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2004.1116
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We played Half-Life 2 with a Radeon 9800 Pro. In other words, what we experienced was the Gameplay, not the Graphics. Judging a game on it's gameplay, imagine that... Half-Life 2, despite being one of the most anticipated games ever, gets 3 out of 5 stars. The airboat and dune buggy sequences are entirely too long and repetitive. They seem to be almost half the game by themselves. The gravity gun does much to show off the physics, very little to advance the gameplay. If used where it's really necessary, it's got it's place. Otherwise it gets old really fast. The levels don't get really interesting until the end. And of course there's the Steam mistake. If you've got a great videocard and want to see great graphics, try it. If you're a Half-Life freak, try it. If you're the average genre fan with an average video card, save your money 'til it's pre-cracked and in the bargin bin.
Do you seriously think that anyone playing the game for the first time say five years from now will find anything special about it whatsoever? It's got a great engine, it's pretty as hell, SO WHAT!!! The gameplay in Half-Life 2 is ordinary... absolutely nothing special about it whatsoever. Certain elements of gameplay, which are directly aided by the advanced engine, are awsome, they are directly balanced by other things (see above) which are anti-awesome.
Half-Life 2 is a first-person shooter computer game and the highly anticipated sequel to Half-Life developed by Valve Software. It received mainstream media attention when the game's source code was leaked to the Internet in September 2003. Valve sent a release candidate to its publisher, Vivendi Universal, on September 15, 2004; the game went gold on October 18, and was released on November 16, 2004, just over 6 years after the October 1998 release of Half-Life. A single-disc demo version was later made available in December at the web site of graphics card manufacturer ATI, who teamed up with Valve for the game. An Xbox version was confirmed in early 2003, but in-game pictures did not show up until the May 2005 issue of Official Xbox Magazine, which stated that Half-Life 2 would be single-player only and would release summer 2005, Xbox Live details were unconfirmed
In the original Half-Life, researchers at a remote underground laboratory called the Black Mesa Research Facility accidentally open a doorway into an alien world, Xen, unleashing strange and deadly creatures into the facility. The player acted as Gordon Freeman, one of those research scientists, and guided him in his attempt to escape the facility. Half-Life 2 picks up the story ten years after the Black Mesa incident in a futuristic 'City 17', apparently in Eastern Europe.
At the start of the game the mysterious G-Man speaks to Gordon Freeman. Freeman then finds himself riding a train into City 17, unarmed and without his HEV suit. It soon becomes clear that City 17 is under the rule of a totalitarian Administrator, Dr. Breen, who, incidentally, is the former administrator of the Black Mesa Research Facility. He enforces his rule through armies of intimidating "Civil Protection" units (also called "Metropolice" or "metrocops") and "Combine" soldiers, who were attracted by the energy waves released from the incident in Half-life. They rule without so much as a need to justify themselves to the citizens of City 17. Freeman meets up with some old friends from Black Mesa and soon becomes caught up in the struggle against the Combine.
The player drives an airboat through swamps and an armed buggy along highways, has to solve puzzles with the help of the gravity gun, and occasionally commands a squad of underground resistance fighters.
As in the previous game in the series Freeman never speaks, and is never seen from an external angle or in a mirror: only Freeman's gloved hands are visible, briefly, after putting on the HEV suit or changing to a new weapon. As in the original game, there are no cutscenes present—all of the plot exposition is viewed through the player's eyes. This has drawn criticism from some fans of the series, because they believe Freeman would have a great deal of curiosity as to what has happened since the Black Mesa incident. Furthermore, Gordon's colleagues seem to believe Gordon knows where and why he is here, even though he has not aged a day since the Black Mesa incident—although this may in fact be an intentional plot point.
There has also been concern for the plot of Half-Life 2. Because Gordon is mute, and his allies assume he already knows his situation, there is little in the way of conventional plot exposition. While some claim this was intended—to have the Player's confusion mirror Gordon's—many expected a section of the game where Gordon and the Player are brought up to speed. The removal of any direct explanation of the game's back-story does appear to have been a deliberate artistic move by the developers; the player can read the titles of newspaper clippings to glean some information of what has happened since Half-Life. Only Dr Kleiner and Barney briefly reference the events that happened after Half-Life, including the newspaper clippings in Kleiner's lab, and little information is added on what the articles actually contain.
Half-Life 2 ends almost identically to the original: Gordon, after completing a major task, is 'removed' from the area by the infamous G-Man. As in the original, little is answered directly: this has drawn critique from many fans, who were told that the sequel, Half-Life 2, would answer questions asked by Half-Life.
Keyboard Layout
Quick Reference Card (152 kb PDF)
Levels
Enemies
Multiplayer
Development Issues
Weapons
Trivia
Mods
The following were mostly culled from random saved pages. If you are the copyright owner of one of these documents, please let us know the original page so we can link it instead.
Interview 1
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Review 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32
Screenshots
Characters
Weapons
Wallpaper
Other images
Audio
City 17: A Half-Life 2 Mix (fan created soundtrack)
Half-Life 2 Done Quick (776 Mb)
...Insane Quality 
(3.56 Gb)
Singularity Collapse
Other Video
Demo 
