Project Borealis Prologue - A Taste of Modern Half-Life

[@felipecel]

I was 13 years old when played hl2 for the first time, I'm 33 now and I'm not sure if I'll live enough to see the end of Gordon's history.

[@Enoonb]

If I was the devs behind this I would blatantly ask Valve to sponsor this. Valve is pretty based so they actually might consider doing that.

[@bullcheese2236]

IDK if Valve has a control over this but it's already on the front page of Steam

[@dbgtbrasil5]

valve is not as based as it used to be

[@ishipcrimsonandcerluean]

@@dbgtbrasil5since when? tf2 source 2 was taken down because Garry explicitly stated he doesn’t want valve content on s&box. Portal 64 was taken down to protect the creator

[@bit128c]

@@ishipcrimsonandcerluean Valve don't want to give proper access to Source 2 as they did with Source :\

[@TheTytan007]

Why would Valve do this if they're working on HLX right now?

[@saltypotato42]

The prologue feels a bit janky but the visual is stunning. We Half Life fans are blessed with numerous good fan mod and Valve actually making new Half Life games.

[@LifeIsPain878]

Snowy Ravenholm looks really amazing. Half life fans are eating good this year. Can't wait for the HL2 anniversary stuff Valve will hopefully drop. Great video as well Rad! Good to see ya back

[@HQ_Default]

I'm actually not in love with how they're trying to stay as faithful as possible to the weapon roster of Half-Life 2. If this does turn out to be the only version of HL3 we ever get, I probably would have preferred they take a few creative liberties with the weapon models here and there. I mean I understand that they don't want to fall into that trap of "the enemy bad guys have been issued a completely new set of weapons ten minutes later in the sequel", but I also want the weapons to feel like more than _just_ HL2 guns in HD. I want them to feel like HL3 weapons... if that makes sense.

[@triplehelix3207]

I'd love to see some of the old guns come with attachments since Alyx added the foundry like the MP7 finally having a visible grenade launcher or something new

[@SilentSnake1998]

They should get the mmod team to help with the weapons, and modernize things a bit, maybe make the weapons more powerful along with improved animations and feedback sounds.

[@triplehelix3207]

@@SilentSnake1998 the reload for the shotgun looked a lot like the reload animation for mmod

[@biomseed]

HLX exists

[@jacky_cola]

Yeah I see what you mean. It is a very missconception of fans that they want THE SAME from new games, as the game they loved. Often this is not what made the game great. HL1 and 2 were each special at their time and showed things you didnt see before in games and THAT is the thing you felt back then. If you now get a a copy of exactly that, you will only have a copy and mostly notice the not-so-well parts when comparing. But what it really needs is something NEW and SHINY that outshines the things and gives the same feeling than the old game did and that you cant have from simply copying the old stuff. A good example is resident evil (2) - The old PSX game was GREAT and you can still play it today. But if you do, or if you show to a younger person, they will only see an old game and wont be impressed by 25 year old effects and jumpscares. Basically 10 year old kids wouldnt get into atmosphere after playing some fortnite helloween event. But then there is the REMAKE of Resident Evil 2 which is a completely different game, different engine, different style... But if you want to FEEEL how it was to play RE2 in 1998, then you can play the remake!

[@jacobfoxy]

A Certified Half Life 3 Game.. (So Dark And Snowy)

[@TheComputerBitProductionTechno]

2:38 "In Due Time" ALL I KNOW! Time is a Valuable Thing!

[@block_place1232]

Watch it fly by as the pendulum swings

[@TheComputerBitProductionTechno]

@@block_place1232 Watch it count down to the end of the day, the clock ticks life away

[@tytanium654]

​@@block_place1232watch it count down to the end of the day, the clock ticks life away

[@adrianpolenok]

Watch it count down to the end of the day

[@TheComputerBitProductionTechno]

@@adrianpolenok The clock ticks life away

[@Eli1234gordon]

The man has returned with a video

[@kirtheweasel]

Have played the prologue earlier today, and... This is awesome!!! Can't wait for the final product!

