*~*Half-Life 2 preload begins August 17*~*
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RoyaleWithCheese
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Ruben said:
Negativism is what you Scandinavian dudes are good at, right?
I'm actually happy, kinda sorta, but my clutching at straw abilities have been known to have reached master zen status
Someone
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pieman said:
Why would that be silly? They surely need to test that network hardcore for when HL2 is officially released (as well as everything else going through it) and see what stress it sustains.
Makes a lot of sense to me, actually.
edit: plus as ritual said...it's not the exact same time of pre-loading
Some_God
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RoyaleWithCheese said:Negativism is what you Scandinavian dudes are good at, right?
I'm actually happy, kinda sorta, but my clutching at straw abilities have been known to have reached master zen status
Actually Scandinavian are good at pillaging coastal communities but that is besides the point. The point is .... BLAH! :burp:
Ruben
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norway is too cold ha ?
Nope, its hot as hell, we have indian summer here now and its 35 c up here and im sweating my ass of, and my computer can barely hold the temp of the CPU down below 50 c and im irritable. And sweaty, did i already say that? Yes ... Im mad too because after all this time all they can come with is a preload. If i did see Gabe in E3 i would put my fist up his ass.
EDIT ... on second thought.... maybe not
But yeah (after some considerable cooling down, and sticking my head down the freezer), yeah... its finally looking up, somewhat. I just wish they could shut up and release the damn game.
Nope, its hot as hell, we have indian summer here now and its 35 c up here and im sweating my ass of, and my computer can barely hold the temp of the CPU down below 50 c and im irritable. And sweaty, did i already say that? Yes ... Im mad too because after all this time all they can come with is a preload. If i did see Gabe in E3 i would put my fist up his ass.
EDIT ... on second thought.... maybe not
But yeah (after some considerable cooling down, and sticking my head down the freezer), yeah... its finally looking up, somewhat. I just wish they could shut up and release the damn game.
The Mullinator
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It is authentic, those forums are reliable. This is known because of past events.pieman said:
Why put the network under extra strain, when people will still be downloading CS : source beta?
Taking into account the history of steam they have never ever allowed 2 new releases, be it patches, steam updates or CZ, to be released at the same time. Infact they have sometimes delayed them by days.
Asking why its silly is exactly the same as saying why has the steam network died ever time it is put under substantial load.
[Edit]
Mullinator:
Its a double negative. Meaning i believe the post, I just dont understand Valves thinking behind it.
Taking into account the history of steam they have never ever allowed 2 new releases, be it patches, steam updates or CZ, to be released at the same time. Infact they have sometimes delayed them by days.
Asking why its silly is exactly the same as saying why has the steam network died ever time it is put under substantial load.
[Edit]
Mullinator:
Its a double negative. Meaning i believe the post, I just dont understand Valves thinking behind it.
ManHacks
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we11er said:
I think your right. Thats prob what they are doing. Better now then when the game is first released and noone can get the files. Im sure they are really making sure they will be able to get everyone the files easily, i couldnt imagine how mad people would be if they couldnt get them.
manny_c44
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Delays might be even more tortuous when 3/4 of the game is already on your hard-drive.
I think this big Steam-tease will be good for business though, who wouldn't want the game as early as possible...preloaded and ready to play at an given time?
I think this big Steam-tease will be good for business though, who wouldn't want the game as early as possible...preloaded and ready to play at an given time?
Someone
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pieman said:
No better way to test the network than to put under severe strain.
If they simply released the game (whenever) and Steam servers died under the load...it wouldn't be pretty. But doing it during "testing" of CS:S and pre-loading of stuff makes a bit more sense. If it fails under the pressure, it won't be as big a deal and they then can correct any issues before the actual game is released. Sure people will be angry, but not as angry as they would be if the game had just been released.
Plus....anyther way to look at it. The pre-loading now will take at least some load off of steam when the game is finally released.
But then again, why question it? Let's just be happy SOMETHING is happening which appears to be good news across the board.
Mr Neutron
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Ruben said:
BS. The hardcore gamenews-reading crowd is a much smaller portion of their sales than you think. Of that group, about half will hear this story. Secondly, all the people likely to hear this are going to buy it no matter what. Are they concerned about a large group of stubborn fanboy contrarians who will make a point of not buying their game? No. Those people don't exist.
Valve clearly gives all this recent release info as PR with the fan community around them, not the general game buying public (or even the wider hardcore set).
G
Gajdycz
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hl2 may come out sept 1, since it took 3 days for cs:s, granting a week for hl2,
genocide604
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So basically playing cs:s by next wednsday... by the way.. is there a list of which cyber cafe's are hosting the cs:s beta?? are they US only??
