The year is 2003 and I'm thinking this forthcoming game looks amazing... I've never seen this level of physics in a game. Better than donkey kong. So your task is to post other games from 2003 here...
I remember seeing those Half Life 2 tech demo's and thinking to myself "Yep, there's the hard limit of what can be done with videogames, it aint' getting better than that". To be honest, I reckon I was half right, nothing since HL2 has left me with the same feeling of overall and complete polish. At the time everything was just absolutely perfect.
Yup, I know what you mean. I mean there's Bioshock Inf... Very nice looking but not exactly groundbreaking in physics. I think when you consider groundbreaking games this is one of the best. I do get some sense of that awe with Battlefield releases though. I remember being amazed when I watched the pre-release vids for Battlefield 2 and again with BF3.
+1 on that. Skyrim got pretty close for me, the vast expanses with great visuals and entertaining gameplay. And it was so much more playable than Oblivion (for me anyway). And BF3 was good, although probably too similar to BFBC2 to not quite be in the same 'WOW' league as HL2 was. I suppose Crysis has to be included in the wow factor list, that certainly did make me go wow a number of times. I think that's the main issue now, games don't make you go Wow as much, because they are reaching the pinnacle of what's possible, and because alot of stuff has already been done, it's harder to come up with something completely new and amazing. I just hope the next Half Life instalment can live up to the success of it's predecessor (I'll still love it even if it doesn't, )
We need something to push the envelope and be the next groundbreaking game. Perhaps through a new level of realism. That's one of the reasons I want oculus rift HD... To put the wow back into gaming. We have near-photo-realism but there's still limited interaction in games as a consequence of being tied to keyboard and mouse I guess.
Whils the subject of HL2 has bubbled back to the surface, I have a question to anyone who played it when it first came out. Am I imagining things or has the actual gamplay been changed since the initial release? Here is why I'm asking this question:- I don't consider myself a particularly good gamer, I get by and at times I can amaze myself with how well I can handle some parts of a game and then find I give up in disgust when I can make a simple jump combo or other equally dumb things. With HL2 I always recall the Combine assault you have to get through in the cells in Novo Prospekt was an extremely tough challenge and had to have several attempts before I made it through. I played through the game a few times and still found it tough but managable. A few years later I then played through all of the HL series when HL2 Ep 2 was relased and found the same Combine assault was pretty easy, I don't by any stretch of the imagination think my gaming skills have improved that much ( I can still get frustrated by failing basic jump combos) so I began to think has the game been changed? Please don't tell me that they made the game easier for the console generation?
That's a scary thought. Changing a game to make it easier without any announcement. I kind of suspect it's a case of your gaming skills increasing without you even realising. I hope that's what it is. I might play through it again. I was playing it last night with 3d vision. Maximum detail the textures are pretty detailed. Obviously lacking the mesh complexity of modern games but that's ok. Watching the pre-release video above... if this game was forthcoming now I'd still be impressed apart from the character animation (got used to detailed and realistic character motion in modern games). In terms of story and physics the game is still more appealing than something like bioshock infant.
I found it challenging the first few times, but now I can romp through on Hard in relative ease. I don't think anything has changed, I think you just subliminally learn the game and take skills from everything else you've played. Half Life 2 was the first proper game I ever played, which is probably why I found it more challenging than I do now. The hardest bit I find is at the end where your in the citadel, and there's a long stretch with caskets either side, and two striders come down the corridor, and all you have is the super grav gun.
And that was tough because? it's the super grav gun FFS! I had similar feel in exactly same part of the game. When I first played it on release, that part felt impossible. Played it again a few months ago and felt quite easy. I consider that is down to me being better at managing and turret placements. The younger me didn't even have the nerves to complete Ravenholm when it was originally released! Recent playthrough only had me scared once.
On reflection I reckon it might be that I did a better job of the sentry gun placement and making sure they were quickly picked up after the Combine knocked them over. I reckon I also probably had a better idea of how the Gravity Gun behaved when picking up something tall and skinny so I became more efficient at redeploying the Sentries after they were knocked over. However, I just can't help having the feeling that that part of the game was made easier, I may be mistaken (I'd be quite happy if that was the case) but I do recall that in one of the many Valve updates they did make the lift battle from HL2 Ep1 easier. Its the one where you are in the underground chamber (carpark?) and its total darkness, you are assaulted from all sides by assorted zombies and you and Alex have to hold out until the lift arrives. Some of the changes that were made (as per the update report supplied by Valve at the time) were to give you more shotgun ammo and include med kits in the lift when it does arrive. I reckon that this has stuck in my mind and because I found the Nova Prospekt fight easier I automatically assumed this was tweaked as well.
I still find that bit difficult. When I started running around trying to find flares to get the flaming zombie achievement it actually got a bit easier. And also utilising all the bricks/heavy objects with the grav gun saves ammo and gives 1 hit kills. Still find ravenholm spooky, although it's not as bad now that I know where everything is and what jumps out at you. Still get a rush when trying to run away from the antlion gaurdian, desperately trying to get into the small hole while hearing the footsteps rushing up behind you, in Ep1 before you get to the silo bit where the two guys with turrets are.
I was fresh to PC FPS games at the time so my skills were sorely lacking, plus I wasn't used to the Source engine's quirks. 1000 hours of CSS later and I had no trouble at all, on hard it's not actually that hard a game, just a pleasant challenge.
Very few games I've played in the past 9 years have felt so polished as HL2 did. Hell, a lot of physics engines still leave a lot to be desired compared to Source.
I don't really reckon that the Hard setting on HL2 was all that bad, I read somewhere the main challenge was that your weapon damage was reduced and the enemy hit points were increased.
Same year eh? I never played it I loved Pod Racer but that was earlier I think? Agree. Wondering when we'll have that kind of excitement about new game tech again? I think it will come... just don't know how or when.
Cryengine was sort of exciting, but it was more evolution then revolution. To think that id Tech 4 was the best looking engine in early 2004 only to be immediately trounced by Source just as it was released to the wider dev community. Must have hurt id that one.
It was ID's own fault. They are the last of the dinosaurs who take 8 years+ for a game. Doom 3 took so long that HL2 came along and made it look utterly boring. Doom 3 was fantastic for scare factor but utterly boring with it's endless dark tunnels. They tried to spice it up by stealing the gravity gun from HL2. FAIL. And now it's reached the point we're not even waiting for Doom 4. Yes it's mentioned once in a while but does anyone really expect it? John Carmack puts all his time into rocket engines.