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The Final Hours of Half-Life 2

Posted by Zonk on from the two-days-and-counting dept.

IvyMike writes "Gamespot just published a 25-page article titled The Final Hours of Half-Life 2. It has inside details of the missed September 30th, 2003 ship date, the source-code leak, and hints at future projects from Valve." Relatedly, kraemer writes "Valve has said publicly they would unlock Half Life2 before the November 16th street date if stores start selling it early. Well, Stores are selling it early. In an attempt to show Valve whats going on Shacknews is having a contest to come up with verifiable proof."

31 of 45 comments (clear)

  1. Waiting by arcadum · · Score: 1

    Bought my copy. Now, wake me up the 16th.

  2. Over a year late... by xchino · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Is anyone else disturbed by the fact that this came out over a year after it's initial release date? It makes one wonder what was so wrong with the source that they had to spend a year fixing it just because someone else was able to look at it.

    --
    Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. It's just that yours is stupid.
    1. Re:Over a year late... by avalys · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Dear god, talk about a case of RTFA.

      Had you RTFA, you would know that Gabe Newell has admitted that the game was just plain unfinished a year ago. The smokescreen they set up, saying parts of it had to be rewritten and so forth because of the theft, was just BS to make up for the fact that they screwed up in estimating how much time it would take to complete.

      But the game is finally done, once and for all, and judging by how freaking amazing the reviews have been, all will be forgiven and it will become a wild success. I hope the guys at Valve take it easy with their new Ferraris!

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    2. Re:Over a year late... by glesga_kiss · · Score: 1
      I hope the guys at Valve take it easy with their new Ferraris!

      Yeah, like as if the money will actually go to those who put in the real work. Have you ever worked in the real world? ;-)

  3. The finer points of the Final Hours by Japong · · Score: 2, Interesting

    This article was quite good, considering its 25 page length. The most notable highlights being some of what we didn't know but guessed at: Yes, Gabe was 'lying' to us with all of the "September 30th release date" bruhaha - the game was far from complete, as many people figured out when they were still adding features in early 2004 (some figured the delay was in large part due to anonymous hacker).

    Even more interesting still: post-release content - the "ATI" levels (heavily misleading name, but whatever) which are eye-candy filled to stress out video cards, and other small episodes that will be released from the viewpoint of Alyx. Still no word on TF2, aside from a vague statement we'll get it at some point.

  4. I will never buy another product from valve by I(rispee_I(reme · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Since they are holding a product I've already paid for hostage and requiring me to install a push content client called Steam in order to use it.

    Valve themselves have said that Steam would not be required to play Half-Life 1 or 2 online, however, once they realized that no one would voluntarily install Steam, they made it a requirement to play the games online (Valve does not run any of the servers, which are operated by fans of the games.)

    I encourage you to join me in boycotting Valve products, although I expect most people are so anxious to enjoy the (admittedly well crafted, if it's anything like the first) game, they would sell their grandmothers into slavery.

    1. Re:I will never buy another product from valve by avalys · · Score: 1

      Hang on, I'm confused. Where did you buy Half-Life 2 from that didn't CLEARLY STATE it would only be playable on the official release date? I bought it from Steam as soon as it was available (well, a day after I guess), and it was abundantly obvious that I'd have to wait until it was available in retail stores to play it.

      Don't you have better stuff to whine about? What exactly do you think is so bad about Valve and Steam that makes them deserving of a boycott?

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    2. Re:I will never buy another product from valve by GearType2 · · Score: 1

      your so full of shit it's hilarious. First valve has stated numurous times before HL2 that eventually the won servers would come down and all content would be only available through steam. Second, valve runs MANY servers for some of the more popular mods(CS mainly).

    3. Re:I will never buy another product from valve by I(rispee_I(reme · · Score: 1

      I was referring to half life one. It is no longer playable online without steam. This was an unnecessary change, since steam adds nothing to the game.

    4. Re:I will never buy another product from valve by Bishop923 · · Score: 1

      The only reason you need Steam to play Half-Life(and all it's various mods) online is for client authentication purposes. This used to be handled by WON, which became redundant after Steam was established and fully functional. I'd rather have them spending money on making Steam as stable as possible, rather than keeping a very old system running in tandem with the new one. Hell, it was only in June or July of this year that they took WON down, it's not like they just pulled the plug as soon as Steam went online.

