U.K. magazine PC Gamer has an exclusive feature on Half-Life 2: The Lost Coast in its latest issue and EuroGamer.net has a report on the main details.As Doug Lombardi said in an interview on G4TV, the required specs for the level will be high-end - 3.2GHz processor, 1GB RAM and a top spec graphics card.
Valve's Victor Antonov admitted they pushed their limits to create the level:
We picked the most ambitious, most difficult area to create. It's a coastline with a lot of rocks, a village, and a church. We have a lot of wet surfaces, nature, architecture and exteriors. We wanted strong themes; very defined rocks, a lot of water, really detailed, almost organic looking architecture down to a brick and a shingle," notes Antonov in PC Gamer.
He also admits faults in the lighting of Half-Life 2 and talks about the technical details of high-dynamic range lighting; but most interestingly for gamers the new lighting tech pays off in the play:[...]Gordon is lead into the church (with a screenshot revealing incredibly detailed bump mapping techniques enabling Valve to truly go to town on creating photorealistic murals and gorgeously ornate gold incense burners hanging from the ceiling), with a chopper clearly heard in the distance. Before you know it, the chopper opens fire, blasts through the stained glass windows, sending bright light streaming into the hall. As if by way of demonstration, the light bleaches out your view, making it incredibly tough to even see what's attacking you. As Edwards notes "the light itself feels hostile".
Eurogamer.net - Half-Life 2: The Lost Coast - Subscribe to PC GamerRelated:
HL2 Lost Coast Tech Glimpsed on G4TV
Half Life 2: Aftermath First Pictures
HL2 XBox This Summer, Aftermath Sneak-Peek Next Week
Half Life 2: Capture The Flag 1.3 Released
Discussion >>
