Talk:Half-Life 2: Lost Coast

Requirements

I'm pretty sure that the req's are 2.9 Ghz, because when I try to load it on my Core Duo 2.0 GhZ it tells me that the req's are 2.9 IIRC. — Ilyanep (Talk) 00:02, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

Says 2 for me. Maybe you're misreading the 0? =/ --Katana314 01:05, 20 December 2006 (UTC)

It will actually run fine on my Athlon64 3200+ (2.0 GHz), despite Steam warning me about possible troubles. I think the actual system requirements are lower than the listed system requirements. CobraA1 22:03, 16 March 2007 (UTC)

I agree with Cobra, I am on a 1.6 GHZ AMD with a Geforce 5700 FX Ultra (Overclocked) and 1GB of DDR RAM, and I ran this game almost

perfectly except for when looking down at the ocean from above it stuttered a little. 76.101.72.59 (talk) 20:47, 19 January 2008 (UTC)

Ill agree with Katana, the requirements says 2,9 ghz. ive got 2,4 and i got the system rq. warning message. altough if din it a bit over to require 2,9 for this game. That map wasnt good at all. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.209.26.166 (talk) 02:59, 6 June 2008 (UTC)

In Half-Life 2

It should probably not be put in the article that this took place along Highway 17 because it was not in the book Raising the Bar or anywhere else that I have seen.

You can't get it

If someone purchased the orange box and gave you their copy of Half-Life 2, you can't get Lost Coast for free. I'm assuming if the person kept their HL2 they'd still be unable to get Loast Coast, as they seem to insist you buy a "package" that includes it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.72.21.221 (talk) 23:14, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Paintings

The faces are all rubbed away because they're all the same texture... I really don't think Valve would be so apparently negligent if this was supposed to be a plot point. More likely it's so that there's no good reason for the player to keep looking at that area of the church, which is just about the only thing in the building *not* mentioned in the commentary as significant. Leushenko 23:18, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

accessibility?

The article describes how this used to be a level between highway 17 and the sandtraps... But it's quite vague on how you get to the new content. Is it simply accessible as a bonus mission from the main menu or has it been inserted into the storyline where it was originally supposed to be? -- MiG (talk) 18:31, 18 January 2008 (UTC)

It's effectively a separate game, accessed independently from Steam. It is not linked into the main game in any way, even from the menu. Leushenko (talk) 04:12, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

Time Period

Does it take place before or after Half Life 2 Episode 1?--68.3.18.11 (talk) 20:50, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

Nominally it takes place in the middle of Half Life 2, so, before Episode 1. Leushenko (talk) 00:52, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

XBox 360 and PS3 Orange Box?

Does anyone know if this level is included in the Orange Box? JettaMann (talk) 19:35, 15 June 2008 (UTC)

Its only in the computer version of the orange box. Alex

Yes, it was only a pc level because it was meant to be a short tech demo of the hdr effects, and while it had a minimal story, it is still just a tech demo. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.29.239.201 (talk) 21:33, 25 December 2008 (UTC)

GA Review

This review is transcluded from Talk:Half-Life 2: Lost Coast/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Protonk comments

Sources

• I think this article should include Ars Technica's review of the add-on. Some of the material will be duplicative, but there is good technical info there, and the analysis is sound.
• Likewise you can find their general HDR overview here. It is more about the engine than the release, but contains some more development information.
• You may also consider this bit-tech review though while I am certain Ars is a RS, I am less sure of bit-tech. (Ah, I see now that you have it as an external link)
• There are a few promising looking papers indexed in google scholar but they are either whitepapers or coursework, so the sources on the subject are few in number.

Images

• Both image Fair Use rationales check out.
• I would replace Image:750px-Hl2 lostcoast menu.jpg as the "story" element of the article doesn't really require illustration. This image should be replaced with something that better illustrates the lighting changes made to the engine (like something in the church).
• I like the FUR for the fisherman, very specific.
• Per MOS:IMAGES, images should alternate sides.
• If you want, we can discuss here some image options (to better show the engine), I'm happy to upload a few and test out which might work best.

