Time, Mr Freeman?

Post by **Popcorn** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 4:41 pm

I think I'll start this one with some hyperbole: Half-Life 2 is probably the best game I've ever played. Now I'll follow with a desperate plea: everyone play this game, please-- that includes you, Mr Matte, because an allergy to first-person games is not an excuse. Half-Life 2 is less of a sequel to a great game and more of a fucking messiah. I love it loads.

The thing about Half-Life 2 is this: you are Gordon Freeman. You're not just spectating someone else's story-- you're really playing it, you're existing in it. I've never felt such a sense of immersion in a game as I did with this... I really think that it's a glimpse of the future of interactive narrative, of storytelling within games. Half-Life 2 makes the non-interactive cut scenes of most other story-driven titles seem primitive and, considering its uniquely interactive medium, somewhat guilty of missing the point. Instead, HL2 paints a remarkably realistic world and puts you in it for 20 hours; things happen around you and things happen because of you, but, like the original game, there never comes a point where you're taken out of the experience. You witness everything from inside Gordon's-- your-- protective HEV suit.

In a neato nod to HL1, the game opens on a train pulling into the oppressed world of City 17. The first chunk of the game consists of letting the player explore without having to worry about any combat, and there's this blissful period of time where you just get to fuck around with the staggeringly good physics, mostly by throwing boots at cops and stuff. Soon a good percentage of hell breaks loose, and thus begins a brilliantly-paced and deceptively linear adventure spanning two days. Staggering still is the cosmically vast amount of variation involved, and the way it's paced with such beautiful precision. After finding your first gun at around midday, you engage in possibly the world's longest chase sequence coming to an dramatic end at sunset-- and then you stumble into an abandoned, zombie-riddled town just as darkness falls, only to re-emerge at dawn from a dusty mineshaft. It's not all shooting: most of your time is spent exploring, experimenting, and switching gears rapidly as the game changes what it asks of you. In Ravenholm you'll find yourself dropping cars on zombies, but later you'll be driving one yourself in a curiously relaxing coastal roadtrip. Later you're blowing alien gunships out of the sky, or infiltrating incredible alien constructs, or leading a troop of resistance fighters into dramatic street battles. The way all of this just flows is point-blank gorgeous, like the graphics.

Everything HL2 attempts to do, it succeds at. The level design is a triumph, the character models (and their facial expressions) are a revelation. I'm running out of adjectives. Just bear in mind that Half-Life 2 might be the best game ever, and as science has repeatedly proven, my opinion is the only infallible one in the world, so you should probably buy a new graphics card or something. Has anyone else played it, apart from Dache?

Baba O'Reily · Post by **Baba O'Reily** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 4:44 pm

I have.
The Crowbar is badass.

BlazeHedgehog · Post by **BlazeHedgehog** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 4:53 pm

Beat it just the day before yesterday, actually. Pop said most everything that needs to be said, but I also put my $0.02 forward.

Zeta · Post by **Zeta** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 5:00 pm

Aliens AND Zombies? Isn't that a bit of overkill? Why not just throw in werewolves, demons, and cyborgs while you're at it.

No, seriously - what are the HL games about?

BlazeHedgehog · Post by **BlazeHedgehog** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 5:07 pm

In Half-life 1, you were part of an experiment in the Super Secret Black Mesa Research Facility, located somewhere in New Mexico. The team there had been working on dimensional travel technology among other things and had broken in to something called a "Borderworld", named Xen.

Crystal and biological samples were taken from "Xen" and studied. You are Gordon Freeman, and today is your lucky day: The Administrator has discovered the highest quality crystalic sample yet, and he demands that all instruments used to monitor the crystal be cranked up to 120% as to get the clearest and most precise reading yet.

Except, something goes wrong - a "Resonance Cascade" occurs, during the high-output testing sequence. The barriers between the Xen Borderworld and Earth weaken, and Black Mesa is besieged by creatures from Xen.

