Possible IGN story 12am PST...

[umop]

http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2003/pc/halflife2/0508/half_screen001.jpg
What they want you to think the game will look like the whole way through...

http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/article/512/512580/half-life-2-200405081121500.jpg
What the game really looks like in action ...

With that kind of negativity, a pentagram avatar, and 666 posts, I'd have to say you're the son of satan himself! BEHOLD !

 

[Rupertvdb]

why the hell would it look worse!!!!! Goddamnit people think for a sec, what reason would they have for that! Plus the people who have played the game haven't mentioned this supposed flaw at all (to my knowledge) Come On!!

 

[EVIL]

that was from 2003.

i hate to say it but all the new screen shots are pointing to graphical downgrades.

What logic is behind this? Everyone saw the media from last year, why would valve after letting the fans get disappointed because of one delay downgrade the graphics for more disappointment and to put oil on the fire of negative critics. I don’t get it, and I am not stupid.

 

[Mr-Fusion]

why the hell would it look worse!!!!! Goddamnit people think for a sec, what reason would they have for that! Plus the people who have played the game haven't mentioned this supposed flaw at all (to my knowledge) Come On!!

Maybe they downgraded based off that Half-Life 2 survey on steam? They saw the average requirements and modified the graphics as such...?

Just an idea.

 

[x84D80Yx]

What logic is behind this? Everyone saw the media from last year, why would valve after letting the fans get disappointed because of one delay downgrade the graphics for more disappointment and to put oil on the fire of negative critics. I don’t get it, and I am not stupid.

That is the billion dollar question. :bonce:

 

[DimitriPopov]

So let me get this straight , a good number of the people in this thread think that Valve took the time between September of last year and now to actually take shit OUT Of their game? Wow.


The game looks great and plays great , bottom line.

*EDIT* Its nice to see some people posted the same as I was positng. And Mr.Fusion not only is that stance illogical , I know of a thing called graphical scaling that Valve seems to like.

 

[Rupertvdb]

They are putting in a scalability feature so it wouldn't make sense to do that, peopel shall be improving their comps as time goes by, it wouldn't make business sense to bring the graphics back a generation.

 

[EVIL]

Maybe they downgraded based off that Half-Life 2 survey on steam? They saw the average requirements and modified the graphics as such...?

Just an idea.

And risk of losing a large part of the Half Life² fan community that only wants it for its graphical splendour, and to present a product that doesn’t show the true power of source, so every developer who wants to licence source will get a distorted view of its possibilities after viewing Half Life². Remember half life 2 isn’t just a game it is also a product to show off the new engine.

 

[fuzzy_aus]

Possible. I wonder what system those screens were taken on. And what detail settings they had them on.

I'm as big a hl2 fan as anybody in here, but i agree some of those screens look pretty dull. But, at the risk of getting all worked up about the whole situation, when we don't really know the full story, im just going to wait till e3 and then pass judgement.

 

[x84D80Yx]

So let me get this straight , a good number of the people in this thread think that Valve took the time between September of last year and now to actually take shit OUT Of their game? Wow.

it does kinda make me wonder why hl2 went alpha only a few weeks ago. :frog:

 

[Sergio]

I think the downgrade is an attempt to cut development time so they can get the game out.

I'll be back after the e3 media is released, and I will create my own personal thread in which you will all have the chance to bash me to high heaven if the new material is golden. But I seriously doubt that it will be and I will be saying i told you so, then we can discuss the possible reasonss for the downgrade.

See you after the e3 stuff is released. nite.

 

[DimitriPopov]

I think the downgrade is an attempt to cut development time so they can get the game out.

I'll be back after the e3 media is released, and I will create my own personal thread in which you will all have the chance to bash me to high heaven if the new material is golden. But I seriously doubt that it will be and I will be saying i told you so, then we can discuss the possible reasonss for the downgrade.

See you after the e3 stuff is released. nite.