MOS/Layout

• The lead doesn't actually summarize the article. It summarizes the basic idea and release information, and then the sections below explore other material in detail. This article is short, so I can understand the reasoning, but I think it can be tinkered with to develop some new sections and a longer lead.
• Concurrent with this, the first cite should be moved out of the lead.
• Half-Life 2 is linked twice in the lead.
• I'm not sure the external links meet WP:ELNO. As I mentioned above, the bit-tech material might be included in the references, if editors agree that it is a reliable source. The eurogamer bit seems kind of duplicative, and if anyone can get a hold of the print version of the May 2005 PC Gamer, replaceable. I would say we should have the download link and maybe something else. Seems excessive to have 4 el's.
• The plot section is too long. I know this seems harsh, but LC was basically one level of a shooter on rails. The plot of HL/HL2 was rich and complex, with a good deal of subtle 'seen not heard' exposition. LC, on the other hand, was more straightforward. As a result, I don't think that we need to devote as much space to it as we do. We should lay the article out to respect the fact that this was a technology demo (of sorts).
• As such, we should probably write a new section on the "engine", rename the section on "development" to "development and release". In the first one, we can point to HDR and Source in a hatnote and talk about the changes in technology (and the degraded performance for non DX9 cards) for this demo. We can summarize, briefly, what HDR is and why it was important. For the second one, we can include the development timeline and discuss the release (along with the original intent for the level and the ATI Radeon/NVIDIA bit).
• Game titles need only be wikilinked once. Most are wikilinked twice or more in the text.
• "Lost Coast is a 98 MB compressed download..." MB could be spelled out or (if this is not desired) wikilinked.
• Why are the system requirements noted in the infobox and in {{VG Requirements}} below?

Small issues

• "It was originally slated to take place between the levels "Highway 17" and "Sandtraps", but was dropped." when the lead is rewritten this should be moved below and summarized as something like "It was originally slated to be released as a level in HL2" or something.
• "Persons who received Half-Life 2 as a gift were not eligible to download the game." Another sentence that should be moved out of a rewritten lead.
• "On May 30, 2007, Valve made an announcement that Lost Coast along..." This paragraph is confusing. As I understand it, LC was released to people who bought the game in 2005. Then, in 2007, Valve released it to ATI card owners, but the text says here "...although the level was ultimately released to all owners of Half-Life 2 as a free download.". the next sentence talks about how the game was released to NVIDIA owners. Does that matter if it was already released to everyone? Or was that prior to the wide release?
• "The add-on was also a part of Half-Life 2: Game of the Year Edition" Is it in the orange box?
• "along with the first eleven levels of Portal..." Do you mean to say that it was released with the first 11 levels of portal AND all those other games? Or the first 11 levels of portal and some other number of levels of the other games?
• "the small town of St. Olga (a town based on Sozopol, Bulgaria)" Citation needed. :) I should expand on this. I know that several devs were from SE Europe and many, many elements from HL2 are from there--you can even take photos of old buildings and hold them up to screencaps and not see much difference. I have no doubt that this town is modeled after a real town, but it needs a source. Protonk (talk) 04:49, 20 October 2008 (UTC)
• "Half-Life 2: Lost Coast was developed as a playable technology demo, intended to showcase the newly-added HDR lighting features of the Source engine that were first implemented into Day of Defeat: Source." This is an awkwardly worded sentence.
• "He is also more than twice as detailed as the characters seen in Half-Life 2." (From the fisherman caption). This needs a citation.

Overall/Suggestions

Ok. In order for this to become more comprehensive, I suggest a rather complete overhaul. The lead needs to be purged of the "release" information and rewritten to summarize release, development, plot, and commentary/other. A section needs to be written explaining the engine and how that relates to this level. A section needs to be written on the release (can probably partially be made from material in the lead now). the plot section needs to be dropped to maybe a paragraph. You might also consider adding a gamplay section and very briefly summarize and analogize to the contents of Half-Life_2#Gameplay. Remember, this should be roughly complete as a standalone article.

