PC Gamer [US] half-life 2 score

balkieb2002

Half-Life 2 review score average has just got better, with PC Gamer US giving it a

98%!!

.

Theres a scan and comments here and confirmation from valve here

Canis Lupus

pczone have a score 1% less. Seems like HL2 will be the game everyone hoped it would be.

feylya

The average score at the moment is about 96%. Apparently someone gave it 90-92% but I don't know how true that is.

bizmark

That or theres some money changeing hands its all hype till some normal people play the game and post on boards or eurogamer post a review imho tbh

Optikus

Can't imagine it being anything less.

Canis Lupus

just noticed how the percent was nicely blanked out in case anyone didnt want to know what score was given cept if u highlight the topic thread the text pops up displying score an all....

Canis Lupus

whats with all the neg rep for saying that? i was just mentioning it.... christ stop being so trigger happy

evad_lhorg

f*uckin hell. a magazine getsa a review and just cause it gives a high score it has to be corrupt. ?!!!! the first was game was amazing, id say this one willl be miles better.! stop criticising just for he sake of it

Creamy Goodness

he's only suggesting that money "might" have changed hands, and he's reserving his judgement until what he calls a more "reliable" like eurogamer review it.

i can see where he's coming from, but i reckon it will be worthy of the score

Canis Lupus

he has a point evad altho whether its true or not is another matter but take games like black and white in pczone. Got amazing coverage in the lead up with lionhead diaries etc and then it got a great score in the mag... Cept while it was an innotvative game it wasnt really all that good. D3 as well got a great score in mags, then ppl started playing it and comments emerged it wasnt so hot.

Admitedly tho every vid ive seen of HL2 looks stunning so i reckon they have it right this time.

bizmark

Aye ^ those 2 pritty much summed up what i mean.Im not suggesting there IS money changeing hands but im not ruleing it out either and untill i see some reviews by normal people and eurogamer (who i find to be spot on 90% of the time) its all hype even more so than doom 3 and well that disapointed me alot.

feylya

TBH, has VALVe released a bad game?

Canis Lupus

just to drag it on a little longer doesnt it make u wonder evad? Take this example: A games magazine gives a hyped game a bad score. The maker/publisher (who are a big company say ea games) then wont give exclusives to said magazine. Magazines nned these exclusives in order to sell (in some respects anyway, the loyal readers will always buy the same mag). Do you really think a games mag gives totally honest reveiws all the time with that sort of thing going on in the background? now im off to watch some tv

tba

THATS A CRAZY SCORE!

It almost suggests that the game is perfect?

evad_lhorg

98%isa bit ridiculous. 97 is pushing it but it could well be worthy. no game is worthy of 100 cause there is no such thing as gaming perfection. this could well be one of the best games of all time. its gonnna join ocarina and ff7, metroid prime and the original half life in the 'elite game room'

KdjaCL

evad Driver 3 fiasco is why most people are a bit sketchy towards any pre review of a game not confirmed 100% as complete.

i would like HL to be good but still Driv3l fiasco where money changed hands for a 90% review.

i wait till Eurogamer or edge review before i buy it.

kdjac

balkieb2002

Just found a site showing all review scores for half-life 2 so far and feylya ya were right a dutch magazine gave it 90% which brought down average.

Valve must be going broke paying off all these magazine for a plus 90% score :rolleyes:

The List
Publication Date/Issue Rating
PC Gamer (UK) Issue #141 (November) 96%
PC Gameplay (NL) Issue #103 (October) 90%
PC Format (UK) Issue #167 (November) 96%
PC Zone (UK) Issue #148 (December) 97%
PC Gamer (US) ? 98%

I've seen all the movies espec the current E3 video and imo it justifies the scores if plays anything like it looks.

Interestingly though the average for 5 reviews is about 95.4% while taken against other high profiles games is not that huge (which have many reviews)

Doom 3 (PC) 88.4%
Half-Life (PC) 94.6%
Halo (XBox) 95.8%
Final Fantasy VII (PS) 93.5%
Ocarina of Time (N64) 98.4%

the above were got from gamerankings

::i have to much time on my hands ::

Sand

Does it matter what score it gets? Is a 95% game worse than a 98% game? How much worse? If HL2 got 75% would that make it an average game?

The best way to figure out whether a game is great is to download the demo yourself and play it before you buy. Taking the word of a bunch of brown nosing PR hype-monkeys with typewriters isnt a real alternative. Youd think people would have learned from Doom 3.

feylya

There will be no demo...

Sand

There will be no demo...

There is only one reason why you dont put out a demo. Demos impress customers and win sales. Unless the game sucks, and youre just desperately trying to sell what you can on hype before people cope on that the emperor isnt wearing any clothes.

If its true that there isnt a demo then Id advise you to wait at least a week before you buy and see what the reaction is....

feylya

Unless they're so busy making the actual game that they don't have time to make a demo. There may well be a demo in a few months but iirc, Gabe Newell said there will be no demo.

Creamy Goodness

well he said there'd be no demo until the game was released.

also just pointing out doom3 had no demo before release and i wish it had :rolleyes:

Prior Of Taize

I think they gave it 98% so they could show that the game is near perfect bar a few flaws. Its like never getting 100% in an english exam...there is always room for improvement...

BlitzKrieg

the original half life demo showed up months after the game was released and was an amazing demo all the same. So i assume they will do the same for HL2...

