Slime wrote:
>> PS. Do you have HL2:EP2? I can't complete [what is probably] the final
>> battle. It's just too hard.
> 
> I found it very difficult also. The trick seems to be taking out as many
> hunters as you can before working on the striders, since the hunters destroy
> the magnessons.

This is a problem. The Hunters can't die. (Or rather, they can't die 
unless you unload your entire ammo supply at them for about 5 minutes. 
Then *one* of them dies. But there's still 7 others waiting to be 
killed. Oh, assuming they don't surround you and kill you first...)

> You definitely have more than 20 seconds though if you
> handle them one at a time.

Yeah, but... in spite of the radar, I can't *find* them until they're 
practically on top of the base. I then have about 20 seconds to take 'em 
out. (And they all arrive at once...)

> Taking down the hunters is the hardest part; you
> can accumulate explosives ahead of time (bring them to the beginning of the
> area, the choke point that all striders will have to pass through). You can
> also take any hunter out with the alternate fire of the combine pulse rifle
> (don't miss! quicksave ahead of time) or a couple rockets. When you run out
> of those and explosives, try running them over with your car. When all else
> fails use the shotgun.

I can't find any damn ammo anywhere. I keep ending up with almost none left.

The car seems to be the only fast way to kill a hunter. But the car is 
so utterly uncontrolable, and the hunters are so nimble... well, you 
don't stand much of a chance. (The only other way is the orb fire from 
the pulse rifle. But then we're talking 100% pure luck as to whether you 
hit or not. And you only get 3 shots in the entire game.)

> If you drive around, and you should at first to make use of the items in the
> more distant buildings, use the magnesson holder on the back of your car.

Damn right. All the other supply dealies have already been blown up, so 
every time I miss with a magnesson, I have to drive 20 minutes back to 
the base to get another one... :-(

> If at any point a strider is getting too close, start using magnessons on it
> even if there are still hunters around. If you've taken out enough of the
> hunters you can sometimes get the strider anyway.

This is basically what I'm reduced to doing. Hoping I can take out all 
five striders by pure pot luck. So far I've replayed the same 90 seconds 
of game endlessly for about half an hour, and I just can't take 'em all 
out fast enough. :-{

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Orchid XP v7 <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> The main problem is walking through one portal, falling out of the 
> other, rotating cat-style while in free fall, trying to figure out where 
> the hell you are and which way you're facing, and... oh wait, I'm on the 
> ground again. :-S

  I don't see what's the problem with that. If both portals are on vertical
surfaces, you just walk through, like through a regular door, and "down"
will be "down" and nothing else. Just turn down and shoot before hitting
the floor.

  Even if one of the portals is not on a vertical surface, visualizing
the situation is helped by being able to visualize 3D space, like when
designing POV-Ray scenes in your head. :P

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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Orchid XP v7 <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> PS. Do you have HL2:EP2?

  Yes, but I haven't played it through yet.

  Once again Valve failed to disappoint with this game. It's very immersive
and addictive from the very start. I'm also impressed about the amount of
graphics and special effects they have succeeded in putting in the levels
and still maintain a very good framerate. (It barely doesn't reach the
level of detail of Oblivion, but OTOH it has a much better framerate.)

  I like the strong storylines of the HL2 series.

  Most FPS games have very weak, almost inexistent storylines, where the
makers clearly haven't put too many resources in them. You get an intro,
a few short plot details here and there, and an outro. Usually it's all
rather simple and not very worked. Usually even the little plot there is
doesn't seem to matter too much. It's more like "yeah, yeah, blah blah,
let me play already". Also the backstory often is very detached from the
game itself.

  Not so with the HL2 series. The stories are believable and interesting,
and they have clearly put a lot of effort in merging the plot and the
gameplay, to make it more interesting.

  In the past some FPS games have tried the concept of NPC sidekicks, and
usually failed miserably. Usually these sidekicks are completely useless,
annoying and more a burden than anything else (especially if them dying
means game over).
  In some games mandatory sidekicks are extremely stupid. A very prominent
example is Oblivion, where it feels like your allies are constantly moving
to your line of fire, so that you will hit them instead of the enemy. It
gets really irritating very soon, especially when there's a bad consequence
of hitting an ally (such as being expelled from a guild).

  Again, not so in the HL2 series, especially episodes 1 and 2. The
sidekicks are actually helpful and not annoying at all. They really are
very strong allies in fighting, and they mostly know how to keep out
of your way (even though I think you couldn't even hurt them even if
you shoot at them, but it's good that they keep out of your line of fire
just for visibility reasons if nothing else). Also if they are blocking
your way in a narrow passage, they usually move away quite promptly when
needed.
  Also, the allies (especially Alyx) are not just dumb gameplay elements,
but add to the plot. They act, they tell you things, and they direct your
attention to events (one good example being the beginning of Episode 2,
where Alyx tells you to look at the railway bridge).

<nerd mode>
  It's also cool to drive with Alyx at your side. It almost feels like
in a date.
</nerd mode>

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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Warp wrote:

>   Once again Valve failed to disappoint with this game. It's very immersive
> and addictive from the very start. I'm also impressed about the amount of
> graphics and special effects they have succeeded in putting in the levels
> and still maintain a very good framerate. (It barely doesn't reach the
> level of detail of Oblivion, but OTOH it has a much better framerate.)

As I have written previously, I have been quite dissapointed with HL2 
and HL2:EP1.

*This* game, however, is FUN. (Remember fun? Fun is good...)

>   I like the strong storylines of the HL2 series.
> 
>   Most FPS games have very weak, almost inexistent storylines, where the
> makers clearly haven't put too many resources in them.

...as in, "you are the last survivor, trapped alone on the alien 
homeworld. Try to stay alive!"

