Half-Life 2

If you would asked me what the next revolutionary game would be back in 2000 or 2002, I probably would have given you an answer like UT 2004 or Battlefield 1942. These games are all truly amazing in their own respect, but after playing Half Life 2, all former impressions of a good game have been thrown away. In fact, the new bar for reviewing games should be set at the shoulder level of Half Life 2 s greatness, since it is much more than a game you plop down 14-18 hours for. Just like the feeling you received when you played that first truly amazing addictive game (for me it s a tie between Super Mario Bros 3 and Sonic the Hedgehog 2), you will understand what 5 years of development and even more hype have given Half Life 2. OK. Enough with the praise, you ve probably read about it 10 times over already. Let s get to why Half Life 2 represents not only a new generation of FPS games, but also a rebirth in PC gaming as we know it.

Doom 3 was released just this last August amid controversy over whether it really is as good as it was supposed to be, which I rather not debate any longer. As my Epinions review of the game stated, it is another work of art, which cannot be passed up by any circumstances. Why doesn t Doom 3 hold up to Half Life 2 levels? First off, Doom 3 is a resource hog, and by that I mean you need a killer machine to play it how the developers wanted you to. My PC, which hosts an AMD 64 processor and 1GB of Corsair memory is not the average gamer s machine, and anyone with something less may not be as fortunate in their Doom 3 experience. Once you get the proper machine, you will simply adore the graphics and beauty of the entire game, but until then, guess again about playing it in its full glory. Requirements aside, the game sits right next to Half Life 2 in terms of a gripping story and novel enemies. The place where Doom 3 falls short is presentation and replay value. I was going to ridicule Half Life 2 in my review in it s multiplayer aspect, since for about a month after release the only MP available for the game was CS Source; a truly great add on, but not what most people expect in a true MP mode for such a game. However, after HL2DM was added via Steam, my gripes with Valve have dropped and I will proudly give this game the great review score that I wanted to. Doom 3, while having the solid SP experience which was hyped by ID software for years, comes short on MP in that only a few maps are available, and most are small, inadequate levels for such a monstrous game with numerous weapons. ID software claims that hardware and networking limitations is what forced them to limit the game to such small areas with 4 players, but experts agree it s a load of crock since the expansion pack will now offer 8 players in MP, while mods are adding as many as 32 players with not much noticeable lag.

A final word on Doom 3: it s as good as you thought it would be, so go out and buy it, play it, and enjoy it. I m not going to throw cheap shots at Doom 3 because of my small gripes, because it did turn out very well for what it offers gamers. I must say that it is the first truly scary PC game I have played in years (even though I haven t played many) so I give it credit for the scare factor. Atmosphere, sound, graphics, and a solid story make Doom 3 one of a kind. Now that I ve garbled up what I had to say about Doom 3 in comparison to Half Life 2, let s move on.
You can buy Half Life 2 in a variety of packages, including 3 offerings via Valve s new STEAM network (ranging from a bronze to gold pack, increasing with content as you move on up) and two retail versions. In store, you can pick up the regular $50 pack with just HL2 and CS Source, or get the Collector s Edition and spend $80 for HL2, CS Source, the original HL remade for Source, a small Prima sampler booklet, and a shoddy HL2 shirt (which is already washed out after only one cleaning.) I recommend you go via Steam for this since you get much more for the money, since I purchased a Collector s Edition and the best thing I received was HL2 on a DVD. Other than my irking with the chocked offering at retail, I like the fact that I have HL2 on a DVD and don t have to worry about having to download the game again via Steam, even though Valve has added a nifty backup feature to HL2 and its mods. Installation is easy, whether you dl it from Steam or install from the disc. The next step is authenticating and unlocking the game on the Steam network, which I think is poor way of checking for pirated versions of the game. Since you cannot use pirated serial keys for any Valve game online anymore, it s a mixed feeling I have with all this authentication garbage. However, kudos to Valve for taking out CD checks on the game, since retail owners had to have the CD in the tray for every time they wanted to play. I m not going to rant about how primitive CD checks have become for games today, but I will say one thing: THEY S*CK. Any publisher who includes them with their games need to be slapped or something since they probably don t know how annoying it is to have to use up a CD tray to play a game I ALREADY BOUGHT AND OWN. Anyway