:byewhore: Pretty obviously a gimmick, Bail out before youre discovered?

 

[DimitriPopov]

it does kinda make me wonder why hl2 went alpha only a few weeks ago. :frog:

If they said it was in Phase 3 instead of Beta Alpha or Gold would your head explode?


That terminology is very arbitrary, it is not concrete.

 

[Rupertvdb]

So you think that taking the graphics down a notch instead of leaving them where they are would actually save time... So in your mind you get unfit through running.

 

[Sparta]

I seriously doubt they have downgraded the graphics at all.

 

[Apos]

I'll be back after the e3 media is released, and I will create my own personal thread in which you will all have the chance to bash me to high heaven if the new material is golden.

How will we know it's you though? I mean, what name will you be using then?

 

[EVIL]

:byewhore: Pretty obviously a gimmick, Bail out before youre discovered?

Now now be nice, he has his own oppinion on this thing and we must respect that.

 

[x84D80Yx]

I seriously doubt they have downgraded the graphics at all.

I doubt it too, its just all the new screens are pointing to it

 

[PvtRyan]

Bunch of tards here... :x

I want you to take a look at the Striders video and look at the buildings. What shape are they? Yes, rectangular with not much detail geometry (besides the occasional balcony). Nest question: did that lack of detail stop anyone being wowed? It didn't, did it? I can't remember anyone yelling 'OMG si teh 00gly!!111!!' at e3 last year, did you? These pics are NO LESS graphically nice than the Strider video, really they're not.

Can you say you ever saw a truly impressive screen of HL2? I can't. I, though, was completely wowed by the moving footage. Why do you think I was? Maybe because you don't see animations, explosions, particle effects, facial expressions, physics etc when you look at a still screen?
Motion makes ALL the difference.

For f*cks sake, look at Barricade, the buildings, aside from some more detailed ruins, are square blocks of raw geometry. But who the f*ck cares? They do their job, they create the feeling of a city, and I understand a building with 10k triangles is more wank material for you graphics whores, but try playing that with your Geforce 2MX, good luck. Anyone can make a game that only runs on top-of-the-line monster PC's, but guess what, not everyone has those. Valve can scale back texture size, they can turn of shaders for people who have DX7 cards, they can turn off shadows, but each system has to toss the same load of polygons, whether that's your piece of shit P3 1 GHz with a GF2MX or a PIV 3.2EE with a X800 XT. Sure you can run a more agressive LOD, but up-close, every system needs to render the same amount of polygons, impossible to scale back on that. It's pretty redundant to say that GF2MX's sometimes have problems with renderen millions of triangles...

Sure, have fun tossing off on Doom 3, but you may use your time wisely and get you hands out of your panties and find a job to buy a PC to be even able to play Doom 3 at decent detail.

Wanna see nice graphics? Look out of the f*cking window, morons.

[sarcasm]I feel sorry if I possibly hurt anyones feelings on their delicate problem of polygon fetishes.[/sarcasm]

[/rant]

Ah that felt nice..

 

[bobo4747]

If they said it was in Phase 3 instead of Beta Alpha or Gold would your head explode?


That terminology is very arbitrary, it is not concrete.

According to Gabe in the Valve Info thread, it's at Zulu-Delta stage now :cheese:

 

[Sparta]

Amen to that (Although, like i said earlier the windows in the barricade vid reflect everything)

 

[MjM]

i think ....

i think ..... i think ........ i think ........ o and i think ... -_-

was it discussed in an article or two recently that they were debating about putting the minimum system requirments up a tad to 1000Mhz ?? :bonce:

 

[jameth]

Bunch of tards here... :x

I want you to take a look at the Striders video and look at the buildings. What shape are they? Yes, rectangular with not much detail geometry (besides the occasional balcony). Nest question: did that lack of detail stop anyone being wowed? It didn't, did it? I can't remember anyone yelling 'OMG si teh 00gly!!111!!' at e3 last year, did you? These pics are NO LESS graphically nice than the Strider video, really they're not.

