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Steam: Half-Life 2 Hardware Survey (2004)

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Re: Steam: Half-Life 2 Hardware Survey (2004)

#32
I remember running Half Life 2 on some card way below the recommended spec. There was some commandline switch to run the game in DX7 or DX8 mode, turned everything to lowest and resolution like 640x480. Looked worse than Half Life 1, but at least was somewhat playable.

Re: Steam: Half-Life 2 Hardware Survey (2004)

#33
post #2

Amusing to see only 6 people having a quad core CPU.

Those were most likely people with a motherboard with 4 CPU slots and with 4 CPUs plonked in there.

I was going to suggest it could be dual-socket, with HyperThreading enabled, but looks like the survey is HyperThreading aware and only counts real cores.

So must be Quad Socket motherboards.

Re: Steam: Half-Life 2 Hardware Survey (2004)

#34
post #22

I have nostalgia for the games of that era far more than the hardware. While the hardware has come leaps and bounds, the gameplay has gone backwards. Take battlefield as an example; back then it was a tactical team-based shooter, today it's a gallery shooter. Same thing with the Crysis series; every entry got dumbed down.

The Crysis 1 -> 2 experience felt so disappointing. I loved how Crysis 1 there were no limits to the weapon attachments or switching suit functions. I remember Crysis 1 with the silenced pistols with laser pointers you would 100% hit where the laser was pointing. I'd go full cheese and sneak up to the enemy, de-cloak, 1 shot dead, re-cloak.

All to push a story which started with an off screen killing of Nomad.

Re: Steam: Half-Life 2 Hardware Survey (2004)

#36
post #22

I have nostalgia for the games of that era far more than the hardware. While the hardware has come leaps and bounds, the gameplay has gone backwards. Take battlefield as an example; back then it was a tactical team-based shooter, today it's a gallery shooter. Same thing with the Crysis series; every entry got dumbed down.

I'm not really sure which Battlefield you're referring to as "tactical team-based shooter" but it was never any Rainbow Six (3), Swat 3, ARMA or Operation Flashpoint, games I'd consider actual tactical games in the 2000s. Battlefield has always been a bit arcade-y, not not as much as Call of Duty.

Re: Steam: Half-Life 2 Hardware Survey (2004)

#38

Take a moment for the 32k people using Windows Me. We will remember them.

What's funny, that I had friends who were running Windows Me very successfully, without any issues whatsoever and they liked Windows Me. I guess, they were lucky in that regard.

Mine experiences was totally different.

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