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Half-Life 2 Street Date

Posted by Zonk on from the head-crabs-for-christmas! dept.

JFlex writes "According to Valve's website, Half-Life 2 will hit the streets on November 16th! From the press release: "The Company confirmed that Half-Life 2, developed by Valve Software, has gone gold with a planned retail street date of November 16, 2004." Gonna have to rush home and beat Halo 2 as fast as possible to free up some time for HL2!!"

44 comments

  1. Old by Southpaw018 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Heh. I emailed the on-duty editor, saying that this was old news. In fact, I mentioned the VU press release that was edited into the article. The press release is from October 18th. Abort the story instead of making a nonsensical edit, /., this is old stuff.

    --
    ACs are modded -6. I don't read you, I don't mod you, I don't see you. Don't like it? Don't be a coward.
    1. Re:Old by JVert · · Score: 2, Funny

      This "breaking news" is also posted on the side of the website. Where the ad's usually are. In big bold letters... ...

      its been there at least 3 days.

  2. Halo2 wont take long to beat... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    $50+ for around 6 to 8 hours of gameplay. It's just chock full 'o content compared to HL2, which has 25 to 30 hours of gameplay. :rolleyes

    1. Re:Halo2 wont take long to beat... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Heh. There you go. The expectation is play it once, and that's what the Halo haters just don't track on. It'll take about 9 hours at the outside to beat Halo 2 the first time through. But there's all kinds of replay value thanks to the Marines. If you do classic stuff, they'll provide a classic running commentary. Provided you can keep them alive. Dying aliens say the darndest things too.

      Between that co-op, experimenting with different ways to take down the threats, and multiplayer, there's a hell of a lot more than even 25 to 30 hours. And that's why Halo has done so well.

  3. This is the one I am waiting for... by mgblst · · Score: 1

    This is really the game that I have been waiting for. The screenshots not only look good, but seem to have a great atmosphere, with great attention to detail. It is riding on the coattails of HalfLife 1, which had incredibly immersive play, and was a good game to back to.

    Yeah, you can have your Halo 2s and your GTAs, this one is for me!

    1. Re:This is the one I am waiting for... by healy · · Score: 1
      Yeah, you can have your Halo 2s and your GTAs, this one is for me!


      I'll take all three of them, thank you!
      --
      "Jesus saves sinners...and redeems them for valuable coupons"
  4. This is great! by dshaw858 · · Score: 1

    This system will work well! After XBox's all die and overheat from overuse (no comment on Microsoft's engineering), people will now be able to come back to their trusty computers and play Half Life 2! Although, I think that there would be a greater reaction to the it's-gonna-be-damned-awesome HL2 if Valve waited, until, say December 1st, when the novelty of Halo 2 has worn off and people are ready for something new.

    - dshaw

    1. Re:This is great! by eht · · Score: 1

      Yeah, until Valve's Steam servers die off on the day of release ebcause everyone will be attempting to connect, and in the semi distant future when Valve disappears and you won't be able to authenticate your copy because everything including single player is locked under the authentication system according to Doug Lombardi from Valve.

  5. Wow by Poseidon88 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Thanks for the news!

  6. How can you... by Creepy+Crawler · · Score: 2, Insightful

    All geeks support such a company who disregards all computer users as theifs, criminals and crooks?

    Their program needs nannyware to even start up. As a geek, I find that reprehensible. Thats also why I use only windows 2000.. So I dont have to deal with MS's "change some hardware and fuck up your system" crap.

    I also know that many geeks refuse to touch this flaming pile of crap (even if the game content is good). Provide a respectable way for us to play without resorting to demeaning us as criminals, by default, and Ill buy it.

    If not, fuck Valve.

    PS: I was a paying customer of 3 sets of HL1.

