Just beat the game on Normal. Took about 5.5 hours. It was an excellent game. Loved every minute and was sad when it ended. Cant wait for Ep3. Now I am playing it again for commentary.
ta tycho and others ill have to go look for it, yeah i hate them invisable walls, its what stoped me from takeing dogs bal lal the way tothe end, msot of htem i could get past but hte one in thebullet proof glass room before your drop down into the genrals area with the breaking pillars before hte citidel chapter yeah that was really depressing spent hours trying to get hte bal lthru hte bars the invis wall find holes in the roof to no clip thru all sorts couldnt do it.
Just missing the 'Get some grub' and the net cache archievements I think.
About the garden gnome, then during the car parts, you can more or less lock it into place by putting it where the rear-window would be. Notice though that if you crash, drive too menacingly or something goes boom near you, it <i>will</i> fall out.
Also, the helicopter chase + gnome = much frustation. Explosions + evasion driving = one active garden gnome.
Bit of tips about where you can leave the garden gnome behind, and whatnot else:
- With Alyx in the area where the antlions attacks. Should save you a lot of trouble, as you can't sprint while carrying the gnome.
- In the Garage just before the autogun, NOT with the car, bring it along when you fight the chooper, and take it into the garage, you won't be going back to the car.
- The bit where you get the car, you can fling it out into the area below, I'd suggest near the 2 brown pipes to the left, as that's pretty close to where you get the car, and iirc rather easy to hit. I'm not sure it's a good idea to fling it up on the bridge, as iirc there'll be an explosion or similar over there, which might toss it off the bridge and down into the area below D:
- Take care at the point where you drop down 3meters or so in the car, and there's a loading spot right when you do, I lost the gnome 4-5 times driving over this bit. Only suceeded once I went down it smoothly. Alternatively, you could try to just grab the garden gnome with the gravgun and walk/jump into the loading zone, the car + alyx should be teleported into the new area.
- At the bit where you pull the plug on the advisor, be sure to have the gnome ready in the car - perhaps even take measures to make sure it's not in the middle of everything, as grenades and flechettes are going about when the fight starts - potentially knocking the gnome out of the car, and having to put in the gnome + helicopter = PAIN.
I didn't have all that much trouble with the Neighborhood watch archievement D: well, I loaded and saved a good deal, but I didn't have to do it all over at any point, just deal with 1-2 striders, then save, rinse repeat.
The most frustating thing was probably the bit where a strider comes for the sawmill just after you kill the one coming from the cranes - now there, you had to wing it :O And possibly, one strider that, I guess I had missed earlier, nearly getting the building on the way to the sawmill D:
A little tip, occasionally, I think you can just fling the strider buster right at the strider and shoot it right away - before the hunters deal with it, I probably did this 1-2 times. I think it requires the hunters to be a bit off, which sometimes occurs naturally, or you can try to do below thing :S.
Also, an alternative to killing the hunters would be to try to run them over (if you do, then, just get the strider, but otherwise try to..), drive off, the hunter should chase you, make a u-turn, and charge back at the strider, the hunter should now be a bit away, thus unable to help it's 'big brother', meaning you can bust the strider. I think I did this once - was mostly coincidence I found out, and by the time I did, I was nearly done, plus, it doesn't really work everywhere, as you need stretches of road, which just isn't there when the striders are coming from the cranes and sawmill D:
LikuI, am the Somberlain.Join Date: 2003-01-10Member: 12128Members
I'm wondering, would it be possible to leave the Gnome with Alyx when you go to get the thing with the Vortigaunt? Because you do go back there eventually, it'd save a lot of trouble. I don't know if the loading would make it disappear somehow.
Contains spoilers, if you are here you should expect them.
Finished today on hard, if it can be done easier I wouldn't recommend it, never really died and died and died at any same place.
NEX9, just a note, it's actually AR2 (combine rifle) and AR3 (leaked beta machine gun with scope, tho they say it doesn't exist) not AR4.
Loved how Magnusson noted how he might forgive freeman for destroying his food in Black Mesa. Remember the microwave? Click it a few times and it broke and ignited, then a scientist came and said "what are you doing!?".
G-man spotting, only once at the monitor when Alyx said "Prepare for unforeseen consequences".
Hunters, meh, circle strafe and shoot, AR2 2nd fire, fling explosives or drive em over, you barely needed any momentum either to kill em with the car.
