Half Life 2 Rant
by Scott Casey · in General Discussion · 12/07/2004 (5:14 am) · 46 replies
Ok, I just bought Half Life 2 the other day. I am a HUGE fan of the first game and think it is one of the best single player games that I have every played. Last night I finally had some free time to install it. The game comes on five (yes 5!) CDs. I thought - this is going to be killer with all that extra content!
Problem #1: It took me three hours to finally install this game! The fourth attempt was successful as the other attempts were blocked by 'cabinet file' errors when reading the different CDs.
Problem #2: I hate Steam. It took two hours to register my account, download the patches, and decrypt the files. And I have a broadband cable modem! Let me state that again: I have broadband!
Problem #3: I sat there for about 10 min. waiting for the menu screen to come up. I rebooted and had the same time delay problem.
Problem #4: When the menu finally came up it took another 10 min. for the game to register that I changed screen resolutions.(!?)
Problem #5: Alright! Game play starts and it is the G-Man with full facial animation! After a little monologue, he is telling Mr. Freeman (the player) to wake up. I feel like a giddy school girl! His image starts to fade and I am riding on a passanger train. The game then promptly locked up with the audio stuck in a loop.
Problem #6: Rebooted again and waited another 10 min. for the menu to finish loading. The menu comes up and the game locks up again.
I am an experienced computer user (heck, my day job is being a software engineer developing military sims for the DoD!) and my system exceeds the min. requirements listed on the box. At first I had thought that I was alone, until I typed into Google 'Half Life 2 problems' and found that it wasn't just me. I expect these kinds of installation issues when working with research projects on Solaris, not consumer software.
I love the screen shots and the videos I have seen online and G4:TechTV. I really want to play this game! However, and this is will likely incite the fanboys, Valve has really screwed the pooch on this one. Yeah, I know, it is all in the name of stopping piracy, but what they have done is to stop the fun. I feel sorry for those poor suckers that get this lemon as a Christmas present and end up spending their holiday in frustration. Especially Joe Walmart that just expects a game to play without having to scan forums or FAQs just to get a game up and running. It is no wonder that console gaming gaining more popularity. I mean, how great is it to just pop in a DVD in your system and to be playing your new game within minutes?
I am also upset that none of the print reviews for this game mentioned any of these problems, nor did the TV reviews. I am going to try to return this 'game', but I am most likely S.O.L. with respect to retail's return policy concerning opened software.
Why did I type all of this? I guess it is a form of therapy and it feels good to vent!
Flame on.
Problem #1: It took me three hours to finally install this game! The fourth attempt was successful as the other attempts were blocked by 'cabinet file' errors when reading the different CDs.
Problem #2: I hate Steam. It took two hours to register my account, download the patches, and decrypt the files. And I have a broadband cable modem! Let me state that again: I have broadband!
Problem #3: I sat there for about 10 min. waiting for the menu screen to come up. I rebooted and had the same time delay problem.
Problem #4: When the menu finally came up it took another 10 min. for the game to register that I changed screen resolutions.(!?)
Problem #5: Alright! Game play starts and it is the G-Man with full facial animation! After a little monologue, he is telling Mr. Freeman (the player) to wake up. I feel like a giddy school girl! His image starts to fade and I am riding on a passanger train. The game then promptly locked up with the audio stuck in a loop.
Problem #6: Rebooted again and waited another 10 min. for the menu to finish loading. The menu comes up and the game locks up again.
I am an experienced computer user (heck, my day job is being a software engineer developing military sims for the DoD!) and my system exceeds the min. requirements listed on the box. At first I had thought that I was alone, until I typed into Google 'Half Life 2 problems' and found that it wasn't just me. I expect these kinds of installation issues when working with research projects on Solaris, not consumer software.
I love the screen shots and the videos I have seen online and G4:TechTV. I really want to play this game! However, and this is will likely incite the fanboys, Valve has really screwed the pooch on this one. Yeah, I know, it is all in the name of stopping piracy, but what they have done is to stop the fun. I feel sorry for those poor suckers that get this lemon as a Christmas present and end up spending their holiday in frustration. Especially Joe Walmart that just expects a game to play without having to scan forums or FAQs just to get a game up and running. It is no wonder that console gaming gaining more popularity. I mean, how great is it to just pop in a DVD in your system and to be playing your new game within minutes?
I am also upset that none of the print reviews for this game mentioned any of these problems, nor did the TV reviews. I am going to try to return this 'game', but I am most likely S.O.L. with respect to retail's return policy concerning opened software.
