Half Life Lost Coast: An Ocular Orgasm

Holy cr*p. I think I've fallen in love.

The Half Life engines has always had some of the best graphics you could find anywhere. HL2 raised the standard and set a benchmark that still holds solid to this day. Frankly Halflife and Far Cry have been the two games that I feel fight neck in neck for the all time best graphics.

While Farcry is (and probably be for a long time yet) an amazing game to behold, Half Life 2 has suddenly taken the lead leaving all others in the dust.

HDR: High Dynamic Range Lighting

Basically it give's your character a 'virtual' eyeball so that when he or she steps out from a dark place to a suddenly bright space the intense change in light suddenly causes a large glare that slowly fades as your characters 'eyes' adjust.

What does this do in terms of graphics? It provides an unbelievable level of graphical improvement in the game. Colors seem more vivid and vibrid, standard lighting suddenly becomes incredible, and you find yourself more easily immersed in the game and in awe at what you are seeing.

Lost Coast is the first time I've ever stared at a screen and found myself almost stupified by the intense brilliance this new lighting engine offers.

Day of Defeat offers HDR from what I researched as does Far Cry, but it's obvious that HL2's HDR blows Far Cry's version right out of the water.

Simply amazing. I highly recommend giving this new addition to the HL2 engine a test drive if your graphics card can support it. It's a blast.

~W

 

hrm ive been meaning to pick up all the HL2 games as well as the Source games for DoD and Counter Strike (BoB rulez your ass!!!!)

hrm now i DEFINITLY want them

 

You censored "crap"? XD Anyway it sounds interesting. Not my kind of game, though.