Just a note from an unbiased bystander.

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omnistegan said:
Hello all, I am the innocent bystander
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i'd hardly call you an innocent by-stander, your "OBVIOUSLY" a console gamer. you have to look down at your keyboard? thats a number one clue you dont play PC games. Halo 2's level design is made so a 4 year old can navigate through it. all you have to do is just look ahead, wow how amazing, genius...wait no...IT SUCKS. its boring, and almost as repetitive as the first. I played through is continuely saying to myself "i swear i've done this before". It was like the ultimate deja-vu from hell. Not to mention the graphics, ugh, normal mapped to sh*t, they need to put a sticker on the box that says "Warning Contains 99% Artificial Geometry". Halo 2 is a FPS made for the "mainstream" to "barely a Gamer" Gamer. Someone who barely knows how to turn an XBox on and has to call tech support on how to put the DVD into the console, then takes 15 minutes to find out what button is used to pull the trigger.

Half Life 2 on the other hand, is completely opposite.

Half Life 2 is the greatest FPS ever made, and will be until Half Life 3 is made.
 
TST_Devgru Seal said:
No offense, but I am getting sick of people comparing Half-Life 2 to Halo 2.

They have NOTHING in common. Halo 2 is for the X-Box, right now. Half-Life 2 is for the PC. No connection at all!

Does anybody else feel this way?
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I agree they are completly different games but the fact they are on different platforms is irrelivent IMO. Halo 2 Is a traditional 'Shooter' it presents you with an objective and the only obistcle is the numourse and entertaining enemies. Half-Life 2 is more about pacing, Short bursts of extreme action followed by a puzzle or a set-peice (far better than those god-awful cut scenes in Halo 2 but thats my opinion) and the level design is impecabe it has the fealing of being sucked into a deep and involving world.

The reason they keep getting compared is that they came out close together and they are both sequals to well loved games.

But whoever said that HL2 multiplayer has no tactics is obviously crap at CS :p.

Oh and while im at it Half-life's melee weapon crowbar. Halo 2's a fudging anoying blue shimmery two pronged 'thing' which kills in one hit no matter how much health you have.
 
Unbiased bystander, LOL, thanks for the good laugh buddy.

Halo 2 more immersive, I am seriously ROFL right now! Same for controls. Also same for multiplayer! I have halo 2 and can tell you one thing, HL2's mp is so much better. CS: Source completely destroys Halo 2 in MP and HL2;DM is equally as good if not better.
 
Sorry, but you're not quite as unbiased as you think you are. Sounds to me like you simply prefer console games to PC (your rant about Half-Life 2's control scheme was the primary tip-off).
 
omnistegan said:
[*]Immersion This is just a small downside, but when I have to look down at my keyboard to fina control, I realize I'm sitting at my desk, and the game loses immersion, this ties closely with controls, not quite so natural and flowing in Half-life as they are in halo.
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Are you ****ing serious? Is this your first PC game? It follows the same control scheme that PC FPS games have been using for years.
 
To the thread starter:
I'm just curious - are you primarily a console gamer or a PC Gamer?

Some of the points you made seem a little suspect, but I can respect them as opinions - but please realize that no one is unbiased.

Nevermind, I see:
I'm not afraid to admit that I am a Halo freak. During my endless hours of internet time while searching for halo related material, I heard a lot, and i mean a lot, about half-life 2. I never played the first half-life, or any of the CS games. The 2 main reasons i love halo is because of the amazing storyline, and the stratigical element. Now, in your humble opinion, does the story of half-life live up to the one created in the halo universe? And also is it as stratigical (only being able to carry two guns, for example) as the halo series, or is it more of a shoot em' up? I appreciate that you will all be polite to me even tho i dont have a clue, and i appreciate if I'm not flamed for my halo gaming background. Thanks in advance.
Reply With Quote
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I never once looked down at my keyboard. This guy is obviously your typical console gamer. Half life 2 was so immersive, getting off a train and going through the oppresed city apartments, then being chased out by the cops. I was never that immersed in a game before. In halo 2 you just start on a ship and shoot little aliens for a couple of minutes, then you're on earth fighting, then your halfway across the galaxy, then you're on a halo, then you're on an alien ship. In half life 2 the level transitions are so smooth. You actually feel like you're progressing through a game instead of jumping all over the place to different locations.


Also in halo 2 they throw tons of monsters at you (with less than decent AI I might add) and a level design that is so repetitive and linear it's not even funny. In half life 2, you get a level design (such as in highway 17 where there are houses to go in) that isn't even close to halo 2's linear levels. Also half life 2 lets you manipulate the enviroment to help you win battles, halo 2 does not. Half life 2's AI makes halo 2's monsters look like they have an IQ equal to that of a rock. I made a map in hammer with some barrels and was surprised to see the AI taking cover behind them and reloading behind them. I didn't add in any AI hint nodes, just a simple room with some barrels and enemies.

