Half-Life 2 Teaser Movie Released

Crossover Quicktime - by Loosewire · 2003-05-16 06:02 · Score: 1

Wow what a brillient time for it not to work. Im really gratefull - ah well ill download the Divx version of the file - im already drooling :-)

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Slashdot - The one stop shop for procrastination

Re:Crossover Quicktime - by standsolid · 2003-05-16 06:36 · Score: 2

it worked great with mplayer w00t! (kmplayer even embedded it in my browser)

and to respond to the video...
omigodomigodomigodomigodomigodomigodomigod
I am so freaking excited
omigodomigodomigodomigodomigodomigodomigod

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There are better HL2 demo's available. by aqua_chigger · 2003-05-16 06:08 · Score: 1

Seriously, I downloaded 8 other videos of HL2 demo-ing at E3. These videos featured in depth gameplay and the voiceover of whoever was presenting for Valve Software. So you could see some really cool stuff. Like the Striders. The ant lions. The "gravity gun" as I like to call it is INSANE. There was a part in which Gordy was fighting a strider by using the gravity gun to hurl Marquee Sign Letters at the strider. Seriously cool. Their graphics engine, source, looks great. I downloaded these from some BitTorrent site that i found in another forum. I don't have the links here at work, nor can i visit said site at work. Hopefully, someone else will read this post, and post links to these demo vids. They are about 30-40Mb in size, there are 8 of them. There is a point at which I even yelled, "OWNED!" while watching videos.

Re:There are better HL2 demo's available. by Soul-Burn666 · 2003-05-16 07:18 · Score: 5, Informative

Yup... Posted them above...
And here again!

Still something in the game seems lacking. I don't know what but there is. The only thing I really liked was the engine's power!!! In the first one they show the superb physics and some cool special effects like the water. They show a model with a water attribute applied to it, it looks AWESOME. I just hope the real game will feature some of these special effects...

Btw, I found a small glitch :) There's a place where they move a camera and see the screen. Instead of being recursivly render, the inside screen features some texture... I only noticed this after the 5th time I saw it, so it's not a real problem :)

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^_^
Re:There are better HL2 demo's available. by crisco · 2003-05-16 09:50 · Score: 3, Informative

You might be referring to these, about 250 MB of high quality quicktimes.
There is also a torrent link in the discussion posted by another /.'er, you might see which one has the most seeds and the fasted downloads.

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Bleh!
Re:There are better HL2 demo's available. by junkgrep · 2003-05-16 19:12 · Score: 1

What it's missing is that repetative feel of charging down the same dank sewer corridor shooting the same growling monster over and over. Oh wait: I'm GLAD that's missing. I have seriously never seen anything like it. Even the everday "battle with some soldiers" was absolutely insane with cool details: the way you block the door with the table (and all the objects on it wobble as you're pushing it), they way they tried to get in, and when they couldn't, take out the windows and start firing in at you, and then another one comes and kicked in the door, sending everything flying, chasing you up to where you rip up a radiator out of the wall and use it to block bullets and then smash a soldier in the face with it. That's "lacking"? Nah: that's bloody brilliant.

I especially liked the video where it started out by the developer saying "so, as you can see, the alien citadel has begun to EAT THE CITY." And you look around and christ: this game is perfectly rendering a mile high citadel "eating" an entire city block (also huge and stretching on forever) with giant metal "teeth." Or the video where you lead a squad of soldiers from cover to cover against a dug-in force: and when the alien helicopter comes it gets caught in the powerlines, which all jiggle in the wind it's kicking up? Yeah: that's really missing something: all the standard FPS cliches.
Re:There are better HL2 demo's available. by Soul-Burn666 · 2003-05-16 19:48 · Score: 1

The technology is great. But I still feel something could be better. Maybe i'm just being a jerk, but I feel something seems still a bit too synthetic.

Maybe it's the fact the enemies just stand there and shoot you and never hit you?
Maybe it's the fact I still can't look down and see my body?
Maybe it's because the weapon model still looks glued and in an irrational angle, I mean, if it's supposed to shoot straight, you will almost always hit to the left of the XHairs.
Maybe it's the part with the enemies that just don't look realistic, they don't really scare you. I mean, in the first HL, all the enemies looked plastic, like drones with only one thing they can do. This is ok for robots, but they just seem too artificial.
The engine is awesome, (same goes for D3), but the game itself seems it will be lacking.
Sure, HL1 was fun, but sometimes it was just so dumb. I mean, those alien grunts? They are so huge and have a super lame weapon that has almost no firepower, but follows you around.

