Valve opens release Date for Half-Life 2!!!!! (1 Viewer)

[MikeH1]

Well said Matt. I agree 100%, just finishing this game a couple hours ago.

Best single player game I have ever played. The end when you entered the Citadel.....nothing in my wildest dreams could prepare me for what I saw in there.

Awesome

 

[Jason Guardiano]

Would a 32MB Radeon 7500 be too much of a stretch?

w/
P4 1.6Ghz
512 RAM

640x480, maybe?

 

[Nick Sievers]

Jason, I have a friend who is running on similar specs only he has a 64mb Radeon (not sure which one). He was running it in 1024x768 with most of the settings on mid to low. Seemed to run decent enough.

 

[Max Leung]

I just realized that the "Collector's Edition" version I bought doesn't have the whole Prima strategy guide...only the misleadingly-titled "Prima Official Hint Book", which only covers the first 2 chapters. Arrrgh. I feel so ripped off. All I got was this lousy Half-Life 2 t-shirt.

I should have just bought the game from Steam. But then again, if I had waited a few days and saw the stuttering problem threads all over the net (but interestingly not covered by any of the gaming news sites), I would have just not bought the game at all!

 

[Francois Caron]

P4 2.4GHz 533 FSB
1 GB memory
ATI 9600XT 128 MB (bought last year, came with a HL2 game voucher)

Registration went smoothly but the download and installation took all night long. But I was expecting that. After seeing the stuttering, I experimented with a few settings and was very surprised to see it running smoothly at 1280x720 resolution with 2xAA and 4xAS.

I played the game on my front projection based home theater system.

 

[Max Leung]

Th-th-th-thankfully, I've been able to LOADING... minimize the st-st-st-stuttering. LOADING... However, it is gradually getting w-w-w-worse the f-f-f-further LOADING... I-I-I-I get into the game. It's-s-s-s still LOADING... pl-pl-pl-playable.



Athlon Mobile XP 2500+ at 2300MHz (aka Athlon XP 3350+)
2x512mb Corsair Low Latency PC3200.
Geforce 4 Ti 4400 w/ 128mb @ 1024x768, medium texture detail (I would go high, but the texture handling bug in Half-Life 2 makes it stutter more frequently).

I'd play it on my projector, but I don't have a place for the mouse and keyboard yet.

 

[Matt Stone]

I had some early audio stuttering problems when some explosions went off, but for 90% of the game I didn't have any problems.

Athlon64 3000+ (at stock 2000mhz)
2x512 Kingmax PC3200
XFX Geforce 6800GT

 

[brentl]

We all seem to get some stu-stu-stuttering, but for me at least it doesn't bother me to much.

I'd still like to see a patch soon.

I wish I was a good reviewer, because I LOVE this game so far, but those damn "rolling grenades" are unkillable AARRGHHH!

Brent

 

[Kami]

Sorry if this has been asked, but does it support custom resolutions? I'd like to play it on my TV.

I've got a Mobile AthlonXP o/c'ed to 3400+ speeds, 1500 megs of ram, and a 9800 Pro. Will it do fine? Is it as demanding as Doom3?

 

[Matt Stone]

Don't know about custom resolutions, but it's not as demanding as Doom 3. Strangely enough it feels much more real, though. Not as much photo-realism as D3, but the style coupled with the physics engine makes for a really realistic experience.

 

[James T]

If you can run Doom3 smoothly, don't even worry about how smooth Half-Life 2 will run. I was actually pretty surprised how smooth it runs. I personally think the graphics are better than Doom3 and the physics are just a blast(literally).

 

[Kami]

I answered my own question after installing it. It has the best custom resolution support of any game to date as it takes all your powerstrip registry entries and puts em right in the game. Plus it supports 16:9 which is rare for a PC game!

The game looks gorgeous running on my 50" widescreen toshiba at 1776x1000 resolution, plus it plays smoothly at that resolution with high details on.

I am very impressed.

As for the game itself, yes it does feel "realistic" physics wise. I am at the part where they just installed guns on my hovercraft. Going good so far

 

[Francois Caron]

Has anyone here tried the game with a joystick or a racing wheel yet? It would make the vehicles easier to steer. You can't really steer properly with a keyboard.

 

[Sean Eldridge]

Well, since you need the mouse to aim during many, many situations, I don't think that would be really feasible. And it just takes a little practice. Mouse to look, WASD to steer, just like normal FPS controls.

Sean

 

[Raymond_H]

Well, I just upgraded my video card.

Went from a Radeon 9600 to a BFG Nvidia 6800 GT OC.

Nice!

My current setup is as follows,

Athlon 64 3200+
GIGABYTE Motherboard
896 RAM
A forementioned GPU card.

My question is, during the later chapters and even some earlier ones, I am noticiing little "hitches" when going from room to room, not the normal "loading" zone areas, but just in general from room to room, a little stutter.

And this occurs with every type of setting.

I'm guessing its a RAM issue as my 896 RAM is the generic kind.

My 3dMark 2003 first-run test was 10861 for reference.

Any answers?

Thanks
Ray

 

[Brian_J]

I believe there was a driver update specifically to address Half Life "glitches" by Nvidia. Try guru3d.com.

Brian

 

[Christ Reynolds]

i finished the game a few days ago, i felt it was one of the most incredible video game experiences i've had to date. easily more exciting than the typical hollywood action flick, too. my relatively modest PC ran the game just fine, with a little boost from my video card.

amd athlon xp 1700+
512 mb pc2100 ddr ram
geforce fx 5600
3dmark 03 score---going to find out now

CJ

 

[paul_v]

I finally finished the game today and I agree that Half-Life 2 is possibly the best single player FPS ever...maybe even the best game across all genres. The action, the pacing, the graphics, the physics, all were awesome. That final level inside the citadel was so imaginative my hat goes off to the person or persons who thought of it. It is the best finale to a video game I have ever experienced. I can't wait for Half-Life 3 to tie up all the loose ends storywise. Here are the best moments for me:

1. The design of the Citadel level
2. The hoverboat sequence.
3. Fighting the striders (they make the coolest noise when they get hit. It reminds me of the old analog synthesizers)
4. The creepiness of Ravendale or whatever that city was called, especially when one of those zombie things catch on fire. Their screams creeped me out!
5. The gravity gun
6. That feeling of urgency in the early levels as you are being persued. I felt like I was in a an action movie.
7. I don't think I've seen such impressive AI, and this was on easy difficulty.

I now just need to beat it on the next two difficulty levels. I'm not sure how I will do it since there were several parts playing on easy that were pretty challenging (ie the strider battle and the fight in the prison).

 

[brentl]

I'm playing on the normal diffculty and the "prison battle" was a killeruntil I found out the secret.

Pick up and activate the sentinals but only move one to the outside bunker. Barricade one entrance with all the crap you can find, even the stuff from the office before you jump down. Now get in the empty bunker and just crouch and wait. You'll need to kill a couple of bad guys but you mostly just wait.


I'm just getting to the strider part now, got my first glimpse 30 minutes back ... ye ha!

Best game I've ever played, but I wish they'd add some more NOLF2 stuff. The ability to open drawers and learn more about what's going on would be cool. I'd also like for Freeman to ahve a voice in the next episode.

Brent

 

[Scott L]

Just a heads up there's a Deathmatch mde of this game that is a free download via Steam. It was pretty quick at 30 megs and the multiplayer is extremely fun. They just need to add more modes and levels.