Picked up Half-Life 2 via steam on Tuesday. Played for roughly an hour……quite simply the most atmospheric 1st hour of any game I’ve ever played. Graphics are amazing but unlike other games the environment depicted is amazingly realistic and full of real world detail. This is helped by an impressive sound engine that not only delivers good in game effects but an impressive (so far) soundtrack. I’ve also been surprised twice within the first hour which is a good sign of more impending shocks. Story is also unwinding at a good pace. The havoc engine used for the physics also adds to the realism although some of the graphical lifting effects are a bit ‘rough’.
On the minor side, the loading times are very high and also pretty frequent. Steam as a delivery system was also brought to it’s knee’s on Tuesday but thankfully didn’t affect me too much.
Can’t wait to play more but as usual in the games industry…too many good games in the run up to Christmas means somethings got to be sacrificed…I wish it could be Christmas shopping but alas it will probably be Half-Life for the time being. Sneaky hours hear and there are the order of the day.
How’s the new computer handling Half-Life 2? That’s partly the reason you got a new machine recently, wasn’t it?
Handling it well. Very well. All graphic options on, high res and anti-aliasing enabled – no stutter or slowdown at all…..just lots of loading. You need to get it.
I played the first one about half way through and quite enjoyed it but then I sort of lost interest. Is HL-2 standalone or is it more an online game? I don’t do online games, start-get killed-restart-get killed… just not me. I don’t think my brain works at the correct speed for games.
Stand alone – there is an online bit called Counterstrike but HL-2 is purely single player.