E3 2004 HL2 Demonstration

[Inquisitor]

Why am I called a troll? I have only been honest in my view of the demos. I have said nothing anti hl2, and I gave valve praise where I felt it was due. But the demonstration wasn't perfect, and I won't prtray it as such like others here. I can be honest with what I saw, you can accept it or bicker about it. I will leave it to you. sort it out amongst yourselves.

 

[Crusader]

Inquisitor, go away while we celebrate...

 

[Vahishta]

the release of cs on source and cs2, it will unquestionably devide the counterstrike community

Why? at most it will give you more choices. why would it be divided?

 

[Burn]

Thanks for straightening that out. But do we know what will be the multi?

They said at last years E3 they will not be showing anything of the HL2 mutliplayer untill its shiped. I think there going to stay with that and just show off the new CS, and maybe Team fortress if we are lucky.

 

[dscowboy]

Where are you people getting this "CS is not HL2 Multiplayer" stuff? Is that just wishful thinking? Just because CS-Source will be sold seperately doesn't make it not part of HL2 multiplayer. HL2 singleplayer will be sold seperately, so why not a multiplayer-only box too? Believe it or not, there will be some CS freaks who won't care for HL2 SP at all.
Shacknews has reported that CS-Source is HL2 MP. Point me to something that says it's NOT HL2MP.

 

[Apos]

What makes the counterstrike community so unique(other than the imaginative language) is that it is so large and undevided. But with the release of cs on source and cs2, it will unquestionably devide the counterstrike community.

I don't really see how. Most people will migrate to the HL2 version pretty quickly, and even if there is a split, well, there already IS, between WON and Steam and various versions. Doesn't seem to have destroyed the community much.

And I like the idea of games that get updated instead of abandoned. Doesn't mean I don't want and expect something new, but CS was a no brainer, and most CS fans are hella excited.

 

[Habibapotamus]

What are you saying? Sorry, I'm not good with technical speach. What do you mean by track my IP?

I think they would rather track your MAC address, seeing that IP addresses can be dynamic anyway.

 

[Inquisitor]

no not really. If CS2 comes out with more maps and more abilities and shit, thrown together in Source with new graphics and physics. I'd buy it and i don't play CS any more

I would do the same. But you must know how much of the community despises change in counterstrike. Many of them even claim to hate every version of the game since the beta stages. Having two graphically equal versions of counterstrike, many of them will choose the one which most resembles their current iteration of counterstrike. Most will move on to cs2 when it is released, but I'm sure many will not. Many will find small things to hate about cs2 and will stick with counterstrike on source. This is inevitable.

 

[Apos]

HL2 singleplayer will be sold seperately, so why not a multiplayer-only box too? Believe it or not, there will be some CS freaks who won't care for HL2 SP at all.
Shacknews has reported that CS-Source is HL2 MP. Point me to something that says it's NOT HL2MP.

Fact is, Shack's headline is taken from an interpretation of what Gabe says in the presentation... except that his statement is a bit ambiguous.

And I have a coupon for the full version of Half-life2: which is what Gabe said would include Multiplayer stuff. So.... what's it going to be if CS: Source is not included in that? It's gotta be something.

Fact is, we don't really know what the heck is going on now.

 

[Sparta]

[EDIT]whoops, a bit late on the reply here, feel free to delete this post someone

 

[Burn]

Where are you people getting this "CS is not HL2 Multiplayer" stuff? Is that just wishful thinking? Just because CS-Source will be sold seperately doesn't make it not part of HL2 multiplayer. HL2 singleplayer will be sold seperately, so why not a multiplayer-only box too? Believe it or not, there will be some CS freaks who won't care for HL2 SP at all.
Shacknews has reported that CS-Source is HL2 MP. Point me to something that says it's NOT HL2MP.

Lets take this step by step so it does'nt blow your mind.

- Valve are making stand alone products useing hl2's engine, these will be Half Life 1, Counter-Strike, Team Fortress, Opposing Force and Blue Shift.

The video shown at the end of the HL2 video was just that, Counter strike useing hl2's engine.

