HL2 Episode 2

[Samwise]

Aside from constantly swearing over the lack of a working trunk or glove compartment in the goddamn car, I'm liking it.

(Fucking gnome.  Fucking Source physics not dealing well with moving frames of reference.  Fucking inability to hold on to something while being shot at by a helicopter.  FUCK.)

[lesion]

fuck the gnome, fuck the gnome, fuck the gnome

[Der Helm]

Will probably play it tonight after I come home from work.

[Riggswolfe]

If any of you have it on 360, do you know if they'll release future episodes on XBOX Live? I can't imagine them not doing it to be honest.

[Azazel]

What? They finally released it? I should download it, I guess.

Damn, back at work, I had no idea...

[schild]

If any of you have it on 360, do you know if they'll release future episodes on XBOX Live? I can't imagine them not doing it to be honest.

I suspect they'll all be disc based. Maybe Episode 3 & 4 in one bundle.

That said, these games are not, in any way, built for consoles. I don't say that very often.

[bhodikhan]

The mere mention of a gnome in a Valve game scares me. Is it really a gnome? WTF?

[schild]

I hear the gnome has cake.

[Samwise]

THE CAKE IS A LIE

[bhodi]

THE CAKE IS REAL!

[Miasma]

I saw that gnome underneath something and pulled it out, I also saw an achievement to put it into space.  Does that mean I would have to lug that thing around all the way to, I'm guessing, the end of the episode?

I also don't think I should be able to unlock achievements if I have the developer console enabled...

[HAMMER FRENZY]

Surprisingly I heard that TF2 plays alright on 360. I would like to try it.

[Samwise]

I saw that gnome underneath something and pulled it out, I also saw an achievement to put it into space.  Does that mean I would have to lug that thing around all the way to, I'm guessing, the end of the episode?

I also don't think I should be able to unlock achievements if I have the developer console enabled...

Yes.

And no.  Little glitches in the game (ones that would easily be overlooked if you weren't trying to do weird stuff like carrying a single object through the entire game)  make a couple of the achievements very difficult in a not-fun way.  Stuff like noclip at least gives you a way to work around the glitches when they come up instead of having to reload from a save a couple of hours ago.

The biggest such glitch is the complete failure of the physics engine to handle objects inside other moving objects.  for example, when I put the gnome down in an elevator and the elevator started moving (holding the gnome is not an option because you can't use the Use key while carrying an object), the "collision" between the bottom of the slowly rising elevator car and the gnome sent the gnome flying out of the elevator and down a canyon or something.  If I'd dropped the gnome through my own ineptitude I'd have been happy to spend five minutes walking my ass down there (assuming it was an option; the elevator might have been one-way in which case I'd have been hosed no matter what), but as it was I was happy to use noclip to retrieve it and then pretend that the gnome had really ridden serenely up the elevator with the rest of us like it should have.

If I hadn't already gone through so much hassle to get it this far I'd chuck the thing into the ocean.   

[eldaec]

THE CAKE IS A LIE

Do not take the cake's name in vain.

[rattran]

I've lost all desire to play at the 'fling eggs at the striders' Is that at least near the end? I could slog through maybe 45 more minutes.

Otherwise, I'll play Portal and TF2 and hope Gordon Freeman dies of terminal muteness.

THE CAKE IS A LIE is a lie.

[Prospero]

It's very close to the end. Very close.

[Samwise]

I can die fulfilled.

(edit) And yes, the egg-flinging sucks.  I can't fathom getting the achievement for that section.  Maybe on Easy it wouldn't take every single shell in your inventory to drop the cockblocking hunters.

Has anyone figured out how to kill them with their own flechettes?  I can't get the gravity gun to latch onto them.

[Prospero]

It's all about running over the damn hunters. Hell, you can mostly ignore them if you drive close enough to the striders. The human infantry seems to do an OK job of taking them out.

[Obo]

The fun part of that whole sequence for me was hitting the turbo and smashing into three hunters at once, taking them all out. Little bastards.

I'm glad I was oblivious to the gnome, I might just have gone and done it. I went out of my way to squish every grub I could find and I still missed about 15 somehow.

[lesion]

Has anyone figured out how to kill them with their own flechettes?  I can't get the gravity gun to latch onto them.

one solution is to grab something hefty and throw it at the hunter just as the flechettes are going to pop.

[bhodi]

You know, I tried playing episode 2 last night, after playing portal all of the night before last. The game felt dull and boring so I stopped after the move the turrets section.

Damn you portal, you've ruined me!

[rattran]

Boy, I'm glad that was nearly the end. HL2 was okay, Ep 1 was disappointing, I thought Ep 2 sucked.

I'll probably get Ep 3 just for the Portal tie-in, but damn if I'm going to play Ep 1 or 2 again.

[Prospero]

I enjoyed ep 2 quite a bit; actually I think I like it more than ep 1, but it has been awhile. I liked the fact I almost never had full health through the entire game. I was always a little on edge. Generally in HL games I'm almost constantly maxed on health/armor. The big set piece battles with NPCs were also a lot of fun. The strider fight was also wonderfully frantic. Mowing down Hunters with my car just felt good.

[LK]

I found it more humorous that I locked Lamar in there.

Can you leave the Gnome in areas that you'll return to and still find it there? Example: When returning with the Larval Essence, you come back to the Antlion defense area.  Seems like a good place to leave the item.

[Samwise]

Yup.  He never mysteriously vanishes, even across level loads and so forth.  You can also fling him ahead of you and be able to find him later (as long as he doesn't go off a cliff or anything), which is handy during White Forest when you're driving down that big hill.

Don't leave him behind when you go to fetch the car off the bridge, though.  It may seem like you'll get to go back there, but you don't.   

[eldaec]

Biggest issue with ep2 for me is that the gravity gun was completely played out by the end of the main game.

Ep1 I enjoyed despite the gravity gun sections.

By Ep2 the gravity gun is entirely tiresome.

[Miasma]

I hate the gravity gun, and by now the "look at our physics engine" puzzles are worn out, portal puzzles will be welcome.  My only fear is that they will combine a worn out gravity gun puzzle with an interesting portal one and ruin the portal puzzle because of it.  I refuse to clean up that last sentence and make it coherent.

I didn't see a G-man cameo anywhere while playing, was I just not paying enough attention or did he not show up this time?

[eldaec]

Much as I think a cameo of portals + shooting could be fun, I suspect Portal did almost every trick they're going to think of with portals.

So if the portal gun does show up, I rather hope they don't go overboard.


Half life should be about the pew pew and the cool set pieces.


EDIT:

BAd guys with portal guns feels like it might have more mileage.

[Ookii]

You can run them over in the fucking car?   I KILLED THEM ALL BY HAND, goddamn hunters.

[Prospero]

Ouch. Yeah, the car is your friend. I didn't fire a single bullet at hunters during the entire fight.

[Samwise]

I didn't see a G-man cameo anywhere while playing, was I just not paying enough attention or did he not show up this time?

I saw him on the bridge.  And I'm usually really bad at spotting him so I bet that wasn't the only one.

[schild]

He's in "the video" for about a split second on "the ship."

[Fabricated]

You can also see the G-Man in the destroyed rebel base when Alyx and the Vort are babbling about how to get to the car. Check the bridge to your left and look through the windows.

[schild]

I think Samwise was talking about that. On the bridge. Next to the destroyed Rebel base. Babbling about how to get the car.

[Miasma]

When can we spoiler this up?  Not that there is a whole lot to talk about.