Re:I want to, but should I?
on
Review: Half-Life 2
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· Score: 2, Interesting
Go ahead and pick it up. The story is nice, but you don't NEED to know the story of the original to enjoy this one. If you're that curious about the story, you may want to search around a bit, I'm sure someone has the basic story of the original posted somewhere. I played the first one not long after it first came out and frankly remember very little of it, yet still found the second to be very enjoyable. But even without the story to back you up, the plot line keeps you moving. The puzzles are interesting but not overly difficult. They are rarely time sensitive (you don't have an endless swarm of guys coming at you while trying to figure out how to open a gate for example).
My biggest complaint would have to be that the game was a bit short. Probably took me about 12-15 hours of gameplay to beat (on easy). I'll go back and play the harder difficulties now, but it did seem a little short for my tastes. Then again, I didn't buy it for the HL2 single player game. I bought it for the multitude of mods that are being worked on for it.
My Bad. You replied to an AC which was modded at 0 (I was browsing at 1) and it appeared that you had replied to someone who had in fact, posted the correct conversion. Sorry about that.
Okay, I'm going to dispell a few myths about Steam here, so pay attention
Spyware - Valve has addressed this issue before. There is no spyware in Steam. Its is an authentication and update tool. It allows friend lists so you can join a game that friends are currently playing. It will automatically keep your games up to date - IF you want it to
Popups - there was an issue about this over a year ago. Since then I have not seen one, and Steam is always left running on my computer
HL2 Requires the Internet - Yes, for the initial authentication. After that you can run it in Offline mode without an interenet connection. If you don't have an internet connection, don't by the game, its listed as a requirement.
Install/Upgrades a pain - yes, the first few days showed the Steam servers overloaded. I purchased HL2 over Steam (already had the pre-release downloads) - took about an hour. A few minutes to purchase, 10-15 for the unlocking, and about 45 minutes for the upgrade. Take any game off the shelf and you're probably looking at 30 minutes plus to install and upgrade the game. however, that doesn't include the time to go to the store, buy it, and return home. I could not have gone to buy HL2, installed and upgraded it in less than the hour it took to purchase through Steam
Steam sucks - Its not perfect, but its come along way since they first shut down WON. I have been using it since slightly before the shutdown of WON without a major hassle. I've moved my steam install (without any reinstalls) a couple of times to accomodate drive space for all the mods. I've never had to wait to upgrade a multiplayer game, since Steam did it for me as soon as it was released. Sure, its a little slow at times, and a few times I've had problems authenticating. However, for the most part, its saved me time and hassle trying to keep my games up to date.
If I want to reinstall, I have download 4+Gb all over again - No, you don't. Steam can back up your games into appropriate sized chunks for CD or DVD and burn them, copy them, whatever. Put these back in place and all you have to do is authenticate next time
In X years I won't be able to play this game. Again, Steam has an offline mode, you won't need to authenticate to play. Also, if Valve starts dying (unlikely for the next few years at least) there's nothing to say they won't release a patch to stop requiring authentication for online mode, or open source the Steam servers.
Yes, I like Steam. Yes, some people have valid issues with Steam, including the time it takes to start playing the first time you install HL2. However, a lot of people are passing around misinformation regarding what it can't do. I hope some of you have paid attention here. You can verify ALL of this with some simple google searches or by hitting the Steam Forums
I guess it depends what you consider reasonably well. I can't say for sure, but my setup is an AMD 2600 1G Ram and a GFX5600. Running at 800x600 with basically everything on highest details (no AA). Runs great... couple times I've noticed a bit of lag, but nothing that really interfers with game play. I haven't actually checked FPS yet.
With what you've got, I am guessing you could run at a reasonable framerate at 640x480 with low details, but its hard to say.
but I can't even move the SteamApps dir without reinstalling Steam:/
That's too bad. When HL2 started preloading I ran out of room on the partition I had it installed on. So I moved steam and all the games/mods I had installed to another partition without reinstalling anything. How, I exited steam, moved the steam folder, updated my shortcut. Not sure why you can't do that.
to actually play the game, in single player mode, it still takes several minutes from the time I click on the icon to start the game before I can even choose to load a saved game -- this time is spent starting Steam, then verifying that my copy is legit
Sorry, but you're wrong here. That time is spent loading the game. Want proof? Exit Steam. Disconnect from the internet, and restart Steam. This will start steam in offline mode (it can't talk to Valve - you have no internet connection). Now launch HL2. I bet you won't notice a difference in load times. Why? Logging into steam authenticates you. It may check for updates when you first try to start HL2 (I'm not sure if it does this when you launch Steam, or at regular intervals whenever Steam is running), but there is very little network activity from Steam when launching the game.
