Half-Life 2 gets graphical overhaul

This is why PC gaming is better than console gaming in our opinion; because of excellent mods like this which keep on improving on the games we all know and love.

When it comes to mods in fact it's tough to get more well known FakeFactory, the modder who's been working to improve the visual impact of the Half-Life games ever since their first release. The FakeFactory mods have been upping the polygon count (and amount of cleavage) on Half-Life 2's characters for a number of years now.

The latest mod though, FakeFactory 9.5, is a bit different to that and works on a much larger scale by completely updating the graphical system in all of Half-Life 2.

Not only does the latest version of the mod include all the usual characters in their redone and un-recognisable forms (which is occasionally a move for the worst, admittedly), but it also includes a series of updates to the Half-Life 2 version of the Source engine that brings the game kicking and screaming into 2009.

That update list includes, for starters, full HDR support in all levels of the singleplayer, proper 3D vegetation and improved particle effects. To make sure the game is showing as much of this off as possible FakeFactory has disabled the sight limitations on the engines, letting you see clearly from one end of a level to another if your PC is powerful enough.

The only bad news then is that there's no apparent news on how to bring these improvements over to mods like Garry's Mod 10 just yet.

the full FakeFactory pack is pretty massive obviously, but if you don't mind waiting then you can grab a download from FileFront. Discuss it in the forums.