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Half Life 2 Demo "play by play"
you can download this video at www.fileplanet.com
Unless you have been living under a rock for the past while, you all know that Half Life 2 should be coming out sometime between now and Duke Nukem Forever. In other words, no one really knows exactly. Well, at this year's E3, Valve threw their table scrappings at us with a few videos of gameplay footage showing off the beautifully designed graphics, awesome physics modeling, and the large, scripted events. The demo starts out with the G-Man talking to you, how your services are needed again and then you step out of a train into City-17. Some flying digital camera flashes you with its beam, blinds you for a split second and you return to normal. You walk forward and you can see an old man is on a monitor, spitting out some sort of propaganda at you, and then you make your way into the lobby. You notice all the citizens are dressed in blue jumpsuits, like what prisoners wear, with what appears to be barcodes on the upper backs of the suits. Someone tells you how the water is tainted, you forget everything when you drink it.
As you make your way though a line which looks to be taken from some "bizzaro world" Disneyland, you are forced into a small,fenced off area. Alarms go off, apparently you're not a citizen and you are taken to a long, dimly lit hallway. You can hear someone being interrogated, as you look though the slot in the door, the guard inside walks up and shuts you out of their "conversation". You go into a second interrogation room and that part ends.
The next part of the demo displays how the vehicle physics work, your car gets attacked by these spider balls that grapple onto your car and shake it around. You spin out of control and are found hanging on the side. You use your gravity gun (a gun that picks up items, floats them, and can shoot them off to far distances at high rates of speed. Its like a gun which it's ammo is its surroundings) to right your car onto the road and you drive off again.
You then drive to a small house, possibly a little residential area turned into a Combine (the bad guy cops, your oppressors) checkpoint. You blow into there, guns a blazing. You have a 9 milimeter, 6 shooter colt, shotgun, machine gun with attached grenade launcher, a rocket launcher, and more (shown in this demo). You go around killing combine soldiers showing off the various weapons you have.
Next, you're on some sort of amphibious craft with a machine gun, going though some city-based waterways and sewers being attacked by helicopters. You can actually shoot down their rockets coming at you with your machine gun.
From there you are now in this creepy back country area at night with this priest, Father Gregori. Armed with a shotgun, he has you follow him and you are ambushed by some zombie creatures. Very creepy stuff.
Lastly, for the first half of the demo, you are in a large battle with Combine Striders (thing large spiders with guns. Not wide, just very very tall.). You see as its sharp, pike-like legs throw around a car that was used as cover. The strider seems to barely take any damage from the onslaught of weaponry that you're throwing at it, from machine guns to rocket launchers, nothing seems to phase it.... and then it phases you, literally. It has this blue cannon that is very powerful and appears to phase your body out of being with a direct hit.
Part two, it begins with you in a hotel, or apartment of sorts. Combine soldiers are breaking into one person's room and assaulting the person inside for some unknown reason. The people are very depresed and you get a very somber feeling thoughout the whole scene. More police come in, a large tank-like vehicle rolls in with lots of backup. You don't want to stay around to see what's going to go down so you make your way upstairs. As you round the first set of stairs you hear someone peek out of their door and say "*psst* hey you! in here!". With no better ideas you follow his advice, and the scene changes.
The next scene is alot more different, you roll in on your buggy and mow down some combine soldiers who are doing battle with arachnid looking aliens
on the beach. After doing away with the enemies on the sand, you make your way onto the pier. And then after doing away with 3 more guys you "snipe" off one guy from a crane with your laser-guided rocket launcher. You get to see the rocket spiral in the air as it reaches its target, it's very, very cool to watch. You make your way up to the crane, cause the bridge is down to go across, and it looks like you have to do something with the crane, with has a huge magnet attached to it, to get the bridge to move back down. In the demo, you're being shot at from the other side of that bridge by some Combine soldiers, so you pick up a large, metal shipping crate, and drop it on them. It is quite humorous.
From there, the next scene has you talking to some lady in a white sweater going down a ladder. As you go down you see some familiar sights from Half Life 1. The alien intruders are inside the lab! ... but wait! They are working FOR you, not AGAINST you. You get to the bottom level and run into a scientist from Black Mesa, Dr. Eli. He welcomes you to his lab, as you see one of the aliens working on some equipment. As you look around Alyx, his daughter comes in. Eli then makes his best effort to embarass her in front of Gordon and does it quite well. I know there will be some love connection between the two.
The next scene puts you back behind the gun in a backyard of a city building. It's nighttime and it gives you a really creepy, horror movie feeling, especally when you reach the lower half of a person hanging from a tree.... the upper torso is nowhere to be found. And then suddenly, a headcrab zombie comes out and attacks you. After taking a couple whacks at it with your crowbar you pull back and shoot some bonded, wooden boards at it with your gravity gun to kill it. Then you make it into a wooden shed that has steel saw blades and flammable tanks on the walls. Oh, this really looks like a wonderful time to put your gravity gun to use. Then, in the demo, you start killing more headcrab zombies in the building with flammable tanks being thrown at them and exploding on contact, and being sawwed in half with steel saw blades.
The stomach churning part of this section, is the screams on pain that the zombies let out while they are running around on fire (especally when you have your headphones on quite loud... ouch my ears).
The last part ends the same as the first part of the demo. You are going though the combine attack with the striders again. Its the same scene, but you go about it differently. Instead of being zapped with the strider's laser on the steps of a large building, you make your way to a very deep crater and then are subsequentally zapped while you're trying to make your escape down there.
Now, onto the grand finale. The million dollar question this E3, pertaining to Half Life 2 is, "What's the mulitplayer gonna be like?". Well, we now know the answer to that. Half Life 2 multiplayer will be Counter Strike. Yes, at the end of the E3 Half Life 2 demo, they have what is titled in the demo "Counter Strike Source". This is going to be the Counter Strike that we know and love with the Half Life Source engine that we all drool over. The demo takes place in de_aztec. The graphics on this map, being a long time CS player myself, are just mind blowing. Thinking back to what I just played and then comparing it to what I just saw really makes me feel old... at only 19 years old. The demo goes about with 4 terrorists taking the lower river route to the "A" bomb site when they are ambushed by 2 counter terrorists from above at the bridge. After doing away with the 2 CTs and losing 1 T, they make their way to the stairway to the bombsite when they are ambushed once again from the side, again in the riverway. After doing away with 2 more CTs they make their way to the bombsite. The new site is a large, beautifully rendered Aztec temple. I don't know if you're allowed to climb up the tower's steps or not, but it sure is pretty to look at. Then the CTs rush the double door area from the T's side and AWP the bomb runner in the head. Then throws an HE Grenade at another T behind a stack of steel barrels. The explosion makes the body fly off one way, and the barrels scatter across the area like small toys. Then after doing away with the final terrorist with your deagle you diffuse the bomb. Then, with the CS radio voice it says "Counter Strike Source".
Not necessarly Counter Strike 2, but a large upgrade which is well embraced, at least by this CS player. CS Source is definately going to be a big draw to buy HL2. All in all, this demo was bittersweet. I'm very excited and pleased to see the directions that this game is taking with the single player and especally the multiplayer of this game. But, I am definately getting very, very tired of waiting for this. They still don't have an exact date. Gabe Newell said "this summer". But, I wouldn't put any money on that. But, if I was a bettin' man, I'd bet on it coming out this holiday season, just ready for Christmas. But, this looks to be definately worth the wait.
you can download this video at www.fileplanet.com
Unless you have been living under a rock for the past while, you all know that Half Life 2 should be coming out sometime between now and Duke Nukem Forever. In other words, no one really knows exactly. Well, at this year's E3, Valve threw their table scrappings at us with a few videos of gameplay footage showing off the beautifully designed graphics, awesome physics modeling, and the large, scripted events. The demo starts out with the G-Man talking to you, how your services are needed again and then you step out of a train into City-17. Some flying digital camera flashes you with its beam, blinds you for a split second and you return to normal. You walk forward and you can see an old man is on a monitor, spitting out some sort of propaganda at you, and then you make your way into the lobby. You notice all the citizens are dressed in blue jumpsuits, like what prisoners wear, with what appears to be barcodes on the upper backs of the suits. Someone tells you how the water is tainted, you forget everything when you drink it.
As you make your way though a line which looks to be taken from some "bizzaro world" Disneyland, you are forced into a small,fenced off area. Alarms go off, apparently you're not a citizen and you are taken to a long, dimly lit hallway. You can hear someone being interrogated, as you look though the slot in the door, the guard inside walks up and shuts you out of their "conversation". You go into a second interrogation room and that part ends.
The next part of the demo displays how the vehicle physics work, your car gets attacked by these spider balls that grapple onto your car and shake it around. You spin out of control and are found hanging on the side. You use your gravity gun (a gun that picks up items, floats them, and can shoot them off to far distances at high rates of speed. Its like a gun which it's ammo is its surroundings) to right your car onto the road and you drive off again.
You then drive to a small house, possibly a little residential area turned into a Combine (the bad guy cops, your oppressors) checkpoint. You blow into there, guns a blazing. You have a 9 milimeter, 6 shooter colt, shotgun, machine gun with attached grenade launcher, a rocket launcher, and more (shown in this demo). You go around killing combine soldiers showing off the various weapons you have.
Next, you're on some sort of amphibious craft with a machine gun, going though some city-based waterways and sewers being attacked by helicopters. You can actually shoot down their rockets coming at you with your machine gun.
From there you are now in this creepy back country area at night with this priest, Father Gregori. Armed with a shotgun, he has you follow him and you are ambushed by some zombie creatures. Very creepy stuff.