The so-called "Zombies" are actually the biproduct of things called Headcrabs - a Headcrab attaches itself to a person, mutates it, and commands it. They're not Zombies in the traditional sense at all.

So anyway, Scientists call in the Military to help deal with the problem and save the base. Problem is, the Military's idea of "dealing with the problem" is to kill everyone involved and pretend it never happened. Gordon Freeman, that is, you, must survive the Alien Onslaught while dodging Military Squads, all while trying to get the hell out of Black Mesa; All the while, being monitored by a mysterious man in a suit and tie...

Post by **Popcorn** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 5:12 pm

Aliens AND Zombies? Isn't that a bit of overkill? Why not just throw in werewolves, demons, and cyborgs while you're at it.

No, seriously - what are the HL games about?

The first HL was a fairly self-contained sci-fi shooter set in a research facility in new Mexico. Your character is Gordon Freeman, a scientist hired to work there, and that's pretty much all you know about him-- he never speaks (the other characters' dialogue is cleverly structured around this), and you never see him in-game (neither HL or HL2 have any mirrors in them). The entire game is played in first-person (with no cut-scenes or anything), so it really is something uniquely immersive. In the original game, you accidentally opened a portal to another dimension that let a lot of crazy parasitic aliens through: you spend the rest of the game trying to escape. It's seven years old now and pretty dated, but still entirely playable. There was also a PS2 port with upgraded graphics and shit, but I've no idea how well that fares in comparison to the original game.

Half-Life 2 is set about ten years after the first game, and the world has transformed into a giant, 1984-style totalitarian state. It opens on a train, with Gordon being relocated to an anonymous European city... it unfolds from there. As for the zombies, they come about as a result of the aliens-- headcrabs, to be precise, which take over their host.

Post by **Esrever** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 5:17 pm

Fucking head crabs!

I haven't delved into Half-Life 2 quite yet, but I've got it up and running. While it was installing, I started playing Metroid Prime 2, and well... long story short, one week later I am still playing Metroid Prime 2 and I am not picking any other games up until I finish it. I'm sure Half Life 2 will wind up being the superior title of the two, but Prime 2 is just so bloody good and incredibly compelling that I can not put it down for anything right now.

But I did give HL2 a quick run to make sure it ran OK on my PC. I'm really quite impressed with how scalable the game is. I'm essentially running on the bare-bones minimum hardware requirements, and it can still support 800 by 600 with either medium or high on all of the detail settings. If you've got anything in your computer that is equal or better to a 1.2 gig processor and a Radeon 8500, you really have no excuse to not play this game.

After playing for about five minutes, just running around the train station and listening to a few conversations, I could feel HL2 was starting to suck me in already, so I quit right away. I don't want to get rolling on it until I've finished off Prime 2. But I can feel it calling me. I foolishly watched my friend playing a level, riding around on some kind of hovercraft thing, smacking probes out of the air with a crowbar. I am really looking forward to playing it myself.

Post by **Popcorn** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 5:19 pm

Yeah, how is Prime 2? Can you go any more in-depth? I ended up loving the original (and then going back and playing every other Metroid game before it). That's yet another sequel I have to pick up this month.

BlazeHedgehog · Post by **BlazeHedgehog** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 5:39 pm

http://blazefire.mooglecavern.com/c1a2d0001.jpg

That's what the PS2 version looks like, basically. You can download the updated model package on FilePlanet, I think, somewhere. (At least, that's what I've heard - I had a friend send me it before I knew it was on FilePlanet)

It only updates friendly/enemy/weapon models and a couple of sound effects. The rest of the game looks exactly the same.

Post by **Esrever** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 5:59 pm

Metroid Prime 2 is the fucking business. I am loving every single minute of it.

It is, in truth, very familiar. The controls are the same. The HUD is the same. And all the usual Metroid structure staples are there... running around, obtaining progressively more powerful beams and opening various coloured doors.

