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First Person Shooters (Games) PC Games (Games) Entertainment Games

Half-Life 2 Delayed? 47

Posted by CowboyNeal from the just-a-little-while-longer dept.
Cirrus writes "Gamers had a bit of a disappointment when they found out that Doom III would not be available this year as previously hoped. Well, now it appears that Half-Life 2 will not be shipping until December. As a Half-Life fan, I can say that I would rather have to wait a couple months than sacrifice the quality just for an earlier release date." Update: 07/30 18:17 GMT by CN : There's an update over at Shacknews that says that Valve is still on schedule, so maybe I (and several other sites) totally jumped the gun on this one. Here's hoping.
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Half-Life 2 Delayed? More

Half-Life 2 Delayed?

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  • When it's done (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Jonsey ( 593310 )
    Hey, at least we know there's a chance this one will get to market.

    I _loved_ HL, and still play new and evolving Mods for it constantly... not that one Counter-S something one. : )

    September, December, it's still this year, and that'll be okay by me.

    (But I'm still hoping for September)

  • Internet Journalism at its Finest (Score:3, Funny)

    by EvlG ( 24576 ) on Wednesday July 30, 2003 @01:30PM (#6572590)
    Some guys .JPG of an email he supposedly got at Hotmail serves as proof the game is not delayed????

    Give me a break! Rumors and .JPGs without any corroboration don't cut it.

  • Delay (Score:5, Informative)

    by Steve Gibson ( 30331 ) on Wednesday July 30, 2003 @01:34PM (#6572624) Homepage
    We've been following up with several different sources including the developers and everything we've heard has pointed to the alleged "delay" being false info.

    We're just waiting on an official statement to make a follow-up post sealing the deal.

  • Yesterday (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Henry V .009 ( 518000 ) on Wednesday July 30, 2003 @01:35PM (#6572630) Journal
    Everyone else retracted this yesterday. Anyway, Half-life 2 looks very cool from the movies I've seen on Steam. The physics engine of the game seems to be its best quality. On the other hand, I dislike how character animations haven't improved in a game where there will be so much of pushing things around. Couldn't he at least stick his out and lower his weapon when he's pushing a table? But still, I've been waiting a long time for this. Lots of moveable junk is the nirvana of 3D gaming.
    • As someone who has spent some time pushing tables with weapons in my hand, I can tell you that you do not put your weapon down. No, I don't play paintball. Or laser tag.

      Use one hand maybe, but shoving things out of the way with your body mass (or kicking it) is better anyways. In real life would you really put your weapon down? no. You would rather have a little extra trouble and still be able to shoot someone in the face if you need to.

      Admittedly, their posture models may need work, but putting yo
      • Good points, and I'll defer to your experience with weapons and tables in hostile environments. :)

        I did notice a typo in my above post. I meant to write "stick his other hand out or lower his weapon a bit." However it is done though, I'd like to see some sort of animation acknowledging the physical reality of a body moving things. Having seen the movies -- including a new one today -- everything else to do with this looks so stunningly real that it's a shame not to have it. The physics engine in simpl
    • ...pushing things around. Couldn't he at least stick his out and lower his weapon...

      Stick his WHAT out? O_o

  • Not true... (Score:5, Informative)

    by Iscariot_ ( 166362 ) on Wednesday July 30, 2003 @01:37PM (#6572648)
    From ShackNews [shacknews.com]:

    A number of gaming sites out there are carrying word of an alleged Half-Life 2 delay according to some folks at Vivendi Universal who are publishing the title retail for Valve Software. However word doesnt seem to have traveled down to Valve according to an email pulled from the Steam forums. (We havent been able to directly confirm or deny with anyone at Valve yet) who might know a thing or two about that. timm of Shacknews comments fame already pointed out this Gabe Newell response:

    First time I've heard about this.

    See the whole post here [shacknews.com].
  • As long as it takes less time that TFC2 it's all good. I gotta get a new computer anyway, so Valve can take all the time they want.
  • Hey, whether the delay is supposed or actual, I can swing Valve one - maybe even two - pushbacks. At least they had the anti-industry nads to not say a damn thing about it until it was (presumably) almost ready. That's what 3drealms *should* have done, but didn't. I much Valve's approach to PR than id or 3drealms, who either give false dates or allow their PR people to. Kudos, Valve.

  • Better a delay... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Randolpho ( 628485 ) on Wednesday July 30, 2003 @02:16PM (#6573096) Homepage Journal
    ... than a buggy game. HL2 is worth the wait -- as long as it's not vaporware.

    • Re:Better a delay... (Score:2, Insightful)

      by wickedj ( 652189 )
      I agree with you. Just look at Blizzard's Starcraft. It originally used the Warcraft 2 engine and the images were changed to represent space. It looked horrible. Then they pushed the release waaaaay back and came out with one of the best games for pc ever. I think a little delay will only help the final product in the end. Of course, there is no evidence that there is a delay, but just in case.

  • I know why it's delayed... (Score:3, Funny)

    by JavaLord ( 680960 ) on Wednesday July 30, 2003 @02:37PM (#6573291) Journal
    It takes a long time to implment the correct security model to make sure that all old aimbots and wallhacks will be compatable with the new half life. Lay off the developers.
  • has a record of creating late (and morover vaporware) products, everything from PressPlay, to Steam [steampowered.com] to Team Fortress 2 [sierra.com] (whos last news update was January of 2001). I pray they don't delay this game too, seeing as how im getting a new computer mostly for HL2 :-\
  • Avidgamer [avidgamer.net] had this yesterday...

    better writeup, too. *shrug*
  • OH MY GOD! I hope you guys have broadband (and Quicktime), because this is well worth it.

    http://www.fileplanet.com/files/120000/123983.sht m l

    One of the things that made the original Half-Life so much fun was the vast amount of creativity pumped into the game's story, weapons, and characters. After watching this video, it is clear that Valve has accomplished this yet again, except this time they also developed a new game engine that rivals that of Doom III (named "Source", *snicker*).

    The clarity
    • Well, looking at THAT it's pretty obvious why it took so long:

      The data model was "easy". Implementing and optimising it in an engine capable of high FPS... that had to suck. This really had to have taken years. And I'll bet it'll still take a couple of patches to polish it. Everything is made out of materials, not shaded polygons. Shoot a board and it splinters. The allied AI looked gooooooood.

      The mod and machinima communtities must be freaking out right now. I really hope this engine gets widely used.

      Th
  • I understand the business constraints, but to make a quality game the timeframes really have to be dispensed with. I'd rather not even really be told it was in development and have it surprise me when it's done than being teased for months with screen shots.

    As a programmer, I chafe whenever I'm asked to give a time frame, so I've started using the Scotty Rule (from Star Trek TOS) and taken the amount of time I think the project will take and doubled it. Worse case scenario- I'm a little late, while normall

    • The problem with this scenario is that there are two things that need to happen for a company to make money with a videogame. First, it needs to be good. Second, people need to know about it BEFORE it hits store shelves. The industry's sales are largely driven by buzz - people like to tell other people about cool games.

      You have to begin your marketing and show people why the game is cool at least 3 months before you put it on shelves, otherwise no-one will pay it a second glance. More importantly, retailer
      • I disagree that massive advance promotion is needed. The reason it seems this way is that marketing employees are full time and need something to do while the game is developed.
        • Disagree all you like. The fact is that unless your game has high visibility with end users in the three months before it launches, it has at best a slim chance of selling well. There's actually a pretty easy way to measure this. Looking at how many hits per day a given game gets at gamespot.com in those three months will give you a clear idea of whether the game is positioned for success.

          As a concrete example, consider Def Jam Vendetta and Wakeboarding Unleashed, both on PS2. Both scored similarly in revi
  • According to gamespy's story [gamespydaily.com] Vivendi has confirmed the delay of HL 2. I can't wait to try out that soft physics engine, droool. Too bad I can't do it on my mac. Maybe they'll finish the port this time. I can only hope.
  • Are the graphhics in Half Life 2 going to make Doom3 obsolete on release date?

    or is Doom 3 going to look better (I find that hard to believe from what I have seen though)

  • Witchhunt? (Score:4, Funny)

    by __aafkqj3628 ( 596165 ) on Wednesday July 30, 2003 @07:51PM (#6576078)
    Anybody want to rally outside VALVe Sept.30 and invade the offices should they not deliver?
  • It's no wonder iD decided to delay Doom III, anyway. With the economy in its current condition, and the high cost of suitable top-end video cards ($400+) it's very likely that any launch this year would be met with very poor sales. Better for them to wait until next year when (i) hopefully people will have more money and (ii) video cards with an adequate spec will have come down in price a bit.
    • There is no way Doom 3 or Half-Life 2 would have poor sales. Everyone knows the quality that goes into the games, so people will eat ramen noodles for the next month just to afford the game and the hardware to run it. They're just trying to make it as bug-free as possible before releasing it. Of course bugs will eventually surface, but that's with any game.
  • Gabe Newell said that it's the "first time he heard about this". I don't understand how Shacknews can conclude that it means that HL2 is not delayed.

    We (www.nofrag.com) sent an email to VUG France and they confirm that the game IS delayed. It's hard to conclude anything.

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