Intro:
I'm going against what I believe in by comparing HL2 and D3, I still, to this very second, believe that you cannot legitly compare HL2 and D3, as they are both FPS, they are not the same type of game, at all!
But since everyone compares the two, i'm going to give some input of my own. Completly unbiased, and tell what I HONESTLY believe about both games.
Test Machine (my computer
)
Radeon 9800 Pro w/128mb DDR on board
Athlon XP 2600+ 1.9ghz
512mb RAM
5.1 Surround sound :
17" Flatscreen CRT
nice beefy mouse to fit my oversized hands
and a standard keyboard
all custom built of course
DOOM 3:
I bought Doom 3 the day it came out for a total of about $60, before that, and all the way up to now, i have never paid for a game over $30, but i bought it anyway, and I still [color=Red]DONT[/color] regret the purchase. But I am not hooked on that game, for ONE specific reason, I'm WAY too jumpy! I just jump about everything. But I mananged to get half way through that game before I reformatted my hard drive, but i backed up my save files, i just lost them
so i lost intrest because all the work i put into that game. The graphics were AWESOME, I could play on the HIGH setting for graphics (the second best) without a problem, which is saying something, and I could play on ULTRA (the highest) until more than 1 enemies appear
People say the game was too dark etc, and it was stupid you cant hold your light on the gun, but it really is the theme and style of the game. I played with some flashlight mods, and didnt like them as much.
But i was completly dissapointed with the Multiplayer. I know they werent even going to HAVE multiplayer in the first place, but if you're going to screw something up that much, just dont include it. I mean, FOUR levels? that SUCKED! And it's multiplayer now, you're not fighting the devils of mars, give us some LIGHT! I want to be able to FIND my openents. Seriously. And they "tryed" to fix this in the expansion. yeah, they added 2 guns or so, and 4 more levels (i think, maybe more, i only played it once) But it still sucked. Still cant see anything, they didnt make MP any better in the EXP. than they did in the standard D3.
so:
Graphics:
AWESOME, couldn't ask for more
Sounds:
AWESOME, fit perfectly, didnt notice a problem
Cut scenes:
GREAT, The people looked almost REAL! I mean, they arnt perfect, but, it's not prerecorded crap like in FF games. It's using the same engine that you are playing the game in. The people's facial animations (from what i remember) was pretty darn good. But the story line was a little...seemed kinda forced, if you know what i mean, i'm not saying that it's bad, because it's not, but just not an AWESOME orriginal story.
Physics:
OK, It's not lacking, but it doesnt seem to have anything revolutionary in this field.
Weapons:
FUN! The weapons are awesome, I go back to the game just to play with them
Multiplayer:
SUCKED, big time. If you want a multiplayer FPS, stick with Quake 2/3 or CS: (S)(CZ)
AI:
Not too good. You can tell it's script, they teleport in from no where, but they are kinda freaky. Some guys to "RAMBO" at you and WANT to die, the human like guys actually try to save themselves by hiding, but it's still a basic script: "Shoot, hide, reload, shoot, hide..." I wish we would get a game with real AI some time soon. but i wont get my hopes up. Maybe after my 2 year mission we'll get something going.
Overall:
, the game was really fun, if i get my nerves back up, i'll play again some time
HALF LIFE 2:
I just bought Half Life 2 last week for a total of $27.XX, off ebay, never used, not even opened, good deal if i do say so myself.
At first, I just kept getting stuck, because I forgot about the E button to lift things and open doors. So I was pushing boxes around and getting really mad at Valve for putting something so stupid in a game. I'm kindof confused about the storyline but of course, i never played HL1
yeah yeah yeah, shutup, i dont WANT to play it. I'll just look up the story online some time. People made a big deal about Cut Scenes being a PART of the game, and how awesome it was, blah blah blah. Yeah, it was a cool idea. But it's kindof annoying, because i'm trying to figure out what's going on, and i have to make sure i'm following these people around. Just let me WATCH what's going on, give me a little break here. And you have to look right at the people who are talking so you can hear them, otherwise the 3d sound makes it quieter (if you have headphones on, havnt been able to play this yet with my 5 speaker setup, too many little kids around
) But, life goes on, nothing serious.