[@hydroponicgard]

This is the most beautiful thing I've seen. It's like Christmas came early. I am glad that Project Borealis is alive. :)

[@matijajovic8125]

After 6 years I was expecting more tbh. I am sure Interlude and Infinite finality (also releasing this month) will give us a much bigger taste of EP 3.

[@aSkyclad]

Same, the whole thing felt so amateurish. If they had perfected the Source Engine feeling maybe I’d be more interested in it but seeing a 5 minutes demo with stiff/bad anims and barely touched up HL2 assets, relying almost entirely on lighting for its pretty factor, felt like they didn’t do much at all

[@matijajovic8125]

@aSkyclad Exactly. This would have been exciting if they released it 5-6 years ago. Now it is just disappointing. The fact that they only have concept art to show for the future also doesn't look good.

[@Снайпер_Хренов]

They most likely have more Material behind the scenes, and this Demo is a very, very small snippet

[@awesomesource12]

I agree with you, the two complaints I had was while headcrabs ragdol as they are jumping at you is cool, for some reason that makes them immune to phsyics damage from anything you launch at them while they are still ragdol. Then secondly, they make it so you instantly switch weapons when scrolling, but that means you can't use q to switch back and forth from another weapon as it only goes to the last one you scrolled. Even using the number keys are useless as it will mean you switching from the top of the weapon categories, which sucks as the gravity gun is below the crowbar. If they don't make it how it was, I'd like q to just go back to gravity gun always.

[@redxphones3281]

Seeing this really made me even more excited for HLX or whatever valve is cooking for Half Life. The HL2 Anniversary is coming up and I'm hoping to see some amazing content soon.

[@fnoigy]

I had no idea this was out!

[@e-and_]

My guess is this is set in Ravenholm when the Borealis is active and tearing apart time and space, similar to how the Vault works in HL:A. It also would explain you randomly appearing in White Forest sometime through the demo, spaces that should be destroyed are being torn apart and shoved into each other as an effect of the Borealis becoming active.

[@batorstudio]

i cant wait for this to actually come out in 2069

[@Just5omeRandomGuy]

Things have certainly been interesting for HL3, the valve leaks, borealis prologue, epistle 3 mods releasing demos soon, and the Boreal Alyph leaked build.

[@hydroponicgard]

I couldn't find any information on the leaked build. Got any specific sites where it is? Links will get nuked instantly.

[@Just5omeRandomGuy]

@@hydroponicgard no just been floating around but I found it from youtube videos showcasing the weapons

[@ertup4play978]

​@@hydroponicgardit's on web archive

[@Technobabylon]

RAVENHOLDM - YOU SUDNT COME HERE

[@space_core_123]

I'm only dissapointed for that how short is this demo but It's still awesome

[@rgbforever4561]

I heard about a recent leak of boreal alyph, Will you be looking at it?

[@RadiationHazardYT]

Just might, yeah

[@Cyclop4Eye]

i cant even run the mod lol, it just crashes when i try to get in now with the actual opinion: The prologue was pretty short, but showed off some of the cool tech project borealis team did. Not only that but they managed to make a unreal 5 game *feel* like half life. very good

[@TaffyCheemsborgor998]

I played the game literally the second it released and tbh I like the weapon animations minus the shotgun as it's a bit scuffed lol

[@Jim_Paper]

Don't worry @Radiation Hazard you are not the only one who notices that gravity gun can't drag items from afar

[@Tezla_Insanity]

I enjoyed the Project Borealis demo, hoping Valve has something worthwhile for HL2's anniversary! 🙏

[@-.MICHAEL.-]

Gameplay core is finally ready. Now it's time to make the rest of Project

[@Redbr34]

Don't worry, all PCS lagged with it

[@darksars3622]

Were back boys, When is noclick oil up steam though?

[@eduardoanzolch6078]

"Gordon, is remembering his Miss Remembrance day"

[@limarchenko96]

White text on a white background. So nice.

[@nickybee6878]

Gonna be brutally honest i was very disappointed by this. Like 7 years of waiting just for this? I was hanging out in a call with a few people streaming this game and this tech demo really let down a awful impression when the finished it, like a lot people don't wanna be mean towards this project but this isn't what we expect it, some people even said this feel like UE5 flip off assets which i can see why. The overhyped this demo way to much only for a 5 mins of gameplay hell lost coast is a tech demo and that thing is at least 20 to 25 mins of gameplay. Also i get why the don't wanna use source is a hell engine but i really don't like the use of UE and i safe to say am not the only one who agrees with this, It was a poor move in terms of PB like genuinely why redo everything from source in UE when the could just get a licensed for source engine and just build a new branch for it.

