Xbox Half-Life 2 Late Summer Release

GamesIndustry.biz is reporting that Valve plans to have Half-Life 2 available on the Xbox during late summer in the U.S., and early fall in Europe. From the article: "The content of the game for Xbox is now thought to be exactly the same as the PC outing, although some dilution of texture detail and auto-aiming are likely to grace the port." The article also mentioned that, at the moment, Aftermath is likely to be PC only.

Comments

Re:Graphics

[DanthemaninVA1]

My computer is probably about the same as yours; many times more powerful than an XBox. And yet, when i tried the Prince of Persia: Warrior Within demo on my computer, and ran like complete shit. I got the game for XBox, and it would experience a tiny bit of slowdown on rare occasions. While the XBox may not be as powerful, a lot of bloat can be removed for the game by optimizing for a single hardware platform. No, the graphics won't be as super-good. Yes, it will still look great.

Late summer in Europe as well

[Jarlsberg]

The blurb is misleading, as the article specifically says that it won't be ready until late summer, both in Europe and the US.

Here's a quote:
Valve's Doug Lombardi added credence to the news this morning, but fell short of specifying a release date.

"We plan to finish development of Half-Life 2 Xbox in late summer and have it available everywhere very shortly thereafter," he told Eurogamer. "No specific date to share just yet." US reports are suggesting that the game is to be finished in August.

ANOTHER GREAT GAME this year?!!!!

[lion2]

Doom 3, Jade Empire, Unreal Championship 2, Forza Motorsport, Splinter Cell 3, Black Hawk Down(I'm excited about its 50 player online play) and now Half Life 2!!! I can't possibly afford to get all these games :(.

Steam enabled?

[slot32]

Well? Or will you require Live to play it?

Re:Steam enabled?

[LordNimon]

I would be extremely surprised if an Xbox online game required anything but Xbox Live. Even the EA games, which run on EA's servers instead of Microsoft's, still require you to connect via Xbox Live first (the connection is then transferred automatically to EA), and there are no additional charges.

Re:Steam enabled?

[satoshi1]

No, the parent means that he hopes it doesn't require Xbox Live! for ALL facets of the game. Steam, on the PC version, requires you to be connected to the internet to play offline mode. The parent is hoping that you won't need to be connected to Xbox Live! to play offline as well.

Auto-aim is the worst

[Vr6dub]

If they implement auto-aim I most definitely won't buy it. Hopefully they give you the ability to turn it off. Starwars: Battlefront was horrible multiplayer for this reason. While there were rooms that had it disabled, a majority of the servers had it enabled...GAY!!!!

Honestly, are people that poor at gaming that they have to include something like this? Might as well make it an RPG!! I understand the whole mouse vs. controller issue but man, give me a break, the controller is not THAT big of hinderance (sp?). K I'm done.

Re:Auto-aim is the worst

[Fred Or Alive]

I think it depends on how the auto-aim is implemented. Halo has quite a bit of assistance with aiming (I'm not sure if it counts fully as auto-aim), but you generally don't notice it unless you're messed around betraying people[1], as you don't get as much help to shoot your own teammates.

On the other hand the auto-aim in Half-Life (1) for PC (and DC IIRC) seems terribly unsubtle, and I turned it off immediately, as it just seemed stupid. The crosshair moved massively every time you looked vaguely in the direction of an enemy...

I've not played Star Wars: Battlefront, so I don't know what camp it's auto-aim comes under. if it was more like Half-Life's, I can see why you wouldn't want it...

[1] I was betraying friends, and everyone had agreed to have a betray-a-thon in an unranked game before we started.

Re:Awesome for Europe

[KDR_11k]

but I refused to play it because of the whole Steam activation controversy

Be happy you have an option. My new home (a student home) has internet that requires a proxy. Try telling Steam that. Even if there is such an option somewhere I can't see it because Steam quits immediately when I start it.

Re:Graphics

[KirkH]

Doubters said the same exact thing about Doom 3 making it's way to the Xbox. Early screenshots were laughed at. People said it couldn't be done with any justice.

Now that the game's out, it's a different story. Reviews have raved about the Xbox version. I've played Doom 3 on a dual 2.5GHz Xeon with a decent video card (Geforce 5900) and played the Xbox version, and there was very little difference. Yes, the PC version was running at a higher res, but I could tell little visual difference sitting a foot away from a 21" monitor on the PC and 15 feet from a 32" TV for the Xbox. I was amazed that the Xbox version looked and played as good as it did. Gameplay was practically identical once you got past the input differences.

So feel free to continue with your nay-saying and speculation, but I don't think Value would be porting the game if it was going to look and play like shit. They would have just waited until the Xbox 2 came out.

Re:DOOM

[fwitness]

I'll give them credit. They went from having no presence in the console world to being an almost solid #2 (Japan aside.) They launched a brilliant console and online service in a ridiculously short timetable.

That said, I bought a used Xbox and I've played like 6 games on it. It's currently unplugged since it's too bulky to fit in my entertainment center if I'm not going to use it. There's just too much better content on the other two consoles I own. So it's a 'meh' thing for me. Maybe once I feel like running an ethernet cable under a rug into the living room and hook up XBox live I'll be addicted, but I don't think it'll get that far.