Half-Life 2 and X-Box Great News!

[Radium]

Valve Confirms Half-Life 2 For Xbox 01:14 pm - Andrew Burnes - consoles: xbox
Valve's Doug Lombardi sent this comment to GameSpyDaily after reading the report on Puget Sound Business Journal where Microsoft's David Hufford stated that Valve was sending "mixed messages" regarding the release of Half-Life 2 on the Xbox:

-_- proving this wrong.

"Half-Life 2 is planned for the PC and Xbox. We've announced the shipping date for the PC version, and we'll announce a shipping date for the Xbox version later in the year."

"Half-Life 2 Not Coming To A Xbox Near You? 10:30 am - Andrew Burnes - consoles: xbox
A report on the Puget Sound Business Journal indicates that Half-Life 2 is not coming to the Xbox. David Hufford, a product manager in Microsoft's Xbox group had this to say on the matter:


In addition, Hufford acknowledged that another anticipated combat game sequel, Half-Life 2, made by Seattle game developer Valve Software, won't be available for the Xbox as had been previously announced.
"As of now, Half-Life 2 is not going to be on the Xbox," he said. "Valve is sending us mixed messages on that."

The article also mentions that Halo 2 is currently scheduled for a March 2004 release in North America.

Will they, won't they? The tension is killing me...

Thanks to the 6 million people who sent that in."

- Voodoo Extreme (http://ve3d.ign.com/#423138)

[Blonde799]

Another star that passes my Xbox game list.:( Man, soon, I'll have to sell my Xbox because there aren't too many games to keep it afloat for me.:cry:

[DarkDragoonX]

FPS games should be confined to PCs anyway.

[SquishyMon]

Why is that great news?

[Myth]

Originally posted by DarkDragoonX
FPS games should be confined to PCs anyway.

Ive been saying that for ages. Consoles ruine the feeling of a fps with crappy playability.

[AlexMax]

I don't want to upgrade my fucking computer to play Half Life 2. Why the hell aren't they porting it to a console?

They did it with Half Life 1...

[SquishyMon]

You probably wont have to upgrade your computer, quoth planethalflife:

"While the new engine has all sorts of fancy features, it's still designed to scale and work on lower-end machines. Apparently a 700mhz processor and a video card capable of running DX6 is enough, although a 2ghz with a GeForce4 is recommended."

[AtmaWeapon]

Originally posted by AlexMax
I don't want to upgrade my fucking computer to play Half Life 2. Why the hell aren't they porting it to a console?

They did it with Half Life 1...

Because you'd have to upgrade your Xbox to run Half Life 2, and you'd be stuck in 640x480 resolution with interlacing.

To be a serious PC gamer requires cash. It is accepted that you must upgrade from time to time. Don't like it? You'll miss out on the best features of the best games.

[Radium]

Why would you have to upgrade your pc for it?... it would cost peanuts to be able to run the game, all you need is 700MHz PIII, 128MB RAM (speculated), 16MB Directx video card ;p

[Daarkseid]

Originally posted by AtmaWeapon


Because you'd have to upgrade your Xbox to run Half Life 2, and you'd be stuck in 640x480 resolution with interlacing.



Actually, the standard Television is capable of 800x600, just shy of the universal PC display standard of 1024x768. And since the X-box does have progressive scan support for playing games on HDTVs, the sharpness can also be preserved.

I still don't see why HL2 not being on the X-box is good news. If you weren't planning on getting it for the X-box, why does anyone care?

[SquishyMon]

Telivisions can display 800x600? That's news to me (you are talking about NTSC right?).

[AtmaWeapon]

It doesn't matter whether the TV can support it or not, most Xbox games run at 640x480 because of framerate.

http://hankfiles.pcvsconsole.com/answer.php?file=182


Most Xbox games will run internally at 640x480 either with or without FSAA. If you use a regular TV, it'll be 480i (640x480 interlaced). If you use an HDTV, you can run at 480p (640x480 progressive). Current high-definition televisions go up to 1080i (1920x1080 interlaced), and that's also the highest resolution supported by Xbox. If you consider FSAA (Full-Scene Anti-Aliasing), 640x480 is plenty for a current generation console.