Where the game really excels, even moreso than the original Prime, is how immersive it is. You ARE Samus, and you never know any more than she does. You are made to feel exactly like she would in that situation, landing a strange planet where mysterious and surprisingly horrifying things are happening all around you and you have no idea why. And the only way you learn why is by actively doing things yourself, searching around, by scanning creatures and personal logs and abandonned terminals, by piecing the mystery together on your own. For the most part, (and there is one big glaring exception to this) absolutely nothing is fed to you through cut scenes or dialogue.

It's incredibly compelling, and it is so different from how most games work. Plenty of games have a compelling storyline, but it's almost... seperate from the game itself. It is presented to you in exactly the same manner as would a movie or television show. But Prime tells its story in a way that could only be done in a video game. You figure out the plot on your own, just as you figure out the levels on your own. There is a real feeling that you are doing it all yourself. And when you do figure something out, you feel like you've really achieved something, like you're some kind of crazy space detective super-genius, even though the plot isn't actually very complicated at all.

Adding to the immersiveness is the absolutely amazing level design and art direction. Prime 2 essentially tosses out all of the level archtypes in favour of constructing a planet that really feels like a unique, real place. I mean, there are still distinctive areas... a desert, a swamp, etc... but they never look or feel cliched. They are mysterious and new and they compell you to explore every nook and cranny. In that respect, they work in exactly the same manner as the storyline. The Dark dimension just adds a whole other level of exploration to the mix, and it is generally implemented very well.

Those are the elements that I think really distinguish Prime 2 from the first game. The other notables are expansions of what made the first game good... bigger and more plentiful bosses, more ambitious morph ball puzzles, more complex puzzle solving segments... it is good, good stuff.

Thus far my only complaints are the same as those I held while playing the first. Save stations are still a little too infrequent in places. I don't mind the absence of dual analog control, but if they aren't going to give it to you then it would be nice if they'd stop making enemies that attack you from above or below (where you can't lock on to them without stopping to aim manually and getting shot a lot.) And though I haven't got there yet, I KNOW there is another one of those godforsaken artifact searches at the end of the game and I am sure it is going to make me scream. But none of that stopped me from loving the original, and it's even less likely that it will here.

Post by **Popcorn** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 6:12 pm

The thing about Half-Life 2 is this: you are Gordon Freeman. You're not just spectating someone else's story-- you're really playing it, you're existing in it. I've never felt such a sense of immersion in a game as I did with this...

Where the game really excels, even moreso than the original Prime, is how immersive it is. You ARE Samus, and you never know any more than she does.

Copier. Even though, that sounds pretty cool. Incredibly, it's coming out this month in the UK, although I hear they left out 50hz support for the PAL version. I'm one of the few Brits who has a big enough treadmill to power a television that can do 60hz without exploding, so I'm okay with that.

Light Speed · Post by **Light Speed** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 6:17 pm

Well I am currently playing through Half Life 1 since I never played it back in the day, as soon as I'm done I'll play the sequel. As for Metroid Prime, I just barely beat the first one a few weeks ago even though I have had it since it came out. I think I'll wait a while before getting its sequel. The first one scared me, I'm a very jumpy person, so I ended up using a walkthrough the whole way through. I think that would really make this new one suck so I'm gonna have to grow some balls and play it. Later though, I got too many games to worry about right now, especially since in my infinite stupidity I'm getting World of Warcraft tommorow.

Post by **Popcorn** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 6:28 pm

The first one scared me, I'm a very jumpy person, so I ended up using a walkthrough the whole way through.

The second game is actually less scare-orientated than the first-- it's more action and exploration-orientated, as opposed to the frequent creepy jumpiness of HL1. The atmosphere is completely different. The only remotely 'creepy' part of HL2 is Ravenholm, the abandoned, zombie-infested town, but even that has a rich sense of irony to it. The game deliberately doesn't give you much ammo there, so you have to use the physics to create elaborate traps out of whatever comes to hand. It's like Home Alone, but with headcrabs.

