David Hodgson Interview

[Icarus]

The crew over at HomeLAN were able to procure a nice interview with David Hodgson, the author of Prima Games' "Making of Half-Life 2" book, that gives a good look at how the book came about, and his expirence writing it. So go check it out here.[br]
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To discuss the interview, you can find our thread on it here.[br]
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For those of you that haven't heard of this book, the working title from Prima Games is "Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar", and it will be covering not just Half-Life 2, but Valve's history, the original Half-Life, and all the mods that followed it. So this is shaping up to be a really interesting project.[br]
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Look for a preview of this book on our site in the coming days.

 

[RogueShadow]

Very nice article.

 

[TheVirginian288]

I noticed something interesting...in the interview, the author says 'Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar' will be released 14-30 days before Half Life 2 is released.

I just checked on Amazon, and the book is in stock. Perhaps this means the November crowd will be sorely disappointed. (I certainly hope so.)

 

[Icarus]

The book isn't in stock, I know for a fact it isn't done yet.

 

[FISKER_Q]

I noticed something interesting...in the interview, the author says 'Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar' will be released 14-30 days before Half Life 2 is released.

I just checked on Amazon, and the book is in stock. Perhaps this means the November crowd will be sorely disappointed. (I certainly hope so.)

No he says Prima WANTS it's out 2-4 weeks before release of the full game.

Anyways very good interview, and i really hope they get book published over seas. This will be like the mother of all collectors item

 

[Dr. Freeman]

i will be getting this book
glad its going to be a hardcover instead of the usual paperback

 

[[12K]Uber-Police]

Yeah the book looks good, I will definately buy it but might buy it after ive completed half life 2 as to not spoil anything. :cheese:

 

[mafia mupa]

gonna buy it also if its possible here in Finland, everything seems to stay in US(things like this).

 

[lePobz]

So they had a meeting last september with Valve to discuss how they would create the book.... when last september was actually when Valve thought they were going to release HL2.

Odd, that.

 

[Javert]

390 pages...
*evil cackle*

 

[Feath]

So they had a meeting last september with Valve to discuss how they would create the book.... when last september was actually when Valve thought they were going to release HL2.

Odd, that.

The Original author was going to be Fragmaster.

 

[Inanimate]

The book isn't in stock, I know for a fact it isn't done yet.

hahaha.. anyone else see a pattern? :naughty: :naughty: :naughty: :naughty: :naughty:

 

[FISKER_Q]

The Original author was going to be Fragmaster.

Oh noes, conspiracy.

 

[Icarus]

No, the original author was David Hodgson, Kevin "Fragmaster" Bowen was mearly helping with the book.

 

[deep8832]

there were dozens of interesting anecdotes and information pieces that no one's read about before...how development stalled for months when the physics engine was finished and everyone started building crazy contraptions

Go figure...

 

[TheVirginian288]

Sorry, My Mistake.....

I just checked on Amazon, and the book is in stock. Perhaps this means the November crowd will be sorely disappointed. (I certainly hope so.)

Well, the people at Amazon must be asleep at the switch again...under availability, it most definitely DOES say: "usually ships within 2 to 3 days."

Regardless of my error, I will ALWAYS hope that the prognosticators of doom (people claiming a November release & fans of Doom 3) are sorely disappointed.

 

[CrewXp]

lol the book is about valve, I bet they're going to try and make themselves look good to get all the critics back. How much do you want to bet, it wont have anything negative about valve. lol, who would want a book of bias?

Hence from the article:

"Valve wanted to make sure the problems and successes were discussed.
"

Says nothing about their mishaps.

 

[Chris D]

The article does make reference to the book discussing mishaps such as the hack and even in that quote "their problems".

 

[noluck]

i just think some of you are over analysing

 

[Spaceman-Spiff]

gonna buy it also if its possible here in Finland, everything seems to stay in US(things like this).

