Black Label Suicides

Okay, ANY of you who have ANY interest at all in the PC gaiming market, and enjoy FPS's (which you must, otherwise you wouldn't be here...), check out the following site on Half-Life 2...

http://www.halflife2.net/

Also check out the offers on Steam, the direct download/order system Valve set up primarily for HL2. The gold package is an INSANE deal...4 games for $90, including the original Half-life using the new engine, "Source", Day of Defeat "Source", Counter-strike "Source", and a whole SHITLOAD of extras...

http://www.steampowered.com

According to all release dates I could find, Half-life 2 will hit Nov. 1...I'd say that I'm more excited about this than most people are about Halo 2...

Okay, not like anybody's looking at this, but it's OFFICIALLY Nov. 16 for the release date of the sequel to the greatest FPS of all time...after Wolfenstein 3d of course...

HOLY MOTHER-OF-GOD!!! This game is quite possibly the best FPS I've EVER played!!!

Graphics? GORGEOUS!! Character faces have a full range of emotions. The environments are so detailed and the textures are so spot on, that you get drawn into the environment. Muzzle-flash, suit flashlight, ambient lighting, all put every other FPS out there to shame...

Gameplay? INSANE!! Gun recoil, ragdolls, FLOATING BODIES IN WATER!! Movement's dead-on, very fluid. You can pick up objects and manipulate them real time. Need to make a ledge? Grab a couple of boxes, stack them, then climb up. Pick up a flammable barrel, start it rolling down a hill, then shoot it a couple times, it then explodes after a bit, makes a nice grenade when you don't have any. Even pick up barrels and use them as a shield for cover against a large number of enemies (I suggest the non-flammable ones...of course) GRENADES!!! Pick them up and throw them back at your enemies...You've also got to react and then act accordingly VERY fast, almost on the fly...helps to immerse you in the game.

Sound? Best ambient environmental sound I've ever heard in a game. Hear enemies talking around corners, sound is muffled through objects, voices sound tinny when you're surrounded by metal. Alien sounds make your skin crawl...literally...From standard pistol shots, to full-on auto fire from a helicopter...the latter is VERY frightening to hear...when you're not using it at least...Footsteps react to the kind of terrain (from squishy mud, sucking sounds as in pulling your feet out of a bog, to walking in grass and hearing it crunch under foot).

I swear, if any of you played the first, and enjoyed it, even somewhat, you better pick this up...Even if you didn't play the first one, if your PC can handle it, by all means. I'll even be nice and post the system minimums...

1.2 GHz processor, 256MB RAM, DirectX 7 graphics card (prefferably 128MB RAM) 5.5GB HD space, Mouse, Keyboard, Internet connection (it has to register and create an account on Steam for you before you can play, effectively killing piracy options), and a DVD-ROM drive.

I'm running an AMD 3000XP, 512 MB RAM, 256MB RAM GeForce FX5700, DirectX 10, and it runs incredibly smooth...

I'll post up some screens in a bit, once I get over the "Oh-my-god-this-is-cool" syndrome and actually take some...

Direct X 10?   I don't think that's out yet... (9.0c is the latest version)

Anyways... I meant to try it out last night.  I got a free copy when I bought my Vid Card last year. but I had to lose a football game first and after that I didn't feel like playing any more games.

I did get so far as to load the main menu screen yesterday morning before work, but I haven't started a game yet...  I might just save this game for sometime next year when there is not some many great games coming out. 

Of course the vid card I bought last year with the coupon for a free copy of Half-life 2 is having problems running Half-life 2.   It's messing up some textures in larger "zone" (Areas between the long ass loads)

Still I only played for a few minutes but I love the feel of this game.  I really felt like I was there in the game.  It's a very realistic feeling.  I just wish the cops would stop beating me for stepping to close to them.

My computer at home is defragging right now,  It was a mess.  Hopefully that will take care of the problem.

LOL!! Yeah, those cops are bastards...especially when you pick up bottles and smash them over their heads!! I also enjoyed throwing cinder blocks at a few of them...

Seriously though, that's also my ONLY complaint about this game...the load time. Granted there's a SHIT-LOAD of stuff to load, but you'd think it wouldn't take that long. It almost breaks the rhythm of the game, but not quite...I actually welcome the load every now and then, though. It gives me a chance to blink a few times (because my eyes are glued to the screen, afraid I'll miss something and die because of it), flex the muscles in my hands, and take a breath or two...

I ran a defrag and a system cleanup and it did improve the load times somewhat, as well as the overall smoothness of the gameplay, so that's a good call.

I played a little Counterstrike: Source last night, and am VERY impressed with the upgrades. All of the models are SO much prettier now, bullet physics are much cooler also. The Source version of HL1 was not that different though. Only things I noticed were some modifications to the bullet hits (you can actually see grazing gun wounds on enemies, like when the bullet just scrapes off some skin), ragdolls are a little updated also. But 2's realism is still incredible...I'm at a part where I'm driving a buggy/car through an alien infested highway, and the sense of speed is phenomenal.

This game sure as hell gets my vote for Game of the Year.

I don't get Half-life Source with my ATI coupon...  Damn it... I'll have to play the old version..  I think I need to do that anyways to understand the story...


So many new games...

Well, hell, you still can't complain about too much...you got HL2 for FREE!!! I paid $80 for the collector's edition...HL2, HL1: Source, Counter-strike: Source, and a few other things, like a t-shirt, posters, etc.

I can't believe anyone paid for Half-Life 2...  Didn't you buy a video card in the last year and half?

Yeah, but it wasn't your standard NVidia manufacturer...which I'm paying for now...I'm buying an 256MB ATi Radeon 9600 the end of this month. Other than that, the only computer components I've bought were RAM (a while ago), and the whole system (a few months ago).

So that just makes you a lucky bastard for getting it free...

Okay, HOLY SHIT!!

I beat this game as of ten minutes ago, and still can't get over how fucking COOL it was...granted it was only on easy, and the only times I died were from falling from severe heights, but STILL!! I'm gonna go through and play more thoroughly on Hard...dear god...what am I getting into...I found myself being startled and freaking out I don't know HOW many times...goddamned poisonous headcrabs...and headcrab zombies...and gigantic, walking, tripedal gattling guns...and extreme numbers of glowing-green-eyed troops...and too many other things to name...

The ending was both cool, and leaves me wanting a third one NOW. I'm gonna have to keep checking various sites (including Valve, of course) for any info regarding this...

Oh, and Car, you were right, DirectX 10 isn't out...I'm running 9.1

hey man whats up. Just looking for some of the screens you said you would put up. Hope i get this game soon.

It sucks, I took a few really good ones, but I can't seem to find the folder they're stored in...

I'll keep looking...

I just posted all the screenshot's I've taken of HL2 at http://blog.pnc1.com/carsinigin/gallery/15.aspx

I have a glich where sometimes things get all "rainbowy" as Nancy calls it so some of the screen shots look fucked up.

Nice pics Car. What resolution were you running on them?