Beta "a few weeks away"- Lombardi at E3

Apos

Apos

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Last time we talked to him, Lombardi hoped that Half-Life 2 would be entering beta by now but at E3 he said the game is still a few weeks away from the beta stage.
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http://www.homelanfed.com/index.php?id=23404

So maybe this is why they didn't have a concrete release date ready: they were weeks off of their estimate of when they would enter the beta phase.

Currently, this is what the best case scenario looks like to me:

1) they go into beta testing by June 6 (gives them three weeks from E3)
2) testing goes smootly since they've had a year to work with the mostly complete engine and some of the gameplay iron out any major bugs. Maybe another three weeks to go gold: June 27
3) two extra weeks for production of cds, putting them in boxes, shipping them out.
4) game comes out around July 12th or the 19th if they have some reason to hold it back (more pre-loading time or something)

So a mid-summer release is certainly still a reasonable estimate, provided it's really true that beta is only a few weeks away and that it means what it normally means (i.e., game content is complete, just bug fixing and pushing out release candidates) and there are no major issues that crop up (which is certainly far from impossible)
 
good news i hope its true...but i heard u lie alot

j/k
 
Well Doug said the beta date and Apos just used some common sence so I would say that if all goes smoothly his guess would be pretty on target :D
 
I'm not claiming to be right, I'm just saying that at the moment, if things really are as they say they are, mid summer still looks reasonable, even if the beta stage, apparently, got pushed back a few weeks from what they expected.
 
Apos said:
j/k means "just kidding"
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lol

I completely missed that.

My bad, and apologies to the original poster. I scan various forums a lot, and I sometimes mixup what is a sig, and what is still in a message body.
 
heres hoping that the "couple weeks" is "real-time" (to us: 1 or 2 weeks), and not "valve-time" (to valve: 1 or 2 months)
Im not bitter, Im just saying I hope things go smoothly.
seems like things are on the up and up... I just wish they didnt torture us like they do :)
 
The date sounds pretty good, but heck i have waited so long for it now, i dont really care anymore, as long as i have some summer break to play it on before i go back out west this fall.
 
I thought J/K stood for joke...

Good news if its true, but i hope its earlier then the 12th (i go on holiday on the 14th,2days of HL2 then 2 weeks away from it wuld kill me) lol
 
Well, cliffe's recent "couple days" for the C:G was dead on correct, so here'e hoping they're back on Green Mountain Standard time. :)
 
It's bad news that the beta phase expectation was wrong, good that even with that, they could still plausibly be on track.
 
I am still thinking September.

That is only because HL was 1 year late. Lets do it again!
 
I think Gabe wos just saying that 2005 bit to prove his point that they wont release the game untill its 'perfect' and he'll spend as much time/money on it as needed
 
As long as it's out this summer, extra days/weeks until release is fine by me; I need plenty of cash to flesh out my new system, and as they say, time is money. ;)
 
It's not like as we have a choice... july, august, september... doesn't matter anymore. But Apos' estimative looks fine to me.
 
Not that again!

Anyway yeah, they said once the game hits beta they can make a more solid statement about the release.
 
i say august as a good bet, add a month to whatever timescale they setup to include any setbacks or spontanous human combustions or avanlanches or volcanic eruptions or whatever that may or may not happen
 
Yeah, adding a month to be safe wouldn't hurt.
 
kinda getting sick of anticipating on when the game comes out, i really dont care on guesses anymore. they either tell us a concrete date, or just say when its done. ill play it when it comes out for sure but i wont waste my time on guessing when it comes.

as long it comes, ill be happy.
 
Apos said:
Well, cliffe's recent "couple days" for the C:G was dead on correct, so here'e hoping they're back on Green Mountain Standard time. :)
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well technically, Valve didnt make Codename Gordon, so that doesnt count.
all they had to do was click the "allow people to play the damn game" button for it, when he said a couple days. (and it was a couple days probably because the C:G creators wanted that)

although heres grasping at straws
err I mean hoping.
 
All i can say is that whoever does the estimating at Valve needs a good beating with a rusty frying pan.
 
I'm sticking with August 9th.
Nostradamus told me so.
 
well technically, Valve didnt make Codename Gordon, so that doesnt count.
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Sure, but they decided when it got released.
 
C:G was 100% complete though.


as long as HL is out late july early august im happy.

starting job in august, BP apprentiship. im going to be busy as hell for weeks.
 
I'm planning on August 4th for release, with them going gold right before the holiday. With the size of the game and the demand over Steam it's gonna generate, they'd be foolish to allow anything less than a month to let the preloads get done.

In any case, we know they're busting their asses to get done, working all weekend and what not. We'll get it the minute it's ready.
 
It doesn't necessarily take two weeks for HL2 to be released after it's gone gold. It may happen as fast as three days, like the first Unreal http://unreal.com/index2.html :D

Allthough I don't think that's quite the case for HL2...Two weeks is realistic, one week is optimistic but not impossible, three days is impossible.
Mid-summer seems quite likely. Maybe even early summer.

Edit: couldn't link straight to the Unreal gold announcement...click "archives" and choose May...Though I don't suppose anyone actually checks the link :D
 
Mwa hahaha, who can forget about steam...

The power of fast content delivery pwns you.
 
i want the game to ship before September... if not then Gabe and I got some things to settle down (if u know what i mean... :smoking: )
 
me thinks it's late july, right after the X800 XT is release...
 
GorgeousOrifice said:
I'm planning on August 4th for release, with them going gold right before the holiday.
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What holiday izzat?
 
Apos said:
4) game comes out around July 12th or the 19th if they have some reason to hold it back (more pre-loading time or something)
Click to expand...

:eek: :eek: :cheers:

Half-Life birthday 2 you, Half-Life birthday 2 you, Half-Life birthday 2 Martin, Half-Life birthday 2 you.

It's coming around my birthday (16th July) :eek: :D :cheers:
 
Why is it I always shudder when I hear that half-life 2 isnt even in the 'beta' stage of the game yet? It seems to me 99% of games, when they finally hit the 'beta' stage, they are still a year or more off from release. Beta to me after so many years watching games and mmorpg and stuff, means "long ways off still"

'open beta' on the otherhand, really concerning mainly mmorpg only, is more like a 'its almost done' thing. heh.
 
Letters said:
Before August... please... before August...
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Any specific reason?
Personally, late July would be perfect - back from uni for a few months and back to my friends from home. So, instead of seeing them and frolicking and partying, I can sit in my darkened basement and come to the somewhat disturbing conclusion that I AM GORDON FREEMAN and try and crowbar members of my family with a French loaf.
 
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