Slashdot Mirror
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.
It would have never came out on Sept 3 2003.
The leaked beta proved this somewhat, although even myself, a PRO Linux PRO Doom 3, and PRO Fuck Gabe Newell up the anus, took it with a grain of salt.
Valve intentionally left their computers open enough for people to crack it, giving them an excuse to delay their product, and for the most part it worked. You have to give them credit. People like myself were not swayed by this stupid tactic, but as far as computer gamers go, I'm part of a small, (but much more cooler, kernel re-compiling) group. They had bought an entire YEAR, which is frankly, rather impressive, although it's not hard to fool counter strike kiddies. Heh, those little shit's think that if you wack your mouse against the desk, thereby moving your aim really fast, that your using a maphack! Ahh, thats rich!, Little bastards...god they all need to be shot...
Regardless, I am looking forward to half life 2, I admit it. But unlike buying Doom 3, paying for overnight shipping, and recieving it ON august 3, I will pirate valve's second game. (Selling free mods for 30 bucks a pop, doesnt count as a game)
Although now that I think of it, I have a stolen ATI card from a fucked up bst buy open box purchase. (Not of an ATI card, but of a sound blaster 2 zs platium package) On a side note, ATI sucks balls and is the anitchrist.
Now that they're doing the Steam Preload biznack, I might be able to get away with just the code on the paper, and not a non existant box top from an ATI card I didnt purchase, that during the time of that promo, wont be even able to play the game.
yeah this is probaly a rant. Hell give us a linux port, and like, we wont fuck over your computers, steal your forum accounts, and make butt sex jokes about you gabe.
Word.
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
La-de-freakin-da!
Someone hates these cans.
I guess he changed it from gaben to gnewell? ;)
503 Sig Unavailable
The Signature could not be accessed. Please try again later or contact the administrator
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.
Not directly related to half life 2 going gold, but I'm sick and tired of the people who bash Valve at everything they do. As any developer should know, there are many problems associated with software development that is far beyond anyone's control. Yes, I agree that the PR feed we've been getting from Valve hasn't been the greatest, but then again its not their fault the game wasn't completed when they were most likely told it was going to be done. Maybe I'm preaching to the deaf, but I wish everyone was a little less vicious and demanding, and a little bit more appreciative of the hard work that goes into a project such as this. I suppose I could have summed this up with, "Like you could do better." Appreciate the fact that people have worked their butt off over the last couple of years to try and bring you something that you will pay a measly price for hours of enjoyment. (hopefully ;)
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.
Maybe VU forced them to send over a release candidate. They just announced how their games division is losing millions for the X year in a row. Perhaps Valve is being pressured to release what they have (with the excuse of course that it can always be patched).
Other than that, all i can say is YEEEEEESSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!
...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.
Here ;)
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.