Specifications

HALF-LIFE 2
MAXIMUMPC JANUARY 200550
The verdict for Half-Life 2 is simple.
It’s the best damn game we’ve
ever played. Note our use of the
word ever. Now that we’ve fin-
ished it and had time for the
whole experience to sink in,
we can’t stop thinking about
it. Or talking about it. Whereas
the original Half-Life put forth
sheer gameplay brilliance with
relatively low-budget technology,
the sequel evokes the same spine-
tingling play mechanics with cutting-
edge technology across the board. The combi-
nation of the two results in an unprecedented
gaming experience that surpasses the original
in every way possible.
Half-Life 2 begins some time
after the end of the first game,
where you accepted a job working
in some unknown capacity for the
mysterious “G-man.” Unfortunately,
the portal you opened with the Anti-
Mass Spectrometer in the original
game never closed. And not only
did aliens continue invading Earth,
but a new alien menace named
The Combine invaded as well. The
Combine invaders have subjugated
everyone and everything, and
enforce their rule with an iron fist.
Once again, it’s up to you to don
your Hazard suit and save mankind.
Believe us, you’ll want to lay
down some serious smack on
the Combine, as they are among
the finest set of enemy characters
ever created.
Just walking around City 17 in
the game’s opening sequence, we
approached an Overwatch guard
who was calmly defending his
post with a cattle prod. Just as
we were about to walk past
him, he knocked a soda can
off a garbage can and told us
to pick it up. Feeling smug, we
picked it up and threw it at his
gas-masked face. Take that, punk!
A split second later, he activated his
cattle prod and started chasing us.
This unprecedented level of interactiv-
ity—everything in Half-Life 2 reacts to your
actions—is a major evolutionary leap in
game design. But while the dynamic interac-
tions between you and AI characters
induce goose bumps, they pale in
comparison to the sheer awesome-
ness and limitless gameplay possi-
bilities of the gravity gun.
As covered in our technical break-
down, anything can be picked up,
thrown, or shoved out of the way with
the gravity gun. Here’s an example of
what we mean. At one point, a zom-
bie shambled towards us amid the
wreckage of several cars. We walked
between the cars knowing the zombie
would follow, then used the gravity
gun to push the cars together into a
steel vice, smushing the zombie into
a fine paste. This is uncharted terri-
tory for 3D shooters because gamers
can now react in real-time to deadly
threats in a reactive,
ad hoc fashion.
In all games prior, we’ve dealt with
threats as if they were puzzles; first,
And Now It’s Time for the Verdict
Half-Life 2 is pretty good at detecting
your hardware and setting the options
accordingly, but there are options you
can tweak to earn an extra few frames
per second or enhanced visual quality.
Unless otherwise noted, these
options are located in the Advanced
Video Options control panel in the game.
PERFORMANCE TWEAKS
On maps with lots of water, adjusting
the Water Detail setting can have a
huge impact. Simple reflections perform
well on DirectX 8-level hardware, but
the “Reflect World” setting should work
OK on DX9 hardware.
If you have a slow CPU and a DX8 or
DX9 card, you can pick up a few fps by
setting Shadow Detail to low.
If you have a slow CPU and lack 5.1
speakers, try switching the audio quality
from high to medium. That switches the
pitch shifting effects of projectiles and
explosions from high- to low-quality.
GeForce4 owners will get big perfor-
mance benefits if they open the console
and type r_fastzreject 1.
VISUAL QUALITY TWEAKS
If you have a fast CPU and videocard—
think GeForce 6800 or Radeon X800—
crank the water detail all the way up to
“Reflect all.” Everything in the game will
be reflected by every little puddle!
The high-resolution textures and mod-
els in Half-Life 2 demand high-quality
anisotropic filtering and antialiasing.
On a Radeon X800 XT card, we played
at 1280x1024 with 6x AA and 8x aniso
without dropping below 50fps.
A GeForce FX card will default to DX8
mode, but it’s possible to force the game
to DX9 mode—just be prepared for a
big performance hit. Add –dxlevel
90 to the command line of the shortcut
you use to start the game. Note that
the only “DX9-capable” hardware
that defaults to DX8 mode are NV30-
based GeForce FX cards; NV40-based
videocards, such as the GeForce 6800,
perform admirably in DX9 mode.
A couple of novelty effects are written
into the game, including a black-and-
white mode (console command mat_
yuv 1). If you type mat_hsv 1 you
can run the game in value mode, which
uses HSV instead of standard RGB to
draw the onscreen images
HOW TO TWEAK
HALF-LIFE 2 FOR
SPEED AND BEAUTY
You have many allies at your side; two of the most
trusted are Alyx and her robotic pet.
Unlike many 3D shooters, Half-Life 2’s game world is
incredibly consistent. This means that if you think some-
thing is breakable, it usually is. Here we threw a can of
white paint at a zombie. Quite post-post-modern.
is simple.
It’s the best damn game we’ve
ever played. Note our use of the
. Now that we’ve fin-
ished it and had time for the
Or talking about it. Whereas
relatively low-budget technology,
the sequel evokes the same spine-
tingling play mechanics with cutting-
edge technology across the board. The combi-
Just walking around City 17 in
the game’s opening sequence, we
approached an Overwatch guard
who was calmly defending his
we were about to walk past
him, he knocked a soda can
off a garbage can and told us
to pick it up. Feeling smug, we
picked it up and threw it at his
gas-masked face. Take that, punk!
A split second later, he activated his
And Now It’s Time for the Verdict