I have a troubled history withray tracing. Though my gaming laptop technically supports it, graphical bells and whistles are typically the first things to go when I’m trying to get a new game up-and-running. I played throughAssassin’s Creed Valhalla,Cyberpunk 2077, and nowBaldur’s Gate 3on this PC, and I’ve kept all of them on medium graphical settings so that my laptop merely remains blazing furnace hot, instead of surface-of-the-sun molten.
When I’ve played games for which ray tracing was a big selling point like Bloober Team’sObserver: System Redux, I’ve only been able to enjoy how it looked for a few minutes before switching it off so my game could run at a manageable pace. If I want the games to look their best, I play them onPS5. My PC works well for me — it’s portable, which is helpful for my work — but it just doesn’t work well for high-end games anymore.
RELATED:Does Gordon Freeman Wear A Helmet In Half-Life?
So, when I saw news thatHalf-Life 2RTX iscurrently being developed by Nvidia in collaboration with Half-Life 2’s modding community, I can’t help but feel conflicted. On the one hand, it looks really great. From the side-by-side screenshot comparisons Nvidia has shared it’s clear there’s more going on than adding ray tracing. Though the old and new screenshots are tagged “RTX OFF” and “RTX ON” respectively, it’s obvious that more work being done to make a nearly 20-year-old game look modern. The computer in Dr. Kleiner’s lab in the RTX ON screenshot is a different model than in RTX OFF. The monitor’s buttons are positioned differently, and the keys that were previously flat now jut out of the keyboard. Nvidia states that, “As with thePortalprojects, almost every asset is being reconstructed in high fidelity, and full ray tracing (otherwise known as path tracing) is being leveraged to bring cutting-edge graphics toHalf-Life 2.” Though the focus is on the new lighting, this will be a full-on community-led remaster.
Given that Half-Life 2 is one of my favorite games, I would very much like to play this. But, even though I would be running a game that’s two decades old, I don’t think my computer could handle it. As Samit Sarkar atPolygonnotes, Nvidia’s Portal with RTX has mixed reviews on Steam. largely due to the intensity of its system requirements. And if having RTX enabled is required to run the mod, I wouldn’t be able to enjoy the other cosmetic upgrades, either.
It sort of makes me wish that this mod (and Half-Life 2, generally) could just get a release on modern consoles. The Orange Box was an incredible piece of software to have on PS3, granting access to Half-Life 2, both of its DLC episodes, Portal, and Team Fortress 2. But, given Sony’s haphazard approach to preserving games from the PS3 era, one of the console’s crowning third-party achievements isn’t available anymore. And, outside of porting the Portal games to Nintendo Switch, Valve hasn’t shown much interest in bringing its games to modern consoles. Half-Life: Alyx seems like an obvious slam dunk for both Valve and Sony on PSVR2 but neither has shown any sign that it could actually happen.
It’s a shame because, short of buying a new PC, Half-Life 2 coming to PS5 would be my only chance to take a crack at Half-Life 2 RTX. Laptops don’t last forever so maybe I’ll just have to wait until the endless march of time forces me to upgrade. Or, the G-Man could always tuck me away outside time and space until we get Half-Life on PS5. A boy can dream.