[@ali32bit42]

The asset flip feel could be attributed to the sound design , so many things have the wrong sound or no sound at all.. and some things are generally weightless. this could be fixed by the team in the future so its not that big of a deal. BUT HOLY HELL IS THE PERFORMANCE AWFUL. look i am not one to complain my PC is clearly old. but when the graphics are downgraded to a comical level in the settings but i still cant get past 15 fps you did something wrong. in comparison source 1 half life 2 looks miles better with solid 60fps and 4k on the same hardware..

[@rms1493]

You experienced the game part, but did you actually demo the tech?

[@Iforgorbruh5559]

Very epic video!

[@Cats-TM]

I did notice that about the weapons, it is not bad it is just…weird. Looks great though, very well done.

[@BlackMesa-BMS]

So cool, it showed me only a black screen, "10/10"

[@tytanium654]

Hey RadHaz, was wondering, what specs does your PC have? Also how do you feel about Crowbar Collective's next game?

[@RadiationHazardYT]

PC specs are Ryzen 5 3600, RX580 and 16 Gb Ram. About Rogue Point, I like that it will have rogue-lite elements and overall looks alright. Nothing mind blowing but will check it out.

[@tytanium654]

@@RadiationHazardYT Cool! Also also, are you gonna stream for HL2's 20th anniversary? I know LambdaGeneration's doing a gamenight.

[@0ldsc4ool]

half-life 2 beta is dark and gritty and project borealis is dark and snowy

[@Dalaika_HD]

I would love to play this mod too but my pc is just pretty not great and not bad but from the videos i saw it looked faboules. even tho it's short cool vid rad

[@yeetrreet2453]

IMO, the only thing they have to fix is the sound effects, pistol recoil, and THE GODDAMN TEXT FONT

[@Spike58725]

there is mod you need Review it's called Infinite Finality fan made of HL3 Demo is Coming soon

[@Pumpkin_Jackdaw]

Snowy headcrabs looks handsome tho

[@scarletcrusader5431]

Dark and Sn(nowy)iddy

[@Jas42-ne3re]

You should make a video about half-life interlude when the demo releases!

[@adrianpolenok]

certified gerdon fermann moment

[@sonofeyeabovealleffoff5462]

I'll be damned. I thought that project was dead.

[@mainsmain]

Maybe the stiffness is on purpose since it's very cold, freezing

[@BirBilgin]

Wake up radhaz, wake up and smell the ashes. the lost media was found

[@mbb2221_1]

GET YOUR FREE TV'S!!!

[@Mitchisable]

I just really hope they smooth out the movement more. It felt very jank and the control jumping wasn't really helping too much either. I understand this is ue5 and not source so the movement is probably a little harder to emulate, but I hope they do something.

[@-Axtsilversurf-]

Cold and Snowy

[@nakfoor1846]

It looks great but it seems like a strange direction for the developers. Is this truly the prologue and will be part of the story? It feels like a tech demo which is a problem I have with a lot of these projects developed outside of Source is they show off the tech and never do anything else.

[@crypticrunner1200]

i'm so sad that boreal alyph died :((((

[@EugenijusKrenis]

The main thing that bothered me with physics objects is that they feel clunky to climb and interact with. I even tried doing a staircase with sawblades and clipped trough them :(

[@DATBOI-n9t]

This is what 12 year old me would say to you not playing this game: SPEND MONEY SPEND MONEY GET A RTX 4090 AND I9-149000K NOW! And I played this for 2 hours because I was getting all the achievements and I loved it

[@1KiloDepartment]

Bruh looking at community posts and comparing this to other games, it seems to be exclusively a problem of Unreal 5 pushing unnecessary stuff that developers need to get rid of themselves. I got a GTX 1070 and i5, and Satisfactory (also a UE 5 game) at lowest settings runs better than this! D:

[@azure_sfd]

half life 3 real. Also, since you've checked a lot of GoldSrc mods recently, you should do a video on Arctic Incident, created by XF-Alien, released way before Delta Particles (2015)!

