Half-Life 2: Episode 1

    I played an hour or two... sadly I had to stop because it was late and my bed was waiting. Anyway I must say it's a fantastic game so far. And to be honest I like it alot more then Half-Life 2 (which I thought was less good then the first Half-Life). It's better then HL2 on so many levels. It reminds me a bit of HL1, which is awesome! The puzzles, the traps, the unknown, the panic, the atmosphere, the graphics (specially the HDR and the lighting) are all great and much better than HL2. I liked how comparing to Half-Life 2 you had NO clear idea what will happen next (where in HL2 you knew your final objective would be the citadel). Running through the broken citadel and not really know what will happen next reminded me alot about the black mesa complex after the disaster. The instability of the location and you trying to make your way through it, not knowing what will happen next really brings back that creepy atmosphere. The core level was also very good, graphics and gameplay. This level totally reminded me about some objectives in the first HL... making your way to the top and solving the puzzle little by little.

    I also loved playing beside Alyx. It's a new expierence wich sometimes really surprised me and brought me an expierence I never had with any game before (not even with HL2). Alyx really expressing her feelings... being scared, shocked by what just happened... crumbling like a child, expressing her feelings for her father and dog, sometimes without words. I love it so far. Really intense story wise, the graphics are awesome and so is the gameplay. Now I'm going to work a little bit further and wait till 5pm so I can go home and finish this awesome game. I hope we can expect te same for the upcoming episodes.

    I've played it for about an hour... CLOSE YOUR EYES IF YOU HAVENT PLAYED IT

    I've gotten a little tired of all the darkness by now (just over it), except from that I agree with the HL1 feeling... and you just reminded me that I have been a dumbass and have left HDR off :/

    Yeah, played an hour, maybe two last night.

    Freaking loving it, contains so much more content and entertainment than HL2 did. Was also very surprised at how life like the HL2 characters really are. Alyx's emotions come over so real from time to time.

    I only got through chapter 1 so far, but already it's a better game than hl2 was. The interaction between the people and what's going on in the area is really neat.

    Man, it makes Sin Episodes look pretty lame comparitively (which I beat so I can say that.)

    Havent finished it yet, but I got through the first 4 chapters in like 2 hours, and I even played fairly slowly. But its great, start was awesome (that explaination of how they got out of the explosion was kinda meh mebbe). Also maybe its just because its been so long since Ive played HL2, but god damn their facial animation is fucking amazing. Character interaction in general was just stunning.

    Anyway, gonna load it up and probably get through it now~

    seriously most awsome sp experience ever, better then hl2, and in terms of interaction better then hl1, you can really see that the team at valve is getting damn good with the tools and more creative,

    also best opening ever, the moments with dog, i wished it would never end the expressions etc.

    i havent finished it entirly yet though i fear im close to the end

    cant wait till i get home and play it again

    Go buy it if you havent, its worth every $

    hands down valve!

    Played about an hour last night. The opening section reminds me a lot of HL1, only with better puzzles and obviously more interactivity between characters.

    I do feel that Alyx narrates a little too much, but I'm affraid it is a function of the medium. Still, her interactions with Dog are priceless.

    Can't wait to play more this weekend!

    Loved it as well. I got a bit tired of the dark environments, but once you emerged to the surface of City 17, it was like a breath of fresh air.

    Some parts felt like reused hl2, but for the most part it was quite fun. I really enjoyed the whole Alyx thing. The subtle connection between her and Gordon is enhanced to a nice point (the little things, "zombine... get it?"). Got a little bored with the dark parts of the game. For about an hour it felt like I was playing Doom 3.

    Well worth it. Sadly, the Episode 2 preview kept crashing my steam.

    Dunno, I find 20$ alot even if its the best fps expirience to date since it only lasts 4 hours.

    That and I'm a bit concerned for my wallet after a few dozen episodes for as many different games.

    SO I hope to see a bundle someday

    Yes I'm a fucking cheap bastard turning every euro twice but thats why I have a fat bank account I guess but I have other plans then spending all on games :P

    Quote from Section_Ei8ht

    Well worth it. Sadly, the Episode 2 preview kept crashing my steam.

    It's just a .wmv file, so if you go to \account\half-life 2 episode one\episodic\media you can have a look at it.

    Anyway, I played through it in around 4-5 hours and loved it. I thought having an NPC by your side the entire way through might get annoying, but Alyx pathfinding and AI worked really well so I didn't have to go out of my way to look after her.

    I liked the gameplay in the pitch dark tunnels. I was extremely low on ammo at that point, so I used the flashlight on zombies and such while Alyx did all the work. The level design was great throughout (the Citadel reactor was very nice), and the valve level designers did some clever stuff which I wish I had thought about first (for instance, Alyx using the combine sniper rifle, which in reality is just an ai_relationship entity which doesn't require any new content and was a pretty neat experience ingame).

    The trailer for episode 2 was also very promising. It will be nice to get out of City17 and see the surrounding areas. "Proper" new enemies will be nice as well.

    Also really cool that they added the commentary system to the entire episode. I'll have a new playthrough in a few days with it activated, will be interesting to hear what the devs have to say about the different areas etc.

    I've been wondering all day if I was the only one to feel the way I do about this game, and I'm glad it's the opposite. Everyone's comments hits the nail right on its head as far as I'm concerned. It's short, brilliant, the interaction, storyline, the overall flow of the game, the new additions to the characters, enemies, etc are exactly what I was hoping for. And on top of that, you get better graphics for a better performance (thx to Steam being fixed somewhat).

    In short: A great masterpiece. Or as Gabe Newell put it in an interview: "I think we've just made our best SP game yet".

    Well well well, you have my attention.. perhaps I'll reinstall HL2 again soon I've wanted to for awhile it's just a pain and I've been busy with other things.

    Is there anyway to stop Steam interfering with HL1? When I installed it, it modified a load of files and buggered up custom games, I really would prefer to keep HL1 and 2 seperate as I don't play online.

    Just finished it, pretty kickass ending, plus the episode 2 preview looks very promising.

    But yeah, I really liked the fact that Alyx was with you pretty much the entire way through, really helped getting a better feel of the character (Really loved that in the pitch black section she would start sounding like a zombie, making you turn like a paranoid fuck, then she'd just laugh with a "Gotcha" ).

    Short but totally worth the money~

    Faceposer Magic if you ask me. It makes you wonder why they didn't bother will all of this in Half Life 2 a lot more than they did.

    Quote from D3ads

    Well well well, you have my attention.. perhaps I'll reinstall HL2 again soon I've wanted to for awhile it's just a pain and I've been busy with other things. Is there anyway to stop Steam interfering with HL1? When I installed it, it modified a load of files and buggered up custom games, I really would prefer to keep HL1 and 2 seperate as I don't play online.

    You don't need to reinstall HL2, episode 1 is stand-alone not an expansion

    Or do you just want to replay HL2?

    I think I will get this once school is over :S

    ooh I can't wait

    http://gametrailers.com/gamepage.php?id=2804

    Valve has my money again! Curses!

    Yeah but I need Steam and a Interweb connection again right? I do want to play HL2 again because I've only beat it once on medium...

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