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Maybe he was trying to make shower curtains?

This is blatant copy infringement from Half Life 2. That suit is a replica of the Combine Metrocops. http://www.hlfallout.net/images/content/enemies/full/metrocop_full.jpg

The thing that people forget is that HL2's art direction was amazing. I can't think of another title in recent memory that had a higher level of visual cohesiveness on a reasonable polybudget. For example, darkness consistently equals safety throughout the game, whereas any point you're exposed to sunlight is a location shrouded in danger. This is consistent both internally and externally. No-one, to my knowledge, has followed this color styling, yet it is an effective technique at making the player feel like an unwelcome outcast.

You can see how minimalist this tree really is. They only gave it just enough branches to cover the illusion, but not so many that it holds up to actual inspection. Another shot of said tree, from a more common angle. By not wasting any polys, they really can afford to put more on-screen. Heck, look at leaves. Artificially close, they are a big smear. But from the distance you normally see them, they can stick thousands of these things on screen, and they look beautiful.

Love the look of brick? Notice how in this shot they've burned the bump maps and damage maps and everything into the same texture? The increases the repetition in texture, but if you vary your geometry sufficiently the player will never notice. All they'll notice is a lot more is going on on-screen than they're used to. This technique looks terrible for big-open walls, but Half Life studiosly avoids big open walls within proximity of the player.

They even used a distinct pallete of blacks, muted browns, and light blues. This was far before anyone else was using anything but super-saturated primary colors.

Ignoring any technical accomplishments, this is an achievement of strong visual composition and consistent, solid art direction.

The Invision Power board (or whatever it is called, used on http://www.hlfallout.net/ ) uses AJAX for quick replies. We all have seen a button for quick replies at the bottom of a post that just javascripts a new text area there, but this one now does not reload the page on pressing "submit" but also just appends the new post to the thread on the fly.

If Gabe Newell had his way, he would have spent September 30, 2003, lying low at the Valve office. He was deeply embarrassed by the slipped date and frustrated that the fans were berating Valve on the Internet. In other words, he just wanted September 30, 2003, to quietly pass. Unfortunately, that wasn't a possibility. He had a prior obligation: the Half-Life 2 launch party, which graphics-card manufacturer ATI had scheduled months in advance--fully assuming, of course, that the game would ship on September 30.

ATI, which is rumored to have paid more than $6 million to Valve as part of a broad endorsement deal, planned a massive fete to celebrate the launch of the game and a new ATI graphics card. ATI rented out the entire island of Alcatraz in San Francisco and planned to host the party inside the prison. Newell wanted to pull out of the event but couldn't. It was an obligation to a business partner--a partner that was "none too pleased we missed our date," he says.

First announced in early February, yes, but I think this'll be the first we see of it beyond some rough concept sketches.

I'm intrigued as to what the Source engine will be able to do when given room to breathe - Half-Life 2's maps were highly optimised, with just about every unnecessary surface made invisible or clipped-off to make the physics simpler. The seemingly huge, far-reaching environments usually weren't, but instead were clever simulations thereof. Okay, so it did mean it could run pretty well on my old PC, but I've got a new one now... ;-)

It was on one of the dedicated Half life sites it that is any help. Ah I've found it. The interesting thing about this article is that it was written before the game was released.

Blue shift doesn't add a whole lot to the storyline of HL2. Neither does Opposing force for that matter, but they both just provide a little more information and a different viewpoint to the story. eg in one of them you see the sample on its way up to the test chamber.

from the you're-all-beta-testers dept.

Yawn. Every Linux distro gets released bug-free, right? ...Usually, a game bug isn't news-worthy, but the sporadic nature of this bug makes me wonder - who else has problems with HL2 pausing/skipping?

Well, you sure linked a ton of forums, how about you just read those threads? Or perhaps other gamer boards?

Listen, I know HL2 is the biggest thing to happen to the gaming community in quite some time. I know the controversy surrounding it, Gabe Newell, Vivendi, Valve and a piece of caerphilly cheese. I just don't see why a bug that is sporadic and what seems like a very minute number of people are having makes the frontpage.

Yes, I expected to get modded down.
No, I don't care.
Yes, I have "been around here for a while, and I know how the place works!"
No, these aren't the droids you're looking for.

Hello, We noticed that you just registered a Half-Life 2 key. Where did you come across a copy of the game? You're not in trouble or anything, but you're registered pretty early, and the game isn't activated just yet. Thanks, Erik Johnson Valve

In an E-Mail sent to all EBGames associates, the president of EBGames has stated that the persons who broke the street date at their stores have been terminated. As well, should anyone else break the street date the employee, manager, and district manager will all be held responsible. The e-mail was sent yesterday at aprox 5:30 PM EST.

Hello, We noticed that you just registered a Half-Life 2 key. Where did you come across a copy of the game? You're not in trouble or anything, but you're registered pretty early, and the game isn't activated just yet. Thanks, Erik Johnson Valve

In an E-Mail sent to all EBGames associates, the president of EBGames has stated that the persons who broke the street date at their stores have been terminated. As well, should anyone else break the street date the employee, manager, and district manager will all be held responsible. The e-mail was sent yesterday at aprox 5:30 PM EST.

The original announcement says midnight Pacific time. Half-Life Fallout has a countdown clock that counts down to the release.

People seem to reckon there's some evil conspiracy between ATI and Valve - while ATI has definitely helped Valve in various ways, it really doesn't sound like Valve has deliberately crippled performance of the Source engine if an Nvidia card is present.

Guess what brand of video cards the map designers for Half-Life 2 used?

I think it was just the bells-and-whistles DX9 stuff which was the major problem, and Nvidia's latest cards seem to have that sorted. I know what brand of card I'm getting next - the one with decent Linux drivers as well!

http://www.hlfallout.net/viewnews.php/7470/