A series of Half Life series questions!

Hi!

I have never played any of the Half Life games, and I am interested in playing them now. But I have a few questions, plese help me out!


1) Can my notebook (specifications in my signature) play the latest Half Life game on high settings?


2) How many games of Half Life have been here? HL1, HL2, HL2 E1, HL2 E2? Is it right?


3) I don't want to buy The Orange Box, can I buy these games separately (I only need the latest one (HL2, HL2 E1, HL2 E3). I don't want anything to do with Steam or the Internet login and ****, is it possible?


4) Do they work on Windows Vista ?


5) Are the stories of the games inter-related to each other? I men would I have to playall the games to know what is going in HL2?


Thank you!

 

1) Yes, it should handle them all fine at your native res.

2) Yes, and possibly Blue Shift, a small expansion to HL1. Then there are the endless multiplayer mods for HL1 and HL2, including the always popular CS and CS:Source.

3) Yes, you can buy them separately (although it's definately not the most economical way). And no, sorry, but you MUST use Steam for all Valve (the kind people that make HL) games.

4) Yup, Vista is no problem.

5) HL2 picks up where HL1 left off, but you wouldn't really be lost just jumping right into HL2. I have many friends that never played HL1 and they jumped in just fine. I've been a HL fan since its long ago introduction though. But yeah, shouldn't be a problem; they're all very consumer-friendly games without high learning curves.

Hope this help!

 

Thank you blueblurr!

So if I get it right, I have to install Steam (no problems with me), login (no problems with me) and activate my games, once (per install)? Or do I have to login et al every time I need to play a game?

Can't I just go buy a DVD, install the game, and play, like normal games? Or maybe enter a 25 digit code that comes on the DVD in their website, and they mark me in? Or something like that? What's the procedure with Steam anyways?


I've repped you!

 

Once you log in and activate your games you are good to go. You will need to run the steam program to play but you can play in "offline" mode and don't have to worry about an internet connection all the time. You may need to start the game once while connected but I am not 100% sure about that. I think my work internet was interfering with steam and it didn't want to play nice.

 

You turn on steam... you log on... you do whatever it allows you to do in it (friends, games, demos, news etc...)

And I have a tiny problem... when I go on steam... and logon when im offline... and click "Go Offline" it tries to connect and then says "Not connected to the internet" So WHATS THE POINT OF GOING OFFLINE

 

So I can't play while I am in a place where my notebook is not connected to Internet?

 

YES YOU CAN!!!!

Just mine doesnt want to start... since it says "No internet connection" lol

I always play at non internet places... just now its acting weird... well.... I got a SLOW computer...

You should play all Half Life games... just by playing the latest one you wont really get it all

 

If I were you, I'd just buy the orange box. It comes with Half Life 2, HL2: Episode 1 and HL2: Episode 2 (and two others, Portal is very fun while it lasts), all for the price of a single game.

 

I really like steam, it is like having a No-CD crack for all of your favorite games in addition to completely removing the need to keep track of your physical game disks.

Once you first install your games with the disk and log into steam with them, they will be forever tied to your account. That means that wherever you are you can access your account, download the games you own (tied to your account) and play them anywhere!

You never need to find your disks, just open up steam and your account will show all of the games you own. You can simply download the game direct to your hard drive instead of popping in the disk if you prefer. I lose track of my disks all of the time, so this is incredibly useful.

Also, once the games have been activated ONCE, you never need to have Internet access again to play your games. Steam has an "Offline Mode" that lets you play all of your installed games without an Internet connection.

I just played HL2:EP2 again on the airplane. It was much fun. ^_^

 

Buy the Orange box.
Getting all the Half-Life games for the price of one is a pretty good deal. (Not sure if you get HL1, actually, but even so...)
You have to use Steam no matter what, and you have to activate the games online using Steam. Once that is done, you can play them in offline mode (through Steam)
And you can buy Orange Box as a, well, physical box (with DVD and all), you don't have to buy it online through Steam.

Yep, it's the same storyline, but Valve never really answers all the questions, so I suppose the main difference is that if you skip the first games, you'll have fewer questions about what's going on in the last ones...
It's definitely worth it to play them all though.

Until you forget your password, or dare to play your games in the wrong geographic region, causing Valve to ban you, yes.

 

What if I own 2 laptops... And Log onto my steam on both it will DL the games I own right?

What do you mean about wrong geographical region?!

 

The Moon
Seriousely, if you plan to play the Half Life hames, start with HALF LIFE1 , then play :
- HALF LIFE Blue Shift and Opposing Force ( there was a cd or dvd with these 3,Blue Box or something) to get the idea WHAT IS BLACK MESA, then
- Half Life2 ,
- Half Life 2 Episode 1,
- Half Life 2 Episode 2.
The last 3 are found in the DVD called ORANGE BOX (50$ for 5 games , these 3 plus Team Fortress2 and Portal)
Then you will know all about Gordon Freeman , G-Man and the handy dandy crowbar. gotta love`it

 

Yep. You probably won't be able to run it on both simultaneously (Steam will probably disconnect on one of them in that case), but as long as it's one at a time, you won't have any problems.

