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Half Life - Platinum Edition 2

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 43 / 48
Date: October 29, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Honestly, this updated Platinum edition offers everything you could ever dream of in a first person "shooter" game.

In the edition, you'll get Half-Life, Opposing Force, Team Fortress, Counter-Strike, and Blue Shift. All games are more than worthy of being called classics in their own time. And more specifically, Half-Life, OpFor, and Blue Shift allow you to play individually.

Now, what truly pushes this over the top is the ability to get ONLINE and fight with other human opponents! The online community is thriving. Counter-Strike, Half-Life, Team Fortress, and Opposing Force all allow online play or no sign-up/monthly fees. It's all FREE. There are nearly 1000 Half-Life servers and nearly 30,000 Counter-Strike servers world-wide!!!

As a lover of DOOM, Descent, and Duke Nukem 3D, I thought I had played all the best first-person shooter games (as of 1998). Then I played Half-Life! Since Half-Life 2 has not yet been released this still remains the BEST online Multiplayer First Person Shooter on the market today.

With an NVidia GForce2 and a 1GHz PIII, I am getting between 60-99 FPS (frames per second). The graphics are excellent and the play is smooth.

One warning though with this game: ONCE YOU PLAY IT ONLINE, YOU WILL NEVER EVER HAVE ENOUGH TIME IN YOUR LIFE TO PLAY THIS GAME. It is truly awesome and the Half-Life community is a welcoming one...as well as challenging. The Mod community is thriving as well...there are truly a multitude of Mods.

Simply put: BUY THIS GAME!!! GET CONNECTED!!! THEN PLAY UNTIL YOUR EYEBALLS ROLL BACK IN YOUR HEAD OR YOUR FINGERS FALL OFF.

You will never be sorry for buying this product. I have been playing this game online, every month for nearly 3 years...I have tried other games, but none compared to this one.

What more can you ask for?

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 31 / 36
Date: November 18, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This is the ultimate collection pack. All Valve/Gearbox retail Mods are included (Opposing Force and Blue Shift). However, Team Fortress Classic and Counter-Strike are redundant for the Broadband user. Team Fortress comes with the latest Half-Life patch and Counter-Strike can be downloaded. The version of Counter-Strike included with this pack is the retail version, which is recommended for 56k users but not broadband users as the retail version is buggy. It is also a separate program and not a "add-on mod" to Half-Life.

The only retail mod not available in this pack is Half-Life Counter-Strike: Condition Zero as it is not released yet.

Half-Life sets the standards for the FPS genre.

Many user-created mods like Counter-Strike and Day Of Defeat can be downloaded once you have Half-Life. Bear in mind that these mods are very 56k unfriendly.

For the 56k user, I do not suggest getting any Half-Life or Half-Life related packs as eventually you will have to download patches.

High replayability, low system requirements and unlimited gameplay. What more can you ask for?

Gordon Freeman : Be a Foot-Soldier for Valve !!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 21 / 25
Date: December 24, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I am a half-life lover - spent $1000 upgrading a PC in 1998 just to buy this game and it was well worth the money. This game is to PC games kinda like what STAR WARS was to space movies. It opened up a new parallel universe !!

You start the game feeling like an imposter in the skin of "Gordon Freeman" arriving for a day of work at Black Mesa research facility in New Mexico. Luckily, the helpful scientists ask you questions until you stumble into the lab and start doing what you need to do until the big bad accident ... and then aliens teleport in from another dimension, eating all the scientists and the military sends in Marine Commandos to kill EVERYTHING INCLUDING THE SCIENTISTS (YOU) to cover up the disaster completely !! The game really starts with you unconscious in the deepest bowels of this huge complex and you have to fight your way out - 1/3 solving puzzles, 1/3 killing aliens, and 1/3 facing hell-bent marines in your protective suit (as long as your battery pack is still alive) to help you overcome these problems. For the first time characters talk to you, animals move realistically, and the animal AI is incredible. Your first weapon of choice ?? A simple crowbar. Later weapons ?? Experimental prototypes from secret US Military programs !!!

