Year release delay shows in the visuals

S

silvercue

Guest
Nice game, but the year delay in release shows so clearly in the graphics. Some of the textures are awful, a lot of the equipment looks like it is straight from HL1. There are even invisible objects & glitches.
FarCry and Doom3 raised the bar in terms of gfx and this falls well short of those two games on that front - especially FarCry's outdoor environemnts and D3s animations.
Otherwise it looks like a great game - nice atmosphere, story and very playable.
The reason I am suprised (and yes disappointed) with graphics (yes they are set to max) is that after 5 yeays I expected faultless presentation. Maybe my expectations were too high.
 
Yeah? I don't see much wrong with the graphics. Maybe the outdoor landscape textures if you look from close distance.
 
I am not saying the graphics are bad, but they are not as good as I expected and they are a long way off D3 and FarCry - and if you can run those games at max settings (I mean max) you will see that it is a very big difference.

As I say - otherwise game is good, over-hyped, but good..
 
So HL2 graphics arn't as good because it cant do dark hallways as well? :D
 
I think the graphics are BETTER than doom 3 or far cry, they looks far more realistic compared to the cartoonyness of farcry and the plastic wrap of doom 3.
 
lol. well i am very satisfied with the graphics at 1024x768 MAX.. and the game ROCKS! Thank You Valve ! :cheers:
 
I think HL2 is far superior to Doom3, even in the lack of lighting in rooms(shadows). Have you looked at your house when its dark? Its not a suffocating dark with particles, like thick smoke like it is in doom 3... but instead its much more like the dark areas of Half-life 2. As I looked in my hallway last night in the dark, it looked much more like HL2 than Doom 3.
 
triath said:
So HL2 graphics arn't as good because it cant do dark hallways as well? :D
Click to expand...
No triath. The animations of the creatures moving was D3s main strength - that and light sourcing - which were excellent. FarCry on the other hand - their strength was stunning massive outdoor environments. Especially with the new 1.3 patch - change the light settings in console and it looks awesome if your PC can handle it.
The graphics in HL2 are very good - but they look a year old.
 
I've run Doom 3 at max, it ain't all that impressive imo. Same for Far Cry, both have better lighting, but other than that HL2 looks better than both.

HL2 is teh win on:

- Textures
- Polygons
- Animations
- General art presentation
 
Ok - so the graphics aren't (supposedly) as good as Doom3. That's almost a given - the Doom3 engine has some bells and whistles the Source engine doesn't. That's not news and was known before release.

The real advance here is AI and physics. HL2 simply destroys anything to date in that regard. THAT's where this game kicks ass. Without those two pieces (plus the gameplay), this'd be another nice looking, old-school-type (*cough* Doom3 *cough*) game with absolutely no story.

Crappy physics and AI will ruin any game - even if it's photorealistic.

Doom3 is like other ID titles - a nice display of the technology created, but to make it sing and dance you need other developers (*ahem* Valve, *cough*Half Life 1) to show you what's truly possible in all aspects of gaming.
 
I dont know what your talking about. IMO HL2 graphics are the best in the market right now. They are so realistic. There isn't that cartoonish "plasticy" shine to characters like In D3 or FC. The character's just look like and act like real people.
 
D3: 90% of the game is darkness...the remaining 10% is created by ur own flashlight.
FarCry: Yep it can render trees/jungle well....
HL2: Unsurpassed in everything...

but hey maybe I am biased...lol
 
the textures in HL2 are better than the ones in Farcry


nuff sed
 
Graphics are the best out there. The requirements to get these graphics are much lower than either D3 or FC. This game is coded much better, if that is the correct term.
 
Hl2 is much better then D3 and FC in graphics, Doom3 ,looked good because it has the most advanced lighting effects to the date it was released (and today?) Farcry was almost, always the same enviroment, less model making, which means they could make there models look better, more time, but Half-life surpasses Farcry's graphics, and, pretty close to doom 3's lighting, but surprasses doom3's graphics, they weren't detailed, and i found alot of the walls were flat
 
Ruefus said:
Ok - so the graphics aren't (supposedly) as good as Doom3. That's almost a given - the Doom3 engine has some bells and whistles the Source engine doesn't. That's not news and was known before release.

