Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Half-Life 2/archive1

Half-Life 2

Self-nom. Me and some editors have been fixing this article up and now I believe it is worthy for FA status. I tried to incorporate everything that was said while it was peer reviewed, and I think we did a good job. Thunderbrand 04:04, Jun 6, 2005 (UTC)

• Comment: could you add something about how many copies of the game have been sold (preferably mentioned in the lead)? I thought I once heard this had been one of the fastest-selling games in PC history...Harro5 04:48, Jun 6, 2005 (UTC)

I added it to the lead. The only thing I can find is how many were sold from Nov-Jan, and Valve hasn't said anything new lately. Thunderbrand 04:58, Jun 6, 2005 (UTC)

• Object. Primarily because assertions are mostly unsourced. For example, what were the positive reviews mentioned in the Lead? Who "feel[s] that it is very frustrating to only learn the story in small bits and pieces throughout the game"? I also dislike the title of the ==Notes== section; conventionally, we use that heading for footnotes, but it also gives little clue as to what the section addresses. Is it about ==Player perspective==? --Theo (Talk) 23:43, 6 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Well, I tried to fix it up as best I could by what you said. Thunderbrand 00:40, Jun 7, 2005 (UTC)

• Support. The changes address my concerns. --Theo (Talk) 01:39, 7 Jun 2005 (UTC)
• Object. Contains empty and very short sections. The 1984 comparison is original essaying and speculation, as is the part about Half-Life 3. Many references are made to "some players" without specifying who they are and providing references. There is hardly any information about the gameplay, and particularly too little information about the Source engine and how its much-hyped physics powers were applied. The "controversies and criticisms" section should be prose, not a bullet list. There should also be more information about the game's development history and other things surrounding it besides controversy, such as marketing/hype and reception by reviewers. - Fredrik | talk 21:59, 7 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Much of the infomation you mentioned was moved to new articles or already exist in other articles, such as Source engine, since the page was becoming way too long. Thunderbrand 22:15, Jun 7, 2005 (UTC)

There should be summaries to replace what was moved. Fredrik | talk 23:36, 7 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I summarized the weapons section, and the other sections that were moved already have summaries. Thunderbrand 23:58, Jun 7, 2005 (UTC)

• Object. (sorry for the rather extreme delay in voting) A good start, but clearly not FA-quality yet. What bothers me most is the disorganized plot section; the plot summary itself should be more comprehensive, and there should be less room for speculative 1984 comparisons. Right now, the summary itself also lacks cohesion in my view (A few examples: i) does it make sense to mention the G-Man to people who know nothing about HL, just to say Freeman then finds himself in City 17, without explaining the G-Man's role at all, or reporting his words; ii) "it seems that the massive energy discharge caused by the "resonance cascade" " is ambiguous wording. What level is this written on: does "it seem" so to Freeman, the general population of the virtual world, or is it the article's authors' speculation?).

The Setting could easily be converted into flowing prose, and describe the actual setting as a whole, rather than simply compare it to 1984. The very choice of 1984 as only comparison strikes me as somewhat POV; I mean, why not compare it to Doom III, for instance (I'm not saying that's what should be done, I'm just giving an example of how arbitrary the choice is, as HL2's setting is reminiscent of many "post-apocalyptic/post-invasion" works. The 1984 speculation, if it has to stay, needs to be turned into prose and provide even more specific hints (The Civil Protection seem distinctly like the Thought Police, reinforced when Freeman witnesses the storming of a flat. doesn't say much). The best would be to quote authoritative reviewers mentionning the "Orwellian" atmosphere, or drawing comparisons to 1984 (I know there have been). What about the Eastern Europe reference, where does this come from?

I also feel there are too much reminiscences of the personal authors' views and comments (examples: which is, appropriately enough, referred to as the Seven Hours War). More of this: The general atmosphere of the game has a distinct totalitarian and authoritarian feel that makes it similar even without the specific details mentioned above and inferred from in-game., However, the Gravity Gun survives (probably due to its zero-point nature) and is made incredibly powerful - Sentences like this (which are equivalent to describing the highly subjective "look and feel" of the game) border on personal comment (even if the game developers' intent was clearly to produce the effect described) should be avoided if possible.

The "Notes on the narrative" section, while interesting should stay even more factual and present less conjecture, unless it can be shown by quotes that the questioning of the narrative technique of the game presented in taht section reflects what major reviewers thought. (consider: Although these are certainly intentional devices on the part of Valve Software, [...] It could be said in Half-Life that the player's bewilderment is meant to mirror Gordon's [...] . By the opening of Half-Life 2, however, Gordon has proven that he can survive in a strange and hostile environment, and should therefore be at least somewhat more level-headed and inquisitive., These complaints, of course, only prove that the game's designers have successfully [...].) The paragraph about the Gordon's not aging could be reduced to a single-sentence mention, as the rest is fan speculation; the stasis theory does not follow from the endings of the games.

Too many microsections; the "Weapons" and "Enemies" sections, for example, need serious help. Ask yourself if it is worth making an extra section just to say many of the weapons from the first game return, with some new ones. At best briefly mention both enemies and wepaons from Half Life make "comebacks" in HL2.

The "Multiplayer" section likewise needs some cleanup; the paragraph about fan disappointment needs to be reduced and stay factual (However, there are arguably just as many players for whom the novelty of annihilating enemies by blasting them with barrels, computer monitors and even cars will never be exhausted., It is common for a player to immediately blame some factor beyond his or her control for a defeat. — personal comments like this need to go).

The "Game engine" section does not seem satisfactory for a game so highly praised, specifically for its physics and game engine. The confusing mention of Steam being used to upgrade the engine, doesn't cut it. (Additionally, when coupled with Steam, the engine can be easily upgraded to include many new graphical technologies. One such example is high dynamic range imaging [...], if they used Steam to upgrade the engine to add HDRI, say it clearly, and say when they did it; from the wording right now, it is not unequivocal wether they did it, plan to, or just could possibly do it).

I only have one word for the section about Steam: quotes. Quote reviews, mention and source specific problems users have had with the system. Without sources, this section is useless. The "Controversies" and criticism quotes could also use some external links to media websites (specifically about the code leak, and legal battle with Vivendi). It would be nice if it were turned to prose too. The HL3 paragraph is pure speculation. I hope I wasn't too harsh, and my comments will be useful to help get this to FA level. Phils 19:25, 8 Jun 2005 (UTC)

• Object - The "note" template used in the "Notes" section is designed to be used in conjunction with the "ref" template, so that the "^" "symbols" in front of each note, links back to the noted text. Otherwise they don't work, this should be fixed. Paul August ☎ 20:18, Jun 8, 2005 (UTC)