[OLD] Shacknews HL2 Preview

[@bel]

hey i noticed this shacknews preview of Half-Life 2:

http://www.shacknews.com/extras/e_halflife_2/

it seems it's pretty old since they say they're looking forward to E3.
but i had never read the part where they describe what gameplay they've seen.
it's somehow different from scenes that were shown to other magazines. IMO.

Gameplay Scenes: [page 2]
This is where I started to lose it, Gabe Newell fires up the “proof of concept” scenarios and I see some full-blown gameplay for the first time. This is the same stuff that was shown to magazine writers, which you may have noticed on newsstands about now. Then I spot a date on the build that is being shown that really surprises me so I ask the question, “This build is from September of last year?” and the answer.. “Yes”. Yup that’s right, instead of the developers crunching to get stuff done to show the press just hours before arriving, we’re looking and code that is nearly 8 months old. If I’m looking at stuff that they had done 8 months ago, its really going to be fun to see what the most recent stuff looks like that will be shown at E3 this year in just another week.

The first scene was really brief, Gordon is walking along a pier surrounded by the best water I’ve ever seen towards the shore and a zombie approaches from the shore. The zombie grabs something that is sitting on the pier and hurls it at Gordon although he misses. Along the way the zombie demonstrates being able to navigate uneven odd terrain and the ability to survey the area and determine what can be done to inflict harm upon our sweet old Gordon. All of the characters take physics into account now when you interact with them, if they see something that can be tipped over or blown up that will put you in harm's way they will do so assuming that they don’t like you.

The next memorable scene is Gordon being chased through a canyon by what can poorly be described as a huge crab shelled spider that acts like a bull and is 8 feet tall. Gordon is chased around a bit and finally takes cover under some rocks. The crabby-spider-bull can't fit under the rocks so it begins to poke around sniffing and grunting looking for alternate entrances, as it’s wrapping around the back Gordon makes a break for it and creates some distance between himself and his pursuer. However once crabby-spider-bull spots Gordon that distance closes quickly before getting distracted by another group of humans accompanied by an armored vehicle. The group of course panics and piles back into the vehicle only to have crabby-spider-bull start ramming their vehicle in an attempt to push it over a nearby ledge. They call in reinforcements however and Gordon can see the 8-foot menace getting gunned down by an airship as he makes his escape.

The scene continues as Gordon reaches an absolutely astounding huge open area that is the dried up ocean mentioned earlier. You can see city structures and a lighthouse and rock terrain in all directions. A half destroyed ship that is obviously not dealing well with the lack of water is nearby. Gordon never one to relax is next pursued by even more ill-tempered aliens and makes his way across some more uneven terrain as his pursuers are relentless and unphased by Gordon’s evasive maneuvers. Gordon begins unloading his trusty familiar shotgun on the seemingly unstoppable swarm as the screen fades to black.

More scenes: [page 3]
Yet another brief scene just to be thorough involved arriving on what appeared to be a tanker utility vessel. The scene was used to show off the impressive water technology again along with some pretty mind-boggling poly-counts being used on the ship itself. Railings actually looked round! There was some really nice presentation of the ship, which incidentally is modeled as exact as can be after a real vessel. The artwork really stood out in this demonstration as well as the convincing lighting. The lighting is actually so well done that you don’t notice it; it’s just there like lighting should be.

The fourth and the most breathtaking scene is actually a pair of scenes involving the Strider trouncing around City 17 and chasing Gordon and Alyx eventually into a sewer which has its own set of problems. The Strider is what looks to be 50 feet tall and likes to shoot lasers at people. Animations for the Strider walking are actually properly attached to the terrain so you don’t see feet hovering above the ground when things are uneven. They also show off some nifty animation of the Strider ducking underneath a bridge in pursuit after failing to blow the bridge up entirely with the laser beam attached to its head. As Alyx retreats to the sewers and calls for Gordon to follow her down Gordon hesitates for a bit staring at the Strider wreaking havoc until descending below where he is shortly after greeted by Alyx showing off some great facial animation of being scared to death when a Hyrdra shows up. Luckily for Gordon and Alyx a bad guy stumbles in just in time to be impaled by the Hydra and of course that’s when the screen once again cuts to black! Boo! Give me more!

