Reader Reviews

Half-Life 2 (PC)

by Talha

Everybody at Valve, I want to kiss each and every one of you. Why, because you have made a wonderful game? Because the physics are unsurpassed? Because metallic doors clang, wooden doors rap, glass breaks, sun shines, people are PEOPLE? No. Simply because it did not cost me a penny more than the cover price to run your masterpiece at 1024x768 with everything cranked up on my admittedly humble system (P4 3.0GHz, 768 MB RAM, Radeon 9600 XT). The first time it ran, it really RAN, and the proverbial jaw dropped at the frame rate. This, after Doom 3 runs like a slide show (bad programming, nothing else) and Far Cry stutters occasionally. For a game that officially surpasses everything before it, it is unbelievable.

This is often the most overlooked aspect of the game. As far as optimisation and efficient, beautiful programming is concerned, I wouldn't hesitate in placing this game right alongside Gran Turismo and Halo 2. On top of that, the game ROCKS. I think I have seldom experienced more tension than in the sequence where you hop over train after train with the Combine behind you. Okay, it was quite easy, but you never knew it was before it ended, did you?

This game is IMMERSIVE. As beautiful as Far Cry's endless vistas are, they are somehow not as involving. There is something eerie and unsettling after battling it out in City 17 and then walk out onto the road, only to find City 17 around you minus the Barnacles. Anyone living in Asia would know what I am saying. In fact, several times on my morning commute I caught myself looking at condo buildings and the bright sunlight, and trying to imagine Combine soldiers manning the roof. And I literally could not believe my eyes seeing the birds that fly and wires that sway in the breeze - nothing new to be sure, but downright realistic.

The game's technical aspects have been discussed to death, and I am not well qualified to delve into them anyway. What I know is that this game looks FAR better than Doom 3 and anything else. Maybe id's magnum opus is more technically advanced, but they only created a bleak, depressing, repetitive, and monotonous world with all their weaponry.

My only complaint is how identical the Combine foot soldiers look. Call me whatever, I really appreciate the fact that the soldiers in Far Cry had individual personalities. Then again, it is a clever efficiency warranted by their masks. Once a save game loaded with AI disabled (this is happening quite often, in fact - does anyone of you have the same problem?), and I had time to check the frozen soldiers up close. Depressingly, they were the same.

The other complaint is the heavily scripted nature of the game. There is usually only one way, and if you can move forward from one place to another, it usually means you are on track. Then again, it might be the reason the game runs so beautifully on my machine.

The water effects are amazing, even if most of the water in the game is of the muddy, contaminated kind. You could call your father when on a map with water and easily fool him into believing it was a video.