    --
    1. Re:How can you... by space_jake · · Score: 0

      Steam isn't the devil man. Its not even burdensome like most of the software that makes you prove you own the game. No disc swapping or CD/DVD installation. No CD Key to lose. No advertising. No reminders to register your product. No hassel looking for patches or waiting 12 days to download from Fileplanet, (Unless of course you're a member and they have a server right in your house for you.) Honestly, Valve hasn't made me feel like a criminal like other game companies have. I really feel sorry for anyone that isn't playing Half-Life 2, because they're anti-Valve elitists. Steam is the next step in online gaming. Worked great for Blizzard so Valve kicked it up a notch. More and more gaming companies are going to start doing this, I hope you like making your own games cause the list that you're not buying its gonna keep growing.

    2. Re:How can you... by Poseidon88 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I don't understand this viewpoint. All games these days have copy protection in one form or another. For the most part, these schemes are more of a hindrance to the legitimate users than the dedicated pirates. Steam actually gets rid of all the annoying problems caused by current copy-protection, and goes a long way towards actually preventing piracy. No requiring the CD in the drive, no hardware issues, no worrying about losing your key or having someone else use it, game content delivered as soon as it is available, patches downloaded automatically... And the best part: an online distribution system like Steam may help release game developers from their dependence on huge publishers. Frankly, I think more people should be rejoicing about Steam and the way it is changing the games industry.

    3. Re:How can you... by Creepy+Crawler · · Score: 3, Insightful

      6 years down the line, I can still install Win98 on an old machine, provided I have the drivers to run the hardware. Never the less, it will still install and work. The same goes for Windows 95, 3X, NT, and 2000.

      The same cannot be said for Windows XP. Can you guarantee that when WinXP goes out of support, MS will still hand out unlock codes? My greatest fear is not putting the CD in when a program runs, or having some dumb dongle, or some gimmick. My biggest fear is putting the power to run YOUR computer software in the hands of some company that can decide not to support it whenever they wish, and there's not a damned thing you can do about it.

      A likely scenerio I can see Valve going through is thus:

      1: They produce a forced online-register for new game.
      2: A while passes, and game is "old".
      3: More time passes, and they start loosing revenue.
      4: They decide to sell themselves (and their IP) to another company
      5: That company cares not if further "registrations" go on, and let the online register servers die.
      6: That money you paid for to get that game is now suddenly... worthless, and the new parent comapny cares not.

      Case in point: Aureal sound cards... Creative bought the rights to them, and now do absolutely nothing with them. Any work done is on Linux, and reverse engineered from Windows drivers.

      --
    4. Re:How can you... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thats also why I use only windows 2000.. So I dont have to deal with MS's "change some hardware and fuck up your system" crap

      I felt the same way. Then I needed an XP box at home because we were switching over all workplace boxes from 2K to XP and I wanted to be able to mess with it at home to get a feel for it before migrating over all the machines at work.

      So I bought a crappy $300.00 beige box that came with XP Pro installed. I made an image of the HDD. I have added and removed a bunch of crap (video cards, RAM, 2nd HDD, etc.) without MS boo-hooing or asking for my registration or anything. I've heard that if you buy a system with XP already loaded on it you generally don't have to worry about any registration crap and that has been my experience.

      It is nice having an XP machine around for testing purposes. Of course my main home machine is running Windows 2000 and my laptop is also running Linux. If I didn't work with WIndows at my job then my home would be all Linux but like a lot of geeks I have to try to keep up with Microsofts products because Windows systems administration is what puts the food on the table.

    5. Re:How can you... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      This has nothing to do with online distribution. It has to do with Valve controlling access to a game you have legally purchased through a license-like system. The parent post replied with an explanation as to why Steam is bad.

      My problems with Valve go way beyond that, though. Where the hell is there support for other platforms? They've basically told linux users to go screw themselves, and put themselves in bed with MS in various ways.

      It's not just Steam, it's not just the lack of linux support, it's not just the promotional deals with MS, it's all of the above.

      Unreal Tournament is an example of a game that has managed to be wildly successful, on multiple platforms, without being obsessed about DRM crap. Hell, Epic even stops requiring CD checks after a certain length of time.

      There's no reason why Valve can't do the same.

      I've lost a lot of respect for them over the years.

    6. Re:How can you... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      6 years down the line, I can still install Win98 on an old machine, provided I have the drivers to run the hardware. Never the less, it will still install and work. The same goes for Windows 95, 3X, NT, and 2000.

      6 years down the lane is now, since HL. HL still works.

      The same cannot be said for Windows XP. Can you guarantee that when WinXP goes out of support, MS will still hand out unlock codes? My greatest fear is not putting the CD in when a program runs, or having some dumb dongle, or some gimmick. My biggest fear is putting the power to run YOUR computer software in the hands of some company that can decide not to support it whenever they wish, and there's not a damned thing you can do about it.

      I've never had to enter an 'unlock code', you must be very bad with computers. Or crazy, in fact, I don't think these 'unlock codes' exist at all. It's just some myth made up by Linux zealots to make Microsoft look bad.

      A likely scenerio I can see Valve going through is thus:

      1: They produce a forced online-register for new game.
      2: A while passes, and game is "old".
      3: More time passes, and they start loosing revenue.
      4: They decide to sell themselves (and their IP) to another company
      5: That company cares not if further "registrations" go on, and let the online register servers die.
      6: That money you paid for to get that game is now suddenly... worthless, and the new parent comapny cares not.

      I'm quite sure that you can play HL2 without an internet connection, and if you can't now, I'm even more sure that they are working on it.

      Case in point: Aureal sound cards... Creative bought the rights to them, and now do absolutely nothing with them. Any work done is on Linux, and reverse engineered from Windows drivers.

      Yes? Would whoever made those nice cards still support it if they still owned them? No.

    7. Re:How can you... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've never had to enter an 'unlock code', you must be very bad with computers. Or crazy, in fact, I don't think these 'unlock codes' exist at all. It's just some myth made up by Linux zealots to make Microsoft look bad.

      Um, what do you think the online, (or over the phone), activation is? Your Windows XP install _will_ stop working if it is not registered. Valve has already announced that you _will_ need an Internet connection to play Half Life 2 even in single player. This is because your copy of the game must be authenticated every time you start the game. If Valve stops supporting the game, then how are users supposed to play the game?

      Now if you have pirated a corporate key for your XP install, or you crack HL2, then obviously you don't need to worry. But the problem is that we are being forced into piracy to use a product that we have purchased. Steam is a nifty service as far as content delivery goes. Steam authentication is as evil as it gets though.

      What this kind of stuff allows, and the point of the grandparent post, is for companies to force you into spending more money for an upgrade version of a program, or a sequel of a game, by disallowing any more online authentications.

      "We don't support that product anymore and all EULA's for that product have been revoked."

    8. Re:How can you... by leland242 · · Score: 1

      HL1 is a fluke - you know how many games I play from 6 years ago that were on a PC...huh, whats that? None? Oh yeah, that's right. And if CounterStrike (which I don't play) didn't exist, the same would be true for a lot of people.

      Sorry, the whole, the developer/publisher/whoever won't support a one-off piece of software in 25 years arguement is crap. Hacks will come out now, although, you will have to be online to get them...so I don't see the difference between obtaining a crack or just using Steam. Oh yeah, I forgot, Steam is a CIA run program used to track the skills of everyone not playing America's Army. My bad.

      In a perfect world, when it is no longer supported, the company will release an official crack (but they probably won't). But you know what? We will have all moved on to the new hotness...

      Much like probably 99% of the PC gamer world, I don't upgrade my PC and video card every two years to play old games. And before you try to blast me out of the water as some kind of n00b, I've been a gamer since the Atari 2600, so I'm not some fly-by-night-the-psx-rulez-2D-sucks kind of guy.

    9. Re:How can you... by Creepy+Crawler · · Score: 1

      Thank you much, mr AC.

      A side analogy that goes well with this "gaming registration" is part of my small computer consult business.

      I have one client who uses a Win3.1 machine with some certain hardware hooked up to it. ALl it requires is the serial in a file called serial.txt . It would normally require a dongle, but a big device connects over the paralell port.

      This machine is 2.5 years old. I was called in because no other consultation business would touch Win3.1 .

      Now, 6 years down the road, when WinXP is made for medical equipment (which is undoubtedly will), how will I manage to reinstall XP when it dies one way or another?

