Back in the late summer of 2003, I saw the 27 minute video(part tech demo, part trailer) for HL2. My jaw hit the floor. The upgraded graphics, in comparison to HL1, were significant. But the coolest part, by far, was the integration of physics and the ragdoll models. I eagerly awaited this game, and saw it slip, and slip, until I finally got it near Christmas in 2004.
By the time it hit the streets, I was done with desktop PC’s. I had just made the transition to laptops 6 months before, and had vowed to stop spending money on upgrading PC’s for gaming purposes. While I still had my desktop gaming rig, the cpu and gpu didn’t have enough balls to do the game justice. So I played HL2 on my then-new laptop, an AMD64 3200+ with an nVidia mobile chipset. I couldn’t run at high resolutions, but it played admirably on the laptop. I took plenty of framerate hits; especially the first few moments after a level would load. But I didn’t care; I was playing HL2.
HL2 is my favorite game of all time. Period. And that goes back to the Atari 2600 days(Warlords anyone?). The graphics were gorgeous. The ragdoll effects added a new level of depth to the game. And the physics; man – I know physics “engines” had been included in other games prior to HL2, but HL2 really pulled it off. The physics based puzzles were a blast, and objects had real weight. The inclusion of physics also made the game so random; when something exploded, the explosion would trigger different reactions each time. The game felt so open versus every other game with canned sequences.
Then add on the superb voice acting, the lip syncing, and Valve’s ability to tell a story, and you’ve got an artistic and technical tour de force. The breadth of the game was huge, the vision easily as grand as either The Matrix or LOTR. After playing the game, I became an HL2 advocate. I actually went around telling people how good the game was, and actually bought it for a couple close friends as a gift.
So a year ago when I read that HL2 was being written from the ground-up for both the PS3 and the 360 I was ecstatic. When I originally played HL2, I was marveled by the sound stage presented by the game, and that was only with 2 channels through cheapo headphones. I wanted nothing more than to play the game on my bigscreen and in DD 5.1. My desktop gaming rig even had an Audigy sound card, so it was perfectly capable, at least in the sound department. But because of the aging cpu and gpu, I never got to run it on my big TV and through my stereo. With HL2 coming to the PS3, I would be able to experience it all again, this time in full DD 5.1.
I’ve read all the reviews of the game. I’ve seen all of the framerate and load time controversy. I was really put off. I seriously considered skipping this game. But I just couldn’t help myself. I stopped by EB Games and picked up a copy two days ago. I plopped it in, and I’ve been enjoying the game ever since(at least, when I have the time to play it). Everything is familiar, but not old. I’m enjoying it every bit as much as I did the first time through. And I’m still getting that “wow factor”.
Unfortunately, it does have its problems. First is the load times. The load times during my original playthrough were pretty horrid; that’s what a slow laptop harddrive will do for you. The load times on the PS3 are just as slow. But slow load times aren’t a big deal, by themselves. It’s when you have to face them back-to-back-to-back that they get really frustrating. Allow me to illustrate through an example: you’ve decided to resume your game from a previous saved session. You choose the game from the XMB and wait through all of the startup screens(EA logo, Valve logo, copyright screens, a hard drive warning screen) until finally you get to the root screen. From there you choose your game, HL2 in this case. You immediately go through a loading process while the game loads. Then you choose Load Game, and select the gamesave from which you would like to resume. You now have to wait through a second loading scenario. Finally, the game enters a third loading scenario. I don’t get it. One load to load the game. I understand that. One load to load your gamesave. I get that. But what is the last load for?
Another problem is the framerate. I haven’t played any other module from the Orange Box/PS3 yet, but HL2 does have plenty of framerate issues. Most of the time they’re no big deal. At the beginning of the game, as Gordan is attempting to flee City 17, there are half-second stalls whenever a barrel explodes. Annoying, but they ultimately don’t compromise the game. However, I have run into one pause that did piss me off. I was driving the fanboat, and after a load screen, the game just went to crap. It must have been 2 to 3 frames per second, max. And it lasted for at least 20 seconds. I had seen this same scenario on videos online, so I was expecting it. But unlike the players in the videos, I didn’t attempt to play through this particular problem. I just sat there, took my hands off the controller, and pretended it was a longer loading screen. After it finished doing whatever the hell it was doing, everything returned to normal. Fortunately, that’s the only major hiccup I have yet to experience. However, I’m not very far into the game.
The last issue is a huge disappointment: no Dolby Digital 5.1! Was any one aware of this missing feature? I know I wasn’t. I didn’t see it in the IGN review, nor any other online review that I could find. That’s a collective miss by the gaming press(much like Guitar Hero 3). I swear – I’m starting to think the gaming press is just worthless. Regardless, I was extremely disappointed with the missing DD 5.1. When I first started the game(you know, after about 10 minutes of splash screens and load screens), I saw my receiver slip in to PLII mode. I was stunned. So I backed out of the game and made sure DD5.1 was enabled, and it was. I popped out the HL2 disc, put in an old Babylon 5 DVD, and confirmed that DD 5.1 had not randomly stopped working. So I put HL2 back in, waited another 10 minutes to start the game, again, and confirmed that only PLII was supported.
Imagine my chagrin. The only thing I missed from my original HL2 experience was playing it on my home entertainment system. Now was the chance, and there’s no DD5.1. PLII does a decent job of voice positioning, but I get almost nothing from the rear channel. If something is sourced from behind Gordan’s POV, then it comes through the front channels. I am extremely disappointed.
Regardless of the missing 5.1, the sound fidelity is still amazing, as is the sound stage. The stage, when the POV is properly facing forward, had real depth, and the ambient music really adds to the environment. The sound effects are top-notch, and last night I found myself turning down the volume on my receiver for fear of pissing off the wife. The gunshots from the pistol have a nice bass punch through the subwoofer, and the SMG has a perfect metallic “ting” to the shells as the gun fires. And the best part, so far at least, has to be Ravenholm. This was my favorite stage the first time I played the game, but now with the stereo turned up, the zombie screams are just too good. When they are flailing around after they catch fire, or when the ravens fly by, what have you, this is the best sounding section of gaming that I have ever experienced.
Many of the reviews for the OB have concluded that PS3 owners should pick it up only if they had not yet played HL2, and if they did now have another platform available. I don’t know what issues the rest of the game and its attendant episodes may present, but I haven’t encountered anything large enough for me to discourage owning this package. I say, if you have a ps3, pick it up. Even if you’ve played it before; even if you don’t like Gabe Newell, you owe it to yourself to play this game.
This game is “properly” 4 years old(counting the original delays), and it’s still as good as any game released since then. The textures may be flat and dull, and the character models don’t compare well to more modern games(try Drake in Uncharted). But the core game is still a better complete package, and more fun, than anything I’ve played since. On any platform.
