wow for a 300mb "map" its pertty but not that great... kinda sad that it took so long to release a map

I played it and thought "thats it?"

Pretty disappointing, given the epic scale of the regular hl2 storyline. Sure it was loaded with eye-candy, but the least they could have done was tied it into the story more than "hey you're that freeman, fishman, whatever scientist guy... you must be here to stop the combine and save our nondescript seaside town, which by the way, you aren't alowed to see any more of than what you view from that rocky path." Lame.

Just so much wasted potential... such a large intricate map, yet we only get to romp through 1/4 of it.

The meaning of "Eye-candy" now refers to F.E.A.R. That is still the prettiest game I've ever seen.

Why is everyone expecting storyline and gameplay from a TECH DEMO?

Exactly what I was thinking.

well they coulda demoed more.. it was just so dissapointing

It's called ignorance. It's the same thing that always happened when I would release a playtesting beta map for Painkiller.. some people knew what was going on, some people just complain that the texturing and lighting is bad.

I'm sorry... F.E.A.R. is pretty and all, but HL2's variety and size of enviroments makes it much better eye candy than F.E.A.R.

Yer comparing scope and variety, and I'm just talking about the graphics. Gotta love having your own shadow and legs, as well as seeing the air wavey from fires. Plus, I heart scary things, so that game made me happy

well.. i meant that yes, F.E.A.R. does have better graphics, hl2 just made a better use of their engine.. so it looks just as good.. of course.. I can't crank F.E.A.R. as much as I could, so I could be missing out on some things..

Can anybody here turn on soft shadows??

I was watching t0ast play it, and he had every setting on high or higher, and it was beautiful to say the least. Not sure if he had soft shadows on, because I wasn't paying attention when he was installing and fiddling with the graphics the first time (later took everything from the highest setting to put it on high to reduce the microsecond of lag he had). HL2 may of done more with their engine, but I think that F.E.A.R. wins hands down when it comes to graphical beauty.

As scrozer says, it looks fantastic. I didn't have soft shadows on when he was watching me play, but after toying around with it, i found it was still playable on higher quality.

fear is pertty but the hl2 engin is so much more useable... you dont have to have a super machine to run at decent settings

Anyone else spend like 15mins running in and out of rooms just to see the light adjust to the brightness? That was freaking awesome.