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On January 20 2012 04:10 Hawk wrote:The ambiance is way, wayyyy better in HL2 and the EPs, but I agree with what somewhat said higher up in the thread about HL1 being more difficult, because you had to be so cautious because all the sudden you'd fall into a room where you'd get your shit ruined. I want HL3 so bad 
You ever try to play HL1 on the highest difficultly? Vorts can 2 shot you; end up spending a lot of time shoting around corners with the hornet gun. I made it all the way to Nialith and could not beat him on hard. On my list of unfinished accomplishments
On January 20 2012 01:34 DrunkeN. wrote:Show nested quote +On January 20 2012 00:39 TheToast wrote:Although I should say, you haven't really played HL2 until you've gotten the gnome achieve in ep2. I did it during exams a few years ago (instead of studying, good decision IMO). Took me about 5 hours straight, but was totally worth it  Hardest part of that is when you're running from the Helicopter, that gnome would bounce out of the car so easy. Only Achievement I didn't have the patients for is killing all the Larvae. Also playing through Episode 1 with gravity gun is fun.
Lol yup! You pretty much can't even bump anything or the fucking gnome goes flying. The earlier part of that same sequence is just as absurdly difficult. The problem is, when you leave the barn with the advisor, the car is moved. No matter where you parked it the car will be in a different spot when you leave the barn. So either you have to take out the hunters and shit or while under fire you have to grab the gnome, get him stuck in the car, and escape without hitting anything. Crazy hard but so worth the effort  I was excited once I finally understood Sheckly's comment when you are leaving the mine.
Though despite several attempts, I'm still missing like 3 larva.
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Yeah I've tried before. Hard as balls.
Funny thing about this thread is a week or two ago I dled HL1 with Garry's mod and a few other things. I played it for a day or two and stopped, but now I want to start again.
I also forget if I ever finished Blue Force. I know I finished Opposing Forces.
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This blog post got a lot more response than I had expected! I wrote this down because I wanted to write down my thoughts but I'm positively surprised that HL2 still gets so much praise nowadays.
To be honest, I don't think I'll ever play a game that will top Half Life 2. It doesn't have anything to do with nostagia, I still play it to this day, and I will still be playing it ten years from now. It's a single player game that I keep coming back to. Bioshock was a game that came close to HL2 but sorely lacked gameplay diversity (I never really used plasmids because they barely did any damage during the later stages of the game, something Bioshock 2 corrected), and thus replay value.
Half Life 2 was also the first game I was really hyped up for. I was 15 years old back then and had just finished the first Half Life. I was very disappointed when I found out that my PC couldn't hande HL2 so I had to wait a year. When I finally got around to playing it, I was hooked. I can still remember that constant feeling of awe when I was pushed from area to area. It's something I had never experienced before and frankly never experienced again.
When EP1 eventually came out in 2006 I immediately went out and bought it. I finished it practically in one go, and immediately started playing it again. It was as good as the original game, and better in other areas, and the addition of developer commentary was nothing short of brilliant. It did add very little in terms of story advancement as it was basically a four hour flight out of City 17.
Then in 2007 I bought the Orange Box (solely for EP2, I did not really care for Portal or Team Fortress 2), and experienced what up to this date I consider gaming perfection: Half Life 2: Episode 2. That game did everything, and I mean literaly everything right. Gameplay variation, graphics improvement and optimalisation, pacing, different environments, a lot of questions answered while making some matters even more mysterious than they already were and one HELL of a boss battle. Man, the defense of white forest remains the most adrenaline pumping gaming experience I've ever had. I had difficulties pulling it off on normal, I don't want to know how hard it is on hard. It was ridiculously hectic. It really required you to have mastered everything: your vehicle, your weaponry and the gravity gun. But when you eventually destroyed the final strider and went back to the base with everyone cheering around you I had a feeling of "fuck yeah, I did it!" I was actually nodding and fistpumping to the NPC's on screen I was so immersed. If Half Life 2 Episode 3 or Half Life 3 somehow manage to improve on that same formula, I will probably wet my pants from excitement.
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Awesome write up on one of the best games ever created! Really hoping for a Q3 release of HL3, that would make my year!
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Loved the OP and the responses. HL2 is such a great game. I remember playing the majority of it with my friend who had already completed it and he would sit next to me and shove me whenever a headcrab jumped out .
I think a big part of the general ambiance that no one has mentioned yet is the music. Valve did a great job of using the music and general audio cues to immerse you in the game... Just the sounds combine soldiers made, from their boot tramps to garbled radio was just perfect.
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kind of bummed that I still haven't beaten this game after having it for 5 years because it makes me nauseous after 30-60 minutes of play. Weird because it's one of the few games that gives me problems (probably something to do with the funky FOV)
I did beat Portal a few years ago though. So as long as I can beat HL2 before Hot_Bid gets to it, I'll be satisfied (assuming he hasn't played it already...)