- Valve have said, many times, there not showing the HL2 Mutliplayer. There will be shipping HL2 Single player boxs, Multiplayer Boxes, and ones that contain both.

This means HL2 is haveing its own multiplayer, the people who are not interested in half life at all can buy the stand alone (meaning you wont need hl2) Counter Strike game, or wait for CS2 to come out. Counter Strike 2 has yet to be shown

- Why on earth would HL2's multiplayer be CS itself. CS will be a stand alone game for CS players. and CS2 I would think would be one too. But as there BOTH made by Valve, CS was shown in the same video HL2 was, they have nothing to do with each other.

 

[Apos]

Mistress, the fact is, we don't know anything for sure yet. Obviously, things could change at any time: maybe they have.
Here's what Gabe says:

One of the biggest questions is "what about multiplayer" Um, and so we decided to combine the most popular online action game with the power of the HL2 engine, and we're going to show that to you.

Now, how do we take that statement? It could be interpreted all sorts of different ways. And then there is the eurogamer report about CS: Source and other new mods costing extra. But there are no direct quotes, and it's not entirely clear either.

So, let's reserve judgement till we hear more.

 

[dscowboy]

And I have a coupon for the full version of Half-life2: which is what Gabe said would include Multiplayer stuff. So.... what's it going to be if CS: Source is not included in that? It's gotta be something.

Well I'm guessing purchase of HL2+MP includes the Source-ports with it. It doesn't make much sense otherwise, if they had an original MP game in progress we would've heard SOMETHING about it by now. You're right, there's a lot that's not very clear, but it just seems pretty unlikely that Valve has something other than CS-Source / TFC-Source / DOD-Source up their sleeve for HL2MP. Unless it's some hastily put together DM thing.

 

[Burn]

Apos, your right no one knows for sure, but its pretty plain to see that CS will be stand alone, and hl2 will have its own multiplayer (Maybe that being TF? Who knows) As there are alot more CS players then HL nowadays (sadly) So bringing it HL2 with CS mutliplayer would be very stupid, as they can bring CS out as a stand alone so people can just buy that.

dscowboy - Its allready been stated by Valve there not showing hl2 multiplayer (Unless your point is right and its CS), thats why you or anyone else has'nt heard anything, nothings been said about it.

 

[dscowboy]

Counter Strike 2 has yet to be shown

Counter Strike 2 has already been shown
Gabe: "We're not calling it counter-strike 2"
It's pretty obvious that what has been previously referred to as CS2 is actually CS-Source. I'm sorry this is going to be difficult for a lot of people to accept.

 

[dscowboy]

From the Eurogamer article: "When quizzed, he said that the game would not be a free update, but would in fact be released commercially via retail and for download via Steam at the same time as Half-Life 2, at the end of this summer."

So, CS-Source is 1) not going to be a free update to CS1 and 2) going to be available commercially. There is nothing saying that CS-Source will not be included if you buy HL2+MP. And there is no reason they can't include it with HL2+MP and also sell it standalone.

Think about this: You're trying to build the most expensive single player game ever made, and at the same time you NEED to port the old HL1mods to source so that the MP community will upgrade to Source. You don't have time to do both these things AND produce an excellent, original multiplayer game. So instead of slapping together some half-assed HL2MP, you sell the proven mods as HL2-MP, and let people mod up their own half-assed HL2MP if they want.

 

[Shuzer]

Counter Strike 2 has already been shown
Gabe: "We're not calling it counter-strike 2"
It's pretty obvious that what has been previously referred to as CS2 is actually CS-Source. I'm sorry this is going to be difficult for a lot of people to accept.

Problem is, he could be referring to CS: Source when he says "We're not calling it Counter-Strike 2." He doesn't actually say that CS: Source is CS2, or that there is no CS2.

 

[Burn]

well, whatever I dont really want to talk about. No not cus im a saw loser or anything, I dont care about CS at all, I dont like it too much.. so if that is CS2, well.. good for them I guess.

 

[Apos]

As there are alot more CS players then HL nowadays (sadly) So bringing it HL2 with CS mutliplayer would be very stupid, as they can bring CS out as a stand alone so people can just buy that.

