Valve and their Half-Life series have once again shattered standards
of games, raising the bar to heights we used to only dream of. The
year's of development this game went through shine through again and
again. Providing an unforgettable experience in every aspect possible,
Half-Life² is a must have title. It's like cocaine for gamers
-immensely addictive and lethally satisfying. Take a look at our write
up about it.
A quote on Half-Life²:
"By
taking the suspense, challenge and visceral charge of the original, and
adding startling new realism and responsiveness, Half-Life 2 opens the
door to a world where the player's presence affects everything around
him, from the physical environment to the behaviors even the emotions
of both friends and enemies
The player again picks up the
crowbar of research scientist Gordon Freeman, who finds himself on an
alien-infested Earth being picked to the bone, its resources depleted,
its populace dwindling. Freeman is thrust into the unenviable role of
rescuing the world from the wrong he unleashed back at Black Mesa. And
a lot of people he cares about are counting on him.
The intense, real-time gameplay of Half-Life 2 is made possible only by
Source®, Valve's new proprietary engine technology. Source provides
major enhancements in:
Characters - Advanced facial animation system delivers the most
sophisticated in-game characters ever seen. With 40 distinct facial
"muscles," human characters convey the full array of human emotion, and
respond to the player with fluidity and intelligence.
Physics - From pebbles to water to 2-ton trucks respond as expected, as
they obey the laws of mass, friction, gravity, and buoyancy.
Graphics - Source's shader-based renderer, like the one used at Pixar
to create movies such as Toy Story® and Monster's, Inc.®, creates the
most beautiful and realistic environments ever seen in a video game.
AI - Neither friends nor enemies charge blindly into the fray. They can
assess threats, navigate tricky terrain, and fashion weapons from
whatever is at hand.
"
*Quote found at the Half-Life² Overview page.
Half-life², one of the most anticipated games of the year recently
arrived. Competing on the same tier with Doom 3, the two seemed to be
facing off this past year, preparing to see who could create a better
game, especially in the graphic/visual category. While the two are
equal on a graphical level as they trade off shortcomings, overall we
find Half-life² to be the superior game. Receiving high marks
everywhere and comments proclaiming the gaming industry has once again,
as with the original Half-life, been exposed to such a revolutionary
game that it will never be the same. Half-life² has even been branded
with it's predecessor's title for the "Best Game Ever" for PC's. While
this is an exceptional game, it's not perfect; but you can be sure of
one thing, you have to play this game.
You have two main methods of getting a copy of HL² to play: download
from the internet via Steam or buy a retail disc version. We found the
easiest and most efficient way to be via the Steam system
(www.steampowered.com). That's also the easiest way to get basically
all of the Half-life and Counter-Strike series games from Valve. Simply
pay for the games you want (there are packages that include more than
one game at a better price than buying individually), download and
install Steam, and then download a copy of HL² or other game(s) that
were purchased. The Steam client also allows instant messaging, easy
access to launch games (including ones that you've already purchased at
the store and have installed from CD), automatically update games,
makes it extremely easy to find online matches, and much more. You can
also play your games from any computer (only on one at a time though)
as long as you're willing to sit through the download(s); this was the
only issue we had with Steam because if we want to test the game on
different setups, we'll have to download the game on to each PC unless
we use the same HDD. If you purchase the retail CD version of the game,
you'll still want to download Steam to have a much easier time of
finding multiplayer matches. Nonetheless, we're here to judge the game,
not the distribution and marketing method(s).
Sounds like you ruined the world...
Most everyone regards Freeman (the Free Man to some) as a prophet-like/savior figure.
If you don't enable Quick Weapon Switch, you'll get to see the facial the weapon interface received.
The storyline of Half-Life² is intriguing but needs work (we're going
to try not to spoil too much of the game). You're thrown into a more
modern Earth that has been terrorized and changed by the results of
your actions back in Black Mesa. After the introductions from G-Man
conclude, you're left searching for more information/answers to enhance
the storyline and about various elements of the game, unfortunately
most of which won't be answered when you finish the game (but this does
leave a large opening for a sequel). Sound is one of the most important
elements when playing this game; all the sounds in the game are
extremely well done and very realistic. The sound effects are what
immerse you in the game the most, stepping up the level of intensity
and realism (of course, the superb graphics and physics help). The
ending of the game leaves a large void for a sequel to come in and fill
the void. I wasn't able to become completely consumed in the plot but
it's structured and presented well enough that it holds your interest
and the excellent characters facial/emotion animations (including body
language) help accentuate the mood in many situations.
The facial expressions in tandem with body language makes it easy to convey emotion.
Barney, everyones favorite guard, is back. Although he does look to have shed a few pounds since our last encounter.
The animation is well done, using a technique dubbed "animation
blending". Simply explained, there are predetermined animations for
each character. For example the animations of a character running left,
right, back, and forward. If the character needs to run to the right
and forward (NE), the system will blend the animation of the character
running to the right and the one for running forward, the end result
being a smooth and nice looking animation of the character running NE.
The facial expressions are supported by a muscle system to help convey
emotions in each individual face. While most of your enemies do not use
this system many of your allies employ many facial deviations,
especially when talking to you.
G-Man has returned, and he uses plenty of facial animations and emotions when you chat with him.
As in the original Half-Life, you'll sometimes find G-Man checking up on your progress.
Half-life² uses the Havok (www.havok.com) physics engine to create the
high amount of realism for objects and their interactions with
characters and other objects in the 3D world. The Gravity Gun (Zero
Point Energy Field Manipulator if you prefer) is one of the easiest
ways to test physics out because of all the calculations that must be
made with the many different ways you can throw an object and launch it
into outer space. The explosions are another great example, when you
throw a flammable barrel and it explodes, objects around the explosion
are sent flying or are shattered/broken; good realistic interaction.
