Half Life II Vid.

[Stewart]

Well, having just watched the 687mb video, comprising of a source engine demonstration and a good 20 minutes or so of game footage, I am completely blown away.

I've been playing computer and video games since about 1985 on the good old rubber-keyed ZX Spectrum 48k, and over the years, I've seen a handful of games, that got me really excited (although not aroused, you understand?); the first time I glimpsed Tekken running on the Playstation, the thought of a 64bit version of Super Mario Kart, and a few others throughout the years.

Now, I've not played the first Half Life, nor until recently, did I really bother with PC games (before my 9800pro, I've never even owned a proper 3D Card before), but I can honestly say, that I've never seen anything which looks, sounds or feels anywhere near as good as Half Life II.

The video starts with a demonstration of the source engine, which opens with a close up of the G-Man (an Agent Smith style character) looking like he did in Half Life; he then appears on the screen as he will look in Half Life II, which is the best human face I've seen in a game, which considering the face alone mimics the actions of 40 muscles, is not surprising.

G-Man then speaks, in English and some foreign language, before demonstrating various emotions, such as sadness, fear etc. They are all greeted with gasps and laughter from the assembled audience.

Then various textures and materials are put through the same process; wood is fire at with a gun, and splinters like wood, barrels fall and bounce realistically, and a dead body is thrown through the air, all looking perfect.

Next there is a brief section of effects, from water reflections to various visual effects. All mind-blowing, and hard to describe. So watch the vid.

Now the game: I won’t describe all of the sequences, but one perfectly shows off the AI, and how much it is going to add to the game. Your character is walking through an industrial estate, suddenly, bullets start flying, and an enemy solider bloke runs out of the darkness towards you, your character snaps off a few shots and runs for cover behind a barrel.

He shelters for a while, with bullets hitting the barrel, then switches weapons, picks the barrel up with some sort of beam weapon, and fires it at the enemy, who ducks to avoid it.

Then your character runs into a small building to escape, slams the door shut, pushes a table in front of it, and runs to the window to get a good firing position. The solider chasing you tries to force the door, then realising he can't get in, runs to the window to fire back.

You duck for cover again, bullets ringing out, while the solider at the window keeps you pinned down, and a second solider forces the door. Your character now has to run, so he sprints up a metal staircase, shooting the glass out of a window at the top, but the window is barred.

You turn to run up another flight of stairs, but a third solider at the top fire at you. Changing weapons again to the ray gun thingy, you pick up a small radiator on the floor, and fire it at the guard. It hits him, knocking him out, and fly’s into a drinks machine behind, causing cans of drink to come bouncing down the stairs, in ultra realistic fashion.

You run past the unconscious guard, up another flight of stairs, and push a pile of old mattresses and drums down the stairs to block them, before crow barring your way through a wooden door, onto the roof.

Now it gets really good.

Peering over the edge of the roof, you see a group of guards patrolling. Apparently, this whole area has been booby trapped for you, by some monk. You fire a few shots at a large metal girder, snapping the ropes holding it up, and it swings down, sending guards and barrels flying all over the gaff. The few that don’t get knocked down, fire into the air at you, with bullets hitting a metal fence.

Again, it’s the little touches here, such as the guards going flying, and the sounds of the bullets that make it something special. The fence gives way, and you run behind a cargo container. A pipe bomb is rolled under it, and it topples down, crushing the last guard.

Next, you jump down onto the cargo container, (ducking to avoid the girder still swinging), and roll a barrel down the stairs. You jump down the stairs and a zombie-like creature growls and walk towards you. You fire and kill it, and then when it’s all silent, you walk past a sort of propeller thingy, sticking out the ground. It creaks slightly, but does nothing.

You walk on, but more monsters appear, forcing you back, glancing down, you see that the propeller has a power switch, so crouching down, you turn it on, and watch, as the monsters heads are torn off by the blades. One monster gets smart, and crawls under it toward you, so you pull out a crowbar, and smash his face in.

More monsters appear from a side alley, but a single bullet fired into a barrel causes car to explode, taking the monsters with it. This ends the sequence.

Mind blowing. You have to see all this running, to get an idea of how impressive it is.

There’s lots more stuff on the video (22 minutes or so), all jaw dropingly brilliant.

If you’ve not seen this, then go to File Planet, (it’s free to join), search for Half Life II, and download the 500+Mb monster file.

Trust me it’s worth it; and if you haven’t got a system that can run this game, I suggest you sell your knees on eBay.

[Skeps]

Have Seen A couple of vids on this game and like u I was totally blown away with them, got me voucher from me 9600xt sittin waitin for the game to be released.

[streetster]

yeh i saw this a while ago, think september? as i had just got 1mb adsl so i thought i better download it seeing as i could. and yeh it really is amazing - i've had it pre-ordered on amazon since june i think

mark

[silent ben]

I love the video with the spider things, sooo funny to see them attach everyone while you stand there

Ben

[Ferral]

I seen that one myself a few months back, It was on one of the PC Mags DVD coverdiscs and looked amazing then. Imagine what it will look like now. Just hope that it actually gets released in the next 2 month as planned

[Skeps]

Nice sig Ferral, Faith No More rule

[Allen]

Is it hl2_gameplay_improved_gsi.zip? Am awiting in line. 33/33.

File planet normally sucks, but this will be the shortest I've ever had to wait!

[Steve]

I saw the E3 demonstration video (the one you speak of) some months ago - I still love it.

HL2 will be well worth the wait.

[Stewart]

Originally Posted by Big_Al

Is it hl2_gameplay_improved_gsi.zip? Am awiting in line. 33/33.

File planet normally sucks, but this will be the shortest I've ever had to wait!

That's the one. I didn't get the best download speed on FilePlanet - 20k\sec on 512 ADSL.

Well worth the wait though.

[Stewart]

Oh, Big Al, I notice your sig pic isn't working either... upload it at Uploadit.org?

[Allen]

Originally Posted by Vaul

Oh, Big Al, I notice your sig pic isn't working either... upload it at Uploadit.org?

Yeah, what's happened to it??

Oh, and HL2 vid was BRILLIANT!!!

[Lord Kordir]

I think S.T.A.L.K.E.R might steal it's crown actually.

[Stewart]

It has no crown to steal, at the moment. So, there really is little point arguing which is better. I have played neither, so have no comment.

Having said that, from what I have seen of Half Life II, it seems to have it all. Looks amazing, sounds amazing, and seems to play like a dream.

If Valve can bring it all together, Half Life II is going to be something very special.

Al - Glad you liked the vid. Told you it was something special.

Don't know what happened to Uploadit.org... the site is up, it doesn't seem to want to display my sig picture.

[Allen]

Originally Posted by Vaul

Don't know what happened to Uploadit.org... the site is up, it doesn't seem to want to display my sig picture.

Yeah, it's weird. Also, I don't have the sig on my machine to host anywhere else!

I'll PM Knox to see if he can mail it to me.

[Korky]

Shame the "ingame" footage is all a load of crap. Scripted where as the player was working around the movements of the cpu and not the other way round. When that video was made there was absolutely nothing substantial to even call it a game.

[streetster]

When that video was made there was absolutely nothing substantial to even call it a game.

yeh i guess. i mean the engine was all there with the models, physics etc, just they (valve) seemed not to have made much of the actual game content other than some pre-scripted scenes which they used for the e3 video...

ah well there are 11more months left of 2004, it might be released this year

mark