Half-life 2: Episode 1. Steamy ham Created 18 years ago2006-05-27 16:59:51 UTC by Madcow

You wouldn't be buying the game "through the internet" in such abstract terms. You would be buying it through Steam, which pretty much guarantees you'll get the product safely.

I'd rather have a CD/DVD in my hand.
Seems safer,

http://uk.gamespot.com/pc/action/halflife2aftermath/screenindex.html

More screens...

That hovering orb looks strikingly much like the one seen in "Sphere"... psychokinetics, anyone?

Which orb?

http://www.gameinformer.com/Templates/News/ScreenShotsViewer.aspx?CS_pid={F7B446FE-1FBF-4177-BA0A-2932588AA76D}&mediaId=0
WTF is that?

And Combine Zombies?
[edit]
ok, I see them now, with the headcrabs on them, why didn't they think of this before, I mean, just some different colored shirts or something.

What the hell is what? DOG, Alyx and a load of rubble...They are talking to a TV...What's so hard about that.

Aww ya, downloading Episode 1 now. Already purchased! Ya dawg! 78% done!

I really hope it ends with 'next time, on halflife episodes'

ZOMG its ready to play! Here I go!!!!

I cant wait to get this.. shame i'm having budget problems

OMG this game is absolutely incredible! The HDR is amazing! There are some new lighting effects that make it look stunning! The mapping is so good I almost threw up in awe!

^^

HLDMS is kinda... uhm... crappy. Especially the textures, they look extremely blurry. :/

It froze because I went a little crazy on the graphic settings however I have gotten very far...The intro is amazing and I promise not to spoil anything but Valve have certainly increased their skills with entity work...The action! THE SEQUENCES

Zombine! Heh she actually cracks that up

Anyway I'm off back to play ;D

HLDMS....... Real time lighting on the guns, displacements, glass, water, mild reflection, 3d skybox. THats it. Its not worth space on my computer.

Now I just finished it...About 4 hours but I'd call it less because my PC froze 3 times..I realise now HDR may work but after a while the PC just locks up >_>

Anyway my views and if you don't want to be spoiled then don't read...

SPOILERS

Now you start with the explosion...Alyx is frozen and vortigants with strange blue eyes appear all around her...They teleport her out and you who is in the black room is with the Gman who suddenly gets pissed off because these vortigunts come to save you..Thats why he says "Well see about THAT!"

Now Valve had some brilliant entity work in this short game! The intro was great and I felt although it was short it has answered so much and left me with even more questions...I can tell you all about it...

You talk to Eli and Kleiner to find that escaping is not possible...The Citadel is close to exploding so you have no choice but to go inside and sort it out..You start with the 'orange' gravity gun and it leads on to this long process of fighting your way up...

You have to turn on these 3 machines to make that huge orb calm down...

You end up riding a train full of Stalkers who start biting Alyx because the train crashes and one falls on her...You have to lift it up with gravity gun...

There are quite a lot of puzzles and the term Alyx uses a lot is "How can we get pass!"

There is a whole dark section that requires you to go around looking for power boxes...They made it scary with random noises and vents that fall down...

Breen is dead...At least we are lead to believe he is..You see an 'old' video where he goes on about stuff and then says "OH SHIT HERE HE COMES"...

You view a video of Mossman in some weird place and then a new blue creature knocks the camera over...Something tells me we are going to visit it in EP2 / 3...

The funny thing is this game is full of jokes..You pull out the TV and Alyx says "Yeah your right..We shouldn't watch too much TV"...
You go up a vent and it falls down back in the same room as her and she says "Oh...Back already?"

The AI is much better...Zombies stutter backwards when shot and Alyx can re-program those eletric balls when you hold them in front of her...You have to block up Antlion holes with cars...The only thing that annoyed me was that Alyx got stuck in a tiny piece of metal..

You meet the 'Advisor' which makes your screen srew up...You are forced to run because something weird is going on in your head.

You meet Barney who gives you what he calls "Don't lose this crowbar...I don't have many spares left"..

Lots of action and a section where you must transfer a load of rebels to one side of the map without them dying (Kinda like GTA protection missions)..

Just as you open the door for Alyx a Strider shoots you and your forced to fight it...At the end you get on a train and as you ride off you see the Citadel exploding...Everything goes crazy and flashy and then it whitens out...The credits come up.

I shant post screens because it only just came out...I am going to record myself playing it and upload them to Youtube...

So in my opinion although it is short I enjoyed it! I have been inspired because they did a great job...Now to play again

Also the Coming Soon video makes you want to go :O...Alyx falls and a Vort carries her as if she is dead...Those blue creatures run in a forest...Bizarre.

End Spoiler

God damn it I thought it would be longer.

I just reached the part where the Citadel core is on track to explode again and send the signal.

Im not reading your post until Im done.