SuperKnux · Post by **SuperKnux** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 6:48 pm

I bought the collector's edition as a gift for my lttle brother last week when it was released, and I must say.. the game really does own it up. Like Popcorn, I highly recommend this game.

I'm not much of a gamer as I once was, but I watched the game throughout the whole time he was playing. It's very, very good. Definatly the best game of the year, and overall better game of those other overrated First Person Shooters. You get really into it, and I love how they're no cut scenes, and over all style of the game. As Popcorn mentioned, you really are Freeman. You do not go into an area without knowing how you ended up there.

You are the journey, and I think that's the best part of it. I don't like FPSers, but this one is top notch. Go get it if you haven't.

Light Speed · Post by **Light Speed** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 6:51 pm

I was referring to Prime. I know that didn't cross your mind cause there is really nothing scary about Prime, but something about the music made it seem like something was always gonna jump out at me. I can only think of one time when something did jump out at me though.

I'm not really looking forward to playing through Half Life 1 now. I'm only like 20 minutes in, haven't even gotten a gun yet. I'm not used to PC games so being able to turn that fast kinda gives me a headache.

Post by **Esrever** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 6:56 pm

Prime 2 is even worse for that. The opening hour is actually quite disturbing. It's no Silent Hill or anything, but for a Metroid game it's pretty startling... if you don't already know what happens. Unfortunatley, it's mentioned in almost every review and preview, so it certainly takes some of the punch out of the moment.

Haha, and yes Pop, I steal all my opinions from you, you know that.

Light Speed · Post by **Light Speed** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 7:00 pm

I really enjoyed Prime with the walkthrough, but at the same time it felt kind of empty since I never did any of the puzzles by myself. That is why I don't want to use a walkthrough for Prime 2. However the main reason the first one was so bad was because I missed so many missle expansions the first time through. I only got like 5 hours in and realized I had missed tons so I started over 2 years later with a walkthrough.

chriscaffee · Post by **chriscaffee** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 8:06 pm

Since I'm on a six month old non-gaming laptop I'm going to assume my graphics card is shit, but that said, that is also the extent of my knowledge on video cards. Will a Radeon IGP 345M play this game at a decent framerate (with minimal graphic settings of course)?

Dache · Post by **Dache** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 8:36 pm

Yes, but barely. It's pretty much a stripped down Radeon 9200. However, as it's ATI, it's entirely possible you'll get decent framerates out of it with minimal graphics settings.

Baba O'Reily · Post by **Baba O'Reily** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 6:05 am

By the way... Freeman looks way too much like Eric Clapton. It's uncanny.

Post by **Esrever** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 6:03 pm

I may be a month late, but it bears repeating. I've finally delved into Half-Life 2 and everything Pop said was true. Not only is it an undeniable milestone in storytelling, presentation and immersion, but it's an absolute fucking blast to play. This is the most fun I've had with a game since Katamari Damacy.

(And even on my PC, which is by no means a gaming rig, it can run smoothly. Even at 800 by 600, with medium model and texture detail and no anti-aliasing, it still looks fucking great.)

SuperKnux · Post by **SuperKnux** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 7:04 pm

Glad you now know the true beauty that is Half-Life 2, Esrever.

I was wondering if any of you guys play the "Half-LIfe 2: Deathmatch"?

Post by **Popcorn** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 7:05 pm

I was wondering if any of you guys play the "Half-LIfe 2: Deathmatch"?

Yep, like, every fuckin' day. Team Deathmatch on Crossfire is where it's fucking at.

Post by **Esrever** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 8:42 pm

I'm too heavily engrossed in the updated Counter-Strike. I usually hate those kind of games, but it sucked me in ages ago when all my friends were playing it and now it is just kind of oddly comforting.

I'm avoiding Deathmatch until I finish the single player game, but I can't imagine that will be too long now.

SuperKnux · Post by **SuperKnux** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 10:21 pm

What's your steam name, Pop?

I usually just have a Team Deatmatch on Overwatch.