So, maybe i'm being the jerk here, maybe the game will be fun when I play it (obviously, i'm going to play it) but I don't expect too much. Maybe this is a good thing not expecting nothing? Maybe there WILL be some surprises that obviously can be with the power of this engine.

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Re:There are better HL2 demo's available. by junkgrep · 2003-05-16 20:36 · Score: 1

---Maybe it's the fact the enemies just stand there and shoot you and never hit you?---

As is obvious in the demos, the player has some sort of godmode on. I'm assuming that they didn't spend five years on a game and forgot to add "player character can take damage" functionality.

I also though the soldiers were creepy and relentless in the way they worked: they advance slowly in large numbers, pinning you down, but when they need to, they quickly do cool stuff like smash in windows to stick their heads in and fire at you, or kick down the doors, etc. We've yet to see a demo in which they are in a large space running around. However, we have seen other soldiers in the game doing exactly this: they run, they take cover to snipe at things from behind objects, they wait until a good moment to move, they dodge, they sneak, they reload. Did you see the movie where Barney turns around while running to whip around and fire at the hoverthingy? That's "just standing there" and shooting?

---Maybe it's the fact I still can't look down and see my body?---

You're right, that's what FPS games really need: a fully realistic fat gut simulator. Remember how you could look down and see your body in Trespasser? Well, remember how that sucked? Other than blocking your view, what is seeing your body good for? This isn't an adventure into your bellybutton, it's a shooter in which you need a range of vision as unocculded as possible. I'm not sure what you man about the crosshairs or weapon model: would you prefer they be more like Quake1?

---Maybe it's the part with the enemies that just don't look realistic, they don't really scare you.---

Yeah: that's just what the world needs: more realistic aliens. Like mossy alien fungus and alien bacteria. Screw those giant walkers, glowly blue tentacles, and giant alien citadel eating an entire city: bring on the frisbee UFOs!

---I mean, in the first HL, all the enemies looked plastic, like drones with only one thing they can do.---

For their time, the enemies in HL were easily the most interesting enemies out there. And in addition to attacking you in all sorts of different ways, most of them were even scripted to do all sorts of different stuff to make them look even less one dimensional. Sure, you couldn't sit down and have a cup of tea with the them to discover what they really felt and wanted in life, but compared to "grrr! I am a soldier: I run and shoot you now!" of most FPS games up till then, they were far more complex.

---I mean, those alien grunts? They are so huge and have a super lame weapon that has almost no firepower, but follows you around.---

I guess you can find a way to hate everything. Many people found those alien grunts scary and intimidating for exactly that same reason: they were huge and nasty, stomping all over the place, smashing through walls and chasing you down, and you had to work to escape their weapons even after you were out of the line of fire.

---The engine is awesome, (same goes for D3), but the game itself seems it will be lacking.---

I guess you're right. An interactive physical world full of objects you can manipulate in all sorts of crazy ways, dynamic AI with priorities and lots of options working on tons of enemies and friendlies at once, scripted sequences that are interactive: none of that really has any gameplay implications. That strider sequence was just BOOOORING.
Re:There are better HL2 demo's available. by Soul-Burn666 · 2003-05-16 20:59 · Score: 1

In many scenes, the soldiers just stand there, and shoot you. The barney was ok, but the enemies just stood there and waited to be shot.

The body thingy? It gives you the impression you really a being in the world and not just a floating head.

Maybe the models are ok, but the sound just lacks. The aliens in HL1 were mostly boring because they were almost silent. The only enemy that really freaked me out in HL1 were those sharks in the water. They looked evil, sounded evil and attack you evily. For the oneeyed electric alien, I just felt sorry for them, because they were so trying to make you scared, but they couldn't!

I really don't understand what people liked in the AI in HL1. Just wait, see a grenade, run around, shoot them. Nothing special. It's not bad, but it's not as perfect as people said it was.

That's not scary, that's just plain annoying.

The strider sequence was nice.

I just feel it won't be so revolutionary as expected. I'm not saying it will be a flop or anything, it's just another step in the right direction.

I, myself, don't find the game to be so interesting as the engine is. One thing i'm sure of. The MODs will be superb.

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^_^
Re:There are better HL2 demo's available. by junkgrep · 2003-05-16 21:48 · Score: 1

---In many scenes, the soldiers just stand there, and shoot you. The barney was ok, but the enemies just stood there and waited to be shot.---

In those particular scenes, they were dug in defending a particular territory. In other scenes, there is no reason why they have to be. ( I do agree that in the end of the barney sequence, the enemies don't seem to be reacting much at all: just standing there. But I very much doubt that's anything other than a bug they can see as well as we can). You're also ignoring the fact that the friendlies in that scene DIDN'T just wait around to be shot: they took cover, crept around, moved when it was safer to do so, etc. If the friendlies can do it, then so can the enemies. I think the enemies being still in those scenes was largely a function of the demos being about showing off other features than the soldiers: the grav gun, the spidercrabs, the "cover me!" people, etc.

---Maybe the models are ok, but the sound just lacks. The aliens in HL1 were mostly boring because they were almost silent.---

At times, that made it much more creepy: the silent shuffling zombies, and the headcrabs that only made sound when attacking or "dancing," and the barnacles which only made messy hissing and eating noises. But other enemies were pretty noisy: the squidthing, the houndeyes, and of course the grunts radioing each other. Sometimes silence is very effective.

---For the oneeyed electric alien, I just felt sorry for them, because they were so trying to make you scared, but they couldn't!---

I didn't think they were supposed to: those aliens were slaves. You were meant to feel a little sorry for them.

---I really don't understand what people liked in the AI in HL1. Just wait, see a grenade, run around, shoot them. Nothing special. It's not bad, but it's not as perfect as people said it was.---

It was worlds removed from enemies in games like Quake2 and its ilk. Just the fact that they moved in more ways than just dumbly running straight at you was pretty new at the time. They actually took positions, advanced, assesed their situaiton, attacked, retreated, tried to draw you out with grenades, etc. I guess you were too l33t for them (or were playing in easymode), but the scene where they first appeared in battle was fun to replay over and over with all sorts of different results and tactics. Sure: it wasn't the be all and end all, but for the time it was way ahead of everything else.
Re:There are better HL2 demo's available. by Soul-Burn666 · 2003-05-16 22:45 · Score: 1

First thing I'd like to say, you do seem like an experienced gamer and I'm happy this just didn't turn into a flame war.

I have feeling the friendlies you speak of are scripted, this point is left open until I see the final result.

I agree silence is important, I have no problem with that, it's just even when they DID make sound, it was pretty stupid. And when you look on the houndeyes, it's just sooooo friggin' hillarious... made me laugh for a couple of mins. The barnacles were cute, I agree with that.

LOL... so maybe you're about those slaves...

Actually, Quake2 enemies were very scary! They just came at you, fast or slow but heavy. I really got nervous in that game about every turn.

Call me old fashioned, but gameplay-wise, I prefer Q2 to HL. Btw, I finished HL in Hard aswell...

What I did like about HL is that it was the first game I played that actually had a believable world. Colorful and pretty complex for the time.

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Re:There are better HL2 demo's available. by Soul-Burn666 · 2003-05-16 22:47 · Score: 1

I replied to myself by mistake.... I reply now to you so /. notifies you :)

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Re:There are better HL2 demo's available. by junkgrep · 2003-05-17 06:03 · Score: 1

---I have feeling the friendlies you speak of are scripted, this point is left open until I see the final result.---

I'm pretty sure they aren't... exactly. First of all because Valve made it pretty clear that the dodging behind objects thing isn't just a matter of nodes on the map: if you move an object to a new location, they will be able to see it and use it for cover, or whatever their purposes currently are. They will take your lead: if you don't cover for them, they won't cover for you or follow you. The way Valve describes the AI is that it's priority based: in addition to all the ways in which they can react to the world, characters also CAN be given certain specific missions which they try to acheive to enhance the story at various points, but these can easily be overided by more pressing events, interrupted temporarily, and so on. They described the scripts as working like this in the AI: "if you're not doing anything more important at the moment, and other characters aren't stealing the limelight, then go over here and do this cool thing to showoff." And if a character is scripted to, for instance, start talking to you, and in the middle of them talking you throw a beaker at their head, then they have to stop and react to what you just did before they even bother with continuing what they were saying. They also said that they had tried to break up scripted sequences into much tinier pieces and put them in the AI instead. So, while a certain soldier may be instructed to kick a certain door down at a certain moment (but wont if you get his attention), all soldiers can kick down any kickable door if they decide it's necessary to reach their objective, running their own scripts for doing so when needed.
Regardless, the enemies certainly aren't going to be LESS stationary than the troops from the first HL at least. It's not like programing "running around" is so hard.

