Half-Life 2 *DVD* *nuke*, reviewed by Requiem99

I agree, but some of these things are just pathetic.  They're as bad or worse than in HL1.  That I just don't get.  2-3 high res textures for smaller objects wouldn't have killed them.

Anyway, not 10/10 material.

I agree, but some of these things are just pathetic.  They're as bad or worse than in HL1.  That I just don't get.  2-3 high res textures for smaller objects wouldn't have killed them.

Anyway, not 10/10 material.

I Agree. Surely the game looks awesome, but it's disappointing to be staring at an amazing DX9 effect ( I have a 6800GT) or a super sharp texture (like the cave after Ravenholm if I remember correctly) one minute and the next one you're pushing a button on a pedestal textured like a Quake 2 mod. Don't get me wrong I absolutely love the game (I still haven't finished it),
still I think it's easy to run super smooth when most of
the lights are lightmaps instead of realtime light sources.
I'd still go with the Cry engine for the sweet spot between performance and good looks (especially after Crytek implemented HDR rendering!!!), with the Source engine coming second and a third spot for the D3 engine, which is stunning but runs like a dog! 47 or 48 outta 50 sounds like a fairer score to me.

But there are also ppl, who don't see anything between zero and "perfect" (There are numbers between zero and infinity you know). I don't know if Requiem99 is one of those, since I have not seen any reviews by him/her, in which the overall score is poor or less than poor. In fact all I've seen him/her write has been very close to perfect. Which leads me to think he/she is infact one of those "nothing or infinity" kind of guy.

A perfect 10 is to be given to a game which is completely new in looks and feel. In a good way that is. This game isn't, but that's only my oppinion. It's close to being perfect, but not perfect.

Didn't bother to read the review anymore when I saw the score. And that is the first thing I do when I read any review (firstlook).

well I think taht some people like to say, "nothing is PERFECT" so they say nothing can get 10/10. ANd i sort of agree with that. I mean, you can easily still tell if youll like  it if it gets, say, a 9.7.
You dont need to give it a ten. GIving it a ten is like saying, Everyione will love it--but in fact thats never true, so it's good to never give a 10 score. Because nothing is ever objectively perfect.


On the other hand, you have to ask, what is the game's audience and what was it trying to achieve? If it achieved all that it wanted to, then maybe you should give it a perfect.
I mean, in that sense games like GTA3 and Doom3 are perfect.

sure, not everyone loves them but they are exactly what they wanted to be (as a game). The developers achieved exactly what they set out to achieve.

Not every game can offer every style of gameplay. Doom only wants to be horror FPS. It achieved that. Who cares if theres no deep story or if it's linear. The designers werent going for anything else, so i guess in that sense it's perfect.

i would give 19/20 or 18... ONLY because of the lenght of the game...

thanks for taking time to write a Fl

I agree, but some of these things are just pathetic.  They're as bad or worse than in HL1.  That I just don't get.  2-3 high res textures for smaller objects wouldn't have killed them.

Anyway, not 10/10 material.

I agree 100%, they should've paid more attention to texture work. That probably wouldn't even had much effect on performance either.

[0Tolerence]

Another gay review from our resident "know it all" on gaming.
The gameplay department for example, its as linear as you can get! Just follow the path they set out for you, even Far Cry manages to do this better and produces large outdoor areas! (forgot about the crytek engine?!!!)
Your scoring is not really in line with the flaws you describe. Imo HL2 is a good game, but nowhere near perfect. I think u will have to wait for STALKER before that ever happens

Oh and where is the multiplayer!! It isnt even there!!
Except from that old shit they ported, they didnt even manage to implement a proper HL2 deathmatch or teamplay..

So this is a perfect game? Don't make me laugh.

As already mentioned, the textures are horrible. The static skybox's are laughable. The linear level design is awful.  The lack of enviromental animation, dynamic lighting and curve's is undefensible, for one of the most hyped and anticipated games since time began.

The combat is overly simple and way too repetitive.

It's not completely gay however. The physics engine is absolutely stunning, enhanced thanks to the gravity gun. The facial animations / lip sync was impressive too.

This game fails to be awesome on so many levels. Face it, it boils down to being yet another mediocre fps on the PC.

You should have taken off your Half Life 2 goggles when writing up this FL, way too much scoring in all areas.

[GoneToPlay]

As already mentioned, the textures are horrible. The static skybox's are laughable. The linear level design is awful. The lack of enviromental animation, dynamic lighting and curve's is undefensible, for one of the most hyped and anticipated games since time began.

you guys are just too much. have you traveled back from 10 years in the future where you've been playing with your Radeon 100000 XXL on a holodeck?

who cares if there are some blurry textures if you put your character's nose on the wall? actually that's not the way I am playing, are you? Did you take a look at the walls all over the game? if you tell me you can easily spot repetetive use of textures or can even make out patterns I'll go see an optician today. the amount of textures used is amazing. I'm not sure if it's technically possible to enhance the resolution that much that you can close up on each of them and still have a sharp image - I doubt it with todays video cards. and I'm sure if they did it and each of us had a 512 MB card you'd complain that the level loading times are too long!

fact is that source is an engine that does amazing complex sceneries with physics and much more and I can still play smoothly at 1280*1024 with 4xAA 4xAF on my not entirely new 9800 Pro 128 MB! This has to be considered as well, we're not talking about a grafic demo after all.

I'm not saying the game is perfect, I think the altogether realistic feeling is disturbed by a few things like the flashlight not causing shadows or the shadows which are cast in other places not being volumetric (I remember being puzzled when I lifted the sand buggy wih the crane cause I felt something was wrong - it took me a time to realize it was because the car's shadow didn't grow) - but you only realize that because everything else feels so right.
Also it's a pity your team doesn't follow orders more precisely (and there are not a few more commands) and they often block your way when you got to act quickly - like when bombing the auto turrets. That alone drops gameplay to 9 for me.

But to say it is not "completely gay" is just preposterous or the biggest understatement of all times. I mean who the fuck are you to be so condscending? The master game developer of all times?

I guess if you want it all - ultra resolution textures, real world physics, real world lighting, mega complex level design etc. etc. you either gotta wait a few years or you gotta leave your PC and join those idiots who dress up like Elves and play role games in the forest. I mean the REAL forest. And don't forget your magnifying glass to enjoy the textures.

But to say it is not "completely gay" is just preposterous or the biggest understatement of all times. I mean who the fuck are you to be so condscending? The master game developer of all times?

No one is saying it's "completely gay", obviously it's a great game, though I agree that the Jumpy Jims comments were somewhat harsh. Still it's perfectly alright to point out things which could've been paid more attention to. And it's also healthy to compare it to other games which have done some things better than HL2 has. All in all, it's still GOTY for me just because of the gameplay be it linear or not. I don't care so much about linearity as long as it's fun to play the game.