I'll definitely be getting it sometime this summer when I get a chance to play without the distractions of making plans for the summer. It should be fun as the HL2.

Discuss.

HL2 sucked.

I don't see this being betterr.

Not really interested in paying 20 bucks for that now... with the huge tax too it would turn out too big in the end.

Perhaps I'll wait until all of those Episodical Content thingies are released.

(Perhaps!)

Started playing around 2est, and just finished. Very short game (it is now 5 est).

I'm not sure how I felt about it; story wise, it advances to the exit from City 17. The G-Man only appears once at the start, and then isn't dealt with again. I imagine they'll use him in Episode two or three. Instead of dealing with him, the game focuses more on the Benefactors themselves (we actually see them up close once, early on)

I just can't get over how short it felt. Good gameplay, as usual for the Half Life series, some of the fights felt pretty darn instense. But... so short...

Eh, I'm sure I'll get the next episode anyway - the ending to this one is pretty cliffhangerish.

<The_MAZZTer> wtf
<The_MAZZTer> dumb HL2EP1 crasjed
<The_MAZZTer> three times
<The_MAZZTer> at the same point

I LAUGH AT ZZT

Using Gmod, I can make more intense battle scenes... In realtime!



Lets just say, the Antguard got owned. It wasn't strong enough to break my wooden gate hahaha. I hid behind it while he kept headbutting it as the combine lit him up. Sucker.

Oh BTW, was the AI any better? Thats the ONLY failing HL2 had. I heard they improved it.

They did some more interesting things, but it's hard to say if it was better. I didn't notice any real strategy or anything being used, so I assume it was just scripted to look a bit more squad based. They died just as fast, regardless. =P

edit - Actually, I take that back. At one point, you take down an airship, and it took me about six minutes to land the first shot - damn thing was making sure to stay out of my LoS. The troops didn't run in alone, they would stick together. But again, they died just as fast.

I find raising the combines HP help them live longer so they can actually DO something. sk_combine_s_health 150 (def. 50) is good, but obivously this unbalances the game.

Just a sidenote, it might be a good idea to put that in spoiler tags, as some people coming into this thread might not have beaten it yet.

I finished it despite at least a dozen Engine Error dialogue boxes and accompanied crashes. It was enjoyable enough, but as has been mentioned, rather short. I'll play through it again at some point and enable developer commentary, as I'm rather interested, having made an HL2 mod earlier in the year myself.

Also, the teaser for Episode 2 has me worried about the direction the story is going. I don't want Alyx to die.

i might buy it... depends on a few things

$20 for 3 hours of gameplay... sounds stupid....

Are there any new weapons?

Yeah, that's a little steep.

No. Only thing new is signal flares that you pick up like any other prop. The Devs must have been playing a lot of Doom 3 when they were making this game, because that's precisely what about a quarter of the game felt like.

The gameplay isn't quite worth $20, but I'm hoping the developer commentary will make up for the rest of the price.

The introduction is incredibly beautiful. I could watch the first five minutes over and over again...

It took me 5 hours to complete on medium, on a casual playthrough (as in, not rushing, but not sitting around, either.)

add a second playthrough with the commentary (another 5 hours, probably more because you'll be spending more time listening) to a total of 10 hours... I dunno, half the time for half the price doesn't seem too bad, though I am hoping the later episodes will either be cheaper or longer.

All I have to say is...
No need for medical supplies, I found a shotgun

Did anybody listen all the way through Kliener's speech? It was hilarious. There are other gems hidden in the lines too. "Crank it Gordon" (in reference to the gate you have to find the wheel to if you're not opening it fast enough)

I'll still probably get it, even though I don't care for the director's commentary.

I got more out of CS:S than I ever did out of HL2. It was an okay game, but not the greatest. I guess I didn't like the weapons, or the enemies too much.... or something.

My favorite line is still Alyx's Oh SNAP!

"Is Dr. Kleiner telling us to...'get busy'?"

Well it turns out the crash was more of a hang, and it fixes itself after a couple minutes of being hanged... anyways I played through a second time and it didn't even stutter at the same point. Must've been a fluke that was saved with my save game.

