HL2 loses to Halo 2 via Steam

neptuneuk said:
gamespy dont exactly like steam do they? especially since that the only way to play the game online is through steam... it kinda make the gamepsy arcade program useless for HL2.

biased!!
You can play Steam Games on Gamespy Arcade.

And yes that is just bullshit reason.
They're supposed to be rating the game. Not the installation process as they guys said above......
 
Omg... There is a shitload of fanboys. Who gives a **** if you favourite game don't become game of the year?

Both H2 and HL2 are great games. THe people who usually bash on a game haven't even played it. They've only heard other ppl opinions..
 
I dont like GTA because it uses securerom and install shield /sarcasm
 
Luckily, I bought the pirated one......and I don't have any problem with Steam!!!HaHaHa!

Gamespy crews are very stupid.Just a stupid Steam problem they kill all Half-Life 2 fans' spirits like me.Argh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Hmmm... So gamespy thinks Halo 2 is better because of Half-Life 2's installation program? Yet if that is the case then they must be allowing things not related to actually playing the game itself to reduce the score. An incredibly stupid thing to to if that is the case.
Onager said:
Omg... There is a shitload of fanboys. Who gives a **** if you favourite game don't become game of the year?

Both H2 and HL2 are great games. THe people who usually bash on a game haven't even played it. They've only heard other ppl opinions..
Read the rest of the thread first. If Gamespy thinks Halo 2 is better with the actual gameplay then we are alright with there opinion. If they think Half-Life 2 is worse because of Steam then we think they are utter morons.
 
Mr.Wotsit said:
There's only one brief mention of Steam in the article that judges it pretty fairly saying that it counts againgst Valve.

The best bits of Steam are yet to come.
__________________
Some people forget how much work Valve put into this stuff...

I LOVE the inside info on the creation of HL1 in your link there (link goes to http://www.gamasutra.com/features/19991210/birdwell_pfv.htm) Wotsit. I had never read this article, but THANK GOD VALVe made the design decisions they did, or we would have just gotten another rework of Quake -- Gag!

As a side note, for those who read the whole article, pay attention to the last picture -- it was originally indended to be the player (who later became Gordon Freeman). As the article puts it, this is "The first incarnation of the game’s main character, now known affectionately as "Ivan the Space Biker"!!! He really does look like a deranged Hells Angel in a space suit!!!

I have attached the file to this post for anyone that wants to see it.
 
GameSpy's 2004 Top 10 Games of the Year

#1 - Halo 2 (Xbox)

LOL!!!!

Now that proves my point that Gamespot are console fanboys, they wouldn't know what a PC game was if it was shot up their arsehole through a shotgun.
 
Onager said:
Omg... There is a shitload of fanboys. Who gives a **** if you favourite game don't become game of the year?

Both H2 and HL2 are great games. THe people who usually bash on a game haven't even played it. They've only heard other ppl opinions..


Halo 1 sucked. Maybe Halo 2 is good, no idea. And it's not that HL2 didn't win. It's the reason it lost. It didn't loose for any gameplay reasons, but because of steam. Which is bullshit.
 
im suprised. almost everyone else considered halo 2 to be somewhat of a dissapointment, despite it being a good game. however, every reviewer insisted that half-life 2 exceeded all expectations and surpassed its predacessor in every way. i think half-life 2 got hosed on this one...
 
So Halo 2 won. Okay. I don't care.

It's a fun game. Or so my roommate says.

I don't like it too much, but I'm a PC gamer. I can't stand FPS games on console. I need my mouse.
 
You guys crack me up. I mean look at the rankings:

GameSpy's Top 10 Games of the Year
1. Halo 2 (Xbox)
2. Half-Life 2 (PC)
3. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS2)
4. Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater (PS2)
5. World of Warcraft (PC)
6. Unreal Tournament 2004 (PC)
7. Ninja Gaiden (Xbox)
8. Burnout 3: Takedown (PS2/Xbox)
9. Metroid Prime 2 Echoes (GCN)
10. Katamari Damacy (PS2)

Let's be real. It was obviously a toss up between HL2 and Halo 2. Gamespy put Halo 2 on top, but it's not like they put HL2 in the #10 spot or something. I happen to feel HL2 is a better game than Halo 2 and I've played both extensively. Still #2 is not anything to be ashamed of!! Maybe gamespy did knock HL2 for Steam -- that's their prerogative. I'm sure if Halo 2 came out and required broadband and several hours of downloads before you could play we, in HL2 land, would point and laugh....
 
I would imagine it's something similar to the phenomenon that makes narrowminded simpletons object to the rennovation of their local roads or infrastructure. It's the short term annoyance that precedes the vastly greater benefits of the rennovation that they find problems with. Apparently a small period of slight disturbance is much more significant than the amazing new possibilities that lay ahead once it's finished. The road system is Steam, and the people who object to it are the fools who are too stupid to appreciate what the end result would mean.

