I bought the HL2 Collector's Edition on Amazon (50% off!) 2 weeks ago, received it on the 3rd, and finished it today. Wow, what a game. Horror, adventure, science fiction, and action in a beautiful combination. Those physics puzzles were so clever (reminds me of JK which had crude but similar puzzles). Probably my favorite game that I ever played, in a tie with Deus Ex.

[POTENTIAL SPOILER CONTENT BELOW, I DON'T CARE TO TAG SPECIFICS]
Unfortunately, I am still confused. So many questions. For example, was City 17 obliterated at the end? Was Earth completely controlled by the Combine or just the game's central location? If City 17 was the last human stronghold, where is Freeman going to do the G-Man's bidding next (the next installment is for certain, methinks). Breen's purpose in appeasement seemed to be less for the sake of the human race but more for some special life ahead for him.

It would be cool if they brought back A. Shephard (right name?) from OpFor and give him a role as they did w/ Barney.

Half Life 2: Aftermath is coming out this year. It takes place right where HL2 left off. Valve claims it's going to answer a lot, but at the same time it's going to open up even more questions for Half-Life 3 or the NEXT possible HL2 expansion. They call Aftermath more of a 'chapter' than an expansion.

I agree, awesome game. Unfortunately, my backed up save file wouldn't re-integrate (old hard drive failed), so I have to start over for the 2nd time . I also just purchased Doom 3 today, so I will now have no life for the next couple months

Just load the map via console. Type in "maps *" sans quote, and load the maps until you figure out relatively where you were.

I'm at the place with the huge suppressor...which reminds me...

Hmmm, that'd save a lot of time. Thanks a bunch! I'll probably load it up once my nerves can handle Doom 3 no longer, and I need to lighten my mood.

Notice: Valve says "later this year" = 2007.

If there's one thing I cannot stand about Valve it's their constant push back of releases. I'd rather them not release a date then keep pushing it back. DoD:S has been Coming Soon forever now (with them saying late summer now).

However, I still love them and Steam. So many games all in one nice package - and if there's nothing to do I always find myself loading up CS:S, TFC, DoD or any other user mods like PvK, HL2CTF, Plan of Attack, Dodgeball, etc.

I agree - Half-Life 2 was a great game

You can also change the line in the config file to this:

sv_unlockedchapters "14"

This will allow you to select any of the chapters of the game when you start a new game.

Done, and thanks. I wasn't relishing the thought of dragging myself through the early levels again, though I always enjoy Ravenholm

I wish HL2 wasn't so linear, though.

Hmmm, I honestly can't think of too many FPS games that have storyline that aren't linear.

Indeed.

But, atleast HL2 should have allowed players to go to an objective by using different tactics and paths. :/

Oh well.

By linear, do you mean level design or story line? I agree, both are sadly lacking in most of today's shooters. You can at least say that JK had alternate endings for the story, although I'm not sure if the same can be said of it's level design - perhaps certain levels.

If you calculate the energy created by converting a human being (~60 kilos) into pure energy, and assume this was all released in the explosion of the teleporter, I find it hard to believe that all of City 17 (as well as pretty much anything within 50 km) wasn't completely obliterated.

The teleporter broke before anythign happened.

Ditto. The ending was awesome. Everything up until the Citadel...well actually everything up until City 17 was kind of meh. It would've made a GREAT book...not so great as a game.

I loved HL2. Best game since JK IMO.

HL2 was quite ace, yes. Including the ending.

I'm in Ravenholm.

Funnest game F***ing EVAR!!!

Far Cry has some excellent non-linear levels. The story is nowhere near as interesting though.

I enjoyed Half-Life 2 extremely (I'm playing for a third time on hard mode now).

Graphics are great, well.....as long as you don't zoom into some textures *coughGregoriShotgun*cough*. The sound is amazing. HL2 has some of my favorite sound effects in any media, those being when you light the zombies on fire, and when you take down the striders.

The story remains very good, and I'm still dieing to know about the G-Man. Because when you see him throughout the game, most of the time he's in certain locations where an event is about to happen, so you wonder if he is the one setting them up.

The ending I expected, but was still very very cool. How else are you gonna get HL3?

Ravenholm is probably my favorite section of a game ever, with the exception of the end of Metal Gear Solid 2+3. The leapers scare the crap out of me everytime I play.

The only real fault I had in playing the game was that the ending took too long. The whole trek through City 17 I expected to be over sooner, but just about when I was goign "oh yeah, citadel time!", alyx gets captured, or you have to go take down that weapon on top of the building. While it was fun, lasted a bit too long in my opinion.

