Here's an interview with Jay Stelly (the project lead for Half-Life 2) regarding this Xbox port: ruclips.net/video/dFHYmBe1zZ4/видео.html It's not particularly technical but you may find it a little interesting.
This is how I originally played Half-Life 2 before I had a decent PC. Good times. I remember only years later hearing about how "bad" it was and revisiting it, I can see why people say that. However, back when, I played through it and never noticed the flaws it had.
I think it's more of the fact that this is a low-end DSP effect carried over from Half-Life 1 when compared to the PC version. Even in open areas, it sounds like you're walking through a large cave.
Xbox was running on an nForce chipset with nvidias soundstorm audio. It was quite capable and could handle positional audio just as well as creatives audigy cards. Its a shame they discontinued it with nforce 3 to lower costs.
It's a seventh gen game running on hardware from 2001 which is honestly quite impressive the same way Doom on SNES is. It runs like shit sure but it's a sight to behold. The Xbox version of Doom 3 was actually solidly optimized compared to this at-least.
man I think they pushed the xbox to its literal limits here. What do you mean doom 3 is solidly more optimized like come on man compare doom 3 with this and its night and day. Not that I'm saying the doom 3 port isn't impressive, but this game is way more demanding.
This is the hard limit here. The OG Xbox wasn't meant to run this at all. And yet it does. Sure it's not that great, but it's the full, uncut game. Doom 3 had to be scaled back but this here isn't. It's a Pentium III running with less cache than the normal models, it's a slow machine, it has issues with physics, but on a technical level, it's witchcraft
1:00:40 supposedly the wall on the left here was installed in place of the chainlink fence from the PC version to be able to cut a visleaf to optimize this section of the map for performance. I mean sure, but the game still plays like a pure chop fest. It's basically GoldenEye64. I own this game on Xbox Original, the PAL version too (I'm not sure if this game is PAL optimized so it may be even more choppy), and it was my first experience with a Source Engine game. Very nostalgic.
It certainly wasn't the best version but there was a time this was the only game my xbox would read and i fell in love with the whole franchise after completing it and eventually replaying it on 360 and even pc
It's amazing that i even played this version, back then i didn't have access to a computer but enjoyed my Xbox and even this version, obviously alot in the future you look back on these games and remember them fondly, But now playing on a Full Blown gaming PC and going back to these games, the difference is so crazy, it really almost makes me want to go back and find this game on Xbox and find my old Xbox, fire it up again.
@@akuisbestgirl2448 Well I got my hands on an Xbox and copy of Half life 2 for it two years ago and i tell ya it was largely for the experience, sure it was laggy and the textures were softer than Chamberlains foreign policy, but it still is very much a playable half life 2 game.... Also it does have superior audio in some sections. Currently doing a hard mode playthrough, i feel like the controller and lower frame rate add an extra bit of challenge into the mix.
I have been playing halo 2 forever and I think this game could have looked better on the xbox and with less to no slowdown if they had more time to port it but I still think this is an amazing feat!!!
@@RUclipsCX9 Its not necessarily intended to be an exclusive, its juts that the only console that could handle it was the xbox. the gamecube and the ps2 could not have ran it. They have said in different interviews that the hard drive on the xbox was very critical to the performance, because 64mb of RAM was not enough, so they used the hard drive to constantly page data to to and from the drive. Not to mention that the xbox used DirectX as a base to its core functionality, which meant that "porting" a game from PC to the Xbox was really easy to do as long as it could be optimized properly. The Orange Box was a very different story. I believe they tried to develop it for the PS3 before they realized it was ridiculously challenging and they ended up giving the project to EA. That is why the Xbox 360 version is leaps and bounds better. The PS3 version had so many audio issues and framerate problems that were not present on the 360 which is why the 360 is the objectively better version of Orange Box.
It's amazing they got the entire game running on the original Xbox hardware without skipping stuff out I mean even PC'S at the time had to at least be 5X more powerful than the original Xbox to even start the game!
I've already explained that it's going to be awhile. I have more important expenses to deal with besides replacing my capture device at the moment. If you would quit deleting your posts, I'll reply to it again when I get it done.
It turns out the track is called "An Alarm" by Scraper: ruclips.net/video/PCoRThcf_XM/видео.html I did make a video of the loop the game uses here: ruclips.net/video/4yxlm7zjZNc/видео.html
i am sorry but you are really fucking wrong :( original song is called Transition Part 2, written for PC game also. it can be found in game files. Valve descided to reuse this track in Xbox port as Main Theme
Portal requires 100 times less hardware than HL2, and since everything is a close corridor it means it could be heavily optimized to make it even the PS1 run it.
@@sebastiankulche Portals are rough. PS3 couldn't keep 20fps just looking in one. A big complaint at launch was the low fps looking in Portals. It'd run good if there was a handmade portal clone designed for PS1, but even on PS2 the console would implode if it had to run OG Portal. The physics alone would cripple it.
@@coleisforrobot Portal was made for the N64 almost perfectly so idk how the PS2 couldnt run the game in the Source engine with maps that are literally an square. If even my trash early 2000 laptop can run it perfectly. The PS3 port was just poorly optimized. Some PS2 games did impressive physics btw.
@@coleisforrobot It was remade in a different engine, true, but the level design is the same (for what i saw), and physics were very accurate. I consider it on par with games like Quake 2 on PS1 in that regard. It uses a different engine but its pretty much the same mechanics.
To tell me that you ported Half Life 2 to the Xbox, which was the same console generation as the PS2, which barely struggled with the first games port. You would’ve blew my mind
Im a bit sick of this. The PS2 port of HL1 didnt "barely run" the first game, in fact, it did run better than a 1998 average PC and it also looked WAY better. It was also early on the PS2 lifespan, so it doesnt represent the limit of the console.
@@pinkmanW1 It takes like 4 seconds of loading unless you arent playing it legitimatelly. Remember that the PS2 version is based on the WON release not the Steam version.
Эта игра визивает полоижтельние емоции и впечетляет как в первый раз спустя 18 лет с момента выхода в отличие от бездисковой аликс, я не буду пользоваться стимом он пережиток прошлого делайте диски аликс
Yeah too bad valve had to hire EA for the ps3 version. I’m sure if valve understood the ps3 architecture EA wouldn’t have been involved and the orange box would be great. The 360 was my first time and it runs really well.
Philip Conboy remember this is the same generation of consoles that had half life on the PS2. So in this case, on an original Xbox it runs pretty good.
@スライアチン The original Xbox is much powerful than the ps2 and GameCube due to Microsoft having powerful tech and experienced with it before the port of HL2 for the Xbox. I would like to try it out on my Xbox 360 and probably Xbox one as well. I also have a ps2 that could run half life 1 (which is a real game for the ps2) PS3 version of HL2 sucks. Valve changed up the maps and optimized HL2 to be played on the original Xbox. It may lag but that is what it is since Xbox is 2001 hardware. It is also running on Source 2004.
Here's an interview with Jay Stelly (the project lead for Half-Life 2) regarding this Xbox port: ruclips.net/video/dFHYmBe1zZ4/видео.html
It's not particularly technical but you may find it a little interesting.
This is how I originally played Half-Life 2 before I had a decent PC. Good times. I remember only years later hearing about how "bad" it was and revisiting it, I can see why people say that. However, back when, I played through it and never noticed the flaws it had.
funny id see you here, looked this up after watching your orange box video, awesome stuff!
this is backward compatible with 360 and thats how i played it for the first time
@@sovietraccoon6007 same
playing this shit and doom 3 on the og Xbox back in the days was just mind blowing to me. Good times
the worst, but also the most impressive version of half life 2.
It's definitely still playable.
The Vortigaunts have a different texture on this version.
@@killya9571 It's the same as the PC textures before the Orange Box update. The low resolution just muddies up the appearance.
@@TyrannoWright Pre update version looks closer to the HL1 version.
I can now imagine how if this game was ported to PS2, how much it won't be able to handle the game
This is how I first experienced Half Life 2. I love this port despite its flaws. Thank you Valve, for making such a great game
This is the same experience you'd get from hanging on to a really REALLY old PC but still trying to play games on it that are new
3:53 there’s quite a lot of reverb. The Xbox had this kind of audio capabilities due to DX8 having built in EAX2 and DirectSound3D.
I think it's more of the fact that this is a low-end DSP effect carried over from Half-Life 1 when compared to the PC version. Even in open areas, it sounds like you're walking through a large cave.
Xbox was running on an nForce chipset with nvidias soundstorm audio. It was quite capable and could handle positional audio just as well as creatives audigy cards. Its a shame they discontinued it with nforce 3 to lower costs.
it makes it sound more natural, because of the huge room too.
It's a seventh gen game running on hardware from 2001 which is honestly quite impressive the same way Doom on SNES is. It runs like shit sure but it's a sight to behold. The Xbox version of Doom 3 was actually solidly optimized compared to this at-least.
man I think they pushed the xbox to its literal limits here. What do you mean doom 3 is solidly more optimized like come on man compare doom 3 with this and its night and day. Not that I'm saying the doom 3 port isn't impressive, but this game is way more demanding.
@@kiki88561 ikr
This is the hard limit here.
The OG Xbox wasn't meant to run this at all. And yet it does. Sure it's not that great, but it's the full, uncut game. Doom 3 had to be scaled back but this here isn't.
