Gabe's Lost Half-Life E3 Commentary, Restored

Valve must have forgotten something huh? Even though they may have published an excellent recording of the original demos, they left out all the original commentary from the E3 booth.

Sure, you've like heard the commentary given by Greg Coomer on the 13th of May 2003 (and the legendary 486 comment), but Gabe Newell also did presentations that day, and only a single, terrible recording of it survived.

We restored it.

Original Sources:

Chapters:
0:00 - Intro
2:40 - Presentation Intro
2:57 - GMan Demo
4:40 - Physics Demo
6:24 - Shader Demo
8:30 - Traptown Vista
9:20 - Alyx Lab Scene
10:58 - Traptown Demo
14:24 - Hydra Demo
16:14 - AI Demo
18:30 - Bugbait Demo
21:30 - Coast Demo
24:26 - City 17 Demo
27:13 - GMan Goodbye
27:47 - E3 Production Context
28:24 - Unused Demo
30:21 - Outro

Valve News Network (VNN) is now Tyler McVicker.

#valve #halflife #HL2

[BringusStudios]

"the Combine is a fortress which is slowly eating its way throught the rest of city 17"

That sentence crashed my brain and rebooted my body

[AngryCaesCorporation]

Even today, it feels absolutely revolutionary. The technological leap in mere 5 years is astounding. At the risk of sounding like an old-timer, we don't see such strides anymore nowadays in the same time span.

[xXYannuschXx]

6:50 I dont think many people realize this, but the transparent shaders are still impressive to this day for technical reasons. PC GPUs cannot simply render transparent textures over each other like that; so Valve had to come up with some pretty fancy shaders that somehow emulate the effect.

[honzaakkk]

Cant even imagine how it felt getting hl2 showcased by Gabe. Thanks Tyler and Rob

[timothymckane]

I am really impressed that Rob has upgraded the E3 sound quality as much as he can. It just makes the footage way more better with that type of sound.

[ZachI]

The 486 guy will be me when Vavle shows off some new alien tech in HL3. I’ll probably be wondering “will this run on my RX 7600” lol

[unknownmusicguy]

Man, i wish i could watch this with the perspective that people had 20 years ago. Everything is so normal and mundane today but their reactions to things happening makes me appreciate all the effort they put it in the game.

[Vienna]

If you told me this was the original HD recording I would have believed you

[meatmobile]

This anniversary is Valve telling us they know. They understand why we like Half Life.

This is a breath of fresh air. I'm as ready for HLX as ever.

[aquelecientista]

4:29 Valve were already shitposting with gman even before garry's mod or skibidi toilet was a thing

[meatmobile]

I can only imagine how mind blowing this was in 2003. I bet at least one guy wondered if Valve was using alien technology.

[miklosendrody]

It's still incredible to think that this technology is from 20 years ago, which still manages to look so fresh and innovative. If there ever will be another breakthrough in gamin it, the best chance is that it'll come form Half Life 3

[Starwarsconnoisseur]

Another treat for the half life anniversary thanks Tyler

[ShawnColeman]

My Life is complete, I have been overwhelmed by nostalgia so much to the point where games of today feel underwhelming. The early 2000s were golden.

[Zarnubius]

I hope the younger kids watching this realize just how much of an ABSURD fucking jump this (6:26) was graphically, not to mention the physics shown prior, that the same exact technology is still being used to this day only altered and expanded upon. This was a 10 year leap within 2. Keep in mind, this is a full 2 years before the release of the Xbox 360 which normalized a lot of this bumpmap and specular shading tech. You cannot put into words how mind blowing it was at the time, I watched the radiator/paint-can ravenholm demo 70+ times in computer lab class in 2003 and showed it to every single person I knew. It was a truly magical time.

[gorlic]

Now I understand why Half Life 3 hasn't been released yet, every part of the game was a revolution, amazingly, in those years the physics of the Source engine was fantastic. I can't even imagine what There will be a third part of Half Life.

[kove]

Bro I do audio production for a living and this is SERIOUSLY good work. This seriously impressive, even with RX10 .

[jjforcebreaker]

Always loved the presentation version with GabeN. Super cool now it's in good quality!
Some model complexity or texture resolution around the corners might be silly for 2024, but overall it's still a very impressive demo. Many people wouldn't have too many objections to have a new game that is using this engine. It's like Red Faction's Glass House tech demo, but there are a hundred interesting, innovative and impressive systems, mechanics and features.

[Xerra]

Thanks to you, I finally get to experience E3 2003 presentation in its purest form, as if I’m there back then. Truly a sight to behold.😊

[Tclans]

Wow Tyler, simply wow!

This is almost on par with the Valve released videos.

Then again it adds so much.
After all these years we finally had a HD presentation. 👏🏼