The final battle was way too easy, it's just hard if you need to get the achievement, plenty of supplies everywhere and the hunters did 2 damaged per hit on the car. I got scared when I heard more frequent impacts though, thought it might be a modified strider. At one part a strider did step on my car, I flew a good 50m up in the air before touching ground without taking damage (?).
Advisors are the perfect hate enemy, they're big round, squishy and ugly, the best sort of thing you want to destroy after seeing them do evil. Why didn't dog manage to rip one of them to shreds? ugh. The flying part freaked me out, why didn't anyone shoot those blobs of pus out of the sky? If there is no harm for them in flying why bother with containers to move them around?
I remember when you COULD shoot those damn vortigaunts. <img src="http://www.hlcomic.com/comics/concerned137.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
With flying cars and all. <a href="http://xs.to/xs.php?h=xs220&d=07423&f=ep2_antlionGuardCarSniping.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://xs220.xs.to/xs220/07423/ep2_antlionGuardCarSniping.jpg.xs.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /></a>
With flying cars and all. <a href="http://xs.to/xs.php?h=xs220&d=07423&f=ep2_antlionGuardCarSniping.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://xs220.xs.to/xs220/07423/ep2_antlionGuardCarSniping.jpg.xs.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /></a><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I lol'ed when I saw the swedish HUD, didn't know they even bothered making one. Well it does fit as the fuel pumps do say "Kronor" and "liter" in HL2.
LikuI, am the Somberlain.Join Date: 2003-01-10Member: 12128Members
<!--quoteo(post=1656411:date=Oct 17 2007, 02:17 AM:name=Dirty_Harry_Potter)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Dirty_Harry_Potter @ Oct 17 2007, 02:17 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1656411"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->you can, just said you could ;P<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> Well I thought you just meant during the fight, but then again, I am an idiot...
<!--quoteo(post=1656463:date=Oct 17 2007, 09:59 PM:name=Svenpa)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Svenpa @ Oct 17 2007, 09:59 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1656463"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I lol'ed when I saw the swedish HUD, didn't know they even bothered making one. Well it does fit as the fuel pumps do say "Kronor" and "liter" in HL2.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> I keep forgetting that's in the image.
douchebagatronCustom member titleJoin Date: 2003-12-20Member: 24581Members, Constellation, Reinforced - Shadow
oh yea i really liked the dynamic lighting. another thing i thought was incredible was motion blur, but you need to enable it in the advanced video settings. most of the time its not too noticeable, but when it is its beautiful.
QuaunautThe longest seven days in history...Join Date: 2003-03-21Member: 14759Members, Constellation, Reinforced - Shadow
edited October 2007
The dynamic lighting is ONLY on the Flashlight.
Edit: And by dynamic lighting I mean dynamic shadows. Its had dynamic lighting since Half Life 1 <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />
Alcapwn"War is the science of destruction" - John AbbotJoin Date: 2003-06-21Member: 17590Members
The dynamic shadows from the flashlight kill my FPS, i dont know why either; as other games that are almost exclusively use dynamic shadows peform fine (Hello any game made with the DOOM3 engine).
Flashlight off, smooth as silk. Flashlight on? Starts to get a little choppy.
Really annoying, my computer shouldnt have any problem running EP2...
<span style='color:#000000;background:#000000'>ELI NOOOOO- YOU'RE DYING IN EXACTLY THE SAME WAY THAT YOUR CHARACTER'S GRANDFATHER DIES IN "PREY" BUT STILL- NOOOOO</span>
can someone remind me what the chip is they talk about in ep2, the one the woman scientist has.
actually, remind me about the whole woman scientist dealie. i could have swore she was working for the combine in hl2/ep1 as i distinctly remember disliking her but i must be wrong.
also- did we find out what the Borealis does? one of the docs talks about it being owned by Aperture Science but vanishing, so i guess it has something to do with portals; but Eli says frag it, Kleiner says use it.
Ep2 was awesome; controversial but:
ep2 > hl1 > hl2 > ep1
the only part i didn't like was killing the 2 guardians out in the open. i had 0 ammo for that battle and ended up flinging Generic Science Barrel about 1,000 times at the critters.