HL2 deathmatch is somewhat fun too, but i'm not good enough to play online because everyone has been playing for so long and i just suck naturally at FPS deathmatch games
. CS:S is a really awesome game too, i've put more minutes on that game than i have on HL2 thus far :p, but this review isnt for that game.
I havnt noticed anything out of the ordinary with the AI.
The graphics are good, i have them on the highest setting I can without getting any lag. But i was honestly expecting more. One thing i noticed is that no one has long hair. They either are wearing a hat, or have their hair up, why? because they didnt want to make hair, and that's just weak. The people's faces are kinda cool, i really like them, really real looking, just like the people in D3. But the graphics were just lacking something, maybe it's because my settings arnt high enough, we'll find out when the Nv 7800 GTX graphics card is under $150
Now to talk about my favorite part of this game. The physics. I would personally pay $20 for a demo on that physics engine. It's so AMAIZING! I have never seen anything like it. The puzzle in under that bridge near the start of the game where you have to pick up the cinder blocks and put them on that ramp to make it teeter the other way. It's so REAL! the way almost every object can be thrown, or kicked, you shoot a bucket, and it goes flying like what a real bucket would've looked like! It's amaizing! With any luck, they will releace the source code to this game like ID is with Q3 now. but i doubt it. Maybe they'll just give out their Physics engine. It's so amaizing, if we can do physics like this on todays machines, just wait to see what it looks like after the Physics Processor (PPU) catches on!
Now for my ratings:
Graphics:
1/2 AWESOME! They were good, just wasnt quite what i was expecting, the game was hyped up too much. So many good things in this game for people to hype up, and graphics arnt one of them. Nothing out of the ordinary.
Sounds:
GREAT. Didn't notice anything out of the ordinary with this, but what is there to expect? Sounds fit, the music is quite awesome actually, the way the music kicks in at an intense part, but that's not orriginal, something we saw in Halo a few years ago.
Cut scenes:
GOOD. Good idea, just too annoying, when i hit a cut scene in a game, i want to watch it, not play it. But again, like in Doom3, I like how they dont have to go to a different engine to make the cutscenes AMAIZING like in FF, they can stick with what they already have.
Physics:
FREAKING AMAIZING!!!! Never have seen anything like it! like I said before, I would pay just to play with the physics engine.
Weapons:
, nothing too orriginal here. Doom/Quake games always have their BFG that are really cool, this one has it's GGun, but seriously, nothing way amaizing.
Multiplayer:
I'm not counting CS:S as part of HL2, they're only games built on the same engine, but not the same game, so this is HL2 Deathmatch, it was GOOD, but we need some better levels.
AI:
Not too good. Same as Doom 3, nothing but very appearant scripting. The troops appear out of nowhere, shoot you, hide for a second, shoot some more. It's stupid, could be better. I know this because i played Counter Stike: Condition Zero, the bots in that game, amaizing.
Overall:
AWESOME GAME! The engine is near perfect. this game makes me want to give up sleep just to play it. It's easilly one of the best GAMES (not just FPS) ever made!
CONCLUSION:
Both games are awesome. That's my honest opionion. Both could use some work, but no huge complaints against either of them. If someone asked me "what game would you recommend me, D3 or HL2?" I would say, they're both two completly different games. If you like crapping your pants every time you turn a corner, get D3, if you like puzzles and story, get HL2, if you like Multiplayer, get Q3, UT2004, or CS
And the first person to tell me "you're a retard it's apparent [game X] is so much better!!" or anything like it, can go shove their heads down a latrine or something. because i really dont want to hear it, this is my honest opionions on both games.
"people who wear clothing with tech themes for the purpose of gaining a social label are no different than teenagers who wear large sweatpants to look edgy"
-Wikipedia "Nerd"