Got HL2 yesterday

[SHRED]

The AI, physics, graphics, and flow are superb.
It plays good at 1600x1200 res. on my Radeon 9800pro 128mb.

[Occulus]

1. nice how well it's optimized, huh?

I have an ATI Radeon 9600 Pro and it runs like butter in 1280x1024, 2x AA and 4X FSAA...

It's amazing. You'll love this game.

Tips:

Manhacks and headcrabs hate the crowbar.

Use the gravity gun where you don't have ammo.

Aim for the head. Of whatever.

:)

[toddzilla]

4. best thing for manhacks is gravity gun

if you have it of course..

stacking shit up to block passageways works well too..

[SlavesandBulldozers]

2. i love it too.

HLII source deathmatch, no matter what anybody else may tell you - ROCKS. Mainly because its hilarious chasing somebody down and hurling a toilet = or perhaps a bookshelf - at them.

[toddzilla]

3. finishing up playing through it for the third time..

should have played it on hard difficulty the first time through.

[bvar22]

5. Did you notice any improvement in....

...video detail, or more music files?

I reloaded and replayed HL/2 after a month, and the 2nd time, I noticed more details, especially on the dune buggy. I also noticed more music.

I could have been mistaken, and not noticed these details the first time through since my attention was focused on other things.

Could the Steam connection have been updating maps and music? If Steam does this, then GOOD, but they should ask my permission first.

I still don't like being forced to log on to play the damn game.

HL/2 Rules. Best game ever.

[Spider Jerusalem]

6. You don't necessarily HAVE to log on to PLAY.

You DO have to log on when you install, to unlock the installation, but after that it's not 100% necessary. I had an hour or two with no Internet access recently (maintenance-related outage on my ISP's network), so I couldn't connect to the Steam network. I was able to load and play the game just fine in offline mode, though.

[toddzilla]

7. nope

i think it's just easier to find all the hidden spots and details when you know what is coming up.

I still think there's too much driving, and the game is far too easy overall.

very good game otherwise.

[Occulus]

8. thing is, we didn't get just a game

We got an entertainment development environment that happens to have a game built around it. ALL the tools to develop content for Half-Life 2 are *free*.

I love that.....

[Ladyhawk]

9. I am experiencing graphics card envy. n/t

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

10. I am screwed. I have the same graphics card, and 1GB of 3200 DDR memory,

a P4 2.5GHz system, but I've got some kind of "memory could not be read" error that keeps me from playing. HL2:Deathmatch and Counterstrike:Source seem to work fine though, which use the same game engine so I don't understand why this problem. Reading the steam/valve support forum I see a number of others with the same problem.

I've reinstalled the game and done a number of other things but keep getting the same error.

People have had various fixes for this in the Steam forum threads, I have to try to work through all of them sigh... All other games work fine...