Half Life 2 - 10 Years Old Today

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Skippy
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PostHalf Life 2 - 10 Years Old Today
by Skippy » Sun Nov 16, 2014 8:46 am

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Blimey.

One of the most perfect games ever made.

Rich Stanton did a retrospective - http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014- ... 0-years-on

I did one too but there's really no point posting it anywhere near Stanton's :lol:

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Mr Yoshi
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PostRe: Half Life 2 - 10 Years Old Today
by Mr Yoshi » Sun Nov 16, 2014 10:07 am

This and the episodes quickly became my favourite game ever. I played it first on the Xbox 360, through Orange Box. For years I've been desperate to hear Half-Life 3 news and I've only recently completely given up hope. Why they've decided to abandon the franchise I have no idea, it's such a rich world and they set such a high standard, I thought it would be a challenge Valve would be up for.

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Rog
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PostRe: Half Life 2 - 10 Years Old Today
by Rog » Sun Nov 16, 2014 10:33 am

I still remember that release day like it was yesterday :(

WHERE IS THE SEQUEL

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Meep
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PostRe: Half Life 2 - 10 Years Old Today
by Meep » Sun Nov 16, 2014 11:38 am

I've given up waiting for the sequel and I only played it when Orange Box came out. Most seem like an age to everyone who played it on release.

Direar
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PostRe: Half Life 2 - 10 Years Old Today
by Direar » Sun Nov 16, 2014 11:40 am

best single player game so far

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Super Dragon 64
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PostRe: Half Life 2 - 10 Years Old Today
by Super Dragon 64 » Sun Nov 16, 2014 12:07 pm

I remember reading about Half-Life 2 when it was being developed but I had moved from PC gaming to console gaming at the time so I didn't get it on launch. I played Half-Life some time before the move and got to Surface Tension, at least, but I lost my save and I never went back to it.

I eventually created a Steam account when I bought the GOTY edition because it included Counter-Strike: Source which I wanted to play with school friends. I think that this was the best bundle of games I bought until The Orange Box which, in terms of quality if not value for money, is still the best bundle of games, even in this age of Humble Bundles.

Maybe one day we'll see Episode 3 and/or Half-Life 3. Until then, I'm looking forward to using Black Mesa Source and Half-Life 2 (plus its episodes) as my inaugural experience on an Occulus Rift.

All hail the Free Man.

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Rog
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PostRe: Half Life 2 - 10 Years Old Today
by Rog » Sun Nov 16, 2014 12:10 pm

Saving up for that x800 XT Pro and finally getting it only to find the game had been delayed. Great times.

Back in those days ATI were actually able to trounce Nvidia.

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Cheeky Devlin
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PostRe: Half Life 2 - 10 Years Old Today
by Cheeky Devlin » Sun Nov 16, 2014 12:26 pm

Happy Birthday to the best first person shooter ever!

I remember the hype building up to this. The promo videos showing off Source and how the physics worked absolutely blew me away. It was cool to see how areas changed too. Ravenholm filled with Combine as well as zombies and the Water Tentacle in the sewers that attacked the Combine soldiers especially.

Then it finally came out and somehow it utterly lived up to the hype. It's still, to this day, the pinnacle of the single player fps.

Now hopefully HL3 will show up sometime in the next 10 years.

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Meep
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PostRe: Half Life 2 - 10 Years Old Today
by Meep » Sun Nov 16, 2014 12:29 pm

Yeah, it was brilliant, but this reminds that ten year is a long, long time in gaming. If they ever get around to HL3 they will need to seriously improve things if they don't want to be laughed off.

HSH28
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PostRe: Half Life 2 - 10 Years Old Today
by HSH28 » Sun Nov 16, 2014 12:39 pm

That article reminded me I actually have a copy of 'Raising the Bar' that I don't think I've ever really read.

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Rog
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PostRe: Half Life 2 - 10 Years Old Today
by Rog » Sun Nov 16, 2014 12:42 pm

[iup=3615688]Brerlappin[/iup] wrote:
[iup=3615671]Rog[/iup] wrote:Saving up for that x800 XT Pro and finally getting it only to find the game had been delayed. Great times.

Back in those days ATI were actually able to trounce Nvidia.


I had a 9800 pro which was ATI's ace in the hole back then. Running HL2 in 1024x768, and getting like 30fps or so, great days :lol:


The x800 xt ran rings around the 9800.

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Xeno
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PostRe: Half Life 2 - 10 Years Old Today
by Xeno » Sun Nov 16, 2014 12:48 pm

Only pussies had the 9800 pro, Real men had the XT and heated the entire house while playing it.

The worst part of HL2 was the activation. I will never forget the absolute ball ache it was.

