Half-Life 2 | 
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| From: Vivendi Universal
Category: Video Games
List Price: $29.99
Buy Used: $2.99
You Save: $27.00 (90%)
New (4) Used (27) from $2.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  652 reviews
Sales Rank: 5268
Platforms: Windows Me, Windows 98, Windows Xp, Windows 2000
ESRB: Mature
Media: CD-ROM
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Number Of Items: 1
Batteries Included: No
Age: 17 - 20 years
Operating System: Windows 2000
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.2 x 1.4
MPN: HALFLIFE2
Model: 71608
UPC: 020626721387
EAN: 0020626721387
ASIN: B00006I02Z
Release Date: November 16, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | Sequel to the hit first-person shooter | | • | Scientist-with-a-crowbar Gordon Freeman joins a ragtag human resistance fighting extradimensional invaders for the survival of a conquered Earth | | • | Unnervingly realistic graphics the likes of which have not been witnessed outside of a motion picture or pre-rendered cut scene | | • | Realistic physics: objects have varied and appropriate mass, density, physical properties | | • | For 1 player |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Review
In many ways, creating a sequel to Half-Life is an unenviable task. After all, the goal is to craft not just any ordinary game, but an improvement to a title that is widely considered to be the high water mark for first person shooters. Fortunately, Valve does not disappoint on their sophomore effort. Half-Life 2 picks up exactly where its predecessor leaves off, with gamers stepping once more into Gordon Freeman's HVAC suit as he awakes at some indeterminate time in the future, now apparently in the employ of the mysterious G-Man. Humanity has been sold out to alien forces, and your job is to escape their thrall and lead the resistance to victory. HL2's key successes are in a few critical areas, the first of which is the new physics & graphics engine, called Source. People and objects fall, fly, tip over, float, and break in an extraordinarily realistic fashion, and in-game puzzles often require you to use simple applications of physics to progress. Second, an elaborate facial structure system coupled with excellent voice acting make for some of the most believably human NPCs in gaming history. This is no small thing; you will find yourself actually caring about the characters who surround you, even those that are normally regarded as cannon fodder. Third, the level design exhibits a subtle brilliance, which frequently fools you into feeling like you're making your way through an organic environment and not a forced linear path. These elements combine to form one of the most truly immersive experiences ever captured on a PC. This gaming bliss comes at a cost, however. If your computer isn't running the latest and greatest hardware, you may find yourself turning down a lot of the slick graphics to keep the machine from choking. Also, at the time of this writing the only two bundled multiplayer games are a barely updated version of Counter-Strike and HL2 DeathMatch. Counter-Strike: Source is every bit as fun as the original, but the DeathMatch is lackluster and contains only a handful of uninspired maps. Overall, Half-Life 2 is a smashing success, every bit worthy of the prestige and respect that the franchise has been awarded. This is absolutely a game that every computer gaming enthusiast is going to want to have in their collection. -- Jon "Safety Monkey" Grover Pros: - Advanced graphics and physics system provide highly immersive experience
- Believable, expressive non-player characters
- Fun, realistic level design
Cons: - Requires a very fast computer to play with all bells & whistles on
- DeathMatch mode has few maps and is not terribly entertaining
Product Description
Half-Life 2 delivers a new level of realistic action and excitement. Players return to the world of Gordon Freeman, as he returns to the Black Mesa research facility. The aliens are pouring into our world, and Freeman becomes part of a resistance group to stop them. New weapons, new enemies and new characters are waiting -- along with major enhancements in animation, artificial intelligence and graphics.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 647 more reviews...
 The beginning of a gaming empire April 5, 2008
Simply great. Works on many older PCs. There are tons of associated titles and mods available. And you cannot seriously plan on playing the HL2 episodes unless you have played this game. The story alone would make a great book or movie. The game is the best and is already a classic!
 Doesnt meet with all the hype. October 21, 2007
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Ive heard so many people say "oh, HL2 is hands down the best game ever." give me a break. I had more fun with other Valve products like Sin Episodes: Emergence.
I guess my biggest gripe was the game itself, instead of the installation problems. I mean, it had awesome graphics, cool weapons, but the important things weren't there. First off, the story was kind of bland. The ending wasn't all that great either. I guess the ending sucked because it was leaving it open for the following 2 episodes of HL2. Anyway, the story wasn't all that in depth. It was alright, but not as great as other games, like Sin, Halo, or Far Cry.
