Half-life 2 2nd half of scripted sequences don't fire

[bengoetter]

Last week I purchased the Orange Box from Steam, then installed Half-Life 2 onto a brand new computer (running 64-bit Vista SP1). This probably makes me the last person in the northern hemisphere who hasn't yet played HL2, but I'm trying to rectify that....

I am having consistent problems running the second half of scripted sequences, starting with the initial encounter with Alyx, and including the Vortigaunt mounting the gun on the airboat, Father Grigori leading the way into the graveyard, the segue into the beginning of Highway 17, and the acquisition of the first rocket launcher after I shoot down the gunship and return to the English-accent fellow in the basement. Generally, I have been able to get past these blocks by replaying the previous sequence seven or eight times from a prior save. One time (after the Resistance-vs-Combine firefight at the end of Ravenholm) no matter how many times I replayed, I couldn't get the second half of the script to fire: I had to enable cheats, turn on noclip, and walk through a couple of unopened obstacles in order to reach the next chapter (Highway 17).

Also, every time I load a game I get "AI Disabled," forcing me to ai_disable again from the console in order to resume the game. In addition, after most map loads, if I touch the controls too soon while it's still "rebuilding the node graph," the AI will disable, too. Again, I usually can correct this from the console.

I have validated my download from Steam, which claims that everything's okay. In every other way the game works just fine, and indeed looks lovely.

I've been waiting for four and a half years to play this game! Thanks for any advice you can offer.

 

[PimpinPenguin]

That does seem awfully strange as those are symptoms of a pirated version. The "Ai disabled" and rebuilding Node graph" shouldn't happen on legit version.

The only thing i can think of is running the game in 32bit mode as i've heard the 64 bit is bust.
Right click on HL2 in steam then click on "set launch options" and type -32bit.
Hope this helps.

 

[bengoetter]

I'll try that, thanks. I've googled around quite a bit, seeking a solution (hence my use of ai_disable), and yes, I've seen that most folks who report this are pirates. That's not a happy-making thing.

Interestingly, the 32-bit version offered the Shift-Tab "Access the Steam Community while playinig" hint, which I've never seen while playing in 64-bit mode.

It also appears that the 32-bit version doesn't share savefiles with the 64-bit version. As I'm only up to Chapter 7, perhaps I'll just start over from the beginning.

Thanks again.

 

[AciD]

Use following console command to unlock them: sv_unlockedchapters 7

 

[Laivasse]

I ran into the AI disabled and 'node graph out of date' messages when I switched to my new rig with Vista64. Whatever has happened to the 64 bit version of HL2, these bugs now seem so prevalent as to be worthless as an indicator of whether a copy is legitimate or pirated.

Use the -32bit parameter and unlock the chapters with Acid's console command, should sort you out.

 

[bengoetter]

Good to know I'm not the only one. Everything's now working fine w/ the -32bit switch. I took the opportunity to restart the game from the beginning on a higher difficulty level.

And for the record:
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=7422-RYFZ-0595

Cheers, y'all.

 

[Laivasse]

Hope you enjoy it more now that you're not constantly having to peek behind the curtain to fix stuff.