For all of those who said "I want a Manual"...

[Megalomaniac]

...While open Steam, go to play games, right click on Half Life 2, and click Manual...It's a two page Manual with nothing good in it, if you want a hard copy...I'm pretty sure you know were the print button is...

[zxxgp]

That card came with the game. that is no manual.

[skarrob]

LOL thats kinda crappy for a 55.00 dollar game but wth it was worth the money to me.

[The Dark Elf]

well I wanted HL2 for the game, not some paper saying how to press keys

[Harryz]

well I wanted HL2 for the game, not some paper saying how to press keys

Yeah, you got hazard course for that, oh wait.:p

[The Dark Elf]

Yeah, you got hazard course for that, oh wait.:p
hehehe

well there is kinda a hazard course type thing in it, at the start your pretty much safe and it gradually leads you through the basics, and the vehicles have a quick hint displayed for them. So its sorta available, just part of the game proper now.

[Harryz]

You don't even need a manual. The games that you need a manual for are games with long-learning curves such as Strategy games and MMORPG.

[KillaH]

steam Silver and waiting for my copy of raising the bar should com in within a week.

[Ultimape]

my little bro didnt' need a manual, so I think no-one does less they be not able to play the game in the first place.

half the fun is fuguring out what to do. not knowing something just makes your gameplay unique.

[destrukt]

it doesn't matter whether we need a manual or not, it's just awesome to have one.

[Motley]

I bought it on Steam, and I wish I'd waited for the hard copy. It's nice to have something hard in your hand.

Ahem.

[destrukt]

^ that can be read many ways :o

[gsmollin]

There was a manual in Half Life. It was a simple jewel-case manual, but there it was. There was also a training section before you had to play the game. There were manuals for all the expansion packs that followed. That was then.

This is now. There is no manual in Half-Life 2. Instead I detect an attitude of scorn for the user.

"If they need a manual, they are too stupid to play the game." Nice guy. Not everybody lives in gameland.

"We make it easy in the beginning, and include hints." A more thoughtful answer, but missing the point. Grading the difficulty of the game, and putting-in hints is part of game design. What we're saying is that there needs to be explicit instruction. Do this, do that. After a while, the users will become accomplished, and won't bother to read the manual. Now you will have a larger user base. If you expect to grow your gamer base, you need to cater to everybody, from novice to expert.

The game publisher screwed up. Ther should have been a manual.

[Ennui]

you open the game and it tells you how to do everything other than move with wasd. It teaches you the use key, the flashlight, everything you need.

[Kapitan Helion]

I bought it on Steam, and I wish I'd waited for the hard copy. It's nice to have something hard in your hand.

Ahem.


Acctualy i think of it more as a curse :P.....

[Megalomaniac]

I thought this thread died...