Official Half Life 2 Thread (HL2 discussion here, all other threads will be closed)

[Gnerma]

Official Half Life 2 Thread (HL2 discussion here, all other threads will be closed)

All HL2 rumors, links, benchmarks, questions and rants go here.


Release Date

"Q4 2003" or "Holiday Season 2003"

System Requirements

P3 800mhz, DX6 video card, 128mb of RAM (this is not official but I gathered this from various Valve statements. The official numbers will be very close to this.)


Links

General

• "Info from valve ONLY" Thread @ halflife2.net (contains a lot of good info mostly in the form of email responses from Gabe Newell)

Interviews

• Gabe Newell (May 24, 2003) @ gamingnext.com (about the source engine mostly)
• Gabe Newell (date unknown) @ hl2central.net (this is a rather short and to the point interview. Not much info)
• Gabe Newell (June, 08 2003) @ homelanfed.com (this one is less 'nuts and bolts'. It has stuff about voice acting, E3 2003, and driveable vehicles.)
• Ken Birdwell & Josh Weier (June 13, 2003) @ sharkyextreme.com (This is a really good and indepth interview. It covers the games long term development strategy, the facial animation system, and features cut out. A MUST READ)
• Gabe Newell (date unknown) @ trepid.net (This one is about Half Life 2's competition, modding, and a possible half life 3)
• Gabe Newell (September 10, 2003) @ gamersdepot.com
• Doug Lombardi (July 17, 2003) @ Gamespy.com (This one has stuff about objects, friendly AI, system requirements, and some info about alliegances that you can create in the game which is something I hadn't read about before. Doug goes pretty indepth. A MUST READ)
• Gabe Newell (date unknown) @ gamescenter.sm (this is an Italian site but the interview is in English. Not much new info here.)
• Gabe Newell (August 27, 2003) @ Half-Life 2 Online Source (Mostly technical stuff dealing with modding and editing. But there are some goofy questions too.)

Benchmarks

• Articles related to ATI's shader day - Anandtech - Gamespot - hardocp - firingsquad - Gamersdepot (gamersdepot article 2) - Tech-Report

Reviews

The game isn't out yet

Previews

soon

Media

soon

Random Facts

• Gordon Freeman (the player) is presented in the game with actual mass and weight. Gordon weighs 85kg (not final).
• 150 voice actresses auditioned for the part of Alyx.
• The facial expressions were exaggerated in the E3 demos to show the system off more.
• The game can scale its detail settings on the fly to improve FPS.
• Objects in the game world are strictly rigid. Meaning that within the physics system, an object can be thrown, moved, or broken but cannot bend or warp.
• In multiplayer, the player's character model will lip sync the player's speech when using voice chat. This is done with a less detailed/CPU intensive algorithm than is used in single player.
• There will be CD and DVD versions of HL2.
• The game won't require a CD/DVD in the drive if you are logged into Steam.

If you have anything to add to this list post it in the thread.

 

[funnyperson1]

Add this to the benchmarks section:

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.html?i=1863

Looks like my 8500 might be able to handle 1024x768 with 30fps (judging by the performance of the far inferior 9200)

 

[Penguin4x4]

There is a nice article in MaximumPC, however it isn't available online,

 

[Zim2411]

Heck, we need a temporary Half-Life division in the games section....

 

[KaHNZa]

I guess I haven't looked around too much, but what are the minimum requirements supposed to be?

 

[USAPGAPRO]

Game Requirements hl2ongaming.com

The minimum system specs are currently targeted at a 700 MHz PC with 128 MB RAM and a DX6-level video card TNT2 etc, meaning you won't need a supercomputer to run Half-Life 2.

But on the machine above don't expect to see reflective water,dynamic shadows and bump-mapped textures. The game running at maximum detail 50/60 fps, machine required for this is approx 1600Mhz cpu, 256 mb ram, GeForce4 Ti card.

 

[KaHNZa]

Sweet, so my computer will have no troubles playing this game beautifully. Still debating on wether I'm gonna buy it or not. I think I'll wait until some reviews are out to make my decision.