When the Orange Box came out, Valve decided to ban a bunch of accounts owned by Americans who imported the game from Singapore or something.... Because apparently they weren't supposed to buy the game anywhere else... So much for the awesome freedom Steam offers.

Those kinda suck. Play them if you're addicted to the Half-Life universe, but you won't miss anything by skipping them. I enjoyed playing them, but that was 7 years ago or something. They're not as good as "real" Half-Life games. (these two weren't made by Valve)

 

But they are part of the Half Life series, which he wants to play. Those 2 games give you the perspective of the guard and the soldier ,in regards to Black Mesa. Hell yeah, I`m a Half Life fan, played all games released, and played over 100 different mods of HL1

 

want a cookie?

 

Which mod was the best?

 

Well... how did they know they bought it in singapore?!

Does this mean If I go to another country and log-on to play they will ban me? Or if I register a German or French etc... game to my account? I travel allot so this doesnt sound good to me if Im buying orange box =/ My friends are planning on giving me some games from Europe... =/ Such as Bioshock etc...

What If I have Bioshock registered to my laptop... and my steam doesnt work (like now... it wont go on Offline mode when theres no internet) Can I still just shove the CD in and play?

 

I would not be able to say which was the best, I`d have to say that the mod that was really interesting for me was Conundrum I and II ... they had interesting puzzles and all, but then again, I`ve played so many of them that I don`t even remember the names. I do have the cds with all the downloaded mods somewhere in a box

 

Wasnt there one called Disturbia or Cyber something?

Image the graphics and physics etc... of HALF LIFE 3... WOW

 

Half Life 3 is just a dream. Half Life 2 episode 3,and the last is still far far away.
I don`t want to imagine a game that would not run well on my system, and damn,it is one heck of a laptop and already games like Crysis and Unreal 3 bring it to its knees...
Good thing Half life has so many mods,keeps me busy

 

Bought it online, from a Singaporean website.

Probably not. (They've only done it this one time, as far as I know. And lots of people travel, so if they did this routinely, a lot of people would have kicked up a fuss about it)
But it means you can't be sure.
Isn't Steam nice?

 

There will be no half life 3 according to valve. Unless they are pulling our legs.

 

From what I heard, HL2 Ep1-3 are basically what would otherwise have been HL3.

 

1) Can my notebook (specifications in my signature) play the latest Half Life game on high settings?

Your laptop will handle it perfectly at 1440x900 with all the settings up and some anti aliasing and aniso filtering. It will look really really good.

2) How many games of Half Life have been here? HL1, HL2, HL2 E1, HL2 E2? Is it right?

5) Are the stories of the games inter-related to each other? I men would I have to playall the games to know what is going in HL2?

The main series and story line following Gordon Freeman goes exactly like you guessed. Blue Shift, Opposing Force (half life 1 games) and the new game Portal (half life 2 engine) all tie in to the story from the perspective of other characters. I would play HL1 through HL2 episode 2 in order for things to make the most sense. The other three games can be played at any time and won't disrupt the story line.

3) I don't want to buy The Orange Box, can I buy these games separately (I only need the latest one (HL2, HL2 E1, HL2 E3). I don't want anything to do with Steam or the Internet login and ****, is it possible?

You can buy the games separately, but it will be much more expensive than buying the orange box. The orange box is an excellent deal. Either way, I would start with HL2 and not HL2 episode 2.

Several years ago, steam had some serious growing pains. **** went down. At this point, steam is more a godsend than anything else, especially for mobile PC's, mostly because you don't need the disk. At this point, you install steam, you will need to login once and connect to the internet. After that, you can always launch the game without an internet connection. Your games will be patched automatically, and if you lose the disks, you can always login to your steam account and download the games again. Your games are tied to your account and not your computer, so reinstalling windows or changing computers or whatever is no big deal. Its a better alternative to disks. Really. AFAIK, the retail bioshock allows like 5 installs total, which is BS. The steam bioshock is just another steam game. Rock on, steam.

4) Do they work on Windows Vista ?

They do work on vista, just fine.

 

DUH me... yeah... so we wouldnt have to wait all the time... just like the giant time space when HL2 came out... how many years after HL1 ?

 

Singaporean? Is that a word ?

Well... I have logged on to my steam account in France, Germany, Holland and USA right now... I will test Africa, Beijing, Shanghai in the next year

I am sure it will work... anybody know why my steam wont turn on when im not connected to the internet? example:

I shut of steam, turn the internet switch on off or just not connect to the network... and turn on steam... says no internet... I press go offline... it says no internet connection... A DUH!!!!

 

Beatsiz, please use the EDIT function as you tend to overpost consequently.

 

It is when I use it!

Yeah, I'm guessing that it's only "special" licenses being sold in piracy-heavy parts of Asia, that have this kind of restrictions. Games bought in the rest of the world will probably be fine anywhere...

But there we go again, with the "probably". There's no guarantee, and it does highlight the fact that Valve can switch off your games any time they like.

 

HAH! VALVE = TAKERS!!!

Givers, keepers... takers, stealers HAAA LAWSUIT B*TCH!!! just kidding

So I guess I wont "probably" have "probable" reasons of "probably" losing my games by "probably" logging on to my steam account

 

Silly steam and their subscriptions.

