Half-Life 2 is out!!!

[Solver]

Yeah, no objections here either to maybe an alternative route every now and then, but again, in a shooter I don't want to be able to choose a path where I go by stealth and don't need to shoot. That's what Hitman-style games are for, where you decide how you want to play it.

Non-linearity would be a nightmare for me, I'm known for getting lost easily... HL2 puzzles were excellent though.

[Kassiopeia]

in a shooter I don't want to be able to choose a path where I go by stealth and don't need to shoot. That's what Hitman-style games are for, where you decide how you want to play it.

Right, good point. Deus Ex was a poor example since it's not a strict FPS.

[Solver]

Yeah, there are people who would go as far as to say that Deus Ex is more of a RPG than a FPS.

[DrSpike]

Well it's a hybrid, more FPS than RPG.

For pure FPS non-linearity is almost always inappropriate. The Far Cry approach annoyed me more than impressed me, though the game is decent.

[Ned]

Well, to each his own. I played Halo and Doom III just once and had no desire to play them again for any reason. I played the initial non linear Doom countless times. Ditto Deus Ex and Far Cry.

Half Life had the same linearity to it. What made Half Life really good, though, was its multiplayer mode.

BTW, my favorite game out there right now is not Far Cry, but Jedi Academy. Now that is a game! Those lightsaber battles are really fun.

[Nostromo]

I just saw a review of HL2. Man, this game looks sweet! But the critic complained about the stuttering and the loading screens. It seems HL2 is loading screen city.

[Ned]

Originally posted by nostromo
I just saw a review of HL2. Man, this game looks sweet! But the critic complained about the stuttering and the loading screens. It seems HL2 is loading screen city.

It plays a lot like Deus Ex II, with very small maps with significant loads as you transition from one small area to another.

[Nostromo]

Fortunately, it looks a lot better than Deus Ex 2. But loading screens suck. Poor design decision.

[Ned]

Originally posted by nostromo
Fortunately, it looks a lot better than Deus Ex 2. But loading screens suck. Poor design decision.

Most people who seem to know something about programming for the Xbox say that small maps are necessary for running on that platform. Thus, games that are designed for both PC and the Xbox have small maps, even though the games could have been designed with gigantic maps like Far Cry or Deus Ex I if they were designed only for the PC.

I wish game reviewers would note this in their reviews so that we PC owners can simply not buy XBOX games. They inevitably are major disappointments when compared to the likes of Far Cry.

[Nostromo]

What I like about Halo 2, for example, are the loading screens, which are rare and barely noticeable. (Or maybe they seem rare because they are barely noticeable.) So you're never taken out of the action with a loading screen. The size of a map isn't important if the transition from one map to the other is seemless. Btw, I don't think Valve made compromises for the Xbox's sake.

[Asher]

Most people who seem to know something about programming for the Xbox say that small maps are necessary for running on that platform.

This is bull on several levels. First, Halo 2 has massive levels, with ridiculously short load times once you're in the level (we're talking fractions of a second). If the Xbox can do this, the PC can. It just takes a lot of investment. Something Valve should have done...

Second, Valve isn't doing the Xbox version, another company is porting it. They didn't design this game with Xbox in mind, though it doesn't matter anyway because the Xbox can clearly deal with huge levels ala Halo 2.

----

So Half-Life 2 was updated...and the stuttering STILL occurs. Awesome fix.

I'll admit it's less often now, but it's still very, very annoying.

[Ned]

Asher, have your tried running the game without being connected to the internet? I played the game without "Steam" today and never once had a slowdown. However, the first day I played the game I had Steam started and did notice the slowdown on occasion. The problem, at least on my computer, seems to be related to Steam and the internet.

[The Viceroy]

I get the stutter quite badly, watching the HD, its thrashing the disk a hell of a lot, so im guessing for me its a memory issue, as im only running with 256Mb on XP. I left the task manager running, and sure enough it hit 600Mb at some point, so thats a hell of a lot of VM.

So its off to PC world I go tonight to pick up a 512Mb Dimm

Im guessing you have more memory asher .. to be honest, its really poor that they load the sound effect at a point when its obvious your not going to get the next block in time to make a smooth play... have they never heard of buffering ???

[Asher]

I've got 1GB of CL2 DDR400 RAM on my system, and my HD is a SATA RAID0 setup.

It is indeed a texture/sound loading issue, so it happens at the worst time -- like when you're being shot at, or you turn a corner on the airboat, etc.

They're not sure why it affects only some systems, including many high-end systems, but they claim to be working on it.

I thought the reason the loading times were so terrible was it was caching/buffering all this in memory.

[Solver]

And I de-Steamed the game before playing for the second day - stuttering problem, gone. Loading times, halved. FPS, improved. Steam is an utter piece of ****. I'm glad I de-Steamed the game. I'd be willing to pay 10$ extra for a version of HL2 that has no Steam.