It'll run I'm sure, just don't count on it being as pretty as the screen shots you've been seeing. Your intergrated video system is probably only a DX7, maybe 8 class card. As a result you won't get the reflections to look that great as all the 9.0x cards. I would suspect you would also have to turn down most of the details and resolution, and forget about AA and AF. Still it might run, I get the feel that it is a fairly scalable engine. 

Errrr, how have people got on with the "You must download an entire HDD full of Steam technology and suck steams dick for 24 hours before being allowed to play" stuff?? Seeing some bad reports from Blues, and as someone who has no interest in Steam and never will have any, is it possible to get the game working in a simple conveninent manner?? 

Only way to avoid steam.

Me personally haven't had any trouble with steam, but it sitting in my systray, me knowing that within lies the possibilities to play CS...
It makes me feel so dirty! 

Gotta find a no-steam crack then I guess. I find it offensive that Valve think they're so fucking special that they can force paying customers to go through some tedious extra rigmarole just to promote their damn Steam service. 

I've seen that HL2 will be proposed on X-Box near May 2005, but what about other console platforms (PS2 particularly) Does Anybody know if HL2 will be proposed on PS2.. or not ?? 

Be realistic. PS2 is just too old and has weak hardware for that kind of a game. Doom 3 ain't coming to PS2 either and neither did Thief 3. 

It seems that either I have to buy a X-Box, either to wait about E3 2005 and the PS3 release... grrrr... another good idea should be to "boost up" my PC adding more RAM.... well.... well.... well...... let's go for a PC upgrade, that the less expensive solution... 

just go and buy proper new pc dammit 

My PC is only 1 year old, and only need more RAM to be able to run both Doom3 and HL2... it's not a big deal to upgrade it so ... 

forget about consoles ffs 

Had absolutely no problems with Steam - I preordered HL2 through it shortly after it and preloaded all the files as it suited me, and the game uncorked itself happily yesterday morning, with none of the problems connecting to the authentication server that lots of people reported.

Personally I far prefer online content delivery and product authentication to the kind of pointless, fucked up CD/DVD copy protection that has blighted 90% of the PC games I've bought on physical media in the last year or so.

Oh yeah, the game was pretty impressive by the way. Engine is more functional than spectacular, story sagged in places (a lot of spending ages getting from A to B without really knowing why you want to be at B), nice facial animation. Oh, and check your graphics settings before you start playing: Wierdly, the game defaulted to medium texture quality on my 256MB graphics card, but has no noticable slowdown when notched up. WTF? 

For thos of you who have played it already: how well does it run compared to Doom 3? Is it around the same or is it noticably faster? 

I have serious issues with HL2. The game stutters every 5 seconds or so, sometimes the game will hang for 2-3 seconds before returning control. It seems to be audio releated, but nobody knows (lots of others reporting the same problems at steampowered forums).

I also reject to this whole "let's force Steam on every paying customer" idea. It's repulsive, to say the least.

Besides, so far, the game doesn't even reach Doom 3 to it's ankles. 

Not that I'll have HL2 anytime soon but I prefer to buy my games on physical media. If I bought the game on CD or DVD, is Steam required or is the on-line authentication something else (like XP)?

How are level sizes and load times, BTW? Also, are the environments interesting and compelling? 

STEAM account and activation are required even if you only want to play singleplayer. Yes, you heard that right. 

Tef Johs: Check you aren't preloading HL:S or (even worse) CS:s in the background, gameplay seems to be much smoother for me now that both of those stoppped going.

Scragbait: Steam is basically built into HL2 completely, it's how it browses for multiplayer games, how it authenticates you, how you get patches/localisation. It even has a backup facility so you can burn a copy of the game to CD or DVD, which is kinda sly of valve seeing how everyone's reason for buying the hard copy is so you have said disks : - ). So yeah, you authenticate it through steam, and you need to have a steam account. But it's not as bad as it seems, steam isn't anywhere like as buggy as it was, and you only need to authenticate once, then you can go offline. 

Try putting snd_mixahead 0.4 (or something) instead of 0.1 in your config file. (Or write it on the console.) This has apparently helped some people with the sound issues. 

Great fun, really gets crazy towards the end, wont post any spoilers though.

On steam, I do prefer it to physical media, it aint perfect but it beats getting on a bus & train to get near a game store to buy a game, only to find that the cd protection software doesn't like my pc. I had no issues with preloading and unlocking with steam, smooth as silk, the only little niggle I had was that it took about 10 minutes to unlock the files, with me sitting there shouting "come on bitch I've waited long enough for this thing!" :D

I hope more developers start using internet delivery systems, I would have no problem with that. Perhaps Valve have been a little over-zealous making EVERYONE require steam and to download files in order get it working, but simply buying and then downloading a game from the developers website is a very good idea imo. 

Not only are you forced to use steam and activate your product even if you only want to play single player, but if you buy the CD version of the game, you are FORCED to install Counter Strike-Source, there is an option not to install CS-S, but if you choose that option, the install will abort with .cab errors/Fatal errors, causing you to uninstall. then reinstall with CS-S selected. I had this problem last night, and that apparently is the solution, I am about to find out. Sometimes I think I should of stuck to my promise not to buy HL2, but I guess you got to try it. 

Oddly enough, I am digging this. I agree with czg on the graphics, and on the vibe of the game (which I am really liking), and a ditto with everyone who have been amazed by the character animations and the rather good gameplay. I'm just impressed with how you have to think so much =D Whoda figured... 

I understand 3 different packages for hl2 are available. Is the 'silver' one available retail? I have only seen the basic hl2+cs:s and the uber-collector edition that comes with a fucking t-shirt for 90$ in stores. Please to be buying your game, valve. I would rather not download 34623462346 gigs of data over steam unless absolutely positively necessary. 

Just get the Bronze. HL:S isn't worth it, by most accounts--it's a graphics upgrade, sure, and ragdolling, but HL is still 6 years old. :)

HL2 is amazing, though, I have to say. Easily the best FPS of the year, IMHO, unless it falls apart at the end like Far Cry did. (I'm up to Sand Traps now.) The graphics aren't as flashy as Doom 3's, but somehow they're more attractive, to me. Go figure. The foliage is downright horrible, though. Far Cry spoiled me for that.

(I wonder if the sawblade area was inspired by Painkiller?) 

you only need to authenticate once, then you can go offline.

That true? I've heard (several times, posts on Blues) that you have to be online and logged into Steam even to play the SP??

it beats getting on a bus & train to get near a game store to buy a game

Like you never go shopping normally?? Besides there's always Amazon...

You steam whore.

but if you buy the CD version of the game, you are FORCED to install Counter Strike-Source

That true for the DVD version too??

Glad to hear the game is good. Less glad to hear of all the bullshit that goes with it. 

on the coastline right now, oh BABY is it fun fun fun. 

it seems that people are complaining about having to log on without actually knowing that it is not necessary to do so. AFAIK, you need to complete the authentication process the first time around and then can play sP without having to logon.