Ep2 impressions so for its childish

RogueTrip said:
how is this game with multi-core cpu and SLI gpu setup? I originally had some lag with a single gpu on ep1 and i'm happy if should finally have SMP but is it implemented well?
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they did not update the Source engine to multi-core support yet. this was supposed to happen before Orange Box was released so who knows what the hold up is.
 
I'm a few hours into Episode Two and it is terrific. And I'm about has hardcore a Half-Life fan as you will find. Classic Half-Life here. It might be the best yet.
 
Brent_Justice said:
They have to consider that new people may indeed be playing, who haven't played EP1 or even HL2 original.
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Yeah, it's obvious, really - if you bought a game and its two sequels, who wouldn't play the latest sequel before the original? It's clearly to help people become accustomed.
 
plywood99 said:
This thread was useless till I read that...


Ply
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why?.. because thats what you wanted to see. anyway the game is pretty good. there are a couple things that seem odd in certain parts of the game such antlions coming straight up from the ground but there is no hole. things like that detract from the game and should have been addressed in play testing. there are also few collision and clipping issues but nothing too bad.
 
dennab205 said:
they did not update the Source engine to multi-core support yet. this was supposed to happen before Orange Box was released so who knows what the hold up is.
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The mods on the official steam forums say all the orange box games support multiple cores, but the older games do not as of yet.

Source.
 
Drexion said:
The mods on the official steam forums say all the orange box games support multiple cores, but the older games do not as of yet.

Source.
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well unless it was implemented in the last hour or so they are flat wrong. I have played Ep 2 and it uses 100% of ONE core and about 5% of the other.
 
Impression so far? After completing it I'm pissed that I have to wait another 2 or 3 years for some damned closure. :mad:
 
RailGunRiz said:
Impression so far? After completing it I'm pissed that I have to wait another 2 or 3 years for some damned closure. :mad:
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2-3yrs? no way man think about it. they can't continue using the old engine that long. I would guess that episode 3 will be soon or it will be an entirely new build and a much larger game.

anyway, if it does take that long for a simple expansion I call bullsniff.
 
Mark_Warner said:
Get a grip. Ep1 had gobs of user training too. It's part of valve's style.
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Don't take it so literally, I was emphasising my displeasure (Hint, sarcasm) :rolleyes:

We shall see, I haven't had a chance to pick up the game yet. Tutorials are a waste of time especially for episodic content as the story should simple follow on from where it left off... I guess you don't get that
 
spicey said:
We shall see, I haven't had a chance to pick up the game yet. Tutorials are a waste of time especially for episodic content as the story should simple follow on from where it left off... I guess you don't get that
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Given that it was more than a year between episodes, I don't think a little training is too far off the mark. And there aren't any actual "tutorials", except for the Magnusssen Device, which is totally new for this episode.

The only part of the game that I really could have done without was the short video at the beginning that recaps Episode 1. But even then, it's short, so it's not a big deal.

Training does not equal a tutorial. You'd be surprised how many gameplay elements are designed as part of the training for the game. If you listen to the developer's commentary, you'll know what I mean, especially for episode 1.
 
I'm maybe an hour into, probably more like 30-40 min. So far I'm loving it and I'm a huge HL fan.

I don't know what the big deal is with all the training and stuff... I didn't really notice anything .

I really want that larva killing achievement!
 
I'm pretty much diggin' it. Yeah, its a little "hand-holding" at the beginning but, for the most part, I find the "puzzle guide" pretty funny.

"No pit is complete without a Freeman climbing out of it". Cracked me up.
 
Mark_Warner said:
Man....The strider battle is intense.
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seriously. i just beat it after swearing at them for half an hour (thank GOD it autosaves frequently lmfao )

Mark, played portal yet? ;)

I enjoyed the car in this game a lot :D dodge challenger it looked like... but i could be wrong :p definitely a chrysler clone :p

[spoilers]
Aperture science = part of ep 2. infact, play portal and youll know EXACTLY what im talking about. itll take two hours at best, but its amazing.
[/spoilers]
 
i just got to the part where you leave the cave and get outside and so far i think its just ok.. WAY too many stupid bugs, i mean the core gameplay up to this point is squishing bugs, and extremely simply puzzle solving, although the presentation of the characters is very well done as usual.. i'll reserve my final opinion until i finish the game but so far i'm getting bored killing bugs
 
Mark_Warner said:
Given that it was more than a year between episodes, I don't think a little training is too far off the mark. And there aren't any actual "tutorials", except for the Magnusssen Device, which is totally new for this episode.

The only part of the game that I really could have done without was the short video at the beginning that recaps Episode 1. But even then, it's short, so it's not a big deal.

Training does not equal a tutorial. You'd be surprised how many gameplay elements are designed as part of the training for the game. If you listen to the developer's commentary, you'll know what I mean, especially for episode 1.
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Fair points. I'll have to see for myself when I get my machine back up and running.

Magnusssen Device, sounds intriging.

How would you rate Episode 2 so far, is it as good as Episode 1?
 
I found Ep2 to be very good. Handholding didn't bother me, its a good refresher and doesn't last long. Overall the story line was very very good, if a bit too short. Character development and interaction were top notch. there were a few occasional spots were I got extremely frustrated, the non-see-saw bridge and that last heavy strider battle...that was reloaded probably 10 times before I realized the NPC's weren't gonna do anything and I had to do it all myself.

Overall, I thought it was much better than Ep1.




spoilers below*********












I remember watching dog go at the strider and I was cheering him on, and the horror I felt at the end when pops get brained...games that can invoke strong emotional responses for the win.
 
What exactly do the achievement points do? To give you an extra sense of gameplay/purpose despite the game being short (encouraging a replay value)? Or is it just thrown in, and equates to a gamerpoint type score, which well.. allows nothing.. Just a quick question, that's all.
 
spicey said:
Fair points. I'll have to see for myself when I get my machine back up and running.

Magnusssen Device, sounds intriging.

How would you rate Episode 2 so far, is it as good as Episode 1?
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I think overall I liked Episode 1 better because it's denser and has much better pacing. I also liked having Alyx with you for most of the game. However, Ep 2 is very very good. If we're talking review scores, then Ep 1 gets a score that's .1 higher than Ep 2.

I got frustrated with the Strider battle at the end as well. I finally started letting them get near the silo because there were more rebels around to help. While they fired rockets at the Striders, they also fired them at the Hunters, which helped take them down quicker.
 
I guess I'm the only one that thought e2 was just ok.

It would be fine if it was truly an episode, and we hadn't waited a year. I found the whole thing to be pretty uninspired for the 3 little bits of story you end up getting. It just broke the suspension of disbelief for me I guess.

***Few spoilers below***

The first half coulda been done in 20 minutes if you had a rope to climb down the elevator shaft that goes right to the exact spot in the antlion nest that you need to be. The next 1/3rd would have been a drive through the countryside if they had an ax....or I don't know, one of 8 different weapons...that could cut a damn power line.

The strider battle pissed me off because it didn't make sense and was hard for the sake of being hard. The first few are ok (the one's that walk in) because you saw them on the road earlier. But when they bring in reinforcements, why not just dump them right on top of the base? Or on one of the hills with a clear shot of the silo? And why the hell does the whole battle stop twice just because you have to drive out to watch them blow up the stations?

We know these striders are the same ones we fought in the city, so why are they immune to rockets all the sudden? There were about Eleventy people running around with rocket launchers but only super-gordon, elevator repairman extroadinare, can do anything about it. Why have the delivery stations all over if they didn't have a way to do anything with them as Magnusson said?

To me it just screams lazy design.


Don't get me wrong, the core gameplay was still fine, but just too many little things that added up to make me go meh.
 
Silus said:
Valve just wants to take a piece of money cake
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The Cake is a lie...
The Cake is a lie...
The Cake is a lie...
The Cake is a lie...
The Cake is a lie...
The Cake is a lie...
The Cake is a lie...
The Cake is a lie...
The Cake is a lie...
 
beanman101283 said:
I got frustrated with the Strider battle at the end as well. I finally started letting them get near the silo because there were more rebels around to help. While they fired rockets at the Striders, they also fired them at the Hunters, which helped take them down quicker.
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Man, that strider battle was hard. It got a bit easier when I learned that you can run over the hunters with your car. :D
 
At the bit with the auto-gun now. This is what Half-Life 2 should have been like from the start. The antlion guardian chase was tense, and the new scenery and art direction is much more pleasing than H-L 2's cliché "dystopian" bollocks. CANALS CANALS CANALS ALLEYWAYS CANALS ALLEYWAYS CITADELCITADELCITADEL. FUCK OFF.

I'm actually enjoying episode two more than i'm finding it tedious and uninspired, which is more than can be said of the previous two.
 
*spoilers*

Final battle didn't make ANY sense. You'd bet that Combine controllers (or however they call those big blobs) have so powerful brains that they developed telekinesis, yet they can't think of support fire from the hills and can't dump all Striders at once to make a clean sweep. As far as HL series is good with the things making sense, this part was utterly idiotic and is a testimony of developer's laziness. Guess that they tought that this was the best way to show us some fancy building destruction... The device used to kill Striders is an upgraded exploding barrell for god's sake, they could've invent something cooler :)

Anyway, besides the final battle, Ep2 is top notch in terms of gameplay IMO.

Storywise, I don't like overall HL2's story so I won't comment Ep2 in this matter. Characters are poorly written (except for Dog ;) ), but hey, this is a first person shooter anyway :) Alyx is irritating, her comments each time the player accomplishes something are getting really old.

Overall, I'd give it 7.5/10.

P.S.: Also the Striders immunity to rockets was downright stupid, especially that in Ep1 you had to use rockets to defeat the final one
 
dennab205 said:
yeah maybe it was just the first bits of the game to get new players accustomed. it was just the simple little puzzles and how ignorant and simple minded Alyx seems to be. Its like she astonished at every little thing Gordon does.
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You dont understand..

