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Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar - A Behind the Scenes Look: Prima's Official Insider's Guide Hardcover – 12 Nov. 2004

4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 50 ratings

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Purchase options and add-ons

·Unprecedented access behind Half-Life and Half-Life 2
·A forward by Valve founder Gabe Newell
·Hundreds of art, design, preproduction, and other art pieces crammed into the book
·Over a dozen key members of Valve's staff interviewed
·Officially approved by Valve
·Behind City 17 and other locations
·The development of the Source engine
·A rogue's gallery of beasts, characters, and monstrosities
·Key weapons development revelations
·A tour of many of the game's locations, from inception to completion
·Filled with art, screens, and anecdotes from the Valve team

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Prima Games (12 Nov. 2004)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0761543643
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0761543640
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 22.61 x 2.29 x 28.19 cm
  • Customer reviews:
    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 50 ratings

About the author

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D Hodgson
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WRITER OF TALL TALES AND HEFTY STRATEGY GUIDES

After fleeing from a rusting, condemned, dry-docked German fishing trawler slowly sinking into the River Thames, Manchester-born author David S J Hodgson spent his formative career years writing for the UK's premiere video game magazines. After a stint at MAXIMUM magazine and the Official Nintendo UK magazine, he emigrated to the United States, where he joined the crew at the part-fraternity, part-sanitarium known as GameFan magazine. He wrote his first guide in 1996, and has authored over 100 official video game books. Highlights include official guides for Metal Gear Solid (1998), Half-Life 2 (2004), Zelda: Twilight Princess (2006), Fallout 3 (2007), Skyrim (2011-2013), WatchDogs (2014), Fallout 4 (2015), Witcher 3 (2015-2016) and Fallout 76 (2018). He also wrote The Improved Emperor's Guide to Tamriel (TESO Imperial Edition), and The Hero's Guides to the Elder Scrolls Online (2014). He lives in a shed overlooking Los Angeles with his wife, dog, and an eight-foot statue of Great Cthulhu.

Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
4.7 out of 5
50 global ratings

Top reviews from United Kingdom

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 November 2004
The majority of you who are reading this mini-review will have played Half-Life 2 and have probably already been bowled over by its sheer quality. The game has made massive strides forward in multiple areas, almost making it a shame that (like every other game accused of being "the best game ever") Half-Life 2 is also probably the greatest graphical achievement in the history of computer and video games. This does nothing to lessen the leaps it makes elsewhere, but it is important that in some way, this achievement is celebrated.
Raising the Bar is this celebration, with countless images from throughout HL2's Six-Year development. Concept Art, 3D Renders, Screenshots and brilliant Poster Art fill the book, accompanied by lines of annotation to give some background to the concepts. And what concepts: Half-Life 2 isn't merely a "good looking game" because it is realistically lit, textured and filled with super shiny surfaces (Like so many supposedly "good looking" games). Half-Life 2 is a wonderful artistic achievement because each and every area has been painstakingly researched, sketched and refined since the initial concepts were laid down by the story designers. Raising the Bar shows you all this: 6 years of damned hard work on paper. It's a testament to the quality of the game that the in-game screenshots aren't there to just fill space: They show the completion of a vision, and look as artistic as the primordial ink and pen concepts that spawned them. In addition, there are details of deleted scenes, with interesting short stories written by HL writer Marc Laidlaw and a few bits of general overview to the developing process. Admitadly, the book is a little thin on actual description of this process (It was originally heralded as a "Making of" Book, but it's now more of an Art Book), but you can still get so much out the images that it's all worthwhile. It all comes in a 288 page Hardback book with excellent print quality and production standards, making it an excellent-value collectable. Certainly a must for any true Half-Life fan, but it's more than that: Anyone with an interest in game design or pre-production art in any medium should own a copy.
The biggest shame is that, (as a Limited Edition) It won't be available for very long. Order your copy now: you won't regret it.
34 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 23 October 2007
There are some crazy prices for this great book... just go onto Valves official site and order it for $25 (£12.50!) + Int Del... should only cost sround £20 delivered....
Great book though!
5 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 25 January 2005
This book offers a fascinating look into the (sometimes twisted) minds of the people behind HL2 and shows just how much hard work and imagination goes into producing such a game. I was slightly dissapointed with the lack of detail descriptions for many of the pieces but the quality of the images more than make sup for this. Its worth noting that the edition featured on this page is a paperback and not a hardback as stated in a review below.
6 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 20 February 2011
This book and the game Half Life 2, has had a massive influence on me. Seeing the art and the world of Half Life 2 inspired me to 3d modelling and computer games design/level design.

