Half Life II is coming

[mixx666]

Just got my hands on a recent UK Games magazine and it had an in depth Preview on HL2, apparently allowing the writers of the magazine the exclusive chance to play 3 full levels which they state to be quite large in scale.

And so I think personally that the game will be out for its summer release (touch wood). As with the original release date way back in October when told by a friend that the game would definitely come out on its original release date I laughed and said “no way, I doubt that very much” it just didn’t seem right that a game that we hardly saw much of was about to be released? With new games there is always a few screen shots, then an in depth preview, then always with out fail 1 or 2 cancel release dates before any game comes out.

How many games actually come out on time?

I am 27 years old now and I have been playing games all my life, way back to the old Atari days, all the way through to today. Not only Do I have a decent PC but I also own 6 game consoles, and the major release dates never make it out on time.

The whole HL2 thing didn’t seemed right no matter how many times a magazine or a games forum stated that the game would be out soon, I just didn’t feel it. I always felt it to be a publicity stunt, and it’s a shame that a company like Valve led its fans along with that original release date. But I think it feels right now, Games magazines are starting in depth previews, and in this magazines case that I have read they are the only people in the world to have been given the exclusive chance to play it “apparently”

I’m not sure if I am aloud to give the name of the magazine so that people in the UK can get a chance to read it, but let me know if I can and I will give that detail out. It shows some new screen shots that I can’t find on the web and gives a few details about the game.

Also there is rumour that maybe Freemen might not be the main character of the game. Remember Metal Gear Solid 2 Sons of Liberty on the PS2, we all thought Solid Snake would return as the main character but instead only featured in the first Ship level. Instead we got a big surprise with a new character in later levels, well rumour suggest that HL2 may have a similar surprise.

What ever the case I’m still excited and I still can’t wait, lets hope HL2 has got it right

[stigweed]

Well I just downloaded the extended E3 HL2 video from fileplanet last night. All the action shown was from Freeman's point of view, though we have known for a while that other characters (e.g. Alex) will be playable.

The physics engine looked AMAZING. I have serious doubts as to whether it will be playable on my XP1800@2.2GHz +512MB Samsung + Radeon 9700Pro 256mb. They showed how the materials used did not depend on what they were used on - there was a human figure created out of water with flames behind it. Very very cool. Apart from the poly count being like a computer game, the details looked like a movie.

They had the GMan talking in several languages - the muscles coded in his face meant it didnt matter what language was used - he mouth would move realisticly.

The tractor beam gun thing could ppick up just about anything or rip it from a wall, susped it in the air as a shield before firing out in front of you when you want. In one scene freeman was getting fired upon from above in a stairway, looking aorund, he ripped the nearest iron radiator from the wall, used it as a shield to walk up the stairs, then propelled it towards the soldier, leaving a bit of a mess.

And iff you create a whole in the current environment (blast a window or be near a hole in the floor) you can toss these egg/spore things that summon a bunch of aliens which will then attack anything that isn't you. He used them as decoys for drone guns.

I think HL2 will have it right, apart from needing an überPC to run on.

Can't say I believe its out soon. September time would be believable to me.

[Pitch]

I'm pretty sure that we won't see it before November 2004. I hope I'm wrong, but all material at work point to this date.

[Ebbe Bech]

Just got hold of this video clip.
The big guy says summer!!

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/creamha...fLife2Demo.zip

[stigweed]

that entire sequence is on the fileplanet video, though it runs smoother in the WinHEC as I guess cos its on the X800

[mixx666]

I can't wait, I'm so excited lets hope its better than Far Cry

[stigweed]

They're saying July 2nd 2004 now. Doom III similar time scale. We can only hope.

[XeroHouR]

Yes, they will both be great games in themselves, but I'm looking forward to the games based off this engine. I AM still a league counterstrike player, but thats not even a big concearn of mine. I'm looking forward to Vampire: BloodLines on the Half Life 2 Engine. DoomIII is going to have a great multiplayer(if the rumors of <6 players is false!). I got the half life 2 beta just to see how well my system handles it. It's not too bad actually, on 1280x768 I make 32 frames in open places, 75 frames(refresh limited) in closed spaces and it can drop to 16 while rendering biiiiig areas. I assume these will go up when the game is done, and optimized. I'm looking forward to both!

[stigweed]

How did you get a beta? Would this be the leak?

I have the D3 alpha that was leaked but it only runs at 640 (unless there's a commandline parameter for bigger). It's horribly unoptimised but the atmosphere and the graphics are there big time. I actually spent about 6 weeks downloading it over dialup at evenings and weekends last year. Once it gets released I'm hoping it'll run smoother (my R9700pro has quite abit of overclocking potential in it that UT2k3/4 hasn't yet needed) so I should be ok.

[XeroHouR]

yea i got a bittorrent of it online. My 3Mb cable handled it faster than ur dail-up handled ur Doom III though :P

[stigweed]

We're getting broadband at home in a few weeks (exchange gets upgraded on teh 26th may but I won't be home till june to push my dad into getting it). At uni I've got a 100mbps connection into college. That connects through Oxford Uni Computing Services to the rest of the world. Not sure where the bottlenecks are and how tight they are but I max out around 250kbps on most downloads.

Sadly kazaa etc. are not alllowed (though not blocked either) and bit torrent doesn't work well for large files as the college firewall doesn't accept incoming connections, so its hard to get a large torrent going.

[Pitch]

My system handled beta quite well, I'm upping to a x800xt 1st chance I get. Still shame about the random crashes. It's buggy.

[XeroHouR]

stigweed,

I am willing to bet that you can still transfer through MiRC but I can't explain how to do it very well, if i know at all. Thats what my school does, pretty much blocks bittorrents kazaa, shareaza etc. I'm told mIRc still works for file transfers

[Gizmo]

Yeah, but you have to log on to an IRC network that allows file shares. Once you've done that, you have to find someone with what you are looking for, then you can DCCSend and DCCRecieve.

[robbie]

Damn you valve!!! Damn you!!! Now I need to go out and upgrade my TI4400!!!
Rob

[XeroHouR]

Actually valve has nothing to do with half life any more i believe. Venvidi or however u spell it does. I'm pretty sure they just merged with NBC too. So now half life is being made by NBC universal....or something

[stigweed]

i do use the odd bit of kazaa lite for small files but they do keep logs and watch people, just not very closely. So its not a good idea to draw attention to urself by downloading massive files.

[piccoLEW]

looks like i'll be saving up for a new gfx card.. i'll probably go for a newish one as well, just for these games.

I'm HOPING team reaction will do something like: Gloom for doom3

[Pitch]

Possible release date scheduled for 08/20/04

Fingers crossed.

[XeroHouR]

yea right, its not going to come out, EVER! They will just keep tricking us into buying new video cards to prepare for it. I got the "beta" and I'm going to get some massive upgrades in a week or two and see what kinda frames I can get with good ram and a good overclock =0