The Official Half Life 2 Reviews thread

[Joe Siegler]

Please post links to reviews here.

Please do NOT discuss said reviews here - this thread is only for linking to reviews.

If you discuss the reviews, you are likely to find your post deleted. Consider this fair warning. NO DISCUSSIONS - links to reviews ONLY!.

Thank you.

[Kev_Boy]

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/halflife2/index.html

[Waiter]

For the first time in six years, we actually have a PC game that can arguably be called the "best first-person shooter ever."


GameSpy (http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/half-life-2/566585p1.html)

[ADM]

IGN:
http://pc.ign.com/articles/566/566202p1.html

[Gryph]

HomeLAN Fed: http://www.gametab.com/news/174984/

[Forrest Gump]

ALL reviews are here:
http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/914642.asp
http://forums.3drealms.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

You are wasting your time trying to find more reviews http://forums.3drealms.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

[Thriller]

Request: It would be great if people post the score, along with the link, so you dont have to flip 5 pages if thats the only thing you care about.

[Mountain Man]

Gamespy.com just posted their review (http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/half-life-2/566585p1.html). Haven't read the review yet, but here's the low down:

Score: 5 stars (out of 5)

Pros: Great combat; tons of gameplay variety; gravity gun is worth the price of admission; gorgeous graphics and low hardware requirements.

Cons: The story leaves a few too many gaps unfilled; no multiplayer beyond the updated Counter-Strike.

[dark_angel]

ActionTrip (http://www.actiontrip.com/reviews/halflife2.html) -->93%


Generally speaking, there is no question whether or not you should buy this game. I guess the real question here is whether Half-Life 2 deserves the status of a classic, and that is really a matter of your personal preferences and your current frame of mind. My initial thoughts would be that Half-Life 2 indeed pushes the bar like no other shooter this year. Far Cry comes close, but if you step away for a second and think rationally, you'll realize that it doesn't raise the bar quite like Valve's sequel. However, Half-Life 2 is not perfect. The bizarre decision to include teammates in the way that Valve has, as well as the many and annoying loading times can actually diminish some of the fun factor. That said, this is still a game you don't want to miss. I guess this is forty million well spent for Valve.

[fido]

Firingsquad - 95% (http://www.firingsquad.com/games/half_life_2_review/default.asp)

EuroGamer - 100% (http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=57222)

[Drazula]

Gamer's Depot - 5/6 = 83% (http://www.gamers-depot.com/games/action/hl2/review/001.htm) Biggest complaint - AI

/me sees fido steaming mad!!

ActionTrip - 93% (http://www.actiontrip.com/reviews/halflife2.html) Biggest complaint - AI [Edit - oops, da already posted this]

DeadAlf - 9/10 = 90% (http://www.deadalfs.co.uk/reviews/1852/) (An HL2 site!) Biggest complaint - AI

Are we seeing a patern here? Can't say I didn't warn ya! http://forums.3drealms.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

[fido]

http://forums.3drealms.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

- GamesDomain - 100% (http://gamesdomain.yahoo.com/pc/halflife_2/review/53636)

- TeleFragged - 97% (http://www.telefragged.com/reviews/halflife2/)

-Jolt UK - 98% (http://www.jolt.co.uk/index.php?articleid=2950)

-Computer And Video Games - 97% (http://www.computerandvideogames.com/reviews/reviews_story.php?id=111902)

[fido]

Apparently there has been a mistake regarding Gamers Depot review (http://www.gamers-depot.com/games/action/hl2/review/001.htm) which Drazula posted http://forums.3drealms.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

They gave it 5 drools out of 6. BUT their rating system is out of 5 and the sixth drool is an extra credit .
Therfore Half-Life2 score is a 100% http://forums.3drealms.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif . Their rating system can be found here: http://www.gamers-depot.com/drool.htm

Another review:
-GameConnect - 100% (http://www.gameconnect.info/modules.php?op=modload&name=Reviews&file=index&req=showcontent&id=46)
-Gamers Depot - 100% (http://www.gamers-depot.com/games/action/hl2/review/001.htm)

[Drazula]

Game Arena = 95% (http://www.gamearena.com.au/reviews/read/2761394) Biggest complaints: AI and no multiplayer.

[Beelze]

Post deleted by Joe3DR

[dark_angel]

Please do NOT discuss said reviews here - this thread is only for linking to reviews.

[Beelze]

Post deleted by Joe3DR

[Ivan]

[French Review]

Jeuxvideo.com - 18/20 (http://www.jeuxvideo.com/articles/0000/00004804_test.htm)

[Drazula]

Gamezilla = 85% (http://www.gamezilla.com/review.aspx?review=8990) Biggest complaints: Audio, Originality, Weaponry and Ragdoll.

[Beelze]

Gamezilla = Recommended buy ("3/3"). (http://www.gamezilla.com/review.aspx?review=8990) That is unless you calculate the average of the presented scores, as Drazula did.

