HL2 or Epi1?

[Oats]

Hi.

I have played HL2 up to the point of Ravencroft but not any farther as I couldnt stand the awful Xbox framerate version. I now have the internet for my laptop and am Wondering should I play HL2 or skip stright to Episode1? Also what Graphics settings should I turn down for my Laptop hardware?

Core2 Duo T5500
1024MB Ram
Geforce Go 7600 - 128MB X16

I was thinking texture detail on medium since it only has 128mb of video ram. I have played the demo and it ran at a rock solid 30 and 60FPS with V-sync on and between 80 - 113 with it off. IS there anyway to enable Dual core support or will I have to wait for Episode 2?

Thankyou in advance.

 

[Shasta]

Finish HL2 first.

I have Dual-core, HL2 runs just fine.

 

[2Fast4U]

You must finish HL2 to understand ep1, so do that.

 

[G-Dub]

Finish HL2 or Gordon Freeman will eat you.

 

[Solver]

Finish HL2 first definitely, or Ep1 will make no sense.

HL2 will run just fine on the Core 2 Duo, but won't really take advantage of the dual-core system. Only minimally, I believe.

 

[Oats]

Ok.. Thanks.

What should I have my texture levels on since my GPU has only 128 mb ram.

 

[G-Dub]

Ok.. Thanks.

What should I have my texture levels on since my GPU has only 128 mb ram.

It'll recommend the best settings for you.

 

[ríomhaire]

Niether, finish Half-Life 1, Half-Life 1: Opposing Force, Half-Life 1: Blue Shift and if possibly Half-Life 1: Decay first.
Just kidding, but you should defenatly get HL1, it may be 8 years old but it's still better than most modern shooters (even if Ressidue Processing is an annoying level)

 

[Ashitaka]

Finish Half-life 2 first. A lot of things happen beyond Ravenholm storywise, and it has a bunch of awesome levels remaining. ^^

And, as ríomhaire said, you should take a trip back to the originals sometime if you already haven't.

 

[kacation_man]

i belive he said "Ravencroft".

 

[Hectic Glenn]

Ravencroft...haha, that's next door to Ravenholm Your computer will run it fine, and yes you should play HL2 again. Main reason being, you aren't even half way at Ravenholm, so you are missing a lot of fun and story.

 

[panda_rage]

I agree with everyone else, tf theres no point in me saying anything (whoops)

 

[impgrinder]

Id finish HL2 and then go on to the expansion packs. I play games for the story...And wouldnt want to miss what happens in between.

I still need to play Blue shift and opposing force BTW. ;(

 

[Oppressor]

If you care about the Half-Life serie, theres no doubt you shall play HL2 all way through before playing EP1

 

[Asknoone]

I still need to play Blue shift and opposing force BTW. ;(

There's nothing in them storywise, but they are fun.

 

[Ashitaka]

There's nothing in them storywise, but they are fun.

There kinda is. Shows possible important (Rosenburg) scientists escaping Black mesa, and what happens to Adrian, might ever make a return.

 

[ríomhaire]

There's nothing in them storywise, but they are fun.

SPOILERS!

• The mission in BM oragainsed 2 months before the resonance cascade
  The g-man involved in the military
  BM being nuked
  Slight elaboration on how the teleportation systems
  Hints of the g-man's personality

 

[Jintor]

SPOILERS!

• The mission in BM oragainsed 2 months before the resonance cascade
  The g-man involved in the military
  BM being nuked
  Slight elaboration on how the teleportation systems
  Hints of the g-man's personality

...until Valve throws them out the window.

Or not.

 

[Asknoone]

SPOILERS!

• The mission in BM oragainsed 2 months before the resonance cascade
  The g-man involved in the military
  BM being nuked
  Slight elaboration on how the teleportation systems
  Hints of the g-man's personality

Wow, pretty much nothing then.

The story in Opposing Force is not to be considered when thinking of the overall storyline. There is absolutely nothing in there pivotal to ongoing events. I'm pretty sure canon doesn't even apply to Opposing Force at this stage, and the only note worthy piece of information is that Black Mesa was nuked.

Blue Shift had a bunch of scientists that will probably not be featured in future Half-life games.

Playing Opposing Force/Blue shift won't really add to the Half-life storyline in any significant way. But they are pretty damn fun.

 

[Vomit]

Play HL2, Without that HL1 would most likely suck.

Blue shift...hm...Didn't enjoy it.

 

[chilledsanity]

I thought Blue Shift was nice because it didn't have any bullshit plot elements. Spoiler, I guess:

You're a security guard, everything goes to hell, you try and make your way to the closest exit and meet up with some scientists. You eventually make it to said exit and you drive away with the scientists in an SUV to go get beers or something, The End.

Maybe it was just me, but as soon as I hit the surface in HL1, I was thinking "alright, that's it, I want to get the hell out of Dodge", but no, I have to fire some missile, then go back through some more miles of underground base, then get teleported to the alien homeworld to kill their leader; since for some reason, even though I have no military training at all, the waves and waves of elite military that are trying to kill me apparently aren't good enough to go fight the aliens, especially since they could have tanks and helicopters and shit. Then, once I beat the alien leader, some suit tells me I can't go home, but I have to fight more people instead of go on vacation then look for a job in another lab somewhere. I get a nice 30 second ending or so that looks like it was thrown together at the last minute, and the choice of having my screen fade to black, or seeing a bunch of aliens, then have my screen fade to black. I then wait 6 years for a sequel only to find that everything I did in 1 doesn't matter since Earth got taken over anyway.

So, in light of that, I appreciate Blue Shift's plotline.

 

[Jintor]

It's been a while since we've had something as simple as "RUN THE **** AWAYYYY!!!!!!", true.

 

[Cole]

Chilledsanity. Well said!!!!!

 

[ríomhaire]

Wow, pretty much nothing then.

The story in Opposing Force is not to be considered when thinking of the overall storyline. There is absolutely nothing in there pivotal to ongoing events. I'm pretty sure canon doesn't even apply to Opposing Force at this stage, and the only note worthy piece of information is that Black Mesa was nuked.

Blue Shift had a bunch of scientists that will probably not be featured in future Half-life games.

Playing Opposing Force/Blue shift won't really add to the Half-life storyline in any significant way. But they are pretty damn fun.

I for one consider the actualy reason for the satillite launch and a HECU mission to BM being prepared 2 months prior to even Gordon's employment quite large plot points