-=||MIKE||=- Posted April 19, 2003 Share Posted April 19, 2003 At long last! The sequel to the best PC First Person Shooter of all time has been announced at a press conference with Valve in NY this afternoon. Having been present at this meeting of developers and media, I got to witness the first running preview and in-game demo to leave the walls of Valve's Design Studios since development began way back when, after the release of Half-Life. And I must say, I was no less than awestruck! At a glance, you could mistake this game for a DVD movie. The Half-Life 2 engine, built from the ground up, and boasting cinematic quality graphics at blistering frame rates, looks like it will easily topple Doom3's engine before ID even releases it! The Dev team showed us a demo of a working alpha just to prove that the game's cinematic-style graphics were in-fact, being rendered real time. It was nothing short of amazing, especially considering that it was cutting 70fps in highest detail on a 1.7ghz processor and Geforce 4 Ti4200! "We've tried to accommodate for the widest range of users possible. We felt that allowing gamers with lower end PCs to play with the highest settings would greatly increase the multiplayer potential and encourage the online community to really get behind Half-Life 2." commented Willam Sykes, source programmer. As some people may also know, the tactical aspect of Half-Life 2 has been greatly increased over its predecessor. Weapons are now fully functional with gun jams, dirty barrels, overheating and weight. For example, in any in-game mission, one is expected to clear bullet casing jams, hold weapons steady (counteracting against weight) and perform maintenance tasks such as stripping, cleaning and polishing of weapons. The Team are excited with the new tactical aspect which includes missions of the following varieties: Radio operator missions where you take on the role of 'behind the main lines' support crew, skills in tuning radio frequencies and counter-acting for static will be essential in giving the fighting troops accurate bearings on targets Co-ordinating scouting missions into unknown regions. Again, these require the player to stay at base with a radio and satellite uplink, communicating with fighting soldiers during battles. Weapon Maintenance missions are completed before every main mission. In these preparation segments, players must ensure their firearms are fully functional and well kept. Failure to successfully maintain one's weapon reults in demotion and 'less action' in main missions. Of course the above is only a TASTE of whats to come in the retail package. Expect a lot of the features that made HL1 so popular, like the adventure aspect and of course, slaughtering a LOT of ultra high resolution baddies! While I looked on at valve's demo, I thought it a shame that these baddies were ceasing to exist by Gordon's well-maintained firearm, as they were so extremely detailed it was a pleasure to watch them! The models were so realistic in-fact, that whilst watching the demo, I noticed the following: All models have rising and falling chests/areas where lungs are used (this is helpful when you are unsure if enemies are dying, dead, sleeping or pretending! All models are fully destructable in an unlimited number of ways. Say goodbye to shooting the whole head off an enemy. Depending where you hit it, the skull will fragment accordingly, and differently every time! The sheer detail is ridiculous: actual hair/fur (not textures), sweat, dirt, cuts (can be made anywhere and of different severity Eg: a cut on the skin, right up to a limb coming off or an opening into the abdominal area etc) Along with the overwhelming abundance of eye-candy, this game has quite a few never-before-tried features incorperated into the adventure. Players may be at first shocked to find that Valve has taken the standard mouse look of FPS and added in a 'turn head' type feature. This feature allows the player to look around while keeping the body and weapon aimed in a particular direction, and is controlled by the mouse (as are the body movements). This system, for example, will allow the player to observe an environment around them whilst still keeping a weapon trained on the many prisoners that are taken during missions. Keeping in line with the new weapon detail systems (cleaning, unjamming, maintaining etc) a sidebar will be added that will allow the player to access his weapon cleaning kit quickly by toggling and then using the mouse to grab and apply tools to clean the firearms. After battles, it is quite common to 'take 5' and make use of the weapon maintenance kit in a quiet corner. The most impressive feature of the weapon maintenance kit is that the player will take control of the tools with the mouse. For example, when cleaning the barrel of a firearm, the player must move the mouse back and forth to move the wad inside the barrel. Players must also take care not to spill cleaning solvents with the mouse when applying them. Move the mouse too fast and you'll waste some good fluid. Our first look at Half-Life 2 was an exciting experience to say the least. The team here at Deepgame Online News are looking forward to the inevitable flow of screenshots and movies that will spill forth from Valve's Studios over the coming months, and will keep you up to date with all the latest developments as the title progresses. Keep an eye out this Friday as we will be releasing the first screenshots of Half-Life 2 for all to marvel at. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RadishTM Veteran Posted April 19, 2003 Veteran Share Posted April 19, 2003 Sounds good :happy: .... Radish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cibbis Posted April 19, 2003 Share Posted April 19, 2003 wow talk about redesigning the way a FPS is, talk about reality at it finest if it all comes together! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
