Half-Life 2 Delayed?

Cirrus writes "Gamers had a bit of a disappointment when they found out that Doom III would not be available this year as previously hoped. Well, now it appears that Half-Life 2 will not be shipping until December. As a Half-Life fan, I can say that I would rather have to wait a couple months than sacrifice the quality just for an earlier release date." Update: 07/30 18:17 GMT by CN : There's an update over at Shacknews that says that Valve is still on schedule, so maybe I (and several other sites) totally jumped the gun on this one. Here's hoping.

Comments

When it's done

[Jonsey]

Hey, at least we know there's a chance this one will get to market.

I _loved_ HL, and still play new and evolving Mods for it constantly... not that one Counter-S something one. : )

September, December, it's still this year, and that'll be okay by me.

(But I'm still hoping for September)

Internet Journalism at its Finest

[EvlG]

Some guys .JPG of an email he supposedly got at Hotmail serves as proof the game is not delayed????

Give me a break! Rumors and .JPGs without any corroboration don't cut it.

Re:Internet Journalism at its Finest

[Zathrus]

As opposed to the unsubstantiated rumor that it's delayed in the first place? From such a highly regarded news source as Gamespot (which is where the "story" broke)?

Yeah, that's journalistic integrity right there!

Duke Nukem Forever

[trompete]

Who knows...we may even get Duke Nukem Forever before we get Doom III or HL 2. Oh, wait.....

Re:Duke Nukem Forever

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh wait what?

Re:Duke Nukem Forever

[trompete]

Duke Nukem Forever is never coming out. We'll just keep getting teaser screen shots until they switch the engine yet again. It has earned its Vaporware awards.

Re:Duke Nukem Forever

[Aliencow]

Maybe Duke Nukem Forever will be distributed through Steam then.

Delay

[Steve Gibson]

We've been following up with several different sources including the developers and everything we've heard has pointed to the alleged "delay" being false info.

We're just waiting on an official statement to make a follow-up post sealing the deal.

Yesterday

[Henry V .009]

Everyone else retracted this yesterday. Anyway, Half-life 2 looks very cool from the movies I've seen on Steam. The physics engine of the game seems to be its best quality. On the other hand, I dislike how character animations haven't improved in a game where there will be so much of pushing things around. Couldn't he at least stick his out and lower his weapon when he's pushing a table? But still, I've been waiting a long time for this. Lots of moveable junk is the nirvana of 3D gaming.

Re:Yesterday

[Carrion Creeper]

As someone who has spent some time pushing tables with weapons in my hand, I can tell you that you do not put your weapon down. No, I don't play paintball. Or laser tag.

Use one hand maybe, but shoving things out of the way with your body mass (or kicking it) is better anyways. In real life would you really put your weapon down? no. You would rather have a little extra trouble and still be able to shoot someone in the face if you need to.

Admittedly, their posture models may need work, but putting your weapon down in a hostile environment isn't done. Especially if you are trying to hold off an alien invasion by yourself :)

Re:Yesterday

[Henry V .009]

Good points, and I'll defer to your experience with weapons and tables in hostile environments. :)

I did notice a typo in my above post. I meant to write "stick his other hand out or lower his weapon a bit." However it is done though, I'd like to see some sort of animation acknowledging the physical reality of a body moving things. Having seen the movies -- including a new one today -- everything else to do with this looks so stunningly real that it's a shame not to have it. The physics engine in simply incredible. The bodies of others move in an amazingly realistic manner with regard to impact.

Re:Yesterday

[pommaq]

...pushing things around. Couldn't he at least stick his out and lower his weapon...

Stick his WHAT out? O_o

Not true...

[Iscariot_]

From ShackNews:

A number of gaming sites out there are carrying word of an alleged Half-Life 2 delay according to some folks at Vivendi Universal who are publishing the title retail for Valve Software. However word doesnt seem to have traveled down to Valve according to an email pulled from the Steam forums. (We havent been able to directly confirm or deny with anyone at Valve yet) who might know a thing or two about that. timm of Shacknews comments fame already pointed out this Gabe Newell response:

First time I've heard about this.

See the whole post here.

As long as...

[Apreche]

As long as it takes less time that TFC2 it's all good. I gotta get a new computer anyway, so Valve can take all the time they want.

Gordon v. Duke

[superultra]

Hey, whether the delay is supposed or actual, I can swing Valve one - maybe even two - pushbacks. At least they had the anti-industry nads to not say a damn thing about it until it was (presumably) almost ready. That's what 3drealms *should* have done, but didn't. I much Valve's approach to PR than id or 3drealms, who either give false dates or allow their PR people to. Kudos, Valve.

Better a delay...

[Randolpho]

... than a buggy game. HL2 is worth the wait -- as long as it's not vaporware.

Re:Better a delay...

[wickedj]

I agree with you. Just look at Blizzard's Starcraft. It originally used the Warcraft 2 engine and the images were changed to represent space. It looked horrible. Then they pushed the release waaaaay back and came out with one of the best games for pc ever. I think a little delay will only help the final product in the end. Of course, there is no evidence that there is a delay, but just in case.

I know why it's delayed...

[JavaLord]

It takes a long time to implment the correct security model to make sure that all old aimbots and wallhacks will be compatable with the new half life. Lay off the developers.

Valve

[icleprechauns]

has a record of creating late (and morover vaporware) products, everything from PressPlay, to Steam to Team Fortress 2 (whos last news update was January of 2001). I pray they don't delay this game too, seeing as how im getting a new computer mostly for HL2 :-\

again with the late articles

[y0bhgu0d]

Avidgamer had this yesterday...

better writeup, too. *shrug*

Half-Life 2 Gameplay Video

[c0d3fu]

OH MY GOD! I hope you guys have broadband (and Quicktime), because this is well worth it.

http://www.fileplanet.com/files/120000/123983.shtm l

One of the things that made the original Half-Life so much fun was the vast amount of creativity pumped into the game's story, weapons, and characters. After watching this video, it is clear that Valve has accomplished this yet again, except this time they also developed a new game engine that rivals that of Doom III (named "Source", *snicker*).

The clarity of the characters is enormous (for instance, each face has 40 underlying muscles that allow for thousands of different facial expressions) as well as the game effects (some generic cinematic-like styles such as water, flame, etc can be applied to any game object). Perhaps most impressive is game physics - but you'll have to see the gravity-based weaponry for yourself. The thinking gameplay is back too - from what I saw in the video, there is a new gauss-cannon like weapon that grips metal objects and then hurls them at things with very high speed. You can use the objects you grip as a shield. It even looks like they implemented a good FPS-driving system (the one in original HL/CS sucked).

ID and 3dRealms are going to be given a run for their money on this one.

Re:Half-Life 2 Gameplay Video

[Maserati]

Well, looking at THAT it's pretty obvious why it took so long:

The data model was "easy". Implementing and optimising it in an engine capable of high FPS... that had to suck. This really had to have taken years. And I'll bet it'll still take a couple of patches to polish it. Everything is made out of materials, not shaded polygons. Shoot a board and it splinters. The allied AI looked gooooooood.

The mod and machinima communtities must be freaking out right now. I really hope this engine gets widely used.

The barrel pachinko scene alone is worth the download. And so are the Striders.

Re:wow

[Anonymous Coward]

Seems ontopic enough to me, especially compared to the GYAA or whatever FPs. It is after all making a coherent comment about the article, that's pretty good for a FP. And when has _good_ humor ever been offtopic anyways? Get a life mods.

Timeframes and programming

[MBraynard]

I understand the business constraints, but to make a quality game the timeframes really have to be dispensed with. I'd rather not even really be told it was in development and have it surprise me when it's done than being teased for months with screen shots.

As a programmer, I chafe whenever I'm asked to give a time frame, so I've started using the Scotty Rule (from Star Trek TOS) and taken the amount of time I think the project will take and doubled it. Worse case scenario- I'm a little late, while normally I just seem to be done ahead of time which makes everyone happy.

Re:Timeframes and programming

[grahamwest]

The problem with this scenario is that there are two things that need to happen for a company to make money with a videogame. First, it needs to be good. Second, people need to know about it BEFORE it hits store shelves. The industry's sales are largely driven by buzz - people like to tell other people about cool games.

You have to begin your marketing and show people why the game is cool at least 3 months before you put it on shelves, otherwise no-one will pay it a second glance. More importantly, retailers understand the importance of good buzz and if a game doesn't have it they won't take the chance to put it on shelves.

Naturally there are exceptions to this rule for really exceptionally good games, or continuations of very highly regarded franchises, but this is the general case. Unless you get both of these things right you're very likely to lose a bunch of money on the product.

Re:Timeframes and programming

[MBraynard]

I disagree that massive advance promotion is needed. The reason it seems this way is that marketing employees are full time and need something to do while the game is developed.

Re:Timeframes and programming

[grahamwest]

Disagree all you like. The fact is that unless your game has high visibility with end users in the three months before it launches, it has at best a slim chance of selling well. There's actually a pretty easy way to measure this. Looking at how many hits per day a given game gets at gamespot.com in those three months will give you a clear idea of whether the game is positioned for success.

As a concrete example, consider Def Jam Vendetta and Wakeboarding Unleashed, both on PS2. Both scored similarly in review, are both somewhat niche interest titles and both came out at about the same time. Wakeboarding had a low interest level on gamespot and has yet to break 100,000 units sold. Def Jam had a high interest level and is well on the way to a million units.

C|Net sells this information via a service called Trax, and everybody in the biz uses it, including the big retail buyers for people like Wal*Mart. I'd always informally felt that it was important to cultivate buzz, but recently I was shown a graph of gamespot hits correlated to sales and basically it's a 70% accurate predictor across all games, with more accuracy at the low end than the high end. Games which aren't getting looked up by site visitors have a less than 10% chance of selling 250,000 copies - which is basically the bare minimum to break even.

Marketing exmployees are indeed full time but they work on multiple games. They should always be busy.

Re:Timeframes and programming

[MBraynard]

Your example is rediculous. Def Jam has a much bigger "niche" than Wakeboarding.

My point is that good games sell themselves.

Confirmed!!

[prichardson]

According to gamespy's story Vivendi has confirmed the delay of HL 2. I can't wait to try out that soft physics engine, droool. Too bad I can't do it on my mac. Maybe they'll finish the port this time. I can only hope.

Graphics

[AvitarX]

Are the graphhics in Half Life 2 going to make Doom3 obsolete on release date?

or is Doom 3 going to look better (I find that hard to believe from what I have seen though)

Re:Graphics

[n_jed]

Well from what I have seen of both games I think doom 3 looks better than HL2 now.

Witchhunt?

[__aafkqj3628]

Anybody want to rally outside VALVe Sept.30 and invade the offices should they not deliver?

Re:Witchhunt?

[Anonymous Coward]

and demand at least a playable demo if one isn't out available by then

I know why these delays...

[ralphclark]

It's no wonder iD decided to delay Doom III, anyway. With the economy in its current condition, and the high cost of suitable top-end video cards ($400+) it's very likely that any launch this year would be met with very poor sales. Better for them to wait until next year when (i) hopefully people will have more money and (ii) video cards with an adequate spec will have come down in price a bit.

Re:I know why these delays...

[tankdilla]

There is no way Doom 3 or Half-Life 2 would have poor sales. Everyone knows the quality that goes into the games, so people will eat ramen noodles for the next month just to afford the game and the hardware to run it. They're just trying to make it as bug-free as possible before releasing it. Of course bugs will eventually surface, but that's with any game.

Re:I know why these delays...

[Anonymous Coward]

You can't really be feeling the pinch if you don't have to think twice about shelling out $400+ for a video card. Obviously you're one of those people who still has a job. Or else you still live with your mom and don't have any significant living expenses.

I would really love to get my hands on Doom III but my old Radeon won't be any good and I won't be upgrading until I'm at a point where that kind of money doesn't matter to me. Which will require things to be a lot better than they are now.

Info from VUG France

[bidou]

Gabe Newell said that it's the "first time he heard about this". I don't understand how Shacknews can conclude that it means that HL2 is not delayed.

We (www.nofrag.com) sent an email to VUG France and they confirm that the game IS delayed. It's hard to conclude anything.

Re:Info from VUG France

[Anonymous Coward]

Thats strange. There have been a number of sites in contact with VUG US and they say the game is not delayed. One article is at homelanfed.com, and their story is being corroborated by a couple of e-mails from others across the internet.

Re:Info from VUG France

[bidou]

That's right. VUG US and FR doesn't give the same dates. It seems like the game will not ship at the same date all over the world...

Developer/Publisher relationship

[Anonymous Coward]

From the retraction in the update link:

Valve Software decides when they ship, not Vivendi. Valve says there is no delay (that they are aware of, and well.. if anyone is aware of a delay it would be Valve), then there is no delay. Things are still on target for Sept 30th until/unless Valve says otherwise.

Either Valve & Vivendi have an extraordinary relationship, or this person doesn't know WTF he's talking about. Even when dealing with experienced, best-selling developers, publishers are the ones to set the milestones and DEFINITELY the ones to set the ship dates. Perhaps the developer/publisher relationship I'm familiar with is radically different, but saying that "It's up to the developer" sounds grossly naive to me.

Graphics do not a game make

[Anonymous Coward]

Graphics are irrevelant, Doom 3 is about sheer horror (think silent hill fps) and thats why is fairly different than half life 2 which is more of an action strategy "thinking fps" game. Don't worry I think you will probably enjoy them both. (I know I will)

Re:Graphics do not a game make

[AvitarX]

arn't you optimistic, I won't even be able to run either:)

My question was about the engines and not the games themselves though.