A Sound HL2 Release Estimate

[PvtRyan]

What was wrong with that 'guess Gabe's weight' thread? Is this board run by the Karma Police? :hmph:

So you'd be okay with threads like 'Guess the weight of Mr Neutrons mom and win teh prize!'? Probably not, and with reason.
They're stupid and disrespectful to people, and it's not like they have a purpose, purely meant to make mean comments.

 

[clarky003]

No, you have to be realistic!

ok Chris , but... can we laugh and make fun of you if you get it wrong, if it comes out before then .

 

[Chris D]

Yes, you can

 

[Tom.]

Take it how you will, but I have no problem with people being overweight.

Personally, I'd rather see threads speculating upon release dates closed. They do nothing but make the interesting information on this board harder to find.

 

[OCybrManO]

If I were a fat game developer I would give a free copy of the game to anyone that got my weight correct down to the ounce (or gram, for anyone that doesn't live in the USA).

 

[el Chi]

If I were a fat game developer I would give a free copy of the game to anyone that got my weight correct down to the ounce (or gram, for anyone that doesn't live in the USA).

I'd send them a false one full of viruses.

 

[^Ben]

LOl

Late August early September BOYAH!

 

[hiln]

Just another reason why it could be done earlier than the "realistics" think. HL Radio had this in their news.

"Half-Life 2: It's getting closer
Finally some positive news about Half-Life 2. Gabe Newell tells us this morning "we'll be down to zero bugs by the end of the month" which is the same general statement he's been making for about a week. However, an official release date is expected very soon."

Now it's by the end of the month? Good news.

 

[el Chi]

Yeah but that's the RC not Gold... Oh just check it out somewhere - the game won't be gold by the end of the month.

 

[FISKER_Q]

The 5th August date comes from the Gabe e-mail where he said "bug free in 16 days". I'm saying dates that go into October and beyond due to the fact that they're now aiming for an Autumn release.

Yeah and bug free = release to manufactor.

Not Release Candidate. The game needs to be tested, and postponing the RC builds just means that less will test them in the amount of time they have.

the build that gets made on the 5th august, might be a draft for RC2 or even RTM.

They did afterall also go gold after the first RC with HL1.

They will have to wait with CS: Source beta though. So i guess that late august is the final build that will be a release candidate.

And although we might have to go out in october for a release date doesn't change that your estimate was inaccurate, cause if it really gets that delayed we will be facing "When it's done" again.

 

[bruce02]

I say March 2005. Honestly.

 

[tokin]

They can't possibly announce the game gold by the end of the month...at the earliest they would announce it gold late August. They have no idea what could happen with CS:S since it is considered a test for everyone and how it handles.

 

[63]

They still have to test the Source engine via CS:S...

 

[Crusader]

I say HL2 will be scrapped and cancelled. Purely because anything I say is always totally wrong when it comes to HL2's release date, so that means that HL2 will come out the day after you read this.

 

[Ruroni]

Err.

Okay, if Gabe seems so optomistic, for the past week that it will be "generally" bug-free by end of this month. Thats RC time, VU has a go at it, and it can go gold after first RC. So you said mid august HL2 is gold, and they are waiting for CS:S results to come in, which would be around the time of HL2 going gold, which is mid-month. And if its been thoroughly tested already, it should be green. They have manuals+box cover designs done already. So you can expect gold before end of August. Retail first-second week of Sept.

Bet on Duke.

 

[Chris D]

Yeah and bug free = release to manufactor.

Not Release Candidate. The game needs to be tested, and postponing the RC builds just means that less will test them in the amount of time they have.

the build that gets made on the 5th august, might be a draft for RC2 or even RTM.

They did afterall also go gold after the first RC with HL1.

They will have to wait with CS: Source beta though. So i guess that late august is the final build that will be a release candidate.

And although we might have to go out in october for a release date doesn't change that your estimate was inaccurate, cause if it really gets that delayed we will be facing "When it's done" again.

Gabe would have meant "bug free" by their standards. VU Games will still want to give it their tests before accepting it as gold.

 

[Crusader]

OMG SixThree... your sig....McUtterRoflToasters!!!

LMAO


Edit btw I mean CS-Support mostly

 

[lans]

I say March 2005. Honestly.

Dude, like did you even bother to read my rant?

I'm definately sure HL2 won't be delayed till next year as many think - I mean in sept 2003 we were in the dark - no gold announcements, no cd art to be seen, no "feature complete" assurances, no playtests, no proper benchmarks from third party (only from valve themselves).

Also, a game like HL2 would have been asked for a earlier review by some mag as it was easily the hottest thing of 2003 - almost everyone was in the dark.

But now things look much brighter - we have a proper assurance, people getting playtests, various things revealed, a proper gold date estimate too. Hl2 will release this year,for sure. It doesn't matter how late though, but earlier is better.

 

[Sedako]

I'm sure Doom 3 will tide some of us over, including myself, until Half-Life 2 actually does get released. People should just stop making these threads because it will be out when it's done, and these threads only create a false hope if the said date is not met. We're all better off just waiting for official word. I think the mods should make a "Release date discussion" sticky so everyone can debate their heads off there... actually, even if they did, people would still make pointless new threads about it...

 

[clarky003]

Gabe would have meant "bug free" by their standards. VU Games will still want to give it their tests before accepting it as gold.

will that really take too long? if the game is pretty solid anyway, a few playtests on a game thats got hardly a bug in it would/should decrease the time VU have the game till they declare it gold.

 

[B_MAN]

im estimating a release of early september
september seems reasonable because it's when many people, especially in north america, are back from summer vacation, are going back to school/work etc etc

 

[Chris D]

You're all forgetting that they've said they're now aiming for an Autumn/Fall release. That's 23rd September onwards in Valve's eyes.

 

[^Ben]

Where?

Is that a new interview because i've never seen it.

Gimme interview!!!!

 

[lans]

Where?

Is that a new interview because i've never seen it.

Gimme interview!!!!

Doug lombardi said that the game might go gold sometime in august and then they'll aim for a Fall release. HLS reported this couple of weeks ago.

 

[Chris D]

And it has been confrimed in numerous e-mails since.

 

[Pi Mu Rho]

It's rare that the RC is accepted first time around. You can usually expect several RCs before gold. More than likely, you're looking at a mid to late August Gold date, with release anything from 2-4 weeks after that.

 

[liminal]

Didn't the original HL have only one release candidate before going gold?

Let's hope for a repeat of history.

 

[Someone]

Didn't the original HL have only one release candidate before going gold?

Let's hope for a repeat of history.

I hope so also, but it's not common. And with HL2 being more complex...and with so many things left to do....

 

[McFly]

The game won't go gold on August 5th. That's when the first RC will be sent to Vivendi. The RC stage can last weeks.

We'll see it between the 23rd September and 31st December.

Where did u get august 5th? Thats much too late, thats a months after bug free hl2 and 2 weeks after cs:s is done with beta.

 

[Crusader]

Huh?

And I thought we were in July!

*looks at clock*

 

[McFly]

Where did u get august 5th? Thats much too late, thats a months after bug free hl2 and 2 weeks after cs:s is done with beta.

O shoot! I thought he meant Sept 5th, lol, sorry

 

[pk1209]

surely if there was ever a thread that belonged in the rumours and speculation section... this is it.... we can all sit here and guess till the cows come home.. its gonna come out when its gonna come out.