That is an excellent article, and I've had similar thoughts about statistics in the media. Recently, there was a public service announcement in the area that stated something to the effect of "... 80% of all accidents happen within a 2 Km radius of home" in regards to wearing your seatbelt when driving.
On the surface it looks okay, but there's a bit of data missing. How much driving generally is done within that 2 Km radius? I'm too lazy to do the math, but if 99% of driving is done within the 2 Km radius, your chances of being in an accident within that 2 mile radius are actually a lot lower than 80%.
The overall message was not a bad one (wear your seatbelt) but the data used to back it up was incomplete and possibly very misleading.
I could understand if this is was an article about a new security patch or a new version of a particular app/os. However, this is a holiday gift buying guide. A holiday gift buying guide is not suitable for work at all, regardless of the content on the page.
Though I never played it much, it was a very interesting concept. One player as Mr. X trying to run from I believe 5 Scotland Yard agents. The basic game play was that you had various tokens to travel around London (taxis, bus, subway, etc). Mr. X was foced to reveal his location every so often. If the agents ever managed to land on the same spot as Mr. X, then the agents won. If the agents ran out of tokens first, then the agents won.
I'll have to look at it more later (I'm at work now, and believe it or not, don't have time to look at it too much). I'm hoping in the endgame you'll be able to trace routes of Mr.X and the agents just to see how close they came.
Actually, as a regular player of NS and a regular gorge (support role for aliens) I am usually the top score on my team. Why? Each kill only counts as 1 point in your score. However, building support structures counts as a lot more. I'm usually first place on the alien team as far as score, but have one of the worst kill/death ratios on the team. Some players recognize this contribution, other criticize me, even though I'm helping the team way more than one or two kills ever could.
Cool, a post by Flayra!
As a huge fan of NS (constellation member, and OldF member) I'm glad to see future work on Natural Selection is being scoped. While I'd love to see NS ported to Source, wherever NS goes, lots will follow.
We've been seeing a lot of new players recently. Just last night there were three or four newbies playing which was great to see, though made for some different style games since the servers are usually packed with regulars.
NS is truly one of the more innovative games I've seen in a long time. Of course, like others, I'd love to see a larger tech tree and the ability to play MvM or AvA, or even three or four team games, but regardless, I'll keep playing.
Keep of the good work!
And a badly worded poll that misses several options
Suppose it was heading toward Earth...
on
Tycho's Supernova
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· Score: 1
lets see Bruce Willis handle an incoming star, don't think you'll be landing on it and drilling a hole to drop a nuke into. Suddenly an asteroid passing nearby doesn't seem quite so bad
Similar here in Saskatchewan (Canada). I have SaskTel's MAX service which is basically TV over DSL. Along with that I have high speed internet and basic phone service which amounts to about $50CDN. However, since this is a telco, I bundle in my long distance and cell phone and wind up getting TV, Interenet, Cell, Phone and long distance for ~ $100/month.
I really hope your trying to be funny here. Realize that if the US shutdown trade with Canada, there would be serious problems in BOTH countries. Canada provides fossil fuels, fresh water, lumber, etc. to the US in huge quantities.
I won't go into too much detail here, but guess what, Canada doesn't want to assimilate immigrants. Keeping your culture and values is part of being Canadian.
You're obviously not a cat person. Every cat person knows that nobody owns a cat. The cat will accept your presence in their home, provided you clean their litter box, provide food and water, and attention when requested
I'd never thought about doing this. Several times I've considered making a short movie of either the clouds rolling past my house, or the stars over the course of an evening, or if the camera is good enough, the norther lights. Might be time to pick up a webcam and do some of these projects. In fact, it would be pretty easy to do all but two with the same camera. (The nothern lights are in the north (duh) and the sun here is always in the south).