The thing about HL is that many of the creatures and interactions were _supposed_ to be a little out there and almost funny. Houndeyes were almost harmless alone, pretty goofy looking and sounding (almost cute in a way), but then this silliness got dangerous very quickly when there got to be too many of them in one area. Which happened a couple of times simply because I felt so bad about killing them for no reason.
Re:There are better HL2 demo's available. by Soul-Burn666 · 2003-05-17 06:15 · Score: 1

That was a good read. I hope this will be the case in the final product. And well, I hope it will be out in the summer vacation, I don't want to fail all my exams :)

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Re:When last i saw freeman, by SmallFurryCreature · 2003-05-16 06:16 · Score: 1

Geez, they cloned him of course so they could make a sequel even after killing of the main character. Didn't you watch alien?

Talking of that what was the ending again of soldier boy? If I remember correctly he wasn't given the choice. And I never played blue shift. Anyone care to fill me in?

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MMO Quests are like orgasms:

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Re:When last i saw freeman, by Loosewire · 2003-05-16 06:18 · Score: 1

blue shift didnt include gordon as the character anyway - it was barney the security guard you see from the train banging on the door in the first minute of half life - and thats precisely where you start off.

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And you thought those headcraps where bad by SmallFurryCreature · 2003-05-16 06:27 · Score: 4, Funny

Now valve has added a new monster. Some horrible creature that attachs itself to its victim chest in pairs. Just look at what it did to that young boy.

a girl you say? In half-life? Yeah, like I will fall for that one.

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MMO Quests are like orgasms:

You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.

Re:And you thought those headcraps where bad by standsolid · 2003-05-16 08:44 · Score: 1

what is this "thing" you call girl?

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Re:And you thought those headcraps where bad by junkgrep · 2003-05-17 09:58 · Score: 1

Why do you think the game features matresses as one of the main physical objects in the game? Buncha male geeks at Valve probably blew most of their globs of money and the last 5 years trying to build a 3d simulation of a really springy matress and a realistic looking girl... then suddenly realized that with just a little extra work, they could probably make a FPSshooter game on the side just to help finance the further development of simulated silk sheets.

Re:When last i saw freeman, by stefanlasiewski · 2003-05-16 06:32 · Score: 2, Funny

HE was facing down an entire enemy army of alien stormtroopers with a crowbar.

Well, the Uruk Hai yelled 'Forget this dude with the sword, FIND THE HALFLINGS, FIND THE HALFLINGS', and so the orks took off after the hobbits down the hill, and left Strider alone with a few orks up on the hill and and...

sorry, wrong story. Got confused there...

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"Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."

Re:When last i saw freeman, by Unknown+Poltroon · 2003-05-16 06:32 · Score: 1

Hmmm, i dont remember the ending of that. I just went back and played the first half life again a few weeks ago, and damn, are those recon marines easy to kill compared to the 12 year olds i get blown up by in the online version.

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All Troll + "offtopic" mods are meta moderated as "Unfair", because you abused the system.

ATI by Zapateria · 2003-05-16 06:45 · Score: 1

"That's enough of this tech stuff, I'm off to cash this fat check from ATI....BUY RADEON NOW!"

Gabe Newell

Re:ATI by Guspaz · 2003-05-16 07:10 · Score: 1

Well, better that some support ATI than none; otherwise we'd see nothing but "The way it's mean to be played - NVIDIA" logos everywhere. Good to have balance.
Re:ATI by Hadlock · 2003-05-16 09:15 · Score: 1

"I browse at +1. ACs need not reply."

you must have alot more time to read slashdot than i do, i browse @ +3, with some modifiers to trolls, friends, and foes, which cuts things down to about 20-30 posts per story.

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moox. for a new generation.
Re:ATI by Guspaz · 2003-05-23 01:22 · Score: 1

Then how come you saw my +2 post :)

I don't actually spend much time reading threads. The +1 is more so I don't have to read the posts by the anonymous-coward stalker that likes to post goatse.cx stuff as a reply to everything I port.

