1. Half-Life 2
Developed by: Valve
Published by: Vivendi Universal Games
Release Date: September 30, 2003

	What's Ahead: When Half-Life 2 was unveiled to the press last month, the September 30 release schedule seemed fairly ambitious, given that all we could see were test builds from last year. The E3 demo suggests that Valve already has the game in a fairly polished state. Still, it's worth bearing in mind that the demo likely concentrated some of the most action-packed sequences from the game and that we haven't had any indication of what the actual levels will play like or how long the game will be. Valve also hasn't said much about specific multiplayer plans, though the Source engine's powerful tools suggest that we'll see some impressive new mods based on the game. There's nothing we'd like more than to have the game in our hands this fall, and all we can do now is take the designers at their word and wait.

A quick walk around the E3 show floor looking for crowds and long lines was all it took to measure the relative popularity of the games at the show. Attendees voted for Half-Life 2 with their feet, often waiting much more than an hour to see Valve's demo of the game. The Half-Life 2 demo was worth waiting for--the 25 action-packed minutes of recorded gameplay, tech demos, and in-game cinematics were simply the best entertainment E3 2003 had to offer. Valve outdid itself in putting together a slick series of action sequences that suggested that Half-Life 2 may be even cooler than it looked at the press unveiling last month. The game seems poised to make a huge impact, doing extraordinary things with physics, character animation, and AI scripting. The graphics look good, but what's really exciting about the Source engine Valve has been working on for all these years is how the technology will feed into the immersive single-player experience.

Although Valve's designers were on hand to guide the demo, the star of the show was the G-man, who came onto the screen to introduce and conclude the presentation. There's nothing quite like being stared down by the G-man--it's the eyes. Those hard, shiny eyes that follow your movement give the character an extra air of believability. The G-man is the demo's showpiece for an advanced facial animation system that uses 40 "muscles" to simulate incredibly convincing expressions in real time. It was astonishing to see the G-man rapidly switch between smiling, snarling, looking diabolical, and looking fearful. A sequence later on had your ally Alyx act out how this will work into the game, when moment of conversation explodes into an attack by the Combine.

More and more games are using physics to make their gameplay feel dynamic and directly interactive, but none models ordinary objects like Half-Life 2 does. A tech demo showing how the gravity gun can pick up and manipulate anything in the world--from mattresses and people to the broken-off letters of a store sign--hinted at how you'll be able to turn ordinary things into weapons. But perhaps even more profound are the moments when you'll blockade a door or passage with a desk, wooden boards, and mattress to try to prevent an alien opponent from chasing you, only to see the alien bust right through. Plus, seeing an armored vehicle shake from the impact of machine gun fire is a good reminder that you don't want to be hit yourself.

Half-Life 2 promises to involve us in the desperate resistance against the Combine. The fact that this isn't some abstract mission is reinforced by the allies who will often fight at your side, using the next generation of Valve's renowned AI. The demo had several sequences where squads of soldiers joined you in combat, flanking static defenses with you or taking a heroic stand against a giant, three-legged strider.

The Half-Life demo featured prerecorded gameplay, but it wasn't hard to imagine what it'll be like to play through the action scenes. With a little luck, we won't have to wait very long at all to get our hands on the game, as Valve has promised that it's on schedule for release this fall.