Post by Socom on Sept 21, 2005 17:17:19 GMT -5
September 20, 2005 - Half-Life is responsible for countless hours of gaming all told. Not only from the Black Mesa incident, but also from the number of modifications that it inspired burgeoning game developers to create. The two most popular mods from the game, Counter-Strike and Day of Defeat, still have large communities dedicated to playing the game pretty much non-stop. Because of their popularity, Valve has released both of those games as stand alone products since Half-Life's release. It's no surprise that Valve also decided to take advantage of the popularity of those games by moving them over to work in the Source engine that powered the recent Half-Life 2. The results have been quite good. Counter-Strike: Source was released to players over Valve's Steam service a bit before Half-Life 2 hit stores and now, after a wait that undoubtedly seems incredibly long for hardcore fans, Day of Defeat is now about to release with the same treatment. We had the chance to enter the hallowed gaming ground of Valve's Bellvue offices and get behind the controls of the new Day of Defeat: Source for a little play session with the developers and grab some videos at the same time.
There were several reasons to move the game over into Source (aside from the obvious financial gains) and all were apparent when loading in. Obviously the biggest change is in the visuals, which are much improved. The Source engine is a great piece of technology and the guys that created the original DoD have taken full advantage here. Great models, textures, effects, and lighting make the levels really spring to life like the never have. Day of Defeat actually takes advantage of the new high dynamic range lighting feature that has recently been added to Source as well as will be shown off in the upcoming Half-Life 2: Lost Coast level, which we also got to see… but that's a different story. When you add in the physics you've got levels that jump to life at every explosion. Of course, physics can be used for gameplay purposes as well. Nobody wants to hide behind barrels that can be knocked out of the way after all.
What might impress people even more than the visuals is the upgrade in sound quality. Gone are the canned sounds of gunfire in the background. All of the explosions and gunfire that you hear will be coming from somewhere in the level. It ricochets off of everything creating a cacophony of gunfire that is really thrilling.
I should clear something up before continuing; I've played Day of Defeat, but it wasn't among my regular repertoire in gaming. That said, my ass was handed to me on a platter for the first 10-15 minutes of playing before I got used to the maps. The gameplay is fast in these Day of Defeat maps thanks to their size and layout. There are holes to take shots from everywhere and flags are often in very difficult open areas making it a serious effort to cap when there's a determined team guarding them. Flags actually can be captured very quickly, especially compared to the slow cap rotation of a much slower paced game like Battlefield 2, but considering how quickly you can get killed and the fact that at least two teammates have to be in the flag radius to capture, these areas turn into a wicked vortex of violence.
Each of the four maps that we loaded into had something going for it. These were picked for the popularity of the city maps in Day of Defeat. All have a distinct personality, but none lack for excitement. Those of you that have played a lot of Day of Defeat will undoubtedly know them already, but here's a rundown of what to expect anyway.
Anzio
Storming the beach is always fun. When the beach happens to be 50 feet from the town, it's even pretty easy. It's when you get inside the city when things get messy. Anzio is a circular map that allows the both sides to actually circle around the entire map in order to take the flags. All are in precarious places that don't have a ton of cover, making this one deadly experience. The points of action seemed to be a bridge in the western side of the map and the flag near a broken church on the eastern side. Both of these flag points and the corridors that follow leading to other points help the map flow very well.
Avalanche
This map must be named for the avalanche of pain brought on in the center city square. The maps on either side of this square are able to be reached quickly and defended pretty well, but that center area is one tough cookie to crack. The flag sits in a wide open area that slopes down towards the Axis starting position. Capturing this flag is about working well as a team and having an amazing amount of luck.
Donner
This game was a lot of fun, partly because my team was on the offensive the entire time, but also because the game lasted the entire length of the map rotation. This is a really difficult map to win on unless there is an organized effort for the last push forward. The map is full of long narrow streets with buildings set to the side for players to hide inside and travel through in relative safety. Off to the side is another flag set in an open field with nothing but a tank and a couple of barrels for cover. For most of the match, the Allies were in control of four out of the five flags, but the last one was so well defended the game never actually concluded.
