Halflife 2 also planned for xbox

theciscokid

“Half-Life 2 is planned for the PC and Xbox. We've announced the shipping date for the PC version and we'll announce a shipping date for the Xbox version later in the year”, stated Doug Lombardi, director of marketing at developer Valve.

from spong

the xbox is looking alot more tempting these days

Sarky

Oh great. Just wait for Microsoft to buy all the rights and release it on XBox first.

monument

Originally posted by Sarky
Oh great. Just wait for Microsoft to buy all the rights and release it on XBox first.

Is that some type of joke? Because it's not going to happen.

Dcully

The main reason i dont see this as exciting news is xbox is not going to have all the amazing mods for it.
Im wondering what its going to look and play like, i have my doubts TBH.

Creamy Goodness

according to CVG microsoft have not confirmed HL2 for the X-Box
click here

any if it does come out on x-box it will be better on pc i'm still sticking by the means of you can't properly play an FPS without a mouse! plus the graphics will have to be toned down for the x-box along with the physics of the game

monument

Originally posted by Dcully
The main reason i dont see this as exciting news is xbox is not going to have all the amazing mods for it.
Im wondering what its going to look and play like, i have my doubts TBH.

Why cant it have "the amazing mods" or at least some type of mod vie a download on Xbox Live? Maybe not?

monument

Originally posted by Cr3m0
according to CVG microsoft have not confirmed HL2 for the X-Box
click here

"Monday 9th June 2003" Thats a day old, see...


HALF-LIFE 2 DEFINITELY XBOX, SAYS VALVE
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/news/news_story.php?id=92313


Valve re-confirms Xbox commitment for Half-Life 2
http://gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?section_name=pub&aid=1779


Half-Life 2 confirmed for Xbox. Well, duh!
http://spong.com/x?art=5058

Dcully

Mods are created by the modding community and are usually better than or build upon an existing game .
They are created using to exact tools the developers use to create a game.
These modders seem to be more in tune to what gamers want as they are gamers them selves hence some fantastic mods.
Mods are anything from Counterstrike ,Day of Defeat for Half Life to Desert Combat for Battlefield 1942.
For a lot of folk the idea of a game getting mods is a lot got to do on whether a game is bought or not ,well for me atleast.
Correct me if im wrong but the chance of xbox games getting mods is very slim.Im no expert but i dont know of any means of creating an xbox mod on a computer and then uploading to xbox live,i doubt that Microsoft would allow this even if it was possible.
Thank god for the PC ,the main reason i have a pc is to get all the extra mods free and then play them online .

On the issue of console running HL2 ,TBH it simply doesnt have enough horse power under the bonnet.
PS 3 maybe ? who knows?

monument

Originally posted by Dcully
Correct me if im wrong but the chance of xbox games getting mods is very slim.Im no expert but i dont know of any means of creating an xbox mod on a computer and then uploading to xbox live,i doubt that Microsoft would allow this even if it was possible.

Yes maybe very slim, but a good idea for Xbox Live (if it can be done?). Free stuff like extra levels have been seen on Live, why not a mod?

Retr0gamer

Don't expect Valve to have even started an xbox version. It will be out a year and a half later at the least. By that time we will all have played it to death on the PC and the new Nintendo console should also be around the corner not to mention the other consoles after it. If you have a PC then theres no need to get an xbox for HL2. If you want to play HL2 then get a PC. It will be a far superior game on the PC.

Tusky

pffft Games like half life are much beter with keyboard mouse anyway plus you wont be able to get mods on the x-box version ,
and theres no chance it will come out on X-Box before PC, no SEEEEEREY

Dcully

Yes maybe very slim, but a good idea for Xbox Live (if it can be done?). Free stuff like extra levels have been seen on Live, why not a mod?

Those extra levels come from the game developers not 3rd party people.
Simple answer get a pc.

monument

Originally posted by Dcully
Those extra levels come from the game developers not 3rd party people.
Simple answer get a pc.

hmm, are the people who made CS now working for/with a publisher?

