The Gamer's Quarter

dhex · Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2007 2:36 pm Post subject:

i died the first time as well. (at the end of hl2)

dessgeega · Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2007 11:30 pm Post subject:

i finally downloaded the half-life 2 demo off of steam.

it freezes while loading the first chapter.
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david · . Joined: 03 Mar 2005 Posts: 170 Location: b, md

gurble blurble glabber churble
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The Great Unwashed · Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2007 10:57 am Post subject:

david · . Joined: 03 Mar 2005 Posts: 170 Location: b, md

The saga continues.

Steam sent me a 10-step check list of things to try. First, they said update all your drivers. I got the latest driver from ATI and updated my BIOS from Dell. HL2 kept crashing. (I don't think I updated my sound driver, because I found it kind of confusing... more on that later.)

What finally worked was when I put "-nosound" in the launch options. (Interestingly, characters don't move their mouths when they're supposed to be talking, under this setting!)

Removing "-nosound", the game continued to run after I used the DirectX Diagnostic Tool to turn the Hardware Sound Acceleration Level to "Basic" (down from "Full").

So, now the game runs! Couple of weird issues, though...

The highest settings for shadows and a couple other graphic effects were no longer available. I'm not sure when that happened... I was fiddling with a lot of things, reinstalling drivers, etc. Also, every light source has a little white bounding box thing drawn over it, which you can see through walls. That, I'm pretty sure, only happened after I turned down the sound acceleration level... although I have no idea what that has to do with sound, so I might be wrong.

Also, when I tried to shut down my PC, it crashed and gave me a blue screen full of text... Turning it on again today, I got a warning message that there was a serious problem, and it has to do with my video driver.

Since I have the latest driver from ATI, I thought about going back to the Omega driver... But it also seemed likely that I should replace my sound driver first!

I guess I have an integrated sound chip on my motherboard, but I'm not sure. My sound "device" (according the DirectX Diagnostic Tool) is SigmaTel Audio HDAUDIO\FUNC_01VEN_8384DEV_7681SUBSYS_1 which means exactly fuck-all to me!! The driver is sthda.sys version 5.10.4991.0000 with "Provider: SigmaTel." However I could find no drivers or software support on SigmaTel's web site, and although I did locate sthda.sys on my computer with a simple search, it, nor anything called SigmaTel, shows up in my Add or Remove Programs window. There IS something called a High Definition Audio Driver Package - KB835221, but when I started to remove that, it made a big fuss about how all these programs might not work, you know, it made a much bigger deal of things than usual, so I got the willies. I've downloaded something that looks like an audio driver from Dell, but I haven't tried to install it yet since I don't know what to uninstall first.

And that about brings all of you up to date! Now I know why PC gamers don't have time for girlfriends. JOKING!
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Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

Have you tried the Omega Drivers yet?

Also, man, that sucks. This is one of the main reasons I hate PC gaming.
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“The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932

"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!"

david · . Joined: 03 Mar 2005 Posts: 170 Location: b, md

Yeah, thanks, I tried them back when they were recommended, but they didn't solve the problem, so I got rid of them and installed the latest thing from ATI as part of following Valve's 10 steps to sobriety.

I might re-install them, but like I said, I'm not sure if I should be more worried about the audio.

And why would the latest ATI drivers not work with HL2? Hell, why would any ATI driver since 2004 not work?
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Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

Because ATI updated things and HL2 didn't?
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“The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932

"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!"

david · . Joined: 03 Mar 2005 Posts: 170 Location: b, md

Good point. (You're saying it did, right.)

On the up side, I played HL2 for two or three hours last night and it is AWESOME. Best sci-fi setting I have seen in a game, by far. I love the decaying urban structures and industrial back lots, train tracks, etc. It brings it really close to home. I love the desolate beauty of that fog-shrouded coast, the wandering punctuated by violent confrontation. I am a convert to understanding the brilliance of advanced physics models in games. Was HL2 the first game to do this kind of thing really well? I love the pace, the setting, the openness within the constraints of a linear journey. I can't believe I already own Episode 1 (not to mention Half Life Source), ready to play as soon I am.

It's funny how everywhere you go, people are like, "my goodness, THE Gordon Freeman!" While they're talking to me, I'm usually stabbing the table with my crow bar, or using my gravity gun to toss around the crates in their secret insurgency bunker. They don't even care! I'm Gordon Freeman!

