Valve Delays Portal 2, Squashes Duke Nukem Rumors 135
SKYMTL writes "In a tongue-in-cheek commentary, Valve has announced the delay of Portal 2 and thrown water on the rumor fires regarding its E3 'surprise.' This surprise was rumored to be either Half-Life 3 or the revival of Duke Nukem, and it looks like neither will happen anytime soon."
Full Press Release (Score:5, Informative)
June 9, 2010 — Aperture Science, doing business as Aperture Laboratories LLC, in partnership with Valve today announced the successful completion of an ethics-review-panel-supervised release date restructuring process. Portal 2, the sequel to the ground-breaking title that earned over 30 Game of the Year awards despite missing its original ship date, is now targeted for a 2011 release.
Representatives from both companies acknowledged that public safety concerns factored into the decision. They went on to say that even though Portal 2 will arrive slightly later than planned, all life on earth won’t instantaneously stop as every molecule in your body explodes at the speed of light, which is what would happen should a rip ever appear in the fabric of Valve Time.
“Also, the game will be even better,” they added, missing an historic opportunity to create the first product delay press release to mention that a product is being delayed to make it worse.
To ask questions about how close we all came to dying, or to ask futile questions about the previously announced E3 ***PORTAL-2-THEMED-FOR-GOD’S SAKE*** surprise or, less futilely, to schedule an appointment to attend a Portal 2 screening at the Valve booth during E3, please contact Valve’s delegate to the EU’s Valve Time Studies Group, Doug Lombardi.
Re:Half-Life 3? (Score:5, Informative)
The Source engine is continuously updated. The most recent version is the one used in Left 4 Dead 2, released in late 2009.
As of right now, there are two major versions of the Source engine that are continuously bugfixed, and sometimes have features backported from the newer to the older:
1. Orange Box Engine*, used by Team Fortress 2, Day of Defeat: Source, and Counter-Strike: Source Beta (last updated 2010 May 18)
2. Left 4 Dead 2 Engine, used by Left 4 Dead 2 (last updated 2010 June 09 (yesterday))
Team Fortress 2 is being released for Mac today, so we may see an update for the Orange Box game engine as well.
* The Orange Box engine was split into two separate engines during an engine update earlier this year. One version is used by HL2: Episode 2 and Portal, the other by Team Fortress 2, Day of Defeat: Source, and Counter-Strike: Source Beta.