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The Review
Despite most flak you'd see on various sites, I contest that Half-Life: Source, despite the same BSP map geometery and models, is a relatively substantial graphics upgrade from the GoldSrc engine - even if it's a direct ports. Things like fresnel refractions on water, a much nicer, radiosity based dynamic shadowmapping system, render-to-texture dynamic soft shadows, ragdoll physics, 3D Skyboxes, detail texture and normal maps (however low-resolution they are at times), and per-pixel specularity show that the game is drastically improved. At least, to a tech-geek like me. *G*
That aside, the Source engine port (albeit direct, again), even if it features a multiplayer component, is not without flaw in that running and walking feels more like the ice-skating fashion of Half-Life 2, rather than the skill-driven style of the game on the GoldSrc engine, though it, again, is a direct port. While those old models and map geometry look rather weird with such opulent graphical shader enhancements, I feel it's worth it, though not so much considering that it's only available in the Gold and Silver packages as of right now. Perhaps if released seperately on Steam, or something even to a lesser extent wouldn't hurt. That aside, it's Half-Life, and the game you'd want to play if you haven't played the original yet.... to give Half-Life 2 some background.
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