>   Not so with the HL2 series. The stories are believable and interesting,
> and they have clearly put a lot of effort in merging the plot and the
> gameplay, to make it more interesting.

HL1 kind of had more of a concept of a story than most. (In particular, 
you play through the beginning of the "story" - which was novel at the 
time.) HL2 takes it slightly further. But it's really EP1 and EP2 where 
the story element becomes quite strong.

>   In the past some FPS games have tried the concept of NPC sidekicks, and
> usually failed miserably.

Yeah, this is a rather tough game design challenge.

Real humans possess a level of intelligence that AI designers can 
currently only dream about. So you have to somehow make an NPC who won't 
die too easily, but isn't too invincible either. They have to be able to 
help you in a battle, but not win the whole thing for you. And - 
possibly hardest of all - they have to act believably whatever the 
player decides to do. (How the heck are the designers supposed to 
anticipate that one? Well, they can't really...)

>   Again, not so in the HL2 series, especially episodes 1 and 2. The
> sidekicks are actually helpful and not annoying at all. They really are
> very strong allies in fighting, and they mostly know how to keep out
> of your way. Also if they are blocking
> your way in a narrow passage, they usually move away quite promptly when
> needed.

Especially in HL2, allies getting in your way seemed to be a constant 
problem. They seem to have fixed this in EP1 and EP2.

>   Also, the allies (especially Alyx) are not just dumb gameplay elements,
> but add to the plot.

Some *real* plot twists in EP2... heh. (What the heck is that G-Man 
actually up to, anyway?)

> <nerd mode>
>   It's also cool to drive with Alyx at your side. It almost feels like
> in a date.
> </nerd mode>

<ubernerd mode>
   I'll have to take your word for that one...
</ubernerd mode>

(BTW, is there a *reason* why she always has to climb into the car 
starting from your side? What's wrong with the *door* on her side?? Is 
it just so you get to have a look at her cute high-polygon butt?)

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Orchid XP v7 <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> (BTW, is there a *reason* why she always has to climb into the car 
> starting from your side? What's wrong with the *door* on her side?? Is 
> it just so you get to have a look at her cute high-polygon butt?)

  I suppose that the AI can't know if you are going to enter the car or
not, so it just follows you as usual. If you do enter the car, then a
pre-determined animation is played when she enters the car too. I suppose
that they noticed that if she just walked around the car you could just
drive away and let her behind, so with this pre-determined animation they
made it impossible to do so, while still looking at least somewhat convincing.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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Orchid XP v7 <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> The Hunters are virtually indescructible, and you only have about 20 
> seconds to kill 7 of them

  You have to go where the striders are, not wait until they come to you.
First kill the hunters. The car is a good weapon for this, but you can also
use the rocket launcher, etc. Once they are out, killing the strider is
relatively simple.

  The end is rather... disturbing.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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Warp wrote:
> Orchid XP v7 <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
>> The Hunters are virtually indescructible, and you only have about 20 
>> seconds to kill 7 of them
> 
>   You have to go where the striders are, not wait until they come to you.

Even with the radar, it's extremely hard to find them.

And, assuming you find them, you're now in a place with no ammo or 
supplies...

> First kill the hunters. The car is a good weapon for this, but you can also
> use the rocket launcher, etc. Once they are out, killing the strider is
> relatively simple.

The car *is* good for killing them, but it's extremely hard to steer. 
(Let's face it, try driving a *real* car at more than 5 MPH while 
snapping the steering onto hard lock...) And the hunters easily step out 
of your way.

I tried the rocket launcher and the orb from the pulse rifle, but 
rapidly ran out of ammo. The machine gun takes forever to take 'em 
out... :-(

>   The end is rather... disturbing.

Yeah, well, if I ever get that far... :-}

(Don't you just love games where the final climactic battle is *so* 
climactic that it takes 5 times longer than the rest of the game put 
together?)

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On Fri, 19 Oct 2007 22:10:58 +0100, Orchid XP v7 wrote:
> The main problem is walking through one portal, falling out of the 
> other, rotating cat-style while in free fall, trying to figure out where 
> the hell you are and which way you're facing, and... oh wait, I'm on the 
> ground again. :-S

Precisely the same problem here. It looks so easy when the people
who post at youtube do it, but when I do it, I'm almost never facing
the correct direction when raising up from a portal placed in floor
after falling through another also in the floor (yes, talking about
level 18).

Also regarding the puzzles, I'm impressed at Warp's acute sense of
solutions. I was stuck somewhere for a long time, and ended up inventing
"wrong" solutions at a couple of places instead of much simpler ones.

But I'm no gamer, this is the first video game _ever_ that I have bought.

-- 
Joel Yliluoma - http://bisqwit.iki.fi/
: comprehension = 1 / (2 ^ precision)

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Orchid XP v7 <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> I tried the rocket launcher and the orb from the pulse rifle, but 
> rapidly ran out of ammo. The machine gun takes forever to take 'em 
> out... :-(

  One thing you can try is to catch one of the hunter's explosives with
the gravity gun and throw it back. Easier said than done, but they are
pretty effective when you succeed...

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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Warp wrote:
> Orchid XP v7 <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
>> I tried the rocket launcher and the orb from the pulse rifle, but 
>> rapidly ran out of ammo. The machine gun takes forever to take 'em 
>> out... :-(
> 
>   One thing you can try is to catch one of the hunter's explosives with
> the gravity gun and throw it back. Easier said than done, but they are
> pretty effective when you succeed...

Interesting concept...

I've never been really good with the gravity gun. I mean, you point it 
at some huge metal barrel, press the button, and it picks up a tiny 
pebble 6 feet to the left of what you're pointing at. WTH?

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