HL2 Lost Coast released

By Tom Bramwell Published 28 October, 2005

Be beside yourself at the seaside.

Half-Life 2: Lost Coast is now available through Steam for all owners of Half-Life 2, Valve's announced.

Described as "a single-player level custom-created to showcase High-Dynamic Range lighting (HDR) in the Source engine", Lost Coast is, well, that - the coastal section of Half-Life 2 redone using special techniques that prettify it beyond all description.

Well, not all description - just beyond the bounds of our meagre technical understanding. Our technical wizard pals at Bit-tech understand it all a lot better and explain the difference in meticulous detail.

"As a technology showcase, Half-Life 2: Lost Coast's system requirements are very high," Valve adds. "During installation, Steam will prompt you if your system does not meet the recommended configuration. We hope you enjoy it." If it doesn't melt anything.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000. Follow him on Twitter.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (41) Latest comment 7 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Xerx3s #1 7 years ago

    How nice of them.

  • Scurrminator #2 7 years ago

    Just the thing to test my new PC out on.
    What are the actual recommended specs anyway?

  • groovychainsaw #3 7 years ago

    Think the specs are min 3.2GHz, 1GB ram, at least 6800 or x800+. Sadly I dont have that sort of power, but hey, i'd rather spend my money on a 360 now methinks...

  • Cadence_ #4 7 years ago

    I bet I have to run this at directx7 or something shite like that.

  • sturgeon #5 7 years ago

    ran fine on my setup:

    3.2GHz P4
    1Gb RAM
    ATI 9800Pro
    (directx9.0 support)

  • Carpathian #6 7 years ago

    Nope, I'll try it but I'm preparing my self for jerk-and-crash-o-vision. I'm close on the processor, half the RAM and a card below the spec too. That "melting" line could well be directed toward my kit !! :o(

  • Sid-Nice #7 7 years ago

    Yes and it's very nice too, I downloaded it last night.

  • Artemus #8 7 years ago

    How big is the download and is it worth it? I formatted my drive recently and couldn't be bothered to put Steam back on.

  • Scurrminator #9 7 years ago

    ah sweet, got a dual core 3 ghz, x850xt pro and 2gig ram - wippeee

  • MrAtheist #10 7 years ago

    Steam lists the download size as 300MB.

    It takes about 10mins to play through the level, dont go in with high expectations. :)

  • jiveguy #11 7 years ago

    Bastards, they just made my PC "min spec". What a bunch of...so, why are PC devs lazy? :D

  • rinoaMW #12 7 years ago

    my word scurrminator, did you get into my house and steal mine? that rig is almost identical to what i have...

    it better still be there when i get home from work ;p

    been looking forward to seeing LC for ages! :D

  • Psi #13 7 years ago

    me too jiveguy, im min specs after 10 months of upgrading... i can't afford a grand upgrade every year just to sattisfy valves lazy programming and stupidly hungry engines!

    got my ds at lunch there so im a happy bunny with advance wars and zoo keeper

  • afray #14 7 years ago

    God, thoses developers are so lazy! We all know that if they just put in an extra few weekends they could somehow break the laws of physics and make an incredible looking game run on an electric peanut! Jeez!

  • CargoCult #15 7 years ago

    Play it on hard with the commentary off to begin with - it's much more enjoyable like that. Works fairly well on my below-spec PC too, which is a bonus.

    It's interesting, but to be honest I found the HDR in Day of Defeat: Source a bit more impressive. I suppose you'd have to ramp the resolution and graphics settings right up to get the full advantage of the high-resolution everything available here, but whatever they say it's not an all-limits-removed, kill-your-hardware monster. Which, in a tiny way, is almost a shame... ;-)

    (Oh, and I reckon it's a good point to plug MINERVA again: http://www.hylobatidae.org/minerva/ - as soon as the HDR compilation tools are released for Source, I'm going to be having a play!)

  • tiddles #16 7 years ago

    CargoCult - you may only pimp Minerva if you can tell us - WHERE IS THE SECOND EPISODE? :)

  • Cadence_ #17 7 years ago

    What's this about commentary? What's all that about?

  • smelly #18 7 years ago

    "What's this about commentary?"

    Gary lineker introduces the players as they run onto the pitch.

  • Khanivor #19 7 years ago

    Going to downlaod it I found out my CPU doesn't meet the spec. Well, soemwhow my 2800 has been demoted to a 2200. I wonder how long that shit has been going on for - there was me thinkning a defrag or full system reinstall was in order to sort the speed issues of late :D

  • Artemus #20 7 years ago

    i can't afford a grand upgrade every year just to sattisfy valves lazy programming and stupidly hungry engines!

    It's a bloody tech demo for christsakes. It's a fancy show of what the engine can do in future. What did you expect?!

  • Cadence_ #21 7 years ago

    LOL smelly! Gary Lineker my arse.

  • deepmenace #22 7 years ago

    Going to downlaod it I found out my CPU doesn't meet the spec. Well, soemwhow my 2800 has been demoted to a 2200

    call me fool if im wrong but u dont have an AMD do you? if you do then 2.2ghz is the correct clock speed for a 2800 chip.

    edits for my teh ghay3st html $kills
    Edited by deepmenace at 28/10/05 @ 13:26

  • kangarootoo #23 7 years ago

    @afray

    "God, thoses developers are so lazy! We all know that if they just put in an extra few weekends they could somehow break the laws of physics and make an incredible looking game run on an electric peanut! Jeez!"

    Nice one. Saved me my usual "lazy devs" response.

    Although I can't let it go just like that (much as I would like to). Anyone who says the dev team behind HL2 is in any way lazy needs their f*cking head examined.

    /exhales. Ahh, thats better.

  • kangarootoo #24 7 years ago

    @FluffyTucker

    "Well.. consoles are there for poor people :) heheheha"

    Or for those people with £1000 TVs and a love of sofas.

    p.s. I'm secretly wishing you hadn't included the ":) heheheha" so I could open a can of caffeine fueled whoopass without seeming like I missed the joke.

  • alithebull #25 7 years ago

    has anyone else found this really buggy? keeps on crashing on my system even with HDR off - annoying when HL2 runs fine.....

    AMD3000 (edit: AMD64 3000ghz)
    1 gig ram
    radeon 9600pro
    Edited by alithebull at 28/10/05 @ 13:56

  • Scurrminator #26 7 years ago

    well rinoa MR WITTS maybe we have an employer in common ;)

  • Genji #27 7 years ago

    It looks... really nice. And that's about it. It's a pretty boring level, otherwise.

  • tonynibbles #28 7 years ago

    jiveguy ...so, why are PC devs lazy? :D

    Ahem. I think Valve are at the uber level of PC dev. Associating them with the word lazy is a crime against gaming.
    Look at HL2s min specs!

    :p

  • Psi #29 7 years ago

    valve devs are lazy! EA devs are the workers! bladdy lazy devs! get cracking! 3 months for a euro port! you insolent swine!! i want it now!!!

  • CargoCult #30 7 years ago

    @tiddles:

    Metastasis 2? Sat on me PC's hard disk, under heavy development of course!

    (Oh, and there's a near-complete Metastasis 3 there as well...) ;-)

  • freedumb #31 7 years ago

    Minimum 3.2 eh? I have an Athlon 64 3800+, which runs at 2.4ghz. Does the 3800 mean its equivalent to a 3.4ghz pc, or is that just AMD's fancy number styling?

  • kangarootoo #32 7 years ago

    Supposedly its both, but I don't think AMDs equivalent speed info has been clear for a few years now. Devs could do with printing both sets of stats on their boxes.

  • Teeth #33 7 years ago

    I c.. I c.. I can't pl... pl...

    /breaks down into a stupid, sobbing mass

  • Tyronne #34 7 years ago

    After playing this level twice,once without the commentary and the 2nd time with it,it came to mind that the only thing missing from the commentary was the message

    `go on buy this game engine,its really good,its not darkness bound like that doom 3 one and the source engine can do pretty lights`

  • Stu #35 7 years ago

    Downloading now. Can't wait for this to break my computer.

  • skillian #36 7 years ago

    Chugged slightly on my 9800 pro, 2800 Athlon XP, all settings on high.

    I'm rather impressed actually, The whole beach with the wet sand at the beginning, and the church is amazing the way the light streams through the windows. Make sure you shoot the windows out after you've had a look, it changes the lighting completely.

  • Darren #37 7 years ago

    God, what a load of old rubbish that turned out to be, eh?

    Apart from the great commentary (an idea nicked from the PC version of The Chronicles of Riddick), it was a 10 minute disappointment from start to finish with lacklustre HDR effects. The Source engine was dated when Half-Life 2 came out and adding HDR lighting does nothing to improve it when the textures and environmental modelling are still weak.

  • Tomo #38 7 years ago

    I have to say, I was massively dissapointed too. Ok, it's free and it's HL2 which is fine by me, but the hype behind this looking gorgeous was just that! Oh wow, the sky glows a little now. Other than that, the only noticable bit was the church where the light streams through the windows. Even that didn't do too much for me.

    I was running this on full everything at 1280x1024 on my new 930BF and it was going pretty smoothly. According to Steam, my processor was out by 0.2 GHz. Yet I can still run at full spec?!

    Anyway, what an anticlimax.

    Metastasis is a far better download.

  • smelly #39 7 years ago

    Tomo: My advice, go back and play doom 3 (or quack 4) on the same system. Try playing it in "ultra" mode. Notice that it doesnt look nearly as 10th as good, and it'll make your system struggle something cronic.

    I'll also point out that the absolutle BEST looking games on the 360 will look as good as this.. If people REALLY cant tell the difference then maybe the next gen has come too quick?
    Edited by smelly at 30/10/05 @ 09:24

  • Senor_Sanchez #40 7 years ago

    HDRI lighting will be common in every 360 title, its the new lense flare!! I think LOST COAST is a decent tech demo, it shows what games will look like in the very near future. I agree with the poster that bemoaned the geometry in HL2. I think its too angular, edges need bevelled in my opinion. Some nice shader stuff (again nothing new here) but im not keen on the water. I think the Fresnel values need tweaking so that their is more environmental reflection (sky etc) in the water....my 2p
    Edited by Senor_Sanchez at 30/10/05 @ 09:57

  • Destrado #41 7 years ago

    alithebull: Getting an Athlon 64 up to 3000 GHz is a might overclock, what is your secret?