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Half-Life 2 Release Date Broken
NextWish writes "Despite being clearly marked, numerous stores have begun selling HL2.
This guy even got a phone call from EB telling him to pickup his pre-order, so he did what any one would do - He picked it up. (Pic #1 / Pic #2)" Update: 11/12 19:30 GMT by Z : Thanks to the anonymous reader who sent us a link to The Inquirer story discussing Valve's savvy regarding cracked or advance copies.
... but with out Steam registration you're not going to get very far. He can't play single player, multiplayer, or anything else but look at the box and manual. You're waiting until the 16th, get used to it.
I can just see it now: Valve to sue Electronics Boutique over HL2 sales
Don't think that a small group of dedicated individuals can't change the world. It's the only thing that ever has.
Gamers are using both ATI and nVidia cards, in nearly equal numbers (if I recall the Valve survey correctly). To be honest, the two companies are competing to be the most powerful for brand recognition, not for use. As much as I want one for status, and I'll readily admit this, I do not need an nVidia 6800 sucking down electricity as fast as Homer eats donuts. I'm not running predictive weather simulations on my graphics card.
If you want to have a reasonably priced, competitive, computer system for gaming, you're going to have to do some research. You'll have to see whether the specific game you want to play runs better with nVidia or ATI drivers, you'll have to determine which midrange card is cheaper, and you'll have to decide between a cheap 256mb card or a speedy 128mb one (both bus and GPU speed). There are so many marketing ploys in effect right now, it's difficult to do a good job. Regardless of what you do, somebody will criticise you. I presonally use an nVidia card. [flames below]
DVD drives are too inexpensive for the tired (and increasingly expensive) old argument of "Oh, I don't need to upgrade, my 16X CD drive works just fine. Eight or nine CDs is fine". Seriously, you can get a 16X DVD-ROM drive at Staples (AT STAPLES FOR CRYIN OUT LOUD!) for $45. And that's not a sale price, folks. If your system is of high enough caliber to run these games, it should have either come with a DVD drive, or you should have bought one when you built it. A combo DVD-ROM/CDRW drive shouldn't run you over $60. (It will at Staples, though.) I paid that for one over a year ago.
It's time to upgrade now if you haven't yet. Just imagine. No more "Oh, I HAVE to buy the CD version because I was too cheap awhile back." Instead, you'll be saying: "Sweet, my first DVD is Half-Life 2!" And soon enough you'll be saying, "Whoa, my computer monitor is far better for watching DVDs than my 19 inch Walmart special television!"
As far as media longevity, I have this to say. Stop storing your media outside the proper cases! If you've got a problem with piles of discs lying around, then get cases, and a shelf or box for your cases to sit in, and keep that by/on/under your computer desk. Don't use those awful sleeves or books for storage, either, because they contact the disc surface. If you don't think it matters, why is there an ISO standard (18925) for disc storage? There is no difference between the media's protective surface in either technology, so they are equally easy to scratch, break and gouge. If your drive can't read a scratched disc, then your drive is bad. I have DVDs that are as old as purchasable DVDs can be, and they have not degraded one bit due to age.
Who wants to go to the store, and have to buy the CD version because the DVD version is sold out and nobody thus far has purchased the CD version? Not me. It's almost happened.
Remember floppies? Must we go through the same thing again? Please insert Disc 6 to continue!
If you're keeping score, if anyone has broken a release date, it would be Valve (3 or 4 times at least now).
EBGames Employee's Fired
HL2 store release also broken in germany! http://premium.uploadit.org/tork64/P1010087.JPG http://premium.uploadit.org/tork64/P1010088.JPG http://premium.uploadit.org/tork64/P1010089.JPG http://premium.uploadit.org/tork64/P1010090.JPG http://premium.uploadit.org/tork64/P1010091.JPG http://premium.uploadit.org/tork64/P1010082.JPG http://premium.uploadit.org/tork64/P1010083.JPG http://premium.uploadit.org/tork64/P1010084.JPG http://premium.uploadit.org/tork64/P1010085.JPG http://premium.uploadit.org/tork64/P1010086.JPG http://premium.uploadit.org/tork64/P1010076.JPG http://premium.uploadit.org/tork64/P1010077.JPG http://premium.uploadit.org/tork64/P1010078.JPG
Other sources of information: Rage3D.
HLFallout.
If you want your product to be carried in the big stores, they want something in return. If you are a big store, you might be able to bully your way into releasing the product in your stores earlier than other stores. Thus, driving sales to you. However, if you go and sign such a deal, you have a much harder time getting into the other stores, since obviously they can't release it earlier and since the people who really want the product will have gotten it from the one that released it early.
As a result, most of the time everyone has the same release date. Not only does this keep the smaller stores from just saying 'forget it, we won't be able to sell any' and still give the big stores a date to promote.
The reason these things are shipped so early, is that the date needs to be far enough ahead of the ship date to help clear up any shipping screwups. Otherwise, if something goes wrong and one store is left out on release date, they aren't going to be as willing to carry your games in the future.
The store agree to this for the same reason, if you don't agree to stick to the release date, then the product won't be shipped to you till the last minute. If something happens then, you've missed your best selling opportunity and probably lost a few customers to the stores that were carrying it.
This sort of scheme is used for pretty much any product that has a 'shelf-life' in terms of demand. You aren't going to ever see any release day parties for the newest version of the Swifter Jet Dry Rhomba Auto Mop, because it'll still be selling (or not) until the end of it's product life. But things like music, movies, games, and even (to a limited extent) books, all are considered to sell most of what they are going to sell in a short period right after they come out.