Falsey wrote:
Xeno wrote:Chewing takes effort. What he needs is Emma Watson to chew his food then transfer it to him for him to swallow.

I dont know why, but that sounds strawberry floating incredible.

Wuijibobo wrote:You're a funny man Xeno. I like you... That's why I'm going to kill you last.
HSH28
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PostRe: Half Life 2 - 10 Years Old Today
by HSH28 » Sun Nov 16, 2014 12:56 pm

The 9800 was out in early 2003, the X800 was the year after that.

Pretty sure I had a 9800, might actually have been the cutdown SE version.

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GlassjAw
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PostRe: Half Life 2 - 10 Years Old Today
by GlassjAw » Sun Nov 16, 2014 2:46 pm

The 9800 pro was a great card I used it for years!

Amazing game that will see a sequel when the tech is right...

It is the pinnacle of fps single player even to this day.

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Tragic Magic
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PostRe: Half Life 2 - 10 Years Old Today
by Tragic Magic » Sun Nov 16, 2014 2:48 pm

Best guns ever in an FPS.

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Green Gecko
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PostRe: Half Life 2 - 10 Years Old Today
by Green Gecko » Sun Nov 16, 2014 2:53 pm

I was reading about the cut content from hl2 just yesterday, it was such an immersive game and there was originally much more to the world. In fact, I'd quite like to reply it, might do today.

Anyone interested should look at the half-life 2 beta pages on the wikia site.

I built my first gaming PC for this game. Athlon 64 3700, 2GB DDR2, Radeon X1800XT 512MB. Easily maxed the game at 1600x1200 on a CRT. Better than HD in 2006, it was awesome. I still miss the refresh rate and black levels on my Dell CRT that used a Sony Triniton tube.

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Ironhide
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PostRe: Half Life 2 - 10 Years Old Today
by Ironhide » Sun Nov 16, 2014 2:53 pm

I never really got on with HL2, played up to the Ravenholme bit but being a massive wuss I found it too nerve wracking and gave up.

Messed about with the online multiplayer but got fed up with dying ever 10 seconds which is pretty much why I stopped playing any online multiplayer games, I simply get no enjoyment from them.

I get why people love the game but it's just not for me.

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Green Gecko
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PostRe: Half Life 2 - 10 Years Old Today
by Green Gecko » Sun Nov 16, 2014 2:57 pm

That section was always horrible but there is so much more to the game.

"It should be common sense to just accept the message Nintendo are sending out through their actions."
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❤ btw GRcade costs money and depends on donations - please support one of the UK's oldest video gaming forums → HOW TO DONATE
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Xeno
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PostRe: Half Life 2 - 10 Years Old Today
by Xeno » Sun Nov 16, 2014 3:03 pm

[iup=3615753]Brerlappin[/iup] wrote:
[iup=3615694]Xeno[/iup] wrote:Only pussies had the 9800 pro, Real men had the XT and heated the entire house while playing it.

The worst part of HL2 was the activation. I will never forget the absolute ball ache it was.


For real dog? Calling the 9800 pro gooseberry fool tier?? That card was straight ballin for years. I got an X800 pro I think in 2005, but by then my aging Athlon 64 that only supported AGP was obsolete.
But yeah that activation, jesus. First ever game launch that required server authentication like that, Steam took for strawberry floating EVER to get it working. I think I only used steam once after that to buy day of Defeat Source or Sin Episodes and avoided it like the plague until it became the amazing storefront it is today around 2007/8 or so


:lol: I loved my 9800 XT, I was genuinely sad when it died, I could have cooked food on the heat sink it ran so hot. 65 at idle ramping up to 95 at load.

It took 7 hours for me to get the game authenticated, after that though I didn't sleep all night as I played the game. I was so tired when I got in to work the next day. Ravenholm scared the gooseberry fool out of me when that started as I was playing in the dark with headphones on.

Falsey wrote:
Xeno wrote:Chewing takes effort. What he needs is Emma Watson to chew his food then transfer it to him for him to swallow.

I dont know why, but that sounds strawberry floating incredible.

Wuijibobo wrote:You're a funny man Xeno. I like you... That's why I'm going to kill you last.
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Green Gecko
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PostRe: Half Life 2 - 10 Years Old Today
by Green Gecko » Sun Nov 16, 2014 3:11 pm

ATI's temps didn't improve as my card ran similar temps. I looked it up and that was normal.

It was just before cards became stupid massive and people started thinking they needed 900w PSUs.

In fact I'm still using very same PSU. Antec :wub:

I have blue and green cathodes on switches. :cool:

"It should be common sense to just accept the message Nintendo are sending out through their actions."
_________________________________________

❤ btw GRcade costs money and depends on donations - please support one of the UK's oldest video gaming forums → HOW TO DONATE

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