HALF-LIFE 2: GAME OF THE YEAR AVAILABLE AT NORTH AMERICA RET

[YegaDoyai]

Valve Corporation today announced that Half-Life® 2: Game of the Year has started shipping to retail outlets in North America. Half-Life 2: Game of the Year is a special edition release of the best-selling and critically acclaimed title that includes Half-Life 2, Counter-Strike: Source, plus Half-Life 2: Deathmatch, and Half-Life: Source. Half-Life 2: Game of the Year will begin shipping to other territories worldwide in the coming weeks.

[Bluepixie]

But everyone already has it. Not a bit silly no?

[Tiberio]

Awesome, maybe i should buy it then, since at that time i'll prob have my internet working perfectly, how is half-life 2 by the way, any good (silly question, i know :wink: )

[DAve]

Really, really good.
I'm only half way though it though. Cursed lack of free time!

[YegaDoyai]

no, it's quite good. You need to play it on hard and NEVER save. Use only the autosaves and always play with whatever health you have don't replay a section to get more health unless you die. Otherwise (certain exceptions granted) the game lacks any tension. There is no feel of overwhealming doom or an oppressive force as is implied in the game. The set peices are great but overall it lacks substance. Most people will disagree with this but it's my opinion. I'm currently playing through the game again and finding it difficult to keep up my motivation (similarly with Doom3 - but not farcry). These games were originaly played on my duron system so it sucked and now I'm playing again only Farcry is better, looks great but also there are different things to see on the high detail settings and the bad guys are more numerous (though presumably less 'hard'). I still crave a sequel to deus ex and system shock (Pixie already knows my reservations towards thier released sequels). I recently played through the original System Shock at 640*480, no acceleration and full sound. I find it difficult to find games that captivate that same sense of complete and utter foreboding that System Shock creates, which itself was bettered only by Terminator:Future Shock again a game I played recently. The game is not great, the graphics at the time were stunning and if you get SkyNET you can play it at 800*600 but the level design is sometimes flawed (you'll get lost in some outdoors levels), nowadays we'd expect the briefings to be a bit more involved and the enimies a bit more varied (i think you've seen all the bad guys by about level 4-5). But at least it felt real (within the confines of the game universe), you had a sense of desperateness.

Games, nowadays seem a bit proziac. Take price of persia, die as often as you like but only 1 hour to complete the game. Excellent. PoP:Sands of Time. You have a rewind button. Great game, good level design but just a little too simplistic to keep me enthused.

/off topic rant

thanks for listening

[Bluepixie]

/off topic rant

thanks for listening

*the wind sings, frogs bark and the cat coughs up it's owner*

Well, there you go. HL2 is amazing, just blast through it, kinda like a movie. Try and do it in a few sittings, makes it more intense and absorbing. I finished it in 3 days (three sittings) on medium, next time will do it on hard. The best thing about HL2 however is all of the amazing mods that are going to be coming out in the next couple ot years(maybe 5, The Specailists came out quite late on). I would recommend it highly.

[Bluepixie]

Awesome, maybe i should buy it then, since at that time i'll prob have my internet working perfectly, how is half-life 2 by the way, any good (silly question, i know :wink: )

Cool avatar BTW! It that angry squrriel? My brother showed me some of that, is very funny.

[Tiberio]

its Foamy http://www.illwillpress.com prob the funniest cartoon i've ever seen :lol: