Half Life 2

[no_offenc]

I haven't downloaded the leaked test version that's doing the rounds on BitTorrent, and I can't tell you that this game looks fucking amazing.

Nor am I going to get some screengrabs in a bit, if you want.

Yep.

[Mr Flunchy]

I don't want to see those screengrabs, nor do I want to hear juicy bits of information about how it plays.

[no_offenc]

Well I can't tell you that most of the levels are really buggy and a fair few just crash the game altogether....I can't tell you I can't get the grabs yet either, because I'm not downloading music.

I can't say that it plays really well, with maybe a little tweaking.  I can't say that the implementation of vehicles is fucking brilliant either, nor can I say that the texturing and general look of the game is excellent.

Nor can I say that I almost shit myself when these new leaping beclawed monster enemies burrowed out of the beach and flew at me.

Nor can I say the gravity gun, that lets you weld objects together then throw the welded uber-object at enemies to knock them off ledges etc, is a brilliant innovation.

Nor can I say that there's one map that blew me away at how detailed it was, especially for a leaked illegal beta version...I can't tell you I'm extremely impressed, either.

Considering it's a beta that's been leaked, I can't say that I'm impressed at how fast it moves (40/50fps at 1024x768 with everything on, on my Athlon64 3000+, 512mb DDR, Radeon 9800 Pro).

[Jaffa The Cake]

Is this the one that's supposed to be a "beta" but blatantly isn't. I seem to remember it looking nice when the sky wasn't flickering purple.

[no_offenc]

There's only a couple of levels that work with all the textures...safe to say I'll be buying this game when it comes out.  Properly buying it as well, I want to play it online after all.

The coast_7 level runs brilliantly, and the AI is fantastically evil...brill.

[Jaffa The Cake]

Just to clear a massive confusion up:

Games / Software are 'alpha'  when they're being made. Testing and production is in-house.
Once the whole thing has been created, it goes 'beta'. Copies are sent to testers who play it though, trying every combination of everything they can think of. If they cause the game to crash, or something happens that's not supposed to, the fault is fixed by the production team.
When all the bugs have been found the game / software goes 'gold' and is released.

2 days later a shitload of bugs are reported that they missed, and a patch is made.

[MojoJojo]

I am surprised... I had decided that it was never going to meet the hype, and the slipped deadlines/shit coming from the developers were the signs of a project in serious trouble.

Might well be a reason for me to upgrade my aging computer.

[Macerate and Petrify]

Is this the same version that was leaked last year?

[no_offenc]

Probably, it looks fairly underdeveloped...

[Macerate and Petrify]

Well if you did happen to have a leaked version, look through the e3 test levels, theres a great one featuring a camera that you can toss around. Its great fun.

[Jaffa The Cake]

Is this the same version that was leaked last year?

The leaked version is pretty old, but it's only been in the PD for a few months. Last year's leak was only code, not much of interest either, no levels / textures / models.

[Macerate and Petrify]

Is this the same version that was leaked last year?

The leaked version is pretty old, but it's only been in the PD for a few months. Last year's leak was only code, not much of interest either, no levels / textures / models.

Well there was a playable version out a couple of days after all the hubbub about the source code leak, that had all that jazz in, you could even drive around a bit and play with the gravity gun, and walk around the e3 demos they displayed.

Looking forward to this game, I Might have actually managed to complete Thief 3 by the time this comes out.

[Kendo Nagasaki]

Is it going to be better than Far Cry? I hope so, because that was shit.  All my mates (both of them) were raving about it, saying how brilliant yadda yadda.  Its like a souped up Soldier of Fortune 2 - and i hated that as well.  

I must be to old for games, thats what it is.  I'll just stick to porn and Queen Wasps   from now on.

[wheatgod]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3797167.stm
a load of people have not just been arrested for the code theft
you should not watch your back

[no_offenc]

they've been arrested for the theft of the source code from Valve's servers, by hacking in by way of the smtp server, or so I've read.

The stuff I have is compiled, and most probably will be getting deleted as it's boring me now....I mean, if the final product runs anywhere near as well as it, and looks as good, and the physics and lighting and sound engines are as good, I'll be fucking happy with it.

I'm not watching my back.  Why should I?

[jutl]

they've been arrested for the theft of the source code from Valve's servers, by hacking in by way of the smtp server, or so I've read.

The stuff I have is compiled, and most probably will be getting deleted as it's boring me now....I mean, if the final product runs anywhere near as well as it, and looks as good, and the physics and lighting and sound engines are as good, I'll be fucking happy with it.

I'm not watching my back.  Why should I?

It was a Microsoft Outlook exploit, I think, that allowed them to install a keylogger. I doubt anyone's interested in prosecuting downloaders in this case...

[no_offenc]

I've deleted it anyway,
1 - just in case, and
2 - because it was pretty shoddy due to it being an early build.

Oh well, still fucking impressed with that graphics/physics etc engine they have in it.