Half Life 2 (xbox) Review

He makes glasses look badass

When the first Half Life came out in 1998 it blew everyone away. Never has a game had AI, gameplay, and immersion that good. In 2004, Valve finally released a sequal  to it called half life 2. Like the first one, it received great reviews and is considered one of the greatest games of all time. The following year, they released a port of it to the most powerful console avadable, the xbox. While the port  remained relitivally faithful to the original PC version, there are some short comings that will make you want to pick up a different port. However, if you can't get any other port, this is perfect for you.

Presentation

Like most Vaalve games, this starts with the epic Valve logo (with a valve on some dudes head). The game then goes into a cool photo of Gordon and Alex in front of the giant ass tower. Then, you get a load time, get used to this as you'll be seeing them a lot. However if this is the second time in a row you played the game, it will load faster since files cache into your hard drive. Finally you can start a game. once you beat a chapter, you can select that chapter in the new game option. The presentation is really well done. However, the rather annoying load times bring it down for me.

Graphics

PS2 can't run this, umad?

 Half life 2 looked amazing on PC in 2004. And whhat your probably thinking is correct, the xbox can;t run it in that state. There are some cut backs. The xbox version is basically the PC version with most of the graphics set on low. Even with the cut backs the game doesn't maintain a good framerate. The game chugs slightly when there is a few enemmes on screen, and it chugs A LOT when your in a vehicle. The framerate is bearable, but it really makes things annoying, plus you'll probably find yourself dying due to it. Despite these cut backs, the game still looks pretty damn good. The water is ome of the best I've seen on the xbox. Also the lighting effects hold up really well even by todays standards.

Sound

Nothing short of EPIC. The voice acting is top notch and you really feel like your talking too the person. The music, though it  comes  in and out at random times, it always fitting and epic. Most of the sound effect are great. The guns on the other hand are mixed. The pistol sounds a bit to weak and it just doesn't pack a punch.  The sub machine gun also sounds a bit weak. However, ever other gun sounds great.

Gameplay

People defiantly have explosive barrels in the back yard

Controls (which use almost EVERY SINGLE BUTTON ON THE CONTROLLER). A jumps. B Reloads. X   toggles run (and gives you a boost in a vehicle). Y is the action button. Black commands team members. White Toggles your flashlight. R is your Primary fire. L is you secondary fire. Left tumbstick moves. Clicking te left thumbstick activates a crouch. Right thumbstick looks. Clicking the right thumbstick activates your scope. D pad up selects your Pistols. D pad right selects your Sub machin gun, shotgun, and pulse rifle. D pad down selects your Crow bar and gravity gun. D pad left selects your Grenade and bug ball thing. And start pauses. 
      Despite the awful framerate and imperfect aiming do the controller limitations, Half Life 2 on the xbox is still a very fun game. The physics are still fun to use, the enemies are still awesome, nearly every single part of the PC version is still just as fun on xbox. The only problems that might annoy you are the far less accurate aiming with a controller and the bad framerate. Otherwise, the game is a blast with exelent pacing. You will hardly ever get stuck in the game. However, that doesn't mean you wont die over and over, just means you can get through the game without getting stuck on a part for hours at a time.

Counter Strike on xbox.

Overall

Ya, the game has no multiplayer so once you beat it theres really not much to come back to. However, Valve does have Counter Strike for xbox, you can play a similar game in mulltiplayer. I realize the odds of you only being able to get this game on a dead console over 2 current consoles and a PC are slim, so there wasn't much of a point of me reviewing this. But, overall this is a decent port. While it could have been better, its still an awesome game. Plus it took me over 600 minutes to beat it, so...