I've had this on my mind a lot lately: Which is better, Halo 2 or Half-Life 2? Halo 2 got a better rating on Gamespot. But why?

I've played both, now - don't get me wrong, I'm still a fan of Halo. I believe the reason why Halo 2 got a better rating than Half-Life 2 was either because of Steam (har, har) or because those who rated Halo hadn't played Half-Life.

Now, when I go and play Halo 2, I notice how bad the graphics are. And the game isn't nearly as fun anymore, when I compare it to HL2. It is much, much shorter in length, and doesn't have nearly as many possibilites. In Halo 2, you advance through a linear map filled with enemies - and that is it. In Half-Life 2, you advance through a varied map filled with enemies, puzzles, and, as aforementioned, possibilites. Sure, I could understand that, without the dev console, there wouldn't be anywhere near as many possibilites.

When I play Halo 2, I wince when I kill an enemy with a grenade. They fly into the air, hands flailing, like they're swimming - nearly every time. The physics SUCK! Bungie couldn't have spent a few more hours perfecting the ragdolls, instead of sleeping? Heh, heh.

Plus, the weapons in Halo 2 aren't very fun at all - any more, at least.. They're all basic point-and-click. Half-Life 2's weapons have personality. Take the crossbow, for example - sticking enemies to walls? It may have been used already, but it sure is fun (it would be even cooler if they struggled for a bit, if it nailed them by the arm or leg). And the RPG, with the laser-guided targeting - has that been used before? I'm not sure, but it has a lot more personality than the fire-and-forget or "dumb" rockets.

The one feature that saves Halo 2 is the multiplayer. The option to play online with a truckload of swearing, whining, and cheating gamers is just so appealing. The option is open for HL2, also, but it isn't as fantastic.

Now, when Half-Life 2 comes to Xbox, I doubt it will rival Halo 2. I found that, without the dev console, the game wouldn't come close to the greatness that I find in it. It will be a lot more linear - I love the chance to spawn huge four-way battles between humans, Combine, bugs and zombies. I doubt this possibility will be open in the Xbox version, but for PC - I must agree with PC Gamer - Half-Life 2 is "the best game ever made."

Yes! I finally got the game to work at my office, and discovered my own computer didn't have enough MB RAM. I'll be buying 1 GB soon enough, and hopefully it will work then.

Well, Half-Life 2 lived up to its expectations, by far. I can't believe it didn't get at least 9.9 rating on here. It is beautiful, for one thing. AMAZING. I turned the resolution all the way up, stared, and collected a puddle from my jaw-dropped slobber. One or two of the citizen's faces look like they were programmed by a monkey, but other than that, every thing is incredible.

The storyline is great, too. How can people complain about the lack of cinematics? I guess this is my role-player talking, but I just love looking around at the animations and architecture during the "you're-in-the-cinematic" parts. If you haven't already researched the game, it will give an even more unique feel - as Gordon Freeman, you slowly discover what the Combine really is.

Nothing really special about the audio - but how should I know? The voice-actors did an awesome job of portraying the emotions - especially that of the citizens of City 17.

Without the dev console, this game would not be what it is. I bound the m, n, l, k, j, p, o, i, x, and b keys to do specific things - like spawn a Vortigaunt, fast zombie, a citizen with an SMG, etc. Many of the keys I bound allowed me to switch the weapons of the allies I spawned. Just before the Nova Prospekt chapter, I caused a massive battle between 70-or-so citizens, 50-or-so Combine soldiers, a never-ending amount of antlions, and a few dozen fast zombies. Sure, the frame rate plummeted like a hippo in a massive-gravity chamber, but I still had the chance to watch the gunfire spread. I also caused a huge uprising in Ravenholm between the citizens, Combine, and zombies - that was a really good one.

The weaponry is diverse, but there aren't a ton of weapons. There are some that are really fun to use, such as the crossbow and standard shotgun. The crossbow bolts enemies to walls, which is just plain awesome. I modified my shotgun to fire 230 pellets per round, making it the most lethal anti-infantry weapon in my arsenal.

The amount of characters in the game is staggering. The game has everything in this category - alien empires, zombies, resistance soldiers, mad monk, and traitorish former-administrator bent on the successful enslavement of the human race. It even has giant bugs! Plus, there are dozens of enemy varieties - three different alien infantry, two different giant bugs, six different zombie-types, three different alien machines, two different alien-modified human vehicles, two different resistance vehicles, many different resistance soldiers, and more. Thats a lot of differents.

If you have internet connection, or soon just an Xbox, you MUST OWN Half-Life 2!

Just got home and installed Half-Life 2 and SWAT 4. God, Half-life 2 looked some awesome, god, I wanted to play it. Last place I tried it, everything was red and you couldn't see anything. Graphics card messed up or something.

So I did the five-disc install and ran Steam, which takes forever, with my dial-up connection on. Din't work, said it was running on offline mode, though I hadn't enabled that. FRIGGIT! Turned off internet security, firewalls, everything . . . Still nothing. Crap.

SWAT 4 worked, though. Very fun game, but I hate it when you get shot in the leg and you start moving really slowly. But there are quite a few weapons, and the levels are big and interesting. It'd be nice if you could use the weapons you collected from your enemies.

Third level today! Woopee! Halfway to six! I do math!

Bought SWAT 4 a few days ago, but it doesn't run on the computer I currently use (Windows ME). Ahahahah. Reading the manual, it looks great. Tons of weapons, and I love mission editors.

And in a few days, I'll buy Half-life 2, which also looks great. Ooh, so excited.

As a final random note . . . Who else loves the theme song to Angel?

Moving right along in Gamespot . . .

Posted a bit in the forums. Gained a level, which surprised me. Joined the Halo 3 Union, which I haven't posted in yet . . . considering how to approach the forums. Should I just pop in and post, introduce . . .

Anyway, that's it for today. Ahahaha.

Hallo!

I've been around gamespot for a while now, but just actually entered the account I made on gamefaqs for the anticipated-posting-of-a-strategy-guide . . . Wow, this place reminds me of DeviantArt. Journals, friends, forums, quasi-favourites - it's all here.

From what I've seen, this is a pretty great place. Love all the reviews and criticism and cheats and such. Now I just gotta understand this levels and percentages and unions and such . . . (Such, ahaha)

We-ell, I'll probably be here for a while, better get settled in . . . Too bad yeh have to be a certain level to review things . . .