      Sayeth MS: " We're sorry Mr Crawler, but your copy of Microsoft Windows XP is no longer supported, and we do not hand out unlock codes any more. Thank you and come again.."

      And really, I fail to understand the "its online, its new" apologists. I pay for it, I expect to control it. And no, my businesses will NOT accept cracked software, as some have said I should do after it comes out.

      --
    10. Re:How can you... by Poseidon88 · · Score: 1

      If the game is good enough that I still want to play it 6 years down the line, I expect Valve will still be making a profit, and will still be supporting it, much as they have done with Half-Life and its many mods.

    11. Re:How can you... by Warpedcow · · Score: 2, Informative

      Your valve scenario doesn't really hold any water. Assuming you already have a steam account, and Steam and all your games are installed somewhere, you can run any of them without any sort of internet connection in "offline mode". So if you're worried about not being able to play HL2 in 10 years or whatever, just make sure you have a backup of your Steam directory and you will be able to play, no matter what.

      --
      moo
    12. Re:How can you... by mrchaotica · · Score: 1
      just make sure you have a backup of your Steam directory and you will be able to play, no matter what.
      Wow, Steam runs on Mac OS now? Because just copying the folder and then putting it back on Windows is NOT the same as reinstalling the program, and probably won't work!
      --

      "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

    13. Re:How can you... by Warpedcow · · Score: 1

      Because just copying the folder and then putting it back on Windows is NOT the same as reinstalling the program, and probably won't work!


      I know it's not the same, but in this case, it works. I've done it a couple of times transferring Steam to different computers. Actually, this works with more programs than you may think. Sure, you dont get auto-generated program menus and it doesn't show up in Add/Remove Programs, but the darn thing still works!

      I find it funny that you assumed that my statement was a "guess" and that it wouldn't work, yet your contradiction was also merely a guess. My statement is fact - as I said, I've done it twice already, copied the \Steam folder from the original PC and to a laptop. I've run steam in offline mode from this laptop and all the games work fine (no multiplayer obviously!)
      --
      moo
  7. Heh.... by space_jake · · Score: 0

    I remember playing through Half-Life + Opp Force a little over a year ago in anticipation for the release of HL2.... Doom3 wasn't a let down to me, but it didn't have much replayability. Half-Life on the other hand did. I cant wait to see new ways around the standard fire-fight till the monsters are dead using a fantastic physics engine.

  8. Between this and Arafat... by cnsc1rtr · · Score: 3, Funny

    I've stopped paying attention to all news regarding Arafat's condition and Half Life 2. I was listening to the radio during my 15 minute drive home the other night and when I got in the car, the news was saying that a reliable source close to Arafat said that they were going to pull the plug as soon as some religious leader finished giving him whatever final blessings he needs. Just as I got home, I hear that his doctors are saying that he is in ok condition and will probably last a while longer!

    That is about the same as the news about HL2 has been for too long. "HL2 is going to be released tomorrow!" "Oh, wait... Make that next month!"

    I suggest we all just ignore both of these things until we have real proof that (a) Half Life 2 is really out for the public to purchase and play and (b) that Arafat is really dead and doesnt have any plans for resurrection.

    1. Re:Between this and Arafat... by cnsc1rtr · · Score: 1
      Originally posted by me... about four hours ago:
      I suggest we all just ignore both of these things until we have real proof that (a) Half Life 2 is really out for the public to purchase and play and (b) that Arafat is really dead and doesnt have any plans for resurrection.

      Hmm. Scratch (b) off the list...

      Ok. I will shut up now.
    2. Re:Between this and Arafat... by PyroMosh · · Score: 1

      We've got a whole palette of Half-Life 2 boxed (with gordon, the G-Man and Alyx on the boxes) in work today. It's sitting in our warehouse waiting to go out Monday night after we close. I'll see if I can get a picture of it and post the URL here tomorrow when I get home.

      --
      Touch everywhere, even when inappropriate.
  9. Took you long enough by sahonen · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I knew about this a couple weeks ago. Nice to see /. is on top of things, especially with regards to one of the most anticipated games this year.