OVerall though, I give HL2 a 9.5/10.

All I can remember is that HL2 gave me one of the biggest freaking scares. >.< I wasn't expecting any OMFGJUMP moments in the game. There was a part where you crawl under a rock or a small ledge of a building and you see a health pack like 10 feet infront of you, and I went to get the healthpack and this zombie hand just freaking lashes out at me...I think I had a mini-stroke.

I must admit that when I was in the watertower in Ravenholm, and the fast headcrab zombies started pouring in I was like "OH MY GOD" and just started spamming with the shotgun. I ended up with no ammo in any gun, 15 health, and hating the game immensely as I tried to pick up debris with the gravity gun that could actually kill something :\

HL2 is the best game since HL, which was the best game since JK.

The people - both textures and models - are spectacular. The gravity gun is frickin' awesome, and I don't think anyone had ever done an invasion of a prison with an army of pheromone-driven creatures at your back.

The ending of HL2 was really cool in the fact that it left so many things unanswered, yet it gave me a sense of satisfaction without really answering anything. My only gripe is that the hitboxes needed to be tightened so that you can't headshot a person when you miss their head by two inches.

Outside of that, however, I give it 1 99%.

I dunno, the textures in HL2 irk me very badly, something about the filtering they do makes them look...grainy. And bad. And I have everything on highest, 4xaa, 16xaf, and it runs 50-60fps almost constantly (some places go down to 30-40fps). The animations are nice for the people though (except for the hands...especially Breen's hands. Did you guys ever pay attention to them? Disturbing.) and they looked really fluid, and the surroundings were decently done. Graphically, it's high point was the lighting I'd say.

And it's weird, because the texture deal is HL2 specific. I see no problems like this in CS:S.

Was CS:S pretty much done by other people than HL2?

I think the CS:S atmosphere and details are a bit stronger than in HL2 imo.

Yes. And much agreed. Though I retract my last comment--all the models taken from HL2 look like they did in HL2 :p

Indeed. Did anyone check out that Assault and Infernal (or something like that) for CS:S released through Steam recently? The amount of detail in those maps, I think, is amazing. And better textures too.


Isn't it true they were made by some group called Turtle Rock Studios? I don't think Valve really gets involved with the CS:S maps that much (correct me if I'm wrong)

Assault and Inferno, two maps made by the CS community way back when. Great maps, too, ended up in CAL and CPL rotation (or at least I know Inferno did).

Dunno who redid them for source.

If you think HL2 is fun by itself, enter an all weapons cheat code, bind it to a key, and then play through again. It is insanely fun going through Ravenholm with infinite shotgun shells thinking "Revenge time, *****es!". I still haven't figured out how to get the super gravity gun yet, though.

My only gripe about the game is the Combine Assault Rifle(second rifle). It looks like ****.

Anyone know of any really good singleplayer mods for HL2? I tried Antilion Troopers Deuce, but that doesn't seem to work.

btw, if you haven't played Codename Gordon, do it. It's pretty funny.

Yeah, also look at Turtle Rock's de_port map for CS:S.

That is one of my favorite maps for CS:S just cause it looks so beautiful. Details galore and no slow down. Plus I like the layout of the map

Haha, Ravenholm! I actually got freaked out at times because of those fast zombies that would jump from the darkness. Ironically, Gregori said that the mines would be more insane than the town, but it was quite simple to pass through them.

About linearity: Yeah, most games don't have multiple paths through their levels; this is something that I thought the innovative Valve devs would realize and fix.

The big creatures appealed to me. The Strider seems so much more interesting and effective than a POS AT-ST. I also liked the organic gunship.

I just wish that the allied bots in the street battles wouldn't have stared at sniper posts or openly engaged the striders with worthless rifles.

I think the "near misses" only happen on the crossbow. I think they exagerated the crossbow bolt collision because the projectile is so crappy to snipe with.

I just completed it, the game up until I returned to city 17 was pretty dull, I was playing to hurry up and get to the next part rather than enjoying it. The citadel was pretty cool though.

Oh yeah, on the bridge that you have to climb under (on the way to nova prospekt), did anyone else notice just how lazy the brushwork was? none of the frame pieces were linked together they were floating in mid-air.

Yeah, the crossbow doesn't shoot bullets so you have to time it or just be certain that your target will stay still long enough for the arrow to hit. Sniping with the revolver is a better method than the crossbow although the kick back on the revolver is pretty high and lacks a zoom. Your HEV suit does have a zoom but you can zoom in and shoot at the same time.