[@OtaconNachos]

Gordo's Back!

[@Д.К-ж8ф]

Project borealis is cool but Unreal Engine 5 will never sit right with me no matter how you try to modify it to feel like source,it will never will

[@CVStudios.]

you know its a good day when Rad posts Oh and I played this and it was good I can’t wait to see other things the devs put in Yes I know this of course isn’t the full thing

[@Tycitron]

Ngl I thought It was kind of ass. I expected like all of Ravenholm after 7 years for the demo but it’s it’s barely half of the first map. The models are cool though.

[@archie_animations]

Tbh this project is great but I worry for it because valve doesn't usually allow fan projects to be on other engines unless I'm wrong

[@kameleon_rap]

Hey! What's your GPU and CPU? I'm curious if I can run this on my setup

[@BamBamAbraham]

Nice

[@suroguner]

It should be on Source, not Unreal.

[@ZOPi-lg3vx]

Lucky for you, there's also an Epistle 3 reimagination that is been developed in Source.

[@jahibixd]

amazing

[@akarifox63]

I'm honestly surprised PB ended up NOT following in the footsteps of Black Mesa and Operation Black Mesa/Guard Duty and become a standalone, paid product, but even so, the first taste, despite being much, much too short, was pretty cool. It mostly feels right (a full replica of the feeling of Source is likely impossible to achieve, but for what it is, it's pretty impressive), the weapons are satisfying, the AI does its job (though we've only seen zombies and headcrabs in action, and those are unlikely to require much effort to get right, unlike soldiers and their tactics), and it looks amazing, too. Perhaps my only issues are the length (I expected the whole chapter, or at least half of it, but I guess not, 10mins of gameplay will have to do), and the gore system isn't as "juicy" as I hoped it'd be, which makes killing zombies feel more like killing plushies. The overall level of violence felt pretty tame compared to Source. Still, it's a fairly impressive first look, so if this is how the full project ends up being, then I think we're gonna have a neat game when it eventually drops.

[@therealbritlad2537]

FLUFFY HEADCRABS

[@averagehl2betafan148]

were so back-life 3

[@ay0nsen7r4]

Nice thumbnail

[@1KiloDepartment]

Only problem I currently face with this game is that it is running on Unreal 5, which for whatever reason, I can't run games that are made with it without constant lag, compared to other games that I can run with higher settings just fine :P My favorite examples being Doom Eternal (Id Tech 7) and the System Shock remake (Unreal 4), as I can play both with settings that look better than Project Borealis on its lowest settings [1]. Heck, I would've thought this was a Linux problem, but people can play it much better on Steam Deck than I can! PS: While playing this, I immediately got stuck into a wall. That is a funny bug, but I'm not gonna... _bug_ the devs about it, as it is more likely the framerate problems that cause this :) Edit: [1] I originally mentioned DRG (along with Satisfactory). But DRG has become laggy for some reason and I thought it was because of Unreal 5, while it actually runs on Unreal 4. My bad :P Hopefully the devs can fix what Unreal 5 has done, as many community posts say that the engine tries to shove gimmicky features like Lumen and DLSS down developer's throats! Oh also it seems like even people on way stronger hardware than what I have (GTX 1070 and i5), have massive performance problems. Has Epic really made the game engine that bad for new developers??

[@themoon69420]

Honestly, I was not pleased with my experience playing this. I think they made a mistake switching to UE5. We'll see how the final product looks I guess.

[@spy-ops1052]

I don't know why they don't just use source since they seem to want to recreate half-life 2's gameplay, also I think a lot of unreal engine 5 games (including this one) just look generic, I feel like some of the more modern half-life 2 mods like swelter and entropy zero 2 look way better than this.

[@moonscript4675]

Visually it’s very very pretty, but the animations need…a lot of work. That would really help the feeling of the gunplay and crowbar play. Cause even watching this video they look very rough and janky.

