Halflife 2 Delayed Again? 62
erax0r writes "Gamespot reports that HL2 could be delayed yet again. "Court filings show VU Games has the right to sit on finished Half-Life 2 code for up to six months. Could it be deja vu all over again?"
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Halflife 2 Delayed Again?
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Reality must take precedence over public relations, for Mother Nature cannot be fooled. -- R.P. Feynman
This game better be DAMNED good (Score:3, Funny)
Re:This game better be DAMNED good (Score:1)
I'm ready! (Score:5, Insightful)
source code (Score:5, Insightful)
This game better not suck. What's funnier is a huge HL2 ad on the right when I hit read more.
Chris
Re:source code (Score:5, Insightful)
The only feasable delay I could see it causing is if they recoded the network stack enough to prevent cheets. It's still not a year delay for that though.
Re:source code (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:source code (Score:2)
And the welding/moving gun thing in the e3demo level or whatever was included was fricking awesome...I wish it had been part of the game
Re:source code (Score:4, Interesting)
Right. You're working on something, you're falling behind, you're not going to meet the announced release date, when - BLAM - a large proportion of what you were working on, private stuff definitely not for distribution, gets distributed all over the internet.
Your office network turns out to be completely untrustworthy, as are most of the machines on it (who knows what could have been installed without your knowledge) - basically, you don't have a clue what's safe and what's not.
Put simply, all work has to cease. While rabid fanboys, crackers and 'warez dudes' are all busy dissecting your unfinished work.
Must be pretty dispiriting, yes?
Even when things did get back to normal, people at Valve must have reckoned their game just wasn't right for release. After all the complaints recently about other games being released 'unfinished', I'm glad they at Valve had the guts to delay the game, and fix whatever they saw was wrong with it. Maybe they really weren't happy with the gameplay, maybe it needed some dedicated tuning - who knows.
The release candidate is out. Valve may have finished the game. It's already partially distributed over Steam. I wouldn't be surprised if the game is out pretty soon - assuming this latest hassle blows over, which it most likely will...
Re:source code (Score:3, Insightful)
the thing is, they weren't ready back then really, they couldn't have had it delivered on their announced dates anyways, code theft scandal or not. and they tried to spin it initially wholly on the code theft.
the thing is, they've been bullshitting so much before and failed to deliver on their promises that they're really not very trustworthy. the thing is, they're already before been "so close to release it must be ju
damnit! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Pffft, whatever (Score:1, Interesting)
Doom3 already beat them to the punch on the physics. The only salvation H2 will have is if the CounterStrike mod is quickly adapted to it. They'll probably have the graphics of Doom3, but hopefully with better multi-player gameplay.
Always sad to see something miss the boat like this, simply due to a late release.
Re:Pffft, whatever (Score:3, Interesting)
But that's not the point. The original HL wasn't either revolutionary in graphics or implementation (the sound though was quite good at the time), but the game itself. The story, the settings, the atmosphere. I'm EAGER to play HL2, and the reason it's not the graphics but
Re:Pffft, whatever (Score:4, Interesting)
Had HL2 released last year like it was supposed to, it would have blown away the competition by a wide margin. There was just nothing on the market that comes close. Now because of the delays, they've lost a huge advantage. Now it will be just another good game.
Re:Pffft, whatever (Score:3, Interesting)
Doom 3? Outdoor areas? Huh?
While it's true Doom 3 has a more robust engine, HL2 has much better looking textures and character models. This isn't as much due to the engine as it is the effort of the artists. Half Life 2 tries for photorealism while Doom 3 has blocky models with bland textures. Look at the Character Comparison Shot here [whutdufuk.com] to see the difference. And all Doom 3 has shown so far is that its engine can render dark laboratories and dark office buil
Re:Pffft, whatever (Score:2)
Agreed that the textures and models for HL2 look much better than Doom3. Most of the stuff in D3 looked like plastic.
Honestly, I'd love to see a combination of the two. The dynamic lighting system in Doom3 with
And not profit? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:And not profit? (Score:2, Interesting)
VU is between a rock and a hard place. On one hand they won't see the bottom line boost from the revenue from HL2, on the other Valve is ready to cut them out of the picture to the point where they might not see enough of a return to justify publishing it.
Re:And not profit? (Score:4, Interesting)
There is no better way to prove that you mean business than to take one on the chin and shrug it off.
Must let us know they are still evil. (Score:2)
They also run the risk that people might actually like them.
