Half-Life 2 Orange/Black Delayed to End of 2007

Wowzer writes "EA and Valve today announced the product configurations of Half-Life 2's The Black Box and The Orange Box, while at the same time confirming another worldwide release date delay from summer 2007 to winter 2007. If you thought the delay was the only bad news, then artwork fans haven't seen the ugly new boxart yet."

Comments

Box art?

[Yuioup]

Who cares about the box art when you can buy it through Steam. :-P

Y

Re:Box art?

[Bob of Dole]

Valve can't TURN OFF my physical copy, either.
Because they think I was cheating, because they went out of business, or because they've written Half-Life 3 and all those damn copies of HL2 still out there are really eating into their business...

I will never buy a product* where the author gets to decide if I can use it. This is DRM times infinity, it's the most retarded idea the software industry has ever come up with.

*Within reason. Some products actually do require remote servers, and access to those remote servers is part of the fee you are paying. As opposed to HL2, which requires remote servers cause you're all a bunch of lousy pirates who can't be trusted to pay for a damn game. I bought four different products based on Half Life 1 (The original game, HL:Opposing Force, HL:Blue Shift, and Gunman Chronicles), but there's no way they'll get any money from me for HL2.

No, if I ever get HL2 it will be off BitTorrent. Hey, if you're going to treat me like a pirate... Plus I'll be getting a better product! No internet connection required, no stupid remote deactivation.

(I do expect to be downmodded into oblivion for this, but for fucks sake... It's a great game, but the DRM on it is the strongest of any product I know of.)

Re:Box art?

[TeraCo]

Use offline mode? If your offline mode doesn't work, then it's broken and you should fix it.

Valve delays game, News at 11

[eln]

I, for one, am absolutely SHOCKED at this news.

As I have mentioned before, packaging a product with TF2 is like throwing it into a black hole from which no release date can escape. Yes, the current TF2 is totally different from the old TF2, but it still carries the same curse. For all I know, TF2 is completely done and ready to ship, and Ep2 or Portal are holding up the works. That is irrelevant. That just means that TF2 has infected the other products with the curse, in much the same way a rat will infect another creature with the plague.

I wouldn't put any money on this thing getting released in Winter '07 either.

In other news, why include two different links to the same exact article in the write-up?

Re:Valve delays game, News at 11

[Nos.]

No actually, its my fault. When we were all anxiously awaiting the release of HL2, I bought a new computer a few months before the expected release date (this was after the whole code leak fiasco) in anticipation of its release. Sure enough, it was delayed, and didn't get released for about 8 more months. Well, guess what. I just bought a new computer in anticipation of Portal and TF2. I apologize to everyone. Next time, I'll wait until the game is released before I buy a new computer.

Dial-up

[tepples]

Once you add it to your steam account you can sign in and download it anywhere...even if you originally just had the physical copy. You can't play it WITHOUT steam so there's no benefit at all from having a physical copy.

Steam + dial-up Internet + download doesn't work all that well. Steam + dial-up Internet + physical copy does work.

Ah, brings back memories.

[PIPBoy3000]

I remember when Gabe stated that HL2 would be coming out, right around the time the ATI deal was going on. I went out and bought a shiny new 9800 Pro, only to find out a few weeks later that HL2 was delayed a year. I wasn't too bitter, as my new card made a bunch of new games play quite nicely, and it lasted for quite awhile.

I do find that Valve's release estimates have been pretty consistently horrible. New game companies often make mistakes when estimating release dates. Valve's been around for awhile, though, so you'd think they'd be doing better. Personally I think it's a result of trying to release on multiple platforms and bundle lots of components into one package.

I'm not sure episodic content is really episodic if there's over a year delay between releases. It's starting to feel more like an expansion pack or something.

Re:Ah, brings back memories.

[BAILOPAN]

I believe the term you're looking for is Valve Time.

Re:Box Artwork

[hickory-smoked]

It's like, how much more orange could this be? And the answer is none. None more orange.

Re:Waiting for Userbase?

[BarneyL]

I think they're trying not to go head to head with the imminent Duke Nukem release..