Rating: 
Summary: Half-Life
Review: Few games transcend mediocrity and bash down the doors of greatness-Half-Life is one such game. Unlike Quake's mindless corridor rampage, Half-Life is equal parts action and adventure. Ammo is limited, so you'll have to find other ways to frag your foe. Also, there's a fair amount of jumping and object manipulation, so über-fraggers may dislike Half-Life's more adventurous spirit. You'll have to mix up your attack strategies to survive-there are no Runes of Invulnerability or Quad Damages here. As scientist Gordon Freeman working deep within the underground Black Mesa complex, your workday takes a hard right-turn into hell when top-secret experiments go awry, unleashing a blood-thirsty menagerie of nasty critters. Only your wits, stealth, and effective use of weapons and cover will save the day. Fighting your way back to the surface is a bone-chilling affair, but the scenery makes it all worthwhile, thanks to Valve's choice of 3D-polygon engine. Half-Life took the best that Quake and QuakeWorld had to offer and taught it a thing or three, with a staggering list of tweaks and optimizations. For starters, Half-Life is the only Quake-tech game to support both OpenGL and Direct3D. For peak performance, we recommend the OpenGL option (with its multitextured lighting), although the D3D isn't shabby. Either way, Half-Life packs all the expected visual tricks, including alpha-blended water and glass, procedural texturing for blood-splattering effects, and even cool spark effects. Unfortunately, the clean, bright, and varied textures are limited to 256x256. But they do run in either 16-bit or 24-bit depth for even crisper colors. Rather than traditional multipiece polygon models, Half-Life's models are made up of a single mesh. This is then wrapped in a single texture and animated via skeletal mapping for realistic motion with no visible seams or joints. And each model has twice (roughly 400/800) the polygon count of a normal game, such as Quake. These beefier models sport animated facial expressions, long missing in first-person shooters. But these aren't just animated textures-Half-Life's mouth movements are fully animated polygons. The arsenal, from the typical shotgun to the alien Hivehand spewing living projectiles, keep Half-Life fresh. But what good are all these delectable death-dealers without some moving targets? Enter Half-Life's much-vaunted artificial intelligence. Half-Life challenges the notion that a programmed AI is predictable and easy to beat. The virtual denizens react so lifelike, you'll wonder whose brain is hooked up on the other end. Lob a grenade into a squad of soldiers and watch them scramble for cover. Likewise, a squad leader may yell "fire in the hole" as a grenade bounces into your lap. And if the humans weren't bad enough, the extraterrestrials are even worse. Each species has its own traits-some retreat when confronted alone, but will turn around and attack with the proper reinforcements. Their sophisticated AI beats the stuffing out of Shogo's anemic intelligence any day of the week. To safely traverse these darkened corridors, you'll need to keep a keen ear open for the soldiers' radio chatter, gurgling alien noises, and ominous footsteps. A host-based reverb/echo combined with 3D positional support via A3D and EAX make Half-Life's acoustics rock. Start to finish, Half-Life is a cinematic gaming experience like no other. Forget [bad] pre-rendered FMV drivel-Half-Life uses the actual game engine to seamlessly move the story along, all from a first-person perspective. At times, prescripted actions restrain your role to that of a hapless voyeur. As you try to piece together what the hell went wrong, you'll stumble onto scenes of horrific carnage: fellow scientists being attacked by parasitic head-crabs, a guard's mangled corpse being cut in two by a stray laser, elevators full of escapees plunging down deep shafts. But when you can intercede, you won't have to adventure alone-Half-Life's NPCs help out in your quest. Fellow scientists might be able to heal your wounds and security officers can be convinced to provide cover fire. And ample cover can be found in the design of the Black Mesa complex, which is excellent, with catwalks and air vents spanning upcoming levels and environmental hazards that require traditional puzzle solving. And the lag between nodes within the game has been minimized so it doesn't intrude on the action. Is Half-Life perfect? No. For all the attention to detail in most areas, little details such as seeing the weapon while you climb ladders takes away from the immersion. And while the interaction in Half-Life is reminiscent of Duke Nukem 3D, with breakable soda machines, usable microwave ovens, and even a hand dryer, this interactivity dwindles as the game goes on. Also, you may encounter the once-in-a-blue-moon clipping problem and floating body. While we applaud Valve for its D3D implementation, lag plagued the single-player mode with certain videocards-but this seems to be more of a driver-specific problem. Also, multiplayer can get laggy, but it's so easy to hook up and frag someone, thanks in large part to Half-Life's alliance with the World Opponent Network (WON). Rather than snooping around and learning an IP address, a simple one-click process connects you to the carnage quickly and efficiently. With its grand one-player odyssey and easy-to-use multiplayer aspect, Half-Life goes down in history as a massive shock wave that rattles the first-person shooter genre to its core. It will become the new benchmark by which all other games will be judged. Half-Life is as close to perfection as you'll ever see. - Andrew Sanchez Talk about a close encounter-Half-Life's denizens are thirsting for scientist meat. Rating: 10/10 ©1999 Maximum PC System Requirements
' CPU: Pentium-133 or equivalent
' RAM: 24 MB
' CD-ROM speed: 2X ' Video Mode: SVGA with 2MB of video memory
' Hard Drive Space: 400 MB
' Sound Board: Yes
' Operating System: Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT Recommended System Requirements:
' CPU: Pentium-166 or equivalent
' RAM: 32 MB
' 3D Accelerator Board: Yes
' Operating System: Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT Test System
' Micron with a PII 300 processor ' RAM: 128MB ' CD-ROM: 2X Toshiba ' Video Board: Diamond V330 AGP with 4MB of video memory ' Sound Board: SoundBlaster 32 ' Controllers: Keyboard, mouse ' 3D Accelerator Board: Diamond Monster 3D II ' Operating System: Windows 95
Rating: 
Summary: Great game! Best First Person Shooter to date
Review: Based on the Quake 2 engine Half life is a first person shooter with a great sci-fi story, loads of expandability, excellent graphics, and intense internet multiplayer modes. You play gordon freeman, a researcher at the Black Mesa science compound, when an experiment goes wrong the base is overrun with aliens! And the government wants a quick cover-up, so don't expect any help from those commandos! So it's up to you to stop the aliens, save your fellow scientists and avoid the commandos sent in to wipe out anything that moves! The multi-player is great especially with add-on games like Jailbreak, and Team Fortress (capture the flag) A definite must have for anyone into computer gaming.
Rating:
Summary: What can i say? just GREAT GAME !!!
Review: posibly the best game i ever played !
this game is great, u may think u should just rent it, but dont.
This game is so long it took me bout 2 months to pass it.
there is a great storyline.
i played all of HL games and this is the best one.
for example in half life 1 u get to a radio, and a soldier says there to retreat. if u play opposing forse ull see this guy saying same thing to abort and same voice.
great story line, great wepons, great multiplayer.
trust me ull never get tired of this game.
GET THE GAME!!!
P.S.: you wont regret this.
Rating:
Summary: The new standard for a 3D first-person shooter
Review: This game is said to be the new benchmark for all 3D first-person shooter games. Advanced both friendly and enemy AIs, good story, and has excitement all through the game. However, well, it has moderate gore and violence, whice rates this game "Mature, 17 or older". But there is a gore-reducing option, which controls the content when the game is played by younger children, although that doesn't really take out the violence.(For those who really care about those) Half-Life's predecessors such as Quake 2, Unreal or Sin had been the kind of, "shoot what ever moves" "find a key or button to go further" games. In some cases Half-Life maybe similar. However, the numerous scripted sequences, good storyline, and puzzles that appears through out the game makes the game different. Most of the time it makes you think and wonder what the best thing you should do. Charging at enemies and blasting with your weapons isn't the only option in the game. These elements are definitely the things that make this game among one of the best. Well, at least it seemed so for me.
Rating:
Summary: Best. Game. Ever.
Review: Half-Life still holds it's own--even after 5 long years. It's graphics and audio may be outdated but other wise it beats the crap out of every single shooter on the market, it's the scariest shooter of all time, no doubt. It's atmospheric brilliant sucking in story-line and gameplay puzzle elements and the beefy responsive weapons, intelligent AI, decent physics, good network code and multiplayer, very nice character design, real-life clever puzzles, admirable characters, and more make this a sure winner. There's a helluva lot more to half-life than what i've listed, but if your looking for the best shooter on the market, this one is where you stop. There's also tons of mods, three expansions, two team games based on half-life(which basically are), and with half-life 2 coming up this september, the "half-life plantinum series 2" around 25$ item seems the best so far in the shooter genre. Until a game such as Doom 3 or Half-Life 2 makes its debute, the older mellenium gen half-life games remain the most superb, and the good thing is you can get out of the bargain bins for a super cheap price. Infact, half-life should be 40$ it's such a good experience, 10$ off for the outdated technology. Shooter such as unreal 2 and enter the matrix are 50$ and are a joke compared to the very inexpensive half-life. That's why this is simply the best game ever.
Rating:
Summary: Good combo of 1st person shooter and adventure
Review: Half-Life brings a well-designed game to your computer. The graphics are great with a 3d card, especially 3dfx. The sound is amazing. You can hear things behind you even with two speakers. The game moves forward in a way that is not confusing at all. You do not know really where to go, but you are directed by the environment and enemies, which is brilliant. Good weapons and enemies, entertaining story. A few cons: You need the first update to even play the game, I've found. I have tried 2 different brand cd-roms and 1 dvd-rom, and all required an update to read the Half-Life cd. Also, some of the voice acting is bad or too repetitive, and the music is few and far between. Other than that, this game is great.
Rating:
Summary: Video game grpahics as good as any work by Piccaso
Review: If you were to compare video games to great works of art then Half-Life by Sierra would be in the upper-echelon of art ranking right up there with Piccaso and Michaelangelo. Half-Life's single player game is entertaining and easy to learn. As a research scientist, you are asked to perfrom an experiment, but something goes terribly wrong and your world and a world of pure evil collide. Its up to you to get out and save it, but trust me, these are no ordinary monsters, they think, feel, and want to stay alive as much as you do. You would swear that you were playing against other human opponents. Multi-player is just as impressive and fun as single-player mode, and the games interface makes it eay to start playing right away. You have a large arsenal of weapons to choose from, which means you will never get bored of blowing up your friends. The bottom line is, if you are very picky about the games you purchase, then this is the game for you.
Rating:
Summary: One of the Best Games of the 90's
Review: Half-Life, unarguably, was the best game of 1999, and a breath of fresh air into the dangerously stale FPS (first-person shooter) market. In Half-Life you play the role of a scientist at a top-secret research facility in the Black Mesa Desert somewhere in the U.S. Southwest. While doing an experiment in a lab, something goes wrong, and a wormhole in time-space is opened between Earth and Zen, a dimension filled with all kinds of weird, outlandish, and frightening creatures. Some look like small, two-legged headless dogs, others are crabs that attack by attaching themselves to your head (and then manipulating your corpse to attack others). So, what do you do? Get out as fast as you can! But this is a HUGE facility, and soon you find that no only do you need to find an exit and escape the clutches of the interdimensional aliens, but the U.S. government has called in the military to clear out the experimental complex of evidence... including scientists (you!). You'll need to rely on your wits, your reflexes, your skills with various weapons (from grenades to crowbars to shotguns to a crowssbow), and finally, you might want to actually interact with some of the survivors. In what is bound to be duplicated in shooter games hereafter, you can speak with scientists you find, who you can save (or kill if you are feeling sadistic), and security guards who will be more than happy to follow you around and give you backup if it's needed. The mood of the game is at parts exhilarating, at parts dreary or horrific, but always FRIGHTENING. At times you will go through a heater duct in darkness, with only the small light of a flashlight to help you on the way. You'll hear a noise coming ahead of you through the darkness, and if you don't react quick- SURPRISE! an enemy will pounce on you. In other parts you'll have to decide how to pass through an area... You can take the bridge and try to fight an Apache helicopter of the military, or go through a dam and brave whatever beast may be lurking within. The controls are intuitive, and aim is done for the most part automatically in single-player mode, so beginners don't need to worry about perfect aim. If you have a 3D card the game is gorgeous, but it will work without one. Highly recommended, although not for the squeamish or children under 13, as there is considerable violence.
Rating:
Summary: If you don't buy this, you haven't lived life.
Review: This IS the BEST PC game EVER. Okay? Got it? It is. Buy it! For you picky people... Pros: AMAZING graphics for its time (1998)
Good AI
Plenty of weapons
Extremely detailed models and levels
All other HL-based games (OpFor, Counter-Strike, etc.) are free (except some, like Blue Shift)
Understandable storyline, very comprehensive
Skeletal animation for added realism (there's joints and stuff in every model) Cons:
It was made a long time ago.
The multiplayer version is really hectic and crazy, unless your in teamplay servers.
It is very scary, I got soooo freaked out when I first played this. This is also one of those games that are really frustrating at times, when you just say "fudge this" and don't play it for another week or so because your stuck or keep getting killed and stuff. OK. So... I know about opinions and stuff, but i'm telling you, this is not my opinion. Half Life IS the best PC game ever. It was rated game of the year by over 50 magazines and stuff, and PC Gamer rated it as "Best Game Ever." *********WARNING**********
By the way, this is also the most pirated game too. Crackrs and hackers can generate random cd keys and use them to play this game without paying for anything, which means that if you buy this game, there will probably be a 25% chance or so that the key that came with your game will have been already used by a cheap@$$ hacker.
Rating:
Summary: This Game is KILLER!!!
Review: When I first saw it aon the shelfs I thought it was a Sure fire hit...I wanted it for years and I finally bought it! This game has a great story line, monsters from out of this world, Bosses that take more than one try to kill, or run from. Graphics are cool because the mouths move when you talk to people. This game also comes with a tutorial for the Newbies out there too! Then When you beat it...There are three different Expansion packs with Three different viwpoints of the disaster that strikes in the game! I Highly Reccomend it for the Hardcore Gamer!!!
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