Have fun mr. "innocent bystander".
 
personally my feeling is that halflife2 was a major improvement on halflife. I didnt get to play halflife until about 2 years after it came out but I didnt like it. I loved halflife2 though, there was a lot they changed for a good reason.

Now halo2 has a better single player than halo. But the most important thing about halo is its multiplayer and halo2 really for me was a lot worse. The lans with halo are still much more fun.


So i present my biased ratings:

Halflife 2:
Graphics 20/20
Playability and controls 18/20
Story 18/20
Multiplayer 11/20
Immersion 19/20
Overall 86/100

Halo 2:
Graphics 15/20
Playability and controls 15/20
Story 18/20
Multiplayer 16/20
Immerision 14/20
Overall 78/100
 
My ratings

Halflife 2:
Graphics 20/20
Playability and controls 18/20
Story 18/20
Multiplayer 19/20
Immersion 19/20
Overall 92/100

Halo 2:
Graphics 15/20
Playability and controls 15/20
Story 18/20
Multiplayer 12/20
Immerision 14/20
Overall 74/100
 
i like what youre trying to do, but your cons for half-life 2 are skewed. level design, immersion, and "playability" are some of valves strongpoints. just to argue one point: immersion. i cannot fathom how someone who wants to play this game couldnt get immersed. the physics/graphics/settings/level design add up to provide the most lifelike gameworld i have ever seen, handsdown. and how about the character interaction. you will not find more lifelike, vivid, and interesting characters in any game for quite some time.
 
hahahahahahaha!

:LOL:

omnistegan said:
I aM tEh hAL02 fANb0y 4 lief!

Hlaf-Lief controlz aRe hARd.

HL2 = suXor
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This sounds like something you should post on "Halo.bungie.org", not here.
 
I was extremely excited about both games, and I even bought an XBOX just to play Halo 2, and as unbiased fan of both games here are ...

My ratings:

Half-Life 2
Graphics 20/20
Playability/Controls 18/20
Story 18/20
Multiplayer 22/25
Immersion 15/15

Overall 93/100

Halo 2
Graphics 09/20 (outdated)
Playability/Controls 11/20 (FPS with a gamepad lol)
Story 12/20 (I might have liked if I were a kid)
Multiplayer 23/25
Immersion 6/15 (after the first 3-4 hours I just wanted to get over with it, just finish and put back in its box)

Overall 61/100
 
how can Halo 2 have better immersion than HL2, just wondering, also, I found the puzzles to be a pro, and not a con...
 
He's obviously a console gamer that's how. There's NO WAY halo 2 was more immersive. Did halo 2 start you off with no weapons and have you running away from the cops? No it had you go guns blazing again like halo 1.
 
Zeus said:
He's obviously a console gamer that's how. There's NO WAY halo 2 was more immersive. Did halo 2 start you off with no weapons and have you running away from the cops? No it had you go guns blazing again like halo 1.
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EXACTLY ;)
 
I thought the level design on Halo2 was just ok. Too much repetition.

I never got lost in HL2 and the levels are extremely varied. The inside of the combine fortress is just mind blowing. Straight out of a Kubrick movie.

I agree that there were a few too many puzzles in HL2. Too many interruptions in the action.

The keyboard controls you can't really complain about cause you are just not familiar with it.

One of the things I didnt like about HL2 was the number of conveniently placed explosive barrels/cylinders.
 
My Rating:

Half-life 2: 100%

Halo 2: 0%

Wtf Omg!!1!!11!! I Am Unbiased!!1!!!1
 
Immersion This is just a small downside, but when I have to look down at my keyboard to fina control, I realize I'm sitting at my desk, and the game loses immersion, this ties closely with controls, not quite so natural and flowing in Half-life as they are in halo.
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Rather than reading all the damn pages... I will respond to this.
If you have to long down at your controls then you are barley a pc gamer. You can "edit" controls. You can change them so you never ever have to look down. A true pc gamer will never ever have to look down at his keyboard to find something.

I also must respond to this..
Level Design I could always understand how people could criticise the level design on halo (and halo 2) but it wasn't until I played Half-Life that i realized how great halo's level design was. I have never had so much trouble in a video game trying to figure out where to go, you have the right to disagree with me, but when it takes me half an hour to figure out where to go, I would say the level design is flawed.
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You had trouble to find out where to go.... Wow...you really arn't a pc gamer. HL2 is very linear....you should have no trouble at all.. Also level design should include how diffrent each level is one from another. HL2's levels are not anywhere near repeative thus giving it an accel at level design.

