Half-Life 2 Pre-load hits BBC.

Its big allright..... :)


BBC Is getting quite good at reporting games as a respectable medium for entertainment. :)
 
Yeah, just read through it....


Heh, at least they are writing something I suppose.... :p
 
Varsity said:
Quite a lot of errors in there.
Click to expand...

Hell yeah. They have no idea what this preload means. The game's not finished yet! HL2 only 500Mbs?!?
 
The 500MB file containing the encrypted game was put on machines serving Valve's Steam community on 26 August.
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Oops. They divided by two there.

Steam is software that lets members take each other on in Counter-Strike games and lets them get hold of updates to Valve games.
Click to expand...

Remember kids, Steam is for Counter-Strike!

Some also speculate that the relatively small size of the files means that the encrypted version is not the full game. Many expect to have to download more code when the full and final game is released.
Click to expand...

Oooooh speculation :eek: Except that Valve told us it isn't the full game.

However, soon after being appearing on the Steam servers, copies of the download started to appear on the BitTorrent file-sharing network.
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Oh dear, that torrent means less stress on the valve servers. That's a Bad Thing.


Oh well, at least they tried.
 
Going to send this off, can anyone see any errors?

There are a lot of errors in this article that could give a VERY false impression of what is going on. Not something the BBC would want to be picked up on by Valve, nor the community. I’ll go through them in order for you.

“Half-Life 2 appears to be finished and could soon be on sale.” – the game is not finished. What is being downloaded are the art resources for the game, that will not change before it does “go gold”, or be finished. Actual levels and executable files that are used to launch the game are not available in this pre-load.

“When officially launched, downloaders will be able to buy codes to access the encrypted files and start playing immediately.” – Nothing wrong here, but it would be good to point out that you can still buy the game in a store!

“But Valve is facing criticism online for making the game available, but not actually letting people play it.” – See first point: this is a fallacy.

“The 500MB file containing the encrypted game was put on machines serving Valve's Steam community on 26 August.” - 1GB actually. It’s only 500MB when it’s compressed. :)

“Half-Life 2 was originally supposed to appear in September 2003 but has faced consistent delays.” There has been the one delay, after which there was no date. Any dates given by anyone since September 2003 by retailers (or anyone for that matter) have been lies.

“Others believe that release is imminent because Valve is happy for the game software to be downloaded.” – this has in fact been confirmed.

“Many people commenting on the Half-Life 2 release on the Slashdot discussion boards criticised Valve for keeping the game locked up even though it was almost ready to play.” – see first point. It isn't playable even if it was unlocked.

Finally, the caption: “Steam members can pre-load the game” may give a false impression, as anyone can pre-load but the caption will imply a special requirement for those who aren’t aware that the program and an account are free.

Thanks a lot for reading, I’m glad to have been able to help like this!
Click to expand...
 
Yeah, the article is mostly untrue and its not finished yet. If it was fully finished it would go gold!

@Varsity - Don't see anything wrong, nice work.

Edit - Accept its 500mg compressed and uncompressed its 1 gig.
 
I wondering if they will change it, hopefully they will.
 
It's not only BBC who doesn't have an idea what they are saying, it's also alot of people here and on other forums.

Varsity, you some it up quite well there :)
 
You would have thought that someone at the BBC was a half life 2 fan and would have been aproached for info before the news poster uploaded this news.

Any way, good try BBC
 
cool I think I'm wanna send one too, but not the exact copy of yours, not because it's not good, it's actually better than anything I could write, but to give them the impression that alot of people hve your "opinion", even though these are facts, not opinions.

btw, imagine if they've got so many errors in a report on a small event like this, how many errors can they have in thier coverage of major real world events :|
 
Nice and fast reply.

Dear Tom

Thank you for your e-mail. I read it with interest as I am always
interested in feedback from readers.

Valve was unclear as to how much of the game is available as on the
Steam site they say those who pre-load HL2 will be ready to start
playing. But I have taken your comments into account and amended the
story.

Thank you again for taking the time to share your thoughts about our
coverage and I hope I can count on your continued readership.

