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[Game] Half-Life 3 speculation thread

You think Portal 2 looks great? Try Battlefield 3 PC, Arkham City PC, Crysis 2 PC, Dirt3 PC, The Witcher 2 PC all cranked up to the highest and with DX11

I did try them (Except Arkham City) and yes I have maxed them in DX11.

Witcher 2's graphics are good but not really that impressive.

Battlefield 3 looks like ***, I really don't see what everybody sees in that huge pile of fake post processing crap.

Dirt 3 and Crysis 2 look very good, but I don't see them as a worthy replacements for the current (or an updated) Source engine.

TL/DR: Not worth it.

Edit: Or maybe something like Metro 2033, that game looks much better than the ones above (and runs perfectly fine maxed on my system :) )
 
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Yeah well then we'll just have to agree to disagree. For me the difference is huge. Portal 2 does look good and especcially the whole art style just fits perfectly, but for HL3 I and I'm pretty sure most people except more. Then again most people probably just want anything HL-related, I'd take EP3 on a slightly enhanced Portal2-source version any minute, but a real big proper HL3 has to be more(like I said not just graphics themselves, but something new like HL2 introduced proper physics etc).

I thought Witcher 2s graphics to be great. I don't know, maybe it's just me, but I feel like I can somehow really distinguish between (dx11) games that are pushing the envelope and games that are not. For me those games I mentioned plus Metro2033 which uses DX11 as well are one class above the Portal2/Modern Warfare/Assassins Creed/whatever graphics. But it can't be just DX11 because Uncharted 3 is looking extremely beautiful and imo pretty much on par with what the PC has to offer.
 
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Portal 2 does look good and especcially the whole art style just fits perfectly, but for HL3 I and I'm pretty sure most people except more. Then again most people probably just want anything HL-related, I'd take EP3 on a slightly enhanced Portal2-source version any minute, but a real big proper HL3 has to be more(like I said not just graphics themselves, but something new like HL2 introduced proper physics etc).

Well, as I said, there is room for improvement, I would like a greatly enhanced Source over a slightly enhanced Source, why not? Look what Bethesda did with the Oblivion's engine in Skyrim. What I mean is you just don't throw away a good engine like that and start from nothing, you modify things, add DX11 support etc etc...

And even then, if it matches Metro's graphical quality or even surpasses it, it still wouldn't qualify as the ground breaking HL3 it has to be, games with good graphics are out every year and no game makes history like HL/HL2 did. You said it yourself, it has to be more than graphics.
 
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Of course it doesn't look ugly, but a completely new HL always came with great innovation and a huge technical achievement. Source engine can not achieve that, on the graphics side alone. You think Portal 2 looks great? Try Battlefield 3 PC, Arkham City PC, Crysis 2 PC, Dirt3 PC, The Witcher 2 PC all cranked up to the highest and with DX11 or even Uncharted 3 on PS3 and then tell me they couldn't use a new engine for HL3. It's the same with CoD games and many other multiplatform titles. Of course they're not downright ugly but you can see they're getting old/are based on old tech.

Anyways, speculation is over as Valve's Chet Faliszek crushed it all.
Agreed. A new engine isn't only about graphics. There are just some things the Source engine is not capable of doing.
 
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Hmm, I never thought that graphics were the seling point of Half Life. All games and expansions in the series were above average at best in that department. The appeal of the series lies in other things, which were genre defining to an extend that you can't have a game without them nowadays.

In part one, it was the story driven by in game script sequences rather than cutscenes.

In part two, it added the believable physics and puzzles based on them to the mix.

So, unless it's HL2 EP3, I expect valve to innovate again, and not just improving on the tried formula of HL2. And I don't mean graphical innovation.
 
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The water effect in HL2 and the game's textures were simply amazing. So yes, it was more shocking visually than Doom3 and Far Cry

Theres no way half life had better water than far cry.... i dont think we played the same game. DooM 3 didnt have awesome texture res but the game still "looked" way better than anything out at the time due to the lighting engine, which is funny cause its still better than pretty much all games nowadays with exception to a few.

Obviously everyone has different opinions, i just never encountered someone to say hl2 had good graphics. It most certainly was mediocre for its time, and was especially let down by the garbage texture resolution and blocky maps, mainly because it was an outdoors game but using mostly code from quake , from 1996. Thats one reason why source games look so meh for outdoor areas compared to say, Far Cry.

DooM 3 covered up its uglies with industry leading lighting, something half life has none of as well.

Heres hoping HL3 has a new engine.
 
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Lolwut? I don't know about HL1 at the time, but HL2 graphics were best at the time, better than Doom3 and even Far Cry.

there are not many ppl who would share that opinion, and even fewer that would declare it a fact.

But HL has never been about raw graphics tech (so i dont think a new source engine is paramount) more the visual representation of creativity,innovation, personality and attention to detail.
However this has not been so apparent with the last 2 outings (the idea of a HL game being forgettable is unforgivable) and even HL2, good as it was, for me couldn't hold a candle to the first in these regards.

Valve still seem to have the creative talent in place, as shown by portal and a certain extent l4d games; i wonder if they find it difficult to be inspired by the HL universe - or even find it intimidating - knowing that the expectations are so ridiculously high.
 
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I'd say Half-Life 2 had better art direction than DooM 3 or Far Cry, but the engine itself was not quite as powerful. Does IGN even make that distinction? Only reviewers I trust are at PC Gamer, I disagree with the rest far too often.

Can't say I'm really all that excited for HL3. HL2 was a great game, but it was just missing that special something HL1 had. That's not nostalgia speaking - I can STILL go play through Black Mesa and have good times, Half-Life 2 I only played 3-5 times. It's the setting - in HL1 all hell is constantly breaking loose and no characters aside from Gordon and the G-Man have any permanence, much less annoying unskippable scripted sequences or god mode. Also, call me crazy, but I feel like the marines/black ops/Xen shock troopers in HL1/OP4 had much better AI than the combine soldiers, and that's critical for a single player FPS.

In any case, here's hoping you get to carry the portal gun and gravity gun at the same time in HL3. I can't believe they came up with such a neat gun and haven't developed a game where you can use it in combat.
 
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