Can you say you ever saw a truly impressive screen of HL2? I can't. I, though, was completely wowed by the moving footage. Why do you think I was? Maybe because you don't see animations, explosions, particle effects, facial expressions, physics etc when you look at a still screen?
Motion makes ALL the difference.

For f*cks sake, look at Barricade, the buildings, aside from some more detailed ruins, are square blocks of raw geometry. But who the f*ck cares? They do their job, they create the feeling of a city, and I understand a building with 10k triangles is more wank material for you graphics whores, but try playing that with your Geforce 2MX, good luck. Anyone can make a game that only runs on top-of-the-line monster PC's, but guess what, not everyone has those. Valve can scale back texture size, they can turn of shaders for people who have DX7 cards, they can turn off shadows, but each system has to toss the same load of polygons, whether that's your piece of shit P3 1 GHz with a GF2MX or a PIV 3.2EE with a X800 XT. Sure you can run a more agressive LOD, but up-close, every system needs to render the same amount of polygons, impossible to scale back on that. It's pretty redundant to say that GF2MX's sometimes have problems with renderen millions of triangles...

Sure, have fun tossing off on Doom 3, but you may use your time wisely and get you hands out of your panties and find a job to buy a PC to be even able to play Doom 3 at decent detail.

Wanna see nice graphics? Look out of the f*cking window, morons.

[sarcasm]I feel sorry if I possibly hurt anyones feelings on their delicate problem of polygon fetishes.[/sarcasm]

[/rant]

Ah that felt nice..

lol well said.

 

[Sparta]

yea they have done that. Upped it from 700 Mhz or so to 1Ghz and DX6 to DX7

 

[EVIL]

1ghz, 256 mb ram and a dx7 video card

 

[x84D80Yx]

Can you say you ever saw a truly impressive screen of HL2? I can't.

hmm i thought this one was impressive
http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/halflife2_071403_010.jpg
hmm or maybe it was this one..
http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/halflife2_050803_high_008.jpg
umm nah maybe this one..
http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/halflife2_050803_high_004.jpg
or better yet this one
http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/halflife2_050803_high_007.jpg
ALL of the Bink vids impressed me also as your right, motion is alot better than flat screens.
i could go on and on about screen shots and videos but i guess you get the picture.

but the thing im saying is...all this shit above that impressed me...is from 2003. show me some screenshots that impressed you or amazed you from 2004 and maybe we can talk.

all im saying is
i doubt that they did graphical downgrades, why they would i dont know, there could be hundreds of theories on it.
im just saying the new screenshots are all pointing to it.
:bonce:
you act like i love bashing hl2 for little mistakes. but infact i would just love to play a amazing game. gameplay AND graphically. and i praise valve the best in doing so.

 

[CheapAssStrat]

Did anyone even notice that Gamespot posted a hands-on preview as well?

 

[Mr-Fusion]

Did anyone even notice that Gamespot posted a hands-on preview as well?

http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?t=22076

 

[EVIL]

Did anyone even notice that Gamespot posted a hands-on preview as well?

OFFTOPIC, BANNED! ehh.. right

 

[MjM]

seeing as there is alot of thinking going on here, i may as well try and tthink ...

i think ...
we heard there were weapon place holders, could it be possible these are simply building place holders? :rolling:

 

[CheapAssStrat]

http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?t=22076

Ah, didn't see that.

 

[EVIL]

seeing as there is alot of thinking going on here, i may as well try and tthink ...

i think ...
we heard there were weapon place holders, could it be possible these are simply building place holders? :rolling:

could be! in the *cough .alpha. ahum* they used big squares for blocks of houses. so i assume they first plan it, then add raw geometry, then give it a texture (current bad screenshots would be able to show this) and after that they add geometry to match the textures by adding balcony's window frames etc.