I'm going to place this article on hold for now. The article is short, so an overhaul of it is less of an effort than for one that fills 80kB. The 7 days is a suggestion, if some progress is being made or we are having some discussion here I'm happy to let this slide as long as the contributors of the article wish. I don't consider this a strongly negative review of the article. I think the article as it stands helps to explain an important new feature (commentary) and contextualize the subject properly. But I feel it should be improved before it can meet the Wikipedia:Good article criteria. Thanks. Protonk (talk) 04:14, 20 October 2008 (UTC)

I now realize that this article requires a significant amount of work. I think it is best if this GAN is failed, so I can work on it on my own time. When I think it's ready, I'll renominate it; or maybe with the suggestions you've given, it could perhaps even be ready for FAC. Gary King (talk) 05:15, 22 October 2008 (UTC)

• Ok, failing it now. Protonk (talk) 04:28, 28 October 2008 (UTC)

GA Review

This review is transcluded from Talk:Half-Life 2: Lost Coast/GA2. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

GA review (see here for criteria)

1. It is reasonably well written.

   a (prose): b (MoS):

   There's a spelling error in ref 15. 'Marking' should be 'marketing'. I'm generally not fond of long quotes in citations--I'd prefer to see a separate 'notes' section with the quotes, and those referenced as normal. Gary, I think I gave you the code for nested refs? I won't fail on that basis, I think it's probably just a personal preference.

2. It is factually accurate and verifiable.

   a (references): b (citations to reliable sources): c (OR):

3. It is broad in its coverage.

   a (major aspects): b (focused):

4. It follows the neutral point of view policy.

   Fair representation without bias:

5. It is stable.

   No edit wars etc.:

6. It is illustrated by images, where possible and appropriate.

   a (images are tagged and non-free images have fair use rationales): b (appropriate use with suitable captions):

7. Overall:

   Pass/Fail:

Comments

*The end version of Valve's HDR technology adds a significant amount of lighting effects to the engine, all aimed at making the game appear more realistic.

• The cliffside up to the monastery had a more gameplay oriented purpose, and was meant to emulate a similar cliffside combat scene in Half-Life.
• In addition, Lost Coast acted as a testbed for Valve's commentary system. When it is enabled, additional items appear in the game that can be interacted with to play an audio commentary. Each audio piece ranges from ten seconds to a minute of commentary. Players hear the developers talk about what the player is seeing, what is happening, why they made certain decisions, what kinds of challenges they faced, and so on.

• Citations needed

I need to go for a bit, to be continued. //roux   19:36, 21 November 2008 (UTC)

Removed above concerns due to explanations below. //roux   11:20, 22 November 2008 (UTC)

I believe they use the references that comes first after each sentence. So, the reference might appear a few sentences later, but they still reference these, too. Gary King (talk) 19:49, 21 November 2008 (UTC)

Aye, that's true. I added the citation at the end of the bit where I finish talking about it, rather than at the end of each sentence (otherwise the thing just gets clogged up with inline citations). The citation for the cliff bit is, for example, at the end of the second sentence, and covers both sentences: "The cliffside up to the monastery had a more gameplay oriented purpose, and was meant to emulate a similar cliffside combat scene in Half-Life. The intention of the cliffside is to force the player to be observant to threats from above and below, breaking from normal horizontal combat". The same is true of the others you point out, the appropriate citation is given within a few sentences at a logical break in the information. -- Sabre (talk) 20:04, 21 November 2008 (UTC)

I've fixed the references. Gary King (talk) 20:24, 22 November 2008 (UTC)

Valve Task Force Re-vitalization

Attention, all contributors to the Valve Task Force and the articles it constitutes!
I am here to announce that I will be re-vitalizing the Valve Task Force, aimed at universally improving articles constituting Valve Corporation, their employees, associates and products. This specific task force has been dormant for quite some time and with two very notable releases coming out this year, I feel like this is the appropriate time to re-stimulate the general aim of this group. For those who are not already members of the Valve Task Force, feel free to add your name to our members list and contribute to whatever articles you feel your contributions may prove beneficial for. Valve, its products and notable employees have proven to be essential to the progression of the video game industry, so I'd like to make a call of arms for this cause. DarthBotto _talk•cont 22:14, 08 February 2011 (UTC)

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