Half-Life 2: Episode 1
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ok, so i admit as long as there is some sort of assist on aiming then i can manage ok with a joystick, if not i'm stuffed. i think the true statement SHOULD be FPS is hopefully best with the wii, and a massive wall and a decent projector 
or a backpack full of H&K's catalogue
or a backpack full of H&K's catalogue
Caporegime
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Psyk said:Valve have said there are plans for a half-life 3. As far as I know they haven't retracted that statement. And these episodes are clearly not half-life 3 as they are called Half-life 2 episodes
Eh, so why did Valve say this then.
I was pleasantly suprised by this, as I'm not a huge HL fanboi like some people. The whole thing feels very slick, excellent technology (gfx/physics/sound), reasonable combat a good characters/story. I played through Sin Episodes: Emergence a week or so a go and that wasn't anywhere near this kind of level.
The thing I thought was handled especially well was the puzzles - I'm not a big fan of puzzles in FPS games, but all the ones in HL2:EP1 are well thought out and not overly contrived. By which I mean there is not 1 exact solution to them, you can do things slightly differently and still succeed. There's some subtle hints about what you need to do and they just fit into the gameplay without being frustrating. One example would be in the hospital where you have to go down some corridor with zombies coming out the side room, and a couple of sentry turrets are at the far end behind a forcefield shooting at you. I just picked up a door(!) with the grav gun, and ran forward using it as a shield from the turret fire before ducking for cover.
Admittedly the game is somewhat short, but unlike some I didn't think it ended abruptly - leaving on the train seemed like the perfect end to an episode before moving onto something different (presumably ep2 will start on a nice 'safe' level, train arrives and you go and meet up with Kleiner etc). Anyway I think it is just about worth the money given the high quality nature of the game, even if it's very poor in terms of length compared to the likes of Doom3 which is a cheaper game. I would have prefered them to release EP1 and EP2 together though as an 8-10hour package costing £20 rather than this 4-5hr episode however.
On the downside, I got the same nasty stuttering and looping sounds when entering new areas just as I did in HL2 and SiN:E. It really disrupts the gaming experience and I don't see why they can't get it sorted when this sort of thing is much less common in e.g. the D3/FC/FEAR engines.
The first level was also a bit boring due to lack of weaponry and a lot of wandering about. Stick to the city type locations please Valve.
The thing I thought was handled especially well was the puzzles - I'm not a big fan of puzzles in FPS games, but all the ones in HL2:EP1 are well thought out and not overly contrived. By which I mean there is not 1 exact solution to them, you can do things slightly differently and still succeed. There's some subtle hints about what you need to do and they just fit into the gameplay without being frustrating. One example would be in the hospital where you have to go down some corridor with zombies coming out the side room, and a couple of sentry turrets are at the far end behind a forcefield shooting at you. I just picked up a door(!) with the grav gun, and ran forward using it as a shield from the turret fire before ducking for cover.
Admittedly the game is somewhat short, but unlike some I didn't think it ended abruptly - leaving on the train seemed like the perfect end to an episode before moving onto something different (presumably ep2 will start on a nice 'safe' level, train arrives and you go and meet up with Kleiner etc). Anyway I think it is just about worth the money given the high quality nature of the game, even if it's very poor in terms of length compared to the likes of Doom3 which is a cheaper game. I would have prefered them to release EP1 and EP2 together though as an 8-10hour package costing £20 rather than this 4-5hr episode however.
On the downside, I got the same nasty stuttering and looping sounds when entering new areas just as I did in HL2 and SiN:E. It really disrupts the gaming experience and I don't see why they can't get it sorted when this sort of thing is much less common in e.g. the D3/FC/FEAR engines.
The first level was also a bit boring due to lack of weaponry and a lot of wandering about. Stick to the city type locations please Valve.
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I've been sitting wondering about how they are going to end the Half Life story. I really want to know and it is driving me mad, wondering how long I will have to wait to find out and where all the characters will be.
Personally I'm wanting a "heroic Gordon sacrifices himself to save everyone" ending, with his final blow being stuck with his crowbar .
Personally I'm wanting a "heroic Gordon sacrifices himself to save everyone" ending, with his final blow being stuck with his crowbar
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HangTime said:
I tried that but the door was shot up too quickly for me to move more than 5 metres.
The sound problems you were having arent HL2's fault as such. Check out the steampowered knowledge base and forums. a lot of information to trawl through but I have used those to fix steam or CS Source problems a few times.
Soldato
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Yep just seen the trailer after completing it on hard today. Episode 2 looks as if it will have the same sort of quality gameplay as Episode 1. The quality of the puzzles in Episode 1 was excellent & I have to say I really enjoyed every moment.