Don't think it's really a strong argument either way. Depending on how things work, they could make more money by using CS: Source to sell more copies of the more expensive HL2 boxes. Who knows? The point is, everything is up in the air now: nobody really knows what's what.

Gabe: "We're not calling it counter-strike 2"
It's pretty obvious that what has been previously referred to as CS2 is actually CS-Source. I'm sorry this is going to be difficult for a lot of people to accept.

Since I can't stand CS in any form, I don't have a horse in this race. And I don't think that statement really proves anything other than that they don't consider CS: Source to be CS2. That statement could just as easily mean that they won't be calling CS:S CS2 because it isn't another full increment or new game... which CS2 will be.

Again, we REALLY need Valve to clear all this confusion up for us.

 

[dscowboy]

Problem is, he could be referring to CS: Source when he says "We're not calling it Counter-Strike 2."

He is, that's the point. If CS2 wasn't the same thing as CS-Source, he would've said "No, this is not CS2". He said 'we're not CALLING it CS2', clearly implying that it's the same thing, they've just chosen CS-Source as the name for it, instead of CS2.

 

[Apos]

He said 'we're not CALLING it CS2', clearly implying that it's the same thing, they've just chosen CS-Source as the name for it, instead of CS2.

No, because he could be thinking "ok, should this earn the name CS2? No, because it's just a re-release. We're saving that version number for the totally new CS game we have been developing." See what I mean?

 

[Dramavian]

Has anyone e-mailed one of the VALVe guys left at their office (I believe this includes Rick) asking to confirm this whole CS: Source fiasco one way or another? I mean...If CS: Source is indeed HL2s multiplayer they wont need to keep up the secrecy over the whole MP thing anymore..

 

[dscowboy]

No, because he could be thinking "ok, should this earn the name CS2? No, because it's just a re-release. We're saving that version number for the totally new CS game we have been developing." See what I mean?

Could be, but if they had two seperate CS projects going, don't you think Gabe would be pretty clear on what names they call them by now?
I just don't find it very likely that Valve has managed to build HL2SP, port all the mods they own to source, AND develop a totally new MP game. And why spend all the money re-doing all the CS1 art if they're going to split the player-base with a seperate, CS2 version? When upgrading an online game, you want to keep everyone on the same version as much as possible to maximize the size of the user base. Spending money/time on two different versions of the same game would be very unusual. Why not just port CS1 to source and then slowly improve on it over time, like CS development has always been done?

 

[Wolf]

I don't feel it is being picky. I feel it would be far too forgiving if we ignored these errors the way most people are. I only have high standards because it is VALVe we are talking about.

I gave props where they were due, but I didn't overlook the mistakes. Some of it impressed me, some didn't.

I feel our expectations were drastically lowered by the recent lowquality screenshots(this might have been Valve's intention) and people are being far too forgiving of the flaws in the game.

Flaws in the renderer, not the game. You'd have to be one superficial sonofabitch to let niggles about shadowing in certain circumstances to seriously affect your appreciation of gaming.

The funny thing is that there are that many mediocre and simplistic games out there that I think people have trained themselves to be graphic whores. They spend such an outrageous fortune on computer hardware to play fairly uncompelling titles that the focus of game discussion invariably shifts to nitpicking the graphics, because if you actually look at flow, narrative, themes, motifs, character development et cetera then gaming looks like one seriously immature medium. Thank goodness for companies like Valve, Illusion Softworks, Pyrahna Bytes, Troika et al - who create games which actively move discussion and analysis beyond the banality of nitpicking tech issues...

 

[Gossoon]

Well, all I can say is that I'll be mighty pissed if my ATI coupon does not include whatever MP HL2 has, whether it's a redone CS or whatever. I hope that valve uses E3 to clear up the Steam distro plans. Has anyone heard anything in regards to the Steam release?

EDIT: I know of course, that valve has stated that the coupon does include MP, but I what to know exactly what else it includes...

 

[Apos]

I just don't find it very likely that Valve has managed to build HL2SP, port all the mods they own to source, AND develop a totally new MP game.