I can gladly say that Half Life 2 is much easier on the mid range and low end computer users in the world. If you are still running with a GeForce 4 and 512MB of RAM, you can easily chug away at Half Life 2 without giving up much quality. The game does a nice job of recognizing what settings you should use, but you can tweak them better if you believe you can handle a little more anti aliasing or shader quality. On my AMD64 machine, 1280x1024 and almost maxxed settings are nothing for my machine and allows me to play the game with immense quality and detail. At such a high res, the water is hyper-realistic, the character models shimmer in the light, and explosions are (almost) real. Valve did a nice job in constructing this game from the ground up, and instead of relying on an outdated graphics engine, they decided to build an entirely new engine for both graphics and physics. When I speak of engines, I am referring to the code that runs what we see on the screen. Unreal Tournament has its own engine, Doom 3 has its own as well, and Half Life 2 just happens to run on the brand spanking new Source engine. It may not match Doom 3 in terms of shadows and dark atmosphere, but it provides Half Life 2 exactly what it needs to be a stellar experience. If you ve played the original Half Life back in 1998, you might have experienced what I call indoor sickness. Sure, back in those days cool wall textures and some odd job rendered computers laying around were cool, but now with the powerful graphics cards and CPUs people are using, we can do better. Half Life 2 answers this need and sends us outdoors for most of the game, showing off the wonderful textures and models of thins ranging from vehicles, to weaponry, to plants, and even the water that acts just like it does in real life.

The Source engine not only addresses the lackluster graphics of yesterday s games, but also gives us a new age of physics in PC games. It may not be entirely noticeable until the 3-4 hour mark, when you receive the all-mighty Gravity Gun, which allows you to toss and tug most objects that you find around the various levels. Before, most advanced PC games bragged of realism with objects that could float on water. Even that was a stretch in terms of tech demos. Now, physics in HL2 calculate the weight, shape, buoyancy, density, and other true to life aspects in order to make you think that you are in the game and not limited to the constricts of a game engine. Use your gravity gun, for example, to pick up a saw blade. You will find many of these, especially in the Ravenholm area, lying around at your disposal. Toss it into a wall and it will shimmy into the material, especially if that backdrop is wood. Now, what would happen to an unsuspecting enemy coming your way? Send that saw blade into the foe and you will see a blood and guts show of spectacular cutting action in which one piece of bod has been turned into 2 or more globs. It can t simply be described in a review such as this, you must try it for yourself to believe it. And don t think for one second this type of fun is only available for objects like saw blades; the Gravity Gun can throw and destroy planks of wood, buckets of paint, odd piping, crates, oil drums (with added effect, as you would guess), tires, and other misc items of interest. All are correctly modeled and fly with appropriate distance, land with the correct angle and noise, and bounce around in respect to what you would find in real life. Not to mention, all the physics and graphics found in HL2 are found in CS Source and HL2DM, making the MP part of Half Life 2 as fun (or more fun) than the SP game.

How much can I say about the story without making you less interested in playing it? I will only say that you need to get ready for a rock-n-roll SP game, full of twists and great parts (along with some not needed parts.) Teamwork is much more expanded within Half Life 2 than was available in the original, where security guards could be asked to help in limited situations but would ultimately end up dead or cornered in a matter of minutes. The most interesting battle within Half Life 2 no doubt takes place in City 17, when your comrades join your side to battle the forces of the Combine in the streets. You can command those mates to go to certain places, to attack an object, or wait for you to get the job done. The core of Half Life 2 is undoubtedly you, yourself, and I, wielding weaponry from SMGs to RPGs to a Shotgun. However, you notice that there is a balance within Half Life 2 shortly after the game begins. Your survival depends on communication and help from other civilians, and vice versa. You quickly learn of the disabilities of the Combine, and they do the same for you. Balance is something that Valve managed to incorporate very well within the SP game. Unlike Doom 3, in which you are a hunk of a Marine with the power to destroy all evils that come upon you, and the only thing standing between victory and defeat is additional ammo. This feeling is usually absent from Half Life 2 because you feel like nothing more than a privileged, disgruntled citizen who is sent to help the masses rid the leftovers of the planet from the evil that has taken over.

I would like to point out the advanced intelligence of the enemies that you face in HL2, mainly the Combine soldiers which are the main entity of evil surrounding City 17. Play the original Half Life over again, and then jump into a random sequence within HL2. You will quickly notice how the enemies within HL were single sided, unrealistic, and plainly easy targets for stray fire. They never realized when cover was needed, and usually overcame their poor smarts with advanced firepower and the odd flak vest feeling which it seemed every one of them was wearing. It couldn t be further from the same in HL2. Indeed, monsters and zombies are plain and are only there to make life harder for you, but encounter a group of Combine soldiers and you will think that you were playing an average PC gamer on the other side. They learn from your mistakes, capitalize on your boo boos, and usually try to find a hiding place before a shot is even taken. You will waste a LOT of ammo hitting crates and other objects while trying to take down these troops because they are smart in what they do. Think that you ve got a group cornered behind some boxes and will simply throw a grenade and smoke them out? They ll take the grenade and toss it back, with perfect timing to force the explosion right beside your dimwitted body. Just like you will try to use oil drums to your advantage, they will never miss a beat in setting these on fire in order to do some easy damage. Doom 3 s enemies, while a huge improvement over the original s, are still lacking in a coded brain. They limp and lumber towards you, never noticing the damage they are receiving. Rejoice Half Life fans.

You ve probably put that Audigy sound card into good use with UT 2004 or Far Cry, but don t expect anything less from Half Life 2 in the audio department. I reviewed the game on my Sony studio headphones and can say that it was not a disappointment, as most games I use my headphones for. I can only imagine what a 5.1 or greater speaker system can do for the game, since it supports full surround sound. The character voice-overs are all well done, and the lip-synching for the phrases are surprisingly accurate with some new tech that Valve implemented into HL2. As would be expected, all explosions and gun sounds are very accurately presented. The vehicles have nice recordings for the engines and tires, and plumps and drops of objects are very well done. My favorite aspect of the audio has to be the eerie talk on the Combine mic as they battle or request reinforcements. It s got this military-esque humbleness about it that adds a special touch to that otherwise heartless enemy you are fighting against. In general, almost all the sound effects are correctly done and I couldn t find anything to drop my bad mouth on within the game.

The big question most of you are probably asking is whether HL2 is good enough for a second, or even third play thru? It depends, but in my case, I ll be playing it for a second time for sure. I most likely won t go thru it a third time, as I don t have much spare time to spend on replaying games since I have so many to catch up on (no names, I promised.) Most people will like to see how they can do a second or third time around, whether it be secrets, a time challenge, or god-like breeze thru you may be asking for. You may not catch everything the first time thru, which always happens. You will be so gripped to the story the first time that you may want to play around with one of the vehicles a bit longer or cause some more havoc in a particular area of the game. It s Half Life 2 people; it deserves your time like nothing else. I recommend that you play thru the game in a few sittings and try not to break up the action too much, as the story is so rich that you will most likely forget what you re fighting for after 6-8 broken up play slots. Trust me, every minute you spend with the game will be entirely worth it. Game of the Year will be spinning in your pupils.

I want to speak a little about Half Life 2 s multiplayer portions before I wrap up. Whether you want t jump into the action before or after you finish the SP portion, it doesn t truly matter. HL2DM, the latest addition to the lineup, was not available at launch. Basically, if you ve played the original DM mode for Half Life, you know what to expect here. At the moment, only 2 official maps are available but Valve swore that more are on the way. The graphics and physics of the SP game are given to citizens and Combine in a deathmatch for the ages. My favorite of the two current maps is located within a prison house, dug right from Half Life 2 with some modifications, and allows gamers to frag each other with pistols and crossbows, utilizing the gravity gun to lift and whip objects at others with ease. Barrels are aplenty for visual splendor (and victim s dismay) as well as sinks that can be ripped from walls and a working ventilation fan that can chop unsuspecting foes to shreds. The other map, which takes place in a localized area of City 17, has one main building in the middle with a blown open roof, and a variety of objects that can be used as weapons lye in the outskirts of the small map, as well as inside the structure. A single RPG launcher is available for those with the guts to get it, and the usual grenades are also scattered. This mode is very fun and addictive and gives Half Life 2 the nod for one of the best overall packages as Game of the Year. What could be more fun than telling that mealy mouthed brother of yours to shut it or he ll get a flying-table-sandwich to the face!?