The only problem I forsee is if I mount the camera outside, I'm going to have to deal with the weather (I'm in the Candian prairies and we can have -40C and +40C in the course of four or five months). If its inside, I'm going to have to deal with my wife asking why there is a webcam in the living room.
I can't RTFA (/.'d) but for all but the odd website here or there, I find firefox renders as the author intended. I won't say correctly since I believe in most cases, firefox is rendering correctly, just the author/site deesigner wrote for a broken browser (IE).
I can browse slashdot, do my banking, pay my bills, hit a few of the forums sites I frequent, use several different webmail programs, order flowers for my wife, buy plane tickets, book a rental car, etc. etc. all through Firefox. The odd site that breaks when I browser to it, gets ignored, and I move to the next google result.
Of course CS is the most popular mod, but more people are awaiting other mods such as Natural Selection (my favourite) and DoD, as well as many others. I'm not in a rush to buy since I'm mainly a multiplayer gamer. Though it would be nice to play the game and experience the new engine. I'll probably end up purchasing it in the next little while, though I'll still be playing a lot of Natural Selection on the original HL.
Slashdot Mirror
My biggest complaint would have to be that the game was a bit short. Probably took me about 12-15 hours of gameplay to beat (on easy). I'll go back and play the harder difficulties now, but it did seem a little short for my tastes. Then again, I didn't buy it for the HL2 single player game. I bought it for the multitude of mods that are being worked on for it.
My Bad. You replied to an AC which was modded at 0 (I was browsing at 1) and it appeared that you had replied to someone who had in fact, posted the correct conversion. Sorry about that.
Yes, I like Steam. Yes, some people have valid issues with Steam, including the time it takes to start playing the first time you install HL2. However, a lot of people are passing around misinformation regarding what it can't do. I hope some of you have paid attention here. You can verify ALL of this with some simple google searches or by hitting the Steam Forums
What are you talking about?
41.7cm = 16.4in (rounded off).
I guess it depends what you consider reasonably well. I can't say for sure, but my setup is an AMD 2600 1G Ram and a GFX5600. Running at 800x600 with basically everything on highest details (no AA). Runs great... couple times I've noticed a bit of lag, but nothing that really interfers with game play. I haven't actually checked FPS yet.
With what you've got, I am guessing you could run at a reasonable framerate at 640x480 with low details, but its hard to say.
but I can't even move the SteamApps dir without reinstalling Steam :/
That's too bad. When HL2 started preloading I ran out of room on the partition I had it installed on. So I moved steam and all the games/mods I had installed to another partition without reinstalling anything. How, I exited steam, moved the steam folder, updated my shortcut. Not sure why you can't do that.
to actually play the game, in single player mode, it still takes several minutes from the time I click on the icon to start the game before I can even choose to load a saved game -- this time is spent starting Steam, then verifying that my copy is legit
Sorry, but you're wrong here. That time is spent loading the game. Want proof? Exit Steam. Disconnect from the internet, and restart Steam. This will start steam in offline mode (it can't talk to Valve - you have no internet connection). Now launch HL2. I bet you won't notice a difference in load times. Why? Logging into steam authenticates you. It may check for updates when you first try to start HL2 (I'm not sure if it does this when you launch Steam, or at regular intervals whenever Steam is running), but there is very little network activity from Steam when launching the game.
That is an excellent article, and I've had similar thoughts about statistics in the media. Recently, there was a public service announcement in the area that stated something to the effect of " ... 80% of all accidents happen within a 2 Km radius of home" in regards to wearing your seatbelt when driving.
On the surface it looks okay, but there's a bit of data missing. How much driving generally is done within that 2 Km radius? I'm too lazy to do the math, but if 99% of driving is done within the 2 Km radius, your chances of being in an accident within that 2 mile radius are actually a lot lower than 80%.
The overall message was not a bad one (wear your seatbelt) but the data used to back it up was incomplete and possibly very misleading.
I though Shawn stole it from his roommate while the roommate was napping - thus the name Napster
reference
I could understand if this is was an article about a new security patch or a new version of a particular app/os. However, this is a holiday gift buying guide. A holiday gift buying guide is not suitable for work at all, regardless of the content on the page.
