Details on Half-Life 2’s Xbox release have been scant, with the comings and goings of the PC version getting all the attention of late. Valve’s Gabe Newell, however, has confirmed that Half-Life 2 is already up and running on the mean green (and black) machine. Apparently it’s not suffered much during the conversion process either, with only a slight graphical disembowelment needed to keep the speed up. That would mean that Half Life 2 on Xbox should look nigh-on incredible.
Microsoft has yet to agree a fixed release date, but bearing in mind its recent proclamation that its future scheduling strategy would deviate from the Q4 focused norm, it might not be this year. Apart from anything else, an autumn release for Half-Life 2 could negatively impact sales of Microsoft’s own Halo 2. Regardless of when it arrives, Half-Life 2 will almost certainly become one of the best games that the console has yet to host.
Microsoft has yet to agree a fixed release date, but bearing in mind its recent proclamation that its future scheduling strategy would deviate from the Q4 focused norm, it might not be this year. Apart from anything else, an autumn release for Half-Life 2 could negatively impact sales of Microsoft’s own Halo 2. Regardless of when it arrives, Half-Life 2 will almost certainly become one of the best games that the console has yet to host.
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Comments
smagic 3 Jun 2004 16:20
1/7
Good news will save alot of ppl like forking out for a new £300 graphics card to play the game with most of the details intact. I get a bit annoyed upgrading my pc so i'm gonna put it on hold for awhile.Especially if it means only waiting a fews months more for the same game to arrive on consoles.
Deviluck 3 Jun 2004 21:46
2/7
yeh but you must realise that forking out for graphics cards means that your pretty much sorted for the next 3 years
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smagic 4 Jun 2004 07:47
3/7
Deviluck wrote:
>yeh but you must realise that forking out for
>graphics cards means that your pretty much sorted
>for the next 3 years
By that time xbox2 or ps3 etc will be out though. Ok it may last a couple of years but on later games i won't be able to run them at full speed and i'll have to upgrade my cpu or my ram and perhaps my hard drive as well for more room. I do enjoy using my pc but im going to wait it out before i do any major spending on it again or decide to buy a new one.
How often do you have to upgrade a console to play it's latest games thats right none except for the N64 and the Saturn but these cost very little in comparison.
>yeh but you must realise that forking out for
>graphics cards means that your pretty much sorted
>for the next 3 years
By that time xbox2 or ps3 etc will be out though. Ok it may last a couple of years but on later games i won't be able to run them at full speed and i'll have to upgrade my cpu or my ram and perhaps my hard drive as well for more room. I do enjoy using my pc but im going to wait it out before i do any major spending on it again or decide to buy a new one.
How often do you have to upgrade a console to play it's latest games thats right none except for the N64 and the Saturn but these cost very little in comparison.
Joji 4 Jun 2004 11:04
4/7
This is the big problem with PC gaming. Technology moves so damn fast you hardly have time to catch your breath, upgrade and get a chance to play a game before the next s**t hot graphics card comes out.
It's costly and very annoying too. They say that these cards will last for a few years, but this is shortened when some other developer has a new s**t hot graphics engine, which requires you to upgrade or get a patch or something.
Damn, when is this graphics card/engine stuff gonna stop or at least slow down? I don't care how many polygons etc Half Life can push, just give the bloody game to us and be quick about it. Half Life 2 is long overdue, to the point it's taking the piss, and we don't need another mega delayed game like Heart Of Darkness.
Perhaps too much freedom on the PC is a bad thing for developers, because when you fly too high, your wings will eventually fail you. If Half Life 2 was a console game it would have been finished ages ago, because you have to get creative with the limited tools available within a consoles means, also the competition would leave you standing if you took too long. PS2 is still receiving stunning looking games, and it's been out for a good few years now. Should be interesting to see how HL2 runs on Xbox.
It's costly and very annoying too. They say that these cards will last for a few years, but this is shortened when some other developer has a new s**t hot graphics engine, which requires you to upgrade or get a patch or something.
Damn, when is this graphics card/engine stuff gonna stop or at least slow down? I don't care how many polygons etc Half Life can push, just give the bloody game to us and be quick about it. Half Life 2 is long overdue, to the point it's taking the piss, and we don't need another mega delayed game like Heart Of Darkness.
Perhaps too much freedom on the PC is a bad thing for developers, because when you fly too high, your wings will eventually fail you. If Half Life 2 was a console game it would have been finished ages ago, because you have to get creative with the limited tools available within a consoles means, also the competition would leave you standing if you took too long. PS2 is still receiving stunning looking games, and it's been out for a good few years now. Should be interesting to see how HL2 runs on Xbox.
config 4 Jun 2004 14:27
5/7
smagic wrote:
>Good news will save alot of ppl like forking out
>for a new £300 graphics card to play the game
>with most of the details intact. I get a bit
>annoyed upgrading my pc so i'm gonna put it on
>hold for awhile.
But that just it, isn't it?
If HL2 is gonna require a brand new X800 graohics card to play slick, smooth and juicy, how the hell is the crumbly old Xbox going to cope?
Anyone?
It isn't, is it?
Valve will surely dish up a watery version that will run at an acceptable speed on nVidia's ageing Xbox GPU.
So, Xbox owners are going to be playing a less graphically rich version - just as anyone with a PC backed by a gfx card that uses technology that's less than a couple of years old.
To summarise, you could wait and get it on Xbox or play it at launch on a recent but not cutting edge PC and have the same visual quality (better game play on PC - see below)
>Especially if it means only
>waiting a fews months more for the same game to
>arrive on consoles.
