HL2 demo out

Sirius · Post by **Sirius** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 3:03 pm

For the try-before-you-buy fanatics like myself, Valve has on insanely short notice (as late as yesterday I couldn't find a thing about it) released a playable demo of Half-Life 2... which is oddly enough on ATI's site. Meaning you'll have to wade through the 'it works better on our hardware kekeke' drivel, but nonetheless.

Iceman · Post by **Iceman** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 3:06 pm

Direct Linky Dinky Here ...

WARNING! 700Mb download ...

DCrazy · Post by **DCrazy** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 3:55 pm

Anyone else notice that in the wake of the uproar about Valve delaying HL2, they've decided "alright we're no longer going to announce anything until it's released"? Jeez, the hype about DN:F died down, you guys will survive...

JMEaT · Post by **JMEaT** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 9:14 pm

T-minus 36 minutes!

CDN_Merlin · Post by **CDN_Merlin** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 9:23 pm

Bought the game when it came out, need no stinking demo

Vertigo 99 · Post by **Vertigo 99** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 9:29 pm

is the demo new content, or is it the first level of hl2, or what?

Gooberman · Post by **Gooberman** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 10:11 pm

It's like the first level and the sixth level. Unless I am seriously missing something, I don't like it, its hard to know wtf is going on during the sixth level having missed 4 levels of content.

fliptw · Post by **fliptw** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 10:16 pm

Gooberman wrote:It's like the first level and the sixth level. Unless I am seriously missing something, I don't like it, its hard to know wtf is going on during the sixth level having missed 4 levels of content.

A demo can't give away everything...

Gooberman · Post by **Gooberman** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 10:21 pm

Yeah, thats why they should go from level one, to like....level two.

Top Gun · Post by **Top Gun** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 10:48 pm

Could someone please explain to me if there is any sense whatsoever in releasing a demo after the game is already out?

JMEaT · Post by **JMEaT** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 10:49 pm

Hey this runs great on my system! [spoiler]Not[/spoiler]

Kyouryuu · Post by **Kyouryuu** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 11:51 pm

Top Gun wrote:Could someone please explain to me if there is any sense whatsoever in releasing a demo after the game is already out?

There's a big reason why you'd do it - to not sour an audience that might have otherwise bought the game.

Suppose for a moment that Half-Life 2 absolutely sucked and was inferior in every way, shape, and form (except graphically) from its predecessor. If you released a demo before the game, savvy consumers would see this poor craftsmanship first hand and not buy the final product. Word spreads around. They tell their friends how much your game sucks. Then they tell their friend's friends. And the bottom line is that your profits get hurt.

Half-Life 2 was a significant product that many people would buy just on the notoriety of the original. It had some very high expectations to live up to. Personally, under those conditions, I would release nothing less than the final product so people could enjoy the game in its entirety.

Furthermore, a lot of Half-Life 2's fanbase was already installed. You either loved Half-Life or you didn't (I actually fall into the latter category). In the shrinking PC market, I'm willing to bet the vast majority has heard of Half-Life and probably played it at some point. You're probably not going to swoon over new fans by releasing a demo. You can only douse expectations, or satisfy existing ones.

I used to argue, in the case of Doom 3, that this lack of demo is where iD went wrong. I'm sure stores were met with a deluge of returns because people overestimated the prowess of their computing gear. But I know with certainty that if iD released a demo of Doom 3 before the actual game shipped, I would not bother owning the game. I didn't enjoy Doom 3 and beneath those lavish graphics I found something mundane and uninspired (the flashlight thing annoys me to no end). I don't think I ever got beyond Alpha Labs before I grew completely bored with the game and wandering through what seemed like the same interiors (even though they weren't). I thought I might enjoy System Shock 2 because a lot of people raved about it. After the demo, yes it's an interesting game. Also a scary one. Not really my cup of tea though. Didn't buy it. Another game - Chaser. Graphics looked neat. Said to ship with a nice game editor. Couldn't stand the demo - never bought it. And so on and so on.

Sirius · Post by **Sirius** » Tue Dec 21, 2004 2:53 am

For the (possible) other half of the question, which is why bother releasing the demo at all;

Basically, because there is still an audience. Some people just won't buy a game without an indication of what it's like, or, quite pertinent in this case, whether your computer is fast enough to make it worth your time.

Hence releasing the demo later on will perhaps get some of those people convinced that they do want the game.

Marketing, marketing, marketing...

Jeff250 · Post by **Jeff250** » Tue Dec 21, 2004 3:58 am

It's gotten to the point in my life where I've been cought up in all of this corporate sponsorship. I own nVidia, and this game was sponsored by ATI, so what's the point.

Tricord · Post by **Tricord** » Tue Dec 21, 2004 5:25 am

You'd expect the ATI servers to get hammered by this, but I'm pulling a steady 720k/sec. Nice.

Duper · Post by **Duper** » Tue Dec 21, 2004 6:20 pm

Runs fine on my ATI 8500 64 meg.

But WTH is this Upstream BS??? That alone in itself is enough to Not buy this game. ...gives me the willies. Kinda like that medal pic in another thread.