Flash
The last of the four maps we played was the biggest and most complex with it's maze of alleys and houses that allowed for different routes of travel. This map was a lot of fun as well, even with my flailing with the bazooka and heavy machine-gun. The main bit of fighting took place along a street corridor where a useless tank sits by a flag. There are several ways onto the street and the tank provides enough obstruction when entering the street from either side that it's hard to get a clean target.
Each of the maps uses the default flag capture mode where teams must capture every flag on the map in order to win the round. Players can choose from a selection of classes like rifleman, assault, support, sniper, heavy machine-gunner, or bazooka Joe and try to play a role alongside his teammates.
Each of the weapon types have very different levels of recoil so different players will have to work around the maps differently. Assault, as the name implies, are the guys that run ahead and try to take down enemies, especially in close quarters. They've got the Thompsons or equivalent which are small, have a high rate of fire, and have relatively small recoil. On the other side of the spectrum is the heavy machine-gun which requires players to click the right mouse button to set the thing on its supports while on the ground or in front of support like sandbags or window sills in order to fire with accuracy. Once in place, it's devastating but if players get caught without the gun set down to fire, pulling the trigger will bring the barrel of the gun straight up into the air. Not a good place to be when there's a gun running at you with a shovel screaming something about David Hasselhoff.
When Day of Defeat is released on Steam (it's already pre-loading so those that want it right away can get on there and grab it to be ready), players will be able to grab the game which comes with the four maps listed above for twenty bucks for those that want to buy it separately (those with the silver Half-Life 2 package will already have it). While it seems like a lot of money for a little amount of maps, it also seems pretty clear that Valve will be dedicated to releasing new maps (especially new versions of old favorites) and game types over time. Of course, there's no release schedule for these things, so it's hard to tell you how quickly more content will come down the pipe, but they hinted that there is already a lot of stuff in the works and that they had a lot of ideas for where the game should go in the future. I guess the thing to remember is that Day of Defeat: Source will have more maps and content in the future which anybody who purchases the game will get as a free download. It's really going to be up to you to decide whether that's worth it to you at this point in time. All I can tell you is that I had fun playing for a couple of hours. When the final is actually released to the public, we'll be testing it out more thoroughly.
There was a great sense of accomplishment from these dev team when talking to them after our play session. They think they've gone back into the core of the game and fixed a lot of things that they had problems with in the first version and are hoping the core audience will agree with them.
Now give a look at the 10 new screenshots and make sure to check out the movie section where you'll find a plethora of gaming goodness and a lot of me dying.
Credit: IGN
There were several reasons to move the game over into Source (aside from the obvious financial gains) and all were apparent when loading in. Obviously the biggest change is in the visuals, which are much improved. The Source engine is a great piece of technology and the guys that created the original DoD have taken full advantage here. Great models, textures, effects, and lighting make the levels really spring to life like the never have. Day of Defeat actually takes advantage of the new high dynamic range lighting feature that has recently been added to Source as well as will be shown off in the upcoming Half-Life 2: Lost Coast level, which we also got to see… but that's a different story. When you add in the physics you've got levels that jump to life at every explosion. Of course, physics can be used for gameplay purposes as well. Nobody wants to hide behind barrels that can be knocked out of the way after all.
What might impress people even more than the visuals is the upgrade in sound quality. Gone are the canned sounds of gunfire in the background. All of the explosions and gunfire that you hear will be coming from somewhere in the level. It ricochets off of everything creating a cacophony of gunfire that is really thrilling.
I should clear something up before continuing; I've played Day of Defeat, but it wasn't among my regular repertoire in gaming. That said, my ass was handed to me on a platter for the first 10-15 minutes of playing before I got used to the maps. The gameplay is fast in these Day of Defeat maps thanks to their size and layout. There are holes to take shots from everywhere and flags are often in very difficult open areas making it a serious effort to cap when there's a determined team guarding them. Flags actually can be captured very quickly, especially compared to the slow cap rotation of a much slower paced game like Battlefield 2, but considering how quickly you can get killed and the fact that at least two teammates have to be in the flag radius to capture, these areas turn into a wicked vortex of violence.
Each of the four maps that we loaded into had something going for it. These were picked for the popularity of the city maps in Day of Defeat. All have a distinct personality, but none lack for excitement. Those of you that have played a lot of Day of Defeat will undoubtedly know them already, but here's a rundown of what to expect anyway.
Anzio
Storming the beach is always fun. When the beach happens to be 50 feet from the town, it's even pretty easy. It's when you get inside the city when things get messy. Anzio is a circular map that allows the both sides to actually circle around the entire map in order to take the flags. All are in precarious places that don't have a ton of cover, making this one deadly experience. The points of action seemed to be a bridge in the western side of the map and the flag near a broken church on the eastern side. Both of these flag points and the corridors that follow leading to other points help the map flow very well.
Avalanche
This map must be named for the avalanche of pain brought on in the center city square. The maps on either side of this square are able to be reached quickly and defended pretty well, but that center area is one tough cookie to crack. The flag sits in a wide open area that slopes down towards the Axis starting position. Capturing this flag is about working well as a team and having an amazing amount of luck.
Donner
This game was a lot of fun, partly because my team was on the offensive the entire time, but also because the game lasted the entire length of the map rotation. This is a really difficult map to win on unless there is an organized effort for the last push forward. The map is full of long narrow streets with buildings set to the side for players to hide inside and travel through in relative safety. Off to the side is another flag set in an open field with nothing but a tank and a couple of barrels for cover. For most of the match, the Allies were in control of four out of the five flags, but the last one was so well defended the game never actually concluded.
Flash
The last of the four maps we played was the biggest and most complex with it's maze of alleys and houses that allowed for different routes of travel. This map was a lot of fun as well, even with my flailing with the bazooka and heavy machine-gun. The main bit of fighting took place along a street corridor where a useless tank sits by a flag. There are several ways onto the street and the tank provides enough obstruction when entering the street from either side that it's hard to get a clean target.
Each of the maps uses the default flag capture mode where teams must capture every flag on the map in order to win the round. Players can choose from a selection of classes like rifleman, assault, support, sniper, heavy machine-gunner, or bazooka Joe and try to play a role alongside his teammates.
Each of the weapon types have very different levels of recoil so different players will have to work around the maps differently. Assault, as the name implies, are the guys that run ahead and try to take down enemies, especially in close quarters. They've got the Thompsons or equivalent which are small, have a high rate of fire, and have relatively small recoil. On the other side of the spectrum is the heavy machine-gun which requires players to click the right mouse button to set the thing on its supports while on the ground or in front of support like sandbags or window sills in order to fire with accuracy. Once in place, it's devastating but if players get caught without the gun set down to fire, pulling the trigger will bring the barrel of the gun straight up into the air. Not a good place to be when there's a gun running at you with a shovel screaming something about David Hasselhoff.
When Day of Defeat is released on Steam (it's already pre-loading so those that want it right away can get on there and grab it to be ready), players will be able to grab the game which comes with the four maps listed above for twenty bucks for those that want to buy it separately (those with the silver Half-Life 2 package will already have it). While it seems like a lot of money for a little amount of maps, it also seems pretty clear that Valve will be dedicated to releasing new maps (especially new versions of old favorites) and game types over time. Of course, there's no release schedule for these things, so it's hard to tell you how quickly more content will come down the pipe, but they hinted that there is already a lot of stuff in the works and that they had a lot of ideas for where the game should go in the future. I guess the thing to remember is that Day of Defeat: Source will have more maps and content in the future which anybody who purchases the game will get as a free download. It's really going to be up to you to decide whether that's worth it to you at this point in time. All I can tell you is that I had fun playing for a couple of hours. When the final is actually released to the public, we'll be testing it out more thoroughly.
There was a great sense of accomplishment from these dev team when talking to them after our play session. They think they've gone back into the core of the game and fixed a lot of things that they had problems with in the first version and are hoping the core audience will agree with them.
Now give a look at the 10 new screenshots and make sure to check out the movie section where you'll find a plethora of gaming goodness and a lot of me dying.
Credit: IGN