ThansalThe New ScumJoin Date: 2002-08-22Member: 1215Members, Constellation
<!--quoteo(post=1656866:date=Oct 20 2007, 07:39 AM:name=sherpa)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(sherpa @ Oct 20 2007, 07:39 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1656866"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->ep2 > hl1 > hl2 > ep1<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> How do you figure that? I mean, I like all of them, and would be hard pressed to rank them. But there is no way I would rank HL above any of the others tbh. IT was great for its time, but it didn't really age all THAT well. Admittedly, that is b/c it is sorta the base of what all other FPS games now have to match <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />
<!--quoteo(post=1656866:date=Oct 20 2007, 07:39 AM:name=sherpa)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(sherpa @ Oct 20 2007, 07:39 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1656866"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->the only part i didn't like was killing the 2 guardians out in the open. i had 0 ammo for that battle and ended up flinging Generic Science Barrel about 1,000 times at the critters.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
How? I have yet to run low on ammo in a single HL game unless playing on hard.
i play single player games on hard. if i'm forking out £20-35 on a game i want it to last as long as possible; and the guardians on hard can take a hell of a beating
ThansalThe New ScumJoin Date: 2002-08-22Member: 1215Members, Constellation
<!--quoteo(post=1656871:date=Oct 20 2007, 09:09 AM:name=sherpa)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(sherpa @ Oct 20 2007, 09:09 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1656871"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->i play single player games on hard. if i'm forking out £20-35 on a game i want it to last as long as possible; and the guardians on hard can take a hell of a beating<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> ok that works.
On normal I just took em out with barrels and then a few shotgun blasts
Comments
Now to play Portal.
About the garden gnome, then during the car parts, you can more or less lock it into place by putting it where the rear-window would be. Notice though that if you crash, drive too menacingly or something goes boom near you, it <i>will</i> fall out.
Also, the helicopter chase + gnome = much frustation. Explosions + evasion driving = one active garden gnome.
Bit of tips about where you can leave the garden gnome behind, and whatnot else:
- With Alyx in the area where the antlions attacks. Should save you a lot of trouble, as you can't sprint while carrying the gnome.
- In the Garage just before the autogun, NOT with the car, bring it along when you fight the chooper, and take it into the garage, you won't be going back to the car.
- The bit where you get the car, you can fling it out into the area below, I'd suggest near the 2 brown pipes to the left, as that's pretty close to where you get the car, and iirc rather easy to hit. I'm not sure it's a good idea to fling it up on the bridge, as iirc there'll be an explosion or similar over there, which might toss it off the bridge and down into the area below D:
- Take care at the point where you drop down 3meters or so in the car, and there's a loading spot right when you do, I lost the gnome 4-5 times driving over this bit. Only suceeded once I went down it smoothly. Alternatively, you could try to just grab the garden gnome with the gravgun and walk/jump into the loading zone, the car + alyx should be teleported into the new area.
- At the bit where you pull the plug on the advisor, be sure to have the gnome ready in the car - perhaps even take measures to make sure it's not in the middle of everything, as grenades and flechettes are going about when the fight starts - potentially knocking the gnome out of the car, and having to put in the gnome + helicopter = PAIN.
I didn't have all that much trouble with the Neighborhood watch archievement D: well, I loaded and saved a good deal, but I didn't have to do it all over at any point, just deal with 1-2 striders, then save, rinse repeat.
The most frustating thing was probably the bit where a strider comes for the sawmill just after you kill the one coming from the cranes - now there, you had to wing it :O And possibly, one strider that, I guess I had missed earlier, nearly getting the building on the way to the sawmill D:
A little tip, occasionally, I think you can just fling the strider buster right at the strider and shoot it right away - before the hunters deal with it, I probably did this 1-2 times. I think it requires the hunters to be a bit off, which sometimes occurs naturally, or you can try to do below thing :S.
Also, an alternative to killing the hunters would be to try to run them over (if you do, then, just get the strider, but otherwise try to..), drive off, the hunter should chase you, make a u-turn, and charge back at the strider, the hunter should now be a bit away, thus unable to help it's 'big brother', meaning you can bust the strider. I think I did this once - was mostly coincidence I found out, and by the time I did, I was nearly done, plus, it doesn't really work everywhere, as you need stretches of road, which just isn't there when the striders are coming from the cranes and sawmill D:
Finished today on hard, if it can be done easier I wouldn't recommend it, never really died and died and died at any same place.