 

[x84D80Yx]

we heard there were weapon place holders, could it be possible these are simply building place holders? :rolling:

quote from the ign article

The game just reached alpha a few weeks ago and is content complete.

content complete would mean everything is pretty much done. therefore all thats left is A LOT of bug testing for valve.

hence the

Valve is at the tweaking and polishing stage.

but yeah i hope those buildings are just placeholders. those buildings in the background look like h1. lol

 

[CheapAssStrat]

I don't see why people are complaining. The graphics in the new pics look the same as the old stuff to me.

 

[PvtRyan]

hmm i thought this one was impressive
http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/halflife2_071403_010.jpg
hmm or maybe it was this one..
http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/halflife2_050803_high_008.jpg
umm nah maybe this one..
http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/halflife2_050803_high_004.jpg
or better yet this one
http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/halflife2_050803_high_007.jpg
ALL of the Bink vids impressed me also as your right, motion is alot better than flat screens.
i could go on and on about screen shots and videos but i guess you get the picture.

I'm not impressed by any that you posted, maybe only the second, but even there geometry detail is completely absent. But I can only imagine that in motion, with the combine interrogating the prisoners, lining them up against the wall, scanners flying around taking pictures. That would look stunning.
IGN took a lot of pictures from the bink video's, most of them are not very pretty, but then again in motion... I think you get the picture.

but the thing im saying is...all this shit above that impressed me...is from 2003. show me some screenshots that impressed you or amazed you from 2004 and maybe we can talk.

I'm sorry to disappoint you, but we haven't seen moving footage of HL2 this year. Maybe we'll have something to talk about after e3. But why would Valve downgrade graphics and make the system requirements higher? That makes little sense (and it's certainly a graphical reason why it's upped, not physics or AI, because that's CPU and the major change is the requirement of a DX7 card).

all im saying is
i doubt that they did graphical downgrades, why they would i dont know, there could be hundreds of theories on it.
im just saying the new screenshots are all pointing to it.
:bonce:
you act like i love bashing hl2 for little mistakes. but infact i would just love to play a amazing game. gameplay AND graphically. and i hope valve the best in doing so.

They will. I don't see the point in worrying about the graphics, I remeber the IGN guy saying it looked great, I remember the PC Zone saying the same, I remember PC Gamer saying stuff about great visuals, I remember PC Gameplay saying it looked better than they ever expected, despite seeing the E3 video's. Unless they were blindfolded and forced with a gun on their head to write 'it looks awesome' it does look great. So just don't worry.

I don't see why people are complaining. The graphics in the new pics look the same as the old stuff to me.

Precisely.

 

[Mr-Fusion]

That's right x84D80Yx, content is complete. So there's only one remaining solution.

Valve wasn't running the game at highest detail....on a P4 3.4 ghz, Radeon 9800XT.....

 

[Mr-Fusion]

I'm sorry to disappoint you, but we haven't seen moving footage of HL2 this year

Check out the thread by those Belgian students who visited Valve. There is new footage. Granted we can't really tell much from them..

 

[Wolf]

Maybe they downgraded based off that Half-Life 2 survey on steam? They saw the average requirements and modified the graphics as such...?

Just an idea.

Yeah they bumped the minimum spec from P3-733 to 1.2 ghz and from DX6 to DX7 just so they could downgrade the graphics.. That makes a lot of sense!

 

[Mr-Fusion]

Yeah, it's weird isn't it!

 

[x84D80Yx]

PvtRyan im sorry that your graphical standards are so high, only one screen shot out of plenty (including on many gaming sites, not just the ones i picked) impressed you.

like Mr-Fusion said, there are videos out from this year. and they look buggy as hell. i know they are small and crap quality but i dont see anything impressive besides the gameplay (phsyics and interaction).

i dont think e3 will show us the final hl2, strictly because its just there to persuade the crowd. we shall see when hl2 hits stores.