Now I'm back 6 years later and look what's happened. It seems like Valve has the mother of all copyright protection problems. Not only were players pirating the CD's, even the distributor (Sierra) was pirating and selling Illicit copies of the CD's. Sierra was even selling duplicate retail boxes with duplicate keys to customers !! [...] and Valve hates Sierra and is in a legal fight but is contractually forced to deal with Sierra. You will have to be a foot soldier for Valve until the legal fight is won. To be a foot soldier, you must put up with Valve's copyright protection scheme which is called "Steam".

Before you get this game, [...] You will need a good broadband connection to install this game, because you will need to download several hundred megabytes of data. It will be tricky to run the game in the future without a broadband connection. It will be possible but you will have to plan ahead before disconnecting from the Internet.

If you can live with this hassle, you will be highly rewarded.

Buyer Beware

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 33 / 50
Date: December 20, 2003
Author: Amazon User

You're not going to be able to play this online right out of the box. You're immediately forced to download Valve's multiplayer client called Steam. This download, for all the games included here, is a WHOPPING 723 MB! It doesn't stop there, either. Each one of these games has patches that have to be applied, and each one is approx 64 MB!

That's just the tip of the iceberg. Valve offers NO tech support! These 'community' leaders expect the community to help you. IF YOU SCREW UP YOUR REGISTRATION KEY IT'S OVER! Don't expect any help from Valve. They do not respond to tech support requests. Also, cheaters abound! There are many ways to cheat. Valve has nothing to address the issue of cheaters. However, the community has stepped up to make mods to prevent cheaters, but as soon as they do, Valve steps up to undo what the community has done saying that only Valve has the right to provide anti-cheat patches. Some community, eh? Here's a capitalist telling everyone to act like communists, but the capitalist community leader fails to take any responsibility.

SAVE YOUR MONEY AND TIME! Just say no to this unethical business plan. There are other games that don't play games with their 'community', and don't expect the consumer to download countless patches immediately upon opening the box.

Its a scam

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 14 / 18
Date: August 12, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Don't get me wrong, I loved Half-Life and the expansion packs (not the best FPS ever, Deus Ex beats it, but thats another argument). The thing about this pack is that its not worth it. Opposing Forces comes with Blue Shift, Counter-Strike and Team Fortress Classic were released as free mods if you purchase Half-Life. Anyways, the point is you get all these games just by buying Half-Life and Blue Shift, which is about $5 cheaper than the pack. Not much, I know, but don't think you're getting a great deal and then learn this after you buy it. And if you buy the normal games you get a better, more indepth manual (the one for Half-Life has a bit of back story, like a letter from Freeman's professor, never seen the real Blue Shift Manual, so I cannot comment on that). So definitely buy Half-Life and Blue Shift, not this pack.

Simply Awsome

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: March 26, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I've always been courios about Half_Life and Counter-Strike, and about a week ago, my cousin bout this package, and we played all day. Well, the very next day I went out and bought this, and I still havn't put it down! When you first start playing Counter-Strike, sure, some of the more experenced players will put you down for being a noob (someone new to Counter-Strike, but it's ment to be a strong insult), but after a few games, you'll find yourself getting better and better, and soon, you'll lose hte title of "Noob" "Nub" "Newb" ect. and then you'll really start to have fun. A good idea would be to play with a friend that has played before, especially if he/she has a clan, and then you can just scrim (play pratice games) with them. I play with my friends clan and I see my skill rapidly improving. Also, if you know someone else you just got this game, you could scrim with him.her for a while, and both your skills will improve. But that's not it. Aside from the great gameplay of CS, there's tons of maps to play on, and you can also download and make your own maps. Sure, making a map isn't exactly the easiest things in the world at first, but it just takes pratice. And remember, I havn't even SCRATCHED the surface known as the greatness of CS. Plus you get 4 other games, and these are all COMPLETE games. Half-Life is a great single-player game (I havn't tried multi-player on HL yet) and Opposing force and Blue Shift is a continuation of HL. And finally, you get Team Fortess Classic. Now, I havn't played this yet, but I suspect it to be just as great. Now what are you wating for? Go out there, get this, get ome friends to get this, get together, and SCRIM! Perhaps after you get enough pratice and you become semi-good, you can form a clan (A group of people that play together) and magnify the fun 100 times over!

