Half-Life 2

I am a big fan of the original Half Life. I've beaten the game several times. It is one of my personal favorites. Now its sequels (Half Life 2, EP.1 and EP.2) are included among my favorite titles.

I really liked the episodes as well. They were too short though. The creators announced that in fact the three episodes (With the third one not released at this point) are just one long game. Of course that brings many negative aspects. For instance if you want to play all three of them, you may want to install them simultaneously, resulting in some big portion of your memory being occupied. But there will be plenty of time to talk about these games. Let's focus on this title for now.

This sequel had a lot of work. It had to surpass the original game. Half Life was a unique game. It has an amazing story, great characters, and was really entertaining. It also had a certain kind of "magic". It became a classic almost instantly. Its second installment kept a lot of the great details that made the original so good and improved them with other features that helped to create an immersing gaming experience. Half Life 2 is as good as the original.

The old characters returned, but with better skins. Some new and interesting characters are introduced. There new and cool enemies (Whose A.I. is good). The graphic detail is incredible. The water effect is by far the best I've ever seen in a game. They took a lot of time polishing this features and it shows. The only negative thing I can say is that this title is shorter than the original.

The plot is great also. It is almost too linear though. We now follow the adventure several years after the events of the first game. The population is being enslaved and is our duty to help them before annihilation. To make the game even more appealing, the creators added the spectacular gravity gun, which is an extraordinary weapon (Well, not a weapon per se). It has the power to lift heavy objects and neutralize their weight. This weapon is almost as important as the characters. We wouldn't be able to solve some of the most interesting physics puzzles without it, and is extremely fun to use. And I almost forgot, the physics are great.

It was extremely difficult to reach the first Half Life game in terms of quality, but I think that this game pulled it off. It has that certain "magic" also. And is highly enjoyable. I recommend this title. It might not disappoint anyone.

This game sucks you in and doesn't let go. Every detail has been attended too. See those barrels, that look like they can be moved? Guess what-THEY CAN BE!

The physics engine is nothing short of brilliant. Everything acts as you would expect in the real world.

The facial animations are great, as are the amazing textures (you'll wonder around with your flash light every time you find a new texture to explore).

The game play is fast and fun, but still has puzzles like the original.

I don't know what game these cranks are talking about, but from what I understand they do not know enough to get rid of graphic card specific problems and thus didn't like the game. The problem is their rig, drivers, or setting, not HL2. Plus, HL2 doesn't even have that high a system requirements. It runs better than doom 3 but looks far better.

verdict: **** (four stars out of four)

First of all, to mcottier, bbspot.com is a satirical website so yeah, sorry--no groundbreaking physics here.

what you do have however is one of the most amazing games ever. period. it's remarkable. I had never heard of halflife my freshman yeah in college.

someone bought it for me. all of a sudden, in a haze of FPS, Counterstrike and TFC it was the end of sophomore year and time to pick a major ;p ;p

now i'm a first year med-student and hl2 has come out...and all i have to say is don't get sick in my hospital! b\c this game is going to destroy my future--but it's so worth it! 10/10

PC Game: Half-Life 2.

Genre: Sci-Fi First-Person Shooter.

Developer: Valve Software.

Publisher: Vivendi Universal Games.

Release Date: 16.11.04.

Engine: Source.

Protagonist: Dr. Gordon Freeman.

Settings: City 17 and its outskirts, somewhere in Eastern Europe (Bulgaria, Romania or Ukraine).

Start of Half-Life is, PC Gamer certified, the brightest gaming moment ever. Start of Half-Life 2, the sequel to Half-Life, and the whole feeling till the end are the most positively shocking moments in MY history. Graphics, sound, music, the whole world around you – KO, brilliant. Still, 3 years after HL2’s release, there is no large commercial game that perfect. At the start of the game, the G-Man speaks to Gordon Freeman as part of a hallucination-like vision as he is pulled out of stasis. The world has been overtaken by an extradimensional military force known as the Combine. Gordon meets up with Barney Calhoun and sets out for Isaac Kleiner's lab while being chased by Combine Civil Protection.

Taking place in and around the fictional City 17, Half-Life 2 follows the scientist Gordon Freeman. Freeman is thrust into a dystopian environment in which the aftermath of the Black Mesa Incident has come to bear fully upon human society. Freeman is forced to fight against increasingly unfavorable odds in order to survive. In his struggle, he is joined by various allies, including former Black Mesa colleagues, oppressed citizens of City 17, and the Vortigaunts.

Throughout the entire game, Freeman never speaks, the action is viewed through his eyes only (i.e., there are no cut scenes) and there are no discontinuities or jumps in time (from his point of view).

