HL2: Lost Coast Released

ALL OF THESE SCREEN SHOTS ARE FROM MY VIDEO CARD, the Geforce 6800GT OC AGP.

Lots of hub-ub going on about the new HDR capabilities of the HL2 engine. Valve has just released a Demo level entitled, Lost Coast, to help display these possibilities to the world. I was kind of hoping that Lost Coast would be a full on expansion, but apparently that's not what it was intended to be. I'll be interested to see exactly what else comes from IMO the best game engine in existance. Mod developers are free now to literally create ANY visual effect or style they wish, that's pretty exciting in this day and age. I'd love to get my hands on a programming team of 25 and go to town.

For some reason, Valve has set system requirements for Lost Coast very high, including requiring a 2.6GHz Pentium class computer, and at LEAST a GeForce 6800 Video card. Thankfully I just bought the BFG Geforce 6800GT OC and I was sure it was going to chew up Lost Coast easily. My AMD 64bit 3200+ has yet to run into a game it can't load faster than any P4, or run smoother. My roommate's 3.2GHz P4 just can't hang with this 2.0GHz AMD.

I fired up Lost Coast for the first time, and Steam popped up a little warning box stating that my CPU's clock speed (2.0GHz) is under the recommended 2.6GHz requirement. My 2.0 is just as fast as Intel's 3.2GHz machines, so I blazed ahead anyway, hoping the 2.6 was for P4s. Later I was to find that the recommended AMD speed is an AMD 2800+, which is clocked at around 1.8GHz. I ended up being right, the AMD 64bit CPU chewed it up no problem, and it looked GREAT! One thing that isn't getting old right now is this cutting edge look that all games have with the new video card.

As you can see, the HDR capabilities bring a whole new world of realism into our Half Life games. Reports indicate that the FAR CRY 1.3 patch added some HDR effects into the mix as well. Needless to say, this card is still spewing out more eye candy than I thought possible. The best $300 I have EVER SPENT, and the video card itself has gotten me interested in gaming all over again. The new games I'm playing are miles ahead of my last major time investment, Half Life: Team Foretress Classic. That game is completely archaic compared to the stuff they have now, and everyone should get started on the new games ASAP!

This pioneering HDR technology is probably most notably utilized in DoD:S on the Steam Platform. What a beautiful game to play. The look of Lost Coast is so ground breaking, it's no surprise it's coming from the HL2 engine. I was wondering what kind of things they were going to pull out of their hats. Here's a big ole fat rabbit. Nice one, Valve! Don't you dare let this be the last!