[@Gordon-Freeman-Gaming]

This is cool and all but why did they make the headcrabs hairy 😭

[@mrfoxly6833]

Hmm… can’t say I’m impressed with them using Unreal engine. You’d think with the success of Black Mesa, the Source engine would still be the go to development kit for a Half Life game.

[@deded6750]

I have to play this game in lowest settings in order to play with over 20 fps

[@hyperreal]

Why was this made in UE5 and not source/source 2?

[@DEADEYESTUDIO]

i hope this game fills the hole somewhat of not having half life 3. i just played episode 2 for the first time and its like wheres half life 3?

[@erwinzmuda134]

The gnome achigment dont work

[@cynicalmemester1694]

7 years later and what we get is a 5 minute demo, yeah this project isn't going anywhere.

[@NoahGooder]

I like this but I dont like that its running on the unreal engine mostly because it would probably hurt any modding.

[@Toyotakilla98]

The Only thing "Modern" about this is the engine and tech, then again Half-Life's always been kind of Modern so I don't get the distinction.

[@usernamehhhs4540]

lmao it's literally another cinematic mode. With S*it optimizaton to boot

[@antoneeee9284]

the particle effects and gunplay does feel very unpolished. doesn't feel like a half life game.

[@Anunusualencounter]

Am I the only one who thinks the weapon sounds are a bit off?

[@f.artemenkov]

They just could use Source Engine and made GAME. I mean GAME like Black Mesa for instance, not another one UE5 demo. And I really doubt that Source wasn't suitable for Episode 3. Just recall Black Mesa.

[@tslodemi]

I wybe. Are y'all wybing?

[@kiryeshka3568]

To say that I'm disappointed would be an understatement. First of all it's just a prologue yet it already requires a nasa computer to run. Next is the menu. What was the point of making it source-styled? It's just a nostalgia bait, and a very cheap one in comparison to the game itself. Weapons feel week and unsatisfying to use. The gravity gun also feels off. In some areas headcrabs hair is way too bright. But those are minor complaints. My main complaint is that the whole demo is just a show off for the graphics that took 7 years to make. Half-life Alyx took 4 years to develop. Yes, I know that I am comparing a big company with experience to a fan project, but hear me out. Valve had to brainstorm, make the plot that would make a difference in hl lore, adapt the whole thing to VR and make sure it won't feel like the black sheep in the series. Meanwhile, project borealis had everything done for them. They just had to make the already made plot into the game.

[@C00PER_06]

I was honestly surprised to hear you say that this was an Unreal Engine 5 project in the video. I honestly thought it was just a good looking Source Engine mod at first (Similar to how Black Mesa is). The developers did a great job at mimicking the Source Engine and overall Half-Life looks and feel. Thanks for showcasing this and letting us know it exists, cause I certainly didn't know until now lol

[@cristhyanandradegeraldo3501]

Eu quero poder jogar só que uma pessoa não é muito bom

[@WildBeret]

I just played some bits it feels unfinished with physics for my taste , also explosions look dull , weapon handling very unfinished , sound of headcrabs is cute I think a little better that original , I always like the trapped in bunker story with open spaces rather then open spaces mostly , ok I finished it withoyt finding shotgun really 4 years passed and they release this.... the level design is good and music atmoshere in this level but the rest is too much unfinished , literally ppl have less people and can make really decent stuff after short time and UE5 here is a joke nothing to be excited about

[@walter___]

How imagine Project Borealis SMOD Edition.

[@masterbuilder0018]

Who was the single guy that disliked this video? Lol

[@mopeybloke]

UE5? WTF.

[@mkmh95]

this game ran poorly on my pc

[@deadchatenjoyer7055]

my only problem is the animations are kinda bad

[@bipolitthefighter2599]

Fun experience My 2 critiques: 1. The shotgun felt underwhelming, in half life 2 it felt powerful, and was loud, not as much in this demo 2. It was very short, I was expecting the entire ravenholm chapter, not a 5 min experience

[@scarletcrusader5431]

I'm so tired of EVERY HL2 showcase being in Ravenholm. It's so overdone, and really isn't that great. The tech demo looked great though so, I guess I can give it a pass.

[@NotMrDanny]

It looks like unreal engine slop plus the weapon look trash mostly the animations

[@verendale1789]

This "Prologue" sucks so much ass