Re:AAGGLL Re:Must let us know they are still evil. (Score:2)
Addison Weslly (STL book), THQ (Warhammer 40k game), and CMP (Game Developer Mag), but the point is taken, the majority of people couldn't do that. :) I said this as a joke for fellow game developers.
It's a game of... (Score:5, Insightful)
Vivendi Universal Games is in poor shape financially, and they have been counting on Half-Life 2 to help turn things around. They can, of course, threaten to delay the game past the holiday season as a way to bargain, but it would seem to be suicide to actually do it.
Delaying past the holiday season hurts both them and Valve. Expect the game to come out this year (November 1st is looking likely, a whole array of retailers recently updated to that date when adding the Half-Life 2 Collector's Edition) and the issue over Steam to be settled later (i.e., if it is discovered that they did something underhanded, Valve may have to fork over a good chunk of change after-the-fact).
Neither Valve nor VU Games want this delayed, and there is no reason to expect it to be with the first release candidate already in VU's hands.
Re:It's a game of... (Score:3, Interesting)
It's capitalism at its very best.
Honestly, it couldn't happen to a better set of companies.
Re:It's a game of... (Score:5, Informative)
They haven't been paying - Half-Life 2 was apparently completely funded by Valve [gamespy.com].
Re:It's a game of... (Score:1)
says Doug Lombardi. Totally impartially. Riiiight.
I'm sure VU aren't saints, but lets just point out that, at least in terms of completion %ages and release dates, Valve have, shall we say, a flexible notion of the truth.
Re:It's a game of... (Score:3, Informative)
Valve does not need shelf space. They already have Steam. Why worry about printed manuals, boxes, CDs, and other crap? Just announce it on the major gamer sites and let everyone get it online for $20 vice $60 for a box. Their cut would still be the same no matter what.
Valve does not need advertising. Uuh, Half-Life. What's that? Everyone who will buy it already knows about it.
Valve does
Re:It's a game of... (Score:3, Informative)
Because they want to sell some games?
Possibly out of date, but here's an overview of the different Half-Life 2 SKUs [halflife2.net]. Apparently, they expect a very significant proportion of the sales to be the base, single-player-only version [valve-erc.com], as this will be distributed in Wal-Mart and similar.
Counter-Strike only became particularly popular after it went on sale in shops in a similar manner, despite being a
Damned if you do, damned if you don't. (Score:5, Insightful)
Their options right now are to either release to retail and see a significant amount of that revenue go directly in to Valve's pockets. Many, many people will be buying this game on Steam if that happens. This isn't the Sims we're talking about. A significant percentage of potential cusomers have high-end machines with broadband connections, and since Steam has been pushing content to its users for a while now, I suspect many of them will just click the button that says 'instant gratification' instead of trundling out to the nearest big box retailer to buy this.
On the other hand, if Vivendi delays release beyond the Christmas season, and somehow manages to prohibit Valve form releasing on Steam, they will not be able to post that revenue in Q4 and there's a real chance sales will be lower than they would have been had the game been released in time for Christmas.
The only way Vivendi can win this is by compelling Valve not to release on Steam and still getting the game out in time for Christmas. What they're doing now is simply attempting to buy some time for their lawyers to attempt to achieve this. I suspect that, if no agreement has been reached within the next six to eight weeks, Valve will have effectively called Vivendi's bluff and Vivendi will be forced to release in time for Christmas rather than risk missing the holidays and losing a significant percentage of potential sales to Steam.
Re:Damned if you do, damned if you don't. (Score:1)
According to the two companies' current software publishing agreement, Valve cannot release the game via Steam until the retail version is brought to market by VU Games. That point was confirmed by Valve director of marketing Doug Lombardi who said, "Half-Life 2 will be made available to customers who purchase via Steam at the same time it is made available at retail."
I think by stalling, Vivendi will not only hurt it's bottom line, but also it's reputation. I can't see that Valve could
Re:Damned if you do, damned if you don't. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Damned if you do, damned if you don't. (Score:2)
'OMG I'm on a modem, you've got broadband that's not fair, I don't want you to be able to download the game, I have to wait till I can travel to a store that stocks it and so should you cause otherwise it's not fair and I'm telling my mum!'
If someone who doesn't have broadband or who simply doesn't want to run Steam then fine, they don't have to, I'm okay with that. Screw them if they arn't happy that I want to get it via o
Re:Damned if you do, damned if you don't. (Score:3, Interesting)
I think you're wrong. The people who are going to buy Half Life 2 are going to buy Half Life 2. If it comes out around the "Christmas Season" makes no difference for a game like this. The marketing folks
Re:Damned if you do, damned if you don't. (Score:2, Insightful)
That may or may not be true. The real point is that Vivendi wants to book it in the 4th quarter because they have been having financial troubles. Booking it in the 4th quarter means that they can reasonably say to their stakeholders that they are turning things around.
