Half-Life 2 Preview

As we've mentioned a dozen times before, nearly all objects in the environment can be used against your foes. From what we've gathered so far the vehicle physics should be on a par if not better than in Far Cry. Vehicle physics also work in combination with other weapons and objects. If your vehicle gets jammed in a certain area, it can be yanked into a more appropriate position by using the secondary firing mode of the so-called Manipulator; a weapon that allows gamers to move virtually anything they run into along the way.

Other technical aspects of the game will influence the gameplay in one way or another. Each character was modeled with extreme detail, but the essence of each model lies in the perfected animation as well as the impressive amount of facial expressions added to convey different emotions. There are more than 24 distinct character expressions to illustrate specific feelings and reactions to what goes on in the story, as the player can actually notice NPC's as they emotionally react to the events in game. This is just a small sample of what the Source engine is capable of.

The multiplayer aspect of Half-Life 2 is expected to be almost as ground-breaking as the single-player game. Most of the game's MP elements are going to be carried out through Valve's online system, Steam, to deliver stuff like more multiplayer games, new maps and of course other additional content for HL 2. The interesting thing is that Steam subscribers might be able to learn more about the game's protagonists - like a more elaborate background story on the female character Alyx.

While extremely anxious to get Half-Life 2 done properly, the developers were quick to bear out their intentions to make Half-Life 3 a reality, since they have some pretty good ideas of where the whole story is going, and a third installment could definitely work well in that respect. Plus, they feel the new technology still hasn't been pushed to its limits and there's a whole range of effects and features waiting to be tested. Some of it is bound to make a serious input in the upcoming title Team Fortress 2 as well. (Yes, Team Fortress 2 has been confirmed by Valve.)

The official completion of Half-Life 2 is planned for summer 2004, without any exact launch date unveiled at this point. Valve Software will almost certainly be making an announcement regarding the exact release date at the E3 2004 next week. 2lions and Vince will be there to give a report on it.