Why not? They have people working at Valve who's exclusive job it is to work on CS stuff, just like they have a DoD team and a TF team.

 

[-JeZ-]

I've played a LOT of FPS games and apart from the original Quake/QuakeWorld/Quake 2 DM/CTF no other multiplayer game has held my attention for as long as CounterStrike. There's something unique about it, even in it's post BETA stages, that sets it apart from everything else. Sure, the Battlefield games are fun IF you play with a groupe of friends, as is CoD, but CS has the pick up and play factor that these games lack. If HL2 has no MP of it's own I won't be that dissapointed as I hardly played the original's bundled MP modes (Apart from DMC, which is basically Quake redone which I'm sure ID was piseed about).

What I'm saying is this: I'm excited for HL2 simply for the SP experiance and that's all I'm worried about. Half Life is all about the story, so shouldn't we be concentrating on that?

 

[ferd]

Let me just say this, Last years strider vid looks like a minor punchup compared to the new strider vid :O I want the high res versions now lol!

ye, the strider bit is awesome, but according to gamespy there is more strider action to come!

 

[DelaZ]

This CLEARLY prooves that this is just a port of CS and NOT the real HL 2 MP :

QUOTE from csnation.net :
A few months ago I had seen a very early version of the port. Erik Johnson had then told me that--at the time--the port would be bare-bones. A minor upgrade just to give the game some better lighting. That direction has totally changed. Valve is committed to upgrading Counter-Strike with 21st century technology.
http://www.csnation.net/comments.php?id=7157

They would never "just" do a port and make it the HL2 MP afterwards, certainly not when you read the word : bare-bones.

 

[kider]

i'm still waiting for the fileplanet 600 mb version.. (80 percent done) i think valve is going to be putting out the best damned product since like sliced bread or something. I wouldnt be suprised if HL2 takes over mankind and we all become slaves to the machine. I'm getting all jittery, the suspense is killing me, ooo i cant wait anymore just gimme the game.

 

[JimJimBinks]

Okay, so I saw the demos this morning at the first showings (Have the HL2 access pass and T-Shirt to prove it.) and I have to admit, I wasn't too impressed with the Counterstrike portion of it. The player model in the first person perspective (Basically the arms holding the guns) looked too similar to the original CS. The gun models themselves looked nice but I just thought the arms holding the guns looked like the same ol' stuff we're used to.

 

[fuzzy_aus]

It's possible they are....I've only seen the low quality version and it looked damn fine, i wouldn't worry about the look of one dudes fore arm.

VALVe reallly needs to release a statement with exactly whats going on, seems like they are now gonna release 8 or 9 products or something, getting confusing.

 

[2d-chris]

what can i say, the vid is very good, i can't help but feel (from the vids ive seen) hl2 is abit "the same" no real variations in the enviroments sofar. I guess that's more to do with the story line tho.

CS2 is looking good, can't wait to start a CS2 level

 

[snark^]

Maybe it's like so?... the thinking being that the idea is that they'll want something transitional to help haul current HL1 gamers over to the new HL2 engine without too many people going, "Ooh yuck, it's different".

CS-Source = updated MP-only version of the current CS 1.6 with all the new engine's bells and whistles (think of it as the players revenge on all those previously indestructable crates)... not drastically changed as that would alienate too many of the current players.

CS2 = sometime in the future (1 year+ maybe) there's going to be a completely reworked version featuring a lot of new gameplay content/changes which make the most of the new engine (relationship to the old CS being in name only) and a standalone SP game to compete with the likes of CoD, RTCW, MoH, Battlefield, Ghost Recon, OpFlash2, etc.

We get to pay for both of course...

 

[FuNkYViNcE]

I think theres no CS2. Has anyone heard someone from Valve ever reffering to "CS2"? Personally I haven't. And the answer in the E3 video suggests that there's no CS2.
I think they are now just doing a port, so it is released at the same time as HL2 and so ppl can enjoy it right away, and they will change it through updates to take advantage of Source's features. That's just a speculation, there's not enough info to be sure of anything.
I think (tell me if i'm wrong) the term "CS2" was just assumed by the community.