5 great games for the price of one

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: May 08, 2004
Author: Amazon User

What a deal! These may not be "new" games, but they are fun and challenging. The graphics are great. The patchwork is done since they are older games, so they work just fine (just be sure to download the patches). These games are addictive. A number of scenes made me jump (things that go "boo" in the night). Very entertaining. I'm running pentium 4 with XP and Geforce4 and 1GB ram--no problems. If you like first person shooters and haven't experience Half-Life yet, buy this game (buy it used like I did for an even better deal). Enjoy!

Great Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: August 05, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This is the best game of all. I haven't played a game for so long like I play Half-Life, Counter-Strike and etc. And about the Steam feature, its the best too. I know it is a bit big, but its espeacilly for playing on internet. And if you want to play on internet, you HAVE to have a broadband connection, so the updates don't takes so much time. And about downloading the 723mb pack, no need too, because Steam converts yours game instalation of Half-Life and all mods to work with Steam. And about this pack, yes, its better to buy the Half-Life only CD, but then you will need to download Counter-Strike, Team Fortress, Opposing Force, and no Blueshift will be there. So, you choose what you want

a must-have for any PC gamer

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: May 11, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Half-Life has revolutionized first-person shooters in an amazing way; it made you use your brain instead of just your left-mouse button. And Even though Half-Life 2 is sweeping up all the press, the original, and its expansions, are still worth much praise. And this set is less than 20$ now! If you have a computer that meets the specified system requirements listed, buy this. Best 20 or so dollars you will ever spend.

The best first person shooter ever.. this game started it all!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: January 12, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Mention first person shootears and this is probably the first game that will come to your mind. its' tht damn good!

i first played this game in 2000.. asked my sister from american to get it for me. was so excited after playing uplink(the half life demo) that i just could'nt wait..and as soon as i installed it onto my computer.. i was hooked.. i had never seen anything like this.. i mean, duke nukem and doom 2 were appetisers compared to this baby!!

okay.. about the game :

WEAPONS : you start off with a crowbar and slowly move on to advanced guns like the machine gun,RPG,M-16(aaaaah)magnum,gauss,etc. But the RPG is my all time fav. Guiding missiles with ur mouse controls.. i mean.. how cool is that?
i used to mess around with the missiles half of the time.. just for fun:)
unlike doom or duke nukem. guns ARE'NT Just lying somewhere. You're supposed to collect most of them from the dead enemies, which makes it so real. i was surprised when i got the machine gun after killing one of the soldiers. i was expecting it to be lying somewhere, waiting for me to pick it up.. or a miracle! You might find it funny but these are just some of the minor details which earlier games did'nt have.. guess the guys at valve were taking this a little seriously,which is a good thing.

ENEMIES : the best AI ever. the soldiers, the crabheads, the 'oh so cool' apache helicopters, the huge monsters at the end of the game.. ooooh(drooling)..!!!
every enemy was detailed and hit back at you. they don't wait for you to make a move. If the see you coming, u better be prepared. a slight noise and they're gonna come back at you with everything they've got. they reload and use ammunition in the same way tht u do.

STORY : wow!! breathtaking.. this game is totally story driven. right from the beginning. You're probably thinking wht's so good about the story.. every game has a story,probably even better than this one. But i dont think any game out there allowed you to be a part of the story like this one did. it is so intense and it just sucks you in.
There is this one part of the story called APPREHENSION, where the kidnap gordon freeman. I've showed this scene to my friends over and over and over again. These 2 soldiers are carrying you and you have no guns with you nothing.. You just wait for their coneversation to get over. You have no idea what they are going to do to you, what's coming next.. It is one of the coolest scenes ever. And it's not CGI. It's actually the game. You're in it..
You actually would want to complete the game just to know what happens at the end. I knew that the moment i defeated the final monster, there was something bigger coming. And that is exactly what happened.. One of the BEST and the coolest ENDINGS for an FPS EVER!!!

To sum it up.. i would give this game 5 stars all the way for its cool factor and its originality. I have'nt played half life 2, quake 4,F.E.A.R. and doom 3 yet.. but my new PC is on the way..should have it in a week.. an athlon 3500, 1 GB ram and a 6600 nvidia geforce.. have already bought the games and cant wait to play half life 2.. it has been rated game of the year and i'm sure they already have a platinum edition out for it yet. They are just taking games to the next level!!
Thank you valve. We'll never forget this game.. It is a classic!!

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