Half-Life 2: Lost Coast was finally released to download from Steam last Friday. (10/28/2005) I've been waiting to check this out since it was first announced. Not only was it another Half-Life 2 level to play, but it's a test for some new technology to make the Source engine even better. Half-Life 2 is an amazing looking game, but it's no a year old. And now there are games coming out that look as good, and soon there will be better ones. But don't count the Source engine out yet. And this preview level shows why. The big new thing that is added into the source engine is HDR Lighting, High-Dynamic-Range lighting. This is a new lightning effect that brings the graphics to life. In a sense it mimics the way we see light and applies it to the game. As you move around the lightning is always transitioning on the screen to mimic the way our eyes react to light. If you walk in a dark area and walk into the light, it's very bright at first them slowly adjusts like your eyes would. It also allows for textures to look more realistic. It's hard to totally describe how it works and looks, you have to see it for yourself. But it is an amazing effect that games need to start taking advantage of.

The downside though is that you need a good gaming computer to handle it. Lost Coast minimum requirements are: 2.2 Ghz, 1 GB Memory, DirectX 9 video card. (And a copy of Half-Life 2 and Steam ofcourse.) I was sort of worried I might have some troubles with this. My setup is: 2 Ghz, 1 GB Memory, and a Geforce 6800 OC. But 0.2 Ghz doesn't make that much of a difference. This ran almost perfect, with a few chops. But it's totally playable and blew me away.

Lost Coast plays just like Half-Life 2, it's just another level to play. You have to fight the Combine and solve some puzzles. This level is sort of short but still is fun to check out. On cool feature that they included is developer commentaries you can listen too as you play. This is a cool feature to learn about the Source engine and HDR lightning. This is something that they might start adding into their games if people think it's cool. I think it's interesting and could be a fun feature. But I'd probably never listen to it, except for really good games.

Stay tuned for screenshots! They are on the way!