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Re: Halo 2 vs. Half Life 2 (An example of how not to review) (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Saturday, February 26 @ 21:58:22 EST
http://www.gamespot.com/xbox/action/halo2/screens.html?page=233
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/halflife2/screens.html?page=247
Where in the world do you see better environment in Halo 2? (find me a better screen if I picked a bad one)
Until that faithful trailer of HL2 in 2003, I've never seen a game with the (closely) right sun luminosity. Everything else (Far Cry for example) was too shiny, plastic or too dark, without that yellowish sun glow. Neither game has got dynamic lighting which is good since that turns out unrealistic with pitch black spots (ever heard of light reflection, ID soft?) until some game shows everyone how it's done (Stalker, hopefully). I noticed the irk that is flat paper textures on the floor, but it's performance optimization thanks to which HL2's requirements are so low. I'd much rather see flat paper textures on the floor and run at 60FPS rather than see every particle of a grafitti on the wall with 2FPS. Although I certainly wish Valve spent more time making extra items for housing, I'm quite satisfied with what we've got (you could say it gives a feeling of low-living standards in City 17).

The issue entitled "Valve made their own physics engine" doesn't go as far as saying that Valve made it from scratch, but assuming Valve modified Havok 3 (3 according to some article I read) to their liking, although it has flaws. And beyond that, remember games that barely used the Havok license at all like Far Cry which rarely had any physics-based environment to manipulate. Half-Life 2 had the richest manipulatable environment yet. Past first-person shooters only allowed you to pick up(or move) what's useful (XIII) and even games that allowed you to move useless stuff were limited (Devastation).

Gameplay wise, I didn't like Halo due to it's hack n' slash nature under the cover of an "engaging" storyline. If I'll want hack n' slash, I'll go play Painkiller, a work of HnS art where the storyline is a secondary thing. Now, as far as opinions and reviews go, Halo 2 is Halo with new graphics, storyline, but gameplay modified merely with car-jacking, dual-wield and a power-sword (or whatever it's called). I've also heard Halo 2 called inferior in gameplay compared to Halo, but I'll stick with the minimal change theory. Half-Life 2 is more engaging that just hack n' slash due to moments where (avaragely, but never the less) you have to think. Compared to Half-Life 1, less thought as practicly everything can be taken down with brute force (of one sort or another) where HL had it's bosses with special ways to kill them (electrocuting the gargantua using the tram rail :) ). Half-Life 2 is more of a tour of what the world became and a quick way to change it from that to hopefully better with the few puzzles holding you back. In all honesty, I've never finished Halo, I stopped somewhere near the end (when the enemies were pouring in like the undead army in Dominions 2), but I've had enough.

I consider Half-Life 2 a worthy sequel (since it's practicly impossible to make a sequel as great as the prequel impression-wise) with all the changes it needs. Halo was somewhere between avarage and good for me and seeing as Halo 2 simply attempts to go with what works, same rating goes there. If anyone considers this invalid, please, direct me to a professional (magazine preferably) review that states Halo 2 is a giant leap from Halo 1.

One last issue is modability. Half-Life 2 is scripted as heck, but using the engine you could make a completely unscripted game (if you're an AI programming genius). CSS is a sample of what can be done. Halo 2 on the other hand is an X-Box game and while it might be modable in some aspects (which I don't know), it won't be as open as HL2 unless it's ported to the PC.

So far, I've liked your reply to this article the most, OpinionsRule. Civilized, objective and grammaticly correct :). I might be more or less subjective since I'm rating a game by it's reviews and it's prequel (but with logical reas

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Re: Halo 2 vs. Half Life 2 (An example of how not to review) (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Saturday, March 05 @ 23:38:47 EST
Yay, someone with common sense in this world, who doesn't have to incorporate "fuck" and "dog shit" into every sentence. Halo 2 and Half Life 2 are very different. why, they are on different platforms, the PC and the Xbox. graphics wise, Half Life 2 will beat Halo 2, but Halo 2 completes its purpose and gives some of the best graphics available for the xbox or any other console. Plus don't forget that the xbox can be aquired for a third of the price of a high scale video card, but in the end the graphics are basically the same.
Plus, we don't have to worry about graphical problems and all the other sort of junk associated with computer games. The stories are both quite innovative and interesting and in fact you are wrong about the "aliens invading earth and destroying it" idea. One of the covenant leaders decides to invade earth thinking no one will be there, and then he retreats. Little action even takes place at earth, and the aliens have no interest in glassing it(read the books). In the end, we learn that earth is the center to control several different Halos with the capacity to destroy the universe, or at least the sentient beings there. I do believe that is original.
As for halo 2's duel wielding, you can finally use different triggers for each gun. Did goldeneye do that? no they only had one trigger. half life 2 has no duel trigger action.
No one seems to be talking about the gameplay of these games either. Halo 2 is an !nsane game in that the action is more intense, and much more fast paced. There also seems to be more emphasis in shooting. Half life 2, as its a computer game has slower action, but more based on using the environment. For instance, the zombies are slow, you have all the time in the world to set a big trap with your gravity gun and a grenade. This still is fun. I'm just saying that there are different modes of play in each game and to compare them is an injustice and based on a gamer's preferences.
As for the characters, I seriously don't understand why they have gordon Fremans face of the cover. I've played through about half of the game and never have i seen his face. HL2 has no cinematics where it shows you. This really seems to make Gordon a ghost character and you can have no feeling for him. However, Master Chief is so much more fun. He appears in many cinematics which are completely kick ass and people can relate to him or feel more for him. He is such a powerful character, with his insane looking armor, recharging shield, and powerful voice. Gordon never talks. Plus, in the end we are rooting for Master chief because he goes in alone against an entire covenant armada and is there to save Earth. It may be overrated, but it is much more user friendly. Plus, someone was commenting on how the Arbiter gets to play and thats wrong. Well, getting to play as another character is extroidanairly exciting. It lets you see the enemy that the other main character is fighting, and you can thus understand both sides and see how they are driven. IN HL2, it doesn't address the Combine quite so much and how Gordon relates to them is a mystery.

And for anyone who bashes the Halo 2 multiplayer all i can say is WOW. Halo 1 was one of the most popular games. People would spend entire weekends with 15 other people to play in system link games. Halo 2 brings that amazing experience to the internet and allows games to be played easily. It incorporates a buddy list, microphone talking that doesn't sound like someone in a huge cave as it is in CS:S. Plus, matchmaking and the level/rank system is ingenious. People are driven to play to get their rank up among a million others unlike CS:S. Matchmaking lets a party of people play with others randomly of the same skill level and clans are great. Is getting a clan together in CS nearly impossible? then playing clan matches are tough too. In fact, there are almost no games that incorporate clans so well. Plus, in the end the clan doesn't get rank, it can mearly be list

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