You'll find many objects throughout the game that can be used as
weapons, some are huge, some small but deadly. From bottles to toilets
to saw blades and paint cans, the list is gargantuan. Even the shards
of an exploding barrel can be used.
The Gravity Gun opens a whole new realm of creativity in combat and puzzles.
Use parts of barrels after they explode...
...Or you can use the saw blade approach.
Another point of high realism and variety is the sound. The game
features options for all sorts of speaker setups, including headphones.
In order to create realistic sounds as you progress through the world,
Valve developed a system that alters certain frequencies of sound based
on your location (i.e., you're in water so it removes high frequencies
but leaves the low frequencies to simulate a submerged effect) to
deliver a life-like experience. When a grenade goes off near you, your
ear(s) rings on the appropriate side(s). With such good audio it's easy
to locate enemies, especially on surround sound setups. The music of
the game is very minimal; chiming in at very few places during the
game, but at key points nonetheless. The overall audio, both music and
sound effects, is excellent.
The breaking glass audio is spectacular; as are all the other sound effects.
A half-fiend attempts to run me out of his vent.
Of course, head-crabbed zombies are still on the menu, along with plenty of gore.
There's a few new fatal faces on the enemy roster.
Players can also choose to use traps as a means of saving ammo and the disposal of some monsters.
The world is impressive, there's no argument about that. A very large
scale, with many objects, almost all of which you can interact with
somehow. The biggest thing that we can suggest is you need a good
DirectX 9 video card to play this game. A DirectX 9 makes all the
difference with visual detailing, especially with water effects
(reflection, properly blended transition from water edge to shore,
etc.) and a lot of the textures/materials. Most of the materials are
affected by DX9 with the fact that it uses normal maps opposed to bump
maps. Bump maps only associate with the height/elevation, while normal
maps store and both height and direction therefore they look much more
realistic and have better detailing. You're able to force DX9
(console*, type "mat_dx_level 90" without the quotes; can also be used
for other DX levels) on to some video cards but most that do not
default to DX9 will suffer a great performance decrease. The
environment is highly interactive making for a new gaming experience
where literally almost everything can be used in some way as a weapon
or cover to help you gain an advantage over the opposition.
*You need to activate the console (~KEY) from the options menu.
Plenty of new toys to play with in the highly interactive environment.
Even far away buildings are 3D rendered like the ones next to you.
Extremely detailed surroundings, both in texture and architecture.
While Half-Life² and Doom 3 are on the same tier, many people wonder
why Doom 3 requires an ultra high end system and is still darker than
is appreciative, while Half-Life² doesn't require an FX-55 or P4
3.6GHz and has plenty of lighting. The difference is dynamic lighting.
Doom 3 uses completely dynamic lighting while Half-Life² uses a
combination/hybrid (most games use this combination) of majority
pre-calculated/static lighting and a few dynamic. Dynamic lights are
calculated on the run while you're fragging away, not before you've
even entered the level. This explains why Doom 3 is such a resource hog
and remains a rather dim lit game and Half-Life² does not. Lighting
calculations are not something that takes neither small amounts of time
nor resources. With proper implementation of static lights, you're able
to create highly realistic scenes. With today's hardware, the
combination lighting system is the way to go if you want FPS and visual
quality but we speculate that as hardware advances, more games will be
utilizing dynamic lighting systems.
One of the helicopters you'll face.
The two outfits of humanoid enemies you'll encounter.
A prime example of AI putting itself in apparent danger.
We've few complaints about Half-Life² but here are some minor things that
bugged us. The humanoid enemies weren't very different; we saw two
different suits for the soldiers we faced, a little more variety
would've been nice. Longer game time would be great, why wouldn't you
want to spend 30+ hours playing through such an epic title? Hard and
Medium difficulties didn't pose an extensively increased challenge. In
the original Half-Life you had some "bosses"; the larger creatures that
you had to not only avoid and kill but usually solve some sort of large
scale puzzle to eliminate (start the incinerator, etc.). While you face
helicopters and other flying aircraft, they do not require any
originality or solving; just shoot them down. The puzzles are
definitely intuitive and realistic but too easy to solve (obvious
solutions). A.I. overall was extremely good, but the occasional Combine
soldier would stand on top of a grenade we tossed, yelling "Grenade!"
and crouching until it exploded. Allies are sometimes bunched up around
you and get in the way; but what we'd really like to see is some better
squad commands than the two you are given (follow me, go there).
Valve
has once again set the bar for the gaming industry. They also leave a
very open end for the Half-Life series...perhaps for a sequel...
Valve and their Half-Life series have once again shattered standards of
games, raising the bar to heights we used to only dream of. The year's
of development this game went through shine through again and again.
Providing an unforgettable experience in every aspect possible,
Half-Life² is a must have title. It's like cocaine for gamers
-immensely addictive and lethally satisfying. Outstanding audio,
extreme graphics, excellent game play, good storyline, and years of
work all come together to create a sequel that moves the industry just
as much as the first. We can only hope for a sequel. Enough of our
rambling; despite its small flaws, Half-Life² is the best FPS of its
kind on the market. It receives a 97% rating, an Editors Choice Award,
and the Moditory Mandatory Award.
| w00t: |
p00t: |
- Highly Addicting and fun
- Good lighting
- Great Sound
- Extreme Graphics
- Good Bundle(CS: Source)
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