gobbledonk Posted November 19, 2004 Report Share Posted November 19, 2004 Troops, Just laid down the AUD 90 that it costs in this country for the privilege of owning a bit of cardboard and the 5 (!) CDs needed to install Half-Life 2 , I am now counting down the minutes until I can clock off and spend the *entire* weekend (re)installing XP / SP2 / assorted drivers / the game and (drool, slobber) playing the bloody thing ! Yeah, I know that I need to get a life, but it would seem that I'm halfway there :: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 19, 2004 Report Share Posted November 19, 2004 Ouch, that is a tad pricey but....... what the heck some of us spend it on beer in annight. What's the specs for video? Give us all a report when you get it up and running.... or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soongmak Posted November 19, 2004 Report Share Posted November 19, 2004 Artiew, you're not a geek. A geek would have splashed out for the half life 2 collectors edition on dvd. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Torneyboy Posted November 20, 2004 Report Share Posted November 20, 2004 Hi sounds like hard work...? Why not walk down the road to the "Gabba".....and enjoy life! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 20, 2004 Report Share Posted November 20, 2004 soongmak said:Artiew, you're not a geek. A geek would have splashed out for the half life 2 collectors edition on dvd. nah, a real geek wold have the hacked pirate copy running on his machine for a month already and would be writing/selling reviews of it by now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
check_bin_krap Posted November 20, 2004 Report Share Posted November 20, 2004 Artie, I used to be hooked on games from a Japanese company named Koei. "Nobunaga ", "Nobunaga II", "Romance of 3 kingdoms", and some game with "bandit whatever" from same company. I spent whole weekends playing. "Civilization" was also cool. I also played a fair share of " Championship Manager 92/93". As the games got too graphic, and slow and required hours to move 1 step forward I got bored. That wasn't only due to PC power + useless graphics, also added features and confusion as they expanded the games. Luckily for me, I lost my original, good games and that was it. I was never into action games, I liked the strategy ones. No, you are not a geek - you are normal Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gobbledonk Posted November 20, 2004 Author Report Share Posted November 20, 2004 What's the specs for video? Give us all a report when you get it up and running.... or not. Hi LHL, As I am currently having some *fun* just trying to get the thing to install (full report when its done, chaps), I cant verify that my existing system will be able to play the game at something resembling a 'decent' resolution, but thats OK. I know that I wont be able to play Doom3 on my Athlon XP 1700+ (CPU is actually 1.47GHz, but AMD's marketing guys weren't happy) with 512MB and ATI Radeon 9600 Pro. I'm pretty confident re the card, having read older tests such as that listed below (the article contains the same specs currently being bandied around by Valve, but we all know that trying to run something on the 'minimum requirement' is a recipe for frustration). The big thing in Half-Life's favour is that the code is at least 12 months old, so they would have been testing it on considerably less than the current 'cutting-edge' gear. One of the great things about the original HL was that it was playable on a P166 with 64MB, at the time several iterations short of the bleeding edge. Here's some good news from Gamespy: The best news is that Half-Life 2 appears to run extremely well on just about every machine we've thrown at it. Aside from my own two installations, there are four other employees here at GameSpy HQ playing the game, via both Steam and boxed copies and on a variety of ATI and NVIDIA video cards. Since the game went live, we've probably put in a combined total of twenty hours of testing, and the worst we can find are some issues with the sound stuttering on a few machines, and Valve has acknowledged the existence of at least one start-up bug. Graphically, the game appears to be extremely scalable -- despite the fantastic visuals, the game has been running smooth on just about every machine we've tested it on, even down to older video cards like a GeForce Ti4600. If you've got a top-line card like an ATI X800 or a GeForce 6800, you'll be able to crank up all the details, but as far as we can tell, you probably don't need a major upgrade to play Half-Life 2. You can read the entire review, including a rundown of Video cards that they've tried, here Enjoy ! Artie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
solar Posted November 21, 2004 Report Share Posted November 21, 2004 I know that I wont be able to play Doom3 on my Athlon XP 1700... Your machine spec is very similar to mine and I could run Doom3 OK. It stuttered for a few seconds on scene changes, presumably while the texture map was loaded into the graphic card memory, but after that it was fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gobbledonk Posted November 21, 2004 Author Report Share Posted November 21, 2004 OK, I thought I'd get these off my chest before I start, so that people who just want the barebones guide to installation can get it without my moaning and bitching. Bitch #1 : Valve have become so annoyed at the extent of game piracy (you know who you are, Somchai ...) that they now insist that you have a Net connection to install HL2. The idea is that you need to hookup to their 'STEAM' service and it will spend 10-15 minutes unlocking your files before you can play the game. At the time of writing, the crackers havent found a way around this, but if Valve can hold them off for a month or so, they will reap millions from gamers who arent willing to wait for the cracked version. Bitch #2 : we are part of the problem. I'm sorry, but who here *hasn't* used a pirated copy of something ? Asia is the mecca of piracy, but it happens everywhere, and it will only exist as long as we provide a market. The irony is that its often those of us who write software for a living who are among the worst offenders - we want to be paid for our efforts, yet feel that Valve / Microsoft/ id and the others wont miss the $90 our game would have cost. I had one smug young lad inform me that he doesnt 'pay for games', his tone indicating that anyone who did was some kind of moron. As a 'moron', my approach is simple : I try to get my hands on a demo, and if its good, I will shell out for the game. There is currently no demo available for HL2, as far as i know, just a bunch of movies and a 'CounterStrike:Source' beta which will give you an idea as to how well your machine fares. Bitch #3: STEAM operates in a manner which suggests that the people at Valve have been reading their own 'big brother' scripts a few too many times - you have to connect to STEAM (offline mode is available) , click on 'Play Games', insert CD 1 into the drive and sit through a 'Preparing to Play Half Life 2' dialog each time you want to play ! Compare that to a console, where you just stick the thing in the bloody drive and start playing .... Bitch # 4: I can live (just) with spending $90 for a game, but being forced to spend $1000 to upgrade my hardware everytime the games developers decide to up the ante really pisses me off. Once again, I'm closer to buying a console than ever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gobbledonk Posted November 21, 2004 Author Report Share Posted November 21, 2004 Having played roughly the first hour or so of the game, I can finally see what all the hoo-ha is about. To be honest, my initial thoughts were 'OK, its good, but is it *that* good ?'. After negotiating a maze of tunnels and water puzzles which will be all-too-familiar to HL devotees, I have emerged into an open air system of canals, easily negotiated with the aid of my hoverbike (complete with throaty V8 engine, no less ). The much-hyped water is living up to the volumes written about it, and I am genuinely happy to 'be' in this environment. One of the most disturbing things about the first HL and games like Doom is the depressing nature of the environments - dark, foreboding industrial locations that make you long to break out into the sun. I also appreciate the fact that HL2 does run on my machine, albeit with the occasional stutter. I have had a few crashes which I believe indicate the need to update my motherboard drivers (ouch), but its been clear sailing other than that. The controls seem identical to those in the first game, and I enjoy this familiarity - gets you straight into the game. I doubt that those who havent played the first one will have too many problems, but there are walkthroughs available online already, and cheats for those who cant read the walthroughs or shoot straight Well done Valve - lets not leave it another 6 years for the next installment, OK ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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