no more bargain bins? Theres freecycle (Half Life)

[lord of the mark]

So im browsing my local freecycle Yahoogroup, hoping someone has an old lawn mower (I'll probably end up buying one, but its fun to browse freecycle, very serendipitous) when, well, serendipity happens. Someones offering PC games, which rarely happens (I mean they dont take up much space, so are not primo candidates for decluttering, and its possible to sell them)

There are 8 games, 2 old EA hockey games, HL and an Xpack, a couple of SW games, and 2 ive never heard of.

I offer to take the HL pair, and the EA NHL pair (Im not keen on a hockey game, but its free, I dont have any sports games, and if im going to the trouble of going over, and theyre going to the trouble of coming to the door, I might as well take more than 2)

So now I own Half Life GOTY edition, plus the Opposing Force X pack, and the 1999 and 2001 editions of EA NHL hockey.

The HL cases have CD keys on them. Will there be a problem with that? I havent loaded them yet, Im still playing BG2, and havent yet finished the AOK campaigns.

[Asmodean]

I honestly don't think there's anyone on the planet that owns more games than you do m8

Where do you find the time?

Asmodean

[Kuciwalker]

No, there won't be a problem with the CD keys.

[Main_Brain]

if he installed Steam, there will be Problems.

[Quillan]

Nah, not that big of problems. If the CD keys were previously registered, you will not be able to register them through Steam, or use the service to patch or play multiplayer (or get anything else for them, for that matter. My old copy of GOTY Half Life, when registered through Steam, entitled me to get all the X-packs free, so I've downloaded and played Blue Shift and Opposing Force). But aside from that, if you strictly install outside the Steam directory and download any necessary patches from other websites, you should be fine. I don't know about CounterStrike; does that require a registered CD key for online play?

[lord of the mark]

So if I only play SP, I shouldnt have any probs? I dont need to go online to activate, or something like that?

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Asmodean
I honestly don't think there's anyone on the planet that owns more games than you do m8

Where do you find the time?

Asmodean

I bet I have far fewer games than most folks here.

[Main_Brain]

If you only play SP, there is no Problem at all, but as the GotY Edition enables you to download some of the Extensions you should try wheter the Product Key is already activated for STEAM.

[DrSpike]

An excellent pickup.

[lord of the mark]

first impressions

1. Installed fine

2. Whats with the tutorial? It looks like this is all about running and jumping. Did I get a platformer, whatever that is? I mean isnt an FPS supposed to be a game where I get to relax by shooting things? And the stupid holograph that is pretending to "show" me how to do things by running and jumping, when all i can do is press buttons and move the mouse. I cant recall ever in an RTS or RPG or TBS where a tutorial pretended that I was not actually playing a computer game. theyd always say, "now point your mouse here", etc, etc. Now I realize in an FPS folks are more likely to have reprogrammed their keyboard, or to use an alt controller, or whatever, but shouldnt a tutorial be for newbies? This one seems to assume an experience FPS player. I never even got the point where they said anything about shooting - i got frustrated with "jump 3 time in succession" and went to the game.

3. OTOH the game controls are intuitive enough I was able to get started anyway. Though Im sure theres something Im missing

4. Do I like, need to take dramamine first? Only game I can recall bringing me this close to motion sickness was a flight sim, and there it was, arguably, realistic.

5. The opening video was clever. A tad long, but clever (and who cares about length, i know you'll say, I wont be watching it after the first time)

6. Ok, exploring is great, and it makes sense after the experiment goes wrong that i wont know where monsters (or mutants, or whatever) are, etc. But why do I not know where my HEV suit (or whatever) is? Since Ive been working at this facility for awhile? Is there some minimap that has this, that I dont know about? Maybe the tutorial could have explained that to me, instead of putting me through jump and duck exercises?

7. The monsters are acceptable. Im not a fan of gore, but the monsters dont look they will be a distraction from gameplay, so theyre fine.

8. I have to fight my way through with a friggin crowbar? Shouldnt I have a gun? Isnt the point of the game to relax, by, you know, shooting things? (and yeah, I know Freeman doesnt come to work with a gun, but i passed a couple of dead security guards, and there didnt seem to be a gun I could pick up)

[Quillan]

You do need to know how to crouch jump and do the long jump later in the game, but that's about the only thing in the tutorial you really have to know. The rest is basic FPS gameplay.

You do get guns, just not automatically. Someone has to drop one. Usually that first guard you encounter after the accident gets killed by a zombie, then you get his Glock. As you progress, you'll get a shotgun, then a SMG with a grenade launcher (WTF? The later hi-def weapons pack changed that to an M4 carbine with grenade launcher, which makes a little more sense), and even stranger stuff.

As to the suit, there were color coded lines on the walls, showing you where to go. You've been in a hospital before, I'm sure, and they do the same thing.

And it's not an opening video. That's all in game, and you can't skip it. You have to sit through the tram ride every time you start a new game. Personally, I don't mind. It gets me in the frame of mind to play.

[DrSpike]

Yeah, stop complaining and play.

[lord of the mark]

[QUOTE] Originally posted by Quillan

You do need to know how to crouch jump and do the long jump later in the game, but that's about the only thing in the tutorial you really have to know. The rest is basic FPS gameplay.

Well thats the problem. This is my first FPS ever, I dont know basic FPS gameplay, and I didnt make it past the triple long jump.

You do get guns, just not automatically. Someone has to drop one. Usually that first guard you encounter after the accident gets killed by a zombie, then you get his Glock. As you progress, you'll get a shotgun, then a SMG with a grenade launcher (WTF? The later hi-def weapons pack changed that to an M4 carbine with grenade launcher, which makes a little more sense), and even stranger stuff.

I guess I wasnt careful enough around the guard. I hope its not real persnickety pixel hunting, though.

As to the suit, there were color coded lines on the walls, showing you where to go. You've been in a hospital before, I'm sure, and they do the same thing.

I recall the color coded lines, but dont recall one that was clearly indicated the suit. I will look more carefully when I start again.

And it's not an opening video. That's all in game, and you can't skip it. You have to sit through the tram ride every time you start a new game. Personally, I don't mind. It gets me in the frame of mind to play.

Well, its easy enough to save after the ride is over, I think.

[Skanky Burns]

The guard is easy enough to keep alive, and his unlimited ammo can come in handy for quite a while.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Skanky Burns
The guard is easy enough to keep alive, and his unlimited ammo can come in handy for quite a while.

Oh, quillian meant the first LIVE guard. I thought he meant the first DEAD guard. You pass two I think, before you see the guard fighting the "zombie" (?). So theres no gun till that point?