Anyways about the game.

It took me 3-4 hours to play through on Easy (I beat it twice). The commentary is very good, I wished there was more of it (especially some of the cool ones that took control of you to show you something). First playthrough you should definately turn it off, because it might slip a solution to a puzzle. But I also found it told me things about a level I hadn't thought of (alternate ways to get rid of baddies easier, mostly).

This game has more entertainment value per square inch than HL2. I'll probably go back and play it a third time (on Hard this time) before the week's over.

Interesting things (spoilers in greeeen ):

• The intro sequences were VERY good. It's very easy to believe Alyx has 2.5 more animations than in HL2, and the dialogue between the Vances and Kliener was very good as well.
• Dog's toss sequence soon thereafter was also very good. The "roller coaster ride" that ensued was also lots of fun.
• The dying Citadel is AWESOME. Great atmosphere, I loved it.
• The core had a remarkable amount of platforming and puzzling for the space.
• I liked the new puzzle components that were introduced, although I thought the powered door locks made an appearance once or twice too often (I mean, you never saw them during your trip in, so it's sorta unrealistic). Also, why would the power only need to be reset at the breaker? I'd think either the power would be OUT or running.
• I thought getting the powered up gravity gun again was a bit too much of a repeat of HL2... but then again, if I was Freeman, I'd want that thing again. Not to mention it's alot of fun to use.
• *MAJOR SPOILER* The new enemies with the mind-blast power were cool, the shader effects for that attack were pretty nifty too, just disorienting enough to match what the actual effect might be like .
• The trip through the underground parking garage was pretty cool, with the new gimmick where you shine your flashlight so Alyx can see enemies to kill them . The new enemy you encounter there is awesome, as well.
• City 17 looks nice even though it's a wreck . Nice particle FX in the atmosphere. Oh, and did I mention the Citadel against the sky looks AWESOME.
• I also thought the part where Kleiner takes over the PA system was great, it helped explain a bit of HL2's background too.
• The escort mission near the end was an interesting change of pace. Going into an old area multiple times, each time with new enemies, was fun. Especially whem it changed slightly when the train fell, changing the path you had to take to be more dangerous .
• The boss fight at the end is fun, although I was annoyed that even before I reached the infinite rocket crate, I killed him (RPG + grav gunned hoppers) and another came to take his place. Oh well.
• What CM and Wolfy said, those were funny bits. And also "OOooooOooo" *You turn flashlight on and look at the sound* Alyx: "Haha, gotcha!"

Problems I had:

• Random crash once, null pointer. I had a similar problem the day HL2 came out, actually.: )
• The problem genki quoted.
• The teaser that is unlocked after you beat the game doesn't work if you have WMP11. The official "fix" is to downgrade to WMP10. Pfft, just open up your steam folders and find the WMV file in the hl2ep1 stuff.

About Episode 2... Alyx might not really die, she might just be unconscious, who knows. Maybe she is. But I think the teaser might be purposefully misleading in the way it's presenting this stuff. Anyways she just helped you fight off multiple armies of combine and xen aliens, both of you continuously barely surviving... they better not just let her die from falling .

So, am I the only who thinks Alyx's mother was turned into a stalker and the packet was Breen's consciousness ?

Aye.


And the weapons...and the forced use of the Gravity Gun at times...and the overly scripted, linear approach...


Sad, but true.

If I cared long enough to do it, I could make AI that acted like, or better than HL2's in JEDIKNIGHT DARK FORCES 2. That makes me sad. You can literally plan how to play the game every single time you play, and it'll work. The overly scripted gameplay REALLY blew it for me. I still wish FarCry were more of a model in the line of AI. HOW Their AI is so beyond newer games fails me. That is a year or so old game.

Bull****?

[QUOTE=Dj Yoshi]...and the overly scripted, linear approach...[/QUOTE]

It's a first-person shooter. First-person shooters are traditionally linear. Get over it.

ZZTer - did you try re-downloading the game data?

Could someone tell me what FarCry's AI was like? I've never played it and thus, don't know what the AI is like and what they do to make it so great.

