Half-Life 2 (PC)

[Spatial]

That Trainstation vid is brilliant.

The sound effects are great. The echo and revirb really makes it sound as if you're there. The guy getting dragged of by The Combine is a nice touch too ( so much was lost from that E3 2K4 video ), and for once I can actually understand what those Combine Nazi's are saying (which should help me avoid numerous electroprod beatings in the games opening)

[Concept]

Spatial 101 -

Yeah. I thought the lack of music during the opening helps, because there are times throughout the E3 2004 presentation when high-paced moments are backed up by a techno-styled soundtrack. It may work when the rate quickens, but amongst slow moving parts of the game, I feel a minimalist approach to sound design pays dividends for atmosphere.

In my view, the mise en sc?ne characterisation-focused parts work better without any sound to detract from the immersion of being in that space of the trainstation. It works well here particularly, such as when the women shouts near the turnstyle and you can hear the desperation and echo her voice makes. For a start, the echo gives you an approximation of how big the place is before you've entered the main waiting area, and also how quiet (what should be ordinarily a busy station) has actually been turned into. It also sounds as if she needs more people to enter this rather empty, large and lifeless space which has a population barely filling it. That automatically gives you an indication of the psychology from some of the people relocated there, further echoed when you approach a man who talks to himself enviously about how trains leave without anyone on. Likewise, when you approach the grilled gate processing department which the Combine control, you get these tangled mess of sounds stepping onto each other, and that for me is a sign of the confusion which these people must feel when they're being essentially imprisoned. I also thought it was very clever by Valve in terms of space to have these huge narrow V-line video screens staring down at the player at all times, because it makes you feel as if the space is talking down to to you, as if you're an ant or a child, especially when Dr. Breen dictates a 'welcoming' message.

Obviously all these effects are uniquely designed to give a sense of oppression and hopelessness. As you say, it's not hard to get the impression of a wartime occupied country controlled by an invading force during such moments.

So obviously, the opening of Half-Life 2 in one very specific way of demonstration through space via sight and sound, underlines the game's title... The environment is empty, the people almost appear dead and defeatist in how they're imprisoned.

Hence a realisation of the title Half-Life. In this regard, the sequel's opening could be said to be more effective than the original in this regard.

[wazy15]

Thanks for the vid, however graphically it didn't amaze me as I was expecting. Still, could just be a low quality video.

Waz

[Inertia_]

That trainstation vid has 'greatest PC game of all time' stamped all over it.

My first thoughts were 'will the gameplay match the atmosphere', but I then realised I was looking at something where the line between atmosphere and gameplay didn't seem to exist. The experience itself seems to be so enthralling, ingenious and immersive that 'gameplay' seems too basic a concept to adequately describe it.

Got my x800. Got my swanky HL2 wallpaper. Seen the vids. I'm proper hyped now - viva la revolution.

[Concept]

Waz, I admit the opening of Half-Life 2 isn't the game's graphical peak, but if you take a look at the E3 2004 presentation as a whole, it's stunning. Especially Traptown.

Inertia, I just found an alternative clocking tool (more effective than ATI Tool in my opinion) which makes manipulation of the x800 in this department startlingly simple if you're interested at all. I've already seen a performance increase with a little tweaking, and very small difference in GPU temperature.

http://www.rage3d.com/index.php?node=r3dtweak

[wazy15]

Concept, did the Ati overclocking utility display your gpu temps? I couldn't find the display temp bit when using it with my 9800 Pro.

Waz

[Concept]

Yeah, strangely enough the temperature reading is only supposed to work with XT-range cards, but it shows up perfectly fine for me, replacing the ATI Tool icon in red text on the tray. I've overclocked my core and memory by about 50Mhz each and I've not seen any temperature difference. It also helps that I've got VPU recover switched on in my control panel, which means should anything go significantly wrong, my computer will switch off before anything awful happens.

You have to go to 'misc' in settings within ATI Tool, and tick the box for the temperature readout to get it to work when the program is minimized.

[Concept]

Apologies if some of you think I'm spamming this thread, I'm just trying to keep the information fresh.

http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=67

http://techreport.com/etc/2004q3/source-engine/index.x?pg=1

These are the most accurate benchmarks for the Source VST benchmark that I've seen yet. There were some ridiculous results being thrown about in other tests, that I wasn't matching on my card and placing the Pro and XT way out in front of the GT/Ultra.

For example, I was only getting around 65-67fps at 1280x1040 with everything maxed out on my own x800Pro, whereas various reports were placing the average VST fps at 77-80fps over for such specifications.

This should also make more realistic reading for those owning next-generation Nvidia cards too.

[yashiro]

Spammer

[Concept]

Sorry - Can't help it. I'm itching for this game bad-style.

[Len]

Lem - It can't be far now... If there's one game to pick up a new rig it'd have to be Half-Life 2.

But then I suppose it comes down to personal preference.

Lem?

Oh it's definitley personal preference, I've been waiting nearly a year now to update my machine just for this game (my 'puter died on its arse last week so it's forced my hand by a few weeks but that's ok). Half-Life was one of the reasons, ok the main reason that I bought my first home pc all those moons ago. After playing Quake 2 for a while after I got it along came HL and changed the landscape, followed by years of tfc and cs abuse.

As others have said those vids look great, glad they're releasing them now as I watched the previous versions which obviously weren't as good. It's just the little details, have a look at the textures on the corridor walls at the end of the train intro vid before you walk into the room...amazing!

Bring it on...


On another note, I finally tracked down a retailer in Germany who have stock of the case I need (no bugger anywhere in the uk has any and were trying to tell me that it wasn't being released till Sept...bah!) so everthing has now been ordered, as Inertia said...Viva La Revolution!

Here's the case if yr interested:

http://www.coolermaster.com/index.ph...1+Cavalier%201 (may have trouble as they're site is iffy at the best of times)

http://www.vr-zone.com/?i=964&s=1

[Concept]

Damn typo.

If you haven't already guessed, I don't tend to look at my hands when I type on the keyboard, and since I type fast, I often end up producing mistakes on a first post.

Sorry about that Len. If it's any excuse, I had Lemmings on my mind when I replied to you.

I'm similar to you, in that I used to run aging hardware...

We're talking a Pentium 90hz, 16MB Ram, 3GB HD, no graphics card, Windows '95 OS, 56k connection, for years and years... Then when I saw a complete rejuvenation of the PC gaming scene coming up, the gamer inside me knew what needed to be done. So... I ended up shelling out for a decent net connection and a whole new rig.

It was only after recently playing through Half-Life for the first time (a few months ago), that my anticipation for it's sequel went through the roof. The original really is something special even six years after release, and that's coming from someone who happens to be judging it in light of today's releases too.

I agree with you about the graphical and thematic subtle aspects to the videos, not to mention all the little intricacies buried inside them... Half-Life 2 does look very, very good.

Sorry to hear about your computer dying, but like you say, at least one positive thing to come from it is that you're upgrading during a period where PC gaming is currently strong once more.

Oh, and good luck in ordering that case and getting yourself sorted.

It looks like most (if not all) of us here are almost ready for Half-Life 2. Bring the game on Valve. Now.

[Len]

I can't believe you only just played through HL recently, I'm so jealous 'cos it's that good. It's like playing Zelda OOT for the first time imo, an amazing experience.

What a game and like you say still stands up today. So well designed, paced and put together, though the alien levels weren't the best you could see what they were trying to do (introduce a few different elements etc).

I played it through on all the difficulty settiings and still play it through once year at least ever since it came out just for the whole experience. Had a lot of my m8's get to the 3 tentacled monster, get annoyed (it's not that hard to work out and not that far in either) and then leave it and just concentrate on the online elements. Fools! God i gave them so much grief for that...lol!

Anyway back to the present, it just looks so nice, a real solid world which, from what little things we really know about it, will come to life beautifully.

Aah I could wax lyrical all night about it...

[Concept]

So could I.

Before Half-Life 2's released, probably the night or the day before, I'm going to play through Half-Life again just to set myself in the right frame of mnd for it and remind myself how good Valve are when on form.

Incidentally... (Half-Life spoiler)...One of my favourite parts of Half-Life is when an absolutely huge alien creature comes after you, and you have to manipulate a computerised map to call in an airstrike. That was pure genius in my opinion. I also admired the sensation of height during the parts when you had to scale a canyon to get over to the other side of the base. Even though at the time I was essentially staring at a stretched bitmap, it really did feel as though I had to watch every move unless I wanted to fall thousands of feet... And that tentacle monster you talk of... It took me a few goes until I realised it was sound sensitive, and after that I just played about with it lobbing grenades in different directions watching it get pissed off. In fact, when I got hold of those bugs which you could use as weapons, I took great pleasure in winding up the enemy by setting themselves against each other. I loved that irony.

Moments like that, and there are so many more, remind me of how great Half-Life is.

I just hope the sequel expands on elements such as those. I want to see fantastically built scripted action, yet I'd like to have freedom within that to experiment. If Valve can make City-17 seem like an oppressive prison which I have to escape from, then the sequel will be hopefully moving along the same lines which made the original Half-Life work so well.

That need to simultaneously want to escape, and at the same time, stay.

[fifty?ballz]

http://www.vr-zone.com/?i=1193&s=1

Half-Life 2 benchmarking review for those interested.

http://www.vr-zone.com/?i=1193&s=3

*hmmm*