What a ridiculous and insulting comment to make. If I pop down to a local shop and buy a music CD, I can just put it in the player and listen to it. No-one in their right mind would want to spend hours unlocking it to be given the privillage of listening to what they're already holding in their hands.
Same with films. If I buy a movie on DVD, I can just pop it in the player and watch it. If I was told that I couldnt watch a DVD because the network was down, then I'd be calling for blood.
I see no reason why games should be any more complicated. In fact, you could argue that its bad enough on the PC as it is with having to install a game and making sure drivers etc. are up to date (though from what I understand, the next version of Windows is supposed to simplify the installation of games, and about time too)

Now I can see how Steam might be good for those who downloaded the entire game over a broadband connection with little hassle, but for those of us still stuck with dial-up, and who went out and purchased the disc from a shop, and then werent able to play the game because Steam was overloaded, it was a ridiculous chore to go through.
Going back to music, if you had the choice between downloading an album online, or buying it from a shop, and you chose to get it from the shop, but then found out that you still had to go online to get the disc unlocked/validated/registered then people would be throwing their hands up in the air with disgust.

3. A stable, decent internet connection is part of the system requirements. There's no point saying "Why can't I play Doom3 on my calculator? Jesus christ those bastards!"

Another ridiculous comment. My internet connection is perfectly stable, however I only have 56k dial up as my area isnt being upgraded to Broadband until next March.
When I bought HL2, the packaging didnt state any minimal speed that would be required for the internet connection. If I see a game that requires a 2.0 Ghz processor, and I only have a 233Mhz, then I know its not going to run as my PC doesn't have enough processing power, however there was never any specifications on what kind of Internet connection was needed. Why should a connection even be required? I'm already holding the disc in my hands, what more is needed to run the game.

Has anyone really thought what would happen if other companies followed suit, and released their own (lesser) equivalents of Steam? The idea of having my PC bogged down with about 10 different variations doesnt really fill me with joy.


The day I bought HL2, a guy at work bought a cheapie PS2 game for his young son. He went home, and the two of them spent the evening having fun with some mindless button mashing. I went home with one of the most anticipated games ever made, and I ended up staying up til 2 o clock in the morning trying to get the damn thing to validate. If this is the future of gaming, then I'd rather have the past.
 
Am I the only one in the world that has had zero problems with steam? Honestly. I had only one problem (the memory read error) and it turns out it was my fault because I had mismounted my HSF and the CPU was getting just a little too hot. Unless it was my doing steam has worked absolutely flawlessly for me.

Oh, and I by no means have a monster system. It would have been a monster system a year and a half ago but I only got the best parts six months ago.
 
CrazyHarij said:
Ever heard of the term OPINION?

Yes, but judging a game on installation process is idiocy. If they coulld give perfectly good comparisons and reasons we'd be fine with it.
 
Ok, here's how I figure it..
1) Do I like hl2? Yes.
2) Do I care about Gamespy/spot liking it? No.

Maybe its just the e-penis points gained by having a GOTY?
 
HalfLife2Addict said:
LOL!!!!

Now that proves my point that Gamespot are console fanboys, they wouldn't know what a PC game was if it was shot up their arsehole through a shotgun.
That's why half of the editors (i almost misspelled that ediots, lol) wanted Half-Life 2 to be GOTY.

Not that you're in a position to call ANYONE fanboy of anything, your name is HalfLife2Addict.
 
bliink said:
Ok, here's how I figure it..
1) Do I like hl2? Yes.
2) Do I care about Gamespy/spot liking it? No.

Maybe its just the e-penis points gained by having a GOTY?

Best explanation I've heard so far, hahaha
 
I'm sure that without broadband, Steam is a complete and total pain in the ass.

Users should be given an opportunity to decide if Steam loads at startup, if it shuts down after you've quit your games, and if updates can be bypassed by those who don't want to wait to play.

There is no good reason to install Steam on a computer without an Internet connection.

Since I have broadband, I haven't suffered any major inconveniences with Steam, apart from having to run MSCONFIG to keep it from loading during bootup and having to manually end it after playing a game. At least the updates seem to work OK.

As for GameSpy, their opinions and reviews are bought by advertising dollars. Who gives a rat's ass what they write?
 
teh roxxors said:
m having to run MSCONFIG to keep it from loading during bootup
huh? you probably have it set to load at startup in steam options.
 