      As far as "adding nothing to the game"... Client authentication in online gaming is critical to keeping the gameplay as free as possible from cheaters. Without authenticating that a user is connecting with a trusted client, it would bring the whole community down in a matter of months. A group would reverse engineer the protocol used by the game when talking to the servers, and build their own client that could do whatever they wanted. It would be impossible for the host server to know a good client from a bad one and it wouldn't be long before people would move on to another game. Granted, cheating happens anyway due to client bugs, but at least Valve has strived to eliminate as many bugs as possible over the years (Something like 17 client patches in the past 5 or 6 years. You only see that kind of commitment towards a product from a very select few companies.)

      There is also that whole "Making sure that you actually compensated the over-worked people that made the game" thing, but I won't comment on that...

    5. Re:I will never buy another product from valve by cyberkreiger · · Score: 1

      It's likely then that Microsoft will develop DirectSteam, part of DirectX, and people will just use that.

      --
      Stumbling in the dark
      I hear slavering of jaws
      Eaten by a grue.
    6. Re:I will never buy another product from valve by I(rispee_I(reme · · Score: 1

      Please see my comments for a link to a statement from Gabe Newell himself saying that Half Life 2 would be available steam free, for the discerning gamer who cares what goes on his or her hard drive.

    7. Re:I will never buy another product from valve by StupidKatz · · Score: 1

      By installing STEAM, you are indeed signing over the deed to your hard drive. I bought that hard drive - it is mine. My hard drive, not Valve's.

      I stopped playing CS/HL after 1.5.

  5. Dude, don't you get it? by oldosadmin · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The source leak probably delayed it a little bit, but most likely it was just a scapegoat ... they didn't have it done, they took their time.

    However, I'd RATHER a game company be a year late than put out a game that blows.

    --
    Jay | http://oldos.org
  6. And...? by KBV · · Score: 1

    Seriously, who cares anymore? The game will come out, but people will be to cheap to upgrade their computers and will still be playing the original CS.

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    Simply retarded
    1. Re:And...? by avalys · · Score: 1

      Yes, just like what happened to Doom 3. And Quake 3. And Unreal. And all the other games that were released with high system requirements for their time.

      Hell, if people really were as cheap as you seem to think, we'd still be playing Pong.

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    2. Re:And...? by KBV · · Score: 1

      I just have Daikatana vibes all over again. *shudders* The game will sell in buckets, no doubt. I'll be buying it. Just hope it can live up to all the hype.

      --
      Simply retarded
  7. Wrong wrong wrong! by Guspaz · · Score: 4, Informative

    "Valve has said publicly they would unlock Half Life2 before the November 16th street date if stores start selling it early."

    This is entirely false, VALVe never said it. ShackNews made it up. It turns out what VALVe said was that the STEAM version would unlock when the retail version shipped. Obviously they meant that they'd both be the same date, which turned out the be the 16th. What ShackNews interpreted that as is that if the retail version comes out early via leak, the STEAM version would too.

    ShackNews is just digging themselves a hole for something that VALVe has already said isn't going to happen (and that they never said that).

    Why gather evidence? The game will come out in just over 2 days (2 days 6 hours at this point). WAIT for it damnit. Stop whining like goddamned 10 year old AOLers.

    1. Re:Wrong wrong wrong! by Fweeky · · Score: 1

      Hmm, good point; what time zone is this Nov 16 date in? UTC, or one of the US's squillion confusing ones nobody ever remembers the name of? The FAQ just mentions the date, and they seem to like using PDT..

      Funnily enough, I just tried to preload HL2; their content servers are down, their forum is down, and their crappy custom client won't let me download to anywhere but C:, when all my free space is on D: and E:. Great, thanks Valve, you rock. What's the bet their servers die horribly on the 16th too? :/

    2. Re:Wrong wrong wrong! by avalys · · Score: 1

      TC, or one of the US's squillion confusing ones nobody ever remembers the name of?

