Half-Life 2: Episode 2

I bought this by itself because I have no interest in the Orange Box. I like it a lot.

The engine has been updated with shadowmaps on the flashlight and some pre-calculated physics-based animations for houses that fall apart, collapsing bridges, etc. It's not a huge change, but they are nice touches.

The game starts off kind of slow with you being followed around by one of those green alien guys. It gets better after you get through the caves. When you get into the mine there is a really neat sequence involving ant lions, aliens, citizens, and turrets. It's like the battles from Half-Life 1 between soldiers and aliens.

The new forest environments are nice, though you are always in a canyon. Once you get to the base at the end, the environment design gets really nice, and it's like being in Black Mesa again, which is a nice feeling.

I will have to see if I can get it tomorrow and hope that it will take longer than 3 days to complete.

I'm liking this one a lot so far. I'm stuck right now though trying to fight the essence guardian in the tunnels, or what ever it's called. Any ideas what I'm doing wrong? Am I meant to kill it?

Don't fight him, sprint through the tunnels until you see a wooden portal you can enter. Once through fix the lift and your alien friend will come to you.

Oh yeah, that was really cheesy...I forgot about the mission to find the herbal supplement. It gets better after that.

Yeah really enjoyed EP 2, thought it had better game play elements then the last episode, and playing through it a second time with the commentary gave some really interesting insights too their design decisions.

Portal though was even better in my opinion. I thought it'd get boring once the novelty wore off, the the story to whole thing plus the way it subtly ties in with the half life story was great. Thoroughly recommend it if you only decided on EP 2 by itself.

please put spoiler warnings in the title or at least in the first post in bold letters!!! thank you! *argh*

im still loading it and want to discover all by myself...please be so kind ;)

Valve will not allow me to buy it.

There is no retail version in the shops - so I am currently snookered.

Portal is a must have in the half life collection, specially to get the training with the handheld portal device and to have an idea how Aperture Science thinks and what they are. It's funny when you look at the white turrets and you remember how the cyclopes combines look, the white ones... The similarities.

And that AI voice, and the song at the end, LOL!!! Some people think Portal only has 19 levels (test chambers). But they are mislead because you have to escape the last one, and you're maybe 1/2 or 2/3 in the game (depending on how fast you are with handling the device).

I really enjoyed EP2 thoe :D

A little off topic but since you guys have the new stuff. Does the new engine allow for large outdoor areas? (like the Battlefield series of games). It was listed as a feature they were working on but I have not seen any mention of it for over a year.

I will say this: I was laughing at the ending.

How impressed am I that Valve accept PayPal? Very!

I can see me spending a lot of money on games over the course of the next few weeks :)

http://www.aperturescience.com/

(Hint: At the beginning, type login, and use any username with the password "p*****")

EDIT: password edited to satisfy H&K

details here: http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?t=112648

And here: http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=EPpVf2Iql2A

@33
1) This link has already been posted
2) Why spoil the beggining. I typed "****" (as dos users are apt to) and not knowing to type ******* is part of the fun

H&K, what makes you think there's only an application form on that site anyway? And I don't see you link. I don't think I did spoil anything really.

You really have to play the game to get the idea anyhow.

I was trying to get you to limet information/hints, and gave no indication at all what happens.

My point is, if you tell people what to type right at the beggining, they are going to miss some of the "Fun" of getting the responces for typeing the wrong thing, and more importantly are not going to type anything else.

Could you concider editing your post to remove the "Hint"

I didnt link, it was on one of the other "Orange Box"/"Episode 2 " threads

Ah, that's the web site. I noticed a username / password written on a wall in Portal. I wonder if it will give me anything there...

You know I can't get that aperature science website to work at all, in either firefox or IE. I enter the passwords people tell me to enter at the prompt, and hit enter and nothing loads.

Aha, indeed, it is something!

*Spoilerish*

In one of the secret rooms, you can find a user-name / password written on the wall. It's near the bottom, beside "trust me". Hard to miss.
Use that in aperturescience.com, and you log in as Administrator!
You'll notice a new program to run, which is quite enlightening...

Not really, as it was the first word I was moaning about. Pointing out that other stuff can happen if that first word is a different one. But who is going to find out, now that you have told them they need to type it.

Don´t you just love Steam? I'm trying to buy it with an american credit card from the United Nations Federal Credit Union, but since I am in Germany and using a German Internet provider, Steam tells me that I cannot purchase EP2 in my region...

Good thing that Amazon.co.uk is not so picky about me being a German customer.

I hope that your clever workaround doesn't come back to bite you in the ass...

I thought I read once that even if someone else buys the game for you or you import a steam game to a country like germany where it's banned, it won't let you authenticate/login.

I suppose the low ammount of posts is because everyone is coding ;)
... Or playing a game from Valve's Orange box?

I thought it was really great - *seemed* to last longer than Episode 1.

I was most pleased.

Not much new media to steal - I quite like the new car though.

Finished ep2 and Portal in less than two days. Ep2 was longer and better than ep1, but I was still put down by its length. HL2 took me 14 hours to complete and ep2 only 5. Portal was very exceptional, but I wanted more challenging puzzles.

Was this worth the money? Possibly. Depends on how much fun TF2 brings me. I tried it for few hours and totally sucked (I sucked vs. other players). It probably becomes more fun when I get better at it.

Now that the Orange box has been 'taken care of', I can get back to coding my project. :)

"green alien guys"?!??!! SHOW RESPECT TO THE VORTIGAUNTS!!


I LOVED the ending of portal, it was filarious!
The end of EP2 sucked :( at least they got in plot developement, I wanted

SPOILER KINDA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
alyx to die :( seriously, how do you survive getting stabbed 3 times(probably injected with poison) beaten, kicked, and trampled by a hunter?? Did the vortigaunt maintain her when he was carrying her? was that his lame excuse for not owning those antlions and zombies??

By being the lead character's assistant, guide and love interest, all in one. They'd dig themselves a huge hole if they killed her.

I think we should all play it again. I shall lead the way.

This time I won't play it on Easy difficulty with Godmode activated. I'll deactivate Godmode.

Shes not my love interest. I hate her.
"Take the tunnel to Ravenholme Gorden"
"Take the Coast road to Nova Whatever Gorden"
"Go and get shot at minding my robot-Dog Gorden"
"Lets go the Long way round to help the civilians escape Gorden"
"Lets take the next train Gorden"

I like Judith.
"Lets get you out of that suit"

I hate alyx, mainly for ravenholm and driving to nova prospekt. Dog should be in her place, dog OWNZ

Re My last post
In fact I like Mona Sax best. And she gets here kit off, but shes not in Half-life