IGN has posted a new trailer for Half-Life 2.

Available at File Planet, the trailer runs at 1024x768 full screen. After watching it, I have to say that I am thuroughly disappointed. The game just doesn't look like it did in early screenshots.

The early shots looked like something that we had never seen before. They were detailed. They were colorful. They were rendered.

Then again, the technology demo shown at last year's E3 was beautiful. Valve displayed the game (in real time, mind you) and the crowd was floored. The physics were above anything else in the world and the graphics looked superb. This system must have been supremely high end.

I know that last sentence sounds stupid. "Obviously, the game running that well would have to be using the latest technology." Well, I don't see the game being as beautiful as was originally thought.

I base this on several things:

It seems that Valve has slowly weaned from renders to high end screenshots to in game screen shots to what we have now. The game looks average. It still looks GOOD just not as good. (This, of course, does not effect the physics model... I'm most excited about that.)

My other point: Doom 3. Now that Doom 3 has finally released to the masses, I've seen it running on a system in front of my face. Its the most realistic looking game I've ever seen. What's more is that the system wasn't even high end, rather, only average. (An Athlon 1.67 with 512MB of PC3200 DDR and a Radeon 9800) It ran the game on medium settings at 640x480. I was floored by such low settings...


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I know that I haven't seen Valve's work running in real time yet. It just doesn't look like the game that I'd originally hoped for.

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On a side note for those who play Counter-Strike: Condition Zero or have the coupon from ATi brand cards, you can play CS: Source Beta now. It's being sent over steam and is available at many Lan places. I don't play CS so I haven't seen it.