Half-Life 2 and Ep2 Achievements + HDR [UNOFFICIAL update]

Joystiq article

Thread on steam forums
I recommend skipping over to page like 7 or 8 and there's a torrent link that's a lot faster than the fileshare links. 1.4GB update.

Keep in mind this is unofficial, but the achievements look legit and the achievement unlocker for steam shows there are achievements for HL2 but never yet released..who knows! Vids in thread link as well. This may make me install HL2 and Ep2 again =)

 

Wow, nice. Makes me wonder (again) when Ep 3 will be released? Although I have a feeling that they will have a completely revamped engine for EP3 and then most likely re-release everything else with the new engine.

 

I'm gonna guess that EP3 will still use the source engine, but yeah revamped, kinda like L4D. And then I hope you're right, just redo everything else along with it

 

Well, yeah, I guess revamped. Still Source. Just kind of frustrating that it's been so long since Ep2 was released, and no work when Ep 3 will be.

 

I wouldn't consider HDR an improvement.

 

If you don't care about achievements, the Fake Factory Cinematic Mods (many versions to tickle your fancy) have been around for years with updated textures, lighting, models etc... for all the HL2 games.

 

Last I checked the fakefactory stuff was bloaty with things like unnecessarily high res textures, giving Alyx huge shiny cleavage, way too much attention to detail on the faces compared to anything else, and stuff that made it run inefficiently and look odd.

This mod looks much more balanced and scalable to machines without 64bit OSes and tons of memory.

 

Well "unnecessarily high res textures" is a very subjective point. But I'd agree that the latest versions are rather massive. I have used V4 from a few years ago and it does a fantastic job (on 32bit XP ). Granted the hi-res textures mean slightly longer load times but the models and paint job they gave HL2 in that version was excellent.

Anyways I just wanted to point out that they existed already.

 

I was going to say something similar. The character models looked awesome with fake factory, but everything else didn't look much better, if at all. It was kind of like putting spongebob in a real world backdrop (but opposite).

 

you may not have installed the full package Laz, the CM10.1 mod changed the entire environment dramatically for me, it even totally changed up the layout of some areas.

some good comparison shots here: http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,...ker-look-Top-article-of-August-2009/Practice/