seems there's shadows on all the characters. the three-legged spider/mech looks amazing, especially its scale. the view distance appears to go quite far. the one shot of the city street with the two columns with horses atop has a lot of drawn detail, as does the other shot of zombies in the alley/courtyard (the caption says the zombies will pick objects up, like oil drums, and throw them at you). there's a shot of a character coming out of fire - the flames look good.
the staff at valve includes mike dussault (lead lithtech engineer, versions 1 & 2), tom leonard (lead programmer thief 1), charlie brown & gary mctaggart (ex 3dfx & ritual), and yahn bernier and ken birdwell, the guys who did much or all of the original tech for half-life....so its unlikely that hl2 will be a slouch in the any of the key tech departments - video, sound.