Will HL2 prioritize graphics as #1, and gameplay as #2?

[Sars]

A lot of games, IMO, seem to be doing this these days. Unreal 2 comes to mind as does Deus Ex 2.

I really hope it is the other way around for HL2. or even equal. :thumbs:

 

[Reven]

no way, other wise they would have gone UT style :sigh:

but i love the gfx in HL2 anyway, personally, i hate the UT gfx

 

[hiln]

it seems to me like they're at the top of their game with both.

 

[nicrd]

Since HL1 had gameplay as a priority, gameplay made half-life popular and it was gameplay that gave it 50 GOTY awards. Although the graphics of HL2 looks very nice, I'm sure they gave more importance to gameplay, since its what the fans of the first one wants.

 

[Sars]

Since HL1 had gameplay as a priority, gameplay made half-life popular and it was gameplay that gave it 50 GOTY awards. Although the graphics of HL2 looks very nice, I'm sure they gave more importance to gameplay, since its what the fans of the first one wants.

Me being one of them. Spot on man :thumbs:

 

[BabyHeadCrab]

yes because thats definatley valve style /end sarcasm

 

[Sars]

yes because thats definatley valve style /end sarcasm

I dont excactly know what Valve's style is at the moment. Who really knows? :|

 

[Cutey_Kaite]

I dont excactly know what Valve's style is at the moment. Who really knows? :|

o i do, its to hype up games which obviously wont get released (TF2, CZ, HL, HL2) and then release them finally (after months of people bitching about it) and get awarded for it.
No, im not dissing Valve, just pondering...mmm.

 

[Tarkus]

A lot of games, IMO, seem to be doing this these days. Unreal 2 comes to mind as does Deus Ex 2.

I really hope it is the other way around for HL2. or even equal. :thumbs:

actually i think the creator of deus ex 2 admited that the characters looked like they were made out of wood... this in a portuguese magazine, so i dont excpect all of you to know this

 

[umop]

I would put money on HL2 honoring gameplay over eye candy, but it obviously has a lot of candy

 

[Rupertvdb]

well gameplay makes the game last forever, graphics make it last for a generation of videocards, pong anyone?

 

[el Chi]

The graphics are insanely good, but it's clearly not Valve's priority.The physics are what makes the world seem so real, and they are calculated by the CPU, and so (whilst there probably will be some scalability) people shouldn't miss out on this integral part too much. The same goes for the facial animations and the AI. The story is something that will make it incredible of course.Graphics will be great, but it's just the icing on the goateed cake.

 

[crabcakes66]

I think Gameplay is #1. Graphics are #1 1/2

I think the team at valve are very capable of combing the two. They use the gfx(and now physics) to enhance the gameplay more than any developer ive ever see.

Its not just all special effects. Its tangible.

 

[ComradeBadger]

Deus Ex: Invisable War is/was a great game.

Anyway. Gameplay is #1 tbh

 

[galoot3000]

i think that if they hve delayed the game this many times that they are probably going to have the best of both.

 

[BuddMan]

Heh, I'll get mobbed for it, but UT2004 is all about the gameplay. It's the best multiplayer game I've seen in awhile (gotta love Onsaulght). Pretty much everything UT2003 should have been. But it's a different gameplay than what HL2 will bring to us, which I can't wait for either...

 

[Bing_Oh]

I'm personally hoping that gameplay is #1. Loved the original Deus Ex for the great story...felt that that DX2 was mediocre at best because they pushed graphics and skimped on playability.

Hoping that Valve doesn't fall into that same trap. After all, it was gameplay that really made HL special.

 

[Dougy]

Heh, I'll get mobbed for it, but UT2004 is all about the gameplay. It's the best multiplayer game I've seen in awhile (gotta love Onsaulght). Pretty much everything UT2003 should have been. But it's a different gameplay than what HL2 will bring to us, which I can't wait for either...

*mobs*

ut2004 is ut2003's ilegitimate lovechild.

:naughty:

 

[Axyon]

It's the plot-driven element of the game that will create a rich sense of gameplay; the reason why Half-Life was so popular. Only now we have physics, among other things

And yeah, UT2k4 is fantastic. I love it.

And once again Badge, DX:IW is atrocious, mmk?

 

[Chris D]

When Half-Life was released, it was released on the Quake engine. By that time Quake 2 was either on its way or already released, meaning Half-Life's engine was severely outdated.

It was Half-Life's gameplay that has made it last all these years. As my Decade or Decay article talks about, Half-Life is still played more than any other game out there. Next generation graphics beat Half-Life's arse, but it's still number one.

There's discussions and worries that Half-Life, considering there seems to be slightly better engines on the way out (such as STALKER and UnrealEngine 3), that Half-Life 2 may be outdated by the time it's released, but I'm pretty confident it will live on and still be the best because I have every confidence the gameplay will rock my world more than any other game since Half-Life.

 

[LittleB]

I thought Half-Life was based on the Quake 2 engine?

And I think it has better graphics then Quake 2. Quake 2 had lots of pretty lights and particle effects, but Half-Life was more realistic, y'know?

