Got the game yesterday after mucho hype about it being the best game ever to come out.
Many of you know the source code was stolen last year, and the game was put on a big delay.
It just came out a few weeks back I think, and it rocks.

I was very disappointed in Doom 3, and it is geared more towards an NVIDIA based video card, and it ran not the best on my fairly fast system.
Half Life 2 however was mainly written to take advantage of an ATI based GPU, and it shows.
Doom 3 I had to run at 640x480 to get a decent frame rate, and I always play my games at 1024x768.
I was able to play Half Life 2 at the usual 1024 resolution, and it looked great.

The graphics are nothing short of phenomenal, and very clear.
It does take a long time to load, and these are some of the complaints I have read online.
Also installing it you must install some software that checks your PC to see if you have the stolen source code on your rig.
If you do, you are in trouble

The multiplayer part is Counter Strike, and it is better than the older one naturally to take advantage of today's better GPUs.
Sorry, no screen shots for you, I have not figured out that yet, will research that later this week.

If you are looking for a great single player game and you liked the old Half Life, you should like this.
I will be playing the Counter Strike part of it more, as I am mainly an online player.

C/Net has a review with huge pics, to big to post here.
http://reviews.cnet.com/Half-Life_2_...-30976744.html

 

One of my major beefs with computer games lately is that they require such a powerful computer to play them on, that not everyone can actually enjoy them unless they've got a huge wad of cash to blow. No longer is it just the cost of the game, but rather the cost of the game PLUS what it takes to get it to run (usually a new PC). It's not very difficult to think there might be some sort of conspiracy there.

That's why I'll stick with my console games for now. Those games are made to run perfectly on that console, with no other costly hardware updates required. No, they won't look as sharp as a computer game, but I'm not about to spend 3 grand every year just to enjoy the latest games.

They (the software industries, maybe even the hardware industries) need to get their act together. And they wonder why people are stealing the source code...

 

A few older great games that will run even on a PIII 500 great are Quake III and Unreal Tournament.

I still play Unreal Tournament, and I like it better than UT 2004.

But if you want a good game that runs on older systems great, you can not go wrong with UT.

When I get back to Boeing, my 2.4 chip is coming out in favor of a 3.4 or 3.6, and I will add a GB of RAM to my present 512 MB of RAM.

Also a Sound BLaster Audigy ZS2 to replace my 5.1 Live card.
That will keep my PC going strong for a few more years.

May upgrade to the new ATI X800XT, the fastest card out now, but really my 9600 Pro card looks great.

But yeah, most new games coming out now require some HP to play them.

 

Oh yeah... UT's classic and I love playing now and then... but can't stand playing online with all the cheaters out there. I'm all for a closed LAN game though.

 

Several of the Staff here have played UT with me hosting.
But I am waiting for them to get UT 2004, as it is suppose to run better for those on dialup than the older UT if you can believe that.

I mostly only play online games, but have not seen to many UT cheaters as of yet.
Quit playing the old Counterstrike a long time ago that came with the original Half Life, as it had to many cheaters breaking the code.

I hope they do not do it with the new CS.
I hate playing with cheaters.

 

Finished HL2 single player the other day.

I have to agree, it is the best gameplay ever. I was addicted to the end.


btw... hello everyone... its been awile.