Why did I type all of this? I guess it is a form of therapy and it feels good to vent!
Flame on.
#42
Here's a tip to developer's everywhere...
Don't put 3D scenes in the opening menu! (Like in HL2)
I think that's why the menu takes so long to load... menu screens should be instantaneous.
Also, if you're going to have a load screen, make sure to include a loading bar/progress indicator! Nothing's worse than waiting for a load, than not knowing how long it will take! Whoever made the descision not to include a load bar needs to take Game-Making 101 again.
Everything that I saw (set to medium-to-high quality settings) was not terribly impressive.... nothing that should require such long loading...
Another thing... sound doesnt work very well... keeps stuttering.... and I've never had problems with sounds in any other game.
Plus points:
- Great looking water effects
- Great looking characters (the main actor characters)
- Cool physics
Besides those redeeming qualities, it's virtually unplayable... with the horrendous load times...
**End Rant**
12/31/2004 (5:23 pm)
**Rant**Here's a tip to developer's everywhere...
Don't put 3D scenes in the opening menu! (Like in HL2)
I think that's why the menu takes so long to load... menu screens should be instantaneous.
Also, if you're going to have a load screen, make sure to include a loading bar/progress indicator! Nothing's worse than waiting for a load, than not knowing how long it will take! Whoever made the descision not to include a load bar needs to take Game-Making 101 again.
Everything that I saw (set to medium-to-high quality settings) was not terribly impressive.... nothing that should require such long loading...
Another thing... sound doesnt work very well... keeps stuttering.... and I've never had problems with sounds in any other game.
Plus points:
- Great looking water effects
- Great looking characters (the main actor characters)
- Cool physics
Besides those redeeming qualities, it's virtually unplayable... with the horrendous load times...
**End Rant**
#43
Load times are acceptable, less than a min, and graphics look good with my new NVIDIA 6600AGP.
Bad thing is that Value 'nobbled' most Nvidia cards. They arent recognised as supporting DirectX9 so the shiny bits and water dont look great. There are some utilities out there which fool HL2 into believing that you have an ATI card and magically HL2 does all the DirectX9 stuff. However the 6800 and 6600 dont seem to require this.
This is supposed to be fixed with the latest patch. Weird thing is, some people I know tried the 'demo'/'stolen' copy and this ran with full dx9 support on FX nvidia cards.
I just love it, but it hasnt got the same jaw dropping experience for me that HL1 had....
Martyn
12/31/2004 (5:50 pm)
Well Im in the UK, so HL2 came on DVD....installed no problem, ran no problem, just get stuck in a couple of places but thats my game playing abilities and nothing to do with PC or HL2.Load times are acceptable, less than a min, and graphics look good with my new NVIDIA 6600AGP.
Bad thing is that Value 'nobbled' most Nvidia cards. They arent recognised as supporting DirectX9 so the shiny bits and water dont look great. There are some utilities out there which fool HL2 into believing that you have an ATI card and magically HL2 does all the DirectX9 stuff. However the 6800 and 6600 dont seem to require this.
This is supposed to be fixed with the latest patch. Weird thing is, some people I know tried the 'demo'/'stolen' copy and this ran with full dx9 support on FX nvidia cards.
I just love it, but it hasnt got the same jaw dropping experience for me that HL1 had....
Martyn
#44
12/31/2004 (6:19 pm)
The reason for disabling DX 9.0 on the FX cards is because FX FPS sucks at DX 9.0.
#45
Since downgrading the drivers , it works like a charm!
01/24/2005 (3:15 pm)
Uh... i had this problem... mine was related to using the latest drivers from NVidia.Since downgrading the drivers , it works like a charm!
#46
I also completely dispise the fact that I can't just buy and install the game as usual. No, they force me to 'unlock' the files I already went through the trouble of installing 3 times (crashed the first 2 times - CS:S instalation error). I have broadband, mind you. But I just want to play this game. It looks like loads of fun, but so far dosen't seem like it's worth the trouble it's giving me.
01/24/2005 (8:01 pm)
I have had certain problems with HL2 as well. My computer exceeds the minimum requirements, but whenever I try to load the first mission, I always get the same 'cannot access memory' error. T_TI also completely dispise the fact that I can't just buy and install the game as usual. No, they force me to 'unlock' the files I already went through the trouble of installing 3 times (crashed the first 2 times - CS:S instalation error). I have broadband, mind you. But I just want to play this game. It looks like loads of fun, but so far dosen't seem like it's worth the trouble it's giving me.
Torque Owner Alan H