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Gordon Freeman is back! Along with scientist Eli Vance and his daughter Alyx, your mission is to save the world from total alien domination. See, that little incident in Black Mesa was just the beginning: now those pesky Xen invaders and a new threat called the Combine have spread across the whole Earth, causing massive amounts of death and destruction. It’s up to you to set things right.
Half-Life 2 picks up some time after the original Half-Life left off - with Gordon working for the G-Man - and takes place in and around an eastern European-type city called City 17. Multiplayer with "at least 32 players" will be included, but Valve hasn't disclosed much additional info about online play at this time (although we do know there won't be built-in co-op). For more information, check out GameSpy.com's Half-Life 2 preview.
Half-Life 2 is powered by Valve's new internally developed "Source" engine.
As for the release date... nobody really knows, and any release date estimates you see online are only guesses. This CNN Article has more:
While still shying away from giving a firm date, Doug Lombardi, Valve's director of marketing, told me the company "is currently targeting this summer for the completion of Half-Life 2".
Valve does not plan to reveal any additional information until the time surrounding the E3 trade show, where the game will once again be shown this year. E3 will be held in Los Angeles May 12-14.
To see what Half-Life 2 looks like in action, check out our extensive collection of screenshots and videos!
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Valve is still being secretive about many aspects of Half-Life 2, but here's what we've got so far:
- Allies - The cast of characters.
- Enemies - Things that will be trying to kill you.
- Merchandise - Information on all the different ways you can buy Half-Life 2 and HL2-related products.
- Press Links - Links to all the useful HL2 previews, resources, interviews, and articles we can find.
- Screenshots - Jaw-dropping Half-Life 2 pictures and artwork. Wowza!
- Story - What's a City 17?
- Videos - Videos are like moving screenshots! With sound!
- Weapons - What we know about Half-Life 2's arsenal of destruction.
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Here's other tidbits of Half-Life 2 info we've managed to pick up:
- A Half-Life 2 SDK (Software Development Kit) for mod developers will be released prior to the game hitting store shelves.
- Like the original Half-Life, Valve currently has no plans for a pre-release demo (Half-Life: Day One wasn't an official demo).
- An Xbox port is supposedly in the works, but it isn't expected to ship simultaneously with the PC version. There were rumors of a PS2 port, but those have now been confirmed as false.
- Barney is back, and all the voice actors from the original Half-Life are reprising their roles. Also returning is Half-Life's original writer, Marc Laidlaw.
- 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. Rumors about NVidia or ATI exclusivity are unfounded.
- Alyx is not a playable character. You're still Gordon Freeman, and Gordon doesn't talk. Nor will there be cut scenes.
- Scripted Sequences will be more interactive.
- ALL objects in the game world are affected by the physics.
- Movement speed of HL will be retained.
- There will be drivable vehicles in both single and multiplayer.
- Known locations: City 17, a harbor, a jail, the suburbs, a dried up ocean, an icebreaker ship.
- An upgraded Hammer editor should ship with the game, but instead of just editing maps it's now described as a "complete development environment" for maps, mods, and more.
- Valve is apparently already working on a Half-Life 2 expansion pack.
- Half-Life 3 is planned, so expect another cliffhanger ending.
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