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On January 20 2012 16:59 Erik.TheRed wrote:
kind of bummed that I still haven't beaten this game after having it for 5 years because it makes me nauseous after 30-60 minutes of play. Weird because it's one of the few games that gives me problems (probably something to do with the funky FOV)
I did beat Portal a few years ago though. So as long as I can beat HL2 before Hot_Bid gets to it, I'll be satisfied (assuming he hasn't played it already...)
A lot of players have trouble with the FOV of Half Life. I think there are ways to fix this, do a little searching online.
I was playing through HL1 on hard, but I got stuck on the part where I need to jump into a lake and shoot a fish with a crossbow.
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On January 20 2012 16:45 Meapak_Ziphh wrote:
I think a big part of the general ambiance that no one has mentioned yet is the music. Valve did a great job of using the music and general audio cues to immerse you in the game... Just the sounds combine soldiers made, from their boot tramps to garbled radio was just perfect.
Indeed and i think the gravity gun did not get as much glory as it deserves. The amount of fun situations and funny gameplay it creates is huge, i still play hl dm just to throw a toilett in someones face
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One thing I find vastly overstated is the play time. When you read reviews you see reviewers mentioning 10 to 20+ hours. I'm two and a half hours in now and I'm already in Ravenholm (and this is on the Xbox360 where aiming isn't nearly as smooth as on the PC or other console shooters). Three quarters of an hour later I'll be cruising on Highway 17. I'm not exactly rushing through it either. The game is a good 8 to 10 hours long, 12 at most. EP1 is about two and half to three hours if you're not playing for the first time, and EP2 around 4.
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Wow. + Show Spoiler +I remember playing... well watching my older brother play through the first half-life and always had a fond memory for the series, but for some reason I never got around to playing the second one. So, I picked up the orange box at gamestop for the 360. (yeah I know its not the same as the pc.)
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I've recently been re-playing through all the HL2 games, (though it's been years since I played the original hl1), and I'm amazed on my latest playthrough just how dark HL kinda is.
It's never struck me as a "scary" or "dark" game, (though Ravenholm was terrifying). Overall the game's always seemed rather happy. But when I was just replaying ep2 and Gordon found himself wading through piles of decomposing people being used for food for giant maggots in the middle of an underground giant insect lair, I just had to stop and think "wow this is actually some really sick shit."
Then I started thinking about all the other terrrrible stuff Gordon's been though. How is this man still mentally stable????
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On January 20 2012 04:45 Hawk wrote:
Yeah I've tried before. Hard as balls.
Funny thing about this thread is a week or two ago I dled HL1 with Garry's mod and a few other things. I played it for a day or two and stopped, but now I want to start again.
I also forget if I ever finished Blue Force. I know I finished Opposing Forces.
Haha same. I know I beat Opposing Force yeeeaarrs ago, but I don't think I ever even played Blue Shift... hmm
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I didn't even know opposing forces and blue shift were complete expansions for half-life. Thought they were just removed content like HL2 Lost Coast and never bothered to play it. Either of them worth playing?
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On February 22 2012 09:28 mrgerry wrote:
I didn't even know opposing forces and blue shift were complete expansions for half-life. Thought they were just removed content like HL2 Lost Coast and never bothered to play it. Either of them worth playing?
Opposing Force is pretty fun. Better than Blue Shift, IMO. It has a lot of cool new weapons and enemies, and in general feels like a better expansion than Blue Shift.
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Opposing Force is really nice. The idea of the "view from the other side" is really nice; plus there're plenty of new and creative weapons (fuck yeah fish weapon), new enemies and, most importantly, there's a lot of backstory for the original HL provided (in particular in the the spirit of the Questionable Ethics chapter), at some point you even cross the path of your alter ego in HL, Gordon Freeman :-) - would recommend it 100%.
+ Show Spoiler +God I hated that dark passage with the big ass dangerous enemies, always gives me the creep.. :D
Blue Shift tried too hard in my eyes; the idea wasn't new (basically the idea from OF..) and there's less new stuff around. However, there's again more additional info on the original HL; and, most importantly, Blue Shift introduces some characters from HL2. So Blue Shift isn't bad, but it isn't as good as OF, I'd compare it to EP1 and EP2. Good game/extension overall, but can't stand against the other _really_ good one.
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Ravenholm made this game for me
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Speaking of OF, does Sheppard ever come back in any of the HL2 episodes, even for a cameo?
+ Show Spoiler +At the end of the OF I got the impression that you are put into the same sort of time/space stasis thingy that the G-man puts Gordon in between games. Think he'll ever be re-introduced into ep3 or HL3?
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Ill never forget of playing the HL series until i die. And i wont die happy because Hl2 Ep3 still wont be released then
On February 23 2012 06:56 Haemonculus wrote:Speaking of OF, does Sheppard ever come back in any of the HL2 episodes, even for a cameo? + Show Spoiler +At the end of the OF I got the impression that you are put into the same sort of time/space stasis thingy that the G-man puts Gordon in between games. Think he'll ever be re-introduced into ep3 or HL3?
nope
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EPT
