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."

Over a year late...

[xchino]

Is anyone else disturbed by the fact that this came out over a year after it's initial release date? It makes one wonder what was so wrong with the source that they had to spend a year fixing it just because someone else was able to look at it.

Dude, don't you get it?

[oldosadmin]

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.

Re:Over a year late...

[avalys]

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!

Re:Valve screwed me over.

[Anonymous Coward]

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.