Creepiness If anything was nailed just right in this game, it was that when you get up to go to bed and you step on your headphones you flip out and try to kill the damn headcrawler. The first time I played half-life, I had no concept of the game, the characters, or the enemies, first game I literally pissed myself while playing.
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If HL2 was creepyy...well its acceling at something it was NEVER ever at all in any way even with ravenholm suppose to accel it. If you think it is scary you are messed up. Something is dearly wrong with you kid. Hell I've tried to make myself scared wit HL2, shutting off all the nights playing ravenholm... Not scary. Fun. Very insanley fun. You are very wierd...

Storyline Eaqually as intriguing and interesting as the Halo storyline. Very fascinating and engrossing, but not quite the same as halo where it doesnt quite get you wanting to go buy books and spend your spare time researching the storyline. Still intriguing and as much story-line as a good feature film.
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Wow, it seems like you don't know to much about the storyline.. Considering the oringal HL's storyline has been talked about for 6 years? Now, HL2's storyilne has left much more puzzels in it for it to be talked about. It's like starcraft storyline. Starcrafts storyilne has been talked about by its, still huge, still growing community. It will be talked about until HL3 + more time comes out.

An unbiased opinon is nice, but an unbiased 8 year old opinon shoudn't ever be said to anyones ears.
 
HL2 = 1291312349481204829141208941%
Halo 2 = -235437821892742398347247812397%

100% unbiased.
 
DrEvil said:
I thought the level design on Halo2 was just ok. Too much repetition.

I never got lost in HL2 and the levels are extremely varied. The inside of the combine fortress is just mind blowing. Straight out of a Kubrick movie.

I agree that there were a few too many puzzles in HL2. Too many interruptions in the action.

The keyboard controls you can't really complain about cause you are just not familiar with it.

One of the things I didnt like about HL2 was the number of conveniently placed explosive barrels/cylinders.
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The puzzles are there for one thing Pacing its the new buzz word on the Development scene and its very welcome never again will we have action action action but o' stealth action action action cut scene boss but action puzzle set piece scary bit action action no more will I get bored of shooting the same enemy in an identicle room with the same death animation. Yes variaty
Is the way to be.
 
omnistegan said:
Hello all, I am the innocent bystander. I am greatly aware of the rivalry between Half-Life 2 and Halo 2 and if I may, I will try to shed light on the ups and downs of each of these magnificent games.

Halo 2

Pros:

  1. Graphics Well it's not like you can run them cranked to 1600x1200 but they are certainly on the up side of halo 2, within the constraints of the xbox console, the bungie programmers did an incredible job of allowing the scenes to feel extremely realistic and were able to successfully portray emotions to a very strong degree. Graphics were realistic and moving and far more than enough for the average human being.
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  1. you cannot talk about halo 2's graphics without mentioning the pop-in that frequents the cutscenes. don't tell me you didn't notice it, some kid told me he thought his Xbox was broken because of it.
    [*]Immersion This is just a small downside, but when I have to look down at my keyboard to fina control, I realize I'm sitting at my desk, and the game loses immersion, this ties closely with controls, not quite so natural and flowing in Half-life as they are in halo.
    Click to expand...

    i'm sorry, but that's the stupidest complaint i have ever heard. your inadequacy at using a keyboard shouldn't hurt your impressions of the game. immersion is what MAKES half life what it is. it's twenty times more immersive than halo 2.
    [*]Playability I wasn't sure how I was to phrase this, what I mean is that when playing half-life 2, everything starts to feel like one bad online puzzle game after the other, Valve needs to keep in mind that this is an action game, and without ample action, the game becomes boring very quickly.
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    or maybe its not an action game. again, your dislike of puzzles shouldn't affect your score of the game.

    My ratings:

    Half-Life 2
    Playability/Controls 15/20
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    controls shouldn't even be an issue in ANY PC game unless the developers are retarded. lets give it a 19
    Story 18/20
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    arguable, but i'll accept it

    Immersion 11/15
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    wrong. sorry, but wrong. lets give it eh...a 14, to be conservative
    Overall 86/100
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    real overall-93
    Halo 2
    Graphics 18/20
    Playability/Controls 18/20
    Story 16/20
    Multiplayer 23/25
    Immersion 14/15
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    i wouldn't have hit Story as hard as you did, maybe give it an 18. immersion is arguably high, but i'll accept it.
    Overall 89/100
    Click to expand...
    new ovverall-91
 
Minerel said:
Rather than reading all the damn pages... I will respond to this.
If you have to long down at your controls then you are barley a pc gamer. You can "edit" controls. You can change them so you never ever have to look down. A true pc gamer will never ever have to look down at his keyboard to find something.

I also must respond to this..