      By "squillion", you mean four, correct? Named Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific? My god, so complicated and hard to remember!

      d their crappy custom client won't let me download to anywhere but C:, when all my free space is on D: and E:

      Your games will be downloaded to wherever you install Steam. If you put Steam on C:, they'll download there. If you put it on D:, they'll go there.

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    3. Re:Wrong wrong wrong! by Fweeky · · Score: 1
      "By "squillion", you mean four, correct? Named Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific? My god, so complicated and hard to remember!"

      Not as easy as remembering my local offset from UTC, not for me and most of the planet, anyway.
      "Your games will be downloaded to wherever you install Steam. If you put Steam on C:, they'll download there. If you put it on D:, they'll go there."

      Right, but do I have to reinstall Steam to move it? Can they go where I like after they've been downloaded/decrypted? This is pretty basic stuff, and Steam makes it annoyingly opaque. I had 3G free on C, 16G free on D and 28G free on E when I tried to preload; my disk use has changed since I installed Steam, and it seems pretty silly that when it's going to be using GB's of disk space it won't let you choose where inside it's "easy" UI.

      I can't wait for them to break a patch and for it never to work again too, that'll rock ;)
    4. Re:Wrong wrong wrong! by edo-01 · · Score: 1
      It's easy man, copy your steam directory to whatever drive you want (even another machine) then re-install the Steam app over the top of it. You won't have to download anything (other than the one or two megs of updates to the client itself). If you're really paranoid, move the SteamApps directory somewhere else on your drive, then un-install, re-install and copy it into the new directory.

      Either way, it works fine.

    5. Re:Wrong wrong wrong! by HFXPro · · Score: 1

      Last time I checked the US was in more then 4 times zones. Your forgetting Alaska, Hawaii, and several other territories.

      --
      Reserved Word.
    6. Re:Wrong wrong wrong! by damiam · · Score: 1

      True, but no one cares about them. :-)

      --
      It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
  8. Re:Valve screwed me over. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    You got exactly what you deserved for:

    a) not listening to everyone who said it couldn't possibly be finished.
    b) building a new machine for a game that wasn't even released.

  9. RTFA by ildon · · Score: 1

    If there was ever a cause to use this acronym, this is it. The article explicitly states by Gabe himself that the source leak had nothing to do with the delay and that the game simply could not have been finished and even without the source leak would not have been finished until now.

  10. I was at bestbuy 3 hours ago.... by dfenstrate · · Score: 2, Interesting

    In manchester, New Hampshire, around 5pm EST saturday.

    Half Life 2 was all over the shelves, normal and collector's editions.

    oops. Well, Bestbuy is big enough to make valve their bitch.

    --
    Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms should be the name of a store, not a government agency.
  11. What next-generation models! Unequalled realism! by jwlidtnet · · Score: 5, Funny
    "As she lifts her arms up her breasts rise and flatten," says Valve's Ken Birdwell. He's showing off one of the character models for Alyx Vance, the female lead in Half-Life 2. Birdwell, who once wrote software to create custom shoe insoles, was the man tasked with making more-believable characters for Half-Life 2--characters who could express emotions through their faces and have full musculatures, as evidenced by the breast demonstration.


    Yes. Clearly, Valve is focusing on the essential elements of an immersive game experience. "Breast demonstration?" Not snappy enough to become an industry benchmark. I say we go with the "Tit-test!"

    I wonder if Doom 3 passes...?
  12. Half-Life 2 won't be unlocked on Steam before 16th by JimmehAH · · Score: 2, Informative

    There's a statement on steampowered.com.
    "Half-Life 2 For Sale?"

    Apparently they would be in violation of the contract they have with Vivendi if they unlocked the game files before the 16th.

  13. my biggest complaint? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I'm not going to be able to play it until sometime in February when my ship pulls back into port... If I plug my laptop into the network here, and one of the admins happens to check the log, the laptop gets confiscated... thanks for the DRM, Gabe! (maybe they could offer a little unlocking tool for orders shipped to FPO addresses?)

  14. Re:What next-generation models! Unequalled realism by wolssiloa · · Score: 1

    nope, unless you are talking about Demon tits