1) Written from a womans point of view, gordon is the perfect man. When she tells him to do anything, be it "shoot this guy" or "take out the trash" or (see number 3).
2) Alyx has basically been surrounded by either old men, depressed women or impotent guys due to the suppression field. Here comes gordon, the guy whos basically a legend whos reasonably fit, smart and hot.
3) she wants his meat stick.

so a little hero worship is expected.
 
ilikecake said:
Man, that strider battle was hard. It got a bit easier when I learned that you can run over the hunters with your car. :D
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or just throw logs or other objects at them using the gravity gun...my ammo kept getting very low until I figured that I didn't need to fire any of my weapons at the Hunters and instead just use the gravity gun...plus they get killed easily with 2 or 3 log shots compared to the dozens of bullets needed

one more thing---I finished Episode 2 but I could not find one of the hidden stashes...I found 4/5 of them but I looked all over and could not find the 3rd one (or maybe it's the 4th one?)...anyone offer up any hints...I have attached 2 screenshots of my location

 
I had problems finding that one also. IIRC its actually 2 switchbacks up the road, in a cave thats blocked by some small rocks.
 
polonyc2 said:
or just throw logs or other objects at them using the gravity gun...my ammo kept getting very low until I figured that I didn't need to fire any of my weapons at the Hunters and instead just use the gravity gun...plus they get killed easily with 2 or 3 log shots compared to the dozens of bullets needed

one more thing---I finished Episode 2 but I could not find one of the hidden stashes...I found 4/5 of them but I looked all over and could not find the 3rd one (or maybe it's the 4th one?)...anyone offer up any hints...I have attached 2 screenshots of my location

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Did you get the one that was hanging high overhead? That one took me a little while to figure out.
 
dennab205 said:
yeah maybe it was just the first bits of the game to get new players accustomed. it was just the simple little puzzles and how ignorant and simple minded Alyx seems to be. Its like she astonished at every little thing Gordon does.
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Lots of games and films use this. The main characters are like empty vessels, which lets the players project themselves into that space. The players are meant to be the hero. In some Japanese RPG's the player even inputs their own name, which NPC's use throughout. (Final Fantasy and Zelda being the two big popular ones that do it well). Gordon Freeman is the perfect empty vessel.

Then games usually have a sidekick or some kind of helper, who points out things that you've already worked out yourself, or who seems to be astonished or surprised at various events that happen. It's a good means to bring about plot exposition and also to engage the player emotionally because the main character (you) is emotionless. If you can't have the main character saying anything then you need someone else to reflect those emotions off, that doesn't get in the way of the player becoming the main character. EDIT: It's worth pointing out a game that totally failed at this. Prey. The main character was a twat. I really disliked him and I hated that it was a first person game. It actually made me feel uncomfortable whenever he spoke. At one point I (he) picked up this large gun and said, "wooooooaahh!! Ima gunna rock some shit with this" and I was on that ESC key faster than you can blink.

Am I making any sense? I thought that EP2 improved on EP1 and was the closest thing to being in an interactive story that I've ever experienced. It had the right dose of action, humour and tension and was perfectly paced. They have been refining it since HL2 and they have gotten damn close to perfection with EP2 imo.
 
ilikecake said:
Did you get the one that was hanging high overhead? That one took me a little while to figure out.
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yeah I found that one easier then the one which was hidden in the cave...I found all 5 of the hidden stashes...do those 'Achievements' actually mean anything?...like give you a reward of some kind?
 
I came around a corner and saw a ramp, but I was going to fast to stop since I wanted to see where I was going to land first, and the car got stuck like this,
ep2-car.jpg
 
WS6 said:
I came around a corner and saw a ramp, but I was going to fast to stop since I wanted to see where I was going to land first, and the car got stuck like this,
...
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lol I crashed upwards after the race with Dog. Turned on the turbo trying to pass him, and I couldn't brake in time, and we ended up at a maybe 89 degree angle on the fence. lol

I had to use the gravity gun to get Alyx out of it.

EDIT: Where do the "F5" screenshots get saved??
 
I just finished ep2, thought it was pretty good, except for the repetitive gameplay. I'm glad they introduced some new enemies but I'm really tired of killing antlions and headcrab zombies, it all feels too much of the same old crap. I know it's a series but, we are talking 3 games later and we are fighting the same dumb enemies, the same textures and models. I guess it's a damn good business plan for Valve, reuse the same weaps, textures and models over and over and save lots of cash on production costs. If they could at least introduce some more interesting enemies, weapons, and powerups that would help a lot I think. Overall I enjoyed it, just not looking forward to EP3 and having to kill even more striders, headcrabs and annoying ant lions.. zzzzz
 
The18thLetter said:
lol I crashed upwards after the race with Dog. Turned on the turbo trying to pass him, and I couldn't brake in time, and we ended up at a maybe 89 degree angle on the fence. lol

I had to use the gravity gun to get Alyx out of it.

EDIT: Where do the "F5" screenshots get saved??
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C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\yourusername\half-life 2 episode two\ep2\screenshots
 
WS6 said:
C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\yourusername\half-life 2 episode two\ep2\screenshots
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Thanks! Turned out I took a pic of what I was referring to. I may have exagerrated with the 89 degree angle though.. lol

 
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