The real advance here AI and physics in HL2 simply destroy anything to date. THAT's where this game kicks ass. Without those two pieces (plus the gameplay), this'd be another nice looking, old-school-type (*cough* Doom3 *cough*) game with absolutely no story.

Crappy physics and AI will ruin any game - even if it's photorealistic.
Click to expand...

At last - someone that understands what I am saying. I am not slagging the "gameplay" or the "AI" or the "story driven plot"..they are great. The overall playability is great.
But the graphics are not the best out there. If you go to any of the PCgames forums that are not exclusive to HL - everyone is agreeing that the graphics are not ground-breaking.
To the guy who says that textures in HL2 are great - go back to the lab bear the start and have a GOOD look around - it's cut straight from HL1, everything looks really poor up close.
 
All I know is that it looks like Heaven brought to Earth on my computer, and that's amazing, considering I'm running an underclocked 9600 pro...

Looks better than Doom3 IMHO, and at rather a lower cost in system resources...
 
seinfeldrules said:
Graphics are the best out there. The requirements to get these graphics are much lower than either D3 or FC. This game is coded much better, if that is the correct term.
Click to expand...

EXACTLY. The code appears to have been very clean and concise. As few lines as possible.

It's not enough that it works - you've got to get the code as efficient as possible. This is why it runs so well on lower-end machines, unlike other 'big' name titles like Doom3 and Far Cry.

Far Cry ran like crap on my machine (P4 2.8/gig ram/9800Pro) and was IMHO a pointless game to play. Once I got done being startled by baddies in odd places - Doom3 wasn't much to me.
 
at least the characters dont look like plastic dolls :p
 
The only thing that's missing is dynamic shadows, hopefully it will be added in the future. Or as they say, "It should be possible in a mod." :D
 
the graphics look MUCH better than anything in far cry or doom 3....
 
silvercue said:
it's cut straight from HL1, everything looks really poor up close.
Click to expand...

Have you looked at Far Cry's labs like that and doom 3s?

I have played all 3 games and I can easily say that hl2 graphics is the best. I'm playing all at 1600x1200 on MAX settings, what about you?
 
HL2 has been tapped, even by the harshest of critics, as a much better looking game than doom 3 or even far cry.

Let's see, who said this:

SCORE
Gamespot
IGN
Gamespy
PC Gamer
EDGE
PC Games

And you say it looks as though it was from last year? which game last year had such texture quality? which game used shaders last year? which game made use of normal/bump mapping last year?

The best looking game last year was probably Max payne 2, which scrapes dust infront of HL2 now.
 
I said before I expected HL2 to run better than D3 or Far Cry due to Valve's more reserved use of shaders, and I was right. Not only does HL2 run great but it dosn't look like the whole world is made of leather and plastic. The graphics were very well done, beutiful but not excessive, and the animations were awesome, so fluid. Don't believe me on that one just watch lemarr :)

Anyways, I think source still has a lot of unfillfulled potential, can't wait to see the mods a few years down the line.
 
Nex321 said:
Have you looked at Far Cry's labs like that and doom 3s?

I have played all 3 games and I can easily say that hl2 graphics is the best. I'm playing all at 1600x1200 on MAX settings, what about you?
Click to expand...

As I said earlier - everything maxed out at high res. I have a fast PC. It is impossible to discuss with "fanboy" mentality here. I will stick to forums where gamers discuss games objectively. The consensus there is that HL2 is behind in the gfx department - which it so clearly is when you take your rose-tinted specs off.
Some really awful textures and the lighting looks so fake. And what hap[pened to the 40 working muscles in the NPCs faces? Fine on Alex etc, but most characters look like they are from HL1 with 2 frames of animations for blinking/talking.
 
lans said:
HL2 has been tapped, even by the harshest of critics, as a much better looking game than doom 3 or even far cry.

Let's see, who said this:

SCORE
Gamespot
IGN
Gamespy
PC Gamer
EDGE
PC Games

And you say it looks as though it was from last year? which game last year had such texture quality? which game used shaders last year? which game made use of normal/bump mapping last year?

The best looking game last year was probably Max payne 2, which scrapes dust infront of HL2 now.
Click to expand...

Errr hello??

I read one review of HL2. PCGamer and they said that the graphics ARE NOT AS GOOD as Doom3.
 
silvercue said:
As I said earlier - everything maxed out at high res. I have a fast PC. It is impossible to discuss with "fanboy" mentality here. I will stick to forums where gamers discuss games objectively. The consensus there is that HL2 is behind in the gfx department - which it so clearly is when you take your rose-tinted specs off.
Some really awful textures and the lighting looks so fake. And what hap[pened to the 40 working muscles in the NPCs faces? Fine on Alex etc, but most characters look like they are from HL1 with 2 frames of animations for blinking/talking.
Click to expand...





Yes I'm a fan boy but I'm also fan to the other games aswell. Look if you like cartoon graphics then yes Far Cry is the game for you.



Enough said


Edit: And do not say that Far Cry doesn't look cartoonish. Just compare the palms and water for an exemple. Which one looks realistic and which one doesn't?
 
I am more then statisfied with the graphics but my favorite part about this game that stands out more then anything is the animations. WoW!
 
I personally love the HL2 graphics, absolutly beautiful at times.
 
I think the graphics in HL2 surpass D3 and Far Cry, overall. I was worried that the graphics in HL2 were going to be quite outdated, but they're not . . . not by a longshot. In fact, I'd say the year delay was a good thing because it looks like Valve took the opportunity to amp up the graphics even more. If you look at the binks, and then look at the actual game, the graphics have noticably improved.
 
silvercue said:
At last - someone that understands what I am saying. I am not slagging the "gameplay" or the "AI" or the "story driven plot"..they are great. The overall playability is great.
But the graphics are not the best out there. If you go to any of the PCgames forums that are not exclusive to HL - everyone is agreeing that the graphics are not ground-breaking.
To the guy who says that textures in HL2 are great - go back to the lab bear the start and have a GOOD look around - it's cut straight from HL1, everything looks really poor up close.
Click to expand...

The reality is that HL1 wasn't a graphical tour de force, either.

However - AI, gameplay and the story just killed and created an icon.
 
If only Half Life 2 had Doom 3's dark levels with a flashlight with plastic looking models and combined with FarCrys expansive outdoor levels that had cartoon looking graphics that had Dual weilding weapons and 3rd party vechle use like Halo 2...

bascially, what people are saying is if Half Life 2 was every other game other than Half Life 2 it would be the best! Yet those other games aren't the best?

Hmmmm....


Seriously though, Half Life 2 graphics are not the best on the market. However, no other game has combined all elements (level desgin, textures, sounds, models ect) to make such an immersive and believable world.

City 17 > than any Doom 3 dark hallway or FarCry Jungle
 
i remember almost pooping my pants cause the graphics were so cool in d3, especially in certain places.

sure theres a few crappy textures in hl2, but theres worse ones in d3, and the textures on the characters in hl2, and the characters models are pretty amazing.

doom 3 did have cool effects, but as far as realism goes, it doesn't compare to hl2 imo
 
ure obviously playing on a dx8 based card with no AA and AF. nuff said k thx bye
 
pingu said:
I think the graphics are BETTER than doom 3 or far cry, they looks far more realistic compared to the cartoonyness of farcry and the plastic wrap of doom 3.
Click to expand...


True. Everyone in Farcry seems to have a glistening face like a freshly made Kispy Kreme glazed donut and the people don't look as real as they do in HL2. Doom3 has some weird non-real feel about the characters to me as well.
 
silvercue said:
The reason I am suprised (and yes disappointed) with graphics (yes they are set to max) is that after 5 yeays I expected faultless presentation. Maybe my expectations were too high.
Click to expand...

maybe u need ur eyes checked... or perhaps ur right...ur expectations were way too high because graphics look great!
im not one to compare games much but even if i were to, i'd say HL2 gives some pretty stiff competition to Doom3 and Far Cry as far as graphics go.
 
haha, Half-Life's graphics are far better than DooM 3 (perhaps not in terms of raw power, but in terms of the amazing things it can render !) and FarCry's, especially the characters, Alyx and Eli look far superior to the plastic soldiers in FarCry.
 
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