It wasn't anything spectacular, as far as I've seen. When I play through it, it seems like Half-Life 2 uses the same model - the guys won't do any more squad-based maneuvering the NPCs in Half-Life 2. It's the start of NPCs using environmental features as cover and a few other basic environmental interactions, but nothing spectacular.

The AI itself is great; it's just that it's never showcased, because the soldiers don't have enough HP and don't do enough damage to last long enough. If you bump both of those up to suitably lethal levels, it's surprising how much smarter they seem.

Or I could not and play FarCry, Deus Ex, System Shock 1 and 2, JK, FEAR, Chronicles of Riddick, Call of Duty...

Get the picture?


Hahahaha. No, it's not just that; they'll move to flank you (the mercs have gotten me many times), wait to attack until they've surrounded you, as well as using the cover, hide, they can detect you in a fairly realistic manner (ie they can see you in the grass if you move around a lot, but not if you don't, they become quiet and more aware after hearing something that would give your position away, etc.

FarCry's AI was ****ing AMAZING. Anyone who says otherwise hasn't played more than 5 minutes of the game, is a fanboy of another game, or is an anti-fanboy of FarCry. Plain and simple.

It just sucks that after the mercs disappeared the game went to ****.

FEAR had some awesome AI as well.

Wolfy: If you gave JK ai specific paths to the player that are triggered when the player hits a certain sector 'button,' and had them sinc'd up so they seemed like they were logically moving into combat stance... yeah. Especially if the game were linear enough to do something like that. You could even have a node that they retreat to if their health goes below a certain point. Honestly, that's HL2 AI in a nutshell.

That it did.

Kirby's so mean and arrogant sometimes.

-I'm thinking of getting all the episodes when they're relased in some sort of pack after six or so months or 10 or so episodes, whichever comes first. I'd love to know how Freeman escapes the G-man...

[QUOTE=Dj Yoshi]Or I could not and play FarCry, Deus Ex, System Shock 1 and 2, JK, FEAR, Chronicles of Riddick, Call of Duty...

Get the picture?[/quote]

JK was quite linear. There was only one real route from A to B, with a fork that converged at the same endpoint.

Far Cry was even more linear than JK. Each level had the same end-point - maybe one or two paths, but to the same end-point, regardless.

Dark Forces, DooM, DooM2, DooM3, Heretic, Hexen, Hexen II, No One Lives Forever, Unreal, Unreal II, Quake, Quake II...

Like I said. Traditionally, they are linear.



Don't get me wrong. I liked Far Cry. Thought it was a good game, and I played through most of the game (left off at the point at which the volcanoe erupts, and you have to drive through it and the mutants). But the AI didn't leave me impressed at all.

Maybe I'm remembering wrong, though. I shall re-install it now and play.

Deus Ex and System Shock aren't really shooters...I mean, I guess you do shoot things from a first-person perspective, but I don't think they belong in the sme catagory as other kill-everything games.

Meh, there was nothing spectacular about the ai in Farcry.
And I've finished it twice, so don't tell me I didn't play it more then 5 minutes.

No. JK may not have had multiple paths, but it had multiple ways of beating the game (even if only two). Far Cry was FAR from linear. You had to accomplish one objective, sure, but how you did it was up to you, and there are a LOT of ways to accomplish objectives in FarCry.

Unreal wasn't quite linear either. Also, you only listed sequels for the most part. I listed all original games. If you want to go that route then there's Deus Ex 2, Far Cry Instincts, Call of Duty: UO, Call of Duty 2, blah blah etc. To be honest, you only really listed 6 games worth mentioning. Which is shorter than my list.

Traditionally they're not anything. There's a lot of FPS' that aren't linear.




I think you are remembering wrong. The AI was amazingly good. Then again, I played on the hardest setting...what setting did you play on? And turn the scaling off.


Uh...yeah...they're FPS. First Person Shooters. They have RPG elements of course, but at their core they are FPS'. Just because you don't think they belong in the genre doesn't mean they don't belong in the genre.

And Deadman--did you play on easy mode?