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The Final Hours of Half-Life 2
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."
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.
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
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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"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.
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.
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.
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...?
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.