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Gabe Newell Talks Half-Life 2
Thanks to Voodoo Extreme for pointing to GamingNext's new interview with Gabe Newell of Valve Software - he's the managing director and co-founder of the company currently working on Half-Life 2. Topics include the scalability of the Source graphics engine: "A lot of the tricky work in Source is getting it to work across a wide variety of scenes (indoor, urban, outdoor) and across a wide variety of hardware. Not only do you have to run acceptably fast on a TNT or an Intel 810 based PC, but you have to fully exploit the capabilities of the current and next generation high-end cards." On a related note, the 500+MB Half-Life 2 gameplay/engine demo (BitTorrent link) from E3 is a must-download if you haven't seen it yet.
Wow, Gabe said HL2 should run on a P-III 800MHz and a DX6 class graphics card. That's amazing. I wonder does it sacrifice physics calculations, ie. do objects begin to act weird when low on computing power. At least I'd think the physics seen in the demonstrations need a lot of cpu. Maybe it penalizes graphics more.
With a bit of luck, I'll get to play it with my Duron 1.2GHz. If not, then I'll have to re-prioritize savings in favor of HL2.
'Nuff said.
-MT.
The observation:
Has anybody else noticed how cadaverous the new G-Man looks? Especially his eyes - he looks like a dead man walking. Hmmmm.
The hope:
Either that HL2 runs under Wine, or that Valve releases a native version.
www.eFax.com are spammers
As long as I don't have to spend 500$ to be able to play it and it look badass...then i will be happy...... But if i have to spend 499$...well you gotta do what you gotta do.... I can't wait to see what they are gonna do with Counter Strike 2...
jC - sweet sweet squirrel on sheet metal
Its nice to be able to post here and be seen. As soon as something goes up on Slashdot, 4trillion posts pop up. Its nice to be posting here, because, who really reads comments past the first page anyway?
I just wanted to say the half life 2 gameplay demo is amazing. Not only are the physics impressive, but they use them for innovative gameplay, in contrast to what that post about the "lack of innovation" editorial said. Yes it is a FPS, but by using the environment, i.e. using hidden traps from the survivalist monk, it innovates wonderfully.
...on a DX6 machine?
;)
I work on a game engine for a living. When people ask for these features I say "sure, but you will need some serious horsepower to make it work." The people at Valve are making me look bad.
Spell cheek you've failed me four the last thyme!
A friend played it on his laptop, at school. I fell on my knees and cried. This makes Doom3 look like pong (in graphics, physics, gameplay, and others).
Just try to get a system capable of running Doom III. Even if you fall short you'll certainly been able to play Half-Life 2.
He makes it sound like there is NO multiplay option at all.. surely they can't be that silly?!?!?!
"Consider how lucky you are that life has been good to you so far. Alternatively, if life hasn't been good to you so far
From what I've seen in the demo videos about, the most impressive things about HL2 are not the graphics as such, but things like the physics and AI. The graphics are no slouch, but the real innovation is in stuff like being able to throw things around realistically and be killed by really smart enemies (much like the first Half Life). All this makes me think that having a fast CPU would be more important than the latest video card, which is great as CPUs are a lot cheaper.
Some games just move your eyeball down an imaginary line running out of the end of your gun. gives the impression of zoom because the center of the turning circle is still your body. All distance calculations are handled normally for your camera eye position.