GREAT GAME. Now, on to the nits:

When you first encounter the tentacle, it darts through a window and impales a scientist that has flattened himself against the back wall. However, when you enter the room, it cannot reach you! You can scoot up to the window, jump up and down, fire off a few shotgun rounds, smash things with a crowbar, but it doesn't come close! Weird. ;)

When you reload the pistol, you remove the clip and insert a new one... yet any bullets still in the gun remain! (You can tell because your "reserve ammo" meter doesn't always go down by a whole clip amount.)

This is undoubtedly one the best games of all time. Eat your heart out Doom.

Actualy, many of these games don't make sense.
Howcome a rocket launcher can't break wooden objects? :)

I've thought of getting this series. I saw a 3-pack set I might get but I may be running out of space on my measly little 8gig HD. When I installed System Shock 2 (my new SS2 board) the other day my puter said I had 1,600+ mb left, and the game's full install (which I did) was 505mb. I may reinstall the 300+ version instead.

Well, I went ahead and got the Half-Life Adrenaline Pack, which I'll install after I uninstall some games I don't play much or at all (I'll reinstall them later when I wanna play them). I also got Unreal Tournament, and can't wait to play it and Half-Life.

I installed this game but it looks awful! Huge polygons make everything very blocky looking and it's very annoying. Maybe I've just got to reset my options.

I recently bought this game I wanted to be able to play TFC with some friends and heard all the hype about HL.

All I can say is that I don't see why people think this game is so great? I mean basically it's the kind of game where an average game goes like this a) load up , b) Play for a bit c) Die d) try again e) Die (repeat d and e 5 or 6 times) , f) finally get past it because of some sort of fluke of luck g) go back to b

Also I found that the peoples voices were extremely difficult to hear, I don't have this problem with any other game with voices.

The graphics were good, and If I remember correctly this game is 2-3 years old so back then they would have been great but the sound was only average (I have a sound blaster live! Xgamer so it's not my sound card)

So all in all I found the game to be good, but certainly not worth all the hype, IMO no better then Quake 2, and much more frustrating.

And what is with the computer voice in the game? It is awful! (not the suit's voice the one you hear occasionally over speakers and the same one from TFC that's says 'you captured the enemy flag' etc.

So I don't know, perhaps I have been spoiled by games like Deus Ex and Elite Force, and as a result have much higher standards now then I would have had 2-3 years ago, if I had bought HL then when it first came out I guess I would have enjoyed it much more.
I don't know

First of all, the graphics are good, but they can be extremely good with the right 3D cards and resolution. The sound problems I too have noticed, but I think the solution lies not in them not making it good enough, but trying too hard. The sound is so 3D that when you turn to face the wall while speaking to someone, the voice comes out of the ear nearest him only. This was a noticeable feature of Voyager Elite Force, and I suggest you could fiddle around with the 3D sound options if it troubles you that much, although I have always been able to hear what is said.

As for the gameplay, I thought it was great fun. The whole point of the game is that you are traped in a hell hole and will have to shoot your way out of there. I don't know quite what you expected, but that is what pretty much all first person shooters are about. What makes Half Life so •••• good is the AI of the aliens, the tremendous tension of it all, the way it requires intelligence, such as finding the right angle from which to fire at the automated gun, the fact that you can make moral choices, such as killing a virtually useless partner guard in order to steal his ammunition, the way it runs so smoothly and you actually feel you are firing the gun not pressing a keyboard (something I hate about Quake 3), and the fact that when it is difficult it is difficult for a good reason, ie. you are facing five vicious aliens, rather than the controls are impossible to work properly and aim with (Star Trek Klingon Honour Guard is a good example of that).

If you want a more Deus Ex style game I would recommend Messiah, which is very cheap over here at the moment. I got it today and I am very impressed. You basically play an angel sent down to Earth by God to wipe out all the people he wants rid of. You need to be very stealthy, and you must possess characters to keep the game going. It has lots of complex ideas and you need to think carefully about what you are doing. It is very much like an action-adventure game really, but I am really enjoying it. It is certainly well worth a look. One word of warning: it is VERY difficult.

Peter.

I bought messiah when it first came out, and yes it is very good.

In Elite Force, I could always hear the characters voices just mine, but in HL even when in right on top of them they seem whisper like quiet.

I finally got around to trying this game, despite my earlier complaints and I think it's very fun. My biggest problem was The Blast Pit, with the tentacles. At first I thought they were a 3-headed monster and that the barnacles were called the tentacles, till I found out otherwise later. Silly me. I do need a new graphics card but I'm not sure if I want to upgrade this system or just wait till I can get a newer, faster one with a better card. I also noticed the sound problems like you guys described but didn't really think much of them.