I now work in the games industry, and even after all these years looking back at the game and this book still makes me think wow. Valve really did raise the bar back then and now look at where they are.

Lovely art book, with some insight.
3 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 13 January 2005
This is a book that will appeal to fans of the Half Life series, rather than computer games fans in general. That's a shame, because I was hoping for a definitive expose of what it was that made Half Life 2 such a ground breaking game.
The book is lavishly produced, and is heavy on development ideas, showing just a fraction of the stuff they threw away. The overall impression the book gives is of a process of iterative experimentation that led almost by good fortune to something great.
The book shows how the game could very nearly have been awful, but there's very little here about "raising the bar". I'd have liked to see a more analytical treatment of the subject, and a few less pictures of beasties that never made it off the drawing board.
Worth having though for it's future second hand value.
10 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 January 2006
A very clean and well presented book, almost Google like at times for it's simple presentation.
I think it is fairly easy to sum up the book as being an insightful tour of the artwork and design process behind the story of Half-Life. Definitely not about the technology - although it is mentioned where relevant - but a compilation about the creative thought and work needed to build such an intricate game.
This book will please any person who played Half-Life 1&2 and was left with a sense of awe and passion for the ideas and world therein. If you ever wanted to know a bit more about all the things behind the story you will do well to study Raising The Bar.
14 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 5 September 2021
Love to have it

Top reviews from other countries

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Nick B.
5.0 out of 5 stars Good book
Reviewed in Canada on 23 April 2019
A Half Life fan must have
Leon
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent - Product matched the description and arrived more promptly than expected
Reviewed in Germany on 28 June 2019
The product was shipped from the US to the Netherlands in quite a fast timespan.

The description matched the product, there were only minor blemishes on the dust jacket, and as far as I can see no blemishes on any of the pages.

The book itself is fantastic and a *must* for any true fan of the Half-Life series, giving deeper descriptions to the design of the NPCs, levels, atmosphere, etc. of Half-Life, Counter-Strike, and Half-Life 2. The images are of a high quality. I can highly recommended this rare book.
Verity
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful Commentary on the Half-Life Games
Reviewed in the United States on 29 June 2014
This is definitely not to be missed. If you're a Half-Life fan, or just in love with concept art, this is a must! This is a in-depth look at the concept art from both Half-Life games, and it's filled with commentary all the way through. Yes, it's hard to find now and expensive, but totally worth every penny. It's not a guide on how the games were made, but more of a gallery of beautiful artwork and models that helped bring the games together, from pencil to screen. Absolutely beautiful, and lots to offer. I completely recommend this!
One person found this helpful
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Shadowman
5.0 out of 5 stars indispensable pour les fans de HL et HL2
Reviewed in France on 16 July 2015
Un des meilleurs artbook, beaucoup de croquis et d'artworks, essais graphiques et contrairement à ce que le titre laisse penser, le livre aborde les deux Half Life. Et en plus des tas d'anecdotes (en anglais) sur les coulisses du développement. Un très bel objet.
C. Cox
5.0 out of 5 stars Great behind the scenes info
Reviewed in the United States on 13 April 2020
This is a very good book detailing all the behind the scenes stuff with Half Life 2. It also has very good artwork detailing some of the familiar characters in game. Well worth the read if you are a fan.