Yes you are splitting hairs, nit picking, call it anything but sensible critiquing and that's what it is.
You're half wrong and half right. It isn't critiquing. I'm taking it for what it is - a tech demo, and if you re-read my first post, you'll see that I'm acknowledging that the technology is impressive. All I'm saying is that the tech demo doesn't show off actual gameplay, which isn't so much a criticism of this particular one as it is a property of tech demos in general.
I really think you're jumping the gun in assuming this is all they will reveal about the game too.
I never assumed anything of that nature. All I ever commented on was the things they presently demonstrate.
If you're referring to HL2's Lost Coast,
I'm not. I'm referring to a handful of the later E3 demos, one of which I linked to on YouTube. Lost Coast was more or less a tech demo too. It had gameplay, but the HDR lighting had little to do with the gameplay.
It appears I did not have to backtrack to those reviews I was speaking of to show you that the "survival horror" designation is applied to Ait
Exactly as I said two posts ago - you mixed up "survival horror" and "alone in the dark" and came up with the mishmash "survive in the dark horror game." Seriously, you could have spared yourself a lot of trouble if you just went "I meant to say survival horror" instead of going to extreme lengths to defend your new term.
at this point if you can't even acknowledge what the game is
Here's what the game is at this point - an engine, a small number of 3D models, some textures, and a placeholder map. If the tech demos are any indication of the project's maturity, then that's all the game consists of right now, and it's impossible to judge what the final product will be based on this. No matter how much you salivate at the prospects of being able to throw bags of blood at giant beetles.