Looks like Half-Life 2 will be announced very, very soon.............. (1 Viewer)

[James T]

Maybe they send Gordon Freeman, a small army of marines and a scientest to investigate the aliens and the dimension with the intention of nuking it from space, only to have the scientest want to keep an alien for research purposes, leaving even less marines and Gordon fighting for their lives.

 

[Derrik Draven]

I guess we'll finally get to find out what "job" the guy in the blue suit offered Freeman.

IF it comes to the Box this year, it's going to get expensive for me, and anyone else that's an fps fan. Deus Ex II, Thief III, Doom III, Half Life II,...ect.

 

[Adam Nixon]

Rough, grainy scans of supposed screenshots are floating around various gaming sites -- browse at your own risk. The one I saw looked pretty damn impressive if it's legit.

 

[MikeAlletto]

I never finished the first one. It was fun until it went to the alien planet/dimension then it just got stupid. So how did it end?

 

[Mark Evans]

Mike,

Gordon fights his way through Xen (and yeah, this is widely hailed as the least impressive portion of the game, though I find it mediocre rather than crap like most :p)) and finally picks off the last boss who is a real pain in the butt but not difficult to beat.

Afterwards, Gordon appears on the tram cruising along and talking to the guy in the blue suit who you see throughout the game. He basically lets you know that you enabled the government (or whoever) to take control of Xen, and he offers you a job with them. Even though this is like making a deal with the devil, you're not given a choice because if you refuse you get transported to a place where you're surrounded by grunts and then killed.


Ambiguous ending and it'll be SOOOOOO sweet to see it finally resolved.

 

[Jean-Michel]

Apparently the PC Gamer screenshots have been scanned and uploaded to the web. Unfortunately the only link I could find was taken down by the time I got there. YOU WIN THIS ROUND ROB SMITH.

 

[Mark Evans]

I've seen them. They are, for the most part, bloody gorgeous. Not to put too fine a point on it .

 

[Rob Speicher]

I got my PC Gamer today and HL2 is on the cover. Weird enough, the cover art is the exact same as the PC Gameplay cover posted above.

There's a few screenshots, and they look nice, but aren't quite final. One thing from the feature did stand out though: Sept 30, 2003.

 

[Jean-Michel]

Okay, I found the shots. To be perfectly blunt I'm a bit underwhelmed -- based on this I'm retracting my earlier speculation about the engine being on par with Doom III. But then the original was no great stunner either and on the plus side the article says it should run pretty well on mid-range systems. (Yes, id claims Doom III will run on a GeForce 2, but then the original Doom could be run on a 386 -- that doesn't mean you'd want to.) And to be sure there's still a lot of time to improve things (there's a pretty hideous lightmap in one shot that had damn well better be fixed by Sept. 30).

 

[Rob Speicher]

And to be sure there's still a lot of time to improve things (there's a pretty hideous lightmap in one shot that had damn well better be fixed by Sept. 30).

Are you talking about the bright orange jail cell? People really need to have context with the pictures before passing judgement - go pick up the magazine. It explains that the developers first create a map entirely untextured (the bright orange) to test gameplay mechanics and balance, and then give it to artists for texturing.

 

[Jean-Michel]

Are you talking about the bright orange jail cell?

No. I'm referring to the shot of a guy on a balcony firing a gun (page 51 in PC Gamer).

 

[AaronMg]

Here are some pics

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?threadid=603978

 

[Greg_S_H]

I liked Half-Life at the time, but I didn't think it was as earth-shattering as most did. So, I wasn't looking forward to this. I am now. The screenshots look pretty great to me. Plus, it looks like they are addressing one of my main gripes (and, for many people, the main strength of the original): expanded locations. Sure, it was novel that you never stopped being Gordon for a second, but Black Mesa wore on me. It looks like there'll be a lot of variety here. The shot with the ship (the one with the crowbar in the foreground) is particularly awesome.

Of course, my computer can barely handle the last generation of games, so I'll have to wait until I can upgrade. Probably can't until after September 30. :frowning:

 

[Jean-Michel]

Of course, my computer can barely handle the last generation of games, so I'll have to wait until I can upgrade.

Well, Valve claims HL2 will run on a P700 with a DirectX 6-level 3D card (I heard a TNT as the minumum spec). But I wouldn't want to try it myself.

 

[Greg_S_H]

I've got an Athlon 500 with a Geforce II MX. I could barely run Jedi Outcast, and I quit SOF2 during the gunner level. Then again, I didn't much like SOF2 anyway. The MP runs fine, so I stick with that. Anyway, I doubt if I could run HL2 in any acceptable manner regardless of what Valve says.

 

[Chris Flynn]

I'm not concerned about HL2 not looking like Doom3. Like all of ids games, I'm expecting Doom3 to be a great technical showpiece, but lackluster game.

I'll leave it up to Raven and the like to make good games out of it. And I'll play HL/HL2 if I want a game that actually has a storyline.

 

[Chris Moe]

Screenshots and story here http://www.gopederick.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=140 this link was working just a few minutes ago.

 

[Stephen_Dar]

This story is moving really fast. For my part, I'm disappointed to hear that the whole Freeman story line has been resurrected. I was looking forward to the next generation of gaming, something like what Team Fortress 2 was supposed to be. To me, more of the same cannot, by definition, be as much an improvement over HL as HL was over all other games available at that time.

Honestly, I sort of hoped Valve would just quietly all retire to Pacific islands and quit the gaming business with their perfect record intact. Seriously, what are the odds of lightening striking twice for them?

 

[Morgan Jolley]

Seriously, what are the odds of lightening striking twice for them?

Good, but three times has yet to happen for just about anyone, AFAIK.

 

[Romier S]

Seriously, what are the odds of lightening striking twice for them?

The game will sell. That is really the only lightning it needs to strike for Valve to be content.

If you refer to gamer "cred" or reputation I can tell you right now Half-Life 2 will fail to meet the expectations of many. Not because when released it will not be a quality kick ass title but simply because it will more than likely not be a "revolution" for the FPS genre. Unfortunately at this point folks are wanting the second coming of christ and no game in the world can live up to that hype. I fear Doom 3 (aside from its technical merit) will also face the same fate.