The section where Alex mans the sniper rifle was a prime example of good game mechanics. I was running low on ammo at that point so I let her pick off as many zombies as possible. You reach a corridor that goes over to the next building & load of zombies come at you which take loads of your ammo to dispatch. So I ended up using the grav gun to shoot the boards off the windows of the corridor on the left hand side. This then allowed Alex to pick off the zombies one by one, letting me conserve my ammo. Subtle & effective.
The section where Alex mans the sniper rifle was a prime example of good game mechanics. I was running low on ammo at that point so I let her pick off as many zombies as possible. You reach a corridor that goes over to the next building & load of zombies come at you which take loads of your ammo to dispatch. So I ended up using the grav gun to shoot the boards off the windows of the corridor on the left hand side. This then allowed Alex to pick off the zombies one by one, letting me conserve my ammo. Subtle & effective.
Nice idea, i was wondering why she wasn't shooting them!YooEntSinMeROYT said:Yep just seen the trailer after completing it on hard today. Episode 2 looks as if it will have the same sort of quality gameplay as Episode 1. The quality of the puzzles in Episode 1 was excellent & I have to say I really enjoyed every moment.
The section where Alex mans the sniper rifle was a prime example of good game mechanics. I was running low on ammo at that point so I let her pick off as many zombies as possible. You reach a corridor that goes over to the next building & load of zombies come at you which take loads of your ammo to dispatch. So I ended up using the grav gun to shoot the boards off the windows of the corridor on the left hand side. This then allowed Alex to pick off the zombies one by one, letting me conserve my ammo. Subtle & effective.
I like the puzzles, some really had to get me thinking, like the one with loads of flammable barrels and then the trip mines blocking your path. One thing i don't like is the fact that most of the things you shoot are zombies. It's like a long level of Ravenholm, i'm not scared of the zombies* but i think that more firefights with the combine would be better.
Apart from that, i'm loving it so far and have yet to finish it.
BTW did anyone else here get really scared on the part where the lift is broken?
*that's a lie
I love the combine that have the heart monitors that flatline when they die, was especially good fun knocking them off the jetties in the airboat in the original game. It's a great indicator that you've managed to dispatch them with a sneaky grenade rather than just injure them. IIRC, the only time they popped up in Episode 1 was halfway through taking the NPCs to safety near the end.
Finished it earlier today. Would have finished it a lot earlier, but I was busy and had to leave it. 
The ending was great, left me feeling a little hollow though, since my last save was roughly 10 minutes before the ending. Guess I can't count what chapter I'm on very well, though I still had another one to go.
Looking forward to EP2 now. I didn't get a trailer at the end credits (though my PC crashed slightly there, so it's probably my fault, somehow) but I looked it up in the Steam directory and watched it. Looks good. I want to know what happens now, release another trailer, damnit!! Or even better, release the whole episode!
The ending was great, left me feeling a little hollow though, since my last save was roughly 10 minutes before the ending. Guess I can't count what chapter I'm on very well, though I still had another one to go.
Looking forward to EP2 now. I didn't get a trailer at the end credits (though my PC crashed slightly there, so it's probably my fault, somehow) but I looked it up in the Steam directory and watched it. Looks good. I want to know what happens now, release another trailer, damnit!! Or even better, release the whole episode!
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Psyk said:Well I did say as far as I know, and now I know better
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When is episode 2 due for release? Ive heard around Christmas/early January but I cant remember the source. Any one know if Valve have given offical word on a release date?
[**Spoilers**]
Finally got round to completing it last night, and although it was short, it was very very sweet indeed. There were some great action setpieces, especially the strider at the train station and the flying thing at the top of that building.
[/**Spoilers**]
Really looking forward to Episode Two, should be interesting with a more forest style level design, that should give a totally new feel to the game series.
It'll be the end of this year apparently.
Finally got round to completing it last night, and although it was short, it was very very sweet indeed. There were some great action setpieces, especially the strider at the train station and the flying thing at the top of that building.
[/**Spoilers**]
Really looking forward to Episode Two, should be interesting with a more forest style level design, that should give a totally new feel to the game series.
PlatinumFX said:
It'll be the end of this year apparently.
bledd. said:
*shudders*
They were horrible.
I remember one occasion where I had just entered a room whilst being followed by two of them. One entrance/exit into the room from where I entered so I blocked it off with a box. "Have some of that" I thought. I could heard them running around outside the door when I heard one pair of the foot-steps disapear. "Ut-o...." I thought then WHAM, the bugger comes through the ceiling window!
I was touching cloth lads, truely touching cloth.
Yeah I'm pretty girly when it comes to knowing something is going to make me jump in computer games, sucks I know.
It's a computer game ffs, it ain't going to jump out of the monitor at me but it still really makes me jump.
FEAR made me cack my pants when that girl turned up
It's a computer game ffs, it ain't going to jump out of the monitor at me but it still really makes me jump.
FEAR made me cack my pants when that girl turned up