Did anyone notice this? In the "On A Rail" level, at one point when you drive the train a grunt drives another one on the next track. When you go to the end of your track (it turns just to the right and ends almost immediately), and down that ladder and finish doing what you do down there and then come back to where the grunt drove the other train, then if you look down that tunnel and you don't go too far onto the track you can see the grunt pointing his gun at you but he doesn't acknowledge your presence so it's easy to take him out, like I did with my crossbow's sniper mode. I love using those explosive arrowheads on grunts and watching the gibs fly! And listening to them moaning in pain. Call me sick but hey, they're only fictional characters. The crossbow's also great for taking out sentry guns without setting the others off, and for taking out grunts with the rocket launchers, if you can aim just right, although it may take a few tries. And what exactly was that giant monster in the tunnel when you first get on the train? Was it a robot? I wasn't sure with my lousy graphics card.

Has anyone played Counter-Strike? How is it? I got it but haven't tried it yet. It looks like fun. One thing that bummed me out the other night was I went to Wally World (Wal-Mart) and they had CS for only about $20, which I thought was great cuz it was $10 less than I'd first seen it elsewhere. I'd gotten the Adrenaline Pack some months ago at Wally World for $50, which I thought was pretty good. Well, when I went there the other night they had that new Platinum pack with now all FOUR HL games, and for only $58! Imagine my surpise and anger. Had I only waited. With the Andrenaline Pack and CS I paid what I'd seen them for at Fry's or Best Buy ($70) last November, and I swore I'd never pay that. Well, now I did. *sigh* Oh, well. Live and learn, I guess.

I've been playing TFC and CS multiplayer, mostly the latter. It's pretty cool, but I die a lot. I'm slowly learning but my biggest problem is being disconnected, especially right in the middle of a game and I've got several dollars! Oh, well. Who else plays one or both of these games in multiplayer?

There's a new addition to this game, called Half-Life: Blue Shift. It's got greatly improved graphics, especially with the characters, and you play as Barney, one of the security guards.

Blue Shift has been out on the Dr**mc*st for quite a while now - it's about time the PC got it.

I'd never heard of it till I saw the story on it.

I played it before, finished it, playing both endings, then uninstalled it. I've reinstalled it now, and upgraded to the 1106 patch but I had problems with the game. I couldn't play it at all cuz as the opening cinematic was running and got to just before you pull up to that platform where Barney lets you out and into the Black Mesa facility it'd freeze up! So after a few tries I just re-uninstalled it, then re-reinstalled it but with only the 1104 patch, and so far it runs just fine. Last time I played it I got to where you push that cart up to the tram car, hop into the car and then make it move forward, where it goes right to the left, then up an elevator. Then I'd get some message about it being unable to load up monsters or whatever it was exactly, so I had no choice but to use cheats to get my HEV suit, full health, weapons and ammo and to find the map I was at, then to load up the exact next map, so that the tram went on its merry way and I was able to finish the game with no other problems. I'd like to try the 1106 patch again but am afraid that it might mess up again and I'd have to start all over again, which I don't wanna do. I'm about to go into the meat locker towards the end of the "Office Complex" level.

One good thing I found out about this game (shipping on June 12) is that its improved graphics will also upgrade those of HL, OpFor, TFC and CS, so you can play those games over again with the new and improved looks of the characters and weapons.

One bad thing I also learned is that it's not as long as OpFor and comes bundled with that game, which most people who like HL probably already have. The creators said that it was for those who haven't got OF yet. If you already have all the previous HL games then BS's $35 cost will be too much for you. If not then you'll be more accepting of the cost, cuz you get two games for a low price. It's also $5 cheaper on Amazon, so shop around first, though that's probably about the cheapest you'll find it for, for now. Me, I'll wait for it at Costco or Wal-Mart if it's $30 or cheaper.

Read about it on EBGames.com.

BTW, within the next month, if that, I'll be getting a new Dell for gaming! Can't wait! I haven't ordered one yet but I hope to soon.

Well, Half-Life: Blue Shift is now on sale. K-Mart's got it for $30 with a $10 rebate, but I might wait awhile to get it when the price comes down some more. Just not sure exactly how long that'll be. I may just give in to temptation and go for it. Has anyone else tried it yet (not that I really expect an immediate answer, since hardly anyone posts here anyway)?

Here's an interesting story at The Adrenaline Vault. Seems like some idiot killed an abortion clinic security guard in Australia and this game is being blamed for it by the Australian Security Industry Association (ASIA) cuz one part of the game is to kill security guards for their guns and ammo, which isn't really a bad thing, when you see how useless some of them are, other than for their ammo.

How does the game run on a Geforce 2 MX?

I used to have the original Half Life and at that time had a Voodoo 3 3000 and the 3d graphics rarely worked. I don't know why though.

I eventually traded it in.

With the new Generations pack with HL, Opfor, TFC, CS, and Blue Shift coming out I might consider getting it if it will run on a Geforce 2 MX fine.

It runs fantastic on a GeForce 2 MX. I am able to play better than 60 fps (around 80 or so) with 2x anti aliasing and 32-bit color at 800x600. Keep in mind my GF2MX is a PCI type, so if you are getting an AGP type it will definitely run better. I just wish Quake 2 ran as well as Half Life does.

Doom3 vs Half-Life2

I was playing Half Life episode 2 and the voice of the Vortigant sounded very familiar to me, I kept thinking Klingon. Turns out that Tony Todd does the voice of the character. Always interesting when that happens.