NEX9, just a note, it's actually AR2 (combine rifle) and AR3 (leaked beta machine gun with scope, tho they say it doesn't exist) not AR4.
Loved how Magnusson noted how he might forgive freeman for destroying his food in Black Mesa. Remember the microwave? Click it a few times and it broke and ignited, then a scientist came and said "what are you doing!?".
G-man spotting, only once at the monitor when Alyx said "Prepare for unforeseen consequences".
Hunters, meh, circle strafe and shoot, AR2 2nd fire, fling explosives or drive em over, you barely needed any momentum either to kill em with the car.
The final battle was way too easy, it's just hard if you need to get the achievement, plenty of supplies everywhere and the hunters did 2 damaged per hit on the car. I got scared when I heard more frequent impacts though, thought it might be a modified strider. At one part a strider did step on my car, I flew a good 50m up in the air before touching ground without taking damage (?).
Advisors are the perfect hate enemy, they're big round, squishy and ugly, the best sort of thing you want to destroy after seeing them do evil. Why didn't dog manage to rip one of them to shreds? ugh. The flying part freaked me out, why didn't anyone shoot those blobs of pus out of the sky? If there is no harm for them in flying why bother with containers to move them around?
I remember when you COULD shoot those damn vortigaunts.
<img src="http://www.hlcomic.com/comics/concerned137.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
Or actually, just npc_create time!
In the antlion arena.
With flying cars and all.
<a href="http://xs.to/xs.php?h=xs220&d=07423&f=ep2_antlionGuardCarSniping.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://xs220.xs.to/xs220/07423/ep2_antlionGuardCarSniping.jpg.xs.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /></a>
Or actually, just npc_create time!
In the antlion arena.
With flying cars and all.
<a href="http://xs.to/xs.php?h=xs220&d=07423&f=ep2_antlionGuardCarSniping.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://xs220.xs.to/xs220/07423/ep2_antlionGuardCarSniping.jpg.xs.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /></a><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I lol'ed when I saw the swedish HUD, didn't know they even bothered making one. Well it does fit as the fuel pumps do say "Kronor" and "liter" in HL2.
Well I thought you just meant during the fight, but then again, I am an idiot...
I keep forgetting that's in the image.
Edit: And by dynamic lighting I mean dynamic shadows. Its had dynamic lighting since Half Life 1 <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />
sure anyone could activate a light in opengl or directx but it was a real resource hog.
Flashlight off, smooth as silk. Flashlight on? Starts to get a little choppy.
Really annoying, my computer shouldnt have any problem running EP2...
...onto the actual episode, simply amazing.
<img src="http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/2431/ep2outland10a0031df5.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
I wanted to take it to a really dark area to get some good shots, but I lost it in the car on the way up. (The Gnome was more important.)
can someone remind me what the chip is they talk about in ep2, the one the woman scientist has.
actually, remind me about the whole woman scientist dealie. i could have swore she was working for the combine in hl2/ep1 as i distinctly remember disliking her but i must be wrong.
also- did we find out what the Borealis does? one of the docs talks about it being owned by Aperture Science but vanishing, so i guess it has something to do with portals; but Eli says frag it, Kleiner says use it.
Ep2 was awesome; controversial but:
ep2 > hl1 > hl2 > ep1
the only part i didn't like was killing the 2 guardians out in the open. i had 0 ammo for that battle and ended up flinging Generic Science Barrel about 1,000 times at the critters.
How do you figure that?
I mean, I like all of them, and would be hard pressed to rank them. But there is no way I would rank HL above any of the others tbh. IT was great for its time, but it didn't really age all THAT well. Admittedly, that is b/c it is sorta the base of what all other FPS games now have to match <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />
<!--quoteo(post=1656866:date=Oct 20 2007, 07:39 AM:name=sherpa)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(sherpa @ Oct 20 2007, 07:39 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1656866"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->the only part i didn't like was killing the 2 guardians out in the open. i had 0 ammo for that battle and ended up flinging Generic Science Barrel about 1,000 times at the critters.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
How?
I have yet to run low on ammo in a single HL game unless playing on hard.
ok that works.
On normal I just took em out with barrels and then a few shotgun blasts
Can't say I ever ran dangerously low on ammo when playing on Hard, the last battle had so much respawnable supplies it was ridiculous.
<img src="http://xs220.xs.to/xs220/07423/ep2_antlionGuardCarSniping.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />