Half-Life 2 - The best action game ever made?

[Nic]

Well, I just received my subscription copy of PCZone today, and there is a full 12 page review of Half-Life 2 included. They scored it 97%, but the reviewer says he actually wanted to give it 100% review score because it is that good. Judging by some of the pics, it seems that the wait was worthwhile and I can't see anyone being disappointed. So we had to wait a long time for it to arrive, but now it is finaly here, I don't think anyone will regret Valve taking all the time they needed to get it just right. Here's the closing quote from the review...

...It is in fact a virtually flawless experience, a sublime, cinematic thrill-ride that you'll want to play again and again. As some indication, when I first played the game, the excited game fan in me wanted to award it 100%!

The score I settled on is the sober, cynical games reviewer in me insisting on taking off points for a few shortcomings I found. But in the realms of excellence were talking about, the score matters little. Half-Life 2 is simply the most essential gaming experience of the year, the game the entire FPS genre has been building towards for the past decade, and one of the defining moments of the videogame medium as a whole. Play it, enjoy it, savour it. Games may never get this good again.

PC Zone Score: 97%

Can't wait to get my hands on it...

 

[Godataloss]

Suddenly there is a lump in my pants.

 

[Nic]

Originally posted by Godataloss
Suddenly there is a lump in my pants.

I don't think it will be THAT scary!

 

[MrGaribaldi]

The question is, is it really that good, or did they say it just to get to review it?

I'm very much looking forward to it, but I'm afraid we'll see something similar as we did with D3 where the score is much larger than it would be had it not been named "Doom3" or "Half-Life 2"...

Besides, the fact that the only multiplayer function it has is CS:Source annoys the ************* out of me...
I don't want to have to play against all those who's been doing nothing else but play CS since it came out! I want to try my hand at Co-Op on the regular story-line. Can you imagine you and 3 friends going after one of those "walkers"?

Or use the gravity gun to steal your opponents gun and then using that to kill him?

Since they've delayed the game as much as they have, why not add in regular multiplayer too? And if you don't have the time/resources yourself, why not let the mod community do it for you?

That is the one thing I really dislike about HL2, before I've tried it.... Oh, well.. I guess I'll just have to hope that the mod community gets a "proper" multiplayer function ready right after HL2 is launched...

 

[Nic]

I have to agree, the Co-Op mode would have been nice to have. Let's hope they release it as an update later. Either way, I'll still be getting a copy because it'll kick *** regardless.

 

[acidosmosis]

A note on CS: I would definately never play a multiplayer game where a bunch of CS kiddies flock to. It really annoys me to hear "n00b!" "pwned!!!" etc every 2 seconds.

Doom 3 was a disappointment for me. All that hype and the game wasn't very great. Just another run of the mill game. It was good but it was nothing special. I stopped playing after a few hours and haven't really played since. I even skipped through the levels seeing what I may have been missing and found nothing interesting. IMO, Satan and "hell" was, well.. crap.

Point being, that's what I am hoping for. That Half Life 2 actually lives up to what people are saying about it and if it doesn't then I hope it's at least an enjoyable game that I will want to play for more than a day or two.

 

[mrchu]

I don't think it will be long before there is some multiplayer implementation other than CS...it'd be nice if there was some official addon akin to XMP for U2 (which imo is FANTASTIC) anyway thanks for posting, I'm certainly looking forward to this, and I'm confident the game will be THAT damn good

 

[BloodRaven]

for how long they are making us wait for it to come out, it better be good. it better be worth the wait. half-life 1 set new standards for computer gaming industry back when it came out and i believe that half-life 2 will be no different. i just cant wait to play it.

 

[jarvis]

Half-Life 2 will not be a dissapointment like Doom 3 was. Goto gamespot.com and download some of the free tech demos they have of Half-Life 2 from E3 2004 and they will blow your mind. Also, they have an interview with Gabe Newell in which he states that they are not revealing the multi-player part of the game pre-release and that CS:Source is not the only multi-player available...

 

[acidosmosis]

Well obviously CS isn't the only MP option. You will obviously be able to play regular MP maps just as in the original Half Life.

 

[Akio]

I think it'll be fun.

 

[MrGaribaldi]

jarvis> Would you mind posting a direct link to that interview?
Because I couldn't find it on GS.

The closest thing to the comment I could find was a post on planethalflife.com saying that there would be no co-op but some sort of multiplayer...

 

[jarvis]

http://download2.gamespot.com/d3/gsc/2003/10/hl2_401devint2_wm.zip

You need to have gamespot basic in order to download it. Newall says it right at the end of the interview. "We are not revealing anything about the multiplayer before the release in order to suprise the public. I play it every day and I think it is a ton of fun." Or something along those lines =p

 

[MrGaribaldi]

Thank you

I never thought to look for a video based interview.