King John said:
i think its quite obvious here that those who dont like hl2 best out of everything in the world are stpuid ****tards
like one thing more then another deosnt make anyone smart or stupid! (****tards or ****ing-cool either) it is just an opinion!
yeah, there is no game on earth i'd like more then hl2, but my bro would prefer fable over hl2 anyday! he isnt stupid for it, he is just different.



also i think gamespots reviews are idiots, but i don't care couse it deosnt, and never will, affect how much a love to play hl2

i never really cared for reviews
 
what bugs me is the "well-written, engrossing story," statement given to halo 2. i simply cant agree with this at all. well-written my ass.

what i will give halo 2, is it does feel more like a complete game than hl2 (multiplayer features). but concerning gfx, gameplay, etc., hl2 owns all. call me a fan boy i dont care.
 
Draculas_Guest said:
What a ridiculous and insulting comment to make. If I pop down to a local shop and buy a music CD, I can just put it in the player and listen to it. No-one in their right mind would want to spend hours unlocking it to be given the privillage of listening to what they're already holding in their hands.
Same with films. If I buy a movie on DVD, I can just pop it in the player and watch it. If I was told that I couldnt watch a DVD because the network was down, then I'd be calling for blood.
I see no reason why games should be any more complicated. In fact, you could argue that its bad enough on the PC as it is with having to install a game and making sure drivers etc. are up to date (though from what I understand, the next version of Windows is supposed to simplify the installation of games, and about time too)

A game is a lot more than listening to just music. You have to install it just like any other game, but unlike every other game, this has a lot more to install. I agree with you, however. I can't believe Valve put all that effort into making an incredible game and game/update delivery system. I'd much rather just play pacman with a 2 second install time, on any system I have. Those bastards. [sarcasm]

Draculas_Guest said:
Now I can see how Steam might be good for those who downloaded the entire game over a broadband connection with little hassle, but for those of us still stuck with dial-up, and who went out and purchased the disc from a shop, and then werent able to play the game because Steam was overloaded, it was a ridiculous chore to go through.
Going back to music, if you had the choice between downloading an album online, or buying it from a shop, and you chose to get it from the shop, but then found out that you still had to go online to get the disc unlocked/validated/registered then people would be throwing their hands up in the air with disgust.

Another ridiculous comment. My internet connection is perfectly stable, however I only have 56k dial up as my area isnt being upgraded to Broadband until next March.
When I bought HL2, the packaging didnt state any minimal speed that would be required for the internet connection. If I see a game that requires a 2.0 Ghz processor, and I only have a 233Mhz, then I know its not going to run as my PC doesn't have enough processing power, however there was never any specifications on what kind of Internet connection was needed. Why should a connection even be required? I'm already holding the disc in my hands, what more is needed to run the game.

Has anyone really thought what would happen if other companies followed suit, and released their own (lesser) equivalents of Steam? The idea of having my PC bogged down with about 10 different variations doesnt really fill me with joy.

In this day and age, you should not be using 'dialup' as an excuse. The game and authentication system are designed for cable internet or a connection of similar speeds. I just said this in another thread, so I'll re-post it here as it is relevent. "Complaining about dialup with steam is like whinging to ID that doom3 won't run on your microwave."

Draculas_Guest said:
The day I bought HL2, a guy at work bought a cheapie PS2 game for his young son. He went home, and the two of them spent the evening having fun with some mindless button mashing. I went home with one of the most anticipated games ever made, and I ended up staying up til 2 o clock in the morning trying to get the damn thing to validate. If this is the future of gaming, then I'd rather have the past.

Then stay in the past. A good internet connection is needed to use Steam, and Steam is required to run the game properly the way Valve and others [me for one] want it to be run.
 
STEAM's fine. Thankfully they fixed it from the load-of-crap it was when it first came out.

Oh, and I'm still waiting for VAC2, thnx.
 
I also had no problems at all with steam. I bought it the first day and it set up fine and it couldn't validate but it let me play anyway. I actually like steam alot and am yet to have a problem with it.
 
I think what it comes down to is this: Gamespy are a bunch of greasy shit heads. I once respected them back when planethalflife had some interesting content (back in like 2000, 2001 or so) like mod of the week and a realy interesting mailbag, however gamespy's behavior over the years has been nothing but cavalier. They route all of their files into "fileplanet" where they decide that everyone who doesn't want to pay a monthly fee must "wait in line" to download their files, which is bullshit, especially when you are waiting 40 minutes to download some obscure peice of shit about 3 people have downloaded EVER.
Gamespy seeks a mass market- they want the public to see them as a gaming resource so they appeal to the masses- the masses of dumbass console gaming fratboys. The sad,sad,sad, thing about this is that everyone who gives 2 shits about gaming, everyone at the internet cafe's, all the hardcore gamers do not share this bias to console 2 and it's acompanying bias for halo. I think most hardcore gamers veiw halo as a party game, and take games games like Hl2 a lot more seriousley.
I would venture to say most anyone who gives a shit about gaming enough to read anything on a gamespy website is going to favor some computer game - if not HL2 then BF1942 or Farcry - over halo 2. I think the atitude toward halo in the Hardcore community is that it's fun, yet intensley banal.
I can't realy speak for those people though, that's just the vibe I get at the internet cafe. I think theres a big rift between Hardcore people and more casual gamers. While it's true that there's a lot more money in casual gamers, I think gamespy was originally geared toward the hardcore cult gamers- not giving HL2 is just another link in a massive chain of events alienating their original fan base
</endrant>
 
Reaktor4 said:
huh? you probably have it set to load at startup in steam options.