It's a Pentium III running with less cache than the normal models, it's a slow machine, it has issues with physics, but on a technical level, it's witchcraft
2:03:01 Forgot to take the shotgun.
Lol
1:00:40 supposedly the wall on the left here was installed in place of the chainlink fence from the PC version to be able to cut a visleaf to optimize this section of the map for performance.
I mean sure, but the game still plays like a pure chop fest. It's basically GoldenEye64.
I own this game on Xbox Original, the PAL version too (I'm not sure if this game is PAL optimized so it may be even more choppy), and it was my first experience with a Source Engine game. Very nostalgic.
they've done that many, many more times in this port. not just that one wall.
Thank you valvе for a good game, HL2 will delight even after 30 years
still running as good as the ps3 version
ps3 is definitely more stable than this one
Hell no
Installing it the HD solves one of the biggest issues--loading times
Do you mean installing it to the HDD? Because I’m pretty sure you can only do that with the XBOX360 not XBOX
@@retardsgaminggroup yup, hdd.
@@retardsgaminggroup any ol modded Xbox can install stuff to the HDD. And since everyone had a modded Xbox back in the day that's what people did.
It certainly wasn't the best version but there was a time this was the only game my xbox would read and i fell in love with the whole franchise after completing it and eventually replaying it on 360 and even pc
How I first played Half Life 2 when I was a kid.
I remember trying it on my uncles xbox. Been a fan since
Same here.
It's amazing that i even played this version, back then i didn't have access to a computer but enjoyed my Xbox and even this version, obviously alot in the future you look back on these games and remember them fondly, But now playing on a Full Blown gaming PC and going back to these games, the difference is so crazy, it really almost makes me want to go back and find this game on Xbox and find my old Xbox, fire it up again.
I didn’t even know Half-life was on the original Xbox
Did you guys know that the corpse model's texture was made using a real corpse?
I'd legit buy an og Xbox just to experience this version
NOVA mission respect +
or you could play this on a 360
Why lmao. The port runs and plays like shit
@@akuisbestgirl2448 Well I got my hands on an Xbox and copy of Half life 2 for it two years ago and i tell ya it was largely for the experience, sure it was laggy and the textures were softer than Chamberlains foreign policy, but it still is very much a playable half life 2 game.... Also it does have superior audio in some sections.
Currently doing a hard mode playthrough, i feel like the controller and lower frame rate add an extra bit of challenge into the mix.
@@akuisbestgirl2448The novelty mostly, and the few bits of audio enhancement.
0:23 wish HL2's menu on PC would start like this.
What a banger
@@Zeta-bz8og I know right? if only a mod could replace the menu to be like this.
It really looks like a normal sequel that didn't come out like 5 years later due to the pixelated textures and stuff
All those PC guys who went "Ah man i need a new fuking graphics card for this game", and here comes Xbox from 2001, running it like a champ.
You dont need a graphic card to run HL2 at minimum settings.
Nobody says that
@@sebastiankulche In 2004...
@@topsyandpip56 You could run HL2 on a Intel GMA 900 at around 20-40 fps dependint on your settings.
Nice gameplay, not a bad time either. I like speedrunning this version using bunny hops and flying. I changed the jump button to right trigger lol.
Gotta love that unoriginal music (was not made in house by Valve)
It doesn't look that great but I'm sure it would look better through a CRT.
I have been playing halo 2 forever and I think this game could have looked better on the xbox and with less to no slowdown if they had more time to port it but I still think this is an amazing feat!!!
@@RUclipsCX9 Its not necessarily intended to be an exclusive, its juts that the only console that could handle it was the xbox. the gamecube and the ps2 could not have ran it. They have said in different interviews that the hard drive on the xbox was very critical to the performance, because 64mb of RAM was not enough, so they used the hard drive to constantly page data to to and from the drive. Not to mention that the xbox used DirectX as a base to its core functionality, which meant that "porting" a game from PC to the Xbox was really easy to do as long as it could be optimized properly.
The Orange Box was a very different story. I believe they tried to develop it for the PS3 before they realized it was ridiculously challenging and they ended up giving the project to EA. That is why the Xbox 360 version is leaps and bounds better. The PS3 version had so many audio issues and framerate problems that were not present on the 360 which is why the 360 is the objectively better version of Orange Box.
@@mr0o "The only console that could handle was the Xbox"
I disagree
It's amazing they got the entire game running on the original Xbox hardware without skipping stuff out I mean even PC'S at the time had to at least be 5X more powerful than the original Xbox to even start the game!
As long as I'm alive i will love this game
4:00 is there a PC mod that brings that echo back? It’s just a really different mood with that echo.
So about that HL2 Main Menu theme?
