I just reinstalled HL2 in Steam to view this update... Edit: Btw, Ravenholm was so scary when I played it through the first time...
Oh god yes it was! Those jumping zombies are scary as hell, and the sounds they make jeezus! No one goes to Ravenholm...
If you reverse the zombie sounds they are actual cries for help. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhD-vd7PXY4
Mostly the water from what i've seen, everything else is a bonus. I hear they tried fiddling with the texture, but decided it detracted from the look of the game and just went for shader effects and lighting. yabba my icing! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DQn4c51Qz0
I was just going to say, I just finished downloading the Fakefactory mod. Now just to twiddle my thumbs while it installs an additional 47.5GB of content. Then there's the update...
I have to disagree. For me, Cinematic Mod is like spraying beautiful mural with some cheap graphitti, completely ruins atmosphere and mood.
Sure I can see why people would hate it as the base game is loved so much for nearly everything it does including art style, etc. So I can see your point, if it ain't broke don't fix it. But on its own Cinematic Mod is gorgeous even by today's standards.
The only thing I don't like about the CM Mods are the (albeit optional) Character models which look a tad out of place in the HL Universe...especially for Alyx.
I dunno... now that I think of it, most that CM succeeds in is being a huge distraction. Yes it's pretty, it has nice textures, but basically... they make my eyes bleed. CM is the exact opposite of this mod, which feels in place and like a natural Source evolution.
Looks ok, though it could of used a bit of added vegetation and extra objects laying around. If theres one this that turned me off about the game, it was its popup book looking level design.
you guys reminded me of HL2 and thought I should try playing it again, apparently its been quite a while, lol.
That's weird, that's an epoch for computers, wonder how that got there. Games on steam store the last played date locally for some reason, even though it somehow remembers the order in which I last played games.
Just finished downloading CM2013 last night. Will see if a fresh playthrough will change my perspective on HL2. Edit: Aaaannnd I just realized that I still need to download HL2, ep1,2. Argh.:bang:
Played around with the update for a few hours, don't really like it. They totally changed the lighting, the drab atmosphere is basically gone and everything looks more sunlit now.
Thats why i went with CM, this update doesnt deserve the attention its getting. CM should be up on steam with approval from Valve. Not some built enb/swtfx preset. Version after version and the amount of effort thats gone into CM and to get passed over from Valve for this. Id say sod it and not bother modding another valve game again. Not that valve make games anymore.
This mod claiming to be an update really does itself too much justice. Valve's regular engine updates to the game have made it look far better over time, objectively, then this supposed update. The changes made in this mod are minuscule, and more importantly subjectively better. In order for something to be an update there needs to be no doubt that it's been improved, subjectivity has no place in such a goal. It even claims to fix bugs, while adding a crap ton of game breaking bugs in the process. I suspect a lot of people would be upset if this mod was actually an 'update'. The mod really needs to be renamed. FakeFactory's Cinematic Mod is far, far, better. So much more work went into it. And while CM is still subjective change, it doesn't claim to be an 'update'. The simple fact that CM adds much better textures while keeping the art style already puts this other 'update' mod to shame.