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[kupoartist]

Valve announced recently that pre-loading of Half-Life 2 would occur via their steam service... after about a week of slippage, the Half-Life 2 preload (containing art assets like textures and models, all guaranteed not to change between preload and the actual release) began on Thursday / Friday, weighing in at about 1GB (when uncompressed) of game content.

Many speculated that the preload would be the first indication of a light at the end of the development tunnel, and the word from Gabe Newell is: Half-Life 2 will go "gold" on August 30th. That's this monday. However, the post from the halflife2.net forums hasn't actually been confirmed - it was posted from Gabe's account, so if it isn't genuine, Valve's security has been breached in some way. Again. The forums are now down (HL2 just has that magnetism I guess), but here is a picture of the news: https://www.halflife2.net/news//1093671787_gold.JPG

Who knows whether it is true? And if it is, an actual release date is still forthcoming...

[kupoartist]

Well, it certainly was to good to be true and the post was indeed fake. The funniest thing to come of all this? Gabe Newell is supposedly stupid enough to have a password for an account which he has so often used to post Half-Life 2 teasers as "GabeN". Yeah, no-one will ever guess a password based on your first name plus your last initial.

[Harry]

Man, that's gross. Anyhow I thought Half Life 2 was still in time for its September release, at least in U.S.

[kupoartist]

hehe... who knows... according to the etailers, these are the speculative dates:
GamePlay.co.uk - 24 September - 2004
Play.com - 24 September - 2004
Game.uk.com - To Be Confirmed
Amazon.com - 1 November - 2004
EBGames.com - 1 November - 2004
Walmart.com - 2 November - 2004
NewEgg.com - 2 November - 2004
GameStation.co.uk - 1 November - 2004

They seem to be anticipating November, but they often know only as much as us, and they may just have their own strategies to grab as many preorders as possible.. I'm personally going for the nice, ironic "around September 30th" release date. 1 Year after they were supposed to release it anyway, but I'd say that would be more realistic as a gold date, rather than a shipping date. I couldn't imagine it slipping into 2005. The preload and CSource Beta indicate that they must be nearing the end of it all by now. Until then, I guess I'll just have to watch those new Bink videos and imagine i'm playing it or something. Or i'll just get round to buying/playing Doom 3 ^^

[Harry]

Hehehe right - we will start our features about PC Gaming with a review of DOOM. I usually don't read reviews of a game I must review, but I just had to read something about DOOM 3 - the fact the gameplay has remained almost unchanged from the original isn't necessarily a bad thing for me, as long as a) the level design and game balance are really good and b) the game is a truly immersive multimedia experience. I didn't expect role-playing elements or crazy gadgets in the game, so I might still like itas a game other than for its groundbreaking technology.

A funny thing I remember is that when the first two DOOMs were released I learnt to play it using "stealth" techniques in a game that really didn't even take them into consideration. I remember completing that level with all those giant spider monsters (it was DOOM II, I guess) with almost no bullets... it was crazy, but fun. I also hope that good mods are created for the game - I'd like to have more time and try do something with the new great level editors accompanying many of these new generation first person shooters... I had a lot of fun creating levels in the first DOOM with those incredibly rough level editors...

What are the announced and previewed gameplay elements that attract you the most in Half Life 2?

[kupoartist]

Originally Posted by Harry

What are the announced and previewed gameplay elements that attract you the most in Half Life 2?

without a doubt, the things that have most excited me so far have been strangely removed from action and combat. The complexity of the character models, including realistic animation both facial (lip synch, accurate looking emotions), their designs and the way they've been utlised to really "act" out the story is far and above anything I think people have seen before. My favorite scenes from the E32004 videos had to be in the "Trainstation" and "Tenements" videos, wherein, Freeman doesn't even have any weapons! Tenements particuarlly demonstrated it all - the way that a combine soldier stands to attention whilst his two collegues bust into a door and all you hear are some guy's moans. The way that the hungover guy looks at you forlorn and say "was that you knocking, I didn't even know we still had a door..." and the way that another citizen peers out of a window and glances at you, saying "I though you were caught - This is how it always happens". It was extremely cinematic.

