Half-Life 2 as a benchmark
Final Words
Let's discard the dry wording of technical reviews - there have been so much of emotions for the month of benchmarking.
The first what I can't help mentioning is the undisputable leadership of ATI video cards. Their technological ceiling in the game is approximately 1.5 times higher than the competitor's (103FPS vs. 72 FPS). Where such a difference comes from is a question to the developers. Interestingly, the first benchmarks done a month ago showed quite disastrous results which could hardly be called relevant. So we had to patiently wait for adequate drivers and patches. Since then, the sound has been amended, several patches have been released, an update to the Steam client has been brought out, a Russian version has arrived, and the "Half-Life 2: Deathmatch" version has quietly downloaded. The total amount of all the updates and additions has already exceeded 1 GB. All this abundance is accessible to official users only.
It is absolutely impossible to understand what to do in this new reality to Russia's gamers if the fashion for a compulsory Internet connection with 100% online activation will capture other developers as well. Now you won't be able re-installing the OS once more on the benchmarking machine - you would simply jump with horror at the thought of having to download all this wealth again at your own cost. But if you lack a dedicated line, you'd better put the game aside.
By the way, when benchmarking with version 2215 completed and we returned the network cable to the original place, 120 Mb more was downloaded, and the game updated to version 2229.
 Yesterday, an announcement of HL2 was held - it is now available at any shop in London.Another annoying thing - it is impossible to do a repeated installation of the game on a another benchmarking machine: the number turns immediately blocked. So, what to do then? To buy another version for the sake of a dubious pleasure of running an AGP card? :-)
Of course you will - nothing to do about it. They say that the Russian version costs 700 rubles (~24$) versus the generic version at 60$.
The fact is, the game has been released in its raw state, so it had to be hastily brushed up in the emergency alarm mode. As it is always the case with games and web sites - they are never 100% ready for release. The process of fixing is endless. Simply there has come the moment when you are heavily pressed by circumstances and deadlines. You've got to release it as is and sort out with the bugs later on. It's a bit annoying, because the project was so much long-awaited. Anyway, the game was planned for free distribution with Radeon 9800XT cards, wasn't it? But we had to resort to coupons. At the luxurious announcement of X800, no promises were given any more - they simply showed just another raw demo. They are in time just for X850, six years after the start of development.
By the way, having written the phrase "the game was planned for free distribution with Radeon 9800XT cards", I recalled I must have saved a couple more coupons deep in my stores together with the sent specimens. I dug into and found them :)
 Many thanks to ASUS for our joy!Three games of the past year will enter the history as industry locomotives - FarCry, DOOM3, and Half-Life 2. They all proved to be must-haves at test labs. While all was clear with DOOM and Half from the start - the developers will draw a close attention to graphic technologies promoted by the sponsor, the guys from Croatia no one knows where they come from gave root to a truly hot battle. The echoes of it were anxiously discussed in the lobbies of every techno forum and sessions.
Who will be the favorite of the forthcoming year? The release of FarCry, DOOM3, and Half-Life 2 is not yet an end or beginning - just a minor milestone in the endless race. Let's wait and see :-)
So what about the game itself? Can HL2 be used as a benchmarking tool? Basically, yes. But provided some conditions are met. First, a meticulous preparation of timedemos. If we benchmark just a video card, the the canal map is better to use, with the sound definitely disabled. If we benchmark the platform, the scene should offer maximum details, with the sound enabled. As was already mentioned, the game requires the most powerful processor among the available - it's no good running the benchmarks with P4 2.4. Lastly, according to independently produced benchmarking results, the AMD platform is more amenable to HL2. In our forthcoming material, we will definitely verify that.
Now, bye to all, and finally I can get round to playing my favorite "Half-Life 2: Deathmatch". See you next time on the servers!
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