HALF LIFE 2. . .OK IM CONVINCED
 

I'll be getting this game, and no doubt itll require a unique cdkey for internet gaming, so I'll be shelling out the 50 bucks to play online. Just watched the 25 minute "demo", which I at first thought were just a bunch of scripted scenes, only to hear the Master-Geek (dude conducting the show) say most of the gameplay shown wasn't scripted.

I'm down. Yea yea, there have been countless HL2 threads, but I aint made one, and this is the first time I've seen this video. So HL2 is what - 2 and a half months away? October 1st. Something tells me we'll be getting a delayed date, but they seem to have come pretty far since news broke about the game. Are we finally going to get a game with real world physics (DEVESTATION can kiss my ass), that actually looks and plays good?

And VALVE has had 5 years to work on MP gameplay so here's hoping we get some truly innovative shit.

HAVING said that, the implications for mods come up, namely Counter Strike: Condition Zero getting left in the dust. I've seen the video for this thing. It looks like shit compared to HL2. Not to mention Condition zero (at last update) was a MP only game. ADD to the fact that it comes out a whole MONTH after HL2 and you have a game destined to arrive DOA. Who's gonna fork over more money for CS:CZ when you can just save it and wait for some intrepid techie to mod HL2 over to Counter Strike. Or better yet...

NATURAL SELECTION 2 BABY!!!!!

Yea, watching HL2 the only thing I could think of was, what are the devs who made Natural Selection, one of the most innovative and addictive TEAM!!!!!! mods in history thinking of doing with HL2? Right now, I'll say NS suffers from one thing, it's graphics. It looks good. But to capture the mood that it is going for, the HL engine just is NOT cutting it - at all. Looking at what's being done with HL2, shit I'm salivating at the thought of an ONOS who moves more fluidly, or any of the other aliens getting the movement type that was displayed by something like the STRIDER ALIEN (alien at the end that was like hella tall).

Not to mention all you sick, Day Of Defeat nuts who SWEAR that game is the be-all-end-all WWII mod (will never understand it). I'll give it up that a game using HL2's engine featuring WW2 combat would like killer.

Ok, rant over, I'm hungry. Just had to get that off my chest. I've been convinced. Thank god I got into this game with only 2 months to go. Hopefully they wont pull a GALAXIES and give us TBA.

this game is obviously going to be the game of the year in 2003. check out the new high resolution videos now.

I'm waiting for DOD for HL2, monsters + mutants = das sux0r

[quote="Sgt Stryker":0a2ff]I'm waiting for DOD for HL2, monsters + mutants = das sux0r[/quote:0a2ff]

Dude, look at the gameplay. And the fact that they have had 5 years to work on this shit. Like I said in that long ass post, DOD has gotta be getting a REAL facelift as soon as HL2 comes out, but cmon, who ISNT going to be playing the single-player and hopefully multiplayer.

Natural Selection is a great game. Far more addictive than CS in my opinion. I was hooked on that thing for hours.

i cant wait for DOD 2. Cs can kiss my ass

Good to see it.

I probably won't be able to spend too much time on the MP game, sadly (although, not that sad, the reason will be my baby girl who is 6 weeks shy of taking her first breath, all going well).

I wouldn't hold your breath for innovative MP, though. Valve might pull something out of the bag in this department but I doubt it. There'll likely be DM, TDM and that's about it. They'd hardly shoot themselves in the foot by releasing a CTF and multi-moded MP HL2 when they're also developing TFC2 as well.

But, the single play will produce nothing like you've ever played before, I'm certain of that.

Anyone who misses out on this game purely because of its Sci-Fi setting is a fool, in my opinion.

Unless you have a deep-seated hatred for Sci-Fi (who here hates Star Wars?) then you can ignore the fact that the game is not set in WWII (ugh, I mean come on, is that the only type of game you want to play for your entire life?) and become engrossed by the story-line, the depth and the sheer innovation of the characters and enemies.

I imagine in a year or two EA will release MOH4 using Valve's "Source" and that should be a WWII game to behold (well, for two months anyway - after that EA will forget about it).

Anyway, enough from me.. If I keep this up I would have to start asking Valve to pay me for hyping up their product for them. biggrin:

good luck with your baby happy:

3 words...

