Valve has released the new "Lost Coast" level for Half-Life 2. IIRC, this is a previously unreleased portion of the Highway 17 chapter from the game. Apparently they finished it up and are using it as a technology demonstrator for something or other. Regardless, it's a free download on Steam so what can it hurt?

 

The technology they're demonstarting with this is a new "high dynamic range" rendering system. I only played for 10 minutes, but it looks pretty good. Probably not as good as the absolute latest like F.E.A.R. but still pretty sweet. Additionally, there's a developer's commentary system you can enable to hear audio clips of some of the devs describing the things you're looking at and how they work. Kinda cool.

 

Cool. I'll check it out

 

Do I need to reinstall HL2 to play or just the STEAM component?

 

I just checked it out... graphics are excellent, but I had to re-select all my gfx & control settings - they're not inherited from HL2.
My 9800 Pro with 6xFSAA and 8x AF with HDR in full didn't have trouble keeping up normal framerates at 1280x768 in my P4 2.4/768mb system. Only the ocasional hd lag on texture load which I guess would be worse if I didn't have a WD Raptor HD.
Nice demo

 

just when i didnt think it could look any better

 

That was cool. Did anyone notice when you loaded a save game, the guys you already killed were standing like scarecrows, kinda limp? Weird!

 

I experienced that as well. Kind of creepy actually. I really liked the whole cliff side environment.