Amazon.co.uk: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0...7701074-6099603

maybe amazon.de and amazon.fr have it too

 

[-TaNaKa-]

Release the game, not some book. I am getting closer and closer everyday to my........ ehh new pc. And HL2 looks like the perfect game to test it. And fun of course.

 

[lonestar]

sounds promising. 1000 pics of artwork incl. monsters that didn't make it into the game, the release fiasco from last year, source code theft.. i'm curious what they had to say about it all. especially, the negative side of the development.

if amazon.de will have it?! we'll see..

 

[Feath]

No, the original author was David Hodgson, Kevin "Fragmaster" Bowen was mearly helping with the book.

Really? Hmm. I misunderstood Fragmaster's farewell post. Although Fragmaster does talk about working on the book in August, and Hodgson said that he started in September. Unless he meant to say September 2002.

 

[SubKamran]

I am buying this book.

 

[DigitalAssassin]

I am buying this book.

I'm going to download the leaked alpha version.

 

[JimmehH]

The Making of Doom 3 (similar book to this) is due out September 20th.

I'm looking forward to both books immensely.

 

[Feath]

The Making of Doom 3 (similar book to this) is due out September 20th.

I'm looking forward to both books immensely.

Class. I'll be getting that, for certain.

EDIT: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos...331/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl/202-0902574-4687839
That one?

 

[JimmehH]

Class. I'll be getting that, for certain.

EDIT: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos...331/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl/202-0902574-4687839
That one?

Yup.

Yet Another HomeLAN Fed Book Interview

Edit: The publishers say it's due out September 29th.
Making of Doom 3 page at McGraw-Hill

 

[antimatter]

Wow. I'll definitly get this book when it comes out. I wont read the HL2 sections until I play it though.

 

[kingomar]

i just think some of you are over analysing

You are thinking on the same wavelength as me :cheers:

 

[AngstyTeen]

Yar this be the shiny chest of coin at the bottom of the cove. Keeping the pirate alive.

 

[smacky]

why would anyone buy a book about a game.. they are just trying to get more money out of us by retelling the shit we all experienced by valve for a year now. i dont give a shit how it was made, its a damn video game ffs.

 

[Feath]

why would anyone buy a book about a game.. they are just trying to get more money out of us by retelling the shit we all experienced by valve for a year now. i dont give a shit how it was made, its a damn video game ffs.

Some people do care about how it was made. Like me for example. Just because you don't like something doesn't mean that someone else will feel the same way.

 

[cliffe]

Yeah the book looks good, I will definately buy it but might buy it after ive completed half life 2 as to not spoil anything. :cheese:

The book actually fills in a lot of the gaps between HL1 and HL2 and explains HL2, rather than spoiling a la "this is what happens at part x in HL2."


Cliffe
VALVe

 

[CrazyHarij]

The book actually fills in a lot of the gaps between HL1 and HL2 and explains HL2, rather than spoiling a la "this is what happens at part x in HL2."


Cliffe
VALVe

Neat, thanks for the info.

 

[FISKER_Q]

The book actually fills in a lot of the gaps between HL1 and HL2 and explains HL2, rather than spoiling a la "this is what happens at part x in HL2."


Cliffe
VALVe

Wow even better :imu: :imu: :imu: :cheers:

Do you have any idea on the distrobution? I really would want to see the book overseas.

 

[Cybernoid]

Why do I get the feeling that it will be released in an extremely small quantity? Like the CE, it will probably be available to only a few people.

God I hate collector's items.

 

[bgesley426]

and I believe there's only a limited print run.

Could it be this quote? Scared the hell out of me and made me rush to any pre-order sites.

 

[Tropico]

"Yes, in fact Doug talks about the "September 30th" nightmare from last year, and Gabe (plus others) chat about the reasons why the game took so long to complete."

Took?He always talks in the past.

Does he know something we don´t?

 

[KagePrototype]

/me watches the thread go violently off-topic into hundreds of questions for cliffe