Liveblogging HL2: Episode One

I'm playing now, onto the third chapter. It's fairly fast-playing, but so far I'm thinking I'll go for a few runs through like I did with HL2. Plays quite smoothly (probably 30fps min, I haven't noticed any choppiness but can't say I've been running an hour+ FRAPS benchmark either) with my setup (see sig) at 1920x1200 2xAA 4xAF HDR, and looks quite nice too.

Alas, work today I tried to cheat Steam like I did with Lost Coast by setting my clock ahead to past midnight, only to be foiled by a 10am release (or whenever it was, I was at school). Gah. At least all is running smoothly.

 

http://www.bit-tech.net/content_images/half_life_2_episode_one/3_large.jpg
did anyone else see this in game and immediately think "lol sky goatse!" or was it just me?

i played the first bit (up to the van 'ride') just to get a feel for it on my current card (x800xl ) so i can compare to playing it on max settings with my x1900xt when it arrives

 

Anyone wanna to let me borrow their steam account so I can play it?

 

Argh. Unlocked okay, but still downloading the game files. Goddamn it's slow.

 

and i completed it, i didnt start till 6:25 either lol

i had a break so i recon i completed it in like 2 and a half hours

Edit
Oh yeh i thought it was pretty dissapointing, only like 1 new monster, The game is pretty short ....

the game is rather predictable, and as allways the puzzles are far too easy to figure out

 

That's the only thing that annoys me with gaming. Especially when you're playing an online fps or MMORPG, as toilet breaks have to be taken and they ruin your pvp.

 

I'm on the second to last chapter now, I'm really enjoying this game. Fast and frantic, it's damn awesome.

The graphics have had an upgrade too I feel

 

Is it me or did the crosshair change a bit? Seems to have a gauge thing on it...

 

yes it has, as far as i can tell, the left bar is hp
the right bar is ammo loaded in your gun ...

im not sure when it changes, or if its that way from the beggining, i didnt notice it for quite a while

 

Woo, finished

Very good, bring on ep2, oh and incidentally, you get a trailer for that after the credits

 

You could turn that on in the original, but it was off by default. It's "display information on crosshair" or something like that - one side is your remaining ammo, other is the health.

 

Hmm.. Didn't know that, seems usefull though since you're constantly staring at your crosshair while you play
So I'm guessing it's on by default for Episode 1?

 

damn so my game did crash at the end, grrr

 

Grr, valve need to sort out some kind of queing system, I was on like 700kb/s then #'@$ 15kb/s now back to around 100kb/s, 55%, looks like I'm playing this tommorrw...

-Fr4nk

 

Finally finished decrypting the bloody think by half 6 and finished the game by half 9.

First half of the game was boring. 2nd half was pritty exciting but it ended too soon.

I was under the impression that you play as alyx for a part of the game. dunno where i got that from.

Its nothing compared to HL2. No vehicles and exactly the same content. just in a different "map" if you like. a few new monsters but nothing to write home about.

I expected more but I guess its only a small episode so it was worth the money.

HDR was nice and very effective. It ran alot better with HDR than the HL2 technology level when they first showed off HDR, its clear they worked on optimizing it(since i have the exact same hardware as when i played HL2)

Overall I was slightly dissapointed by the game. Still for £9 I will class it as a treat.

 

I have Half life 2 but I havent played it yet (please dont hurt me) but all this Episode 1 banter is sparking my interest in the game. How many episodes will there be £9 sounds good for a game, well part of one but if theres like 10 episodes that one expensove game

 

I can't wait to play this! I am going to wait until the weekend so i can play without worrying about school work.

 

HL2E1

finished aswel, it was quite disapointing i thought, it was a visual splender but bits got repetative and boring, they could of done better but it was a good game. would of finished it alot sooner if steam had realised id instaled it with a dvd insted of being gay and trying to preload it all the time, anyone else have that problem???

 

Ok, this is odd, it runs even though its 65%, ahwell, I'm happy XD.

-Fr4nk

 

Finished also. Great game, awesome graphics. I disagree that it became repetative. For an FPS it was pretty varied. The escort duty and set pieces were excellent. Any news on when Episode 2 will be released? Cause the trailer to that looks even better. New enemies/allies/environments. I think we'll see what the source engine can really do.

@Will: If you were in the hospital 30 minutes ago you should finish the game pretty soon.