Half Life 2 Goes Gold

AhabTheArab writes "IGN is reporting that Half Life 2 has gone gold. After months of speculation and delays, it is finally true this time."

Re:What's it saying...

[chadw17]

That we've simultaneously both evolved and returned to our base instincts since "Pong"? Or maybe it's just a game.

I need to see to believe

[octal666]

After all this time, I need at least a photo of something a bit on the golden side to believe ANYTHING about HL2

Except.

[raventh1]

Except for the litigation between Valve and VU, I'd believe you. With that going on, VU could hold the game and not even announce that it has gone gold. They can even hold the game until March if they wanted.

When I see a Press Release, I'll finally believe.

Deep Breath

[alnya]

There should be some sort of law against posting headlines like that - my heart went quite aflutter.
Sadly, it's not true, and until Valve AND Vivendi issue a press release saying "Gold, and you'll be able to play it on this date" none of these "nearly gold", "almost gold", "so almost gold I can taste it" announcements really mean anything.
Mod headline -1.

Re:No It Hasn't

[r0j]

Even the creator of this thread didn't RTFA, what is the world coming to?

Dom.

About time

[Lisandro]

Now we'll see if the game lives up to the hype it has been subjected to. Doom 3 suffered much from this (don't look at me, i loved it).

Re:What's it saying...

[Anonymous Coward]

Does it reflect our desires or the nature of humanity to any extent?

In my view, yes, to a very small extend it does... but it is an extent many times smaller then the extent of experimental psycological research like the millgram experiments [wikipedia.org]. which far predate DooM and half-life.

Try comparing what these experiments showed about human nature compared to what the often observed but never scientificly proven desire among a group of people for shiny fast cars.... If you are excited about the things that sport car buying behaviour can tell us about ourself then you might just be a psycologist, the same goes for games I guess.

You can speculate on what part of human nature these games expose. Personnaly I like to think they show that there is still a strong will to survive in even the most boring office dwellers. Little else would explain why a dark spacestation filled with creatures that can kill you, just not for real, can be excisting.

Its funny (and perhaps a little telling) how people always talk about how first person shooters are about shooting other humans or creatures totaly ignoring that the player spends hours in an environment filled with entities that fight back, fiercly, and in a way optimized for player fear. Look at which first person shooters are a succes, its not the ones where you can shoot the most creatures (anyone excited for serious sam 3?), its the ones where even very few creatures can hurt you very bad, very fast, when you least expect it. The tactical shooters where getting spotted and hit once pretty much means game over are perhaps the most populair subgenre ever. This to me says something, just not as much as the stanford prison experiments. (Which btw, show some simalairity to the sims, shit, way to smash my own argument)

Gold? Ok... but tell me about a Linux client

[the_bard17]

I'm not too thrilled about it "going gold." So it's [B]finally[/B] going to be released. Booyah.

What would really make my day is if they declared HL2 went gold [B]and[/B] they have a Linux client. Because until they get that second part down, the first is rather meaningless (for me at least).

And don't tell me to get Windows if I want to game. I have my reasons :o).

Re:That's not what IGN is reporting

[timeOday]

What do you make of the gamespot [gamespot.com] report though? They seem certain it's done.

Also IGN did mention a shipping date - probably November. If Valve is *anywhere near* done with this game, late November / early December is the latest it will ship. They do NOT want to miss Christmas.

While games aren't the center of my universe, Half Life was fun and the early technology preview demos of HL2 were very cool. With all the negativity over Steam and Valve's excuses for pushing back the schedule, I'd almost forgotten that HL2 may be a really great game after all.

Re:Full review of the game is on the newsstands

[cliffski]

Which is total horseshit. You think PC Gamers 'exclusive' reviews actually use final code? dont be so naieve! the magazine will be allowed to play a beta copy under supervision from marketing people, and told that the numerous bugs and missing bits will be finished before it ships. In return for the 'exlcuive' they agree to give an unfinished game a 95% score, and both companies are happy. The poor schmucks reading PC Gamer usually dont realise whats going on.
magazine reviews are total bullshit. if you want to know what a game is like, the ONLY way to know is to play the demo. If there isnt a demo, set suspicion=suspicion_max

So does it have...

[ChrisK077]

So does the retail version also have the MS-like product activation "feature"? Well, Microsoft has forced that down my throat once with XP, but since I'm interested but not an avid ego shooter fan, this could definitely be a reason for deciding against purchasing it, regardless of how much praise the game gets...

Don't celebrate yet...

[Whammy666]

This is not a gold announcement. It just says that Valve has applied for a game rating. Plus you need to keep something in mind. Even if Valve does make a gold announcement, it doesn't mean that HL2 is going to ship anytime soon. If you remember, Counter-Strike: Condition Zero went gold and then it took another 6 months before it finally hit the store shelves. And don't forget that little legal dispute between Valve and Vivendi which could keep HL2 off the shelves.

The deal is that Valve has no real control over when the game ships. So a gold announcement from Valve is largely meaningless in terms of when it's going to ship. Wait for an *official* announcement from Vivendi (not Valve) because they are the ones who have the final say as to when it going to ship.

Ideally, if everything goes well, HL2 might be on the shelves in late November because it takes about 6 weeks from going gold to reach the stores. Also, buying thru steam won't let you get it any faster. Valve cannot release HL2 thru Steam until it appears on retail store shelves.

What the hell is wrong with you morons?

[trauma]

Morons being the story submitter and editors who published it in its current form.

I fail to see any indication anywhere, even in the text of the linked story itself, that this is any different from any of the other hundred rumors. It is entirely conjecture and extrapolation of information coming entirely from third-party sources, nobody official will confirm anything, yet suddenly "it's finally true"? This has only slightly more credibility than the dates on pre-order diplays in Game Stop from 6 months ago. But by all means, phrase the headline and synopsis in the most sensational way possible with no regard for the facts whatsoever.

Bye bye karma.

Re:Possible leaked press release?

[superpulpsicle]

$55, no thanks. I am going to wait for this game to come out with 10 patches first.

If memory serves me correct, last time I bought Doom III for $55, it sat on my shelf collecting dust because my overpriced ATI Radeon 9800 pro somehow wasn't good enough. After the Catalyst drivers finally worked out, the game was already down to $39 in some places.

Re:Holy crap, press release might be real...

[dvanduzer]

Counterpoint just a couple entries below:

Halo 2 Microsoft Online,XBOX Mature (17+) Blood and Gore,Language,Violence 7/8/2004