There’s NO way I’m saying that the PC version wont be better. I can’t wait for it.

All I’m saying is with consoles with harddrives and internet connections things like moding should be seen as a possibility in the future. If consoles take advantage of things which are in PC gaming with out becoming PCs it would be brilliant.

Deadwing

Personally i think its great news, not being able to afford a few grand for a top of the range pc, i can play it on my xbox. As with wofenstein, i was waiting years to play that, cause my p.c sucks, so i got it on xbox and damnn it was sweet I dont give a flying f**k at a rolling donut about mods, using a mouse, or the physics engine being "toned down", all i know is ive got a machine under my tv thatll let me play HL2 and Doom 3....result!!!

Dcully

I agree monument but since MS own xbox live and everything connected to it they will not allow 3rd party stuff and thats only for starters .
Secondly xbox live is not the world wide web,all it is is a game lobby sort of like a gaming site like Gamespy thats it .
For the forseable future its not gonna happen.

Dcully

Personally i think its great news, not being able to afford a few grand for a top of the range pc, i can play it on my xbox. As with wofenstein, i was waiting years to play that, cause my p.c sucks, so i got it on xbox and damnn it was sweet I dont give a flying f**k at a rolling donut about mods, using a mouse, or the physics engine being "toned down", all i know is ive got a machine under my tv thatll let me play HL2 and Doom 3....result

Without trying to start a console V PC silly war.

1. I wonder have you played any mods ?If you did you would realise their value ie,amazing online and single-player games which cost nothing.

2. Wolfenstein is complete kack on xbox,framerate is terrible.

3. your xbox may run HL" and Doom 3 but its going to look miserable.

4. First person shooters need a mouse/keyboard setup.Anything else is just sloppy and very very inferior.

5. I have an xbox and enjoy some stuff on it but TBH FPS games are not on the list.

Deadwing

Ugh. Again, i have to restate that im not a P.C gamer, so i really, really, really dont care about mods or whatever, just like im sure you dont care about console FPS's.
So HL2 and doom 3 are going to look miserable, right? Sure maybe compared to the most powerful bloody comp around itll look inferior, but that doesnt mean the graphics are magically going to look like doom 1 just because its on xbox and not pc. And how good is your pc? Because i guarantee unless its the best on the market at the moment, neither of those games are going to look as good on it as they do in their screenshots.
Does Halo look miserable? Or have crap physics? No, its all just down to how its ported whether it ends up looking crap. Good coders=good conversion.
And Sure wolfenstein has a choppy framerate, but that doesnt make it any less enjoyable, im finisging it for my second time now and still loving it. I cant bloody wait for Doom 3 and HL2, regardless of framerates or mouse issues.

Dcully

Ok im a game fan regardless of format.
Halo looks sweet,but turn it to 60 hz mode on a 100 hz tv and framerate drops bigtime .I did have some fun though playing it linked with friends but it wore off too qiuck.
I agree with you about coders etc getting it right but disagree about framerate.
framerate is king in fps games and tbh wolfenstein and medal of honour plod along at a really slow pace.
Im glad ur happy playing and looking forward to stuff that is really choppy,im not!
Dont get me wrong i love some console stuff especially Pro evo soccer 2 on PS2 ,amazing !but too often recently when consoles get PC ports framerate is poor.

uzami

Valve will release the SDK (developers kit) for Half Life 2 before they release the game.

The main reason i dont see this as exciting news is xbox is not going to have all the amazing mods for it.

Of all the mods available for pc games only a few are 'amazing' , the vast majority are run of the mill.

but since MS own xbox live and everything connected to it they will not allow 3rd party stuff and thats only for starters .

I do recall reading that Developers can submit mods for the Xbox to Valve who would then (if good enough) put them on the servers for Xbox Live download.

Anywho...the xbox will be able to handle Half Life 2 at a lower resolution....Christ, a low spec PC will be able to handle Half Life 2 at a lower resolution.

Halo looks sweet,but turn it to 60 hz mode on a 100 hz tv and framerate drops bigtime

I have a 100hz TV, and never had any framrate problems with Halo.