Combat-wise, I can't wait to use that manipulator gun. One great scene from this years E3 showed the player picking up a grenade and throwing it at some soldiers, killing them instantly That and the bits where you fight alongside other people, hearing their desperate attempts to shout tactics and seeing their fear ^^

[Harry]

Yes, the E3 2004 videos were amazing, even if I could see them only in horrible low resolution versions. I hope that interaction with NPCs - enemies and friends - will be really as deep as expected, even if one couldn't expect anything but excellent AI from Valve. And the videos seemed to prove that.

[Bogart]

I'd love to have a PC powerful enough to play the game... can somebody tell me which enemies are in the game? I know it sounds kiddish, but I like first person shooter with smart enemies that can scare me a bit... I mean, something like aliens that follow me and make me feel a bit like Sigourney Weaver in an Alien movie! Hmmm and let me say that I have always loved the main character of Half Life, because he reminds me of my older brother!

[kupoartist]

Originally Posted by Bogart

and let me say that I have always loved the main character of Half Life, because he reminds me of my older brother!

lol! The funny thing is that Gordon Freeman is what you make him really, because aside from the loading screens and some fleeting glances in Opposing Force / Blue Shift, the actions of that character (I mean, he doesn't even speak!) are defined by you! So yes, ironically, Gordon Freeman should remind you of your older brother, because you are Freeman and you probably have a lot of similarities to your Brother

Enemy-wise, it has been demonstrated that the AI is a lot more capable now. You can't just evade some of the enemies simply by getting to higher ground or by jumping to the other side of a body of water, because the enemy AI may be able to find ways of pursuing you. In one video, the new strider enemies (these tripod-type alien things that have a devestating laser attack that seems to kill instantly) ducked under an arch over the road to pursure the player. In another sequence, a pursuing soldier tries kicking a door the player just baricaded, gives up and instead moves to the windows and tries to shoot through them instead. Basically, the AI is context sensitive, so it will make choices depending on what the player is doing, not just on heavily scripted sequences.

Enemies back from the original game, AFAIK, are the headcrabs (and the headcrab zombies) and the slave "vorticon" aliens (the ones that shot Green Lightning at you.) The former are a little better equipped to slaughter you in that, in zombie form they can detach from their hosts and fly at you (one particuarly sick sequence involves zombies that get cut in two at the torso by a revolving blade - the headcrabs jumped off in one video, whilst in another the upper-body kept crawling towards the player). The "Slave" aliens aren't actually enemies this time - they are seen helping some of your old scientest pals, presumably because they were "slaves", now freed (perhaps because Freeman killed the floating-wtf-baby from HL1). Other enemies i've seen include the Combine soldiers (think HL1 soldiers but smarter, behind masks and probably not human or at least fully human), ant-lions (nasty, large big type things that can be fooled into fighting for you if you happen to have the scent of one of their "leaders"), the weird blade-bug things (headcrab sized flying things that have a circular saw attached for some reason), a massive weird flying thing that looks like the genetic cross between a beetle and a helicopter (though white), a proper helicopter and a whole load of other enemies that either haven't been announced or I've just forgotten. Like those weird blue tentacles which have a nasty habit of spearing people.