Though I never played it much, it was a very interesting concept. One player as Mr. X trying to run from I believe 5 Scotland Yard agents. The basic game play was that you had various tokens to travel around London (taxis, bus, subway, etc). Mr. X was foced to reveal his location every so often. If the agents ever managed to land on the same spot as Mr. X, then the agents won. If the agents ran out of tokens first, then the agents won.
I'll have to look at it more later (I'm at work now, and believe it or not, don't have time to look at it too much). I'm hoping in the endgame you'll be able to trace routes of Mr.X and the agents just to see how close they came.
Actually, as a regular player of NS and a regular gorge (support role for aliens) I am usually the top score on my team. Why? Each kill only counts as 1 point in your score. However, building support structures counts as a lot more. I'm usually first place on the alien team as far as score, but have one of the worst kill/death ratios on the team. Some players recognize this contribution, other criticize me, even though I'm helping the team way more than one or two kills ever could.
Cool, a post by Flayra!
As a huge fan of NS (constellation member, and OldF member) I'm glad to see future work on Natural Selection is being scoped. While I'd love to see NS ported to Source, wherever NS goes, lots will follow.
We've been seeing a lot of new players recently. Just last night there were three or four newbies playing which was great to see, though made for some different style games since the servers are usually packed with regulars.
NS is truly one of the more innovative games I've seen in a long time. Of course, like others, I'd love to see a larger tech tree and the ability to play MvM or AvA, or even three or four team games, but regardless, I'll keep playing.
Keep of the good work!
Oh there's a few things:
And a badly worded poll that misses several options
lets see Bruce Willis handle an incoming star, don't think you'll be landing on it and drilling a hole to drop a nuke into. Suddenly an asteroid passing nearby doesn't seem quite so bad
Similar here in Saskatchewan (Canada). I have SaskTel's MAX service which is basically TV over DSL. Along with that I have high speed internet and basic phone service which amounts to about $50CDN. However, since this is a telco, I bundle in my long distance and cell phone and wind up getting TV, Interenet, Cell, Phone and long distance for ~ $100/month.
I really hope your trying to be funny here. Realize that if the US shutdown trade with Canada, there would be serious problems in BOTH countries. Canada provides fossil fuels, fresh water, lumber, etc. to the US in huge quantities.
I won't go into too much detail here, but guess what, Canada doesn't want to assimilate immigrants. Keeping your culture and values is part of being Canadian.
You're obviously not a cat person. Every cat person knows that nobody owns a cat. The cat will accept your presence in their home, provided you clean their litter box, provide food and water, and attention when requested
Funny, I don't see anything from Metallica on this CD.
Wow, that I did miss. I didn't realize that this was to be done on one piece of film... that does make it a wee bit more difficult.
I'd never thought about doing this. Several times I've considered making a short movie of either the clouds rolling past my house, or the stars over the course of an evening, or if the camera is good enough, the norther lights. Might be time to pick up a webcam and do some of these projects. In fact, it would be pretty easy to do all but two with the same camera. (The nothern lights are in the north (duh) and the sun here is always in the south).
The only problem I forsee is if I mount the camera outside, I'm going to have to deal with the weather (I'm in the Candian prairies and we can have -40C and +40C in the course of four or five months). If its inside, I'm going to have to deal with my wife asking why there is a webcam in the living room.
Don't think many pacemakers are IR based.
I can't RTFA (/.'d) but for all but the odd website here or there, I find firefox renders as the author intended. I won't say correctly since I believe in most cases, firefox is rendering correctly, just the author/site deesigner wrote for a broken browser (IE).
I can browse slashdot, do my banking, pay my bills, hit a few of the forums sites I frequent, use several different webmail programs, order flowers for my wife, buy plane tickets, book a rental car, etc. etc. all through Firefox. The odd site that breaks when I browser to it, gets ignored, and I move to the next google result.
Of course CS is the most popular mod, but more people are awaiting other mods such as Natural Selection (my favourite) and DoD, as well as many others. I'm not in a rush to buy since I'm mainly a multiplayer gamer. Though it would be nice to play the game and experience the new engine. I'll probably end up purchasing it in the next little while, though I'll still be playing a lot of Natural Selection on the original HL.