As with wofenstein, i was waiting years to play that, cause my p.c sucks, so i got it on xbox and damnn it was sweet

I got Wolfenstein for the xbox as I have only recently upgraded my pc, and it would have gone straight back to the shop if it wasn't for Xbox live. The single player is a turgid affair no matter what it is run on.

BLITZ_Molloy

I think what alot of people are trying to say is PC to console FPS ports are usually muck. Unreal Championship, Wolfenstien, Serious Sam were all pretty woeful.

If you're going to do a FPS on a console it needs to be designed around the system to be anything near playable e.g. Halo, Timesplitters 2, Goldeneye.

It's possible that Valve or Id will take their time and really hone the game to make it work on Xbox, but it's unlikely. Deus Ex 2 could fare better because its a more slow paced experience less dependant on razor sharp keyboard/mouse control.

Bottom line is you shouldn't buy an XBox to play PC games. The format is going to live and die by its exclusives.

Retr0gamer

If you played the sinfully bad PS2 version of Deus Ex you wouldn't have so much high hopes for the xbox version.

Praetorian

The Xbox should be able to run HL2 fairly well, albeit at a lower resolution and possibly with reduced draw distance.

The Cube and certainly the PS2 wouldn't have a hope of running the game at acceptable detail levels.

God help the console owners with their auto aim It's like FPS's for kids

retrogamer

Shut up Prae. The only fps on a console is Metroid Prime and just happens to be the only console fps you have played except for Halo. Anyway Metroid is more of a platform game than a fps. If you played goldeneye or medal of honour you would also realise that their control systems are far more realistic than the mouse and keyboard (not smoother but realistic). And after seeing the low framerates of Halo and Wolfenstein on the fat bos then I don't think HL2 will look all that good or run all that well.

Retr0gamer

god damn it. Domeday I'll get round to deleting that old alias.

Sarky

Just read a quick preview in PC Zone (hey, they can't by lying all the time...) with a few pics. 'Tis really looking fabulous. There's a cool dirty great alien mutha that looks suspiciously like those three legged walkers from War of the worlds running amok and causing mayhem... Nice.

Epitaph

Haven't played Metroid Prime yet (I know!) so can't comment on it's aiming system, but regarding retrogamer's comment on Medal of Honor's aiming system:

THe aiming in that is ridiculous. I've got it on the Gamecube, and I've played it more than most of my other games put together (except ED), but the aiming system is archaic! It's completely ruined my l33t TimeSplitters 2 sk1llz!

And more realistic? Have you tried turning in a tight circle in GoldenEye with a 5-year old joypad!?

*weeps*

Back at Rancho Topic:

I reckon that HL2 will look like a dog's abortion on the "minimum spec" PC - look what happened with Splinter Cell on the PC. Apparently it had frame-rate like Rolf Harris' marker on lower-spec machines.

What does this mean for the X-Crate? Not much, because as sure as God made women awkward MS will pump money into Valve to make sure that the 'Box version is optimised to the hilt.

When it'll come out for the Box is another question.

jesus_thats_gre

Simple as this, Doom 3 and HL2 would be perfectly acceptable looking on the Xbox. The thing has a 733 P3 processor combined with a 64mb Geforce 3 graphics card. Combined with the modifications they made to the architecture which removes most of the the major bottlenecks that effect normal PC's. This has the effect of increasing the Xbox's abilities drastically.

The only problem regarding the Xbox is the lack of a mouse and keyboard, its impossible to get the same feel from a joypad. This alone is the only problem that will be relevent to both of these games if they are ported to the xbox.

Regarding HL2 on the Xbox, Valve have now stated that it is not being released on the Xbox: http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=52269

However Bill recons it still may happen:
http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=52272

Also if they did decide to port HL2 to the xbox it wouldnt take long.. The simple fact of the matter is that the Xbox is basically a PC, it has the exact same components that make up a normal PC, an Intel processor, standard RAM and Geforce 3.

