game at face value only, the only thing the game really told me was you were part of an experiment gone wrong (perhaps rigged) and all of a sudden you're fighting baddies left and right trying to escape when you're attacked by the military, now you're trying to figure out what happened. You get further into the facility and realize they've been using the portals to trap and study aliens. Then you make your way deeper into the facility and they tell you you have to go to the alien homeworld and kill the head alien. Then bam you're talking to g-man.

Maybe the expansions tell more? Because HL1 seemed to lack the cinematics and story i've read so much about. o_0


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## sakeido (Feb 11, 2008)

Its not like a really obvious story.. all the little scenes just set the tone, as time wears on and fewer and fewer other people appear before finally Black Mesa is totally empty of surviving humans except for you, some soldiers, and the G-Man. I get the feeling that HL2 kind of retrofit a story back in HL1.

The Combine came after you killed the Nihilanth at the end of the first one. The green lightning shooting aliens were slaves of Nihilanth and you freed them, so they are now on your side. The rest of Nihilanth's aliens had fled from the Combine and were followed by them through the portal to Earth. 

If you want to fill out the story more, read Wikipedia. There is a lot of information in there that is very (Very very very) easy to miss while actually playing through the game, and then some additional info that was not in the game.

Even though its not a story like, say, Metal Gear Solid 3, I still get totally engrossed in it... for instance


Spoiler



At the start of Episode 2, when the Hunter appears for the first time and you are trying to get away, and then it totally fucks up Alyx right in front of you, I couldn't help but shout "noooooo!!" (with sudden sincere despair) Same thing at the end with Eli.


I felt like a geek but still, that is a standout moment in gaming for me right there. Catharsis, man, catharsis..


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## Zoltta (Feb 11, 2008)

I CANT WAIT FOR EPISODE 3 AHHHHHHHHHH


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## Groff (Feb 12, 2008)

Finally started on EP1. I'm already annoyed by some of the puzzles that give you NO CLUES as to what to do. Like when you're in a courtyard and Alyx is sniping antlions... I got the "Live bait" achievement from smacking them with the grav gun for 20 minutes before I realized I had to push the car ontop of the antlion hole........ If it weren't for me getting pissed off and flinging everything around to release my aggression, I would have never figured that out. Thanks Valve for giving me no direction whatsoever... >.<

But other than that little slip up, I'm enjoying it so far. The whole Citadel section in the beginning was great!


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## sakeido (Feb 12, 2008)

Naren said:


> You let them blow up the sawmill? I didn't let them blow up any of the buildings. I felt like I failed if I did, so I just wasted most of the striders the moment I saw them on my screen.
> 
> So maybe I didn't get to see any of those "wow" moments.



I actually thought the sawmill blowing up was something that was supposed to happen and could not be stopped... it looked so crazy I thought "well that must be something I was absolutely supposed to see and cannot prevent" and never knew I could stop it until I read that post a couple days ago 



Naren said:


> They said that the reason for the episodes is that fans were getting too anxious waiting for the next game which takes a long long time to make, but they could make episodes a lot faster because they're only about 1/3rd the size of a normal game.
> 
> They are making Half Life 2: Episode Three right now. I've never heard anything about a Half Life 3. My friend told me that Half Life 2: Episodes 1, 2, and 3 would pretty much BE "Half Life 3." I doubt they've started work on a Half Life 3 yet, but if you have any sources for this information, post the links. I'd be interested in it.



They said that Episode 3 will be the end of the current story arc. Hoepfully that means the story arc that began in HL1, and we would get some closure about the G-Man and all that (and I'm really hoping for a happy ending when all is said and done - but I somehow doubt that is going to happen). They also won't deny HL3 is happening, but I've got the feeling that HL3 will be broken up into episodes from the get-go as it seems that (this is my own conclusion based on their interviews) Valve is thoroughly commited to the new episodic model of releasing a game and are going to fine tune the process even further in the future. Which, hopefully, will mean they stick to the original time table they came up with. Remember when they said the episodes would be only about 6 months apart? HA


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## Groff (Feb 14, 2008)

The way the story is going, if they really close the story arc, I don't know where they could go from there. Unless there are some loose ends, or some sort of catastrophe. I just don't know what they could do with the story once (if) the combine are destroyed.


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## sakeido (Feb 14, 2008)

TheMissing said:


> The way the story is going, if they really close the story arc, I don't know where they could go from there. Unless there are some loose ends, or some sort of catastrophe. I just don't know what they could do with the story once (if) the combine are destroyed.



It will turn out that the opposition to the Combine's long expansion through the galaxy suddenly turns up on Earth and we take the battle to the Combine homeworld. That would be kind of lame. Really, all I want right now, is for Gordon and Alyx to run away together ahaha


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## Zoltta (Feb 14, 2008)

They would probably start a new story most likley. I mean the Halo story ending in 3 and obviously they are going to continue but it wont be "halo" probably but a totally new series and story.


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## Groff (Feb 18, 2008)

Zoltta said:


> They would probably start a new story most likley.



Maybe it'll involve the elusive G-man... My prediction for EP3 is that he really screws something up in the end... I wonder how far along with EP3 they are. I can't find any info about it. The only thing I found was from 2 years ago when it was 'announced'.


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## ZeroSignal (Feb 18, 2008)

I know I know! 

After Episode Three they'll continue with the Adrian Sheppard story arc from Half Life: Opposing Force! 

Or perhaps continue with Barney?


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