Here are some thoughts thus far:

Some small parts were WAAAAAYY to dark. More than Doom 3. Plus the light lasts about 10 secs. Alyx even says a crack about the light.

Thats the only thing I disliked so far.

Its got alot of good small puzzles, wonderful looking HDR, cool particle effects in the air, It seems almost flawless so far.

I wonder if Breen is still alive...

Yeah, this game is a bit short but Im amazed none-the-less...

I am on level 3 and only have been playing for an hr, of course Ill go through again listening to commentary!

-EDIT-

Whats the comment she made about the light? I never got one

Guys, use rot13.com for any spoilers.

nylk qvrf

Im at the part where you have to escort the citizens to the train. On the way I thought this scene was very nice:

http://img389.imageshack.us/img389/7836/awsomeness6ia.jpg

Just finished it around 10-20 mins ago, I loved it. I was playing through with the commentary on and listinging to about half of it.

One of my faveorite things would be the zombine, Just the way they walk and stuff.

I just wanted it to be longer, A few nights ago I said I wouldn't buy the next 2 if this was crap But now I'm going to buy the next 2 for sure.

God damn it I thought it would be longer.

Yeah, this game is a bit short but Im amazed

I just wanted it to be longer, A few nights ago I said I wouldn't buy the next 2 if this was crap But now I'm going to buy the next 2 for sure.

Thank you Valves target audience, you dont even care that you get a third of a game for half of the price. Thanks for the plot spoiler post, I wont need to buy it now.

also
http://img389.imageshack.us/img389/7836/awsomeness6ia.jpg
thats exactly the same as when you come out onto the rooftops at the start, being chased by the combine

Yeah...They re-used a lot of their HL2 maps but it makes sense...Plus it felt good to walk around these empty places once again...Jocabob my spoiler post will expand..Later.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=n0l5N6Exjz0

Episode 2 Trailer on Youtube...It doesn't spoil anything about Ep1 except the new monster...And a certain body but watch if you will...

http://users.pandora.be/history/pics/hl2ep1/ep1_citadel_040018.jpg

Finally the ending:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xd3VmLvQN5k&search=half%20life%202

Note to those who have seen and played this...Have you noticed as you ride out the screen flashes the same as when you meet the advisor...There is more than one it seems as they fly out of the Citadel.

Funny shot...Slight spoiler...

Thank you Valves target audience, you dont even care that you get a third of a game for half of the price. Thanks for the plot spoiler post, I wont need to buy it now.

also
http://img389.imageshack.us/img389/7836/
awsomeness6ia.jpg
thats exactly the same as when you come out onto the rooftops at the start, being chased by the combine

Well no, it came at less then a third of the price, It was worth it imo.
It was cheap, looked better then HL2, had more memrable moment then HL2 And the best of all it came out very fast (well for me it did because I'd only played HL2 a few months before).

-It cost me exactly a third of what HL2 did.
-I took a third of the time to beat it.
-The quality was superior to HL2, and practically any other (more expensive) games out there.
-Episode2 looks interesting.

By the sounds of things, it's an amazing little expansion, and seems to leave room for some very interesting follow ups (Episode's 2 and 3 being set outside of City 17?!).

I WANT IT.
I WANT IT.
I WANT IT.
I WANT IT.
I WANT IT.
I HAVE NO MONEY.

hl2 cost me 27 quid, this costs 12 quid (omg 3 quids differences), just because you bought the supergold pack off steam dont claim its actually worth what you get

I never bought the supergold pack. Just a retail HL2 with CS:S, first day of release.
Anyway, don't play it. We'll build you a statue: "To the man who stood against the tyranny of episodic content"
As everyone who has played it will agree, your loss.
Unless you get all your games illegally, I can safely say you have wasted your gaming money on other games before. Why not now?

Edit: Of course, if it was cheaper, so much the better. Blue-Shift cost something similar back in 2001 and it was about as long as Episode 1.

I don?t like Steam. In my opinion steam is quite evil. Soo far i?ve only managed to see the dark and controling side of steam, they want all the control. If i want to play this Episode 1 i need steam, i don?t want steam. But im not against the episodic content, i rather like it. It?s kind of comfortable knowing that if you like a game there will be loads of small games in the same series when they do this. but they often get boring after the 3rd one. Byt steam, ah man thats pure evil. I will try to find some cracked DL able version insted of buying it. Or just ask my brother, he?s got steam...

Hl2 cost me $45 AUD because it was a 50% off sale, this cost me around $25 and was way better then the repeditive old HL2 stuff there was, I was bored even before I got to the coast. EP 1 didn't stay at the same setting for too long. The battles were better. it just gave a better overall experence.

I would just like to add that HL2:EO1 is awesome. The story, the action, the....everything!