 

Steam doesn't have subscriptions.

 

so you can launch steam games in steam without internet??
because it never happened and it always need internet connection to log on and play the game ...

 

In order to get around some law somewhere, games you buy off steam are subscriptions, you only pay once though.

 

It's the uncertainty principle!

 

Singaporean is a word, 4 million plus people from the country can easily confirm it for you. People like Beatsiz with a limited world view and lousy grammar wouldn't be aware of it though.

SE Asia is somewhat rife with software piracy so that might be a reason why the restriction exists. I don't use Steam myself but I've never liked the idea of online verification even on legitimate copies. Another take could be that Valve is trying to stop travel-savvy consumers from paying less than the "rightful" price that they expect to earn.

 

Limited world view...

I am multinational, trilingual, my family lives all over the world, I travel all the time, I have been to over 130 cities in over 22 countries and all continents but australia...

You underestimate me Harley

Anywways... So am I the only one with problems when connecting to steam when I have no internet connection... even though theres an offline mode... It works when im online and then go offline... but if I restart and try offline it wont work.

 

Back to the issue though, Half-life 2 is just amazing. Recently i decided to play once more and im still amazed by the quality. Somehow the game still looks amazing, even though the textures are starting to look a bit low res. Ill have to admit that i havent played a single fps that comes to close quality-wise yet, even top of the line games like FEAR or RS: Vegas, but close in second comes Bioshock and the call of duty series. HL:2 is definitely a classic and one ill be playing for the coming 10 years...

 

How about...

C
R
Y
S
I
S

It beats it definitaly... but HL2 is still just amazing how it runs well on low end cards and looks better and runs WAY better than current games

 

Crysis is nowhere close to HL2. THe Half Life 2 like the original is legendary in video game history.

 

Well, I haven't played Crysis yet, but from what I've seen, no. It doesn't beat HL2 graphically.
Sure, technically it's impressive. As a graphics programmer, I find it amazing what they've achieved.

But it still doesn't look as sweet as HL2. It doesn't have the same style and atmosphere, the same artistic direction. Artistically, HL2 is far more impressive.

I can't judge the gameplay, but I find it very unlikely that Crysis should beat HL2 in that area.

 

Not much point arguing with the resident troll who is slavishly devoted to being a Crysis fanboy, anything else to his ADD mind isn't processed and is ignored no matter how well intentioned or well informed.

 

^ Ignored

Well... are you guys saying that Crysis doesnt look better than HL2 graphically?

I believe it does... but yeah HL2 has WAY more story and originality to it... its almost like your in the game ... lol they should remake a new one with Dx10... it would look AMAZING

 

amazing based on wha?so many assumptions from nothing,have you even played Cysis on both Dx10 and Dx9 to see the difference?

I`m willing to bet HL Ep 3 will have Dx10 support. Since it`s still a loooong time before it will be released.

As a good friend of mine said while being constipated,Beatsiz, cut the crap

 

^ Agree about HL EP 3 comment. HL EP 3 will probably be as visually appealing as crysis but the difference being it will be SCALABLE. Hopefully we should see it in a year or by the summer of 09.

 

Yeah EP3 will definitaly be amazing...

But... What do yo mean by Scallable? Isnt Crysis scallable? I know it is... but I think that it should have preset settings for scalling... since Medium and High have a hure difference

 

Thanks for that. I feel better now that I'm not the only one completely annoyed by a certain user's inane posts.

Scalable: Having a game that can run on a huge range of hardware and is easy to adjust for image quality, unlike Crysis where the minimum settings are essentially out of range for the mainstream casual gamer and where command line shortcut editing is required. For the Forerunner and FPS fans' sakes I hope he is right, lately system reqs for games have been absolutely ridiculous and it would be refreshing to see a game that's able to look good and run on a modestly equipped laptop.

 

Yes. ThatS what I'm saying.

Like I said, from a technological point of view (and as someone with a big interest in graphics programming), Crysis looks amazing, far more amazing than HL2.

But from the point of view of a gamer, from someone who doesn't care about shaders or HDR or postprocessing effects... From someone who just wants stuff to look nice as a whole, to create an atmosphere that just works with the rest of the game, that looks convincing, HL2 wins.

HL2 looks better from an artistic point of view IMO. HL2 really portrays the world they want to show so effectively. You don't think "oo, that's a nice tree, ooo, look at the leaves move", you don't *notice* individual shader effects, because the graphics as a whole just *works*. That's what I find amazing about HL2 and a few other games. Not the technical side, but the artistic part. The fact that it *works* that it looks good despite being a bit dated. There are even some games from the late 90's that still look great. The polycount sucks, they don't use shaders at all, in some cases they only use 16-bit colors, but they had some kick-ass artists, and they knew exactly what they wanted it to look like. And it just looks good still because of it.

 

If there ever was a game I`d name my kids after, it`d be a certain Gordon ! (and I`d change my name to Freeman to get the whole picture )
Needless to say I`m a HL series freak....

 

Yeah gotcha... true... I fear that they will end Half life after Episode 3