(re: re: Sierra and Half-Life 2)
Eh, I thought Half-Life 2 looked way better than Doom 3. Even if the graphics of Doom 3 will be more detailed, it will require the absolute latest in hardware to even run at a decent speed. Half-Life 2 is supposed to work even on a P700. Ok, it won’t look great, but it will run. Also, you should be aware that the short teaser movie doesn’t give the game justice by a longshot. You don’t get to see anything spectacular there. The long E3 demo gives you an impression of how the AI looks in the game, demonstrates all the graphic effects (subdivision surface bump-mapping, all sorts of water, glass and fire effects, HUGE outdoor environments etc. etc.) and the physics engine. There’s a nice part in the movie where they use a “gravity gun” to pick up a body (with limbs moving realistically in response to the action) and uses it to push a table full of stuff down into a pool of water. Things react completely realistically to this, and it shows just how good the physics engine is. The characters also look more alive than anything I’ve seen before in a game like this. They use research from the 70’s about the face musculature to make the characters’ faces show emotions and produce perfect lip-synch. I also think that the environments in Doom 3 looked pretty boring given the resources of the game engine, where Half-Life 2 produces a wide range of interesting sceneries.