Re:Damned if you do, damned if you don't. (Score:2)
My little brother can't afford it. My parents might buy it for him for Christmas, though.
Re:Damned if you do, damned if you don't. (Score:2)
Re:Damned if you do, damned if you don't. (Score:1)
Also, I disagree with the death of traditional publishers being good for us. Steam's content distribution system is a decent idea, but I would like it much better if after you purchased and downloaded the game, they sent you the box, manual, and media in the mail. As it is now, you pay the same price for the boxed set, and get it at the same time it's available in s
Re:Damned if you do, damned if you don't. (Score:2)
Let's use Doom 3 as an example here. In the box was a 3 CD jewel case with three disks. The box just takes up space for 10 minutes before you throw it out. Extras? What extras? To top it off, when you get the games as an actual disk lots of people I know, including me, rip the disk to the hard drive and play the game fr
Re:Damned if you do, damned if you don't. (Score:1)
The lack of extras is another issue, but I remember the old days when a game came with a nice thick color manual that nowadays sells seperately from the game, and is called a 'strategy guide'. Lots of times you also got cloth maps, comic books, or other random useless stuff like that.
And sure I could burn a copy of what I download, but I paid for the game, so why do I
Re:Damned if you do, damned if you don't. (Score:2)
I'm guessing middle/late November just as the Xmas season kicks off... that way the buzz will be fresh and more people will be in the stores rather than in front of their computers downloading.
The Great Antogonist (Score:4, Interesting)
But then, maybe it's just me...
Re:The Great Antogonist (Score:1, Informative)
-Scott
Re:i doubt this (Score:2)
Acutally... (Score:1)
Both sides... (Score:5, Insightful)
In the red corner, we have Vivendi. The faceless media giant that sums up everything that we're constantly being told is wrong with the games industry. A soul-less money-making machine, with no interest in the quality or artistic merits of the products they put out, determined to grind the poor suffering developers into abject poverty.
In the blue corner, we have Valve. The developer which seems to be trying to set itself up as a rival to 3d Realms in the contest for the title of "biggest running joke of the gaming industry." They had one excellent hit over half a decade ago, which has been shamelessly miked since then through a series of mediocre expansion packs and "gold" editions. Their latest project is to force everybody who wants to play their games to use a creaking, occasionally-works (kind of) DRM client to run them. The service is erratic, the client is buggy and the only real benefit is for Valve's bank balance.
Sorry if the above sounds overly negative, but I do think that regardless of how good the end product turns out to be, the entire process of its development does little to cast anybody at all in the industry in a good light.
VUG and valve fighting? (Score:5, Funny)
Games are like milk (Score:5, Interesting)
Games have a very definite shelf life. I watched the latest Halflife 2 video the other day (the one with yer man on a quad bike of some kind shooting some spiders that looked a bit familiar..) and whilst it still looked like a game I might want to buy, I had just finished Doom 3 and whatever you can say about Doom 3, one thing I don't think you can deny is that it looks damm fine. HL2 just looks pretty ordinary to me now.
It may have a more comprehensive physics engine that lets you interact with objects (You could knock stuff over in Doom3 and the swinging crane was very well done but that was about the limit of your interaction - kicking the office furniture about - although I did manage to get inside a barrel in MP, or at least end up in a barrel...
HL2 may also have a more interesting game behind the eye candy and certainly has more varied environemnts then Doom3 (although nobody does Hell like ID
Re:Games are like milk (Score:2)
If there is one thing I recommend half-life 2 is.... TAKE YOUR TIME. Make sure shit works. If I pay $60 the first day, it best impress the hell out of me.
Re:Games are like milk (Score:2)
Too bad I got bored with Doom 3 faster than the time it takes for Paris Hilton to say something stupid on camera.
Looked awesome, but the game was redundant. HL2 IMO, looks every bit as good as Doom3...just in a different way. I'm excited, and can at least hope that the game will hold my interest.
Re:Games are like milk (Score:1)
I was thinking half way through Doom3 "man is there much more of this?" which is probably not a good sign, but games are sold on their looks to a large extent.
Half Life did look amazing next to it's cartoony contemporary: Quake2 with HL's outdoor/indoor, real world look with strong lighting and realistic textures. I remember it also bored me rigid. The multiplayer was u
Deja vu indeed (Score:1, Offtopic)
Re:Deja vu indeed (Score:1)