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Half-Life 2 Submitted to VU For Approval
Dreadlord writes "After years of rumors, leaks, and delays, Neowin reports that the release candidate for Half-Life 2 has been sent to VU Games for approval. Valve's director of marketing confirmed the story to GameSpot yesterday. "Yes, the release candidate went to VUG yesterday," he said. First words on the submission came from Gabe Newell, CEO of Valve, "The RC went to VU yesterday," read Newell's one-line post on the hl2fallout.com forums."
So they might actually scrape in at under a year delay? (IIRC the initial release date was Sept something, forget exactly what)
In case anyone wonders whether the Gabe Newell post again came from his compromised forum account, Steve Gibson at Shacknews has contacted him to verify validity and it is indeed legit.
Another 1 line forum post? Perhaps I'm just getting cynical in my old age, but I'm hardly going to treat this as the gospel truth. As far as I'm concerned, I'll believe Valve's statements on release dates the day I have the game in my hand (or my steam cache... I'm open minded on these things).
Valve may have some great talents on their staff. Half-Life was a shockingly good game and Half-Life 2 may well continue the tradition. But by god do they need some decent project managers and PR people. Since the announcement of HL2 last year, they've managed to make themselves objects of anger, frustration and sometimes plain ridicule for much of the gaming world. I'm sure a lot of this is unjustified morally, after all, nobody has a "right" to have HL2 by any given date (except possibly the people who got vouchers for it with their graphics cards *cough*), but that's not to say that any sane company should have behaved in the way that Valve have. If HL2 wasn't ready for release before the leak last year, and I don't think anybody now believes that it was, then Valve should have made this clear and been relatively open about the progress of the game all along.
Hell... even an ID-style "when it's done" would have been better than this endless succession of missed release dates.
I remember one of the things said to have given away the HL2 going gold hoax a couple weeks back is that Gabe Newell doesn't make short, one line posts to web forums. Am I the only person who finds it funny that he has now apparently made a one line web forum announcement? I say apparently because the site be down, Cap'n.
I heard from a mate, who heard from a mate, who heard from a guy he spoke to on IRC, that Half Life 2 is a bit of a washout.
He played an early release copy, he said, and there weren't even any monsters, scripted encounters or real puzzles, only a couple of half assed maps.
I won't be buying a copy.
Meine Schwester ist sehr, sehr reizvoll - Nietzsche
I guess he changed it from gaben to gnewell? ;)
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Mod me troll if you want, but this is a serious question: Is there still a market left for this game?
Seriously?
After years of delay, and after seeing Doom3 totally flop, I can't bring myself to get excited about this game. When you throw in "Steam", I'm downright turned off by the prospect of shoveling out $50+ for this.
If they had released this game a year ago, sans steam, I'd have been all over it. But after all the anticlimactic hype, I'm just not interested anymore. Maybe I'd snag a copy if it ends up selling for $20-$30, but at $50-60, you can count me out.
Am I alone in this thought?
Vivendi thinks it's rubbish and that it will never sell. Too big of a risk, not a big enough fanbase
Look it's a joke about my sig IN MY SIG! LOL!
This does not mean the game has gone gold or is necessarily going to go gold soon, as I've seen reported since this announcement. Several candidates can and will be delivered to the publisher before one of them gets approved. Granted, since Steam has already preloaded the sounds, textures, and models, the bulk of the game is set in stone. But that still leaves the executable, overall stability, multiplayer, maps, and other QA odds and ends.
Valve Software
Posts: 32
Posted: Sep 16 2004, 12:27 PM
Yes, the RC went to VU yesterday.
It's there, it appears valid...if someone checked with him, Im inclined to believe it. Now, lets hope that after all this wait, it wont suck.
Support more choices in goverment-Vote 3rd party.
So how much longer until the game is finally released? I fear its another 2~3 weeks until this RC will become the build to go gold. And thats IF it is even accepted requiring no re-working at all. A big IF. So folks, it seems mid-November till early December is the objective. I think if the game comes in too late in December, the Holiday season sales are going to get killed. Interestingly to me, if it comes out in the November timeframe, it'll feel like the original HL coming out in late October early November of '98. I just hope the game retains a good portion of the original feel or atmosphere.
Fine...
But what appreciation should we show? What has Valve done that is so excellent?
1. They made Halflife, an excellent single-player game that deservedly won many Game of the Year awards 5-6 years ago. It had an excellent story line, and some good AI for some of the enemies (the marines.) The multiplayer was lack-luster and end of the game was weak.
Then what? NOTHING. They've done NOTHING since then.
1. They bought a mod team and distributed a half-baked copy of a great mod. (The great mod being Team Fortress, and the half-baked copy being TFC.)
2. They waited until another mod that they had nothing to do with became popular, (an internet phenomenon actually) and bought that one as well. (CounterStrike.)
3. They took a shot at a Guiness record for most re-releases of the exact same product by changing the box colors of Halflife about a dozen times. (They are only second to Lucas and StarWars.)
4. In the name of Online content distribution, they created the most intrusive DRM software to every make it to production. (It's called a STEAMing pile of crap.)
Valve has only released ONE GAME. They are still new to the business. (but pro's at 'giving the business.') They've been riding the on the success of amatuer mod teams since the beginning.
(Even though HL turned out to be a worthwhile product in it's own right, the great majority of the early purchasers were simply buying it as a platform for the much anticipated (still) Team Fortress 2. Valve had purchased (co-opted?) the design team or else we would have all been playing TF2 on Quake2 instead.)
Anyway...I don't bash Valve for anything to do with HL2. It looks very pretty and interesting. I'm skipping D3, but I'll probably get HL2. However, there's very little else in their entire history to credit valve with...except extreme luck.
--Welcome to the Realm of the Hawke--
...where's the .torrent for the RC? :)
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
When half-life came out it was approved and annoucnce as going gold byt the late "sierra" in less than 48 hours. So we could potentialy see an anouncment for HL2 i the next couple of days.
also as a note Counter-Strike:Source and Half-Life:Source (ports of CS and HL to the HL2"source" engine) have also been sent to VU
With the moo and the cow and the fish. Minesweeper Record: 7 sec
I always thought the best parts of Half Life were the earlier levels, before you get out into the light of day. You start descending into darkness. Pretty quickly after the game proper starts you are teased with being on the surface, but you are forced back down. Then you get the long trek through the missile silo with its nasty yet excellent monster. After you get back to the surface it is still a good game, but it no longer reaches the lofty heights it had reached before.
I agree that Doom 3 was not as spectacular as we could hope for. I think it was the pacing (too regular) and predictability (far too predictable). Real horror works best when you _don't_ know what is in front of you. In Doom 3 you are guaranteed to have two monsters teleporting in and another one appearing from a sliding panel behind you.
Pardon my being completely out of the loop-I've never played Counterstrike-but I thought Steam was just some kind of download client? Where's the DRM in it, and what does it do?
My brother plays CS a lot, but in the interest of keeping my network free from corporate interests...it may be time to introduce him to a different game.
They've been working on Team Fortress 2 and Half Life 2 concurrently, probably should have made them one project a lot sooner. And they've been constantly updating the original Half-life since it came out.
They haven't done nothing. They haven't RELEASED anything NEW. But if they hadn't done nothing, playing Half Life online would be like playing the original Diablo is now. (If you don't cheat, don't bother.)
Then what? NOTHING. They've done NOTHING since then.
They have been developing half life 2... they could have released 3 other generic doom clones like every other company and raked in the money... but instead chose to invest money in developing something better.
The multiplayer was lack-luster and end of the game was weak.
The end was weak, the multiplayer was lackluster because they focused on single player. They also gave you TFC for nothing.
They bought a mod team and distributed a half-baked copy of a great mod.
half baked? the game was a freebie, stop whinging about getting something for free. It was meant to generate publicity for TF2 to those who had never played TF. I personally luved TFC.
They waited until another mod that they had nothing to do with became popular, (an internet phenomenon actually) and bought that one as well.
Good for them! I wish i'd bought it. Your forgetting that counterstrike only became popular because so many people bought half life in the first place and counterstrike was a free addon.
They took a shot at a Guiness record for most re-releases of the exact same product
True, but then that only works if people want to still buy it.
They've been riding the on the success of amatuer mod teams since the beginning.
Rubbish. Half Life single player was amazing and thats why people bought it. I didn't play any games for years after half life because nothing else compared. The mods came later and eventually took over, as expected because they are all multiplayer and have longer laster appeal than single player.
purchasers were simply buying it as a platform for the much anticipated (still) Team Fortress 2
No, TF2 was always going to be a separate game. When i bought half life i bought it for half life.. i didn't even know TFC or Counterstrike were going to be released when i bought it.
However, there's very little else in their entire history to credit valve with...except extreme luck.
A great game doesn't come through extreme luck, they put more thought into HL than any other first person shooter to that point and thats why it was popular. I believe they'll do the same thing with HL2 which is why i'll buy it. I didn't bother buying D3 because i knew it would be just another pretty but ultimately soulless ID game.
Half-Life rocked the boat when it first game came out and its impact changed how fps shooters are made period. I agree that we can't really bash Valve for HL2 they're working to get it out ASAP. However they should inform the public that, yes, it is taking a little longer than expected.
Arguably they've released the same game over and over again for the last 5-6 years but at $20 for the complete package of all of the new releases who cares?! I bought HL a few weeks after it came out in '98 for $50 and then bought Opposing Force at release for $30 and had to download the rest of the things that come with the $20 platinum edition. I don't see why this is a problem its not like people re-buy the game everything valve buys a new patch.
People are going to stop bitching and moaning about Valve, game costs, Steam (well maybe not, im a diehard CS 1.5er myself), and the rest of the annoying nitpicky nonsense when this game is out.
The guys at 3d Realms got it right they're trying to replicate what Half-Life did to the FPS with DNF and its taken them 7 years thus far so 5-6 years for HL2 doesnt seem too absurd.
And to the the guy that started this post. Skipping D3 might be a mistake its not the FLOP that all these whiners are making it out to be, they're mostly the people that won't upgrade to play it. Its got a great single player game though its multiplayer is definately lacking, the mod community has never failed us on an id title before.
Thanks for modding that as Flamebait, you twits.
Vivendi reported 2 weeks ago on how their games division has been losing hundreds of millions $$ for the last two or more consequtive years. Is it really that unrealistic to believe a publisher could force it's contracted developer to finally draw the line and publish the 1 cash cow they have? Jerks.