So hopefully, you'll get your Ripley moments

[kupoartist]

Just thought I'd post this awesome concept art that emerged recently: It features a crowbar holding Gordon struggling in the sewers with one of those Barnacle creatures from the first game.
https://www.halflife2.net/news//1093959529_Barnacle.jpg

Now, I wish I could draw like that ^^

Actually, it's all part of some very weird "test" that valve are doing for their fans. On the media page of the offical site, clicking the 6th image (of the City 17 Citadel - you'll know which one, because the spooky G-Man will appear on mouseover) brings up a login box to which the login/pass is nova/prospekt. You then get a window with a box. Looking at the html code of this page, you see an ascii art of Alyx Vance (Gordon's sidekick for HL2), a bird and the partial url "secret/secondtest/whatsmyname.jpg". Put after the www.half-life2.com url, you get a picture of the barnacle. So you enter "barnacle" into the box and get the above pic. More is expected to come... Big games beginning with "H" seem to have this thing with confusing their fans.... www.ilovebees.com ....

[Bogart]

Wow, thank you for all the info. I wonder what system specs will be required to play the final game. Such complex AI should require a lot of work on the machine; the menacing monsters and behaviors you described make we wish the release date of Half Life 2 was closer.

Did you have a chance to see DOOM III in action? Speaking of the graphic engines, which one surprised you the most? Half-Life 2 seems to offer enormous outside environments, while DOOM III takes place for the most part on the inside of the base (leaving aside the astounding opening sequence).

Another think I wanted to ask you... what does "half life" mean? Does it refer to radioactivity or to some other aspect?

[kupoartist]

Originally Posted by Bogart

Another think I wanted to ask you... what does "half life" mean? Does it refer to radioactivity or to some other aspect?

That's it pretty much. I know of no other reason for its use except that it's sciencey sounding and broke the "FP action game = one word" rule of the time (you know, "Doom", "Quake", "Hexen", "Heretic", "Unreal". They wanted something memorable, relevant but not formulaic). Incidently, the expansion packs follow suit with "Opposing Force" (Newton's laws of physics) and Blue Shift (the blue light given off by stars because they are moving away from us, so their light is "shifted" to the blue end of the spectrum, thus proving that the Universe is expanding. See, I do remember something from GCSE physics!). I suppose "Decay" (the PS2 version's co-op component) would also count.

I haven't actually played or seen Doom III in action yet. Tommorow I may get as a present (Ir was at the top of my list ^^) and i'll see then. I think that traditionally ID Software's games tend to have smaller levels (though those in Doom III may be a consequence of the planned XBox version)... mind you, that's kind of hypocritical in this case given that HL1 was built upon Quake 1's engine, yet was afforded pretty big areas. I suppose each engine is constrained by the theme of the game though - Doom III puts all it's detail in small spaces because it's an intentionally claustrophobic game. Half-Life 2 has some pretty massive areas (like the wasteland type levels where vehicles are used). Also, source is probably catering for a larger range of licensed games so it has to be more versatile - Valve's Team Fortress 2 is undoubtably one of these. A bunch of stuff the source engine has been shown to do won't seen in HL2 to evidence this - "dynamic terrain displacement" (in the videos, it was a sort of cave area which changed shape in real time) isn't in HL2 but is said to be in TF2.

There was an article comparing the two techs and HL2 "won". https://www.whutdufuk.com/?post=632287876827187500 , though Doom III is adknowledged to have stengths in certain areas (you know, being dark and scary). I'm not sure whether it's actually true now, but it was claimed that the HL2 tech scaled quite well to what your computer demand of it. In fact, any PC that can run Doom 3 will run HL2. Sure, you may not be playing it like it is in those oh-so lovely videos, (the first ones were reportedly on a Radeon 9800 pro. In the UK, these cards can be picked up for £150 - about £150 cheaper than what I got mine for :cries: ) but if the gameplay doesn't stand without the graphics HL2 will be a disappointment anyway...

[Bogart]

Kupoartist, sorry to bother man, I just need to ask what's the story in the game about? Is this some kind of aliens vs mankind thing like Halo?

[kupoartist]

Lets see... At the end of Half-Life, the G-Man offers you a job (I don't consider this a spoiler - most newbies probably wouldn't know who the G-Man is until they met him, and it was a bit of an oddball, though still great ending). You step off a train zooming through space / another dimension and into a portal.

For whatever reason, Half-Life 2 takes place many years after the events of Black Mesa. Gordon finds himself transported not only in terms of location (From a Secret US research facility to a nameless City in Eastern Europe) but forward in time (An entire decade, some say). Given that the last thing he remembered was killing the Nihlianth (Giant Baby-Faced Floating beasty thingy) and assuming that doing so saved the day for all, finding that earth has been defeated by a hostile alien race and enslaved by them is expected to come as a bit of a shock. With no weapons and pratically no clue as to what the hell is going on, Gordon disembarks from a train in City 17. The Combine police that now patrol the streets then lead Gordon down into an interogation room.... What happens next is unknown.

HL2 contains a bunch of new and old factions. The Combine are the victorious alien race - they look human, but just what is under their heavy breathing aparatus is unknown. Some speculate that they may be partly human (Hence "Combine"). They have drained the oceans, polluted the air, built enourmous sky scraping Citadels in every city and are basically causing a mess. They are either striping the Earth of all precious resources, or else they are preparing it for new inhabitants. The Citadels appear to be the source of this, visibly "eating up" the City in some videos, and it likely that the final objective will be the destruction of this monstrosity.

The Resistance are your pals. Amoung them, Dr Eli Vance and his scientific associates. Eli creates weapons which he supplies to the Resistance - including highly experimental weapons like the Manipulator gun (Which allows Gordon to pick up crates, boxes, radiators and the like and fire them at people: all of which, looks EXTREMELY fun!). The Citizens of City 17 start the game as supressed peoples, just trying to etch out a pitiful existance in light of Combine rule. As the game progresses though, many join your cause in fighting the combine. Important side-kicks come in the guise of Eli's daughter, Alyx (and expert with machines, who has a mechanical buddy named "Dog", seen throwing a car at the enemy in one screenshot) and Barney Calhoun, the security guard from Half-Life: Blue Shift.

There are also those that would co-operate with the combine: a political party, lead by a suspicous character named Dr Breen broadcast their message of co-operation on monitors and television around the city. Word is that Breen was the one who convinced earth to surrender in their futile war with the Combine (a war alledgedly called "the seven hour war". Nice to know we gave it all we had!), so Breen is considered somewhat of a saviour to some, and a mediator between the Combine and the Humans.

Also returning are enemies from the original game. The "Xen Wildlife" (Headcrabs, Zombies, Barnacles and other non-sentient beings from Black Mesa) are back to be a relative nuisance (Headcrabs now have a nasty tendancy to detach from doomed hosts). The Alien "Slaves" (the brown "lightning" aliens with the Green Collars) also return, however they appear to be on your side this time: they are seen assisting Eli Vance in his secret Lab. Beyond them, there are a few more "dumb" animal races (for instance, a race called the Ant-Lions, which can be fooled into fighting for you with the right weapon). The exact plot isn't known, but there is plenty of speculation. Two good articles are: https://www.hlfallout.net/articles.php/article_9/ and https://www.hlfallout.net/articles.php/article_23/ . Yes, I could have just given you those links at the beginning... but I just wanted to write about the game

[Chara]

Kupartist, you may engoy this if you havent found it yet. The moves make no sense. O_o But it if you do manage to find the extra moves, the descriptions are pretty funny.

[kupoartist]

"You slap the headcrab with a trout. A trout. Come on! Headcrabbed. Sheesh. A trout. Against an alien parasite. Did you really think that'd work?"

[Chara]

"Yarrrrr, Matey!

In Soviet Russia, game plays you!"

[Chara]

Here is something else that is quite funny:

https://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...534899126&rd=1

If you look at the people who bid, it seems Gabe is trying to help the poor guy out.

[kupoartist]

lol... I personally wouldn't bid - wouldn't want the ending spoilt!

Edit: Just seen that Gamespot have their "Final Hours of Half-Life 2" article up: https://www.gamespot.com/features/611..._topslot_click