I've already explained that it's going to be awhile. I have more important expenses to deal with besides replacing my capture device at the moment. If you would quit deleting your posts, I'll reply to it again when I get it done.
Very well then I shall wait no matter how long it takes.
It turns out the track is called "An Alarm" by Scraper: ruclips.net/video/PCoRThcf_XM/видео.html
I did make a video of the loop the game uses here: ruclips.net/video/4yxlm7zjZNc/видео.html
i am sorry but you are really fucking wrong :(
original song is called Transition Part 2, written for PC game also. it can be found in game files. Valve descided to reuse this track in Xbox port as Main Theme
I wonder, using this version of source, how Portal would run.
Portal requires 100 times less hardware than HL2, and since everything is a close corridor it means it could be heavily optimized to make it even the PS1 run it.
@@sebastiankulche Portals are rough. PS3 couldn't keep 20fps just looking in one. A big complaint at launch was the low fps looking in Portals. It'd run good if there was a handmade portal clone designed for PS1, but even on PS2 the console would implode if it had to run OG Portal. The physics alone would cripple it.
@@coleisforrobot Portal was made for the N64 almost perfectly so idk how the PS2 couldnt run the game in the Source engine with maps that are literally an square. If even my trash early 2000 laptop can run it perfectly.
The PS3 port was just poorly optimized.
Some PS2 games did impressive physics btw.
@@sebastiankulche Also the N64 version is entirely remade for N64, and I consider it a different game because of that.
@@coleisforrobot It was remade in a different engine, true, but the level design is the same (for what i saw), and physics were very accurate. I consider it on par with games like Quake 2 on PS1 in that regard. It uses a different engine but its pretty much the same mechanics.
It has a certain charm on this console
Despite the complaints in the comments, this was still great on any port.
To tell me that you ported Half Life 2 to the Xbox, which was the same console generation as the PS2, which barely struggled with the first games port. You would’ve blew my mind
Im a bit sick of this. The PS2 port of HL1 didnt "barely run" the first game, in fact, it did run better than a 1998 average PC and it also looked WAY better. It was also early on the PS2 lifespan, so it doesnt represent the limit of the console.
@@sebastiankulche true, but to me, no. Those load times make me assume the opposite, but other than that, the ps2 port does the job
@@pinkmanW1 It takes like 4 seconds of loading unless you arent playing it legitimatelly. Remember that the PS2 version is based on the WON release not the Steam version.
Thank you bro it helped a lot
Oh fuck, that framerate
Эта игра визивает полоижтельние емоции и впечетляет как в первый раз спустя 18 лет с момента выхода в отличие от бездисковой аликс, я не буду пользоваться стимом он пережиток прошлого делайте диски аликс
🤡
This was my first experience of Half life. Can someone tell me what the biggest flaws with this version is?
5:41:57 Famous Last Words
I’m actually surprised it runs. About the same as the ps3 version lmao. But the load times.
Yeah too bad valve had to hire EA for the ps3 version. I’m sure if valve understood the ps3 architecture EA wouldn’t have been involved and the orange box would be great. The 360 was my first time and it runs really well.
What resolution is this?
Maybe if it was a little lower the game could've run a little better...
640x480.
@@LookBackGaming Oh.
VidyaGames Did you stretch the 4:3 resolution or was Widescreen enabled in your Xbox’s settings?
@@theobserver4214 it was upscaled and widescreen was enabled
If this is in HD then I am Santa Claus
3:56:48
the meaning is not lost on me
probably should have went with "the meaning is not lost on me"
@@LookBackGaming done and done 👌
what about run it on debug kit
can you use the extra 64MB Ram to help it run better?
@@tHeWasTeDYouTh i don't know
lol, spoilers in the initial loading screen
Not really
Better alyx
Have disc
I don’t mean this rude but that main menu is so bad
Wdym its soo cool
It's so 2000's. Love the Xbox main menu. Was my first experience with the game. Yes, it is terrible though.
@@Katana2097 it gives off an eerie feeling and i love it
This looks like a DS game
Philip Conboy remember this is the same generation of consoles that had half life on the PS2. So in this case, on an original Xbox it runs pretty good.
@スライアチン The original Xbox is much powerful than the ps2 and GameCube due to Microsoft having powerful tech and experienced with it before the port of HL2 for the Xbox. I would like to try it out on my Xbox 360 and probably Xbox one as well. I also have a ps2 that could run half life 1 (which is a real game for the ps2) PS3 version of HL2 sucks. Valve changed up the maps and optimized HL2 to be played on the original Xbox. It may lag but that is what it is since Xbox is 2001 hardware. It is also running on Source 2004.
I wish DS games looked this good.
@@theformerkaiser9391 The PS2 also had Black. Stop comparing it to the PS2 port of Half Life 1 which is still great nonthenless.