Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8436 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Electronic Arts
• Released on: 2005-09-30
• ESRB Rating: Mature
• Platform: Windows XP
• Original language: English

Manufacturer's Description
Half-Life 2: Game of the Year is a special edition release of the best-selling and critically acclaimed title that includes Half-Life 2, Counter-Strike: Source, plus Half-Life 2: Deathmatch, and Half-Life: Source.

Counter-Strike: Source takes the world's number one online action game to new heights atop the Source engine with brilliant graphics, enhanced versions of the classic CS maps, all-new CS maps, offline skirmish play with AI bots, and more. It also includes Half-Life 2: Deathmatch and Day of Defeat Source.

Half Life 2 for the Xbox system defines a new benchmark in console gaming with startling realism and responsiveness. Powered by Source technology, Half-Life 2 for Xbox features the most sophisticated in-game characters ever witnessed, advanced AI, stunning graphics and physical gameplay.

Customer Reviews

Truly excellent
When I first played Half Life 2, a group of friends gathered round my computer to watch for hours as the story and set pieces unfolded. Yes, it's linear, but deliberately so - movies are also linear, and this game achieves the drama and excitement of a movie whilst retaining the enjoyment of split-second decision-making.

The atmosphere is skilfully built up as you step off the train into a believable, if generic, Nineteen Eighty-Four-style dystopic metropolis. The dishevelled citizens mutter fearfully as you pass. You are unarmed, shepherded like a sheep by the electric baton-wielding guards. A glimpse of a fifty-foot walker robot is a nod to the scale of what is to come...

And so the action begins, combining the best elements of tactical FPS gunfighting (Nova Prospekt), adventure (the buggy ride up the coast) and horror (Ravenholm). There are no levels as such - each section of the story blends seamlessly (well, via a loading screen to help you catch your breath) into the next, creating a feeling of real progress. At one point, your character, the brilliantly average Gordon Freeman, must traverse the support girders of an enormous railway bridge. The journey across, with the wind howling melodically around you, is frightening but satisfying. And then you reach the other side and that's when you realise you must now go back the way you came - and now there's a helicopter gunship circling you...

Beautiful, convincing, and exciting, Half Life 2 isn't just the best game ever made... few other games even come close.

It surprised me
Back in the day when Half Life 1 was king and nearly every PC gamer was playing it or one of its mods I tried on numerous occasions to like it. I even bought it and sold it twice but it never sat comfortably with me. It is for this reason that it has taken me two years to get around to Half Life 2.

It seems that I picked a good time to try it out because the new episodes are starting to emerge and I don't know if I could have waited for the new episodes if I'd started a year ago!

The story pulled me in in such a way that I was sad to finish it, only to find that Episode 1 came out and fed me with just enough to keep me hooked. The game is set in a European style city called City 17, which is currently swarming with alien soldiers, zombies and other incredibly irritating creatures. Inevitably a resistance to their oppressive regime is forming and it seems that you've already been chosen to lead it (or at least hold it together).

Your journey will take you through a number of varied environments that are all drawn brilliantly. The havok physics engine makes everything act as though it has real weight too. Everything adds up to a very impressive looking package. Fortunately its not all show and no go, there is a very engaging game underneath the Source engine and a cast of characters that have a convincing personality to them.

Even if you didn't like Half Life 1, don't let it put you off HL2, its brilliant.

A lot of people complain about the fact that you need Steam installed. I can see their point. It does mean that you can't really sell your copy of HL2 when you've finished it but it has its benefits too. There is no more hunting around for patches - they're downloaded and installed automatically so you always have the most up to date version. If you have a credit card you can buy other Steam based games much cheaper thanks to the exchange rate and you don't even have to leave the house or wait a week for it to arrive. Plus, if you change PC's all you have to do is log onto steam and all of your games will download to your new machine. Work within its limitations and it'll work for you.

The Game of the Year Edition comes with a handful of extra online games too, which can't be bad.

Excellent
Finally finished the game and like its predecessor - fantastic. very atmospheric, it's like watching a good film.

I agree with the review above, those into online games probably won't have the patience to play it through to the end.

I would recommend, however that a broadband connection is a must, just for the updates, some can be quite lengthy and dial up users will pull there hair out waiting!

The Half Life series I find are head and shoulders above the rest, (Deus Ex came close but fell flat with the second installment)