If you didn't get to see the stream yesterday, you missed some great shenanigans. What started with five participants, and ended (nine hours later) with two game completions by Ollee and myself. Our official times were as follows:
- 9:18:04 Wooty
- 9:23:27 ollee
Half Life 2 had big shoes to fill after the epic success that was Half Life 1. And it delivers. Half Life 2 is definitely one of my most favorite single player games of all time. Not only does it have amazing graphics and physical effects (especially for its time), it also has a strong storyline which goes as deep as you want it to go. Want to learn more about the characters? The plot details are there. Don't care about the characters and just want to play with the physics gun? Go ahead. It's really a win-win situation for any type of gamer.
Even rushing through the game, I still came out of it feeling that I had really connected with the characters. It wasn't just another mind-numbing shoot-em-up rip-off. So, I can officially add my vote to the tally listing Half Life 2 as one of the most excellent games of all time.
Pros
- Great physics and graphical effects
- Strong story line, live cinematics, and small puzzles to spread out combat time
- Vehicle physics that aren't completely terrible
- Wide selection of weapons
- Non-repetitive gameplay (command Ant-Lions, join a rebel squad, take down giant enemies)
- Gravity Gun!
- A small glitch at the end prevented me from jumping and I had to restart the chapter
- Speed-running through the game without breaks requires a relatively large bladder
- No Co-Op support (seems to be becoming a staple for new games)
Be sure to check back in the upcoming days/weeks, as we will definitely be playing through the expansion Episodes 1 & 2 soon! The speed-run competition is also still open, so if you have a webcam and a copy of the HL2 Episodes, be sure to enter for a chance to (easily) win the $50 gift card. For details, keep an eye on our Twitter or Facebook feeds.
