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[Jaded Alyx]

Eli should have asked her to go make him a sandwich as well. And one for Gordon.

 

[bee]

I'm hesitant to try the Cinematic mod, because I really don't like some of the things it does. You don't have to use one of those terrible Alyx models, right? (I guess so, since that's the regular Alyx in those pics.) Is there an option to turn off the music that he puts in the game?

you don't need to use either, to use normal models simply don't use the character pimper app and to get rid of the new music just go into the main mod folder look for 3 folders called hl2, episodic and ep2 go into each one and delete the sound folder

then you've got hl2 running on orange box engine with hdr, new shadow system, ep2 updated assets, 16x aa support etc and practically every texture has been redone and made ridiculously high res it really does look great in motion

make sure you can run it though, its a 6.7gb mod and you need 64bit and 3-4gb of ram, 32bit is supported but it will probably crash a lot and 2gb isn't enough. also make sure to play it at 1680x1050 or above or your missing the point

just played through it last week i thought it was excellent and well worth the download, gonna continue on playing ep1 and ep2 using the mod soon

 

[Laurentius]

ObUmR

 

[Jaded Alyx]

Seriously, when you think about it, the characters in these games treat Gordon like crap.

It's always do this, do that, meet me here, meet him there, drive/walk 5 miles in that direction (nevermind Gordon's never been there before)...if I was Gordon I think I'd be thoroughly confused, tired, and just a tad pissed off.

But I guess he has nobody to blame but himself. He never speaks up for himself!

 

[bee]

So you need 64 bit Vista for it to run? Heh.

maybe, i was running it on vista 64 + 4gb yeah. 32bit does work, its just that it may crash a lot and certainly 2gb isn't enough, system usage was close to 3gb at points

 

[Laurentius]

7gGKi

 

[bee]

Well, I mean, nothing but 64-bit Vista even recognizes more than 2gb.

nah, xp 32bit recognises around 3.25gb depending on the size of your graphics cards vram and xp 64bit recognises the full amount like vista 64 but xp64 is a clusterfuck of an os

 

[shrapnelmagnet]

Seriously, when you think about it, the characters in these games treat Gordon like crap.

It's always do this, do that, meet me here, meet him there, drive/walk 5 miles in that direction (nevermind Gordon's never been there before)...if I was Gordon I think I'd be thoroughly confused, tired, and just a tad pissed off.

But I guess he has nobody to blame but himself. He never speaks up for himself!

I have a feeling that the Resistance has already paid for his services, so they want the most they can get from him.

 

[Sciz]

HL2 + Lost Coast final screenshot count: 373

Time to start culling the good ones.

 

[Laurentius]

kWGD8

 

[Jaded Alyx]

HL2 + Lost Coast final screenshot count: 373

Time to start culling the good ones.

O_O

 

[Oreoleo]

Put em all on the previous page. Pictures are cool but it makes it a hassle to read the thread. At least link to them or something.

 

[Won]

Break the thread! Break the thread!

 

[Timber]

I'm using one of Botolf's screenshots of the citadel interior as my desktop wallpaper now Such pretty games. Valve can use the Source engine for their games for another ten years as far as I'm concerned. Everything in The Orange Box is eye candy, even HL2 which is four years old now.

 

[Laurentius]

3q0q3

 

[Oreoleo]

But it's the last page so who cares? I'd rather group them all together than have this page be super bloated too. If someone wants to look at the pics they can *gasp* go back a page. Sciz could go and edit one of his posts from the last page to add pics and then link it in a new post and save people from having to load the pics every time a new post is added to the topic.

 

[Laurentius]

dUVkn

 

[Sciz]

I could, but I don't think a patchwork of thumbnails is going to really strain anyone's browsing experience.

Down to 231 after the first pass. Let's see how low that can go before it hurts me too much to hit delete.

 

[Oreoleo]

That is awfully presumptuous of you.

 

[Laurentius]

28nL9

 

[Oreoleo]

If they're just gonna be thumbnails then that's cool. A couple dozen 1440x900 images is a little unnecessary though. Let's keep in mind this is a speculation thread not a "Dump every screen grab you've ever taken in HL2" thread.

 

[Laurentius]

4SYyg

 

[Haunted]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1kcDvJ6t4s

Incredible.

hot damn!

 

[Sciz]

If they're just gonna be thumbnails then that's cool. A couple dozen 1440x900 images is a little unnecessary though. Let's keep in mind this is a speculation thread not a "Dump every screen grab you've ever taken in HL2" thread.

I think we bled the topic dry about halfway through page 5. But whatever, I'll toss it all on the last page. Wasn't planning to post any full-size shots, but the idea has grown on me. And this way page 6 will be a nice resource any time people complain about the series' graphics in the future. :lol

 

[Oreoleo]

Thanks man. I didn't mean to come off seeming like a dick, but I certainly appreciate it.

 

[Pimpbaa]

nah, xp 32bit recognises around 3.25gb depending on the size of your graphics cards vram and xp 64bit recognises the full amount like vista 64 but xp64 is a clusterfuck of an os

And Vista 32-bit recognizes 3.5gb (at least on my system).

 

[Sciz]

Half-Life 2, a photographic account thereof: Part 1, and Part 2

Aside from how wildly cinematic most of the game is, what really struck me this time were the various posters and bits of graffiti you see throughout the game. I can't say why I'm so drawn to them, but more so than most of the little details, they really sell the game to me as a "world" rather than an "environment".

On to the episodes, then, though it's going to be hard to top (or even equal) some of the great shots posted earlier.

 

[Laurentius]

m4cLX

 

[BocoDragon]

Really great shots, man. It's like, an awesome pictorial account of the game. It really shows the amazing world they've created.

I would love to see a movie that accurately represents this world...

 

[Laurentius]

UG1NR

 

[Sciz]

Episode One screenshot total: 293

Editing will drastically lower that number though, as a good number of them are the result me of taking several shots of the same scene. Though in one case I took eight shots and apparently still didn't get the exact one I was looking for, which I plan to go back and rectify.

The game was also far more stable than it was the last time I tried to play it, so that was nice. Still crashed a good dozen times over the duration, though.

In the end, I'd say it probably deserves the flak it gets. Not that it's a bad game by any means; the levels and encounters are very well crafted overall. The problem is just that there's very little new about it. Episode Two gets the same criticism (and for good reason), but it's dressed up in such a way that it at least felt fresh. Ep. One, on the other hand, is basically a play-by-play recap of the last part of HL2 in reverse with extra antlions. It's still fun, but most of the experience feels a bit stale, especially coming right off of HL2 itself.

 

[Yaweee]

Episode One screenshot total: 293

Editing will drastically lower that number though, as a good number of them are the result me of taking several shots of the same scene. Though in one case I took eight shots and apparently still didn't get the exact one I was looking for, which I plan to go back and rectify.

The game was also far more stable than it was the last time I tried to play it, so that was nice. Still crashed a good dozen times over the duration, though.

In the end, I'd say it probably deserves the flak it gets. Not that it's a bad game by any means; the levels and encounters are very well crafted overall. The problem is just that there's very little new about it. Episode Two gets the same criticism (and for good reason), but it's dressed up in such a way that it at least felt fresh. Ep. One, on the other hand, is basically a play-by-play recap of the last part of HL2 in reverse with extra antlions. It's still fun, but most of the experience feels a bit stale, especially coming right off of HL2 itself.

While I agree that it doesn't do much new, I played Ep. One two years after my last playthrough of Half-Life 2 and loved it. It is just so much more exciting than HL2. Ep. Two is a lot better, though.

 

[Laurentius]

78Plr

 

[Sciz]

Episode One in 83 frames.

In retrospect, I think my other problem with it is the color palette. After a while, fog-obscured shades of orange-brown, black, and yellow-brown get tiresome. Probably the most drab entry in the series. Still has better art direction than most games, but like its other aspects, it just isn't varied enough.

And while the Gravity Gun is cool, I wish they wouldn't take so much time giving you your arsenal back.

But hey, Episode Two comes next, and it's a welcome relief in more ways than one.

 

[otake]

I thought episode 1 was great. then again, I didn't have to wait to play episode 2.

 

[otake]

finished episode 2 and... whoa.

how long have you guys been waiting for episode 3?

 

[Laurentius]

ELPA8

 

[tak]

nah, xp 32bit recognises around 3.25gb depending on the size of your graphics cards vram and xp 64bit recognises the full amount like vista 64 but xp64 is a clusterfuck of an os

Why is XP 64bit a clusterfuck of an OS? I wasn't aware of any major problems with it, and my limited experience with it has been fine.

 

[eatyobeans]

I love the story of the Half-Life series, and pretty much everything else about it, but i do dislike the large gaps between iterations considering how big its looking like the story arc will wind up being.

Episode Three will inevitably be announced soon for a Later 2009 release. Then delayed to Early 2010. Then delayed again to 2nd Half of 2010. Dispite Valve's Episodic Plan, its going to take them 6 years to get these episodes out. Not to mention that even though the always being modified Source Engine is in ways the most impressive thing out there (in terms of physics and facial animations) its also becoming dated (textures, lighting, etc). Im guessing Ep 3 will be on an evolved form of HL2s Source Code, but for whatever's after that they need to build completely new tech.

 

[Sciz]

finished episode 2 and... whoa.

how long have you guys been waiting for episode 3?

Since Orange Box came out. Longer, if you count the moment when Valve said they were developing a trilogy of episodes as the starting point.

Awesome man, I love them. Great stuff, I really need to save all of our posts or something, so that I can look back on them someday and wax nostalgic about the series.

Heh, thanks. At first it was just for the sake of bandwagoning, but this has turned me into a bit of a photographer. There's a degree of fun to be had just in trying to catch a certain shot, or looking for the right angle for a scene.

Plus my bandwidth consumption has gone up by 600 MB, so I know at least a few people are looking at these things.

Spoiler

And you can really feed my ego by picking out a few of the ones you really like.

On to Episode Two!

Episode Three will inevitably be announced soon for a Later 2009 release. Then delayed to Early 2010. Then delayed again to 2nd Half of 2010. Dispite Valve's Episodic Plan, its going to take them 6 years to get these episodes out.

Oh, I dunno. I'm betting that, even with Valve Time, we see it by Fall '09.

 

[otake]

i sure hope episode 3 comes out before 2010 and I don't mean fall 2009. oh well, left 4 dead will do for now, I guess.

I really liked both episodes. episode 2 was the better one. I look forward to 3. keep the screenshots coming.

 

[User2k]

I absolutely cannot wait. Hope its soon! Then the long wait for Half Life 3 begins.

 

[Easy_G]

I would guess that Valve started development on Ep3 once they released Ep1, so I'm still hoping that there will be a "surprise" announcement once they are close to release and after that it'll be just a few months. If they followed the same development cycle as with Ep2 it should have a good 2 years of development so far, but maybe I'm just completely wrong.

 

[ToyMachine228]

Watching my roommate play through Episode Two right now. It's my copy of Orange Box so I've already played it, and it's reminding me of how great it is. Had to read up and refresh myself on all the G-Man stuff. Can't wait for Episode Three.

 

[Sciz]

I'd just like to take this moment to thank Valve once again for finally making Source fairly stable for the Orange Box games.

And boy, does Episode Two start out on a better foot than One does. You just barely start the game and you've already seen new environments, two new enemies, and you get a bunch of your weapons back. Episode Three's premise basically demands that it take the same approach, so that'll be nice.

 

[Death_Born]

I absolutely cannot wait. Hope its soon! Then the long wait for Half Life 3 begins.

Who knows...maybe they're delaying Episode 3 to work on Half Life 3!?

 

[Sibylus]

I'd just like to take this moment to thank Valve once again for finally making Source fairly stable for the Orange Box games.

And boy, does Episode Two start out on a better foot than One does. You just barely start the game and you've already seen new environments, two new enemies, and you get a bunch of your weapons back. Episode Three's premise basically demands that it take the same approach, so that'll be nice.

I personally found Episode One's opening moments to be the best in the series. It marked the beginning of the end for my wallet.

 

[Sciz]

I personally found Episode One's opening moments to be the best in the series. It marked the beginning of the end for my wallet.

One has a phenomenally well done intro sequence. Then you get the Empowered Gravity Gun back and it becomes virtually impossible to die for the next hour. Lots of cool set pieces and some nice puzzles, but I'm just not keen on games that present no risk.

And lest I leave the wrong impression with my comments, it isn't that I dislike it, just that I'm just now looking at it critically to figure out why it's the weak link in the series.


Your screenshots are all amazing, by the way. I only wish I could've taken some of them.

 

[Sibylus]

One has a phenomenally well done intro sequence. Then you get the Empowered Gravity Gun back and it becomes virtually impossible to die for the next hour. Lots of cool set pieces and some nice puzzles, but I'm just not keen on games that present no risk.

And lest I leave the wrong impression with my comments, it isn't that I dislike it, just that I'm just now looking at it critically to figure out why it's the weak link in the series.

The combat was definitely easy, but heck, that's a sacrifice I'll take for some playtime with the supercharged Gravity Gun

.

Also, I want it to come back for Episode Three. If we're going to be romping around in Combine structures, gimme a supercharged section to rampage through. I missed it dearly in Episode Two

Your screenshots are all amazing, by the way. I only wish I could've taken some of them.

Hehe, thanks. You've got a lot of nice ones too, can't wait for your Episode Two screenies .

 

[Sciz]

Also, I want it to come back for Episode Three. If we're going to be romping around in Combine structures, gimme a supercharged section to rampage through. I missed it dearly in Episode Two

If it does return, I'd like to see an enemy (say, the advisors) with the ability the deflect the stuff you chuck at it akin to the pyro's airblast. A little zero point energy pong would liven things up a bit.

Hehe, thanks.

I mean literally, I tried to get some of those exact shots, and just couldn't set it up properly.