January 2005 Archives

I finished 'Half life 2' and it was a hell of a ride.

Unfortunately it was also just that - a ride.

Granted the game was great fun. Passed the first bitter taste of Steam, sound glitches and crashes, running through the rest of the game was tremendously enjoyable.

Reaching the end without having to jump through the usual impossible levels and their nearly invicible 'bosses' was a pleasurable surprise as well.

But 'Half Life 2' turns out to be a one trick pony. In site of the great experience playing it a first time, there is almost no value at replaying it again. Every step of the hollow storyline is scripted, leaving no surprise. In the end, it feels like a summer blockbuster - great visuals, thrilling ride, anemic story but not the kind of movie you would want to watch over again .

It took a few months of patience but I finally got Helf Life 2 to work. I made several changes at once so I am not sure which one actually fixed my issues. I will list them all here in case that can help someone else.

The first change was a bit extreme in most cases - I replaced my Nvidia GeForce 5900 by a new ATI Radeon 800 Pro. Both vendors are coming up with new PCI Express models, so I figured it was the right time to get my last AGP card before upgrading my motherboard in a year or two. I was a bit tense switching over to ATI after years of Nvidia, but I don't regret it so far. This new card is cooler and quieter than the old one. And most of all, the visual quality I get out of it is well worth the jump.

The next change was to wait long enough after the initial release of the game to download the latest patch level. I can't tell how much I dislike the lack of control while using Steam. Valve's online distribution system splashes news like a spyware and downloads updates wether I need/want them or not. There is also little indication where these updates are loaded or wether I can make an offline backup of these files. I sincerely hope this is not the future of game delivery. If it is, I am afraid I will have to cherish my current collection of 'normal' games while I can.

Next update was to run a utility released by Valve to check the integrity of Half Life 2 files. Corrupted files can lead to an unstable system according to the online support site. This utility can be ran by clicking on the the corresponding links from Valve's support site.

The final stop was a Tweak Guide for Half Life 2 strongly recommended by gamers on the official forum. This help file walks you step by step through a series of updates that are supposed to make the game run smoothly. It seemed to work so far :)

So how is the game now that I can finally play it ?

It feels like a semi-interactive movie. It is a one way ride , alternative between mad dashes on foot and with vehicles, and from time to time, a 'big boss' or a Physics Puzzle (tm). In spite of the lack of depth and a weak story, this game is still a lot of fun. The physics system is just amazing, as is the AI and scripting sequences (ntohing is more fun than throwing antlions to a squad of combine soldiers and watch them fight it out).

I can't wait until someone uses this game engine in a non-linear, story based game.

You can't really grasp the scale of the tragedy of the Asia Tsunami of December 2004 without seeing satellite images of the disaster.

One striking example is the comparison between views of the same site before and after the tsunami in a gallery provided by Digital Globe.

Other sites show large scale wave patterns, swirling receeding waves and even a wave animation.

This should help remembering the scale of the event and give you one more reason to donate.