High quality 500meg trailers of the (almost) full e3 demo are all over the net: check fileplanet, shacknews, all the usual places.
The thing is, I’ve been basically out of the gaming scene for three years now. And this thing is turning me into a 13yearold fanboy again. wO0t!
Just watched the 500 MB tech demo from E3. Phenomenal. The rag-doll physics of the various bodies was amazing, as was the behavior of wood, metal, water, etc. The bit with the video screens responding to the camera in real time shows that the “Source” engine may well be the new standard in the industry.
(OK, that was a bit hyperbolic, I’m still stunned by the video ;))
I don’t know if I’m completely happy with the ragdoll concept, because it feels like a crutch to avoid adding some extra animation. Enemies just go limp when they die, and crumple immediately, rather than like in HL where grunts would actually fall to one knee, then fall over, or do some other sort of animation. Enemies don’t seem to give any inidication that they’re dying: no scream, no twitching, no clutching the air in fury: just bam-crumple.
Of course, this is still four months out, so they could be adding more stuff in later.
I wasn’t referring to the dying/ falling bodies. What impressed me was the way the bodies moved while being dangled and thrashed by the “beam weapon” (whatever it is) and the tentacle of the blue creature. The bodies reacted depending on where they were held and displayed complex movements beyond anything I have seen in game animation.
Well, while the crash test dummy in the tech demo was just ragdoll physics, some things (like the solider and tentacle) could well be a special animation (though not necessarily). I did love the bit where Barney is running and then turns around mid stride to look behind him.
I heard one report that Valve had put very, very few scripted sequences in the game (excluding obvious story-advancing ones).
Well, the interview with the team is really great, because they really go in depth into their reasoning and feelings about the game design. One of the things they mention is that where they would normally put a whole scripted sequence, they break it up into little separate parts and then let the AI try to assemble the parts as it can. So it IS sort of scripted: but the scripts are part of the creatures heirarchy of “things we can do.” Hopefully that will work out really well.
One of the things I think Valve really has going for them is that they’ve been able to develop all these smaller elements, like the physics and various conditional behaviors for the AI, that make it possible to just throw a bunch of things together and watch something emerge out of it. They have opened up so many possibilities for all sorts of new and innovative interactions and events. Put that with their already demonstrated creativity…
I can’t wait to mod and map with these new tools. With everything involved, even truly atrocious mappers will be able to slide on the fact that the physics and AI can produce interesting experiences all by themselves, even if the map is lousy. Of course, I can see already the sort of glut of awful, awful maps people will release two days after the game comes out. 
Heard from someone at Valve about the demo: apparently it has prediction problems just like a multiplayer game would: it samples the actual gameplay, and then interpolates, meaning that things are not frame-by-frame the way they are in the game, but sort of disjointed. So a lot of the things that seemed to be game issues are actually demo playback issues. That’s great to hear. They’re also correcting things like the sparks showing through solid objects, lack of death animations in the ragdoll physics for characters, etc. Sounds like they’re quashing the only real faults I could find.
Wow! When this and Greyhawk: Temple of Elemental Evil come out, I’ll be barricading myself in my dorm room for the rest of the month.
What ya gotta do:
You basically have to lure the super-soldiers aware from the trapped civilians and then RUN and save them. In certain areas they will be blocked with fire, so you have to get a bucket and fill it at the tap, and get the fire out. Remember, you are so much faster than the robots, you just have to run around the other way and they can’t catch you. Also you should hit them with tracking darts, so you know where they are. If you keep running, it shouldn’t be too hard at all.
NOLF2 is also on my list when I get my system upgraded. The first one was (mostly) a blast: probably the first really good LithTech engine game, and a big win for that company.
You know, I decided today that I don’t really care about HL2. I’m going to hold out for Half Life 10! By then it should be like a Star Trek holodeck!!!
I haven’t been following this thread and just skimmed through it, but if you guys don’t know, there’s a 20 minute 500MB E3 HL2 trailer available here. You have to wait in a queue if you don’t have a fileplanet subscription, but it’s free bandwidth and the download will start even when you’re away from the computer.
I wish all these games (HL2, Doom3, EQ2, Deus Ex2, Halo for PC, etc.) didn’t come out when school starts/shortly after :(. Now I have to play the game of life all summer.
I heard that it adds just a few more bits to what I already have (which I’ve supplemented with clips here and there anyway), and I’m also on dialup. Not gonna happen. Plus, it’s apparently got some geek cracking not-so-wise dominating the audio.
More back from Newell: crowbar was a rush job for e3, the final one is closer to the original. Sparks wont show through objects anymore. Enemies will have more obvious signs of death. And lots more that fix even the very few flaws I was able to find with the demo.
I’m definately buying a new rig that can take advantage of all the upcoming eye-candy. P4 3.0Ghz C series on an 800mHz bus, 512Megs of mem, and the best Radeon I can afford. By the time it comes to buy, I should be able to get a near top-o-the-line system for under 1000.
Won in every category it was eligible in…
Okay. I watched some of the gameplay videos the other night, taking advantage of work’s bandwidth.
NOW I’m hip to Half-Life 2. Crikey.
Won Gamespy’s top honor as well:
http://www.gamespy.com/e32003/awards/index18.shtml
Can you say “Pre-order” and “overnight delivery” I know you can.
This game will sell more Radeon 9800’s and Geforce FX 5900’s then the cardmakers’ own advertising campaigns combined. Maybe they should just make it a package deal. . .