 

[Zim2411]

Re: Official Half Life 2 Thread (HL2 discussion here, all other threads will be closed)

All HL2 rumors, links, benchmarks, questions and rants go here.

Can I just post 1 called "What HL2 shouldn't be/do?"

And also, Gnerma, how do you plan to close other threads? You aren't a moderator yet...

 

[Gnerma]

Re: Re: Official Half Life 2 Thread (HL2 discussion here, all other threads will be closed)

Originally posted by Zim2411
Can I just post 1 called "What HL2 shouldn't be/do?"

Huh? Post whatever you want as long as its HL2 related.

Originally posted by Zim2411
And also, Gnerma, how do you plan to close other threads? You aren't a moderator yet...[/b]

SpeeDJ okayed it before I posted this. I think

 

[SpeeDj]

Re: Re: Re: Official Half Life 2 Thread (HL2 discussion here, all other threads will be closed)

Huh? Post whatever you want as long as its HL2 related.


SpeeDj okayed it before I posted this. I think

Look how many threads Gnerma just closed, Wow that guys is fast!

J back on task...

 

[baqai]

heheh there is much heated debate on which one would be better hl2 or doom3 and specially thanks to this ATI vs Nvidia debate these two games are getting much more publicity (like they need any in the first place)

anyways i am eagerly anticipating hl2 watched the e3 coverage and i am nothing less than amazed and impressed by it (i admit i am impressed even more than d3)

Genema you might want to add one more yellow heading Release Date

 

[KaHNZa]

*snip*
Genema you might want to add one more yellow heading Release Date

I thought it was being released on 9/21?

 

[beau_safken]

I heard the 30th of September......MAn,....I know that wont happen.. :cry

 

[Gnerma]

Genema you might want to add one more yellow heading Release Date

It'll be up there, but I'm not exactly sure myself at this point. Various reputable game retailers are reporting early February of next year, other game sites are now reporting the vague "Q4 2003". Various forum members all across the web are pulling what seem like random dates out of nowhere. And in spite of it all Valve is sorta sticking to its original september 30th date. I think, I know, I don't know, I heard, I've felt, the date my friend.. I see in the stars and on the bottom of the ocean

 

[Flashfx2]

So we shouldn't make any more half-life 2 threads anymore?

 

[Flashfx2]

There is a nice article in MaximumPC, however it isn't available online,

Sure it is

Linky

This was originally posted in the video card section I just thought it should be added to our bundle of information that gnerma is collecting.

 

[Penguin4x4]

Sure it is

Linky

This was originally posted in the video card section I just thought it should be added to our bundle of information that gnerma is collecting.

Awesome d00d!

 

[Namagomi]

Gabe Newell has apparently ate 400 pounds of lard since releaseing HL1.


nvidia doesn't make any cards that run hl2 well.





that is all

 

[baqai]

lets see what nvidia does with their new 50 drivers how much difference can that driver make? already hl2 code is optimised for nvidia nv30

 

[Gnerma]

Reading through the first link in the first post of this thread (the thread at HL2.net page 12). I found this post which sheds some light on the recent discussion about Steam's role in Half-Life 2.

-----Original Message-----
From: Mike J [mailto:mikej@]
Sent: Monday, August 04, 2003 12:52 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: hey gabe some questions!


I really love the whole steam idea, and I understand when you buy it over steam, the friends system is used!! My question is, if I buy the game at a store, do I still sign up for a steam account so that I can play online, and I can use the friends tab to join hl2 games even if I didn't buy it on steam??? Is steam the launcher for the retail game and the steam purchased game?


-Gabe - Steam is the backend for Half-Life 2. It does a bunch of different things, like acting as the launcher, authentication, Friends, updating, and so on. One thing it does is that it also allows you to purchase things. If you buy Half-Life 2 in a store, it has Steam in it. If you buy Half-Life 2 via Steam, well, then it obviously has Steam in it.

Your "steam account" is basically a method of tracking your digital rights. If you buy Half-Life 2 in a store, it will ask you to create a login id and a password. That way if you go to a friend's house, you can play Half-Life 2 there, even if you don't have your CD/DVD with you. Think of the CD as an alternative to your Internet connection for filling up your local cache.