NEW HL2 SCREENS!!!!

what is iron sites mode?

It's where gun aiming is through the actual sights of the gun instead of having a crosshair in the middle of the screen and a gun model pointing out. Basically its used for 'realistic' WWII games to give it some claim to reality. It's cool and all, but demanding HL2 have it is rather odd, as the weaponry wasn't reality-based.

iron sights wont work for hl2, its too quick. worked wonders for CoD though.

You know what's a great cheat for ironsites? A tiny blob of white-tack in the middle of your monitor :smile:

You're never going to be that close to see the facial animations in thier full glory

Sorry, did I say you would be able to? What I said was that the facial animations was one graphical aspect that HL2 has that is well in advance of what other games have, and that "Valve has said these make a big difference to the gaming experience, but we will have to see how much of an impact they really have". You are disagreeing with a point I never made, Myrk, which leads me to believe that you do in fact agree with the point I did make, which is that the facial animations in HL2 will be the best seen in a game to date.

I can see I'm not gonna be able to win this argument... Personally, I now believe that Half-Life 2 will be good, but it won't be revolutionary or as good as people think it'll be. For me, the great games are those which make advances, either through action set-pieces or gameplay wise. Doom obviously was a huge step forward, being the first decent FPS. Duke Nukem 3d offered even more gameplay in terms of interactivity. Quake was a true step forward in terms of graphics, but gameplay wise compared to Duke Nukem 3d, it was a step backwards. Half-Life came along, and had less interactivity than DN3d, but in terms of immersing the player and providing interactivity with NPCs, it was fantastic. The only other game which has provided a vague step forward since Half-Life is Call Of Duty. Gameplay has been enhanced by the iron-sighting, which i personally believe should become the norm in FPS games, like Clips/Ammo reserves have, and by making sure that the player isn't the centre of attention. The NPCs work fantastically, in making the player believe that they are just one soldier in a huge conflict, rather than the entire game revolving around the player.

Too many games since Half-Life have tried to create wide-open areas. Personally I think this sucks for gameplay, the best scenes in Half-Life are those where there's plenty of cover - the crate room grunt fights. Call of duty balanced this perfectly though - you feel like you're in a huge city, but you're actually restricted to a small area. Given Half-Life 2's scenarios however, it coudl easily fall prey to trying to be too big, while nto providing enough strategy within the combat set-pieces.

I think Far Cry is the next step forward in terms of gameplay - iron-sighting, vehicles, physics. It has it all. With the exception of vehicles, Half-Life 2's gameplay is just the same as all the previous FPS titles. It hasn't advanced, which is what the game industry should be trying to do. Everyone has been saying that the game industry needs a kick after several years of mediocore FPS games, and they've been saying that Half-Life 2 is the one that's gonna do it. I disagree.

the best thing about HL2, the editor is very similar..

thats more than enuff reason to be great..

'nuff said

How many HL2 set pieces/'great moments' have you seen? HL1 wasn't technically groundbreaking at all, but it was what was inside the game that mattered... it's too early yet to judge about HL2, they could do some amazing things with it.

KingNic, I respect what you are saying, but it doesn't make sense. You say half-life counts as a 'step forward' game, but admit that it didn't add much technology or graphics wise, then go on to say that HL2 won't be as great as people say, because the technology/graphics will only be average? This is not logical.

The E3 vids are a technology demonstration, not a gameplay demonstration! You can't say anything about the gameplay from a tech demo.

Leperous said:
How many HL2 set pieces/'great moments' have you seen? HL1 wasn't technically groundbreaking at all, but it was what was inside the game that mattered... it's too early yet to judge about HL2, they could do some amazing things with it.

in reality, i never cared about HL1's content, it was what we did with it that kept me around for 5 years..

i think the same will be true with HL2.. i am counting more on our abilities, than valves.

i used to look at valves maps with awe, now i see so many errors its... ________flatline_________

HL2 will be made, or broken, on the user level.. yes, even the dim witted players will make a difference :sad:

to each, their own, but thats my take..

