Today's comic shows the first of several physics puzzles you encounter in Half-Life 2. Most of the puzzles are pretty easy to solve, but they're easy to solve because their physics-based solutions are genuine and intuitive. The fact that you can look at the problem and say, "Well, I guess maybe weighing this thing down with oh huh it actually worked wow" is pretty darn cool. I still marvel over the physics in the game, sometimes pausing during comic-making to just chuck stuff around or watch things bobbing around in the water.

If you've been following the Half-Life 2 news lately, you've probably heard about Lost Coast and HDR. Lost Coast is an omitted level of Half-Life 2 that will eventually be released to us, and it will utilize HDR, which stands for High Dynamic Range, which will make games look a lot nicer and more realistic (if you have a high-end gaming system).

Frankly, I think PC games look pretty damn good now, and while I'm sure they can look better, I'd much rather see improvements in in-game physics than some lighting enhancements that will blind me when I come out of a dark room so the game designers can ambush me (you know that's what this HDR stuff is all about). I think physics are the new graphics, or at least they should be. As beautiful as HL2 was to look at, I think the physics are what really knocked me on my ass, and I know they can be refined and pushed even further for an even more realistic experience. Any improvements they can continue to make to games physics-wise will grab my attention more than some new lighting effects will.