There has been some criticism of these narrative holdovers from Half-Life, since they effectively limit how much of the backstory is explained. Due to the lack of cut scenes, the player never directly sees what has happened in Gordon's absence. Ultimately, it is not clear to what extent Gordon exists as a separate character outside of the player's influence. Since the start of Half-Life, Valve has made sure that the player's and Gordon's experience are one and the same. An example of Valve's player strategy is shown during the scene in Eli's lab. Investigation of certain props (most notably the newspaper board) triggers Eli to give some explanation to their meaning and history, thus indicating that Gordon presents emotions that the non-player characters can detect.

Half-Life 2's gameplay is broadly similar to that of the original. Players make their way through a linear series of levels, encountering both human troops and hostile alien creatures. As in Half-Life, the gameplay is broken up with a series of puzzles; however, Half-Life 2 includes physics-based puzzles. For example, one puzzle requires the player to either turn a seesaw-like lever into a ramp by placing cinder blocks at one end, or to stack the cinder blocks into a crude stairway.

The use of physics extends into combat with the gravity gun. This unique weapon plays a crucial function throughout the game, granting the player an unprecedented amount of creativity in its use, such as picking up and throwing objects at enemies, holding objects indefinitely for use as makeshift cover, grabbing healthkits and ammunition from out-of-reach places, returning enemies' grenades, building makeshift bridges, flipping over an overturned buggy, or manipulating objects through Combine forcefields.

Vehicles are another major gameplay addition. Although Gordon battles through much of Half-Life 2 alone, he is at times assisted by friendly allies. For the most part these are human members of the resistance, but Gordon is also helped by Vortigaunts and later Antlions.

Many familiar enemies from Half-Life return in this game, such as headcrabs, barnacles, and headcrab zombies. However, the majority of the game is spent fighting the Combine, who wield large military forces against Gordon and the people of City 17. Combine forces are varied and consist of modified humans, biomechanical creatures, robotic weapons, including the use of headcrabs as biological weapons.

Several of the weapons featured in Half-Life 2 are carried over from Half-Life, including the trademark crowbar for mêlée fighting, the conventional firearms of the SPAS-12 shotgun, .357 Magnum revolver (resembles Colt Python handgun), crossbow, and rocket propelled grenade launcher as well as the Gauss Gun, or Tau cannon. Several new weapons are also introduced: the Combine AR-2 pulse rifle, H&K MP7 SMG, new H&K USP pistol, and most significantly, the Zero-Point Energy Field Manipulator, or gravity gun.

Original score by Kelly Bailey consists of 53 tracks in .mp3 format (some of them borrowed from HL) and 2 tracks in .wav.

Half-Life 2 Deathmatch was released later.

As of June 8, 2006, over four million copies of Half-Life 2 have been sold. Exact numbers for digital delivery service Steam and retail have not been revealed, but in general, the former accounts for 25% of Valve's business and is significantly more profitable per unit. Half-Life 2's public reception was overwhelmingly positive in terms of reviews, acclaim and sales. Half-Life 2 became one of the most critically acclaimed video games in history. It is currently one of the highest ranking PC games at Game Rankings with an average critic score of 96%. It was one of only four games ever to get 96% from PC Gamer UK, the best score they have ever awarded, and the game is only one of two games ever to get a near perfect score, 98%, from PC Gamer US, while the game became the fifth title to receive Edge magazine's 10/10 score. MobyGames – 95%. Gamespot – 92%. Absolute Games – 91%. My rates (compared to 2004’s level, of course):

Gameplay: 9.5/10.

Graphics: 10/10.

Sound: 10/10.

Score (OST): 9.5/10.

Story: 9.5/10.

Controls & Interface: 9.5/10.

OVERALL: 10/10.

If you like this game I also recommend: Half-Life, Half-Life Uplink, Half-Life Opposing Force, Half-Life Blue Shift, Half-Life 2 Lost Coast, Half-Life 2 Episodes 1,2,3, F.E.A.R., F.E.A.R. Extraction Point, Doom 3.

First off, let me clear up a few things. Ignore "A poor game and STEAM is crapware." That person clearly doesn't know what they're talking about. Yes, your forced to install STEAM. But the program is on the CD/DVD (depending how you got it). Second, the graphical problems they're having are a problem with THEIR compputer. Either Matrix29 has a poor video card or outdated drivers. I have a poor FX5200, and I've had no graphical problems. It runs great. Of course, I have it on low settings, but still it runs great. Finally, STEAM (From Valve, not Sierra) is a good program.

Anyway... I'll just talk about my experiences, not anything about the story. Half-Life 2 runs great on lower end systems. I'm getting at least 25 - 30 fps(frames per second). This shows how Valve wanted great graphics and technology while having a large amount of gamers being allowed to play. And the water...well, it's the best looking water EVER. Good A.I. Take note that on easier settings, the A.I. wont be as good. The story is great. It really doesn't require you to have played the original Half-Life to understand the story.

So, in closing, this is a must own for any PC gamer. Just for the fun physics, or tossing stuff and getting your a** beat by metro cops in the train station.