You had trouble to find out where to go.... Wow...you really arn't a pc gamer. HL2 is very linear....you should have no trouble at all.. Also level design should include how diffrent each level is one from another. HL2's levels are not anywhere near repeative thus giving it an accel at level design.


If HL2 was creepyy...well its acceling at something it was NEVER ever at all in any way even with ravenholm suppose to accel it. If you think it is scary you are messed up. Something is dearly wrong with you kid. Hell I've tried to make myself scared wit HL2, shutting off all the nights playing ravenholm... Not scary. Fun. Very insanley fun. You are very wierd...


Wow, it seems like you don't know to much about the storyline.. Considering the oringal HL's storyline has been talked about for 6 years? Now, HL2's storyilne has left much more puzzels in it for it to be talked about. It's like starcraft storyline. Starcrafts storyilne has been talked about by its, still huge, still growing community. It will be talked about until HL3 + more time comes out.

An unbiased opinon is nice, but an unbiased 8 year old opinon shoudn't ever be said to anyones ears.
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Arf accel, its excel I think you are trying to say.
 
thx for the correction. Me and spelling mistakes love eachother it seems.
 
Minerel said:
thx for the correction. Me and spelling mistakes love eachother it seems.
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Don't worry I'm dyslexic and Usually can't spell if my life depended on it, thank god for spell checkers.
 
Half Life 2 - 6000000%
Halo 2 - 0.00000000000000000000000000000000000001


I am an unbiased bystander.
 
Zeus said:
Half Life 2 - 6000000%
Halo 2 - 0.00000000000000000000000000000000000001


I am an unbiased bystander.
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Woah. That's my ratings too. :D :LOL:
 
Does Halo 2 not look PLASTIC to anyone else but me? I swear one of the biggest differences with immersion and graphics between to the games is the fake feeling I get when playing Halo 2 (actually I don't play it, I just watch my brother play it). It's like trying to compare glass to clear plastic that tries to come off looking like glass. You can feel the difference when you hold them.
 
I'm starting to think this would have been better posted somewhere else. Yes I love halo, I grew up with bungies games (marathon was the first FPS I played). But I absolutly love half-life and half-life 2. Now lets see, some of you have trouble with me saying I am unbiased. I believe that overall these games are ultimately unbelieveably fun and uncomparable, My rating were close, but I see many of you have decided that Halo 2 is very inferior to half-life 2. I could never make a decision between halo and half-life. Now about my controls comments. ok wow, now that was a great ball of flaming. I understand and love the controls of a keyboard and mouse, but in no way are they more realistic (I hate clicking a mouse to shoot, so much more natural to pull a trigger) than halo's controls. I don't understand how using the WASD keys (which arent even lined up properly to be used as arrow keys) and the mouse (admititally the mouse looking is natrural, but clicking to shoot is a downfall, not at all like holding a real gun)

one thing I realize i forgot to mention (unfortunately for me, in favor of halo) is cost. I can afford an xbox and a copy of halo (about $260 cnd) but to buy a copy of Half-life and a computer to be capable of graphics at minimum settings is a lot more. I guess i should have done this when i posted. *apply's anti flame suit*
 
omnistegan said:
Now about my controls comments. ok wow, now that was a great ball of flaming. I understand and love the controls of a keyboard and mouse, but in no way are they more realistic (I hate clicking a mouse to shoot, so much more natural to pull a trigger) than halo's controls. I don't understand how using the WASD keys (which arent even lined up properly to be used as arrow keys) and the mouse (admititally the mouse looking is natrural, but clicking to shoot is a downfall, not at all like holding a real gun)

one thing I realize i forgot to mention (unfortunately for me, in favor of halo) is cost. I can afford an xbox and a copy of halo (about $260 cnd) but to buy a copy of Half-life and a computer to be capable of graphics at minimum settings is a lot more. I guess i should have done this when i posted. *apply's anti flame suit*
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These should have nothing to do with the way you rate games at all. These are the consoles and not the games themselves. Incidently, when HL2 is released on X-Box will it all change your mind?
 
Certainly the controls on the xbox (if done well) would raise my controls rating, however, this is a comparison of the versions i have played, for half-life 2, the pc version.
 
Jeez, did we really have to jump all over this guy? He backed up his opinions, presented them in an understandable manner and did not call everybody fanboys. That's a good thing. His only faults were claiming to be unbiased and not realizing that VS threads are the work of the devil.
 
The comparison was stupid either way. He comes in a hl2 forum and tries to compare HL2 to Halo 2, the most overhyped game of the century. Of course we're going to notice when he starts spewing bullshit everywhere, and call him up on it. Especially when that BS is about half life 2, the game that brought us here in the first place - we know more about it than most other people.
 
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