I guess this is old news already, but since the web has been flooding with pictures from HL2 for the past hours, I thought it would be nice for someone to post them here. I was going to post the towering monster and the ship myself, but they’re gone . In any case there are some shots where you’re not sure if it’s concept art or an actual screenshot. Games are starting to look really good, but I don’t think it’s possible for a game to look THAT good. In any case, what mother of all computers will you need to run it at max settings?

prolly just a video card with dx9 enabled features, at least 512 mb of ram, and a fast processor. the dx9 video card will go a long way in helping it run at full settings. where did you find the screenshots? i have just seen magazine covers...

I found them at the Deus Ex forum, under “General”. They’re waiting for Deus Ex 2, Thief 3, Doom 3 and now Half-Life 2. So many great games; good thing that I’m upgrading in the summer.

I saw a couple of links in different places and when I got there, they said Valve had asked them to remove the shots. I think they were not supposed to show them until the 28th.

It’s too late, because they were already swapping images. I saw like ten different images; some were impressive (crabheads, a really tall monster, a ship with nice water effects, some guys shooting a monster, etc.) and I even went to an ftp server to look at some. The chick’s name is Alyx (or something like that) and apparently will play with G-man, but as a sort of companion. But since so many guys got a hold of the pics already, it’s only a matter of days (or hours) until you see them again. This year’s E3 is really going to kick some serious ***.

yea olefarte they have a NDA agreement on everyone working on hl 2 until the 28th, after then expect a flood of screenshots, and then some big annoucements at E3

Here are some pics I found.
www.half-life2.tk/

Holy killer crabs batman! That is f'ing AWESOME!!!!!!!

Forgot to mention, from what I've been reading at various places, this game is supposed to run on low end machines pretty good. From the way it looks you would thing it would nead a pretty hefty computer to run it. Don't know if any of this is true though, it's all heresay until there's an official announcment.

i got this stuff supposedly its rumors but also its supposdely being called rumors until its offically released in PC GAMer magazine

» Half-Life 2 is scheduled for a September 30th release.
» Yes, you're still Gordon Freeman, and yes, the story assumes you went to work for the G-Man.
» Half-Life 2 takes place in a European city called "City 17."
» Headcrabs will be back! Although some of the Xen aliens will be your friends?
» Barney is back. And so is Half-Life's original writer, Marc Laidlaw.
» While the new engine has all sorts of fancy features, it's still designed to work on lower-end machines. Apparently a 700mhz processor and a video card capable of running DX6 is enough, although a 2ghz with a GeForce4 is recommended.
» The girl in the promo art is named Alyx, a daughter of a scientist who factors into the story somehow. She's not playable.
» Scripted Sequences will be more interactive.
» Half-Life 3 is planned, so expect another cliffhanger ending.

Here's something to end (and confirm) a few rumors:

http://money.cnn.com/2003/04/23/commentary/game_over/column_gaming/index.htm

Please, don't let this be another Unreal 2...

???

oh yes

i first wanted to play it (u2) and then when i heard what people were saying about it ....

oh and after seeing all those pics i really hope hl2 will be as long as the first one :s

because NOLF2 was much shorter than NOLF1, Unreal2 shorter than Unreal ....

I want HL2 to survive the hype; in the preview we have a reference to Deus Ex, because it’s obvious that a simple remake of the first isn’t going to cut it. I’m just trying not to set myself up for disappointment. Dumbing down games gives you the equivalent of “Phantom Menace” instead of “Empire Strikes back”. From the “Matrix” trailers it seems that we’re still getting the mixture of action without having to shut our brains off, and for that I give them a thumbs up. If Matrix continues to rule, then…BRING IT!!!

First of all HL is a fairly long game for FPS. And i read yesterday that HL2 is supposed to be even longer. They said 12 big chapters, each chapter taking around 3-4 hours

and if you meant i hope it won't be UT2 because of all the hype and then the big letdown... well thats why Valve didn't show any info about it until now, less than 5 months before it came out. UT2 had hype for over a year i believe.

There is a full 'hands-on' review of HL2 in the June edition of PC Zone Magazine (I'm a subscriber) where the journalist spent a whole day with the developers and got to play the code, most of which is already finished. Here is a quote from the last paragraph in that review ...

"... Words failed me. My body felt exhausted as I relaxed my taught muscles,drained from the tension of watching a game which is re-writing the rule book and making a mockery out of every other first-person shooter I've ever seen. If you don't believe me, buy a ticket to E3, and find out for yourself. One things for sure though, come September, the world of gaming will change forever, and just like four years ago, its Valve that is showing us the way. With 40 hours of gameplay promised, its going to be one hell of a ride. All of a sudden, September seems like a very, very long way away ..."

The review is a full 12 pages long and goes into considerable detail on HL2.

Apparently, the developers have been working on it since the original HL and have ploughed almost all the money they made into the development of this game (so the developers have been able to do anything they wanted, with no interference from publishers).

The AI is ground breaking (the game is different each time you play it and there are NO scripted scenes), and all the characters have been modeled right down to their musculature.

Each character has a unique personality and details such as lip movements and facial expressions will be totally realistic (just like that nVidia Elf, but better), so even if you are deaf, you'll be able to lip-read the characters.

A full physics system is used so that environments behave as in real life, and the game will be different each time you play - even the characters react to the environment and will behave differently each time.

A full level editor will be supplied with the game, so that you can build your own levels.

I guess that's enough for this installment, but you can always buy a copy of PC Zone if you want to know more.

PS: Anyone that played that Quake 3 demo, will know how lame it was - except for the graphics of course. HL2 has it all, and provides a gaming experience that is more believable than any game yet. It will be unfortunate for other games released after HL2, because they are going to look so bad in comparison.

Oh, and one final thought, now that I've hyped HL2 up so much, you're all guaranteed to be disapointed, and hate it, when it finaly comes out.

Sorry peeps, didn't mean to kill off this thread with that info.

Wal-Mart is going to have to deal with the fact that I'm going to take one of their lawn chairs and sit in the electronics department late at night, waiting on the Half Life 2 to be placed on the shelf. Brings a whole new definition to "game camping" . Yes, I am REALLY going to do that lol.. Then I am gonna go home and play it. So.. no sleep that night.. nor the next night because I will be playing the game till my blood vessels explode. heheh

Yup, to me at least Half-Life 2 is looking far better than Doom 3. Give me good AI any day over mindless ID software single player games.