Call of Duty

saving up now

1 word "cupcake"

saving up my bandwidth...

/me glances at mirc

k maybe not

HL2 looks cool.

LOL you gotta be shitting me, i very much doubt tfc2 will EVER see the light of day, its like 3 years or so overdue last i read. Theres about 1 video available for it and thats it. eek:

True, but I still very much doubt Valve will do anything revolutionary with the MP game of HL2. They didn't with HL.

The thing is, Valve seem to prefer focusing on the aspects of the game that matter, such as playability, graphics, lastability, atmoshpere and so on.

Instead of spending months on some new-fangled crappy game mode that no one likes anyway.

-cough TOW -cough-

yeah Ydiss, good look with the baby! :)

you're not going to call it Gordon...are you??

seriously don't, Barney is a much better name. Then once he/she reaches that more responsible age get a G-dog.

My love life is havin its ups and downs right now, my gal melisa jus told me she's in love with me and wants to spend the rest of her life together. I mean yea thats nice but I'm only 20, she's 22, i'm too young for all the commitment stuff. When the time comes i know i'd make the right choice but jeez, everything would have to be perfect. Melisa is nice, she said shes gonna lose some weight and be alot more flexible when needed ;) and get a good job maybe in europe when she finishes college...(a million times more complex but still) i just got pissy with her because i told her i hated being under pressure to decide on my future so soon and over such an important thing, aaaRRRGHHHHHHHHHH.

Oh and err .....what's Half life 2?

Half Life 2 is going to kick serious arse. I hope the DoD team can make a smooth transition from HL to HL 2 Engine.

I don't hate sci-fi, I hate lame sci-fi

I haven't seen the story to this one yet (link anyone???) but if it's anything like previous sci-fi shooters (ie one man vs hordes of generic inter-dimensional monstrosities) then I won't be buying.

the whole one man with pistol vs hordes of monsters is
1. cliche
2. lame

I would like to see a sci-fi shooter where you actually have other friendlies around and where the badguys are actually an alien force (ie organized military or mercenary group) who carry guns or something, not a gaggle of monsters who shoot plasma from their hands.

again, I don't know if HL-2 will be like that (somebody get me a goddamn link!!!) and I apologize if I am mistaken, but each and every previous "monster" shooter was what I have described, so I have precedent.

[quote="mr.miyagi":55742]yeah Ydiss, good look with the baby! :)

you're not going to call it Gordon...are you??

[/quote:55742]

She will be called Isabel.

[quote="Sgt Stryker":0fda6]the whole one man with pistol vs hordes of monsters is
1. cliche
2. lame[/quote:0fda6]
What about one man carrying 6 guns and 5 grenades vs hordes of brainless, scripted nazis?

[quote=Akuma]What about one man carrying 6 guns and 5 grenades vs hordes of brainless, scripted nazis?[/quote:2f5d4]

that's pretty lame as well, my fevorite missions are the one where you have friendlies around (Normandy, Campertown)

of course mission 4 doesn't count as one man running around, more like on man sneaking around.

w00t edit button!

anyway, I don't know why they made such poor friendlies for MOHAA, especially since Grillo and the pilot aren't that inept, plus Lucasarts made some decent friendlies for Jedi Outcast using the Q3 engine.

Dude watch the 500 MB gameplay video. Holy shit I just watched it and neearly creamed my pants. The AI for both friendlies and enemies is amazing. About 90% of the stuff wasn't scripted but the AI acting on its own.

There one sequence shown where there are a group of your friends attacking a barricaded gate at the end of the street. OMG the friendly AI is so smart, moving between cover and even watching your back and helping you out. Very cool stuff.

I'm not sure of the storyline myself but I think it will be like the first Half Life game, the plot thickens and new layers to the story are revealed as you advance through the game.

Graphically this game blows the shit out of anything else out there. Gameplay also looks equally amazing.

sorry double post

this edit button sure comes in handy

they're using hints. so when an ai charcter gets close to something. he'll have an automatic responce. like that scene when he tried to open the door, but it got blocked by a table. so he fucking kicked it to shit.

the storyline is definetly going to be better. the first one sucked. it was the same rift in dimention alien zombies crap. this sequel will answer many questions . including what the g-man's goal is. and the combine soldiers are fucking cool. when this game comes out, doom3's gonna look like a piece of shit.