CORE
ALYX

Im against episodic content because it means short, unfulfilling games. Every game I've played thats been less than 10 hours has felt a waste of my time and money. At the moment I want a new game to play after wasting half my life with Oblivion (A SINGLE GAME), I might as well rent a couple of films as I'll get as much as the 4-6 hours of halflife 2. It could have the flashiest most brilliant scripted sequences ever in it, but its still fucking short!

You're all fanboys and I hate you, mmeehhhhhhhmmnnnnn.

Just beat it. It was short, but longer than some other normal FPS games out there (FEAR, Ressurection of Evil, etc) I liked the ending, very fulfilling. I wonder what happens next????

Im going through now with commentary on

I wonder what happens next????

Seen the episode 2 trailer? Man that looks like quite a different and exciting expansion.

they said they might push for six, even SEVEN hours of gameplay this time, its a real breakthrough for gaming

Man, you're a whiner, even if you are sometime's being sarcastic (not that we can tell).

jobabob, have you played it yet? Its very fun, and quite impressive in every meaning of the word impressive. Yes it is short, but dont forget its only 20 bucks. Its the same length as FEAR, and FEAR was 50 bucks! Its quite worth it.

I don't think it could be the same length as FEAR, and Fear is around $80 retail here. Then again maybe i think FEAR is much longer because of it's terribly droll and repetitive middle-section that just seemed to go on-and-on. :

Its the same length as FEAR

The ending reminded me of F.E.A.R.

I expected much more from the G-man in Ep1 though...

AUD != USD. Please take heed.

I'll get it retail when I can be arsed.

I expected much more from the G-man in Ep1 though...

It does say that the G-Man has lost control in the early descriptions.. so no more peep-and-walk events from him again, maybe we'll see an unprepared, more-worrying side to him?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCbbJvxFW7w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xu8MfDvTIe8

These two are the intro of HL2 EP1 however Youtube still hasn't acknowledged them...

By the way they took out a load of Gman sounds after decrypting...

Im not touching fear with a bargepole after a friend with whom I share very similar interests advised me against it.

jobabob, have you played it yet? Its very fun, and quite impressive in every meaning of the word impressive. Yes it is short, but dont forget its only 20 bucks. Its the same length as FEAR, and FEAR was 50 bucks! Its quite worth it.

No and I dont doubt that in its short length it is crammed with great graphics, gameplay, scripted sequences, 'story', blah blah that make it an enjoyable experience. I'm still not spending 12 quid on a fun afternoon because the whole idea of episodic games makes me want to scream. If they released 3 episodes of this as a pack for 27 quid I'd probably buy it, because it would be a GAME.

Would you be happy if halflife 3 with its brand spanking new amazing shiny engine was a pathetic 6 hours long? You've barely got into the game before you're booted back to the desktop.

Sometimes length does not matter. In this case it does not.

One thing I also disliked was the only thing you hear Gman say in Ep1 is what he said in the demo trailers: "Well see about that"
Nothing other than that. Its always important and exciting when he appears and speaks, but hearing the same thing that was in the demo only was kind of a let down.

All in all though its very impressive.

I was hoping for maybe a new weapon or so. And maybe some new textures. There was about 5 new textures, (mostly in the hospital and parking lot areas) But it is not about the textures. The only things wrong were the small things

I give it a 9.3 out of 10.

On a side note with FEAR: Fear is good Jobabob, if you can run it. I had a friend who thought it sucked, then played it on my computer. Turns out his computer was crap and he was only getting 1/5 of the experience. SP is good only once. Multiplayer is ok. Since the price dropped now I would say get it.

After a minute, I found something was weird with Episode1. My retail version of HL2 is 100% in Spanish, but HL2:Ep1 is not. I have no trouble at all understanding the game if it's in English, but I found it odd. What will happen to my fellow Spaniard gamers? I guess they didn't bother translating it this time. I prefer some of the voices in the Spaniard version, like the female voice of the Combine Overwatch announcements

---

I agree with Xyos, F.E.A.R is not "just another" FPS. It has that extra spooky ambience, very interesting AI and some of the best particle effects. It is very badly optimized though, and the middle of the game is repetitive.

It has a creepy girl in it, its such a goddamn cliche argh!

Im wondering how much of the past 18 months was spent on ep1, I bet it only took them the best part of 6.

I'd suggest to said spaniards to learn english.

I found a few bugs in the intro...Dog sometimes gets stuck but the sequences continue like the throwing of a car...
Alyx gets stuck in tiny props...
Somtimes the NPC's zap around like major lag...it is in my link above.

Man, you're a whiner,

Agreed. You actually think you whining to everybody will actually get them to change their minds?
Why does it even matter to you if they buy it, it's not your money they are spending.
If you wanna pay the money for a follow up to Half-Life2, do so. If not, don't, but don't keep coming back telling everyone else they shouldn't.
Just because you have some kind of vendetta against Valve, doesn't mean everyone else does.

play it first before judging it....