Half-Life 2: Episode One Released!

One of my primary problems with games currently being released, is that they are all too long.

Myself and many other people who have busy lives with work and such simply do not have the time to invest in games like Oblivion and other games of similar length. I refuse to buy it merely because I know I will never finish it.

I am completely thrilled by this concept of episodic content. I love the idea that as opposed to quantity, the focus is on depth and quality.

Its a game like this, that I would gladly pay full game price for (well, maybe another 20, heh), merely because of the effort put into making it a deeper experience.
 
Cant play the game cos my systeem crashes every time. I've tryd everything but nothing works (deleted all my old drivers, installed new, runed driver cleaner, tryd again). With my old drivers I cold run hl2 smootly with no problems. But e1 will crash at the loading screen with the old one. With the new one it crashes in the game.
 
Wel if it was just episode 1 asking 20$ I would have no problem, but pretty soon there are a dozen episodes for a dozen games, where does that leave my wallet eh? :)

So I don't care about the quality, to me the quality can't ever make up for the 4 hour gameplay combined with its pricetag.
I can buy a couple of books that entertain me 6x better and longer.
Wel I will have to bite my teeth seeing all the nice comments, but if I buy it now I would feel sorry for it in a week thinking what I could have done with my little 'free' money.

So instead I'm trying to look forward to the future.
So far digital delivery isn't promesing its rewards (like cheaper games)
seems to go the other way around with developers overcharging their games.

Well I probebly should get it as a leveldesinger but oh well.

Also re a early comment that mods should take a look at hows its supoised te be done:
Mods don't have the same resources and tools availeble, not even the time and sure not the money. After all they are free.
 
E1 pwns HL2, the only problem about it, only 4-5 hours of play.

NAHHHHHH, Valve should design longer games, such as 10-15 hours per episod,

or just release the full game/
 
Gorgon said:
E1 pwns HL2, the only problem about it, only 4-5 hours of play.

NAHHHHHH, Valve should design longer games, such as 10-15 hours per episod,

or just release the full game/
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Yeah we all want to wait 6 - 7 years for HL:3 dont we..
 
I like it either way. We are still going to be waiting for HL3, just having episodes to bridge the wait and link the story makes sense from a players and developers perspective.

They probably need the episodes to get to the start of HL3 anyway.
 
I only get stutter after its done loading a section, then I never see it again. Haven't tried with normal HL2 tho so it might be the same too, that would be wonderful.
 
People that quote the time it took them to finish just have a chip on their shoulder and they probably started off having one before they even played the game. I honestly can't tell you how long it took to finish: that wasn't the point. What it FELT like was a really good chunk of game, a day's worth of adventure that I can look back on and feel like I went through lots and lots of different areas and events. Easily worth 20$ (geez, people, you can't even buy 2 music cds for 20bucks!), and being able to play through again with the commentary track is really, really cool.
 
People that quote the time it took them to finish just have a chip on their shoulder
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wth? I remember I started playing at around 9 PM, made sure I couldn't be distracted so I got really into it. When I was done it was around 11:30. It's that simple.
 
Love it myself, finished it in about 4-4 1/2 hours, loved it totally, went through again today with commentary on found it very interesting.

The only problem is now waiting for episode 2, i just hope its not 6-12 months away as that would ruin the anticipation and excitement gathered from ep1.
 
MadMossy said:
Love it myself, finished it in about 4-4 1/2 hours, loved it totally, went through again today with commentary on found it very interesting.

The only problem is now waiting for episode 2, i just hope its not 6-12 months away as that would ruin the anticipation and excitement gathered from ep1.
Click to expand...

I've heard it will be out in time for Christmas, so about 6 months.
 
99.vikram said:
For God's sake, Smigit, I got it to work on my older DirectX6 machine !!!

It's your issue, not Source's. Try updating drivers, or uninstalling any memory-hog software.
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Yeah I realise this mate, I really do but like I said, remember the stuttering issue with HL2. That bug wasnt experienced by all users but it was still a bug. The very user after me also claimed to have had problems and so did Pi Mu Rho and they are users on the one page. There were other users before me reporting an issue. I;m NOT the only one reporting this and theres still the case in the scripted scene not working 1 minute in which like I've said, has nothing to do with my hardware.

I know my machine better than anyone mate, trust me, Id know if there were memory hoggig issues and if it was unstable drivers it would be a problem with other games too.