And a lot of you are taking my opinions childishly, not as an oposing view, as they should be taken. Think about what I'm writing Pracitce your debating skills.

You just single handedly avoided every post that goes against your opposing views. I don't think we're the ones who need to practise our debating skills....When we critisicse your views and claim they're hypocritical, you avoid it completely and call us "childish". I'm sorry, but that's just laughable.

Far Cry is only a step fowards in having free-to-explore-levels in a 1st person shooter, nothing more. Vehicles aren't unique, nor are killing a few stupid bad guys with a machine gun, nor is having bosses who are just dumb grunts but stronger and better equipped. It's still a boring, linear game which offers nothing new. I will bet money that HL2 will offer plenty of new concepts and be pretty revolutionary, despite what you think after seeing a year old tech demo and reading some old magazine articles.

LOL they were the same old pics Reno... Valve arn't giving anything away :razz:

Yes Myrk, in the post after, Kage already cleared up that it was PC Zone I meant, not PC Gamer - I don't buy either, I just flicked through the article since my flatmate had the magazine.

I think Far Cry is the next step forward in terms of gameplay - iron-sighting, vehicles, physics. It has it all. With the exception of vehicles, Half-Life 2's gameplay is just the same as all the previous FPS titles.

How the hell can Far Cry have physics listed as "new gameplay", when HL2's (which appear to play a MUCH larger part) isn't? And don't say because Far Cry did it first, because you still list vehicles as "new gameplay" for HL2! Strangely enough, you may recall that there are a few other FPSs, which have been around for quite some time, that use vehicles to great effect (Halo, perchance?), so if anything, thats one of the "ok its not new but everything must have it" features. Iron sighting is also not particularly new, there have been games using it for quite a long time now, its just not a suitable method of aiming for some game styles so it hasn't (and fingers crossed WONT) become the norm.

About the facial animation - most of it will come into play during plot furthering discussions with NPCs I'd assume, and the fact it is done automatically (the lip syncing, that is) means it takes no additional effort from animators to have it occur in battles also. Its an aspect of game graphics that IS lacking - people can already render hugely realistic worlds, its nice to focus on the people and their animation. Its adding to the immersiveness of the world, I think it will be neat.

Just look at Half-Life 1. People created such modifications as Natural Selection, Day of Defeat, and Sven Coop. Natural Selection offered a wide variety of textures strewed out upon maps which made it look more detailed. Day of Defeat was so detailed, the player was convinced he was in the WW. And svencoop gave players the power to go throught huge maps online, and gave mappers plenty of custom selections - so many it was like coding a mini-mod into a mappack.

The point is, even though Half-Life is old, people still found ways to trick the engine, or trick the player to think it was more advanced, and more up to date - when in reality it wasnt. Sure, at the current moment the Source engine can probally do anything imaginable, but there will come a time when people have to actually start tricking the engine into looking more detailed and sophisticated, 5 years down the road when huge titles are launching.

What Vash said, plus TS. That mod is sw33t, the weapon models are about as good as CoD imo.

I really wish people would stop HL2-bashing. You cant possibly know what it will be like, when all thats been seen of it is a few screens, videos, and an unfinished leaked version.

wil5on said:
What Vash said, plus TS. That mod is sw33t, the weapon models are about as good as CoD imo.

True ... weapon models are very detailed, and a couple of things in the mod I never expected possible in the HL-engine: Laser beams on guns, large windows that break without framelag, ...

All I can say about facial animations is that the G-Man's speech at the end is going to kick some ass.

Yeah. And making a recording of your voice saying "Im a little girl", then having Gman lip-sync to it is perfect.

What Lep said :razz: Half-Life was so good in singleplayer because the level designers "immersed" you in the experience.. be it the setup train ride with the automated voice detailing the facility etc, or just seeing aliens battle it out with grunts, scientists falling off broken walkways ( that one never fails to amuse me)...

