I agree, I even think Unreal/Unreal Expansion look better than HL2 at max settings. It´s incredible how good a 7 year old game can look. (of course I didn´t include model/texture/etc. inside that statement), I simply meant what the engine can do with lighting and other things.
Source engine has only one location to go to, the trash.
That will happen automaticly when UEngine 3.0 arrives.
Haven't played HalfLife2 yet. Not sure if this will ever happen because of the CENSORED internet requirement to registrate that .. game. Well I don't care about it. I've seen enough videos and pictures.
The only thing that is really interesting about HalfLife2 is the physics engine (from what I've seen - NOT played)
But that's only so cool because the guys on the havok developement done a good job. Valve bought the licence and implemented it in the game...it became interesting only by this.
UT2004 tough, is so flexible and its engine is such a powerful horse. I wish they had used more DirectX features.
Something like normal maps, bump maps, motion blur or shiny surfaces...the list goes on and on. Probably the framerate is way more important than laggy details everywhere..and the game is beautiful enough, so I should be happy with it because my computer wouldnt allow more stuff anyways.
The textures and models are HIIIGH detailed and this is what I love.
You can drop high-dense static meshes like an idiot all over the place and the engine will handle it like there was nothing to render. (thanks to antiportals...they can be very helpful )
The sound is cool, too. I can play the game very loud and nothing forces me to lower the volume like stupid death screams or horrible weapon sounds. (only the menu sounds have a little too much bass, including the Voice menu . I Have some problems with HW and EAX sound, tough I think a soundcard of "creative" is needed to enjoy the hardware sound?.. (nforce soundstorm and terratec aureon fun 5.1 both do errors)
Yeah the game is fun offline, too. The bots do their job pretty good, they are not very intelligent but they don't get crazy in any situation. Depends on map of course. A bot can only be as good as the map was written.
¤ MARS WARS 3! - Red Faction revamped on the unreal engine. Superiority ¤