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Half-Life 2
Just got my issue to PCZone today and was amazed to see a very large preview of Half-Life 2 in it! Ive scanned 3 screenshots from the article but there are loads more which are awesome too. So what are peoples thoughts on Half-Life 2? I personally thought it was going to suck but after reading this article and seeing the screenshots my opinion has been changed. Pick up a copy of the magazine if your interrested, its a good read.

http://www.planetquake.com/dazdranz/images/hl2_1.jpg

http://www.planetquake.com/dazdranz/images/hl2_2.jpg

http://www.planetquake.com/dazdranz/images/hl2_3.jpg
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Care To Expand On That 
why is it so good? 
Very Nice 
that's all I need to hear.

I got the gamespot ones at ftp://gamefiles.blueyonder.co.uk/blueyondergames/trailers/halflife2/
if you're interested. last I checked the links still work. 
Doh 
BLAHBLAHgamefiles.blueyonder.co.uk/blueyondergames/trailers/halflife2/

nitin: you really have to ask? 
My God, 
oh well if it's not meant to be, it's not meant to be... 
Gilt 
yes, I havent got the bandwidth do download any/all of those ATM. 
Nitin: 
physics, environment design, environment interaction, models, textures... 
Nitin 
the facial animation is superb. materials and physics interact with each other. wood behaves like wood, splinters, breaks apart, floats. while steel behaves like steel, barrels sink etc. this can lead to very interesting booby traps. specifically the video mentions that in one the levels a 'monk' set up traps for you to unleash on monsters. examples were shooting a rope that was holding a steel beam the beam then acted like a pendulum mauling anything that came into its path. you then blew up the supports for a giant trash bin, that came crashing down on a bunch of enemies. another example was starting up a propeller that you could duck under, enenmies that got too close got sliced by the propeller. another scene has you chased by a big flying machine, and you try to duck behind cars, only the shots aimed at you rattle and knock the car around ruining your cover. the ai looks great, your teammates intelligently react to situations ducking for cover, asking you to cover them (not scripted btw). the environment interaction has to be the single best thing about how this game is shaping up. assuming hammer is a relatively intuitive level editor, this engine is a level designer's wet dream come true. 
Hmm 
(not scripted btw)

You know this how? 
Hmm 
Bah;

(not scripted btw)

You know this how? 
Just Because Of Some Of The Comments In The Rag Doll Thread 
I'll try once again.

ftp://
ftp.deadlocked.org/
HL2/

I'd suggest getting 2dn first. btw, the gsi 600 meg features much of the same stuff as the gamespot ones, but is of a better overall visual quality and one or two extended scenes. 
 
(not scripted btw)

You know this how?


that's what the guy said in the gsi demo. I suppose one can be jaded and crack that up to hype. 
Hrm 
I think the guy was referring to your basic 'go to nav point foo, then shout dialog XYZ, then run to nav point bar, etc.' type scripts.

I'm guessing there was some sort of hinting going on though - marking some areas as 'duck and fire', some as 'stealth', etc. Whether that counts as scripting I dunno... 
Fan Blade 
killing monsters? dont they have any preservation instinct. hell, my dog takes a look at the water before jumping in it! well, a labrador wont but...

it's ok, it just got me thinking. it seems promising though. for some reasons i have always been more attracted to hl's realism than to id's sci-fi. will take a look at the videos after my exam 2moro.

good luck with any of your exams folks! 
Wow 
I just watched the 600mb HL2 video all the way through, and I was really impressed. It seems so much better than Doom 3 now that its just unreal. I especially noticed how much better the HL2 engine looked when rendering humans. The characters in HL2 looked so lifelike, and their lip-synching and movement was incredible. Alex, in particular, was very expressive when she spoke. The physics engine looked more precise and believable than the Doom 3 physics, although we havent seen much use of it in Doom (and i couldn't get it to do anything particularly impressive in the alpha).

I can see some great custom stuff getting made for HL2, seeing as the engine doesn't appear to have an great limitations, and it already features lots of human characters to use as a base (unlike Doom 3).

The interactivity of the environment and the use of physics in puzzle solving looks to be really enjoyable, such as shielding yourself with a radiator, throwing barrels at people, using a table to block a door, etc.

Scripting is obviously very powerful as you would expect, and hopefully will be flexible too. The buggy in the demo looked fantastic, and had awesome handling for a FPS game. Usually I find that when you get to control stuff like this in games, its usually a bit sub-par, but in this case it gave the impression of being really refined, and very enjoyable.

The thing that really surprises me is that seeing all this stuff has instantaneously converted me from being a Doom 3 fanboy to a HL2 fanboy. Doom 3 looks like shit in comparion to this, in my opinion, which is not to belittle id, as Doom 3 looks very impressive sitting next to anything out at the moment. I think Maj mentioned in a seperate thread that HL2 might be dropping dynamic lighting, but I think it's worth trading it off in order to display the massive environments demonstrated in such high quality...

anyway, looking forward to that release date, whenever it is :) 
Yeah 
That GSI HL2 vid looks incredible. I am definitely looking forward to HL2. 
Nice 
but didnt impress me as much as doom3

actaully its just a video - no real gameplay and it looks very different from what it would be running realtime 
Um.. 
Speedy, I believe all of the HalfLife 2 video was recorded in realtime. All of that is real gameplay. ...So, what are you talking about? 
Well.. 
...those shakycam vids do make things look better than they really are. Free anti-aliasing, bloom, motion blur, iris, overbright, exposure, etc., plus that always entertaining ability of people to see what they want to see. 
Cookies 
compressed videos always makes games look better 
Yes 
yes. my penis says alot of things. beautiful! 
Nane 
You cant judge on gameplay till you play the game
Thats what I meant 
Whaa?? 
i dotn remember writting that about my personal ha-pyness. heehe. sorry about that. musth had been floating in a sea of gibberish.

half-life 2 doesnt really makes my jaw drop, doom3 did at first, but im more interested in thief3 than doom3 or half-life2. i never cared for half-life, i cared a little for doom, but thief3 is where my money goes. :) 
Speedy 
Okay. 
Hmm 
Yeah this year looks being HL2 vs DOOM3 much like it was Q2 vs Unreal back in the day :)

I personally sway towards HL2, because it innovates on pretty much every level, and its the first game to properly incorporate good physics into its actual gameplay. Doom3 may look better but I fear that id will just make another generic shooter with some scary cinematics in it, with the staple pistol, shotgun, machinegun, rocket launcher combo they've been doing since doom.

I hope they prove me wrong, as the new e3 vids do look pretty cool, epecially the invisible monster throwing the corpse of the zombies around :)

Anyway, HL2 for president, and stuff... 
Yo 
What's up? I just wanted to write to you homies!! Sorry for taking up your time. So peace out! 
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