Beta "a few weeks away"- Lombardi at E3

[Mountain Man]

no. There is a developement cycle that is used worldwide...

Really? And who established and enforces these "standards"? What is the penalty for improperly using terms like "alpha" and "beta"? Is it illegal for independent developers to assign their own meanings to the terms? Inquiring minds want to know!

 

[Mechagodzilla]

When asked, Gabe said that he calls the current phase Delta-Zulu.

 

[DimitriPopov]

In nearly every magazine and online article or review Valve have mentioned that what they are doing now is allowing playtesters to play the game. Does this not mean that it is now in a 'Beta' stage which is to test the balance, bug and storyline issues?

Since this is a thread about release dates.

I believe the cycle has begun. There are new PC magazine playtests and beyond that there are multiple ads in PCGamer alone there were at least 5. Ad campaigns cost big bucks and that money is not often wasted.

 

[brokenjago]

I would not mind September 30th at all - it means that Valve has even more time to add stuff to Half Life 2 to make it the best it can be.

I know I'm in the minority position here though .

You don't add features during beta.

Ever.

 

[FISKER_Q]

Really? And who established and enforces these "standards"? What is the penalty for improperly using terms like "alpha" and "beta"? Is it illegal for independent developers to assign their own meanings to the terms? Inquiring minds want to know!

It wouldn't be illegal, it would just be defacto, which means you could either follow the socalled universal alpha/beta time concept he's talking about(if it exists anyways) or you could try to bend it yourself.

When you're developing you're done when you're done. You won't cut of 3 months of developement cause some supposedly standard specifies you have to be in beta for atleast 3 months.

And nor will you up your developement to 3 months if you're done in 2 weeks.

If it was the case, that standard should be able to specify each games developement cycle and release date. within a month maybe 1½ month.

Also there is no such thing in the RFC, i could ask my friend who's a bigtime msdn subscriber.

 

[Gossoon]

Man, this thread has gone on far too long...

 

[Lucifer]

When asked, Gabe said that he calls the current phase Delta-Zulu.

What is Delta-Zulu phase?

 

[SMT]

Oh, for the love...

He was joking. Gabe is a funny funny man.

 

[noluck]

i just hope they wont do like hl1 ..heh .. realise its "not as good as they wankted it to be" and start from scratch .. id prolly go insane and run around the streets naked and stuff

 

[slicktick]

please dont, i dont want to see that... no one else does either. even though I cant speak for other people.

It would make an interesting news story though, "man runs around naked because of HL2 delay"

 

[CR0M]

Well, if it's a few weeks away it gives me just enough time to sort out compatibility problems with my Audigy player card and new A7N8X-E-Deluxe motherboard.

Creative tech-support sucks buckets.

 

[Impulse147]

I got that same board CROm, you'll be satisfied with it, its great!!

 

[skumbuzzul]

I just put $10 down on a HL2 presale at EB. It's not marked for release until November 12th 2004. So if that's any inclination. Oi-Vah. Although funny because EBgames.com has it slated for Semptember 1st.