The Shrine

<div style='font: 10pt Tahoma; text-align: left; '>Had the chance tonight to get onto Steam and have my preloaded files 'unlocked' so that i can play the game. All in all, the Steam thing was a good experience, i didnt mind buying the game through this method. Since nothing messed up, i am completely satisfied. In a few years when i upgrade my whole computer it will be interesting to see what i am allowed to do to continue playing games off of Steam. Because, if it is as simple as DL'ing Steam, logging in, and then playing, what prevents people from logging into Steam at their friends houses and DL'ing HL2 for them? Maybe you are allowed, but you cant be logged into your user name twice?... Not a bad control i suppose.

The beginning of the game so far is heavy on the story, which is fine by me (i'm about 2 hours in). I'm always a fan of story, but i could see some pre-teen getting annoyed at not being allowed to simply run and gun. The first half hour to an hour of the game you dont get anything and yet are still being chased by guards with pistols, it is pretty intense. When you finally get a gun, they, of course, die by 2 or 4 shots and you can take a hundred, but thats a typical game world for you.

The load times between areas is a little longer than what i remember from HL1. Sometimes it can break the mood. If you are running around with some 'mood' music playing only to have it stop for a full 2 minutes while the next area loads you quickly lose that mood. Like in HL1, though, they place the loads in non-intense places like stairwells. You wont be in the middle of shooting a guy and suddenly have the game pause to load, luckily.

Oh yeah, the game itself looks very pretty. I dont have a monster comp or anything, but i can play with the settings on med/high (but no AA). Like the first HL, HL2 seperates itself from the pack with some amazing graphics. The water effects and reflects alone make you appreciate the hard work that was put into this game.

One major gripe... there is no multiplayer. HL2 looks to be a standalone single player game, so it better be relatively long and worth it. I think Valve is banking on CS:Source being its muliplayer, or on the mod community to start their own. If you bought the silver package from Steam, you will also get DoD:Source and HL1 Deathmatch:Source to try and satisfy your fragging needs. In case you dont know, these are the original games remade with the HL2 graphic engines, hence the Source after the title. I dont know if it will be enough, though, people REALLY want an official HL2 deathmatch option.

Official conclusion is yet to be determined, but this is the most fun i have had with a game in a while. It seems like the last few titles i have bought for the CPU or PS2 have not grabbed my attention, but i know i will finish this game for sure. I think Valve has kept with what they origianlly created, which is a very polished and exciting single player FPS experience. Valve, obviously, doesnt try to cater to both sides and make a half ass crappy single player game with the MP option right out of the box. Like with HL1, they would prefer to make an amazing game by itself and let the people and the game itself morph into a good MP later. I do think we'll see a HL2 deathmatch game in the not so distant future.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt "EngraversGothic BT", "Copperplate Gothic Light", "Century Gothic"; text-align: left; '>FPS are veering towards single or multi, instead of single AND multi. Honestly, it's a better direction because they are two different class of games. I remember when id just said "fuck it" with storylines on Quake 3 because it wasn't worth trying to get some trite story put together.</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>The whole Steam thing is hit and miss. Yes, it's good protection against all the theives out there and doesn't punish those who actually pay for the game, but at the same time, you're basically treating those who purchased the game as a criminal off the bat and forcing them to register their game</div>

<div style='font: 10pt Tahoma; text-align: left; '>True, HL1 just had the supreme advantage of rolling out kickass mods like Team Fortress and Counter Strike, i'm sure the regular deathmatch was an afterthought like it is for HL2.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '>Piracy prevention isn't it's main aim. It's Valve's experiment for a delivery system that circumvents publishers.</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>Then why not allow them to play the game out of the box?</div>

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '>It's the only way to enforce the Nov. 16 release date for those who buy a physical copy and download it. Even if Valve had wanted to let people who bought a physical copy play it early, Vivendi (their publisher) wouldn't let them. They're engaged in a lawsuit now.</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>Forgot about the lawsuit. I just hope that's the reason and this doesn't become a normal thing</div>

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '>As long as Steam-type delivery and physical box copies of the same game co-exist, this probably will become normal.</div>

<div style='font: ; text-align: left; '>The beginning of the game was awesome. I found several areas where I was very much challenged to find out what was the right direction to go though. I had a sense of being lost in the first two hours of the game.

Loading points are slightly longer than those in HL1 were back in 98 when I bought it. It is a real mood killer, especially since I've got a somewhat decent rig that should smoke these load problems (p4 2.4C HT 512MB DDR 2700 GeForce 6800OC [Standard] Abit IS7-E Mobo WD 120GB 8mb 7200rpm XP pro SP2) but my rig still fails to preform at what I thought would be top notch (Settings Medium 4x AA 8x AF 1024x768).

My biggest gripe? FUCKING VEHICLES! Valve put way to much into the Halo aspect of get into a vehicle and kick ass. I'm maybe 5-6 hours into the game and more than half that time is spent in a boat, or a dune buggy. Blowing up cars and aircraft and such? A problem. There is no variation between the AI's on the 4 different settings valve has for the cars and aircraft. They still will (especially the aircraft) blow up your missle right before you shoot it, shoot you, and r0x0r j00. Oh and the part where I'm stuck at? Yeah, you get to fight two of them, with no cover, with dumb AI controlled bugs that like to block you.

Collision detection and getting stuck on numerous objects that you should be able to move over and instead stick to you like a magnet (or vice versa) is still an issue. The sorce engine still has problems differentiating between what you can step on and why you should be able to step over it and not "trip" as I call it since you can't move unless you aim down and shoot the damn tire or whatever it is that has caught you in it's grasp.

The SMG (aim, damage) and Pulse Rifle's (damage, very limited ammo) are really worthless. The pistol, Magnum (my fave), flare gun, shottie, and grav gun are things you will learn to rely on.

The snark replacement I've mentioned earlier. Quick switch ain't that quick. Grenades still fade and are subject to mouse control even after they are tossed (in other words, they aren't dumb fires like they should be, basically tossing a grenade and then moving the mouse quickly after it has been tossed will have a yo-yo or string-attached like effect where the grenade will move towards the direction you are turning instead of going into the place where you have actually and logically thrown it).

CS:S was made the offical multiplayer mode for HL 2 months ago. There is a traditional deathmatch being worked on, though it is unknown when that will be released.

Anyone notice that DoD isn't done yet? I bet a lot of the retailer kids are disappointed. That is why valve created steam anyway, so that they don't forget that they HAVE to do shit since you already paid for it, not like Star Wars Galaxies that advertises certain things that aren't even being considered for development anymore. Steam allows Valve to be lazy in a way. They can leave DoD in the Comming Soon section and release it later. I was disappointed to see that it was not finished yet, but oh well, nothing I can do but bitch and moan.


Oh yeah, one more thing about galaxies. Don't buy it. Just go buy this month's PC Gamer and get the full version for free on the DVD.</div>