Sure you can wait a coupla month - to play a game that's right at home being played with a kayboard and mouse. I don't believe that anybody can honestly say that any FPS is more playable with a joypad than a kb/mouse - even the near-perfect Timesplitters2!
G.
>Good news will save alot of ppl like forking out
>for a new £300 graphics card to play the game
>with most of the details intact. I get a bit
>annoyed upgrading my pc so i'm gonna put it on
>hold for awhile.
But that just it, isn't it?
If HL2 is gonna require a brand new X800 graohics card to play slick, smooth and juicy, how the hell is the crumbly old Xbox going to cope?
Anyone?
It isn't, is it?
Valve will surely dish up a watery version that will run at an acceptable speed on nVidia's ageing Xbox GPU.
So, Xbox owners are going to be playing a less graphically rich version - just as anyone with a PC backed by a gfx card that uses technology that's less than a couple of years old.
To summarise, you could wait and get it on Xbox or play it at launch on a recent but not cutting edge PC and have the same visual quality (better game play on PC - see below)
>Especially if it means only
>waiting a fews months more for the same game to
>arrive on consoles.
Sure you can wait a coupla month - to play a game that's right at home being played with a kayboard and mouse. I don't believe that anybody can honestly say that any FPS is more playable with a joypad than a kb/mouse - even the near-perfect Timesplitters2!
G.
smagic 4 Jun 2004 14:55
6/7
config wrote:
If HL2 is gonna
>require a brand new X800 graohics card to play
>slick, smooth and juicy, how the hell is the
>crumbly old Xbox going to cope?
If they don't mess it up i think the xbox will cope. I know that the xbox has s**te specs when you put it up against a pc but it has several advantages.
Even though the specs arn't impressive all xboxs are the same so developers can concentrate on getting the most of what they're given. The problem with the pc is that there is such a broad range of different equipment that games developed for them are generally unoptimised as they do their best to get it working on as many modernish pcs as possible.
You only have to look at the ps2 with it's measly 4 meg graphics chip. But put it up against a pc with a 4 meg graphics chip. You won't get pc games that only require a 4 meg graphics cards for a game with the same qualities it would be more like 64 with a much faster cpu.
As long as they don't attempt a straight port then i've got faith in valve to deliver the goods.
Your also forgetting that the xbox hasn't got an os taking up ram and cpu time and all the games run extremley close to the bone. I can't remember all the details but pc programs have to get through s**t loads of stuff.
>Sure you can wait a coupla month
>- to play a game that's right at home being
>played with a kayboard and mouse. I don't believe
>that anybody can honestly say that any FPS is
>more playable with a joypad than a kb/mouse -
>even the near-perfect Timesplitters2!
Your probably right here but if they adjust the difficulty and get the pacing right it won't bother me any.
If HL2 is gonna
>require a brand new X800 graohics card to play
>slick, smooth and juicy, how the hell is the
>crumbly old Xbox going to cope?
If they don't mess it up i think the xbox will cope. I know that the xbox has s**te specs when you put it up against a pc but it has several advantages.
Even though the specs arn't impressive all xboxs are the same so developers can concentrate on getting the most of what they're given. The problem with the pc is that there is such a broad range of different equipment that games developed for them are generally unoptimised as they do their best to get it working on as many modernish pcs as possible.
You only have to look at the ps2 with it's measly 4 meg graphics chip. But put it up against a pc with a 4 meg graphics chip. You won't get pc games that only require a 4 meg graphics cards for a game with the same qualities it would be more like 64 with a much faster cpu.
As long as they don't attempt a straight port then i've got faith in valve to deliver the goods.
Your also forgetting that the xbox hasn't got an os taking up ram and cpu time and all the games run extremley close to the bone. I can't remember all the details but pc programs have to get through s**t loads of stuff.
>Sure you can wait a coupla month
>- to play a game that's right at home being
>played with a kayboard and mouse. I don't believe
>that anybody can honestly say that any FPS is
>more playable with a joypad than a kb/mouse -
>even the near-perfect Timesplitters2!
Your probably right here but if they adjust the difficulty and get the pacing right it won't bother me any.
mrnull 6 Jun 2004 08:32
7/7
>If HL2 is gonna require a brand new X800 graohics
>card to play slick, smooth and juicy, how the
>hell is the crumbly old Xbox going to cope?
>
>Anyone?
Well, the cool thing about consoles (besides the lack of need for upgrades/drivers) is that they have practically no overhead. When there's no bloated OS to hold them back, it's amaizng some of the things they can do.
I remember the Dreamcast surpising the number of poly's anyone could have ever imagined it'd push through time-perfected streamline programming. Unfortunately though, this is a port of a PC game. In true XBox fassion it will probably be ported terribly.
FPS' are definately better on the PC, but there's something about being able to play them on your TV with your friends that makes them all worth while.
>card to play slick, smooth and juicy, how the
>hell is the crumbly old Xbox going to cope?
>
>Anyone?
Well, the cool thing about consoles (besides the lack of need for upgrades/drivers) is that they have practically no overhead. When there's no bloated OS to hold them back, it's amaizng some of the things they can do.
I remember the Dreamcast surpising the number of poly's anyone could have ever imagined it'd push through time-perfected streamline programming. Unfortunately though, this is a port of a PC game. In true XBox fassion it will probably be ported terribly.
FPS' are definately better on the PC, but there's something about being able to play them on your TV with your friends that makes them all worth while.