Half Life 2 Episode One
Discussion
Do i need to re-install the original half life 2? All that "steam" crap made me want to smash my own face in and throw the PC out of the window. I take it none of that has changed?
edit to add a "2"
extra edit
I hear this is the start of "episodic gaming" and that we'll be playing games like soap operas now. I'll reserve judgement I think.
edit to add a "2"
extra edit
I hear this is the start of "episodic gaming" and that we'll be playing games like soap operas now. I'll reserve judgement I think.
Edited by _dobbo_ on Saturday 17th June 00:22
LOL, This game is one of the reasons I have just updated my PC, including adding another 500GB of hard drive space.
HL2 Ep1 certainly needs a unfeasibly huge amount of disk space for a game that lasts about 4 hours in total!
Wonder if one day, these games will come pre-installed on their own hard drives, due to their size!
HL2 Ep1 certainly needs a unfeasibly huge amount of disk space for a game that lasts about 4 hours in total!
Wonder if one day, these games will come pre-installed on their own hard drives, due to their size!
_dobbo_ said:
Do i need to re-install the original half life 2? All that "steam" crap made me want to smash my own face in and throw the PC out of the window. I take it none of that has changed?
edit to add a "2"
extra edit
I hear this is the start of "episodic gaming" and that we'll be playing games like soap operas now. I'll reserve judgement I think.
edit to add a "2"
extra edit
I hear this is the start of "episodic gaming" and that we'll be playing games like soap operas now. I'll reserve judgement I think.
Edited by _dobbo_ on Saturday 17th June 00:22
No, HL2 EP1 is a standalone game, original isnt needed.
I have played it through and also found it great fun, but quite short. Apparently, with Steam, Valve can see how far people get throught their games and it turns out that the majority don't play through to the end. Hence, one of the reasons for bite-size installments.
Make sure you play through Ep 1 a second time with the commentary track turned on. There's some quite interesting things in there about how the game works and the techniques used in making sure the player sees everything.
Apparently, Ep 2 is coming out later this year!
[k]
Make sure you play through Ep 1 a second time with the commentary track turned on. There's some quite interesting things in there about how the game works and the techniques used in making sure the player sees everything.
Apparently, Ep 2 is coming out later this year!
[k]
Yep, as mentioned Valve are going to be doing lots more of these episodes. As mentioned, most players dont get through to the very end and given that most of the development is taken on a dramatic ending, its a bit wasted on Joe Public.
So, the use of shorter and cheaper episodes which can be pushed out quicker and take things in a different direction according to what happens and how the public play it. Nice idea and I guess we will see what happens. But personally I like the idea of a few smaller and shorter games - what was it online? $22? Not bad in my book.
Oh, and for the comments about the size of the thing? Yes, its big. But you have to consider that this is the first game Valve have released with all of the new extras in it fromm HL2. Yes, there was the Lost Coast as a tech demo for the lighting effects (HDR) but that lasted 5 minutes. All of that, and a bunch load of extra stuff, needed to be put into the game as a whole and that is what episode 1 is - the first of the new version of the HL2 engine ready for new games. Yes it took a long time to come, but now its hear, expect to see around 2 episodes a year - which I think is a good thing.
Finally, as for Steam - works a treat for me and never had a problem. I dont have it automatically start and when I want to play a HL2 game I just start it up and play. When I finish I leave it running for a while to allow it to update and thats it. Never had a problem and never crashed. Dont know what all the fuss about it is....
So, the use of shorter and cheaper episodes which can be pushed out quicker and take things in a different direction according to what happens and how the public play it. Nice idea and I guess we will see what happens. But personally I like the idea of a few smaller and shorter games - what was it online? $22? Not bad in my book.
Oh, and for the comments about the size of the thing? Yes, its big. But you have to consider that this is the first game Valve have released with all of the new extras in it fromm HL2. Yes, there was the Lost Coast as a tech demo for the lighting effects (HDR) but that lasted 5 minutes. All of that, and a bunch load of extra stuff, needed to be put into the game as a whole and that is what episode 1 is - the first of the new version of the HL2 engine ready for new games. Yes it took a long time to come, but now its hear, expect to see around 2 episodes a year - which I think is a good thing.
Finally, as for Steam - works a treat for me and never had a problem. I dont have it automatically start and when I want to play a HL2 game I just start it up and play. When I finish I leave it running for a while to allow it to update and thats it. Never had a problem and never crashed. Dont know what all the fuss about it is....
Yes, I did enjot EP1, I also think that, at the mo, download only games are a bit hit and miss - I paid for (£8.50) and downloaded an add-on for my Rome game, Alexander, and it worked perfectly, and the game is mine forever. On the other hand, I paid for (a lot more than £8.50!) and downloaded what I thought was an add-on for IL2, Pe2. But no, what I downloaded was a nasty program called Boontybox, which had everything written in Frnch, so I couldn't understand the options - and only after I had installed this nasty software could I change the language settings! Since setting up my new PC, I can no longer run this game that I paid for, and getting through to UBI and Boonty software has been, thus far high on impossible!
Having episodic games is a very good idea, but the software companies must also take time to get the distribution right, and not make too over protective so as to render the game we paid for unplayable. - Steam, so far, has been the best at getting this right.
Having episodic games is a very good idea, but the software companies must also take time to get the distribution right, and not make too over protective so as to render the game we paid for unplayable. - Steam, so far, has been the best at getting this right.
off_again said:
pentoman said:
Does it have HDR (that's high dynamic range that is)? I mean, Does it look like The lost coast?
Yes - glare effects are quite impressive, but you will need a pretty modern video card to get a decent look to it. But, if you do then its the way forward.
I got an X800 GTO and a 26" HDTV, so it should look pretty neat
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