    --
    Make me a friend and I'll mod you up
  10. This is the future by JimmehAH · · Score: 1

    Online delivery is somewhat revolutionary. It's only natural for people to resist.

    Steam is a good thing and it will get better. Soon all games will be distributed this way as it's cheaper and easier for the majority.

  11. Does that mean my Radeon coupon is finally good? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You know, I bought this "Radeon 9600" which came with a coupon for FREE HALF LIFE 2, due out in Q1 2003. Is that still valid?

  12. Steam by aliens · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Do the copies sold over Steam become playable at 12 midnight? And in what timezone?

    --
    -- taking over the world, we are.
    1. Re:Steam by bigbigbison · · Score: 1

      The original announcement says midnight Pacific time. Half-Life Fallout has a countdown clock that counts down to the release.

      --
      http://www.popularculturegaming.com -- my blog about the culture of videogame players
    2. Re:Steam by Spiffae · · Score: 1

      Half-Life 2 will be unlocked at 12:00 Pacific Standard Time, 11/16/04. That means 3:00 AM Eastern, and Early morning for Europe.

      Valve is actually not letting European stores sell until Midnight PST, which is making for some interesting situations in retailers abroad.

    3. Re:Steam by KDR_11k · · Score: 1

      The online-copies will activate the very moment the first copy of Half-Life 2 retail is registerd with Steam. At least it says so on the warning sign glued to the door of a local retailer.
      The posts above mentioned a timed trigger, I guess whichever happens first.

      --
      Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
  13. Re:Does that mean my Radeon coupon is finally good by Wheaty18 · · Score: 1

    Yes, you can input the voucher code in Steam (click on "Browse Games..." then "Register a product I already own") and it will give you the "Bronze" version of HL2 (HL2 + CS:S).

  14. Too Many Games by tini1212 · · Score: 0

    " Gonna have to rush home and beat Halo 2 as fast as possible to free up some time for HL2!!"

    I didn't even beat Doom 3 yet!

    --
    -Tony
    tonyville dot org
    1. Re:Too Many Games by randalx · · Score: 1

      At least your not trying to beat EQ2!!

  15. Why isn't Steam voluntary? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Frankly, I think more people should be rejoicing about Steam and the way it is changing the games industry.
    Make it voluntary and I'll sing it from the rooftops. REQUIRING steam is not necessary; all it does is give Valve more power over software YOU purchased. So yeah, if Steam were voluntary it would be awesome. It's too bad it isn't.

  16. Beat Halo 2? by kyhwana · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Yes, run home and play Halo 2 for a whole 6-10 hours, and you're ready for HL2.

    --
    My email addy? should be easy enough.
  17. The importance of business ethics by ShawnMcCool42 · · Score: 0

    Valve has been dealing with a large amount of difficulties facing Steam's ability to bypass its publisher and the "promise" to Vivendi Universal to be able to publish the game. Valve should have made it more clear to Vivendi what they had planned on doing in the first place and the game would be out already. While Steam is a great idea, it's also moderately flawed. I can't say how many times I've stood up for it and said that the friends list, etc was a brilliant idea. But as a result of having to manually log onto the friends list, as well as the fact that it simply never works, I've grown pretty disillusioned. Will Half-Life 2 be the hands-down best FPS of the year, and possibly game of the year? Sure.. However lets just hope that more developers take note of the issues facing valve, the revenue that they could have potentially lost as a result of , and the problems caused by trying to pull one over on a company that they SHOULD be working TOGETHER with instead of fighting (Vivendi).

  18. And thats not all. by DrStrangeLug · · Score: 1

    Sid Meier's Pirates! is (according to amazon) coming out the following week (22nd).

    1. Re:And thats not all. by johannesg · · Score: 0

      I loved that game back on the Amiga. Any word on how this new version compares?

  19. Halo 2's release date confirmed by IGTeRR0r · · Score: 1

    Hey guys, good news. Halo 2 has been dated: It's November 9, folks! Yayayayay!

  20. Gonna have to rush home... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I don't think WoW can be beaten. I'll let you know...