hehe, I've been playing CS:S on a 1.4 GHz TBird 128+512M ram, 9600Pro. It's a little choppy, but still playable. My computer is 3.5 years old now. I'm just waiting till I get into grad school to build another.

What kind of video cards are you guys using to play this beast? Anyone know if it's doom 3 requirements steep?

definitely not as harsh requirements as doom 3 but in my opinion the graphics are better.

Simply breaking from the confines of the Doom3 levels alone will be much more fun.

As long as there are lights in it i will like it more than Doom3.

I held the flashlight more than I held any of the guns in that stupid game

This game combined with Halo 2, GTA:SA, NFSU:2 and on top of all that, a new handheld is released (DS)!!! November is t3h s3x

November<< :icare:

Don't forget Metal Gear Solid 3, World of Warcraft, and Everquest2 ;)

The only game I can afford and the only one Im looking forward too
Here's to replaying the original HL in the Source engine!

halflife source isn't the original game in the source engine, i was very disappointed to find that out. the only real differences you'll see are the water effects and some physics improvements, but without the gravity gun to play with, and with the fact that the game wasn't designed with physics in mind it won't matter a lot. the levels, even the textures, are the same from the original, except for some slight quality upgrades that came with the halflife blueshift addon (higher quality models, guns, etc), though all still very much of the halflife 1 engine.

not that has any effect on my choice to buy the deluxe edition, but it bummed me out.

I'd like to know where you found this info? From what I've heard, Valve completely redid the game in the source engine.
Please provide linkage or proof at least(Not that Im trying to say you're wrong), I want to know whats going on.

My bad, turns out you were partially right tooblekane. I did some hunting on the Halflife2.net forums and discovered that HL:Source will be the same textures, Blue shift models, and all the effects (Including physics) of the source engine, but thats it.

sad, isn't it? hopefully some talented mod makers will take care of the want to play halflife in the source engine though.

Im really hoping your right. Valve's "collectors edition" just doenst seem all that appealing anymore. I was perfectly willing to shell out an extra $20 for the original Half-Life if it was totally redone, but not if its just got pretty water and physics. Hell, I might still just so I can get HL2 on DVD instead of CD, but its not a sure thing anymore.

i'm still going to get it, mainly because i want it. i want the box, i want the dvd over cds, i want the book, and i want to support valve.

does anyone know if the deluxe/collector's edition will be available in stores, or is it online orders only?

It is available in stores as far as I know, but you might have to hunt around to find it. EBgames has it available for in store pickup if you order it online, although thats only in the states.

Im still leaning towards the deluxe/collectors edition because of the DVD as well.

Heres the bad thing currently about getting Half-Life 2 tho. If you purchase it like i did, and get it via Steam, you have to download it. Recently, like last weekend, i added another western digital 74gb raptor to the one i have, and for obvious reasons, i set them up together for raid. In doing that i lost the half life 2 preload and counter strike source that i had on my drive at the time. Now, even tho im a registered user and purchaser of the "Silver" Package, the server is so busy, it wont let me download anything! I get this message "The Steam servers are currently too busy to handle any more pre-loads of half-life 2. Please try again in a few hours".

They really should put please try again in a few YEARS, because ive tried at random times over the last few DAYS and i cannot download a game ive bought via a internet streaming delivery service.

My advice to you, buy the game in a STORE. Screw buying it through steam.

Oh forget Steam. I hate it, I was planning on buying through the store. You can get the collecters edition DVD through stores as far as I know which I think Im planning on doing.

In summary. Steam = poop

Yeah I honestly am regretting purchasing through steam just to "have it that second". Ill bet it comes out on tuesday, and like every other game, id just pick it up on the way home. Now im stuck with no hard copy ( will you be able to burn hl2 from steam to a cd or are you forced to keep downloading it ? ).

To bad you cant get a refund :/

I can't wait for this game. Just hope my computer can handle it.

DON'T BELIVE THE HYPE!

Sorry to burst your bubble but no matter what you use steam.

Retail just saves you the time of downloading, but steam saved you the time of installing on day of release and just unlocks it.

I <3 Steam

So is steam better than buying at store?

Video card
 

As to the video card I have its a Radeon X800 Pro.
I upgraded my system not long ago to be sure I could play the latest games.

HL2 on 6 cds = crap. Still not paying for the DVDs though.

Well the game does come out on the 16th, but if you preordered the biggest package, you will not get it uintill the 17th:(

Thats the one I ordered so I got to wait an extra day...I find that to be bullshit. But hell I still get the game;)


You have to buy the game still from the store, you can download Counter Strike and Day Of Defeat from steam...which might make it faster for when you finally go out and buy the game!

The Collector's Edition is nice and all but the packaging is absolute crap! It's in an oversized thin card box with a nasty corrugated cardboard inner which opens like the old school PC game boxes, in side that is the T-Shirt which is just jammed in alongside a jewel case with the mini Prima guide. It looks more rushed that Enter the Matrix.

The normal edition isn't that much better either, 5 CD's in freaking PAPER sleeves...

I dont follow this at all...

The game is released the same day no matter what package, both normal and CE are released the same day.

There should be no waiting involved, if there is its whoever you bought it from's issue.

Holy fucking shit this game is coming out on Tuesday.

Yeah, only about 30 more hours!

geez i got this game by fluke on friday to bad you have to wait till tuesday :( and add to that i think my comp will die if i tried to play it on this anyway :(

http://www.steampowered.com/index.php?area=news&id=344

I thought there'd be more talk on this here but I guess blar is the only one to buy it early.

I kinda figured it would be sold early just like Doom 3 but I guess the Steam authentication comes to play (no pun intended) here.

My Friend (who's highly addicted the HL and has bought the Gold Edition as well as Pre-ordered the Collectors edition) picked up a regular retail copy on Saturday at Best Buy down the street from my house. He installed it and of course got the "Thanks for installing the game. It will be ready to play the moment it is released" message. So he called Valve and left a message complaining that if the game is supposed to only become available on the 16th why was he able to buy it early. A Valve representative called back within 5 minutes of leaving the message asking for specific info on where he bought it and how much he paid for it. The Valve rep (named Chris) stated that they were trying to collect as much info as possible from early buyers so that the would be able to go to Court on Monday against Vivendi for not being able to control their retail outlet sources.

To be continued I suppose.

That is awesome.

Vivendi has been beyond a pain in the ass for Valve throughout this entire process. Karma will do its job.

woot less than 24 hours till the release

Ummm...it's already released...well at least in some/most/all Best Buy's...

That's at most a different definition of "released", and I suspect in the future we will all need to adjust our definitions accordingly.

- it wasn't "released", it was sold prematurely by some dummies at some stores and it just snowballed from there. It will be "released" on the 16th, when Vivendi officially gives the green flag and Valve turns on Steam activation

- the copies being sold right now cannot be played until the official date anyway

OH FUCK.HL2 Review @ IGN

But, you can't play it until 12:00 -8 GMT. The Steam servers will unlock it in 4 hours and 30 minutes from now. :)

1 hour 17 min now. I cant decide if I want to take a nap and try to force myself up at 3am, or if I should just try to stay awake for the next hour.......

GTA:SA, Halo 2, Half-Life 2, Metriod Prime 2, and Doom 3.

This is indeed a good time to be a gamer.