[Mountain Man]

Further clarification, Gamezilla specifically did away with score averaging for reasons explained on their website (http://www.gamezilla.com/pop_aboutscore.aspx). Currently, "Recommended Buy" is their top rating:

"Games that receive our 'Recommended Buy' rating are titles that we feel should have high appeal to the vast majority of gamers, and which further distinguish themselves as the cream of the crop within their genre. These are games that we feel you will consider a good purchase and a good use of your time."

[Drazula]

Post deleted by Joe3DR

[Mountain Man]

Post deleted by Joe3DR

[Beelze]

Strategy Informer (http://www.strategyinformer.com/shooters/headquarters/halflife2.shtml) changed their score to 9/10. http://forums.3drealms.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Now I know of only one review site that gave it a score lower than 90, and it was a christian review site. http://forums.3drealms.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

[Drazula]

Post deleted by ADoomedMarine

[Mountain Man]

Then that is a review site I obviously disagree with. Far Cry deserved a "Fans Only" rating at the best. Anyway, just so we're talking apples to apples, here are the current averages for the big three this year:

[u]metacritic.com (http://www.metacritic.com/)</u>
Far Cry: 89% (http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/pc/farcry/)
Doom 3: 87% (http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/pc/doom3/)
Half-Life 2: 97% (http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/pc/halflife2/)(!)

[u]GameRankings.com (http://www.gamerankings.com)</u>
Far Cry: 89% (http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/371314.asp?q=far%20cry)
Doom 3: 88% (http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/469881.asp?q=doom%203)
Half-Life 2: 97% (http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/914642.asp?q=half-life%202)(!)

[Drazula]

Spoiled Brats - 90% (http://www.spoiled-brats.com/index.cfm?fn=viewCol&cid=B5640A5D-8A14-009E-6A978EC172A01606) Biggest complaint: Story.


I would now like to take some time out to look at steam. Steam is an atrocity in my humble, libertarian opinion. Being forced to have an internet connection to play a single player game is outrageous. With such an overbearing system controlling Half-Life 2 it almost feels like I have to go through some sort of benevolent dictator to play games that I pay a good amount of money for (between me and my Dad we have spent around $200 on Half-Life products). Also, knowing Valve's background with hackers I do not trust this system.

[Drazula]

VideoGameNews - Two thumbs Up (http://www.videogamenews.com/wconnect/wc.dll?vgn~REVIEWLEFT~0000001827) This review made me smile. Except for the first sentence the review doesn't match the score. I get the impression this guy wanted to choke the hell outta Valve.


The only problem I had with the game was the Steam system. Steam is Valve’s distribution system, which sounds like a good idea from a technological standpoint but failed me miserably in practice. How it works, is that Steam authorizes that you are allowed to play the game by checking your registration against it’s servers. That process is fine, although if you don’t have an online connection at all, you can’t even play the game until you’ve connected at least once. Which is crap. It also takes a long time to decrypt the game the first time you play. Also crap, if you went out and bought a game, you don’t want to wait 2 hours before you can begin playing.
....
The problem, was that Valve was getting reports about a sound stuttering problem, and they released a patch to fix this. And everyone who is running Steam got the patch. (You could shut off the update process if you wanted to, but nobody would think to do this, because nobody would think that a patch would ruin their game… Wrong.) I didn’t have the sound stuttering problem, but once the patch was applied, my game performance nose-dived, and the game constantly crashed. I went from a smooth 1600x1200 with everything on, to taking it down to 1280x1024 with no AA (From 8x AA) and it barely worked. Sometimes blue screening and crashing out completely. The Valve forums are ripe with complaints, and it would have been nice if Valve had made this an option and not slipped it in as an update for all. It almost made my game unplayable and at times I had to replay hours of content because my save game files were corrupted (Or at least they appeared to be.)

[Guest]

To all those danish fan-boys out there:
BlastZone.dk - Anmeldelse af Half-Life 2 (http://www.blastzone.dk/index.php?p=artikler&id=27)

http://forums.3drealms.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[Drazula]

1UP = 90% (http://www.1up.com/do/reviewPage?cId=3137399) My favorite review, because he SLAMS those "preloaded" reviews, and deducted 1/2 star for Steam. Pretty much calling them invalid. (I like how he puts reviews in quotes.)

[Drazula]

XPD8 3/5 = 60% (http://www.xpd8.net/reviews.asp?id=219)

[Beelze]

Post deleted by ADoomedMarine

[Drazula]

Post deleted by Joe3DR

[dark_angel]

The Entertainment Depot (http://www.entdepot.com/pc/halflife2/review.php) -->90%


Minor gripes and technical issues aside, Half-Life 2 is easily the best game of its kind I've ever played. Solid throughout and spectacular at times, it demonstrates the potential of the genre and it offers the kind of direction its contemporaries should be striving toward

[FireFly]

Just read what I think is the most balanced, well-written account of the game.

Ferrago - 95% (http://www.ferrago.com/story/4805)

[Drazula]

JustPressPlay - 80% (http://www.justpressplay.net/viewgame.php?id=79)

Is this game going to be a must play? No, only if you enjoyed the original. Other wise don't bother. You'll probably waste your money and not even complete it.