You actually felt close to being Gordon, trapped inside a facility at war.. rather than just walking forward and blasting baddies.

as for the lip synching bashers, remember how much people spoke to you in half-life 1? their dialogue sounded good and authentic, but looked rubbish. its just another step to creating the ultimate single player experience IMO. I have high hopes for Half-Life 2 :smile:

Reno Lep was saying its a step foward because HL2 isn't released yet lol! Plus theres still all the controversy about the Havoc engine being used in it isn't there?

Does Doom 3 use havoc? It's ragdoll physics are pretty amazing...

Oh look, none of anybodies points addressed...

I think D3 uses it's own everything.

D3 can blow me; it looks boring (just like doom). Doom handed you a shotgun, then shot you around levels where you'd find a keycard, insert it in a door, blast some baddies - move onto the next stage. Half-Life gave you cover fire from enemies, multiple items to grab, and a more immersive story line than dooms "Your stuck on a space station with a gateway to hell open". Doom sure is fun, but Half-Life Id choose over it any day - mmhmm.

D3 can blow me; it looks boring (just like doom)

Doom sure is fun

Make up your mind!

Doom3 should be great - if nothing else, it'll be a tried and true formula brought to life with some pretty fantastic visuals. I'll buy it, but I doubt it'll be my favorite game of all time.

Then there's this other Doom3 engine game I'm getting really excited about... forgot the name, though. Whoops.

Few other corrections - HL didn't really give you any items, at least no more so than Doom did... And Doom's story line was "you're stuck on Mars when a gateway to hell opens," as opposed to Half-Life's "You're stuck in New Mexico when a gateway to an alien world opens." :smile:

Doom3 looks like it'll be great because of the scare factor, rather than being anything amazingly new, and that'll make me want to go out and buy it. From a map-making standpoint too there seem to be some amazingly complicated things you can do with it, we'll just have to wait and see- I read they modelled Mars to scale for the intro scene. And yeah, the first incarnation was boring with hindsight, but your expectations and tastes change...

If they bring back the terror that was so prevalent in Doom, it'll be cool. Some of the bad guys they showed didn't look too promising, but I'm certain they've been abandoned and replaced by better ones.

What I meant was, "Doom was fun", which I was referring to Doom one. Sure, Doom 3 may have its moments and Im sure I'll be dragged into playing it evntually, but right now it looks like a mindless romp through a world of polygons and flashy effects.

As for no items being in Half-Life...That gave you that little cart with the crystal on it in the begining...

/runs

But you said Doom3 looks boring just like Doom. :wink: Boring things aren't usually fun :biggrin:

TBH I won't be touching Doom 3 if it doesn't contain thousands of amusing baddies (flying skulls, pigs that chucked mucus etc. that was the TRUE character of doom!)

and if you can aim on the vertical axis im going to be horrified :razz:

People need to realise that Doom 3 is meant to be scary, not groundbreaking or original or revolutionary. Id are setting out to make Doom 3 the scariest game around, and as long as it's scarier than Silent Hill 2, then they've made a worthy sequel in my mind. I really couldn't care if it's gameplay is simplistic or not; if it scares the s**t out of me, then Id did well.

Try AVP2 :smile:

Try AVP2 :smile:

Hmm, I forgot about that one. Gonna be tough to beat in terms of fear. :smile:

Yeah; but dont play AVP2. They turned it into a damn real-time stratgey game...I weep for my fellow gamers

As for Andrew; you seem to have me out numberd on my own thoughts...But I'll be back with thoughts so thoughtful your ass will explode!

