Half life 2 vs. Halo 2 vs. Doom 3, which ones the best? Options

[AngryBaby]

which one of these great first person shooters are the greatest?
i think Half life2. its amazing. put ur opinion down.

[ClaudelGFX]

lol really, Nobody knows that HL1 and HL2 are only the Game Engines ?
The games you are playing exactly,
on HL1 Game Engine you have CS (all versions) & CSCZ (Condition Zero)
on HL2 Game Engine you have CSS ( Counter-Strike Source)
Every Game Engine has his own Single Player, but those are made for training.
So when you say you're playing HL you actually say that your playing all those games in the same time. lol

Soon it will come another Game (G A M E, not another version) for HL2 Game Engine. Who will pown all FPS existing games, it will be a single problem you need a Titan not a computer ;-) and the latest GraFX Cards so you can really play`it :)
(hint: it will look like Quake 4)

Enjoy

[*RiC3xBoy*]

lol really, Nobody knows that HL1 and HL2 are only the Game Engines ?
The games you are playing exactly,
on HL1 Game Engine you have CS (all versions) & CSCZ (Condition Zero)
on HL2 Game Engine you have CSS ( Counter-Strike Source)
Every Game Engine has his own Single Player, but those are made for training.
So when you say you're playing HL you actually say that your playing all those games in the same time. lol

Soon it will come another Game (G A M E, not another version) for HL2 Game Engine. Who will pown all FPS existing games, it will be a single problem you need a Titan not a computer ;-) and the latest GraFX Cards so you can really play`it :)
(hint: it will look like Quake 4)

Enjoy

uhm...no, Half Life is a GAME, and Half Life 2 is also a GAME. The engine for Half Life 2 is called the Source Engine. Games like CS, Day of Defeat, and Team Fotress are called MODS for the actual game of "Half Life".

[uLoVeMikeRoch]

uhm...no, Half Life is a GAME, and Half Life 2 is also a GAME. The engine for Half Life 2 is called the Source Engine. Games like CS, Day of Defeat, and Team Fotress are called MODS for the actual game of "Half Life".

Let me ask you this. what IS the source engine. Not many people can answer that. Besides the obvious, "Half life 2 engine."

[EddieV]

Let me ask you this. what IS the source engine. Not many people can answer that. Besides the obvious, "Half life 2 engine."

Main Article on Wikipedia

The Source engine (officially the Valve Source Engine) is a 3D game engine developed largely by Valve Software for their first-person shooter computer game Half-Life 2 and for licensing to other developers. It provides rendering, sound, animation, lip syncing, UI (specifically VGUI), networking, artificial intelligence, and physics. Source supports both 32-bit and 64-bit environments and currently runs under Microsoft Windows and on the Xbox.

Source requires modern hardware to run with all visual and audio effects enabled, but is extremely scalable and can run smoothly on an array of older systems.

The engine debuted on Half-Life 2. Valve has also ported the original Half-Life and mods such as Counter-Strike to the Source engine (appropriately titled Counter-Strike: Source and Half-Life: Source). Other games include Half-Life 2: Deathmatch, Day of Defeat: Source, Half-Life: Source Deathmatch and Half-Life 2: Episode One.

Troika Games' Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines was the first publicly announced licensee of the Source engine. In fact, Bloodlines "went gold" before Half-Life 2, though its commercial release was contractually delayed so that Half-Life 2 would hit stores before Bloodlines. Valve later announced licensees including Arkane Studios (for the first-person RPG Dark Messiah of Might & Magic) and Smiling Gator Productions (for Twilight War: After the Fall, a MMORPG).

Ritual Entertainment announced on July 4, 2005 that they had licensed both Source and Steam for their new episodic sequel to Sin, SiN Episodes.

Warren Spector's and Art Min's Junction Point Studios has announced that it has licensed both Source and Steam for an as yet unannounced title.

The most obvious improvements of Source over the old Half-Life GoldSrc engine are in the areas of rendering and physics. Rendering now takes a shader-based approach that allows greater control over the graphics to create interesting visual effects. Source uses Direct3D exclusively for its rendering.

The physics, based on a heavily-modified version of the Havok physics engine, allows for an extra dimension of interactivity in both single player and online environments. Character death can now be handled by ragdoll physics and many physically simulated objects can exist in a map without a notable performance hit. Source also provides sophisticated vehicle physics including torque, power, gears, tire material, suspension and mode. Multiple players can be in the same vehicle, but this feature has yet to be used.

Source features 3D skyboxes, which allow for an area outside (or even inside) the accessible map to be displayed as a skybox at an exponentially increased scale with full 3D parallax. This adds a greater sense of depth to the surrounding environment, and allows for the illusion of far larger maps than the engine actually supports.
Source's advanced facial animation is demonstrated in this screenshot of Dr. Issac Kleiner and Alyx Vance from Half-Life 2.
Enlarge

Source also has the ability to simulate characters' facial expressions in real-time. Valve says that forty-two digital "facial muscles" are used for facial simulation. Lip syncing is also a major feature, and is auto-generated by SDK tools. Lip sync data is stored with audio files, allowing for easy localization of dialogue.

Source also includes and expands on Valve's existing animation blending technology, allowing any animation to merge with any other animation - including facial animation, lip syncing, and gestures. Similarly, Source supports Inverse Kinematics, or IK, to ensure character's limbs react to environments. For instance, feet will angle themselves to the surface they are on and legs will bend higher when climbing stairs. Both technologies work in real-time.

The game also also aimed to improve audio design. The sounds in the game are seperated into two distinct frequencies which are then played at an accurate volume depending on distance of the sound source, giving the sound effect realistic properites. An explosion at great distances sounds like a low pitched bellow, but up close, a sharp, loud crack. The player can also observe this effect by going near one of the talking terminals in the game, and walking to and from the machine while listening to the pitch shift.