Half-Life 2

Ambush Bug · Post by **Ambush Bug** » Wed Jun 04, 2003 10:33 am

The game should have the subtitle of 'No-Life For You!' I don't know how many of you have seen the big honkin' video that got released a while back (all five-hundred-and-fifty-plus MB of it), but if you have, you've probably drowned your keyboard in drool by now. If you haven't, it's up on FilePlanet, or there's a few BitTorrent links out there for the taking. The video is large enough that it can break hosts, so if you don't want to use the FilePlanet copy, I strongly recommend that you Google for it. That said, it was impressive. I think it stole the show at E3 this year, and when I compare the tech demo to the polished and shiny DooM III trailer, the HL2 tech demo just blows it away. (Mind you, I'll still buy D3 'cause it's DooM, y'know?) Highlights: The G-Man. I showed the part where Gabe Newell demonstrates the new human capabilites of the HL2 engine to my lady friend. This piece of video has the G-Man making various faces and expressions, and also shows off the automagic lip-synching that's been put into the engine. Now, my lady isn't a gamer--in fact, she's a jaded reporter that humours me when I go on about Tribes or Half-Life or what-have-you. I've never seen her take any computer game character seriously... until now. When the G-Man came on screen, her first reaction was 'Oh, he's creepy!' and then not ten seconds later 'He keeps looking at me.' Mind you, the G-Man creeps me the hell out, too. He keeps looking at me like I'm a tasty snack or something. But I was seriously impressed that even the tech demo G-Man, who wasn't even trying to be frightening, got that kind of reaction out of her. The shader capabilities: man oh man, these were just unbelievably impressive. The water in HL2 is the best water I've seen yet, even better than the wonderful water that was put into Super Mario Sunshine for the GameCube. The physics: OMG. They've said the 'gravity gun' (the weapon Gordon was using to pick stuff up in the demo) won't be in the game, but presumably there's still ways to pick things up and use them. If that's the case, I'm gonna be like Jackie Chan with HL2, picking up anything at hand and using it against the bad guys. Chair-fu! The AI: If what is said about the AI is true (and I've no reason to doubt it yet) battles in HL2 are going to be real butt-clenchers as well as brain-busters. There's this wonderful bit where Gordon runs away from a soldier by ducking around a corner and into a room. He then looks around the room and shoves a table with several heavy objects against the door so the soldier can't get in. A moment passes, and we hear the soldier try the door... and then seconds later, the soldier comes up to the window, spots Gordon, and unloads his gun into the room. A second soldier comes up, and while Gordin is busy hiding behind a washing machine and unable to brace the table, kicks in the door. Or the bit where Gordon is going up against a walker (think War of the Worlds) and he and his compatriots go underneath a bridge in hopes of keeping the multistory walker at bay. The walker sees the bridge and tries to blast it to bits with its particle cannon, but fails. Then, looking around, it sees it can't go over any nearby buildings, so it ducks under the bridge and starts coming after Gordon that way. This too is apparently all AI driven and not scripted, like the soldier sequence above. Newell has informed us that the AI picks up on 'cues' left in the map by the mapmakers. So say you build a room with some windows and a lockable door. You put in a 'cue' that tells the AI to try the door first if it's vaguely humanoid in shape, or to bust through the windows if that doesn't work, or to try and go through the mail slot if it's small enough, or any number of ther things. That way, we've been told, the AI doesn't have to do a bunch of calculations, just follow up and act on the cue//suggestions left by the mapmaker. The interactivity: prime example is the 'flying buzzsaws' sequence, where Gordon is being chased by these little hoverbots with nasty whirling blades attached to them. He first goes up against one, batting it away with the crowbar when it gets near. Every time he bats it away, it slams into something and either cuts it apart (like the bookshelf) or knocks it over (like some metal-looking jobbies I saw) or throws sparks (bumps into the wall). Gordon clubs it to death and proceeds down the hall, making a left. He gets halfway into another hall when he sees and hears not one, but THREE of the little buggers coming down it after them. They're plowing through everything in their way, shredding things as they make lines for Gordon. Gordon, like any smart man, turns around and runs like hell, and the little buzzsaws follow, and you can hear them breaking stuff behind him. He rounds the corner and head back to where he was, dodging as one tries to get him from the side and clubbing another one back into its fellows to gain a moment's respite. He comes to the area he started in and turns around... and just at the last second, shuts the door to a chainlink fence, trapping the buzzsaws on the other side. They hiss and spark and keep trying to fly at him, bouncing and sparking off the fence like mad. I was holding my breath the entire time, and I wasn't even playing it. It was like a first person action movie with smarts. The human characters in general: Barney in particular was good--when I saw him in the video, I at first mistook him for a completely real human, so life-life was his motion, speech, and emotion. Alyx, the daughter of one of the Black Mesa scientists, really grabbed my attention as well. The lipsynching isn't perfect... but then again, it's automatic and handled by analyzing the sound files. You can't quite read the words from their lips if you have the sound off... but if you've got the sound low and can't hear exactly what they are saying, you can use the lip-synching to fill in the gaps. Utter godsend for a guy like me with hearing problems, and just amazingly impressive. All in all, I'm really looking forward to the game. Rumour is that the tech demo in the video is using tech from last september, so there's no telling how good it will look when it's finally released. Specs for the demo machine were a 3 GHz P4 and an ATI Radeon 9800. Impressive.

Spinning Hat · Post by **Spinning Hat** » Wed Jun 04, 2003 10:48 am

Mmm Nummy. I got that movie file, and it is worth every last second you wait to DL that honkin monster. I am anxiously awaiting HL2, but not so much D3, even tho I will get it when it's released, mostly to see what all the fuss is about, even tho the screens I have seen are absolutely amazing. Mmmmm HL2 will add some interesting twists to multiplayeras well, if the map designers take their time on the maps... Can you imagine how good CS will look under the HL2 engine? I'm not a CS player by any means, but DAMN. I'd try it for a little while, just to see how it plays.

BlackRider · Post by **BlackRider** » Wed Jun 04, 2003 8:25 pm

I can wait... I'm STILL trying to cut back on computer time... this lull in new good games helps... but not enough. <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/frown.gif ALT=":("> COLORS!

Ambush Bug · Post by **Ambush Bug** » Thu Jun 05, 2003 11:26 pm

Heres a trio of pictures from the movie: The G-Man in nice lighting from the beginning of the movie: <img src="http://scribers.neondsl.com/ambushbug/hl2/gman.jpg" style="border:0;"/> The G-Man in dark lighting speaking to Gordon at the end of the movie: <img src="http://scribers.neondsl.com/ambushbug/hl2/gman2.jpg" style="border:0;"/> A little too close for comfort with a Strider: <img src="http://scribers.neondsl.com/ambushbug/hl2/strider.jpg" style="border:0;"/> The G-Man has to be seen in motion to be believed, folks... these shots do NOT do him justice.

Half-Life 2

Half-Life 2

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