Thread: Beautiful...

I've been playing the Half-Life series over and every time I play Half-Life 2 (or the episodes) I find myself saying "Wow, this still looks amazing!" (see imgur link) and "Why don't they do this in other games?"

I mean the game is 7 years old and there hasn't been an equal in my opinion.

1. It pretty much has the best physics engine ever designed. Everything had weight, friction, buoyancy. I loved making the see-saw things with the cinder blocks.
It was so much fun taking boxes, breaking them, then breaking them again. Same with watermelon.

2. It's the little things: Being able to take a paint can, throw it against a wall and paint the wall white. Picking up a pop can and being able to put it in the trash. Being able to break a bottle into little pieces and then pick up the pieces.

3. Single player is engaging, dynamic, and FUN! I have yet to have a single player game I've replayed more than the HL series.

4. Characters. VERY real looking even by today's standards. The emotions Alyx conveys in her face is astounding.

5. Story: HL has the of the best story lines I've ever seen. Plain and simple.

Here is the full size,
http://i.imgur.com/F38HY.jpg



If you've never played Half-Life 2, I HIGHLY recommend it. It is one of the greatest games ever made.

Originally Posted by bob101

Man, I love when this happens in games... happened several times in the HL series. The only other game to impress me more with it's visual beauty has to be Skyrim. Can't count how many times I've just gotten lost in the scenery and wandered around enjoying the sights

The difference being that Skyrim is open world and HL2 is set up so perfectly I could only tell it wasn't open world because the story progress the more I roamed and explored. I crossed that one bridge because I wanted to see if I could, had no idea I was supposed to go that way. That's what made the game perfect. No invisible walls or obvious paths. You're subtly moved along the path in such a way that you think going that direction was your idea.