Actually, it does. To get a game of this calibre to run flawlessly on the FAR majority of PCs is quite a feat. The fact is, if you can get a game to run great on 99 out of 100 PCs, you've done a bang-up job.
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And I agree. Im also part way into my comupter sys and IT degree of 6 years so I can appreciate this as much as anyone. that said if it doesnt work on that other 1% then thats not to say it isnt your doing. You can never rule out that its your code thats the issue.

Guys, the fact it works for most is completly irrelevant here. I'm very sure Valve wouldnt release a game that was problematic on ALL systems. But never assume that because something works for you that the product is perfect. As the saying goes absolutly no code is perfect. This is the very reason patches exist right?

I'll report the issue if it pops up again. If it doesnt then I'm not bothered.
 
Having now finished it I have to say it felt a bit rushed at the end. Things got a little loose. I'm all for it though, still think it was a great game.
 
The Monkey said:
orly_owl.jpg
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Just played it trough, and it was awesome! :eek:
Good job Valve. Can't wait for episode 2.
 
Just played thru Episode 1...I wouldn't say Ep1 was awesome since I haven't decided yet. The way it's done is quite different from HL2 itself so I have to re-adjust my cynicism membrane to decide whether I liked it a lot or just much.

(personal note: I hated the Citadel and I hated the zombies in HL2...and then I get introduced to a whole new kind of zombies with friggin' grenades...argh!)
 
basisti said:
Just played it trough, and it was awesome! :eek:
Good job Valve. Can't wait for episode 2.
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Well you'll have to wait! Heh.

I just don't think it's right calling them episodes, when they're respective releases are so far apart. I think of TV episodes, which normally have a gap of a week between them. These gaming expansions are more like seasons, with months inbetween one and another.

Half Life 2: Season 1
 
God you nerds are tight arses.

I pay about $50 US a week to use my motorbike for about 2 hours max...
 
Is it just me or is the Coming Soon video clip barely plays w/out constant jumping and stuttering?

Also, I must say that the infamous bug of stuttering during gameplay was present in Episode 1 and took some of the fun away.

That said, playing this was awesome! :D
 
Ok I'm further into it (after those previous post earlier, I will say I had one more crash but since then its been fine). Anyway Im near the end I believ and its been pretty good although Im unsure if ill replay this one alot (besides for commentary).

I mean its good and all, very atmospheric, but I was never really into the ravenholm levels and a large chunk is very reminist of that. Nor did I like the parts where colombine would continue to come through barriers I couldnt get to until something was achieved. Thats certainly a personal oppinion but as many people loved that aspect. Some pretty cool scenes too. My oppinion, perhaps not brilliant but worth the money and certainly fun.

For me the to die for scene was in the building fighting a gunship. I wont give anything away but it was fantastic IMHO.
 
For me, it was the music in Teaser One pounding as I alt-fired everything in my path along with the shotgun, and with Alyx (rapid firing the crap out of everything with the shotgun too) and the explosives and the kaboomy awesomeness while blowing the crap out a large group of enemies with the rocket launcher in the hospital and the freaking intense pace as I ran and ran and blew the shit out of everything and jumping around on my seat.

That was awesome. :D
 
I bought it today!
And now I'm installing it.
4 hours of game time isn't much I think, especially because after those 4 hours we have to wait another 6 months for the next episode.
But if the gameplay is even better than HL2 I still have to play it.
And I only paid 12,95 which is less than most of you guys. Buying from Steam would be even more expensive for me :p

Oh and I bought TES4: Oblivion CE too, so I won't see much sun in the next weeks :)
I just realized I bought 2 games today from developers who are trying out new (controversial) sale strategies. Valve with their episodic game content and Bethesda is selling small addons for TES4, things we were used to get for free.
 
I'm hearing that Ep1 needs a custom FGD, and evidently I'm the only person capable of making one. ;)

Not worth $20 by any means, but I probably know some people who will supply me with this episode so I can get my mapping thing on. Ten? I could pay ten. Maybe I'd pay 12.50. But never 20.
 
I find it truly ridiculous people are complaining about the price. £12 for a game. 6 month gap between the next one, and you can't shell out for an Episode. I spend more than that a week at College in the Canteen.
 
Samon said:
I spend more than that a week at College in the Canteen.
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Very true.

Personally, the price was slightly on the iffy side for me (in terms of price per hour of most games), but in the end, Episode One was just something that I needed to experience.
 
Samon said:
I find it truly ridiculous people are complaining about the price.
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Contrariwise, I find it truly ridiculous that people think four hours of single-player gameplay is worth $20. ;)
 
This argument won't get far, because different people value their money, differently. It all depends on a lot of things.

Has anyone played it on 'hard' setting yet? How long does it take in that mode?