Regards

Alfred

Alfred Hermida | Technology editor
www.bbcnews.com/technology
BBC News Online
Click to expand...
 
Still not right. :/ If someone else wants to send in a corrected copy instead of having this Alfred guy write it..?
 
I feel .. slightly sorry for the alfred guy now lol :LOL:

its like dads talking about computers :LOL:
 
hmm .. I sent this:
Hello,
There are a number of errors in the article about the pre-loading of Half-Life 2 over steam.
First off, the size of downlaoded material -according to people who downloaded it- is 1GB, not 500MB.

The contents of the preload are not subject to speculation: Valve has officially stated (more than once I believe) that the preload includes only art work and some resources that will not change.
http://www.hl2fallout.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=2369&st=0&#entry42550
(That's been confirmed to be Gabe himself, Valve's Managing Director, we've been getting news from his posts at that forum for the past couple of weeks).

"Steam is software that lets members take each other on in Counter-Strike games and lets them get hold of updates to Valve games." This is not entirly true, steam is not specific to CS, it's a platform for purchasing online games and getting automatic updates. It's also a requirement to play online because it's used for online authenication.

"Some also speculate that the relatively small size of the files means that the encrypted version is not the full game. Many expect to have to download more code when the full and final game is released."
"According to some reports, the download only includes files such as textures, rather than the actual levels and programs needed to run the game." This is not speculation, nor is it rumors; it's confirmed information.

The current preload -even when unlcoked- is not playable, the only thing we'll probbly get from unlocking it are story "spoilers".

Thanks for taking the time to read this. Hope I helped.
Click to expand...
heh, I know my english writing skills need work, but hey, I'm just a fanboy!!!!11oneone


hmm .. I believe this
According to some reports, the download only includes files such as textures, rather than the actual levels and programs needed to run the game.
Click to expand...
has been added after your email?

anyway, I didn't send my letter to the guy's email, I used the feedback form on thier site (there is a field to link the article I'm commenting on, so I didn't include it in the mail itself)
 
oMgz w0t U'z t0k1n b00t !?11 Dis i$ fuLL G4m3 m33ns HL2 mu$t b3 g0ld!
---
I resent the implication that forum members don't know what they're talking about!
 
However, soon after being appearing on the Steam servers, copies of the download started to appear on the BitTorrent file-sharing network.
Click to expand...

Yes, peer to peer is the :flame: :devil:DEVIL:devil: :flame:

And yes, mainstream news is just as accurate when it comes to other, more important news.

"Immigrants start riots in centre of Antwerp", said the newspaper. No they didn't, I was there. Cops started hitting people for no reason, except for booing the royalties who came to visit. And immigrants weren't even involved. Since that day, I don't buy crap from news. I was 14 I think.
 
Harryz said:
Yeah, the article is mostly untrue and its not finished yet. If it was fully finished it would go gold!

@Varsity - Don't see anything wrong, nice work.

Edit - Accept its 500mg compressed and uncompressed its 1 gig.
Click to expand...
how do you know it's not finished? Do you work at valve?
 
Nice to see our little game is getting attention from the worldwide press :0
 
im just glad to see some good press, regardless of a couple errors. sure, any one of us could have written a better more accurate article, but this writer wasnt into the game as much as we are.
 
That's cool..I forgive the errors because..well, they probably don't know anything about video games.

ps: Mine finally started preloading :)
 
Varsity said:
Quite a lot of errors in there.
Click to expand...

You can say that again. And they make putting it on BT sound bad...it's better for Steam, takes the load off. :afro:
 
mullen said:
how do you know it's not finished? Do you work at valve?
Click to expand...

Like I said, if it was finished it would be obvioulsy have gone Gold. I don't see no Gold status anywhere, do you?
 
ah well, you cant blame them for not browsing this forum
 
Gg

Just glad the BBC picked up on the preload news, most main news sites will not get all the facts right in gaming matters cause the general public aint geeks. If people want more indepth / accurate reports they will go to game specific websites.
 
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