The "Official" Half-Life 2 Topic

[Boomer]

The dates are IN:

From Gabe Newell, Vavle Software:
Just got out of a review meeting. 8/11 the Cafe's turn on (tomorrow). 8/16 CZ/ATI users pre-load. 8/18 CZ/ATI turns on. 8/17 HL-2 pre-load starts (textures, audio and other stuff that doesn't change).

So it looks like it is FINALLY coming out. I am definitely excited considering I am one of the ATI Voucher people who got jipped by waiting this long for a game I already "own".

Thoughts? Expectations?

[Buzzkill]

Preloading doesn't mean shit as far as release. They are targeting late september / early october, but they also targeted mid/late summer, and that obviously turned out well.

[Boomer]

Preloading doesn't mean shit as far as release. They are targeting late september / early october, but they also targeted mid/late summer, and that obviously turned out well.

Think whatever you want, but it has been slated for a late August early September since it got pushed back last (with many reports saying they were just getting the known bug count down to 0 in 16 days or so, which happened a few weeks ago). And if I am going to be able to preload the textures and sounds and such a week from now, I wouldn't be surprised to see the other stuff come around the corner as well. But hey, I'm gonna be in the CS Beta so its not like I'm going empty-handed regardless.

[Boomer]

And even if it did take another month, I'd seriously take it if it meant a better game. Yeah I'm pissed it took this long, but Blizzard takes about that long and they always put out quality games.

[Buzzkill]

Think whatever you want, but it has been slated for a late August early September since it got pushed back last (with many reports saying they were just getting the known bug count down to 0 in 16 days or so, which happened a few weeks ago). And if I am going to be able to preload the textures and sounds and such a week from now, I wouldn't be surprised to see the other stuff come around the corner as well. But hey, I'm gonna be in the CS Beta so its not like I'm going empty-handed regardless.Actually, Vivendi predicted an April release, then Doug Lombardi said mid/late summer which could really mean anywhere between July and late Sept. But now, there is no way it will be released in August, and early september is really stretching it.

[Boomer]

I'll give you the April thing. But early Septermber isn't streching it at all.

Just a recent article from Gamespot confirming information I've already stated -

Two days after Gabe Newell obliquely mentioned it on the Half-Life 2 Fallout forums, next week's preloading of Half-Life assets has been officially confirmed. "Yes, we plan to start preloading next week," PR director Doug Lombardi told GameSpot.

Valve will only preload textures, audio, and "other stuff that doesn't change," according to Newell. However, the fact that the developer is moving finished Half-Life 2 assets to its Steam download service means the long-delayed shooter must be near gold status. The confirmation lends further credence to rumors that Half-Life 2 will complete its final debug next week and will be submitted to VU Games for approval shortly thereafter.
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[Boomer]

And Doom 3 went gold and was released within a week or two. At this point we are seriously close.

[Buzzkill]

I guess if the CS:S beta continues going as well as it is now, early september isn't that hard to believe, I sorta thought there would be more bugs to work out at this point :o

[DS]

This place up here has the CS:S beta open to all. Probably going to play it tomorrow.

[Requiem]

This place up here has the CS:S beta open to all. Probably going to play it tomorrow.
:drool: Yep.. I'm goin with ya. :cool:

[Boomer]

Saw a video last night. It's.....beautiful

Hopefully I'll be up on the internet at college by the time the preload starts for ATI voucher peeps

[DS]

Yeah, it was quite nice. The physics really add a nice feel to it. There are those times where it works against you (throwing a flash bang and bouncing off a box right back in front of you :foc:) but other then that it is really good. The map is full of trash and lot more detail then the previous versions. Great game. Probably going to end up playing it some more.

[#BROKEN Hasney]

Yeah, it was quite nice. The physics really add a nice feel to it. There are those times where it works against you (throwing a flash bang and bouncing off a box right back in front of you :foc:) but other then that it is really good. The map is full of trash and lot more detail then the previous versions. Great game. Probably going to end up playing it some more.
Any bugs? It is a first beta after all.

I'm not much of a Counter Strike man, but I'm determined to try CS:Source purely to see if the HL2 engine will go on my machine :D

[Requiem]

Oh, man... CS:Source is -very- fun.. so far, there is only one map in the beta, but the physics are awesome.

Can shoot bottles, and they break... tires roll. You can shoot cans and they go flying. Rag doll physics are NICE too. The first time DS and I watched a group of guys play, they all got ina circle and threw grenades in the center, and they went flying..

There are some glitches, but surprisingly I havn't really experienced any. A guy near us had a problem with it crashing once, but that was all.

[DS]

Yeah, there's actually quite a few bugs. There's problems with the shadows where you can see someones shadow in the tunnel if they are standing above you, your running can lock up (happened to me quite a few times). Nothing that really takes the fun out of the game but, yes, there are a few bugs and glitches.

They are working to fix those a lot though. They had a problem with grenade boosting and fixed that pretty fast so I would expect a lot of people are reporting bugs and getting those fixed as well.

[Jonster]

Wait... This CS:S is open to all?

[Buzzkill]

Cyber Cafe's