The game is being designed to run on a similar spec PC as its minimum spec according to Valve.

monument

Originally posted by jesus_thats_gre
Regarding HL2 on the Xbox, Valve have now stated that it is not being released on the Xbox: http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=52269

However Bill recons it still may happen:
http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=52272

"Valve have now stated that it is not being released on the Xbox" - When did they do that?

The first story is about someone from Microsoft saying they "Valve is sending us mixed messages on that,".

The second story is Valve saying it WILL be on Xbox.

Retr0gamer

Have you tried turning in a tight circle in GoldenEye with a 5-year old joypad!?

I didn't say it was nice and smooth. I said it was more realistic. You're meant to stop and aim your gun before you shot just like in goldeneye. In real life nobody circle strafes and bunny hops all over the place.

Dcully

Of all the mods available for pc games only a few are 'amazing' , the vast majority are run of the mill.

Errr! im not just talking about fps games im talking about my beloved Racing sims,also flight sims,rts titles,and normal action games like GTA amongst others.
The list goes on.

Have you played any racing sim mods?Somehow i doubt it because its here where most of the mods are absolutely superb with most being created by real life professional racing drivers along with the skills of long time modders.
Dont forget these mods are absolutely free and are by far superior to anything you pay for on any console.

Since you mention Halo ,its the most over-rated game in history IMO.
Its a game of 2 halves with the first half the home side playing superb but the second half being a rather dull affair.I have played and enjoyed its multiplayer offerings.I was a master with its controls but all along myself and my mates kept thinking "god i wish i had a mouse id kill 10 enemy while i got 1 with this silly pad.This linking up lived a very short life with us,im the onlyone left out of 12 that has an xbox now.Its a nice dvd player.
As someone said its like fps games for kids.

Retr0gamer

Maybe so but if you think about it since half life there hasn't been any decent PC FPS that came close to Timesplitters 2, Metroid Prime or Halo (have to agree with your assesment of Halo though) despite crap controls. MOHAA came close but that is my opinion and a lot of people didn't like that game. You seriously can't say that Ravens offering matched the originality or inventiveness of these games and since HL the only games that has taken the FPS genre in a new direction is Metroid Prime. On the PC theres really only Operation Flashpoint that tried anything new.

I hope HL2 lives up to the hype and I'm sure it will. It's just that the PC FPS's are being surpassed by the console ones even if they have dodgy controls. HL2 will be the kick up the arse that PC FPS's desperately need.

Sarky

Even if HL2 doesn't live up to the hype (God forbid), I reckon it's still be worth getting for the mods that will surely follow. On the PC, anyway.

Dcully

Maybe so but if you think about it since half life there hasn't been any decent PC FPS that came close to Timesplitters 2,

Think about all the superb mods form half life,counter-strike,day of defeat,firearms,team fortress classic,natural selection.
Thats more than enough to keep any fps fan busy since HL.

Battlefield is an absolutely amazing online experience as is Desert Combat mod for it.
Dues ex was superb,as was system shock 2.
Alien versus predator was great too[bloody scary].
I could go on.

It's just that the PC FPS's are being surpassed by the console ones even if they have dodgy controls.

LOL cmon your kidding right?Thats the best laugh id had this week ,and i have visited 2 of my favourite humour sites this week.
LOL!!!!!!!!!!

theciscokid

dont be surprised if u see hl2 on ps2 and gc , it was hinted at a multi-console release

gc could handle - tis a beast

Thorbar

Originally posted by Retr0gamer
I didn't say it was nice and smooth. I said it was more realistic. You're meant to stop and aim your gun before you shot just like in goldeneye. In real life nobody circle strafes and bunny hops all over the place.

I think this is the second time I've asked this, have you ever actually played counterstrike? If you bunny hop or run around while trying to shoot you will get **** all accuracy and end up just spraying bullets all over the place.

Retr0gamer

I have played CS. And I'm crap at it. I think the aiming system isn't realistic in it either. Well for some people at least. There are some people that use tactics for shooting that would be ridiculous in real life but are very effective in the game.