I was thinking of waiting til Episode 2 comes out and buying both it and Episode 1 at the same time, so it lasts a bit longer.
 
Apostle11 said:
Well you'll have to wait! Heh.

I just don't think it's right calling them episodes, when they're respective releases are so far apart. I think of TV episodes, which normally have a gap of a week between them. These gaming expansions are more like seasons, with months inbetween one and another.

Half Life 2: Season 1
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure Valve has had seperate teams developing each episode so I'll doubt it will be that far between each release.

Especially since this video shows a fully playable version of Episode 2:

http://www.eurogamer.net/tv_video.php?playlist_id=507&s=l

That said I did think it was a tad bit to short for the amount of money $20 we've cashed for it. And another cliffhanger ending grrr :)

Excellent epidsode never the less.
 
kaMIKazE said:
Huh? $20 US is ~$27 AU. I got the pre-order 10% discount so it was only ~$24.

You got ripped off.


Oh and your pc sucks.
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But they know we'll buy it anyway. D:

I also hear that video cards and other computer components are more expensive here aswell. D:
 
VERY Nice game overall, had a great sense of Atmosphere, just like HL2
Great starting, Great ending
Very nice looking with the HDR
Only a bit short, and the train citizen part wasnt up to standards with the rest of the game
9/10
 
Im sorry but it all comes down to one thing...

I'll get flamed, quite frankly Im not bothered Im used to getting flamed for my honest opinions around here, water off a ducks back nowadays.

I bought episode one, despite despising this whole 'episodic' content dealio, which - bottom line- is a total cash cow opportunity, but I bought episode one because I have faith in Valve, and I wasnt dissapointed. Valve make movies that I can play, not just run of the mill b-movies but in my eyes million dollar blockbusters.

but for all this good theres too much of a weightier bad, they boast 6 hours per episode, while in reality thats being a little generous its more like 4 to a decent gamer. In total 3 episodes at 20 each is 60 bucks. A fair bit more than youll pay for most pc games nowadays and for 12 hours it just doesnt cut it, I'll pay it, dont get me wrong. but only becuase I know what to expect, and thats nothing but quality.

Valve are starting to create very dangerous trends these days, and I dont need to tell you how quick something that valve does catches on. Like for instance paying for mods (garrys) how long is it before were paying for all of them? my guess, not long kids. with tax episode 1 cost me about 25 dollars, I payed 23.99 for Hitman BM last week , 24 for Oblivion. Hours and Hours and Hours of gameplay with these titles, not a measly four. A fabulous four, but four all the same.
 
Did you play on Hard?

Apostle11 said:
Has anyone played it on 'hard' setting yet? How long does it take in that mode?
Click to expand...

5h & 30min, playing at normal pace.
 
I don't know anything about this mod so dont yell at me. Are there any new guns in episode 1?
 
I'm not going to tell you. It is a commercial GAME, not a MOD. Peesh.
 
mbrithoms said:
Im sorry but it all comes down to one thing...

I'll get flamed, quite frankly Im not bothered Im used to getting flamed for my honest opinions around here, water off a ducks back nowadays.

I bought episode one, despite despising this whole 'episodic' content dealio, which - bottom line- is a total cash cow opportunity, but I bought episode one because I have faith in Valve, and I wasnt dissapointed. Valve make movies that I can play, not just run of the mill b-movies but in my eyes million dollar blockbusters.

but for all this good theres too much of a weightier bad, they boast 6 hours per episode, while in reality thats being a little generous its more like 4 to a decent gamer. In total 3 episodes at 20 each is 60 bucks. A fair bit more than youll pay for most pc games nowadays and for 12 hours it just doesnt cut it, I'll pay it, dont get me wrong. but only becuase I know what to expect, and thats nothing but quality.

Valve are starting to create very dangerous trends these days, and I dont need to tell you how quick something that valve does catches on. Like for instance paying for mods (garrys) how long is it before were paying for all of them? my guess, not long kids. with tax episode 1 cost me about 25 dollars, I payed 23.99 for Hitman BM last week , 24 for Oblivion. Hours and Hours and Hours of gameplay with these titles, not a measly four. A fabulous four, but four all the same.
Click to expand...

I dont agree at all.
 
With SiN Episodes: Emergence you got SiN 1 and SiN 1: Multiplayer, with Half-Life 2: Episode One you got Half-Life 2: Deathmatch and Half-Life Deathmatch: Source. If you don't get anything extra with Episode Two it might be cheaper.
 
finished it last night in 5 hours. it was ****ing nice. zombines FTW !!1

-dodo
 
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