Retr0gamer

I wouldn't trust any 'exclusive reviews'. Usually one of the terms is that the game gets a great review. The PS2 Manhunter exclusive review changed magazines a bit until it finally got a 90%+ review. The others gave it less than 50% and lost the exclusive because of it.

mr_angry

The fact that Halo got more than Half Life says it all really. Reviewers are all too often impressed by a leap in graphical technology rather than the quality of an actual game. (Doom 3 for instance.) Still, 98% is an exceptional score, and the comment below re-enforces the idea that it might well be the greatest game ever. I certainly hope so.

All these reviews of the finished game, and the pre-order system on STEAM must really be heaping the pressure on Vivendi to actually release the game. I hope so anyway.

RuggieBear

Is there any online reviews yet? Have a subscription to PCZ that hasn't arrived yet :rolleyes:

feylya

Online reviews are banned til the game is out.

RuggieBear

feylya wrote:

Online reviews are banned til the game is out.

Thanks

Sorry if this has been discussed to deaath already but why?

feylya

Probably to get money from magazines or something like that. Online reviews are accessible to everyone. Printed ones aren't as easily accessible.

balkieb2002

I'd say they'd realease a demo as they did with half-life 1, a try before you buy brings in more customers!

monument

KdjaC wrote:

i would like HL to be good but still Driv3l fiasco where money changed hands for a 90% review.

Link?

balkieb2002

It was talked alot in one of the forums here when driv3r was first realeased but searching through now i can't find the thread.

I think it was through a low brand PS2 mag that it all started as they gave a 90+ score but i dont think anything was ever proven.

Retr0gamer

It wasn't PC Gamer but a low brow xbox and PS2 magazine. The proof is with the game and all the other review scores. The game stinks.

monument

The next person to name a publication, and with out proof, to link it to money for positive reviews or review scores, will be banned.

Although Retro offers no proof, his post is grand as he doesn’t name names.

........................................................................

It is just this simple, reviews shouldn’t have scores. Furthermore, it’s just as simple as saying reviews are opinion, not fact.

For example, I thought the film ‘Saw’ was pretty good, but there’ll be a hole load of people who wont like it JUST because they would be sick from watching it, another load who wouldn’t be sick enough, and a handful who would have to find something wrong with it, because in an advertisement they seen some reference to some ‘masterpiece’ they love.

Doom 3 is now a classic example of people grumbling over apparently high review scores – bull ****, D3 never was meant to be (and never should have called) more then an update of what the original Dooms were.

All D3 is, is an enhancement to the Doom game-play. And Doom, along with, lets say, Pong, play just as well today as they did when first released. The only thing that has changed is perception, and maybe a wider selection and a few games that are more complicated.

Anyway, review scores aren’t meant to be a complete pictures, and any argument over a review scores should be arguments over full reviews, not just a score.

This rant has been sponsored by…

monument

RE: 100% & perfection

Part of my far greater hate of percentages then five stars, at least most publication just say five stars is “must see/play”. Percentages, somehow, try to be scientific about opinion over an entertainment media. Entertainment is better then perfection, it’s human.

tman

has anybody actually read the us pcgamer review yet?
my god american game mags are dull :eek:

i'm not going to put any faith into a review score until EG have theirs up, and i usually knock 1 off that anyway...

dells-net

my friend in the usa played half life 2 on beta he says it brilliant he says theres 8 disk with it :eek:

feylya

There's 6 disks. And you should shoot your friend for getting that 'leak', for it was not a beta.

dells-net

COUGH 8 disks and it wasnt a leak

feylya

OK, show me some documentation to support your eight disk theory.

Until then, I'll continue to believe threads like http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?t=40824&highlight=disks]this

tba

They are doing a DVD version arent they? Please tell me that wasnt a dream

feylya

All UK releases for HL2 are on DVD.

Jim

tba wrote:

They are doing a DVD version arent they? Please tell me that wasnt a dream

They would be idiots not to.
Although I'm surprised that Doom III didn't come on DVD.

mr_angry

Who cares what medium it comes on, as long as it eventually gets here. My main worry is this latest comment from Doug Lombardi:

Doug Lombardi wrote:

We are still hopeful, however, to see the game on store shelves this fall.

As pointed out on the HalfLife2.net forums, every time Doug feels the need to assure everybody that everything's ok, it usually isn't.

Prior Of Taize

I went into that link on the HL2 forums...It was stupid. Everyone was inventing random numbers of cd's that games come with. Some guy said Enter The Matrix came with 6 discs...It was 3...UT2004 supposedly came with six...it was 4...

Even if HL2 comes with 6 discs it wont take that long to install. I have a 1.5Ghz with practically everything standard and old and Doom3 installed in 15 minutes. Relax and enjoy the fact that Half Life wont be crap...

feylya

There was a info from VALVe that said there was 6. I couldn't find it however.

tman

Prior Of Taize wrote:

I went into that link on the HL2 forums...It was stupid. Everyone was inventing random numbers of cd's that games come with. Some guy said Enter The Matrix came with 6 discs...It was 3...UT2004 supposedly came with six...it was 4...

Even if HL2 comes with 6 discs it wont take that long to install. I have a 1.5Ghz with practically everything standard and old and Doom3 installed in 15 minutes. Relax and enjoy the fact that Half Life wont be crap...

ut2004 did come on 6 cds... where did you come up with 4?

the simple fact is, its always better to just slap in 1 disc and leave the game installing while you go make a cuppa. ut2004 was a joke, and is the last time i'll buy a cd version of a game when there's a dvd option available (play.com actually cocked up my order. i should've recieved the dvd version in the first place)