The final scene is another brief one, our hero is cruising the street until he spots a not so friendly troop of Combine troops who may or may not be looking for Gordon. Mr Freeman runs through the first doorway he sees to get out of the street and locks the door behind him hunkering down for cover. The door has one of the fairly common 1’ by 1’ glass windows which is almost immediately broken kinda throwing the whole hiding plan out the window. A surveillance camera styled apparatus pokes through the fresh hole in the door to spot Gordon, and then we’re treated to witnessing the door convincingly crumpled and bashed down just before the screen fades to black once again.

it's funny that almost all scenes described seem a lot like the E3 footage, but when continued it's different from what we've seen.

this probably has been posted before but since I had never read it, i guess other people haven't either.

 

[scribblehead]

cool read, never seen it before...

The next memorable scene is Gordon being chased through a canyon by what can poorly be described as a huge crab shelled spider that acts like a bull and is 8 feet tall. Gordon is chased around a bit and finally takes cover under some rocks. The crabby-spider-bull can't fit under the rocks so it begins to poke around sniffing and grunting looking for alternate entrances, as it’s wrapping around the back Gordon makes a break for it and creates some distance between himself and his pursuer. However once crabby-spider-bull spots Gordon that distance closes quickly before getting distracted by another group of humans accompanied by an armored vehicle. The group of course panics and piles back into the vehicle only to have crabby-spider-bull start ramming their vehicle in an attempt to push it over a nearby ledge. They call in reinforcements however and Gordon can see the 8-foot menace getting gunned down by an airship as he makes his escape.

i'm definatly looking forward to this part of the game, must be absolutely hilarious to see the combine flee

 

[@bel]

i'll take out some cool quotes for people that don't want to read the whole text:

All of the characters take physics into account now when you interact with them, if they see something that can be tipped over or blown up that will put you in harm's way they will do so assuming that they don’t like you.

[...] Once crabby-spider-bull spots Gordon that distance closes quickly before getting distracted by another group of humans accompanied by an armored vehicle. The group of course panics and piles back into the vehicle only to have crabby-spider-bull start ramming their vehicle in an attempt to push it over a nearby ledge.

Gordon never one to relax is next pursued by even more ill-tempered aliens and makes his way across some more uneven terrain as his pursuers are relentless and unphased by Gordon’s evasive maneuvers.

There was some really nice presentation of the ship, which incidentally is modeled as exact as can be after a real vessel.

The fourth and the most breathtaking scene is actually a pair of scenes involving the Strider trouncing around City 17 and chasing Gordon and Alyx eventually into a sewer which has its own set of problems.

A surveillance camera styled apparatus pokes through the fresh hole in the door to spot Gordon, and then we’re treated to witnessing the door convincingly crumpled and bashed down just before the screen fades to black once again.

haha this makes the read even longer
oh well...

 

[@bel]

Originally posted by scribblehead
i'm definatly looking forward to this part of the game, must be absolutely hilarious to see the combine flee

i wonder if it are combine being chased.
it could as well be your allies.
but you may be right.

 

[scribblehead]

Originally posted by @bel
i wonder if it are combine being chased.
it could as well be your allies.
but you may be right.

yeah well i just assumed it would be the combine, but you're right it could your allies, tho it says they call for reinforcement, and then that flying thing appears....

 

[@bel]

well it WOULD be cool if your allies had flying transportation as well! :bounce:
though i guess since they are kinda being kept prisoned by the combine and all, they won't have such things...

 

[SilentKilla]

Originally posted by scribblehead
cool read, never seen it before...



i'm definatly looking forward to this part of the game, must be absolutely hilarious to see the combine flee

It doesnt have to be combine, maybe they are like, allies of you. who knows, i dont.

 

[Deadline]

Originally posted by SilentKilla
It doesnt have to be combine, maybe they are like, allies of you. who knows, i dont.

Whoever the hell it is, its still gonna be funny as hell. Man alive now I am even more excited about HL2! I DIDNT tHINK THAT WAS POSSIBLE OMG AHHHHH.

 

[Xrenity]

Wow, cool article, never saw it before. And the scenes he describes are REALY fking cool I want to play it, and I want to play it now


But damn, another 20 days... I'll have to wait for Codename Gordon (guess it's not out yet)