I concentrate more on replies to my posts than to new posts.

HL2 Tech demo vids by Soul-Burn666 · 2003-05-16 06:47 · Score: 4, Informative

Here

The video quality lacks, the colors are always changing, but it's still pretty!!!

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^_^

Re:When last i saw freeman, by Yarn · 2003-05-16 06:50 · Score: 1

Depends if you walked through the door/portal or not IIRC.

He obviously jury rigged the power output on his HEV suit to cause an emp pulse which magnetises the biometal in the alien stormtroopers making them all stick together.

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-Yarn - Rio Karma: Excellent

Re:When last i saw freeman, by mahdi13 · 2003-05-16 07:17 · Score: 1

I think G-Man trapped him in Zen world at the end of Half-Life®: Opposing Force(TM)

The end of Half-Life® G-Man gave Gordon a choice, if you didn't go into the portal Gordon is trapped in Zen forever. If you do go to the portal, Gorden accepts to work for the G-Man, I assume in HL2 Gordon entered the portal...

Never played Half-Life®: Blue Shift(TM), so I have no idea how it ended

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"Some things have to be believed to be seen." - Ralph Hodgson

Half-life endings by ApharmdB · 2003-05-16 07:38 · Score: 1

As stated before, at the end of Half-life Gordon was given a choice. This resulted in either working for the G-man or being tossed into a hopeless fight on Zen.

At the end of Opposing Force, the G-man tells Adrian (I think) that he is impressed by his capabilities but does not offer him a job. He tells him that he can not be allowed to reveal what he knows and so is going to be taken somewhere safe where he can't tell anyone. Whether that means jail, killed, or a secret government resort, who knows.

At the end of Blue-Shift, Barney (who never interacts with the G-man) escapes the Black Mesa complex along with 3 scientists. No twist is pulled, so we can assume he got away.

for comparison, the Doom^3 trailer from E3 by Gregory+S+Patterson · 2003-05-16 08:25 · Score: 1

bittorrent, enjoy

doh by Gregory+S+Patterson · 2003-05-16 08:33 · Score: 1

nevermind, I somehow missed that they had an entire article about the doom^3 one with links and all.

Hopeless?? by Unknown+Poltroon · 2003-05-16 09:12 · Score: 1

THis is Freeman, give him a crowbar, and hell take on the world and beat it into goo.

IT always bothered me that that crowbar did more damage tha nthe glock.

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All Troll + "offtopic" mods are meta moderated as "Unfair", because you abused the system.

Amazing tech demos and in game demos available... by Chilliwilli · 2003-05-16 11:55 · Score: 2, Informative

..from links here. Videos are taken with a camera but are amazing none the less. Some of the physics is so unbelievably real!! CHECK THESE OUT and get the kleenex ready (sorry.. but you will need to).

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20 minutes 200 MB IGN.com video by Intruger · 2003-05-16 13:28 · Score: 2, Informative

Gamespot vids are even better: mind-blowing by junkgrep · 2003-05-16 19:18 · Score: 1

Check out the gamespot vids, available here (scroll down in the news items) and other places around the net (if you don't wanna pay to access them from gamespot). They are just plain sick.

These vids also definately come from a later build. In the teaser, the scene with the soldier getting stabbed by a big blue tentacle is amazingly cool. But in the gamespot vids, they've changed the terrain to be much less blocky, added incredible new animations to the soldier and the girl, and the water splashes and ripples oh so convincingly when the soldier is smacked into it.

They should have saved the name "Unreal" for THIS game.

Re:Amazing tech demos and in game demos available. by junkgrep · 2003-05-17 08:57 · Score: 1

When I first saw the vids, I thought that Half-life2 was featuring some sort of acid-trip simulation, the way the colors and contrast kept changing and squirming around on the screen. Stupid video cameras...

Re:When last i saw freeman, by junkgrep · 2003-05-17 09:00 · Score: 1

The Valve team really must have been locked away in caves for the past five years. Otherwise, how could they not realize that having characters yelling STRIDER!!!! all the time would bring about totally wrongheaded associations with gamers?

Files by vinlud · 2003-05-18 23:17 · Score: 1

You can find them here:

Full movie

Movie clips

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Half-Life 2 Teaser Movie Released

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