Half-Life 2 Hands-On

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PC- ign , Gamespy and Gamespot have thrown up their Half-Life 2 hands-on experience!

let's get to the real reason you're here: to read about how the game plays. I booted up the 3.4GHz Radeon 9800XT equipped machine and waded into Half-Life 2. I started up the demo and was told that the first scene I would be playing was about 10 minutes into the game, after a brief introduction by our old friend the G-Man.

In an homage to the original Half-Life, the scene started with Gordon Freeman, our brainy hero, riding through a war-ridden urban landscape on a subway train. This is only one of the many allusions to its predecessor that those of you who have played it will find familiar. "There are certain things in the first game that certain people really latched onto," explained Valve Marketing Director Doug Lombardi. The train ride at the beginning of the game was one thing that some people really hated and they were very vocal about that, but many people said it was a fun way to start the game to bring [them] into what was happening, to break down the story and to set up the context for what was going to happen. So we thought, 'Okay, it would be cool to start the player off in the train in the second game as well.

PC- ign - Gamespy - Gamespot