E3 - Game Sites Get Hands-On With Half Life 2

metrazol writes "Over at GameSpy, they have a first hands-on preview of much anticipated, speculated, flamed, leaked sequel Half-Life 2. Hint: They love it." There's also a preview at GameSpot, and another over at IGN PC - elsewhere, The Inquirer notes that "ATI will bundle [Valve-developed] Counter Strike 2 with its X800PRO/XT cards", and CNN Money interviews the new President of Half-Life 2 publishers VU Games, who says Half-Life 2 is "still realistic" for a 2004 release (Valve are now saying that "the game should be out by this summer"), and argues: "The PC is far more profitable for us than the console... you're not playing platform fees to manufacturers, for one thing."

Who cares?

[Kanon]

Does anyone really care anymore? It's not like these previews are telling us anything new of substance.

Re:Who cares?

[Killjoy_NL]

Personally, I care.
After the fantastic HL1, I'm still holding on to the hope that this will be just as good or better.

My hopes have been crushed a few times though
- Master of Orion 3
- Deus Ex 2

Re:Who cares?

[incubusnb]

IMO, MOO3 was not a disapointment, it delivered what it claimed, a highly interactive 4x game with an extremem attention to detail in both Micro and Macro Management

they probably just did it too well, the learning curve is almost astronomical

Re:Who cares?

[Kanon]

I'm not saying that I'm not looking forward to it. I am. I'm guessing it will be a very good game but I've read a number of previews of HL2 over the last month and they all say exactly the same things and don't really tell us anything we didn't know last year before the code leak.

I guess I'd be more excited if they told us something we haven't heard before or was a little unexpected.

Re:Who cares?

[junkgrep]

Have you seen...: The super giagantic Valve Info thread where all questions are answered: http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?p=4 38943#post438943 The new shakycam videos with unseen areas of the game and a glimpse at a (as yet placeholder animated) D.O.G. http://www.filerush.com/download.php?target=hl2_sh akycam_from_valve_visit.zip There's actually a ton of information out there on the game that not a lot of people are aware of.

A new icon/Logo?

[MrIrwin]

What is that First Person Shooters icon supposed to represent?

Re:A new icon/Logo?

[Kelerain]

Its been around for a while. It is the Quake 3 Rocket Launcher, although people also seem to think it looks like a fire extinguisher.

taking bets

[Solidblu]

Taking all bets on how long it is before this preview shows up online for download

New interface

[Anonymous Coward]

As can be seen from the screenshot at gamespy [gamespy.com], there is a funky green man in the corner. He looks a bit like a spy. Personally, I think it detracts from the aesthetics.

Re:New interface

[Baikala]

Prior to checking your link and getting the yoke, I was thinking you were refering to one of these [gamespot.com] conspicuos green men.

ATi

[jbfaninmo]

Wait a second, ATi is going to bundle CS2 with there new cards? What about all of those HL2 vouchers they gave out with the last generation of cards?

Man ATi is a smart company. They are giving away these little paper coupons that people have to hold on to for at least good year before they are worth anything, but people feel like they are saving $50. Hell, they might never be worth anything. Whoever came up with that deserves at least, "Corporate Minion of the Month."

Re:ATi

[aliens]

They'll still be honoring those coupons. It sucks to have to hold on to them, but I'm sure ATI is just as pissed at Valve as the customer is at ATI/Valve.

I mean honestly, you do not ink a major corporate deal knowing you can't deliver. I don't know what Valve was smoking to stick to last september's release date up until the very absolute last second. The interviews with Gabe even talk about how it wasn't released because it just wasn't finished, not because of the code leak.

Re:ATi

[junkgrep]

Gabe was saying that back in September. It isn't a new admission.

Re:ATi

[Pvt_Waldo]

Actually if you just use the key to register under Valve's content delivery system Steam [steampowered.com], you'll get all the current games. Then when HL2 etc. comes out, you'll get those too. Steam will just automatically download them and give 'em to you.

Re:ATi

[BMonger]

Well holy everything. If that doesn't just make my day! I told it I already owned Half-Life (the original) it asked me for my Half-Life CD Key. I gave it the Half-Life 2 CD-Key from my ATI card it and now I'm downloading *all* of the games that are on the steam system except for Condition Zero. I'm so glad I read this post. Thanks!

Re:ATi

[ffsnjb]

And you can even get it to pre-load CZ so you just have to give it a key to unlock it. I haven't had the $40, but CZ is sitting on my hard drive.

We still don't know...

[Apreche]

Hey reviewers! What kind of PC were you playing that demo on?? We still need to know the minimum system requirements!

Re:We still don't know...

[junkgrep]

Currently, they are saying that they'll bump the requirements up to 1Ghz CPU and a Directx7 level card (i.e., TNT2s wont cut it anymore)

shame

[OmniVector]

shame we have little to no chance of getting a half-life 2 mac port since the whole game depends heavily on direct-x 9.

oh well, i'll happily give money to the companies that care about cross-platform development (id software & epic games).

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Forget HL2 and DNF

[GearType2]

tf2 is bundled with hl2 as a mod.