Gameaxis Unwired HL2 Review

[klsx2001]

Gameaxis, a Singaporean games publication, sent their writer Jason up to Valve to play and review HL2.

He gave it a well deserved 9.5.

Some random quotes:

"Think Doom 3 or even Far Cry was the game that rocked ya? You ain't seen nothing till you've played Half-Life 2."

"The Gravity Gun was not meant to be an actual game weapon but more as a tool for the developers to test out and perfect the physics mechanics in the game until the team proposed that the G-Gun be included in the game for cool's sake and boy, that was a damn good decision."

"HL2 while being a very visually heavy game doesn't really require behemoths of game machines to run. Reasonable mid-end machines should be able to run the game smoothly without any lag and even then, the game scarcely showed any signs of clipping and had a really smooth frame rate."

By the way, they recommended a 3.2Ghz P4 and a 9800Pro and 2Gb of Ram for good performance.

In the review there's a little spoiler about how to solve a puzzle in the air boat level. This is a free publication so Icarus, i wonder whether scans of this mag are permitted.

 

[NB.]

2gb ram? thats gotta be a typo

 

[Dre3k]

"HL2 while being a very visually heavy game doesn't really require behemoths of game machines to run. Reasonable mid-end machines should be able to run the game smoothly without any lag and even then, the game scarcely showed any signs of clipping and had a really smooth frame rate."

By the way, they recommended a 3.2Ghz P4 and a 9800Pro and 2Gb of Ram for good performance.

Yeah thats not a killer rig or anything... /sarcasm off

Mid-end machine w/ 2gb? laf

Only other game ive seen with 2gb recommended is EQ2.

 

[MajorPayne]

2gb ram? thats gotta be a typo

2GB Ram... I really HOPE that's a typo, or I am gonna be pretty peeved (I could only afford 1GB of 400Mhz DDR. Oh well, Guess I gotta turn it down to only ALMOST perfectly insanely detailed. /sarcasm

 

[Yogibbear]

No he's talking about two different things... 2gb for high end performance.... mid range would be much much lower probably only 512mb ram

 

[SFLUFAN]

I don't think you guys have to worry about the 2 gigs of RAM "reccmmendation" - that somehow doesn't make sense to me that you'd need 2 gigs with a 9800 Pro.

Even Doom 3 which was a far more graphically intensive game didn't need 2 gigs.

 

[Adrien C]

2 gigs ? But of course, I have that.

 

[JPack]

2 GB?

Bah. I'll have to suffer with my 1.5 GB.

Seriously though, I'm suprised as well. They should have recommended an X800 instead of the extra RAM - unless the game really is that RAM hungry.

Doom 3 took close to 1 GB (according to Task Manager). CS:S takes 500 MB or so after several map changes.

 

[-ZerØ]

is a ati radeon 9600xt 256mb good for hl2?

 

[jacen]

2 gigs are crap.
that is half of the overall game media in the ram.

noone is coding games to run @ high detail with recommendations of 2 gig ram, exept for mmo games where u have HUNDREDS of chars visble in an area as big as up to 5 squaremiles

 

[Prince of China]

This game will bring my computer to it's knees.

 

[Javert]

is a ati radeon 9600xt 256mb good for hl2?

Yes, more than enough.

 

[-ZerØ]

oh sic, and i got a sempron 2800..but i only got 512 ram, i need more i think

 

[NB.]

2GB Ram... I really HOPE that's a typo, or I am gonna be pretty peeved (I could only afford 1GB of 400Mhz DDR.

Huh? but in your sig you have an FX53 & 2gb of ram?

 

[-ZerØ]

lol yeah aha

 

[destrukt]

2gb ram ? go overkill.

 

[klsx2001]

Yeah i think 2gbs is way too much. Must have been a typo, i think 512megs is more than sufficient.

 

[navyseal2004]

Yup, some Valve tech said that 512MB (of free ram) would be all that you need to play HL2 smoothly. Darn, I'm from Singapore, why didn't they pick me to go? WHY??!?? ;( :d

Oh and yes, Gameaxis Unwired is free (you can just take them off the stands for free) so putting up any scans should be ok.

 

[Eon Blue]

Doom 3 didn't need even 1 gig for good performance on high. Don't worry.

 

[alan8325]

I suspect if you want to make a huge map with a lot of objects and details, you will need that much ram. HL2 campaign maps shouldn't need nearly that much though.

 

[Cukel]

Yeah, I have Athlon XP 2000+, 512megs of ram and 9600XT. I was pretty concerned, Doom 3 runs pretty smoothly on me though, with shadows and bumpmapping @ 1024x768.

 

[v1p3r]

is a ati radeon 9600xt 256mb good for hl2?

I run CSS at 1024x768, Med Textures and Models, High everything else, 2x2x with a 9600XT 256 and get 60+fps

Bear in mind i've tweaked the hell out of the thing though

 

[Spartan]

2 gigabytes my ass.

 

[bartman]

2 gb? 3.2 ghz? yes when you want to play 1600 x ... nad all on max so then what for is stress test? I have 95 fps 1024x768 all high and x4 in stress test so in hl2 there will be 20 fps LOL I dont think so or maybe stress test is a bullsh***

 

[navyseal2004]

Yeah, I have Athlon XP 2000+, 512megs of ram and 9600XT. I was pretty concerned, Doom 3 runs pretty smoothly on me though, with shadows and bumpmapping @ 1024x768.

You might want to add a bit more ram.

 

[Mikademius]

3.2, check, 2 gig ram, check, 98 pro or simular, check (6800 GT 256 clocked to ultra). SHIT, is mouse still in the requirements-list??