Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Simply Perfect, 30 Aug 2001
By A Customer
It mat be getting on a bit but, this really is one hell of a game. Both Half-Life and Opposing Forces are superb software titles which every gamer should have.But what really shines out in this pack is the Counter-Strike add on. This online game is utterly addictive. Join the terrorist team and stop the hostages being rescued by the counter terrorists, or bomb a site, or even kill a vip the counter terrorists are trying to help escape. Or join the counter terrorists and rescues those hostages, get that vip to the chopper, or stop the terrorists from planting the bomb. Be warned, if your paying for your internet connection by the minute, you will soon be having some pretty big bills coming in. ;) BUY IT NOW!!!
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
John Woo, interative- entertainment for every generation., 10 Aug 2001
I really, really wish I'd never played this title. I hate computer games- I think that they waste large chunks of your valuable spare time, and leave you nothing in return, except for rsi and machine-gun infested dreams. And this game is the most addictive time-waster I've ever played, and I get the feeling that it is extremely bad for me in all sorts of ways, the biggest one being that it makes 1st person gun-toting, blood-soaked, wholesale morally disgusting murder more fun than an unlimited tab at the Voodoo Lounge Bar. But I love it. Perfectly scripted, exquisitely timed- the story runs like a fully interactive X-files episode, but instead of Mulder tentatively edging around corners and Scully insisting that 'there must be a rational explanation for all this', you get to run from some all too real (kinda) aliens. And then bludgeon them. Your first tool of revenge, for the crimes perpetrated against your erstwhile scientific comrades, is a satisfyingly meaty crowbar, disturbingly efficient at smashing windows, face-huggers and alien heads. And that's just the start. 9mm pistol, .44 Magnum, better than Doom pump-action shotgun, 50 round HK MP5 Assault Rifle, laser guided missile launcher (that you get to blow up an fully working Apache Gunship with), grenades, satchel bombs, laser trip mines. The list sounds like the armoury from Matrix, Face/Off and Desperado, except this time you get to use them. A lot. And then you get to the soldiers. Hands up how many people like those dumb-ass, butch, everything-phobic soldier boys? None? Alright! But this isn't christmas in soldier killing town. They advance in groups, crouching behind obstacles to reload. They avoid each others' fire, setting up improvised cross-fire zones with rifles, machine-gun emplacements and grenades. When wounded, they fall back, seeking back up, then loop around you and shoot you in the back. Huh. You hear their radio calls, shouts, and clips falling to the ground when they reload. The only warning of imminent horrible-death-by-grenade you will receive is when you hear the all too familiar metal-on-tarmac sound distinctly too close for bodily comfort. Yes, they will kill you. But you will beat them. And it gets better. Ever wanted to fry a 200 foot high alien with a Saturn 5 rocket engine? Now you can. Ever wanted to burn a lumbering behemoth between two power generators so outrageously that the explosion wakes up the neighbours in the next street? Yup. How about orchestrating a massed pitched battle between aliens and enemy soldiers, and laughing as your enemies obliterate each-other? Guess what, you can. The graphics still impress, and the sound has never been bettered. Turn the lights off, crank your amp up, and jump out of your seat with terror. The claustrophobic settings make sure everything is at visceral close-quarters, and the game does not skimp on the gratuitous visuals, enhancing the realism further from where the AI left off. Later on, in one of the best sections ('Surface Tension'), you get to emerge into the bright sunlight. As you pause to admire the pretty 3d accelerated view, you pause, as the birdsong is mollified by what sounds rather like a full-size military tank rolling to a halt close by. But we've played these games before right? They never actually have working tanks, and if they do, they're always scripted, they can't fight independently against one guy on foot? Can they? Er... (queue the reload key...) However, almost everyone knows how good this game is; therefore this review is more of an attempt at cross-genre pollonation. Everyone deserves the opportunity to play this, but most adults like me never will because of the general perception of gaming. So, this review is for those casual, adult media/art/anything types who own a pc and might buy a game for the different experience it offers. Trust me, it's worth it in this case. But this poses a question- why should we be playing a game that so obviously glamourises guns, revenge and destruction? Surely we should not want to do this, even in a game? I haven't enough space left to even attempt to allay these fears, but what I can say is that, in fiction of all types, we can safely involve ourselves in worlds that are not likely to experience, and that this broadens our horizons. This is not a moral game, but its tongue in cheek sci-fi references remind us that what we are experiencing is post-modernism at its most accessible. Half Life taps our most instinctual response; survival. And when you do, finally, survive through this game, you will want to do it again. Humans lived this way for thousands of years, and we should celebrate our contemporary safety by experiencing work such as Half Life that reminds us where we came from, and what could happen again. Ulimately, Half Life is one of the most fun experiences you will ever have, and that is all you should have to worry about. Five Stars. With a bullet. E-mail with your thoughts if this got through to anyone!
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Easily the greatest FPS, & almost certainly the best PC game, 22 April 2001
By A Customer
I bought the older version of the Half-Life Generation pack, featuring only Half-Life: Game Of The Year Edition, and Opposing Force (and a mad HL T-shirt). Now you lucky people get Counter-Strike free (but no T-Shirt). Half-Life is a truly amazing FPS. It's involving, and it asks you to let go of your trigger finger and start thinking. The graphics are also quite nice without requiring a powerful system. But right now the Quake II engine it uses is slightly dated. The only downside is the rather boring bosses. Still, the game is near as perfect. Opposing Force is more of the same. The training session Boot Camp is just so fun, and the single player game itself tries to be Half-Life, and almost gets there. But the initial impact of the fear-drenched original isn't there. Counter-Strike is pure class - the most fun multiplayer thing of all. I'm not sure what version is in this set (I downloaded v1.1). No matter what version it is, however, it is still a huge amount of fun. Of course without a third-party mod you can't play single player (unless you do that Training).Overall this is the best games package you can get for your PC. It will last ages, and even after you've replayed the single player games over and over, there are a host of mods available online from Valve, and from the fans! And soon to come is another official add-on, Blue Shift, in which you get to be a guard. I can't wait. If you haven't got Half-Life, get this. I insist.
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Suitable for 15 years and over. Not for sale to persons under age 15. By placing an order for this product, you declare that you are 15 years of age or over.
