Half Life 2 Episode 2 Due Out October 9th

Shacknews reports that Half-Life 2 Episode 2 is finally, finally, due out on the 9th of October. The game will release for the PC, 360, and PS3, and will be joined by Team Fortress 2 and the FPS/Puzzler Portal. "Today's news follows rumors originating last month that the PlayStation 3 versions of the games would be delayed into 2008. Valve's Doug Lombardi noted to Shacknews that development has been progressing well on all three platforms. Electronic Arts is distributing the games at retail as a package entitled Half-Life 2: The Orange Box, which also includes the original Half-Life 2 and last year's Half-Life 2: Episode One. It will sell for $49.99 on PC and $59.99 on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Previously, the company intended to sell a slimmer package, The Black Box, which would not include Half-Life 2 or Half-Life 2: Episode One, but those plans were cancelled last month. It is expected that Steam customers will retain the option to purchase only the newly-released games."

Re:*yawn*?

[sunderland56]

Episode two is more than just new maps. They're thoroughly revising the core game engine (better rendering, better physics, better support for multi-core processors). There are also AI changes to support cooperative game play - in other words, instead of Alex just following you around and giving you hints, she will actually help you perform tasks. The nice thing with how Valve/Steam works is that once the core game engine updates are done, they will allow any game to use them, not just HL2.

The core engine changes also allow things like the portal gun in Portals - which is a separate third party game, but which needed changes from Valve to work correctly.

In the meantime, if all you want is new maps, fire up Hammer and make some of your own!

Re:Just curious.

[Chabo]

Supposedly, you'll be able to buy the "Black Box" games through Steam as a single package, and the Orange Box just the only way those games are coming out in retail. The Orange Box will include three Steam codes: one for HL2, one for Ep1, one for TF2/Portal/Ep2.