On another note, anybody know about Hammer, the Source level builder? Is it free?
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dmauro · . Joined: 20 Jul 2006 Posts: 303 Location: Brooklyn

I want to see the research the proves that Alfonso Cuarón is a huge Half-Life 2 fan. This will be doubly nice since it will bring the circle full round because my roommate's boss told him to make the game they're working on look like Children of Men.

simplicio · . Joined: 03 May 2005 Posts: 1091

As I was walking the dogs yesterday, I found myself pondering the following:

It would have been très facile to disable the jump key and put Freeman in auto-sneak mode for the cutscenes. Why do you think they didn't?

And what does this mean for the future of the player's side of the bargain in games?

dmauro · . Joined: 20 Jul 2006 Posts: 303 Location: Brooklyn

dhex · Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2007 8:56 am Post subject:

why would they disable the jump key, etc?
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SuperWes · Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2007 10:30 am Post subject:

Mister Toups · Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2007 11:02 am Post subject:

But dude Gears of War doesn't even have a jump key.
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dhex · Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2007 11:03 am Post subject:

dmauro · . Joined: 20 Jul 2006 Posts: 303 Location: Brooklyn

The restrictions during cutscenes in Gears of War is honestly my biggest problem with the game. It always drives me crazy when I start walking so slowly and I'm thinking "if only this were a cutscene proper at least I could press start to skip the goddamn thing."

SuperWes · Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2007 12:16 pm Post subject:

Scratchmonkey · . Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 1439

For you, I might prefer that version.

I appreciated the trust given in Half-Life 2 and as a result, acted during the cutscenes, paying attention to people that were talking to me, checking out documents on desks when they started rambling, etc.

SuperWes · Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2007 1:15 pm Post subject:

Scratchmonkey · . Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 1439

Ideally, the door should be locked and then opened by a character, not the game "unlocking" something for you. Although I seem to remember HL2 being pretty good about that.

SuperWes · Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2007 1:29 pm Post subject:

Scratchmonkey · . Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 1439

dmauro · . Joined: 20 Jul 2006 Posts: 303 Location: Brooklyn

SuperWes · Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2007 2:34 pm Post subject:

dessgeega · Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2007 2:39 pm Post subject:

i wish i could get this game to run. i feel like i'm missing out on something important.
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antitype · . Joined: 11 Jan 2006 Posts: 292

Like Scratchmonkey, I felt compelled to play along with the game during the cutscenes. It's basically like Valve is handing you the script and saying, "Here, this is your part -- improvise." I chose to stay in character, though I can understand why some would feel like they've got to fuck around because, well, the game lets them.

One thing I don't get is why some people would actually consider this to be a flaw. I mean, I talked with a guy who said he didn't like this because when he jumped on people's heads and shit it killed the suspension of disbelief -- because the characters just continue to speak to you as normal without stopping to ask why the fuck are you jumping on my head? -- and I was pretty much like ... Well, duh? I wouldn't hold my own ridiculous behavior against the game.

Also, about this game freezing on everyone -- I thought it was freezing on me for a while, too, but it turned out I was just being impatient and the game was actually loading. (I only had 512mb of ram and a dirt cheap video card in the machine I first played it on.) The sound would lock into a short loop and the graphics would hang for upwards of 20-30 seconds, if not a full minute, but then everything would suddenly snap into place and the game would run smoothly. Are you guys sure that this isn't all that's happening?
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Cycle · Mac daddy Joined: 08 Sep 2006 Posts: 2767

One thing that bugged me was when I first started playing on my friends computer, I was dicking aroudn and smashed a glass bottle on some chicks head. She just turned around and told me to knock it off.

Now imagine if she actually collapsed, and a pool of blood started forming on the ground around her. Nothing else happened. No punishment, no reward. Imagine people doing that. It would be like Valve saying "This is a real world. Don't fuck around."

Alternatively, it would probably also cause some people to just run around and smash bottles on peoples heads, it would still be more immersive. Imagine if one of the guards saw you do it and just laughed!

In conclusion, HL2 could have done somethings better.
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antitype · . Joined: 11 Jan 2006 Posts: 292

True enough. To be fair, I think the "Hey, knock it off" response is meant more as a reaction to having cardboard boxes and such chucked at her. Then again, I threw a few bottles (pretty sure they were plastic) in the faces of guards and they'd naturally whip out their stun batons and run toward me, which pretty effectively says don't fuck around. Unless you want to. For example: when the guard orders you to pick up the can and throw it away, I like to toss it at him -- because I'm just so defiant. And then I run away like a sissy. He stops chasing you after a while...

So yeah. It's not quite perfect -- they could've spent years fleshing out all the possibilities of interaction, I'm sure, but even as it is there's not much else quite like it.
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Cycle · Mac daddy Joined: 08 Sep 2006 Posts: 2767

Haha, I like your little story with the can. But the guards reacting like that is to be expected. I think people would have been really shocked if people were actually knocked out or even killed. I mean, I don't expect the game to be super duper interactive, but those little details could have made it even more memorable.
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antitype · . Joined: 11 Jan 2006 Posts: 292

Quite possibly, but then giving you the power to kill any NPC would effectively give you the power to kill Alyx or anyone else, yeah? And I guess that could happen and it'd just be game over (TIME PARADOX!!!) but that's kind of silly. Not that there's anything wrong with silly, but. Like Scratchmonkey says, it seems to have something to do with trust, to a certain extent -- Valve are kind of hoping you're not going to try to kill everyone by smashing them over the head with a toilet. They want you to play along. You're on a set, and you're given a certain degree of freedom, but there is a script.
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Cycle · Mac daddy Joined: 08 Sep 2006 Posts: 2767

True! I suppose they hit a pretty happy medium.
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dmauro · . Joined: 20 Jul 2006 Posts: 303 Location: Brooklyn

Superwes, I think I'm simply more impatient than you.

Also, the suggestion for having NPCs collapse after being hit with a glass bottle is something I would have loved to see in the game. It would just sort of be a funny one-off for the most part, but it would have been nice. The "hey stop it" reaction to having a cardboard box tossed at them is still better than what most games are doing I suppose.

I would really like to play through this game on a nice computer someday because I experience that freezing problem whenever I hit auto-saev points, and it takes FOREVER to start the game and load a level. It would be nice to have it just work. If the 360 port runs smoothly I'll probably grab that.

Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

You know, I just realized that I always considered what people are considering "cut scenes" in HL2 "talking points."

Cutscenes involve removing control from the characters. In Gears there are talking points and cutscenes: the cutscenes are where the game actually takes control from you, the talking points are where you have the restricted control or where your just talking while doing other things.

A game is only as serious as you're willing to take it though. I took HL2 pretty seriously.
_________________
“The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932

"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!"

antitype · . Joined: 11 Jan 2006 Posts: 292

dmauro · . Joined: 20 Jul 2006 Posts: 303 Location: Brooklyn

a good post

Cycle · Mac daddy Joined: 08 Sep 2006 Posts: 2767

I'm getting sick of that guy.
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Scratchmonkey · . Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 1439

Cycle · Mac daddy Joined: 08 Sep 2006 Posts: 2767

what the hell is that
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Scratchmonkey · . Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 1439

It's a Soviet army PBF gasmask which happens to look very similar to the headgear worn by the Combine soldiers.

antitype · . Joined: 11 Jan 2006 Posts: 292

Can be this be the thread for bitching about Steam?

I never had much trouble with it before, on my old computer, but now I'm sitting here watching it update for hours and hours, usually just freezing at some percentage. Most often it seems to have no trouble jumping right up to 28-33%, and then it fucking draaaags the rest of the way... up to 98% once, and then freezes again.

I just want to play Episode One.
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dhex · Posted: Fri May 25, 2007 7:37 am Post subject:

check the steampowered.com forums because i know there's a fix for the getting stuck on update thing. i think you have to delete a settings file or something along those lines.

also episode one is HAWT (taunt taunt)
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antitype · . Joined: 11 Jan 2006 Posts: 292

I guess I bitched too soon. Just uninstalled everything, reinstalled, rebooted. Everything seems to be going swimmingly this time and Episode One is now installing from the disc. I guess I'll just let Steam download HL2 and whatever else I've got in the background. Oh! I'll bet I can actually run Lost Coast on this thing.
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