 

[ferd]

A lot of games, IMO, seem to be doing this these days. Unreal 2 comes to mind as does Deus Ex 2.

I really hope it is the other way around for HL2. or even equal. :thumbs:

I think there is no better proof, then the delay...otherwise the game would have hit the shelves long ago

 

[Kadayi]

The graphical/technical advances that Valve have employed with HL² are all ones made in order to increase the sense of immersion into the gameworld. The immersive atmosphere of the first game was what made it so popular, despite it's graphical limitations at the time.

 

[Chris D]

I thought Half-Life was based on the Quake 2 engine?

And I think it has better graphics then Quake 2. Quake 2 had lots of pretty lights and particle effects, but Half-Life was more realistic, y'know?

You'll notice that Quake file formats were used for Half-Life.

Such as .mdl instead of .md2 for example.

The actual engine that was liscenced from ID Software was the Quake engine.

 

[himself]

When Half-Life was released, it was released on the Quake engine. By that time Quake 2 was either on its way or already released, meaning Half-Life's engine was severely outdated.

It was Half-Life's gameplay that has made it last all these years. As my Decade or Decay article talks about, Half-Life is still played more than any other game out there. Next generation graphics beat Half-Life's arse, but it's still number one.

There's discussions and worries that Half-Life, considering there seems to be slightly better engines on the way out (such as STALKER and UnrealEngine 3), that Half-Life 2 may be outdated by the time it's released, but I'm pretty confident it will live on and still be the best because I have every confidence the gameplay will rock my world more than any other game since Half-Life.

totally agreed.

 

[Frost]

I feel that the graphics will be pretty damn good looking, there are other games such as Far Cry, Doom III ect... that also have very nice graphics. HL2 looks pretty damn good from what I've seen in these compressed videos, just think about how it will look at max settings 1240x1024! It will look damn good, it looks at least 500% better then the original HL. We haven't seen new screen shots in over what 6 months? I'm sure everything has been cleaned up, improved, and redone by now. The quality will be up there and I'm sure the game will look great. As far as gameplay I'm not even worried. They WILL definately take care of us in that department. I wrote to gabe a few days ago about the process they use to design and create the game... its called Cabal and it seems to work pretty damn good for them. Look in the offical responses from Valve thread for the E-mail I sent. Not to get off topic but I also feel that these other next gen games will be pretty damn good too, not as good as HL2 mind you but I for one can't wait to see and play games like Doom III. They will all be good and I can afford to buy the ones that I like so it doesn't worry me a bit that I'd have to decide between one game or another... I'll just buy them both if I read reviews that its worth buying!

 

[BabyHeadCrab]

DX:IW plays to horrible for me to get into the story...

 

[Kadayi]

DX:IW plays to horrible for me to get into the story...

The problem I found with DX:IW was that there were clear consessions made in the nature of the game in order for it to operate on the technology Ion Storm had licenced. There really was very little need for either dynamic lighting or even physics in the game, both elements were very much 'ooh, look wow' aspects that didn't bring anything positive to the storyline/gameplay.

 

[Mechagodzilla]

Yeah, all the better games coming out have the extremely good graphics, but they seem to be just graphics for graphics' sake.

From what I've seen about doom 3, they're practically hitting you in the face with how shiny and 'real' it all looks. The problem is that putting an extreme emphasis on reality creates a sense of unreality.
It's similar, IMO, to watching a movie in a theater with the guy behind you yakking on and on about how great the last stunt was. No matter how realistic it was, you're still left aware of how it's not actually real.

If you take away the physics and graphics from most games out there, you're left with gameplay that isn't all that special
Doom3 reminds me of Half-life 1 in terms of the reported gameplay style.
It's dark, things jump out at you, scientists occasionally help.
That's a great thing since HL1 has the best gameplay out there, but Half-life 2 is more advanced than Halflife 1's gameplay, by definition.

So, graphics < gameplay.

 

[Corupter]

The graphical/technical advances that Valve have employed with HL² are all ones made in order to increase the sense of immersion into the gameworld. The immersive atmosphere of the first game was what made it so popular, despite it's graphical limitations at the time.

Christ i'll agree with that

 

[Styloid]

The graphical/technical advances that Valve have employed with HL² are all ones made in order to increase the sense of immersion into the gameworld. The immersive atmosphere of the first game was what made it so popular, despite it's graphical limitations at the time.

Agreed. Graphics are a part of immersion and so is part of gameplay. Graphics, however, means more than real-time shadows or normal maps. It's using them to make the world more natural and more atmospheric. Some people seem to want HL2 to have hard-edged Doom3 shadows or normal maps on everything just for bragging rights, but that doesn't make any sense. I think gameplay is the backbone of a game that makes you appreciate everything else in it.

 

[A.I.]

A lot of games, IMO, seem to be doing this these days. Unreal 2 comes to mind as does Deus Ex 2.

I really hope it is the other way around for HL2. or even equal. :thumbs:

His (Gabe's) most significant contribution to Half-Life was his statement "C'mon, people, you can't show the player a really big bomb and not let them blow it up."

I wonder how many time will I have to copy-paste this quote from VALVe's site, when people start to discuss HL2 graphics and stuff... :hmph: