Half Life 2

This post is pretty much for all the gamers out there...after having the dust settled on what has probably been the most anticipated release of a video game ever...I'm here to give you my 2 cents on the game as pretty much every1 else has.

Half Life 2 is the continuation so to speak of Half Life 1 but it's not like you had to have played Half Life 1 to kno wats going on in the sequel becuz you don't. Ok let's get right into it. First off To any1 who has purchased the 5 CD game, we all know that you have to have an online account with "Steam" in order to play the game. So far what alot of people have experienced is that their CD key is not good when entered causing a whole slew of problems. If you go to Forums and posts the list of problems people have had with their accounts have been endless. Most can't get the game going right from the install process. I must say that I have been pretty lucky in this regard (seemingly a very rare occurence). My game installed flawlessly. Mind you I bought the game about 2 months after it's release and the server overload problem people were experiencing in the beginning hasn't been much of an issue for me.

The thing is you can play this game offline...contrary to popular belief that you can not. The first time the game loads you need to be online for Steam to verify that you are the only user of the game. After the first connection tho...you can play offline afterwards. How? The easiest way to do it is to simply unplug your internet connection. Simply Unplug the ethernet wire running into your modem. If you do not...Steam tries to connect to your computer and update it's account and until it's done (freezes multiple times), you can't play the game. So to bypass this simply disconnect yourself from the internet. The game loads alot quicker this way.

So far I'm about 15% into the game...so no i haven't finished it. The way I play my games are with the offical game guides in hand guiding me throo every step of the game...Prima's Game guides are absolutely the best in this realm. Also I have God mode enabled in the cheats (i will get to this at the end). I do this simply becuz I like to try various things and experiment 2 the fullest without having to deal with death of my character before I could master how to shoot an enemy. Anyway the game play is exceptional. Valve (the makers of Half-Life 1 and 2) did an amazing job with the game play and with the graphics...just about every reviewer out there will give this game a 9 out of 10...5 out of 5 stars...95% score or a Perfect score...Altho I haven't played the game to the end yet...so far...it's amazing!

Pet Peeves...

While you will read plenty of reviews of why this game is so great...I have to let you kno sum of things Valve can improve on which seemigly bugged me and alot of others frum wat i have read...

#1 No game guide packaged with the 5 cds...after 6 years of development and a hefty $60 Cdn price tag for the game...you would think they can include a 15 page game guide showing u the movements...a quick storyline...etc but instead all u get is a flimsy cardboard insert breiefly outlining a few things and that's it. I want a small booklet...add a buk to the price and fricken include 1!

#2 Altho I was lucky enuff to have a smooth install...thousands upon thousands of gamers weren't so lucky. The online verification process sux...not 2 mention the fact that once u install the game once...that's it...u can't install it again. So if u want to reformat ur drive or add it to a 2nd computer...u can't. As soon as u use ur CD key once...u can never use it again...ever!. If you attempt to...Steam will cancel ur CD key rendering it useless. If you u want to reinstall the game again...u have to contact Steam and for a fee...i think it's $15...they reissue you a new 1. Major pain in the Ass! I realize Valve claims to have developed a full proof system to eliminate pirating of its software...but in the process developed a system that has caused so many headaches...i think it has lost more business due to frustration than it would have lost with copyied software.

#3 From wat i have read...cuz i haven't witenessed yet...the ending is rather short and leaves the door open for Half-Life 3...which duzn't surprise me...but my peeve is...after spending X amount of hours playing a game...I like a long cinematic ending. To me it's like the candy 4 a job well done. I luv the long endings where I can just sit back and enjoy what I've taken days and or weeks to complete...frum wat i've read...that's not the case with Half-Life 2.

Ok so that's pretty much it for My review of Half-Life 2...bellow are the cheats for the game and on how to enable them:

Cheats for Half-Life 2

The 1st thing u do after installing the game...is go to the desktop short cut to the game...right click on the short cut...goto properties...and replace the target line with:

"C:\Program Files\Valve\Steam\Steam.exe" -console

Next...start the game...press shift key and the ~ key to bring up the console

then type: sv_cheats 1

then type any of the following cheat codes to get the desired effect

press the shift key and ~ key to get out of console mode and to the game...enjoy


actually just click on this link for the complete list:

http://www.cheats.ru/english/pc/h/halflife2/cheats.php