As for Dcully. How old are System shock, AvsP and Deus Ex. Think of how long it's been since there was a decent FPS on the PC. Also the mods you listed are quite old and are based on the ancient HL engine. If you want to see what i mean about console FPS outclassing PC FPS's then you should play Metroid Prime.

Also in my opinion a drunken 4-player Timesplitters 2 match is far more fun than any tactical clan CS match.

Shinji

Yeah, well, we'll chalk that up to the great big list of things you're wrong about

jesus_thats_gre

Realistically, neither the GC or the PS2 could handle Half Life 2.

Below is the maximum Theoretical\Estimated actual performance of each console:

GC: 12million polygons/second \ 6-12million polygons/second
PS2: 66 million Polygons/second
Xbox: 125million Polygons/second


So much for the GC being a beast, its not as you can see.. The GC manages to produce better looking graphics than the PS2 due to the amount of on board effects supported by the ATI graphics chipset. But the PS2 is more powerful and this has been acknowledged by Nintendo.. Still has the best games though.

theciscokid

are you sure the poly count for gc is right, like i know its great at rendering and lighting fx but off the top of my head that sounds very low..

anyhow its not just the poly count that er counts

Retr0gamer

Hmm, looks like it's Shinji's Retr0gamer bashing month again . Sorry Shinji but is it a crime to prefer fast paced Half-life style deathmatch to the slower paced CS.

I think those figures are the figures that were released by each company. They definitely do not show what each machine is capable of. The GC figures are far more realistic and are more based on in game graphics (still I think your figure is way off). The other 2 are theoretical figures and you will never see them in game. The fact that the GC is a far superior machine to the PS2 in terms of Processor power, graphics card and from what I've seen proves these figures to be unreliable. The xbox is the more powerful machine but the GC can match it for the look of its graphics due to the great ATI card and great programming from Nintendo.

The cube could handle HL2 but would be a lot less nice looking than the xbox version because it would be harder to port and it can't handle levels that are as big as the xbox can handle.

Lastly who gives a sh*t about tech specs.They are usually made up anyway.:D

Shinji

The Xbox and PS2 figures are for theoretical throughput of unlit, untextured polygons.

The GC figure is for real-world throughput of lit and textured polygons.

The Cube isn't a million miles behind the Xbox in terms of power, and it's a much better balanced machine for game development. You're not going to see a lot of Xbox games doing things that can't also be achieved on the GameCube, but you may see some Cube games doing stuff that the Xbox can't do due to the limitations of DirectX and the PC architecture.

Retr0gamer

Wasn't there something on gamecentral yesterday about HL2 not going to be on xbox. One of the execs of microsoft said that it wouldn't be on xbox. I wouldn't beleive it though. The exec types of games companies are usually a bit thick.

Dcully

As for Dcully. How old are System shock, AvsP and Deus Ex. Think of how long it's been since there was a decent FPS on the PC. Also the mods you listed are quite old and are based on the ancient HL engine. If you want to see what i mean about console FPS outclassing PC FPS's then you should play Metroid Prime

Dont forget about Battlefield and its great mods Desert Combat and Eve of destruction.
Devastation is superb as is UT 2003.
Yeah Metroid Prime is good but as with most fps on console ,its too arcade for my liking.
Its better than Halo though.

Retr0gamer

Haven't really play battlefield since my connection is crap. I didn't find devastation all that good and was a little disappointed with UT2003. I prefer the more arcadey approach to sigle player fps. I think it's far more fun than the realistic tripe like SOF2. Thats what I liked about HL so much. The weapons were all crazy but different and all had a use. It was also quite a fast paced game. Well suppose it's what happens when you're brought up on a diet of SF2, R-type and Axelay.

Matt Simis

Originally posted by Shinji
The Xbox and PS2 figures are for theoretical throughput of unlit, untextured polygons.

The GC figure is for real-world throughput of lit and textured polygons.

The Cube isn't a million miles behind the Xbox in terms of power, and it's a much better balanced machine for game development. You're not going to see a lot of Xbox games doing things that can't also be achieved on the GameCube, but you may see some Cube games doing stuff that the Xbox can't do due to the limitations of DirectX and the PC architecture.

While I think the GC is a lot more powerful than people give it credit for, its extremely unlikely the GC could really do anything the XB cant. For one, the GPU (Flipper) on the GC is quite close to a PC GPU (the company first designed integrated AMD chipsets and it supports S3TC, a PC centric compresson tech). Secondly, Flipper chip only features a fixed function T&L unit. The leap from fixed function to programmable is akin to looking a tech demo for a Geforce2 and comparing to a tech demo for a Geforce4. Granted the fixed T&L unit is most likely much better designed and tailered to its job than the early nVidia GPUs, it still at the end of the day is inherently more limited.

The only "limitation" I can see for the XBox is nVidia's (and MS) somewhat understandable rule that devs dont write code "to the metal" but rather to the DirectX API. Since we are talking about a programable chip to begin with however, this probably wont mean much.

In what way is the GC more "balanced" in your view, out of interest?



Matt

PS: On a not very related not, Metroid Prime is not an FPS, its 3D adventure game.

Matt Simis

Originally posted by Retr0gamer
Haven't really play battlefield since my connection is crap. I didn't find devastation all that good and was a little disappointed with UT2003. I prefer the more arcadey approach to sigle player fps. I think it's far more fun than the realistic tripe like SOF2. Thats what I liked about HL so much. The weapons were all crazy but different and all had a use. It was also quite a fast paced game. Well suppose it's what happens when you're brought up on a diet of SF2, R-type and Axelay.

You apparently played a different SOF2 than me, cos I would never put "realistic" and "SOF2" in the same sentence. Operation Flashpoint was realistic, and its leagues above SOF. Its also a game that would be next to impossible to implement properly on a console, due to a myriad of issues (although for some reason its scheduled for Xbox later this year??)


Matt

Dcully

You apparently played a different SOF2 than me, cos I would never put "realistic" and "SOF2" in the same sentence. Operation Flashpoint was realistic, and its leagues above SOF. Its also a game that would be next to impossible to implement properly on a console, due to a myriad of issues (although for some reason its scheduled for Xbox later this year??)

Totally agree SOF 2 is not realistic in the way CS and DOD are.
OF takes this realism even further.

Deadwing

Thos specs are only meant to show the amount of raw polygons that can be shown on screen, and not the actual amount of IN GAME polygons, if it wasnt, that would mean the GC would have inferior graphics to the PS2, and anyone whos played Res Evil or Metroid on GC knows that thats complete bollocks.

Compare first generation PS2 titles with whats coming out now, I.E. Onimusha with Onimusha 2, the difference is unreal, even now comparing something like Silent Hill 3 to onimusha 2 you can see just how much developers are pushing a three year old console. So when you look at first generation GC and Xbox games like Halo and Metroid prime, i dont doubt for a second that given a year to port HL2 or Doom 3, it could be done easily, if the first generation games for these consoles can look this good.

And RetrOgamer, hear hear!! Id much rather sit around a tv, drunk, kicking my friends asses at TS2 or something, rather than playing against some faceless drone via the net.

Retr0gamer

Sorry if you misunderstood but I was saying that the game setting is more realistic than the setting of something like HL. I found it and it's weapons incredibly boring.

The GC is a far better designed piece of hardware than the xbox. It's far easier for programmers to get to grips with and get at most of it's potential than if they were programming on the xbox. For the power of the GC it's much easier to squeeze out that extra bit of performance than for the xbox. Or so some of the guys from konami say. I'm sure thats what Shinji means.

monument

Originally posted by Deadwing
And RetrOgamer, hear hear!! Id much rather sit around a tv, drunk, kicking my friends asses at TS2 or something, rather than playing against some faceless drone via the net.

Often more fun, getting two Xboxs and about 4 to 8 people to play Halo etc... however you can't always that, not any time you want any who.

I'm off now to talk to some people rather than talking to some faceless drones via the net.

Retr0gamer

I'm off now to talk to some people rather than talking to some faceless drones via the net.

Touche!