I know the AI seems to react amzingly to all kinds of different situations. I saw this sequence with Freeman being chased by this alien. He goes round a corner and slams a door behind him. He hides next to the door. Alien looks through a glass panel near the top of the door, smashes the glass and pokes an eye like thing through and scans around. It sees Freeman and bashes down the door to get to him. ed:

that's a combine soldier with a weird looking gas mask. after gordon blocked the door, he couldn't get in, so he distracts him by shooting the window, then slamming the door in.

Yeah I saw that gameplay video too. It cool how Gordon uses that gravity gun to pull a radiator off the wall then hurls it towards a guy who then gets smashed into a vending machine releasing a lot of cans.

did you say five-zero-zero megabytes?

if that's just a vid, how much space will the game require ed:
might need to get a separate HD just for the game (being sarcastic of course)

[quote="Sgt Stryker":969a0]
I don't hate sci-fi, I hate lame sci-fi

I haven't seen the story to this one yet (link anyone???) but if it's anything like previous sci-fi shooters (ie one man vs hordes of generic inter-dimensional monstrosities) then I won't be buying.

the whole one man with pistol vs hordes of monsters is
1. cliche
2. lame

I would like to see a sci-fi shooter where you actually have other friendlies around and where the badguys are actually an alien force (ie organized military or mercenary group) who carry guns or something, not a gaggle of monsters who shoot plasma from their hands.

again, I don't know if HL-2 will be like that (somebody get me a goddamn link!!!) and I apologize if I am mistaken, but each and every previous "monster" shooter was what I have described, so I have precedent.[/quote:969a0]

You're confusing HL1 with Doom and Quake.

HL1 does have a story. It's not mindless killing of aliens. The plot thickens with each chapter and you do have other friendlies (ok, limited to Barney and the Scientists, but it's more involving than Doom or Quake ever was).

You don't just fight aliens you also have to contend with Marines who are sent to "clean up" the accident - And that includes you (Mr Freeman).

Whilst the storyline for HL is still fairly generic action orientated it is still 5 years old - So I think it's unfair to categorise it as a cliché, don't you think?

It was original as hell when it came out.

If you haven't played HL then you really don't have room to critisise it.

It's way out-dated now, but that's why HL2 is coming. And there is absolutely no way HL2 will be a mindless Doom clone. No chance at all.

Sadly, there is no story as yet. Valve haven't released info on that. However, you will be up against intelligent and genuinely fearsome creatures and you will have genuinely intelligent and realistic companions to help you.

And not all of them are human.

One of the weapons is a pheromone device (I don't know the actual name yet, just seen it in action). It's an alien pod that you can fire pheromones with. Certain alien creatures react to those pheromones in relation to the one who wields them.

That is, wherever you fire this gun, the creatures obey you and go to it, killing anything in their path.

There's one amazing sequence in that 500mb movie (it's just a hi res 25 min movie - just watch it, you'll understand what everyone is looking forward to, then) where Gordon has this weapon. He uses his pistol to shoot out a sky-light window and then fires the pheromones at an enemy who is taking cover.

Through the window leaps a creature, which was previously blocked by said window, and more follow to tear apart the enemy.

Through-out the entire game, according to that same movie, there are various objects placed carefully for you to use to help you. You don't have to use them, nor do you have to even notice them, but just watch the tasters of what these are in the movie and you'll be gob-smacked.

You see, everything in this world will react exactly how you would imagine it would in real life. See a garbage canister suspended from a rope sitting on a wooden platform? Shoot the platform (and marvel at how it splinters exactly as it would in real life - This is no "damage=25" scripted object) and watch the canister swing on the rope as the platform collapses, taking out your enemy.

Ok, so Quake could do that with a simple scripted sequence, right? It's still just killing aliens, just with a fancy sequence to do it, right? Wrong.

Shoot the rope. Perhaps in a Quake scripted sequence that would do nothing. In HL2 it will do what it's supposed to. The rope will snap and the canister will drop, crushing the enemy and any objects beneath it.

Shit like that.

That's what I meant by my post, Stryker. In no way is HL2 going to be generic, clichéd or mindless. Forget that it's about killing aliens. That will be only a small fraction of the game. Forget all about any prejudice you may have.

All I can suggest is that you watch the movie and see what I mean. If you don't you'll never know. And if you do watch it and still aren't interested, then that's fine.

However, I doubt you won't be interested. HL2 will be an experience. Miss it and miss out.

I think the phermone gun thing convinced me (I immediately thought SG-1, which is my favorite "new" show), if they put in something that inventive it has to be head and shoulders above the "typical" shooters I was against.

a better question is will I have the money to buy a new comp to run the thing, somehow I don't think my 1.5 GHz processor will handle it biggrin:

Well said Ydiss. In no way is HL or will HL2 be a mindless alien slaughter. Goddamn the footage in that 25 min gameplay video is amazing.

[quote="Sgt Stryker":52abc]
a better question is will I have the money to buy a new comp to run the thing, somehow I don't think my 1.5 GHz processor will handle it biggrin:[/quote:52abc]

I'm not totally convinced of this but the claimed minimum specs are 1ghz CPU and 32bit gfx card. Which is very reasonable.

Certainly, to run it at high performance, you (and myself) will have to upgrade, but I think 1.5ghz will be ok to at least play it. Depends on Valve's performance settings.

Whilst the game does use things like bump-mapping and dynamic light mapping, it's not going for the kind of CPU hungry performance D3 is going for, by a long shot.

However, looking at some of the big open areas in the demo (most of them putting any scernario you've seen in MOH SP to shame) I can't imagine it running smoothly on my machine (1.67Hgz Athlon XP).

This is the only doubt that I have about their claims. Time will tell.

[quote="Stinger_Dude":32523]Natural Selection is a great game. Far more addictive than CS in my opinion. I was hooked on that thing for hours.[/quote:32523]

Ja. I love that mod, I barely play any other mods than that.
Can't wait until 2.0 verison of it comes out on July 31st.

[quote="Sgt Stryker":c6ddf]a better question is will I have the money to buy a new comp to run the thing, somehow I don't think my 1.5 GHz processor will handle it biggrin:[/quote:c6ddf]
They said it can be turned down to run on a 700Mhz processor with a 64MB video card.

[quote=Akuma]They said it can be turned down to run on a 700Mhz processor with a 64MB video card.[/quote:89991]

Yeah, you can, but it would be a shame to make a great game like HL2 look as crappy as MOHAA.

[quote=pest]Yeah, you can, but it would be a shame to make a great game like HL2 look as crappy as MOHAA.[/quote:fcc56]

I totally agree.

But, wouldn't it be nice if that were true?

Despite the fact that you'd miss out on the awesome graphics, you'd still have all of the innovation so far as AI and source code are concerned. It would be fairly unprecidented if they actually allowed users to reverse engineer the graphics so far that it works on 2 generation old systems.

If they manage to make this game playable for 1Ghz machines (FPS 25+ consistently), even though you may have to sacrifice all the flashy effects and details (and maybe have some hefty clip-plane) it will be great.

It just means that you will have to spend money on hardwear to see the flashy stuff, rather than have to spend the money to play the game at all (a la MoH:AA).

I see an expensive video card in my near future. The old ti4200 isnt going to cut it for HL2, Doom III or even halo.

$269 and up for a 9800pro 128

$356 and up for the fx5900 128

ed:

Time to start saving so it can be installed by then.

Don't get the FX.

I am probably not going to, but for money reasons mostly.

What do you have against the (arguebly) baddest video card on the planet?

It costs a lot more than the 9800 but is only slightly faster. Nvidia cheated on all the benchmarking tests. 256MB of graphic memory won't be needed for along time.(Doom3 only uses 90MB) It isn't the baddest card in the world, just the biggest waste of money.

It does cost more. No arguement there.

Nvidia did cheat, but it wastn too long ago, ATI got accused of the very same thing. And its irrelavant, they cheated on 3d mark scores which are synthetic anyways. I typically only look at benchmarks from real games.

It might not be the better value, and that is probably why I will buy the 9800pro, but it currently is the baddest video card on the planet, but not by enough to justify the extra price.