Hal life 2 REALLy REALLY gold ....lol like really

KdjaCL

The long, drawn-out Half-Life 2 release date saga appears to be drawing to a close at long last, with Vivendi-Universal Games' expected to formally announce a November 26th release date for Europe, with US gamers getting the game three days earlier on November 23rd.

Valve delivered a release candidate to VU on September 15th, and although an official 'Gold' announcement has still yet to emerge, Eurogamer understands that VU informed its UK retail partners this week of the expected release dates, having previously been fearful of not being able to release the game until early next year.

Indeed, recent news of legal wranglings between VU and developer Valve made talk of further delays look increasingly likely, although the company could ill afford to miss out on the lucrative Christmas opportunity for such an important game.

With marketing plans taking months of preparation and Christmas space at a premium, it was essential VU made retail aware of its plans - even though official confirmation may be still pending.

When contacted for confirmation, Valve's Doug Lombardi was still unable to shed further light on the matter, uttering the immortal words: "Unfortunately, I do not have a release date from VUG right now," no doubt under orders to wait until it's 'officially' announced.

On a related matter, despite the appearance of print reviews of the game next week, online readers are being forced to wait until the day of release before they can read review coverage of the game. Last night, Lombardi confirmed: "The online reviews will be held until the day the game is made available," with review code understandably being kept within Valve towers until then.

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=56770


This game is beyond a joke.

kdjac

Retr0gamer

"The online reviews will be held until the day the game is made available,"

Because it's crap and they want to scam people on the first day of retail!

Or maybe not.

Jim

KdjaC wrote:

This game is beyond a joke.

kdjac

Yep. I'm amazed anyone has managed to surpasse EA in terms of farce.

feylya

It's not gold. GRRR. "Expected to". The game was "expected to" be released last year ffs. There is no official word from Valve or Vivendi. Until such time, it's not gold, there's no official release dates and don't believe everything you read.

bizmark

"The online reviews will be held until the day the game is made available,"

Last game to do that was driver 3 .......think that says it all tbh

CombatCow

:rolleyes:

Take feylya's advice, don't believe everything you read, 50% of that article is bull$hit, and HL2 will sooooooo be worth the lengthy wait i can tell you right now !



CC

Jim

CombatCow wrote:

:rolleyes:

Take feylya's advice, don't believe everything you read, 50% of that article is bull$hit, and HL2 will sooooooo be worth the lengthy wait i can tell you right now !



CC

Heh, blind faith.
But then again, it does look scrumpcious.

aidan_walsh

KdjaC wrote:

This game is beyond a joke.

Jimeatsmenu wrote:

Yep. I'm amazed anyone has managed to surpasse EA in terms of farce.

You two have obviously forgotten Daikatana...

CombatCow

Jimeatsmenu wrote:

Heh, blind faith.
But then again, it does look scrumpcious.

nope not blind faith, tbh i have been watching ppl play it for the last few days, and imho it's prolly the best game evar to grace a pc monitor....


CC

feylya

Hmm, seems that the November release dates aren't far off. www.halflife2.net are reporting that Vivendi are ready to release a release date and November wouldn't be unusual.

Considering there's a three day gap in the American and US release, I may be cancelling my preorder and getting it from steam!!!

Creamy Goodness

internet reviews are being held off to avoid it being leaked to the internet, that's what i think anyway, this game will be off the scope

nesthead

its ALL about that physics engine....

GIMMEGIMMEGIMMEGIMMEMINEMINEMINEMINEMINE!!!!!

Retr0gamer

The release date has been confirmed by VU games. 23rd in america and 26th of November in Europe. Pending any anti video game terrorist activities.

Ciaran500

VUG has confirmed nothing. Got any sources?

Creamy Goodness

Retr0gamer wrote:

The release date has been confirmed by VU games. 23rd in america and 26th of November in Europe. Pending any anti video game terrorist activities.

i heard a rumor that an eager web site designer at VU games posted on their news site stating HL2 had gone gold. they took it down after bout 10 minutes, and have had nothing since.

anyone know if this is true?

feylya

Certainly seems that happened. Vivendi have released a statement but I can't seem to find the unedited one. Here's one from computergamesandvideos.com

Last week we received a Half-Life 2 release candidate from Valve, and in its current state Half-Life 2 is brilliant and looks astonishing," a Vivendi spokesperson went on to talk about the current status of the game, saying: "Vivendi Universal Games is in the midst of determining whether Half-Life 2 meets the gameplay standard of the company and more importantly the devoted Half-Life fanbase."

"This is standard for every game and it is particularly important for Half-Life 2 given its technical depth," the spokesperson added, before telling us that "We [Vivendi] are hopeful that we can communicate a ship date very soon."

Retr0gamer

Got my info from www.eurogamer.net who are usually very reliable.

Retr0gamer

Actually after reading the article it isn't official. Oopsy.

Deadwing

Retro why must you build me up just to let me down??
I really lost interest in hl2 after the constant will-they-wont-they with going gold and the code thefts and blah blah...then doom3 camealong and i totally forgot about it hl2, but now after seeingt hese new screens and hearing people going on about how (potentially) great its going to be, im interested again

Stokolan

well the cd art showed up and it looks sweet -> LINK <- cant wait for the game

mr_angry

God, that looks cool. I notice Vivendi aren't mentioned once on it.

feylya

Stokolan wrote:

well the cd art showed up and it looks sweet -> LINK <- cant wait for the game

http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?t=40782

Not official DVD art work. Fan based stuff for the DVD backups of the Steam files.

Stokolan

feylya wrote:

http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?t=40782

Not official DVD art work. Fan based stuff for the DVD backups of the Steam files.

yeah i know tis a mate of mine that did it :P
He posted it on the steam forums and it was removed, so he emailed valve about it complaining and the thread was reinstated :P

feylya

Then why did you say the cd art has shown up when quite clearly that isn't the official cd art???

Stokolan

for a bit of fun :P

feylya

Muppet.

Stokolan

stfu fool

tman

this thread is just one ****ing big lie.

I'm really Gabe, you know :cool:

anthonymcg

tman wrote:

this thread is just one ****ing big lie.

I'm really Gabe, you know :cool:

No I am and this is my head programmer, Alf.

Mr E

There is a possibility that the 23rd/26th dates are smokescreens, and the game will be released earlier. Pinch of salt, etc. etc.

From Toms Hardware

While Eurogamer hints at a ship date of November 23 in the US, online retail stores already gear up for a release almost four weeks earlier. The always quick and mostly right-on-target CompUSA online store expects availability to be around November 1. Another online retailer, Gamestop, also hints a November 1. Representatives of CompUSA and GameStop could not be reached for comment.