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Half Life
Page 5
A3D and EAX support
The several sound-effects are outstanding too! Half-Life has A3D and EAX support. If your soundcard support one of those audio technologies it will kick ass!! Remember the Dolby Surround or -Digital on your VHS stereo nicam tapes? Didn't you hear the sounds passing you by from all your boxes? Yeah, well Half-Life will do the same if your soundcard supports it.
From the sound that the crowbar uses to the sound when you're firing some grenades it's all so realistic that you would just shoot in the air. Just for fun!
Even the other sounds like the digitalized speech is just outstanding! The music is also awesome. When playing Half-Life you will notice that the music isn't running all the time. No. When something happens or when you're at a critical point the music plays and sometimes you may expect some very terrifying music. One word to describe it: Excellent!
Controls
You, Gordon, can be controlled very easily. There are 2 common styles of play. Using your keyboard with your left hand and using your mouse with your right. Of course you can also use the keyboard alone.
However, I played with the mouse and keyboard and I must say that it's very effective in most areas. With your mouse you can select the free-look mode which is also found in most FPS games. This means that you can look at anything you want. Just move the mouse (left, right, up or down) and your view will change. The 2 mouse buttons can be customized. One for walking forward and the other for primary fire.
I don't have to say that every command can of course be customized at your needs. I don't really recommend using a gamepad because when using it you're a bit limited in moving around. You can't move that fast as with your mouse and it doesn't go that smoothly as well.
I tried it out with my Sidewinder gamepad , from Microsoft and while it's probably the best gamepad that you can buy it isn't easy to navigate in Half-Life. Therefore I recommend using a mouse with your keyboard is the best configuration.
Two great Services
Surprise! Half-Life offers you 2 other great services.
First, there is the multiple Multiplayer support. It supports 32 players on an Internet/LAN account and you can battle it out on the usual other multiplayer connections.
I'm a bit tired of writing the same thing over and over again so I guess you know by now what those other multiplayer connections are. If not, ehm ... just mail us.
Of course nothing is perfect and we're already getting used to the idea that when a game ships that it
certainly will need a patch. Well, Half-Life with all it gorgeous things also will need a patch. There's already a patch available but it doesn't fix it all. Certainly with the multiplayer option, it does give me some frustrations. Too much lag on servers and insufficient pings will make the frustration so high that your hair will fall out or that it will turn grey. Hehehe no kiddin'.
Anyway don't panic because Half-Life is an excellent and awesome game and a future patch will certainly fix those little bugs.
You can also connect to the WON.net webiste which is supported to get the latest news on multiplayer Half-Life. If you want, tips and strategy guides, contests, mod and skin libraries can also be found at WON.
The other surpise is that the guys at Valve have included Worldcraft 2.0.
So wtf is Worldcraft? If you have finished Half-Life already and you're hungry for more then you can create you own custom-built Half-Life levels. The editor is one of the most popular and powerful level editors around. Just click and create. Pathways, machinery, furniture and more, all the Half-Life objects are included and if you still can't create something, check out the Online Help. You'll find an Overview of Level editing, a step-by-step (remember that song?) tutorial, a detailed reference section and some other helpful things. In others words ... this is one hell of a powerful tool and other level-designers will certainly appreciate this present.
Conclusion
Is there anything more to say about Half-Life? Probably not. The developer, Valve Software has worked approximately 3 years on this title and it's a real beauty!
With its excellent graphics; the best I have ever seen, outstanding gameplay, great sound effects and music and a lot of other awesome things I couldn't find any negative point. Except for the little lag on Multiplayer but this is already solved in the recent patch (I heard).
Half-Life is just one of those games that every gamer should buy. Even if you're not really into FPS games, you really should spend your money on this one. Once played, you will be hungry for more.
Fun, fun, fun!
-Bjorn
Ratings
Manual:
88% |
Graphics:
98% |
Music & Sfx:
95% |
GamePlay:
96% |
|
This game scores
on our 5-point Rating System
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