Xbox supports the following output resolutions:
480i (640 x 480 interlaced; regular TV and HDTV)
480p (640 x 480 progressive; HDTV)
720p (1280 x 720 progressive; HDTV)
1080i (1920 x 1080 interlaced; HDTV)


http://hankfiles.pcvsconsole.com/answer.php?file=187


Most Xbox games will run internally at 640 x 480. The console supports up to 1920 x 1080, but don't expect any games to utilize that resolution. If this resolution is used internally for a game, either expect very low frame rates or low texture usage to compensate for the extra power required.

So you could run HL2 or Doom 3 on the Xbox at 800x600, but you'd have to deal with low framerate or crappy textures, and these days kids don't buy games if the graphics aren't good enough to make them spooge.

[Radium]

While most tv's can support 800x600 they're setup to run at much less 640x480? maybe less... Say you plug your computer into your tv and use it as a monitor, if you run at 800x600 most tv's will be distorted and smaller than the full screen and most tv's don't have any method to adjust this either.

[Grasshopper]

Well, right now, the news is that it is coming out on the Xbox. I'll be playing it first because its suppose to come out on the PC first, and thats all I care. Doom 3. Half-Life 2, Tron 2.0... Good year for FPS games for PC. :) Which all happen to be coming to Xbox in 2004, big deal.

[Dragon]

Good News, a system I hate is not getting a game I will love on the PC... is this the good news you are talking about? If its not, I'm still confused, but if it is, you live a sad life. I generally don't like Gamecube Fanboys, but when something bad happens to the Cube (like Capcom reconsidering a lot of its exclusivity statements) I don't start a topic and announce it as great news concerning Gamecube and Resident Evil.

Get a Life.

[Radium]

lol, the reason it's great news is because most games that come out on consoles and computer generally SUCK. If it were not coming out on the X-Box that would mean that they would focus their energy on making the game GOOD rather than compatible with the console. :P that is all. A good example would be Half-Life for the PC... it was only for the PC and has been the best game since it came out in 1998 - 5 years ago, but I'm sure that Valve is smart enough definately to not screw up HL2 ;)

[Grasshopper]

Radium, are you referring to Enter the Matrix or X2: Wolverine's Revenge? ;) But anyway, wasn't Half-Life eventually ported over to PS2 and Dreamcast? I really doubt that Valve will screw up Half-Life 2. Its one of the most anticipated titles this year, along with Doom 3. And even with Tron 2.0, all three are expected to be on Xbox in the 6 months after they are released on the PC, and I think all are anticipated enough that the developers will take care no matter what they come out on.

[SquishyMon]

Half-life was ported to Dreamcast but Sierra cancelled it when they saw that Sega was going down. The remnants of the Dreamcast version wound up in the PC release of Blue Shift.

And porting to other systems would not compromise the quality of the game, a different team would convert or it will just wait a year or two (like the console version(s) of the previous Half-Life).

[Warlock]

Originally posted by DarkDragoonX
FPS games should be confined to PCs anyway.

Exactly what I was thinking.. who the hell wants the Xbox version when the PC version will be a hell of a lot better (at least in terms of control, FPSs don't work well on controllers except in some specific circumstances, such as Metroid Prime -- but I certainly wouldn't expect a port to be good, the game needs to be designed FOR the system)

[Dragon]

Originally posted by Radium
lol, the reason it's great news is because most games that come out on consoles and computer generally SUCK. If it were not coming out on the X-Box that would mean that they would focus their energy on making the game GOOD rather than compatible with the console. :P that is all. A good example would be Half-Life for the PC... it was only for the PC and has been the best game since it came out in 1998 - 5 years ago, but I'm sure that Valve is smart enough definately to not screw up HL2 ;)

Thank you for clarifying. I agree that most PC to console ports due this very thing. However, there have been a few exceptions. From what I heard Morrowind on the PC and on the X-Box are damn near identical, but I can see your point. However as a console gamer that can't afford a new PC (mine is so old it has trouble with the old Half-Life), I still hope the greatest PC games get ported to the X-Box, or any of the three systems for that matter.