The game play was alright. You spend quite a bit traveling in the stupid airboat and car. Both of which, are a pain in the a$$ to control and you always have several people shooting at you or a gunship on your butt. I spent much of the time on these levels saving and reloading just to progress. I really wished they didn't have these levels. The car wasn't fun at all. It never wanted to go where you were turning the wheels and you always had a dozen antlions chewing your head off or something throwing you off the cliff. If they did without the vehicle levels, it would have been so much better.
A lot of the weapons were good, but there were a couple that were just crap. Mainly, the grenade and the rocketlauncher. Neither one were all that great unless you hit the enemy directly with either one. Got a room full of enemies? dont bother with a grenade. You may get half of them if youre lucky and they manage to congregate on the grenade. Other than that, its just easier to shoot them up with a rifle or something.
Good game i guess, if you like having your a$$ handed to you all the time. After a while it just gets tedious. Shoot, jump, shoot, save, get hurt, shoot, die, reload. Thats how it was for me the whole time i was playing. Either that you had some enemy, that you never seen before, that somehow managed to sneak up behind you and waste you away. I only struggled through this to see what the ending was like, and that was about it. Granted, the graphics were great, the engine was great, but these annoyances can really kill a game. There are several other games out there worth playing more than this one. Sin Episodes, Far Cry, Halo, any of these would be better. Dont get me wrong, i play several games, but this one definitely didn't live up to all the hype i kept hearing. If it wasn't for the graphics and engine, i would have given it only 1 star.
Still the Best PC Game Ever September 2, 2007
I just started recently playing HL2 again because I put together a new rig, and I have to tell you it is far from showing its age. What a phenomenal game and engine this is. This game has one of the best storylines and endings ever. The fishbowl game Bioshock has nothing on this.
The graphics are still amazing by today's standard. And when you install the FakeFactory Cinematic Mod v4, the only game that will surpass this visually is Crysis. The facial and mouth animations are still unmatched. The engine could use an update with new and more advanced shadowing, but that's it.
Also, I think steam is great. A couple of my HL2 CDs have become unreadable, but thankfully the cd-key is registered to my account so I am able to download this as many times as I want. Very convenient.
 buyer beware August 10, 2007
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
All the reviews bitching and moaning about Steam? They're spot-on. Steam simply ruined this game for me. It was HOURS from the time I unwrapped the box to the time when I could actually PLAY it. And the trouble never stopped. For weeks I stubbornly kept playing, in spite of system freezes, interminable delays between maps, and frustration with one of the damn dune buggies, which was terribly difficult to drive because the graphics kept jumping and stuttering (in spite of my pretty decent system, well above minimum requirements). And all this for the single-player game?!?!
I would say that I was playing the game maybe 50% of the time I spent trying to play it. The other 50% was spent waiting for a map to load, waiting for Steam to authenticate me, and rebooting my damn PC every damn time the game brought it to a screeching, frozen halt.
And then one day, I had an epiphany. The game play was pretty good. The puzzles were pretty good. I really liked that gravity gun. But it just wasn't worth the hassle. And it certainly wasn't worth relinquishing control of my system to that invasive Steam app. So I stopped playing. I uninstalled it. And I never looked back. I've not even been tempted this year to reinstall it and see if maybe some of the early bugs have been worked out.
I'd give the game away or sell it, but I wouldn't wish it on anyone with whom I'm on speaking terms -- or even an unwitting stranger. And I will NEVER, EVER buy another game that uses Steam or its ilk. I was shocked when I installed the game to see what kind of control I had to hand over to Steam in order to run the single-player game. I crossed my fingers, ignored my instincts, and let it run anyway. Dumb, dumb, dumb. What a terrible precedent to set in the PC software world. I won't succumb again.
REGISTRATION NIGHTMARE August 2, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I spent hours,...hours trying to acivate this game, shutting of software, virus control, firewalls deleting programs, all to no avail. could not activate the game. What a drag, I keep reading that the game is great, but this corporate, headless, inconsiderate, inhuman, non responsive entity wont let me play the game. so the game is probably good if you could activate, but good luck if you buy a used game. Beware if you buy a used game .The first owners have probably pirated the game and you are going to be stuck with a inoperable piece of software. Good luck!
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