Half Life 2 is out. Unblelievable. Click the link to “read more” for my first five-minutes comments and screenshots.

I finished the unlock five minutes ago, started on the background the HL1 source download and launched the game.

The presentation is exactly like CS: Source. The option menu is polished and with all you need shown. And I have already a question: I noticed that when you launch the game you don’t directly choose the difficulty, and then I found the setting right in the options. Does it means that I can switch it when I like during the game? And it also means that the difficulty just directly change how much damage the monsters deal/take? No tweaks on yheir number and abilities?

The mini-persentation right as you start the game is so-so, the textures on the face of the guy are awesome but parts like the teeth don’t fit very well. I noticed a few hiccups with the sounds.

Then I’m in the train, I was just standing there, waiting, then I realized that I could control already the character. So I move around and …wow, the models of the characters are really better than how I expected. Quite amazing.

It’s when I went out of the train that my jaw dropped for the first time. The environment is *huge* and awesome. The work on the texture is a pure masterpiece and the whole scenery could be easily mistaken for a real life photo. The immersion you feel from the very first instant is strong due to the attention to all the details. I passed there a few minutes, just staring, looking the reflections. The engine seems awesome and, in particular, it gives a feel completely different from the plastic-like Doom3. Not that I can say that one is way better than the other, but the “feel” is the opposite. This also because of the first impact. While Doom3 let you start right in a smallish environment and proceeds with a strongly claustrophobic approach, HL2 hits directly on the “sense of wonder”. Real life photographs rendered directly on the screen. Packed with details like a challenge for you to discover somewhere something wrong. So Doom3 feels alienating, while HL2 feels real, pushing you directly inside the game. Believing to it. The small sci-fi elements like the screen on top and the flying droid fit perfectly as an odd quirk into a strongly realistic and believable world.

It doesn’t feel faked and distant like the sudden approach with Doom3. In that game you directly notice that you are in a game, with a great graphic, but still in an space that was crafted by someone and belonging to your monitor screen. HL2 has a different feel and it’s like a window you have opened to a real world. Where you entered for the first time. It looks way to realistic to directly discern that what you are seeing is false. It does the trick, even better than movies.