STRESSTEST · Post by **STRESSTEST** » Tue Dec 21, 2004 7:05 pm

Iceman wrote:Direct Linky Dinky Here ...

WARNING! 700Mb download ...

769.2 MB

Iceman · Post by **Iceman** » Tue Dec 21, 2004 9:00 pm

Way too dark again ... I brightened it up as best I could with the in game options but it was still too dark. When that guy told me to pile up some stuff to exit through the window it was so dark that I could not find the window.

Uninstalled ...

JMEaT · Post by **JMEaT** » Tue Dec 21, 2004 9:12 pm

I uninstalled it because it restarted 3 times before deciding to only run in windowed mode. That and I was getting 1 FPS and it would not progress past the title screen...

Vertigo 99 · Post by **Vertigo 99** » Tue Dec 21, 2004 10:42 pm

Iceman wrote:Way too dark again ... I brightened it up as best I could with the in game options but it was still too dark. When that guy told me to pile up some stuff to exit through the window it was so dark that I could not find the window.

Uninstalled ...

um; im not sure what's wrong with your computer, but HL2 is NOT dark...

SolidAir · Post by **SolidAir** » Tue Dec 21, 2004 11:20 pm

I had this notion that HL2 would run slow on any computer that doesn't have the latest gear, and that is one of the reasons why I did not buy it.

Until I just downloaded and played through the entire demo.

I cannot believe how well this game runs on my system (XP 1.6GHz, 512MB, MSI Geforce 4 TI4200). I can even run 4x AA at 800x600 and it plays great. The gameplay is just awesome and I was scared out of my wits in that sixth level.

Releasing the demo is a good idea -- it brings out those people who may have doubts about dropping $50 on a game -- like me. I will definitely be purchasing HL2 soon because they released the demo.

TigerRaptor · Post by **TigerRaptor** » Tue Dec 21, 2004 11:36 pm

This might take an hour to download.

Tricord · Post by **Tricord** » Wed Dec 22, 2004 3:48 am

I bought the full game with a friend who has a top-notch system. It plays like butter cream in 1280x1024 fully detailed on his system.

Tried the demo myself (XP2100+, 512MB DDR266, GF3 Ti500 64MB) and while it runs great in 800x600, it doesn't look nearly as good as the way it looks on top-end systems. I also notice they're doing some magic with DX9 hardware, which my card can't do (notably gas and water effects. In Ravenholm when you turn on the gas without lighting it, it's just smoke on DX8 hardware, but it's like warped hot air on DX9 hardware. Much more realistic).

I enjoy the demo, especially since the second part is my favorite in the full game so far. Ravenholm.

I'm quite dissapointed we don't see much of Black Mesa and all those research facilities. I even heard it was nuked before Gordon's return. Oh well, I haven't finished the game yet, maybe something interesting will pop up

Bonz · Post by **Bonz** » Wed Dec 22, 2004 9:10 am

SolidAir wrote:
Releasing the demo is a good idea -- it brings out those people who may have doubts about dropping $50 on a game -- like me. I will definitely be purchasing HL2 soon because they released the demo.

Exactly, man this demo convinced me to buy the game.
It played so smooth on my system and the graphics were unbelievable.

Defender · Post by **Defender** » Wed Dec 22, 2004 5:18 pm

Tricord wrote:I'm quite dissapointed we don't see much of Black Mesa and all those research facilities. I even heard it was nuked before Gordon's return. Oh well, I haven't finished the game yet, maybe something interesting will pop up

[spoiler]This game isn't about Black Mesa at all.
It's about the occupation of Earth by the aliens, and City 17's struggle against occupation.
The game (to what I saw) makes no mention of Black Mesa's fate after the first incident, only that it's former big man is now the invaders puppethead.[/spoiler]

fliptw · Post by **fliptw** » Wed Dec 22, 2004 5:54 pm

JMEaT wrote:I uninstalled it because it restarted 3 times before deciding to only run in windowed mode. That and I was getting 1 FPS and it would not progress past the title screen...

re install it.

right click on HL2->properties-> launch options.

put in -width xxx -refresh xx.

with width being the width of the resolution you want, and refresh being the freshrate you want.

see if that helps.

Samuel Dravis · Post by **Samuel Dravis** » Wed Dec 22, 2004 9:51 pm

I got it today. It's fun.

Really nice framerates too, even though my system isn't exactly high end...

AthlonXP 2200
Radeon 9700 pro
256 pc 2700 ddr
asus a7n8x deluxe MB/onboard sound (nForce 2)

roid · Post by **roid** » Sun Jan 02, 2005 1:02 am

gah, it freezes a few seconds into it. i think some sound effect while on the train is causing it to bork itself.

[]V[]essenjah · Post by **[]V[]essenjah** » Tue Jan 04, 2005 3:33 am

Yay?

I played HL-2. I wasn't very impressed by it. It was fun for a once through but nothing special to see really. The only cool part was where the Stryders surrounded the building that you and a bunch of other soldiers were in with rocket launchers while the building was getting leveled with you and the others in it and machine guns and rocket launchers shooting from the other torn up buildings in the area.

That, and it has a lot of modding potential. However, I'm on to bigger and better things.

Out of KOTOR, HL-2, and Halo 2, they rank as:

KOTOR 1
KOTOR 2
Halo 2
Half Life 2

That's not counting the modding capabilities though.

KOTOR 2 pissed me off at the end though. It only stays in that position as long as there is the possiblity of KOTOR 3.

Nothing like Dues Ex or KOTOR 1 though.

Sirius · Post by **Sirius** » Tue Jan 04, 2005 5:20 am

Thought this thread would have died by the time I got back, but apparently not.

Anyway, it did impress me for not giving me any reason to complain about framerate. And I have a fricken P3 667 with a Radeon 7500 and 256 MB RAM, for goodness' sake.

Ability to set an atmosphere for an environment was amazing. Ravenholm was indeed very convincingly creepy, even on the rather lousy detail settings my machine was set to run on.

Physics was impressive. There isn't too much not to like about real objects that move you with them.

Gameplay was the most fun I've ever had in an FPS, really. Throwing gas cylinders at zombies and watching them burn is quite amusing. We needn't mention the gravity gun.

SolidAir · Post by **SolidAir** » Tue Jan 04, 2005 10:44 am

I finished the game five days after I received it -- I was so into it and couldn't get away. I loved the graphics, gameplay and realism. I was so freaking scared at some points of the game that my mom would walk in to say something to me and I'd jump. That was on the easy setting.

I'm now replaying it on the Normal setting, and it's getting a little tougher.

Top Wop · Post by **Top Wop** » Tue Jan 04, 2005 10:45 am

I uninstalled the demo as soon as I got in the middle of level 6. This zombie bloody monster bash craze is getting old and fast. Its just like the first game but with a new and improved graphics engine and the re-invention of the FPS only introduces new novelty elements that get old fast too. If this is all there is in the future of gaming then im done with this hobby. But alas, there are still a few titles out there that dont fall into this craze and will actually do something different in terms of the gameplay rather than how much anti aliasing extracombopulated textures you can have on screen while maintaining 30+ FPS or how ugly you can make the monsters be and invent different ways in which you can hack and slash their bodies all over the screen.

[]V[]essenjah · Post by **[]V[]essenjah** » Tue Jan 04, 2005 5:26 pm

Exactly my thought. The zombies did nothing for me while going through Ravenholm. I felt more like teh guy from Army Of Darkness going through that level. :\ I didn't find them scary at all. The only semi scary one was the first one that jumps from rooftop to rooftop and howls like a wolf. But once they get in close they are weak.

The physics are decent but leave something to be desired. You can pick up and break boxes and crates in Dues Ex for example. The physics for the crates were about the same. When you get farther into the game they get better but still....

Sirius · Post by **Sirius** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 12:31 am

Just out of curiosity, what exactly do the physics leave to be desired? I know it probably doesn't have fully realistic fluid physics and whatnot, but computers can't handle stuff like that in realtime yet and I haven't heard of it being done anywhere else...

Sure, they might not be impressive to someone who's played more recent games than I have, but that doesn't mean they are lacklustre...

Vindicator · Post by **Vindicator** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 1:01 am

mob-messenger wrote:The physics are decent but leave something to be desired.

Play HL2: Deathmatch and you'll gain a new appreciation for the physics engine. Invariably, every match I've played turns into a melee of flying sinks, toilets, file cabinets, and tables.

Great fun

[]V[]essenjah · Post by **[]V[]essenjah** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 3:42 am

Well Serius, play the original Dues Ex.

The physics are simular. Well, they are a lot better. You can make nearly anything fly.

Other examples.... no vehicle damage and it is extremely hard to roll a vehicle. How many dune buggys have you seen thrown 50 feet or so in the air and not even get a scratch? How many trailers? Mostly they could make stuff topple over and fly really well.

Now, when I watched the demo, I saw that they could make watermellon and different objects float. We saw a little bit of that but it was very rare.

We also saw that characters could be made out of water or fire.

We could also see that cameras could be flipped over and you can actually vew what the camera is seeing in a monitor. If the camera is upside down, the monitor will project the image as if the camera was upside down. Did we see this in-game? Nope.

I'm not saying the game engine is bad. The use of it was poor as with many games. I would rather see a crappy engine pushed to the absolute edge.

Top Wop · Post by **Top Wop** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 11:45 am

The physics in Deus Ex sucked.

Vander · Post by **Vander** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 12:18 pm

"Well Serius, play the original Dues Ex. The physics are simular."

ha!

Vertigo 99 · Post by **Vertigo 99** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 2:16 pm

good physics doesn't mean "making everything fly."

Sligar · Post by **Sligar** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 3:13 pm

Dues, n.

1. Something owed or deserved: You finally received your due.
2. dues A charge or fee for membership, as in a club or organization.

DeÂ·us, n.

God.

Deus Ex Machina : a popular Latin phrase meaning "God coming out of the mechanism", a theatrical phrase for an unexpected plot twist.

http://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php ... e&UID=1436

Dues Ex: not a videogame, or popular latin phrase, or anything.