Lastly, for the first half of the demo, you are in a large battle with Combine Striders (thing large spiders with guns. Not wide, just very very tall.). You see as its sharp, pike-like legs throw around a car that was used as cover. The strider seems to barely take any damage from the onslaught of weaponry that you're throwing at it, from machine guns to rocket launchers, nothing seems to phase it.... and then it phases you, literally. It has this blue cannon that is very powerful and appears to phase your body out of being with a direct hit.
Part two, it begins with you in a hotel, or apartment of sorts. Combine soldiers are breaking into one person's room and assaulting the person inside for some unknown reason. The people are very depresed and you get a very somber feeling thoughout the whole scene. More police come in, a large tank-like vehicle rolls in with lots of backup. You don't want to stay around to see what's going to go down so you make your way upstairs. As you round the first set of stairs you hear someone peek out of their door and say "*psst* hey you! in here!". With no better ideas you follow his advice, and the scene changes.
The next scene is alot more different, you roll in on your buggy and mow down some combine soldiers who are doing battle with arachnid looking aliens
on the beach. After doing away with the enemies on the sand, you make your way onto the pier. And then after doing away with 3 more guys you "snipe" off one guy from a crane with your laser-guided rocket launcher. You get to see the rocket spiral in the air as it reaches its target, it's very, very cool to watch. You make your way up to the crane, cause the bridge is down to go across, and it looks like you have to do something with the crane, with has a huge magnet attached to it, to get the bridge to move back down. In the demo, you're being shot at from the other side of that bridge by some Combine soldiers, so you pick up a large, metal shipping crate, and drop it on them. It is quite humorous.
From there, the next scene has you talking to some lady in a white sweater going down a ladder. As you go down you see some familiar sights from Half Life 1. The alien intruders are inside the lab! ... but wait! They are working FOR you, not AGAINST you. You get to the bottom level and run into a scientist from Black Mesa, Dr. Eli. He welcomes you to his lab, as you see one of the aliens working on some equipment. As you look around Alyx, his daughter comes in. Eli then makes his best effort to embarass her in front of Gordon and does it quite well. I know there will be some love connection between the two.
The next scene puts you back behind the gun in a backyard of a city building. It's nighttime and it gives you a really creepy, horror movie feeling, especally when you reach the lower half of a person hanging from a tree.... the upper torso is nowhere to be found. And then suddenly, a headcrab zombie comes out and attacks you. After taking a couple whacks at it with your crowbar you pull back and shoot some bonded, wooden boards at it with your gravity gun to kill it. Then you make it into a wooden shed that has steel saw blades and flammable tanks on the walls. Oh, this really looks like a wonderful time to put your gravity gun to use. Then, in the demo, you start killing more headcrab zombies in the building with flammable tanks being thrown at them and exploding on contact, and being sawwed in half with steel saw blades.
The stomach churning part of this section, is the screams on pain that the zombies let out while they are running around on fire (especally when you have your headphones on quite loud... ouch my ears).
The last part ends the same as the first part of the demo. You are going though the combine attack with the striders again. Its the same scene, but you go about it differently. Instead of being zapped with the strider's laser on the steps of a large building, you make your way to a very deep crater and then are subsequentally zapped while you're trying to make your escape down there.
Now, onto the grand finale. The million dollar question this E3, pertaining to Half Life 2 is, "What's the mulitplayer gonna be like?". Well, we now know the answer to that. Half Life 2 multiplayer will be Counter Strike. Yes, at the end of the E3 Half Life 2 demo, they have what is titled in the demo "Counter Strike Source". This is going to be the Counter Strike that we know and love with the Half Life Source engine that we all drool over. The demo takes place in de_aztec. The graphics on this map, being a long time CS player myself, are just mind blowing. Thinking back to what I just played and then comparing it to what I just saw really makes me feel old... at only 19 years old. The demo goes about with 4 terrorists taking the lower river route to the "A" bomb site when they are ambushed by 2 counter terrorists from above at the bridge. After doing away with the 2 CTs and losing 1 T, they make their way to the stairway to the bombsite when they are ambushed once again from the side, again in the riverway. After doing away with 2 more CTs they make their way to the bombsite. The new site is a large, beautifully rendered Aztec temple. I don't know if you're allowed to climb up the tower's steps or not, but it sure is pretty to look at. Then the CTs rush the double door area from the T's side and AWP the bomb runner in the head. Then throws an HE Grenade at another T behind a stack of steel barrels. The explosion makes the body fly off one way, and the barrels scatter across the area like small toys. Then after doing away with the final terrorist with your deagle you diffuse the bomb. Then, with the CS radio voice it says "Counter Strike Source".
Not necessarly Counter Strike 2, but a large upgrade which is well embraced, at least by this CS player. CS Source is definately going to be a big draw to buy HL2. All in all, this demo was bittersweet. I'm very excited and pleased to see the directions that this game is taking with the single player and especally the multiplayer of this game. But, I am definately getting very, very tired of waiting for this. They still don't have an exact date. Gabe Newell said "this summer". But, I wouldn't put any money on that. But, if I was a bettin' man, I'd bet on it coming out this holiday season, just ready for Christmas. But, this looks to be definately worth the wait.
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