The last portion of Half Life 2 worth mentioning is CS Source. If you ve ever played Counter-Strike before, it s a mere game of Terrorists vs Counter-Terrorists on maps from all over the globe. I didn t think much of the game until now, due to how advanced it has become from the benefits of the Source engine. I will come off saying that some of the sounds like the trudging of your boots or the sounds of some grenades, sound a bit recycled, but that is the extent of the shortcomings. If CS Source were sold along at stores, it would sell for $40 easily. It s that great. I would have enjoyed new maps, as every map is a remake of the old ones from the original game, but I can live with it for now. My favorite map, Office, takes place in an office complex where terrorists are harboring hostages within certain rooms and the good guys must come and save them. The game goes by rounds, and sometime they are unlimited and go on forever on a single map, but usually they end up with one side killing off the entire other team, which constitutes a win for that round. These exchanges go on for as many rounds as intended, which adds complexity to the game. In order to receive better weaponry, you must first stay alive between rounds and must help either plant bombs, defuse them, save hostages, or kill enemies. The longer you can stay alive, they more help you give your team, and the better stock you can by for yourself thru the simple GUI menu before each round. The learning curve on this is a mere hour, just as with HL2DM, and the hardest part of the game is learning the maps you play on in order to know how to surprise the enemy and hide yourself when needed. When it comes down to a 1v1, and you are that one man left for your team, it becomes a nerve wrecking experience because not only are you trying to grab the win for the team, but also everyone else is watching you. Counter Strike is just as much a game as it is a spectator learning experience. That said, if Valve manages to add a few new weapons, exchange the recycled sounds for new ones, and give us brand new maps to play on, there are not many flaws to be found here. Some complain of rampant cheating, but like many games, even if there is none going on, the losers will always cry foul. I ve raked in twice as many hours in online PC games as I have in online console gaming and can easily say I ve seen three times as much cheating on the console side. Talk about the placebo effect of gaming; you will encounter these people, and you should learn to ignore them. It s as simple as that. And god forbid you are trying to use these exploits on others, in which I have no remorse for you in this case.

What better way to sum up everything I ve said in this monstrous 3500 word review then tell you HALF LIFE 2 IS A GEM, A GAME THAT NEEDS TO BE EXPERIENCED AND NOT READ ABOUT. EVERYTHING YOU THINK YOU KNOW IS SIMPLY HYPE AND IT WON T CUT IT. There. I hope you understood that the preceding statement was capitalized for a reason. If you are (1) a gamer, (2) have a PC, and (3) have enjoyed an FPS at least once before, you need to pick this game up. You may not agree with me on every aspect of what HL2 represents, but you will be glad that you got to play this year s most blatant, delayed smash-mouth PC game. If you lived thru this entire review, you obviously have some big cojones.

**A WORD ON HARDWARE**

As with most new shooters on the PC, the freaks will tell you that you shouldn t play the game if you don t have the beefiest system on the planet. I disagree. With a P4 of at lest 2.0GHz and 512MB of RAM, you can get away with a great thrill ride. Sure, you and I both know cranking up the res to 1280x1024 and quality up to max won t be happening, but you can handle a lower res and still get the same enjoyment out of it. Valve planned this out perfectly, and seeing as their own hardware survey says that the average gamer is still using a GeForce 4 for his/her PC, you are probably in luck. Doom 3 may have brought your computer to a standstill on 800x600, but Half Life 2 does a great job in utilizing the most sub-par hardware. All I can say is that in order to squeeze every last FPS out of that comp, you upgrade those video drivers, whether they be nVidia Forcewares or ATI Catalysts.

For the go-get- em gamer that is willing to purge the extra money to enjoy HL2, on top of Doom 3, and the upcoming Battlefield 2 and Stalker, then you probably shouldn t skimp on three areas. First off, get 1GB of memory, no matter what speed rating it is. In memory land, having more of it is always better than having the faster RAM. 512MB may cut it, but 1GB is the keystone to most games these days. As for a processor, using any Intel processor and thinking you are on top of the heap is propaganda. AMD has taken the lead in everything gaming, and in particular, the AMD64 line of chips is what I speak of. You can spend $350 for a mid-range AMD64 processor or $1000 for an Intel Extremely Expensive chip, and I ll let you guess which one is the better pick. I m no fanboy of AMD, just a converted Intel user. Lastly, the video card is the key to the fast car, enabling you to turn on that eye candy for whatever monitor you are using. ATI claims that it is roughly 20% faster in HL2 right now, which is mostly true, but this will even out with nVidia soon as drivers are optimized. The same happened with Doom 3 and Far Cry, games which nVidia pumped major cash into but in the end got leveled when ATI released new drivers. I m not here to endorse one card or the other, as I myself am switching cards most likely too, but simply said, ATI s best (X800XT PE) or nVidia s crown (6800 Ultra Extreme) will get you the best performance on the highest res, bar none. Moving down to a mid range computer, ATI offers the X600 and X800 regular cards, while nVidia has the 6600 and 6800GT. Both sides do equally well on either level, and as new drivers are pumped out by both sides, only the gamer will benefit more.