Together Retro: Half-Life

[Stark]

Is anyone playing the PS2 version of this? If so, how is it?

[prunkhaft]

Sooo, I have 14 life, and am facing a hallway with a puddle I can't jump over. I just turned the power on, and a current has electrified the water. I cannot seem to pass it. Am I screwed? The other save is quite a ways back. The combo of radiation and falling elevators is literally killing me.

[Ack]

Sooo, I have 14 life, and am facing a hallway with a puddle I can't jump over. I just turned the power on, and a current has electrified the water. I cannot seem to pass it. Am I screwed? The other save is quite a ways back. The combo of radiation and falling elevators is literally killing me.

Well, I know you think you are boxed in, but I assure you that there is some way to push your way through it. Or better yet, surmount your problem and climb above it.

[ExedExes]

Sooo, I have 14 life, and am facing a hallway with a puddle I can't jump over. I just turned the power on, and a current has electrified the water. I cannot seem to pass it. Am I screwed? The other save is quite a ways back. The combo of radiation and falling elevators is literally killing me.

Well, I know you think you are boxed in, but I assure you that there is some way to push your way through it. Or better yet, surmount your problem and climb above it.

Put a little better than what I would have said. Yes, I had an issue with this part too

[prunkhaft]

Sooo, I have 14 life, and am facing a hallway with a puddle I can't jump over. I just turned the power on, and a current has electrified the water. I cannot seem to pass it. Am I screwed? The other save is quite a ways back. The combo of radiation and falling elevators is literally killing me.

Well, I know you think you are boxed in, but I assure you that there is some way to push your way through it. Or better yet, surmount your problem and climb above it.

Boy am I trying. Boxes cant be pushed in more than one deep, and I don't see anywhere to climb. Aggravated. I gotta save about an hour back, I'll see if I can try to mitigate how much damage I take.

[noiseredux]

Jumping onto a box is a thing too...

[prunkhaft]

Jumping onto a box is a thing too...

Right. I tried that first. But once two boxes are lined up on the water, I can't use a third to push them any further. And it's still too long of a jump. I'll figure it out. I feel really dumb right now.

[Krysno]

Prunkhaft, boxes may be able to go further than one. While I haven't seen the long jump module yet, I think that spot would have been a good place to put one.

-I'm playing the PS2 version now, and I think it compares equally to the PC version. The main difference that I've noticed is in aiming. While I prefer to use a mouse and keyboard, the PS2 version has a lock-on feature via button press to compensate for less accurate controls. When your targeting reticle gets close to an enemy, you can choose to lock on to that enemy. If you do, your viewpoint will follow the target as it moves around you. This comes in particularly handy for flying head-crabs. You can adjust your vertical aim while locked onto the target, but you can't adjust horizontal alignment.

The game plays less fluidly with the PS2 controller, but that's probably only because I'm terrible at first person shooters with dual analog control. Give me Doom with shoulder-strafing and I'm good to go like a happy clam. What I should do is get a keyboard and mouse for the PS2.

Other than control differences, the PS2 offers widescreen 16:9 (stretched?) and an easy to use quicksave function. There are a smattering of audio glitches, mostly dialog that gets cut-off or interrupted by other scripts, but nothing that seriously diminishes the experience. One glaring bonus is the inclusion of the Decay campaign, a one or two player side story in which you play supporting scientist characters that work "behind the scenes" in Gordon Freeman's campaign. The Decay levels require task cooperation between the two characters to progress, and offer a deeper perspective into the events that graze Freeman's experience.

PS2 Half-Life gets two thumbs-up, but PC takes the cake...

[Menegrothx]

Can we discuss here why the Xen levels are so notorious amongst some heretics? They're the most unique thing about the game and totally awesome. Sure there's some trial and error with the jumping, but it's not like that was unheard of in the earlier stages of the game.

The general rule for TR is to pick a title that has seen release on multiple machines, and with Half-Life, there are versions for PC, Mac, Linux, PS2, and Dreamcast.

Why? It's better to play an awesome exclusive game than a mediocre multiplatform game. And iOS/XBLA/PSN port isn't much different from emulation in my eyes. Just last year Together Retro had Gunstar Heroes and more importantly Guardian Heroes. Even though there is a Game Gear port, Gunstar Heroes is a Genesis game, every one knows that. Guardian Heroes was a Saturn exclusive from 1996 to 2011 - then it got a XBLA port. And I really don't see iOS/XBLA/PSN/Steam cash ins as actual ports. A port=comes out to a competing platform when the game is still relevant (!=15 or 20 years after it's new), like Half-life being getting a Dreamcast/PS2 port.

[noiseredux]

Why? It's better to play an awesome exclusive game than a mediocre multiplatform game.

mostly to encourage more folks to join (more ports means more chance you own a platform it's on) and it's also fun to compare/contrast ports -- like how I'm playing DC, krysno's playing PS2 and most are playing PC this month.

EDIT: And don't forget Gunstar got a PS2 port as well. Though you can say that XBLA/PSN/etc is the same as emulation, there are some folks who choose not to emulate. To them buying a digital port is a more legit option. No need to get into that debate now, but just kind of trying to answer your question on the rationale.