Vodstok

I was just wondering what other people's opinions of this were. I am a HUGE fan of it, and it's various ad-ons. The main reason i bring it up, is because Half-Life, and (someday.......) Half-Life 2 are story-driven games. The plots for both were actually written ahead of time by Mark Laidlaw (who kind of looks like Gordon Freeman ). I;m sure some people will be happy to know that he listed Phillip K Dick as one of his cheif influences.

So, did others like this game? Did you enjoy the plot? Do you think that more game companies should employ professional writers to create their plots, rather than just having the programmers slap together some dredge? (anyone ever experience Daikatana? That game lacked anything, plotwise or gamewise, that was even remotely interesting)

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I, Brian

I never actually got around to playing this game - when it came out I was still using ye olde 486 PC (with no CD-ROM) - and by the time I got a decent PC the game seemed to be a little dated, graphics wise at least (or so, according to the screenshots I saw). Somehow joining in now would seem so much like joining a party when it was finishing...

And too many addons to keep up!

Foxbat

This is one of the few games I actually completed. On the whole I enjoyed it very much - but felt that it fell away somewhat near the end. The Black Mesa levels were excellent but the alien world levels were fairly mundane. I'd give it 8 out of 10.

The footage of Halflife 2 looks simply stunning - and if the gameplay matches the visuals then this has the potential to be one of (if not the) best PC games ever.

I was one of the foolhardy few that bought a copy of Daikatana. What can I say? It was terrible. I downloaded a 45 meg patch and installed it - only to find that the game was still terrible. Then, I gave up.

As for Halflife 2 and Doom 3 - We live in hope

Vodstok

if you are concerned about the graphics, make sure you buy Blue-Shift with it, even if you dont play it. it comes with a graphichs upgrade, which effectively doubles the polycounts and adds deeper textures to the exisiting game.

In the end, the game is a gem, so if you feel like dedicating sopme time, and very little money, i would still give it a go. Believe me, the half-life party will be going on for a looooong time.

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Hypes

I reckon Half-Life's greatest strength is its community of mod developers. The game is brilliant, I'll agree to that, but it's only worth a month or two of entertainment. However, once you take all the playermade mods, maps and other extensions to the gameplay into the equation you have a game which is truly a blast to play.

The sequel looks stunning, but considering the expectations and hype, it will be easy for it to disappoint and not live up to its considerable legacy.

-Hypes

Vodstok

We can thank the hackers who stole the source code for the hype. If they hadnt stolen it, the game would have been released in september, with only a few months of anticipation before it was released.

At this point, it is impossible for it to not disappoint some people because they have let their imagination set expectations that Valve could not possibly live up to. I will be impressed no matter what it is like. I have loved the demo videos (i can get you links if you havent seen them), and loved the original story enough that it could be awful and i would still love it.

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Hypes

That's true. Though I'm not entirely sure how the delay could have been caused by a source leak. Did the hacker corrupt the original source code as well as releasing it?

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Foxbat

My understanding is that it's more a question of legality. One of the biggest ways of recouping an investment is to licence out the technology - and this is exactly what Valve intended: to licence the software engine to other developers.

As the source code had inadvertantly (and illegally) entered the Public Domain, Valve probably had to rewrite the code in order that it could still sell the licences. In a sense the Hacker corrupted the code as soon as it was released into the Public Domain. Hope that makes sense

Hypes

Ah, yes, it makes perfect sense. Thank you for clarifying that.

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Vodstok

The other reason is that the half-life user community has been complaining for years about all of the cheats that have been built for HL mods. Valve has been trying to help by making the code more secure. By stealing the full source code, the hacker made it possible for people to begin making cheats for the online version before the game is even available.

Valve is trying to weed out any possible exploits it may have caused.

Kind of sad that we made need security patches for video games soon, huh?....

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Hypes

Here's the reason why HL2 was delayed, actually.

http://arstechnica.com/news/posts/1084127255.html

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Muad'Dib

Half-Life 2 is the most expecting game here in Serbia(with S.T.A.L.K.E.R.),but nobody realy knows the date of release.Maybe the game is late because the source code was stolen,or something like that.I hope that HL2 will be excellent game.

Hypes

Serbia! Pleasant country indeed. Spent most of my time in Bosnia/Croatia, though I drove through at some point. I remember a gigantic statue of Josip Broz and some very irritable border guards. This was in '98, I believe.

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Muad'Dib

Thanks,but i realy don't know where is statue that you're talking about.Know is much different, we are know democratic country(4 years), and just a week before we got a first democratic president in history.You can feel the optimism here, and that's one big thing.Come here again, and enjoy!

Hypes

Oh, trust me, I will visit. My stay in the region was highly enjoyable (despite the traumatic aftermath of the war that was still obvious) and I hope to return both to the island of Hvar off the Croatian coast and to further explore Serbia.

Unfortunately, I don't recall the location of this statue either, though I do remember it to portray Tito in some majestic stance. I do imagine, of course, that there are no shortages of Titos scattered around the country.

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