Nope. Even if you set that option to not load at startup, it still does; the Registry entries remain. You have to clear Steam from Startup via MSCONFIG. Also, it doesn't unload after you play a Steam game--you have to manually exit Steam or reboot.

If Steam is a delivery system for game content, that's fine, as long as it delivers only when I want it to. I'm not interested in having it run 24/7. I should be in control of the software on my computer, not you or Gabe Newell.

As far as I'm concerned, Steam is, at best, a way to avoid manual game patching and, at worst, spyware. If the proposed episodic content ever materializes for exclusive release via Steam, then and only then is it something unique, let alone worthwhile.
 
The only thing good about halo 2 was the multiplayer, they really messed up on the story in single player, not to mention left out tons of things they promised they'd put in. Half the time you play as an elite... not even as master chief. It'd be like playing a combine elite half the game for hl2... just not the same immersiveness. The multiplayer is good, but I hate to tell them theres better multiplayer for xbox: Its called halo. The first halo stomped this one in everything. HL2 will be played far more than H2 ever will, just give the 8 year olds a chance to pick up on the next game to come out.
 
Audiophile said:
That's why half of the editors (i almost misspelled that ediots, lol) wanted Half-Life 2 to be GOTY.

Not that you're in a position to call ANYONE fanboy of anything, your name is HalfLife2Addict.

Ohhh nosssss! I must be a fanboy because I like Half Life 2, good one asshat. :LOL:
 
In my opinion HL2 doesn't even deserve to be considered for GOTY let alone win it.
 
OH NOES Steam allows the source engine games including hl2 to be dynamically updated and improved. Screw you valve hl2 is teh sucky sucky!
 
I really don't care about the award, but Halo2's singleplayer was "meh" at best. Uninspiring levels, and incredibly lackluster ending ("that was the end?!") just don't do it for m.
 
I didn't like how steam affected HL2's rating. Rate the game and the game itself. -_-
 
I disagree with gamespy's decision, but I agree with them including the installation process as part of the review. They're reviewing the overall gaming experience - how it looks, how it sounds, how it plays, how it installs, how the menus work, how immersive it is... all of it. If an otherwise perfect game had a terribly shoddy installation system, I would without question lower its score in a review - frustration during the installation process takes away from the overall experience (as I'm sure many here could testify), and also creates a difficult barrier for those slightly less accustomed to game installation to overcome - a bad thing in a time in which, as gamers, we collectively want our beloved industry to be growing and popularising itself as much as possible. That said, I believe that Halo 2 is inferior to Half-Life 2 in many ways, all of which are far more important to the overall experience than are Steam's few shortcomings. As such, I strongly disagree with the overall placement in Gamespy's GOTY rankings, and it saddens me to know that the short-attention-span, less sophisticated and less mature sect of the gaming community is currently enjoying an undeserved victory (albeit one which is fairly superficial). To those who had problems with Steam due in part to their dial-up connections: I'm sure I'd seen, plenty of times, Valve saying that a broadband connection was required, and that those without it would be undertaking installation at their own risk and/or consternation. Am I the only person who got this impression, and subsequently upgraded their internet connection to an appropriate level?
 
Just shows how dumb the people who gave the awards are :/
 
Digital_Junkie said:
Am I the only one in the world that has had zero problems with steam? Honestly. I had only one problem (the memory read error) and it turns out it was my fault because I had mismounted my HSF and the CPU was getting just a little too hot. Unless it was my doing steam has worked absolutely flawlessly for me.

Oh, and I by no means have a monster system. It would have been a monster system a year and a half ago but I only got the best parts six months ago.

Your not the only one. Since i first started using steam ive had no problems. A few slow downs when somin has been released but thats expected. Although on the day HL2 was released when i got home i was playing in 15mins.

By Gamespy's logic all console games are better than PC games due to the fact you dont have to install them. They would probably rank FFXI alot higher on console because you dont have to install it and the install on the game was a nightmare. it was put discs in then register put more discs in and tons of other crap. Then the game was shit.

Gamespy can talk anyway. I am sick of games packing in that gamespy arcade crap with their games slowing down my installs.

Gamespy used to be ok back in like 1999-2000 untill fileplanet went downhill and gamespy arcade came about. Gamespy 3D was cool, beaten by all seeing eye though. Try to join a server in gamespy arcade and you get bullshit ads all the time. Then its, you want to remove are shit, give us money, better yet. uninstall me.
 
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