h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Whooooaarrrr! With the banging, and the shooting, and the crowbar, and the flying buzzing things, and the baddies, and the monsters, and the crates, and water, and the suit, and the flashlight, andallofit!

I gave it a good few hours the other night, took a little while to install because it told me to download newer graphics drivers, then it took about 25 minutes to decrypt itself. I had no idea what to do at the start. You kind of bumble along for a while, getting slapped around by bad tempered military type people, until you find a friend who kind of points you in the right direction.

The graphics are almost as good as Doom3, but this may simply because Half Life 2 is a much lighter game than the very dark Doom3, where you probably don't spot as many faults. Especially good is the game physics, most objects can be pushed around or picked up and thrown, and they rattle and bounce on the floor very convincingly. Even dead bodies that fall into water float and react in a way you'd expect a dead body to react.

In a word: wow.

Doom 3 was horrendously slow (but still playable... just) on my PC, and then comes H-L2 with its insane level of detail and it's smoother than a really smooth thing. I just wish those Combine blokes would stop dropping explosive barrels on me.

Little tip: The police guys at the beginning don't like it if you throw stuff at them.

...nor even if you stand next to them! SLAP!

I'm on chapter 11 now I think, only a few chapters to go!

I'm on the bit with the air boat (just after you get the nifty gun).

Wait 'til you get to play with the sand-lions. More fun, and more scary than poking a wasp nest with a long stick!

I played with the antlions.
I died.
I played with the antlions again.
I died.
I thought 'sod it' stuck God Mode on, and played with the antlions.
They died.

Half-life 2 rules, it is the best fps ever!

FPS? In my day we called 'em "First-Person 3D Shoot 'Em Ups."

In my days, we 'em dem magical shootin'run-boxes... Hehe, med tings are crazy.

Yer what?

Huh-huck-hu!
Anyhoo, too bad it's all over now, best wait to hl3 and/or hl2 expansions...

Oh, there will be a HL3... they might as well have had a big neon sign in the last bit saying "get ready for the next one"

Oh yes of course, only it will take at least two more years.

And then it'll get 'delayed'.

Yeah, and then once it comes out, everyone will still whine about steam . You know, it is a bit of a shame half-life got no more mention in the guide, this entry seems a tad... weak, you know, to be half-life.

By the way, I've finished it now. I wasn't sure that I'd finished it until the credits started rolling, though from the mysterious guy at the end, it sounds like Gordon has still got one more job to do...

Ahhh... the g-man. I love him yet I hate him too.

In the last week, I've discovered the joys of HL2 DeathMatch, and I'm surprisingly good at it! Well, when I say good, I mean within the top three highest ranking players per map. However, afterplaying a couple of hours with Counter Strike: Source, I find that THIS is where all the good players are playing, and that I'm completely rubbish. I might have to change my player name to 'bullet magnet' because I seem to die with alarming speed and regularity.

congratulations you have just got your self a person who is developing a mod for half life 2 its called nuclear area 08 and is an urban fighter game you have to fight off many combines and zombies and survive a total obliteration of the level all will be relesed for christmas with(hopefully)no delays, go to http://www.batrewick.co.uk/NA08 and look at the site it will be up dated