Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Half-Life 2: Lost Coast


 * The following is an archived discussion of a featured article nomination. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the article's talk page or in Wikipedia talk:Featured article candidates. No further edits should be made to this page.

The article was promoted by User:SandyGeorgia 04:21, 31 December 2008.

Half-Life 2: Lost Coast

 * Nominator(s): Gary King  ( talk ), S@bre

This is a video game level that was released online. It was created as a technology demonstration to showcase new features implemented into the video game engine used by the level, which include improved graphics and a new commentary system. This article is fairly different from a typical video game article, in that the primary focus is on its development. Gameplay is essentially the same as the game that this level uses, Half-Life 2, so the basics are outlined here. Also, the level's plot only exists to serve the technology demonstration purpose, so only the important details are mentioned in the Plot section—it is a fairly short level. Regarding Reception, there isn't as much available as there is for a typical game, but we used what we could find. Gary King ( talk ) 21:24, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

There are two images in this article; both are fair use:
 * Image:Lostcoastlogo.PNG
 * Image:Lost Coast HDR comparison.png

Gary King ( talk ) 17:34, 9 December 2008 (UTC)
 * I thought Sabre was going to create a better image than the craptastic HDR comparison? (limey slacker :P) Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs ( talk  ) 19:51, 9 December 2008 (UTC)
 * He's been busy lately I believe. Gary King  ( talk ) 19:53, 9 December 2008 (UTC)
 * And you've jumped on ahead, eh? Well, Image:Lostcoastlogo.PNG needs downsizing to 256px horizontal, and if I crisper picture was found to replace the HDR comparison shot, that would be nice (we could have the image be lower res too). As it stands, images have proper licenses and detailed rationales, so aside from the above images should meet criteria. Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs ( talk  ) 20:10, 9 December 2008 (UTC)
 * All done. And, well, he knows this FAC is open. I'm assuming he's just unable to get to the game any time soon. Gary King  ( talk ) 20:18, 9 December 2008 (UTC)
 * Limey I may be sir, but I am no slacker! Well, not much. I've uploaded the new version, and included a few pointers in the summary of exactly what is different. I've reduced it to 500px, any lower and the fine details (which basically sums up HDR) would start to become less noticable. -- Sabre (talk) 21:03, 9 December 2008 (UTC)
 * It is a tad cleaner, but I suggest reuploading it as PNG, so there aren't any scaling artifacts in the thumbed version. Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs ( talk  ) 21:18, 9 December 2008 (UTC)
 * Done. -- Sabre (talk) 21:49, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

←My god that looks much better, no? And to think all I had to do to get results was call Sabre a limey :P Images look good, I'll get around to giving a full review sometime or another (I've got three days to kill and no finals, so it'll be sooner rather than later :P) -- Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs ( talk ) 21:52, 9 December 2008 (UTC)
 * Mildly insulting my British heritage always gets response. You're lucky I can't call you out for pistols at 20 paces any more. :S -- Sabre (talk) 22:07, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

Comments - sources look okay, links checked out with the link checker tool. Ealdgyth - Talk 14:20, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

Support More comments - it looks pretty good, but there are some issues (might as well start this review because otherwise I'm just going to play DotA and RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 :P): changed to support I sniffed about on LexisNexis and elsewhere to find more reviews, but there wasn't much else, so I think it uses the sources available. To me, the graphics-speak works fine and is accessible, but I suppose a technophobe should check it out. -- Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs ( talk ) 02:21, 10 December 2008 (UTC)
 * Lead
 * There's lots of repetitious "the level" sprinkled throughout. Change it up.
 * "In addition, Lost Coast was the first video game developed by Valve to use audio commentary," - feels a bit clunky, why not reword to talk about how players can listen to blah blah blah?
 * Body
 * "A nearby man, identified in the commentary as the "fisherman"" - why not just call him the fisherman from the get-go?
 * "They tested three different methods before finally settling on a fourth method that was deemed workable. " This gets stated after, so why not just axe this bit?
 * You've got some conflicting sentences: the first part of development talks about how it was supposed to be a tech demo, and then you say "Lost Coast was originally conceived as a level in Half-Life 2, but was later discarded during development. " - I understand what you're trying to say, but perhaps level design should go first and then you talk about how it was turned into a tech demo afterwards.
 * "As a technology showcase, Valve considers Lost Coast to have system requirements that are very high.[12] The game runs on computers with specifications lower than what is recommended, albeit without some key features such as HDR. If a non-HDR capable card is used, the developer commentary is changed slightly to reflect this. For example, Gabe Newell would describe the effects that are seen in a different manner.[13]" The first part of this seems disjointed, as suddenly we went from commentary to system requirements. Put the first part into another section and smooth the transition?
 * "People who received Half-Life 2 as a gift were not eligible to download the level. " - what does this mean? How did Valve make the distinction?
 * All done Gary King  ( talk ) 17:39, 10 December 2008 (UTC)
 * Could you move your "Support" to someone more visible? Right now it's at the end of a line that's crossed out and in italics; not that easy to spot at first glance. Thanks! :) Gary King  ( talk ) 18:00, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

Support: For a tech demo, you've done a fine job of gathering well-referenced information. In conclusion, .--ZXCVBNM 23:03, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

Support. Rreagan007 (talk) 16:21, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

Support. A few quibbles: This thread was mistakenly put into the Over the Edge FAC below. I have verified that these comments go with this FAC and accordingly moved them here. Dabomb87 (talk) 19:00, 30 December 2008 (UTC)
 * "implemented into future games"—"integrated into" or "implemented in".
 * "a significant amount of lighting effects"—"number of".
 * "were also added"—removed "also".
 * "considered Lost Coast to have system requirements that were very high." Why not "considered Lost Coast to have very demanding system requirements." Tony   (talk)  15:40, 30 December 2008 (UTC)
 * All done Gary King  ( talk ) 19:08, 30 December 2008 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this page.