/me flees to the woods

I have AVP, the gold expansion pack, and AVP2. Scary?, well maybe at first, the Aliens are a bit unnerving. But looking back at it, even that became a bit repetitious. I always thought Sytem Shock 2 was fairly scary. I am now at about the final 3rd of farcry. It's deceptively open ended, which is to say you are drawn by all available paths(sometimes of which there are many) to the same point. You can choose a different way to achieve the same goal, but ultimately wind up in a boss fight at the end of each level. Am I dissappointed?. Hell no!. I can clean out a level, go back and explore huge vast environments(although I would'nt mind a cityscpe. Getting tired of the tropical bit),try other means of travel(vehichles, hang gliders)and when I am tapped out, I go to the end point. So, not reeally open ended play. Still wildly entertaining at times though. Some of the mutants are rather scary when they come at you in the darker cramped hallways. I can say with an almost certainty that Hl2 will have more than this to offer. Why should the cleverness of delivery be lost? It is the same company, same creators/writers.

Want terror? Play Project Zero / Fatal Frame - that game scared the crap out of me on numerous occasions. Just as you get the hang of it and are used to the ghosts, something hugely unexpected happens to put you back on edge. Great game - need to pick up the sequel now its just been released over here.

System Shock 2 is probably the game that's scared me the most. I was a few hours into the game at the Engineering levels, specifically the cargo bays. Next thing I know, 3-4 robots pop out and my gun jams while trying to shoot at them! Then I begin running madly for my life onto a lift that collapses and kills me (or something).

And then I remember on the recreation-area when I was in a bar. A ghost started playing the piano (or something) and I was watching it and listening. Then 3 cyborg assassins run in and kill me. Just the sight of them and I knew I was already dead, pretty much. :smile:

The graphics are really dated, but I think the situation/gameplay is what really scares people. You know, the fact that you have about 3 bullets left in a nearly-broken gun and you can hear the monsters chanting to you around the corner. :razz:

I must admit the demo of that was pretty freaky, should really get around to playing it sometime.

I must admit I was scared by the headcrab jumping out of the air duct in the beginning of HL.

I must admit I was scared by the headcrab jumping out of the air duct in the beginning of HL.

Im wit cha dere brudda.

Indeed. HL and CoD are the only SP games that really impressed me in terms of being immersed in the game. I was literally sweating all through Blast Pit... I know someone who just can't finish it because its soo creepy...

First time I played HL, I found Unforseen Consequences and Office Complex to be s**t scary. We've Got Hostiles was such a peak point I almost collapsed at realising how calm Blast Pit was in comparison.

Calm but... OH MY GOD WHAT IS THAT GREEN THING! was my impression of that part of the game.

I know this guy who thought you had to kill the 3-headed green thing by standing by the base of it so that it tried to hit you, then quickly moving out of the way so that it would hit itself instead :sad:

I know this guy who thought you had to kill the 3-headed green thing by standing by the base of it so that it tried to hit you, then quickly moving out of the way so that it would hit itself instead :sad:

lol I guess he didn't realise the base of the monster was in a bloody hole :smile:

Yak_Fighter said:
I must admit I was scared by the headcrab jumping out of the air duct in the beginning of HL.

To get back on topic: I'm an idiot starting a useless flame war

Hey, thanks Lep. I didn't realize that calling someone a stupid head was flamebait. :rolleyes: It was a f**king joke, not meant to be taken seriously.

I think you'll find all admins have the power to edit peoples posts... starting a flamewar against an admin is a definite lose in battle terms

But I wasn't trying to start a flamewar. I would think by this point people would realize that a lot of the stuff I say is not meant to be taken seriously. I try to drop hints, but I don't think anyone gets it. I guess I'll just be boring and serious from now on :sad:

I think you'll find all admins have the power to edit peoples posts... starting a flamewar against an admin is a definite lose in battle terms

And admins using their powers to 'win' arguments is generally the #1 sure sign of a site/community not worth being involved in.

Yak, I didn't edit your post... hmm... investimigates

I edited it purely because it was a sure sign of a flame war! Jesus is it kill me week or something?!

Myrk- said:
I edited it purely because it was a sure sign of a flame war! Jesus is it kill me week or something?!

I'm not normally inclined to say this, but: that is a clear case of admin abuse.

The irony is that Yak was actually defending you :rolleyes: