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Half-Life 2 Ship Date Confirmed
An anonymous reader writes "Worthplaying has the scoop on the official going gold of Half-life 2. According to their information it has a confirmed ship/store date of November 16!" Gamespot has details on the ship date as well.
Half-Life(R) 2 to Ship to Retail Outlets Globally This Holiday Season
/PRNewswire/ -- Vivendi Universal Games (VU Games)
today announced that Half-Life(R) 2, the sequel to one of the most critically
acclaimed PC titles in gaming history, will ship to retail outlets around the
world in November. The Company confirmed that Half-Life 2, developed by Valve
Software, has gone gold with a planned retail street date of November 16,
2004. The countdown to the highly anticipated retail street date has begun
around the world, as VU Games completes plans to ship localized versions of
Half-Life 2 simultaneously in English, French, Spanish, Italian, German,
Traditional and Simplified Chinese, Korean, Thai and Japanese.
LOS ANGELES, Oct. 18
"Half-Life 2 has surpassed our expectations in every sense -- its high-quality graphics, ground-breaking physics and immersive first-person shooter gameplay set a new standard for PC action games," said Bruce Hack, CEO of VU Games. Half-Life 2 will go down as one of the best-selling PC titles, and we are thrilled to deliver this ground-breaking title to the worldwide gaming community this fall."
Hailed as "...the best game ever made" by PC Gamer, Half-Life 2 earned a top-rated review score of 98, the highest score bestowed by the magazine in more than six years. The game has received numerous accolades for its technical excellence, captivating story and addictive game play, including more than 10 awards and nominations at the 2004 Electronic Entertainment Expo. In addition to being named "Best PC Game" by 1up.com (Ziff Davis) and Gamespy.com, the title also received a "Technological Excellence on PC" award from IGN.com. CNNMoney.com stated that "Half-Life 2 will redefine what gamers expect from their games visually -- and the gameplay is a lot of fun as well."
The global anticipation for Half-Life 2 has reached unprecedented heights, as consumers around the world mark their calendars to buy the game at retail on November 16th. The Half-Life 2 product will include Counter-Strike: Source. VU Games will also release a Half Life 2 Collector's Edition that will include Half-Life 2 in DVD-ROM format, Counter-Strike: Source, Half-Life: Source, a free limited edition t-shirt, and a Half-Life 2 Prima strategy guide book.
The original Half-Life game was launched in 1998 under VU Games' Sierra Entertainment publishing label. It earned more than 50 game-of-the-year awards and has been heralded as one of the best PC first-person shooter games of all-time.
About Half-Life(R) and Half-Life(R) 2 In 1998, Half-Life revolutionized the game industry with its combination of pounding action and continuous, immersive storytelling. Valve's debut title was named "Best PC Game Ever" by PC Gamer and launched a franchise with more than eight million retails units sold worldwide. In 2004, Half-Life 2 will take the suspense, challenge and visceral charge of the original to new heights of realism and responsiveness. Half-Life 2 opens the door to a world where the player's presence affects everything around him, from the physical environments to the behaviors -- even the emotions -- of both friends and enemies. The player again picks up the crowbar of research scientist, Gordon Freeman, who finds himself on an alien-infested Earth being picked to the bone, its resources depleted and its population dwindling. Freeman is thrust into the unenviable role of rescuing the world from the wrong he unleashed back at Black Mesa. And a lot of people -- people he cares about -- are counting on him. The intense, real-time gameplay of Half-Life 2 is made possible only by Source, Valve's new proprietary engine technology. Source provides major enhancements in the advanced facial animation system, physics, graphics and AI. Half-Life 2 will be available for the PC.
About Vivendi Universal Games Headquartered in Los Angeles, VU Games is a leading global developer, publisher and distributor of multi-platform inter
They told you this on their website, before you bought the game. It's not Valve's fault that you were too lazy to read it.
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The last thing I read from Valve about the whole situation is that Vivendi was suing them to stop them from releasing the game on Steam before the retail street date. Valve's original plan was to release it via steam many weeks before it was in the store to get people to sign up for steam.
The purchasing website says: "Purchase any one of the three Half-Life® 2 Steam packages listed below, start playing Counter-Strike(TM): Source(TM) immediately, and be ready to start playing Half-Life 2 the moment it is made available!" - not that I won't be able to play it until the game is in stores. The game is complete. It _should_ be available now.
I haven't seen anything anywhere stating that it would be available on steam the same day it's available in the stores.
I've just signed legislation that'll outlaw Russia forever. We'll begin bombing in five minutes.
Steam purchases do not unlock until the very same day that the game releases in stores. This means that, assuming they make their expected ship date (hurry up on printing those CDs VUG!), HL2 will unlock on Steam on Nov 16 (probably at 8am or something) as well. Of course, CS:S is available on Steam right now...
:)
If you've already got an ATIHL2 voucher, redeem it through steam to get your Bronze edition free (HL2 + CS:S).
Another reminder: Steam does not include physical hard copies. Everything is a digital download from Steam. That being said, there is nothing that prevents you from copying and burning the steam cache files elsewhere so you don't have to redownload several GB of stuff on a reformat or whatever. The exception is the Gold package, which has a lot of physical goodies that are shipped to you (but not the game itself).
Don't forget to mail your HL2 postcard from the Gold package to 3drealms
The day it's available in a store, November 16th. If some stores actully release it before that day, then it will be unlocked eariler.
Learn something new.
The requirements are significantly lower than those of the recently released Doom 3.
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From http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/half-life-2/542987p1.htm
In late July, he announced the basic computer spex needed to run the game would be a 1.2 GHz processor, 256 MB of RAM and a DirectX 7 enabled graphics card, although to really enjoy the bells and whistles of the game Valve recommends a 2.4 GHz processor, 512 MB of RAM and a DirectX 9 card.
At 1152x864 with no antialiasing and 4xAniso my 9800 Pro gets around 80fps in the source engine video stress test (all other detail settings maxxed). Same settings in CS Source averages 30-100fps (some dips lower on 40+ player servers). My Athlon 3000 CPU is holding me back, not the 9800 pro.
moo
** I think they're giving themselves extra time due to the fact that they intend to release localized versions world-wide on the same day.** ..and? they say it's gone gold, that means it's off to the cd duplication, that the work is done, that should include any localisation they do.
what they're doing is that they're settin it on the sweet spot datewise to get as much sales as possible, like ms is doing with halo. not too early but not too late.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
You can buy HL2 for $50 right now over Steam. $60 for the Silver package.
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As a reasonably long time(though now former) counterstrike player, I can tell you I'd feel much more appreciated if they wernt charging me to play their beta.
Yes, I've played the 'Final release', but don't kid yourself if you think thats a releaseable product. Within the first 15 minutes of playing I had working wallhacks and fullbright cheats, purely from digging in the console.
And on an unrelated note, mat_dxlevel 70 will give you fps comparable to your hl1 fps. Makes water ugly as all hell, but its worth it if your card sucks.
Pain lasts, kid. Its how you know you're alive. Sometimes I think this growing up thing is just pain management-TheMaxx