x-byte Posted April 19, 2003 Share Posted April 19, 2003 Finally some more information on the game :happy: Some screenshots or videos would have been nice :D! Would have to wait a bit for that... Halflife 2 is gonna kick ass! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheLegendOfMart Posted April 19, 2003 Share Posted April 19, 2003 sounds too unbelievable, honestly, it goes into way too much depth to be a FPS, like tuning radio frequencies in game? i mean what the feck, with enemies around you shootin at you and your sat twiddling a knob, the gun cleaning aspect, would you really want to sit picking out every little tool to clean your gun, and the head turning aspect, whats the point, how do you aim your gun, if all you can do is look left and right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wildies Posted April 19, 2003 Share Posted April 19, 2003 seems nice thats it can be played on main stream computer with this good FPS... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PRLYago Posted April 19, 2003 Share Posted April 19, 2003 This sounds like a reposted april fools joke... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-=||MIKE||=- Posted April 19, 2003 Author Share Posted April 19, 2003 This sounds like a reposted april fools joke... i donno bout that but iam pretty sure its still a joke :D :blush: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aquadark Posted April 19, 2003 Share Posted April 19, 2003 Players may be at first shocked to find that Valve has taken the standard mouse look of FPS and added in a 'turn head' type feature. This feature allows the player to look around while keeping the body and weapon aimed in a particular direction, and is controlled by the mouse (as are the body movements). This system, for example, will allow the player to observe an environment around them whilst still keeping a weapon trained on the many prisoners that are taken during missions. This is a joke, right ? Are they nuts or something ? Anyway, this whole article sounds like a joke, especially the fps and the "actual hair/fur (not textures)" Eeeghh... It would be great if everythings is really "only a TASTE of whats to come", but I seriously doubt it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toxicfume Veteran Posted April 19, 2003 Veteran Share Posted April 19, 2003 If this is indeed a genuine account of it, and not some joke or April fools, then...Wow! This is the kind of FPS that has been sitting in the back of my mind. Total user control is what I think will make FPS' really realistic, and seems like this game will have it. If this game actually beats the gfx engine of Doom3, which I think is quite unlikely(yes, this is an assumption), hell is gonna break loose! :woot: Imagine if they release Team Fortress(2 maybe?), or if they remake Counter-Strike for it! That would rock! I could see some more sweet mods being released for this. :) Again..only if the article isn't a joke :rolleyes: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeS2k Posted April 19, 2003 Share Posted April 19, 2003 Sounds like it's mission-based too.. I much prefer it when it's just you alone "adventuring" like Unreal1, HL2 and Quake2.. Missions arn't so good like in Unreal2 other than that if it's real, it sounds good :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troop101 Posted April 19, 2003 Share Posted April 19, 2003 Sounds to good to be true. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Panda Posted April 19, 2003 Share Posted April 19, 2003 Sounds Brill :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jerichohol Posted April 19, 2003 Share Posted April 19, 2003 this would be amazing to see but i dont think its true Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Briandl79 Posted April 19, 2003 Share Posted April 19, 2003 sounds too unbelievable, honestly, it goes into way too much depth to be a FPS, like tuning radio frequencies in game? i mean what the feck, with enemies around you shootin at you and your sat twiddling a knob, the gun cleaning aspect, would you really want to sit picking out every little tool to clean your gun, and the head turning aspect, whats the point, how do you aim your gun, if all you can do is look left and right? Yeah it is quite in-depth, however that's what the guys had to do in real wars, twiddle their knobs while bullets flew by them, I think the realism will make the game even more exciting, that's part of what made the first game so much fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badall Posted April 19, 2003 Share Posted April 19, 2003 this is as fake as a ?9 note i mean come on better than doom3 on lesser hardware give me a break Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aquadark Posted April 19, 2003 Share Posted April 19, 2003 Reminds you of 2 ;) ? We kid you not. Don't buy any other magazine until you see our exclusive blowout coverage of what's certifiably the biggest game currently in development. That's got you thinking, hasn't it? Oh, we'll have a great reviews slate, previews of an amazing new franchise, and more Hard Stuff - but you'll come for the unveiling of... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badall Posted April 19, 2003 Share Posted April 19, 2003 ye i thought that was a advertisment for the may issue as you can see at the top of the picture and its only april 19th Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aquadark Posted April 19, 2003 Share Posted April 19, 2003 Well, May 16th is THE DATE ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davemania Posted April 19, 2003 Share Posted April 19, 2003 eeeek, can't wait :pinch: :pinch: :pinch: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chicane-UK Veteran Posted April 19, 2003 Veteran Share Posted April 19, 2003 Thats gotta be about HL2 surely... I'll be looking out for that copy of Edge I think! :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glowstick Posted April 19, 2003 Share Posted April 19, 2003 Nice article... Source? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deniss Posted April 19, 2003 Share Posted April 19, 2003 wow if true~! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redrope Posted April 19, 2003 Share Posted April 19, 2003 Honestly, I will believe this when I see it. If this is all true, that is ****ing incredible stuff. The main thing that makes me unsure about this is the "better than Doom3" graphics on a 4200. Besides that, I can see the rest being done. Its about time that a FPS had depth instead of another Unreal2 type game. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aquadark Posted April 19, 2003 Share Posted April 19, 2003 Well, honestly the leaked doom 3 alpha was hella unoptimized, so I wouldn't be surprised if the final version runs smoothly with Ti4200... But actual hair... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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