So looking forwards to Half Life 2 Episode 2

[v85rawdeal]

Who's Aeris? And how did he/she/it die?

[Demon Cleaner]

This is Aerith Gainsborough.

[Harrison]

Tiago, you definitely need to play the HL2 episodes in order as the follow on the story from the original HL2 game. A third episode is due next year too.

[Tiago]

Tiago, you definitely need to play the HL2 episodes in order as the follow on the story from the original HL2 game. A third episode is due next year too.

I try to find it in local store, but there was only HL1 .... 19 euros.

Have to find HL2ep1 and HL2ep2 somewhere

[Harrison]

If you already own HL2 then you can buy and download the episodes directly online using Steam. If you don't own HL2 then I highly recommend you buy the Orange Box once it is available as it will contain all of them plus more.

[Ghost]

Darn it, despite that I tried to prevent it I have seen a couple of spoilers
But these last couple of days are so annoying and with little else to do it really gnaws at my patience.

Curse you Valve and EA, next time, release the Internet and the boxed version at the same time, or with little delay and not a week later.

[Ghost]

Well it seems that one of the stores where I usually buy my games finally has the Orange Box so I will check out the other store tomorrow to see if they have it.
Otherwise, though luck.

[Ghost]

Hello all,

Woohoo, I finally got Half Life 2 Episode 2 today, okay also Darwinia from a friend of Finland for my birthday, and Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass, both two games I am really happy with, but I wanted to finish Half Life 2 Episode 2 first as I was so damn curious about the storyline.

(I will try to make this as spoiler free as possible)

Well in general I can say it is one sweet ride.
Of course Valve pulled our leg again here and there and the game is nothing like those gameplay movies they have been showing since the release of Episode 1.
Episode 2 feels a lot more action packed then Episode One and there are definitely moments that you feel that you are dead meat.
One of the new opponents is also a real asshole and you will learn to hate it with a passion.

Unfortunate I also have experienced a few negatives.
The first is probably my crappy old video card's problem, during certain interactive segments my machine starts to studder, and I need to reload in the active sequence in order to make it pace normally again.
I bet this will probably solved with either new patches or a whole new video card (Valve did recommend a dual core for this).

The second is more regarding gameplay itself, in the previews Valve told us that there would be sand box like areas, andthough the start and the end would be linear how you would go from A to B was up to you.

Unfortunate this only happens once, and you are to busy going from a set of certain buildings to really enjoy the degree of freedom in this section.


I haven't ran Portal yet, and with the problems I had with Episode 2, I fear that Portal will probably be only half playable so I am probably better off if I wait with that one.


Well, though my Birthday is next week it really felt like a Birthday today, three games at once with possibly another one coming tomorrow.
As these couple of months had been exceptional boring this is really a relief.

[Harrison]

I only played HL2:EP2 on a single core CPU and can confirm it plays smoothly with my 7800GT graphics card, so it is most likely your graphics card causing the issues. What card do you have? I can also confirm the HL2 runs perfectly well on the older Radeon 9800 Pro cards at 1024x768 as that is what I had when it came out.

The one criticism of EP2 is that it was more linear than promised, but the original HL2 was very linear and no one complained much about that. When a game is story driven as HL is you can't make it too open and non-linear because the player could then end up bypassing some of the story completely and trigger an event past their current progression within the game.

One of the new opponents is also a real asshole and you will learn to hate it with a passion.

Their AI is definitely a surprise compared to what we are used to. It is great how they can track you and even work out where you are heading so they can flank you and give you a nice surprise when you reach your destination, only to discover they are already there waiting for you. No longer is it safe to hide behind a wall and wait, as they will be moving around behind you while you sit there.

[Ghost]

Hello Harrison.

Its most probably my video card, I tested Portal yesterday and my fears of it not running weren't justified.
I currently use a NVIDIA GEfore 6800 LE, but as you know I am planning to buy a new PC soon so this problem shouldn't bother me for long.

For the rest the game actually runs pretty well, its just these movie segments during which the game starts to act difficult, I had it with the Gman scene and the endscene.


Well I guess those movies really got me excited, I thought that the game would be a lot like that, loads of small battles between the resistance and the Combine during which the player can help the resistance to victory.
Such scenes of course do happen but later in the game.


Those 'things' really give you a run for your money, they're quick, powerful and they can take a lot of beating, and they have a tendency to jump out of the way of your car.
I hope we might get to see some weapon like the Strider Buster but then for them.