I'm very very very happy about it I cant wait for HL2. I cant over overstate this enough.
And a long preload is a good idea.
Personally I'm guessing 4 - 6 weeks of preloading. This is taking into account they are beta testing source with CS:S (that may last 2-3 weeks), processing all that info and then turning on the hype engine. With the final preload, just the hl2.exe and some dll files.
I would also assume that the preload will only be allowed by purchasing HL2 over steam, unlike the CZ preload.
I cant wait for HL2. I cant over overstate this enough.And a long preload is a good idea.
Personally I'm guessing 4 - 6 weeks of preloading. This is taking into account they are beta testing source with CS:S (that may last 2-3 weeks), processing all that info and then turning on the hype engine. With the final preload, just the hl2.exe and some dll files.
I would also assume that the preload will only be allowed by purchasing HL2 over steam, unlike the CZ preload.
brightgreen
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if the August 17th pre-load holds (becomes true)
then a gold and official release must be announced very soon
it makes sense. why would someone agree to order HL2 through steam without knowing when it'll be available/unlocked?
then a gold and official release must be announced very soon
it makes sense. why would someone agree to order HL2 through steam without knowing when it'll be available/unlocked?
riTuaL
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Now that I read that post again, he talks about beginning to pre-load textures and audio files, etc. that "do not change". So the final build probably isn't done yet... Hopefully it will be released sometime around then, but now I'm not so sure.
D
darkmauler
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Good stuff Valve you rock!!!
I
Ice_Walker
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Welll i think they are preloading HL2 on the 17th to give people tons of time to preload before they release it somtime in september(hopefully the 1st)
Head_Crab_04
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Maybe they are going preload several times before the game is released or even goes gold.
ship
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Even if this has nothing at all to do with the release date - although, it must have something to do with it - this makes me so incredibly happy.
Just knowing that they're taking these steps to advance towards the release is way awesome. :E
Just knowing that they're taking these steps to advance towards the release is way awesome. :E
Feath
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Ha, I love all the people saying "It could be ages before it's released!". I don't believe this for two reasons.
1) The content is done. This is what Gabe means by "Things that don't change". No more maps to be made, sounds to be recorded etc.
2) The Source Engine is effectively finished. This is why CS:S has been preloaded onto Cyber Café Computers. It's done (with the exception of some bugs, maybe).
Bear in mind that not many other games have huge beta tests of their engines (With the exception of MMORPGs). Valve will have done just as much in house testing as id did for Doom 3 or any developer did for any other FPS. Not many FPS have huge bugs that don't make them run on some hardware. Why should Half-Life 2 be any different?
If you play the CS: Beta, and it works perfect then you'll know that Source needs no improvements for the hardware you use. Well done. This will apply to most people.
Interesting to note: If you download both the CS:S beta and the Half-Life 2 content, you'll have all of Half-Life 2. CS:S will obviously include the Source Engine (Otherwise it wouldn't be able to run). So you have the content + the engine. That's the entire game. This means when the rest of Half-Life 2 is preloaded, you won't have to download much.
EDIT: Don't forget that the Cyber Cafés will have been beta testing CS:S for a week before it's released to CZ/Ati owners. So many issues would've been discovered by the time CZ owners play it.
1) The content is done. This is what Gabe means by "Things that don't change". No more maps to be made, sounds to be recorded etc.
2) The Source Engine is effectively finished. This is why CS:S has been preloaded onto Cyber Café Computers. It's done (with the exception of some bugs, maybe).
Bear in mind that not many other games have huge beta tests of their engines (With the exception of MMORPGs). Valve will have done just as much in house testing as id did for Doom 3 or any developer did for any other FPS. Not many FPS have huge bugs that don't make them run on some hardware. Why should Half-Life 2 be any different?
If you play the CS: Beta, and it works perfect then you'll know that Source needs no improvements for the hardware you use. Well done. This will apply to most people.
Interesting to note: If you download both the CS:S beta and the Half-Life 2 content, you'll have all of Half-Life 2. CS:S will obviously include the Source Engine (Otherwise it wouldn't be able to run). So you have the content + the engine. That's the entire game. This means when the rest of Half-Life 2 is preloaded, you won't have to download much.
EDIT: Don't forget that the Cyber Cafés will have been beta testing CS:S for a week before it's released to CZ/Ati owners. So many issues would've been discovered by the time CZ owners play it.
F
freeorangeshoes
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if they are preloading, they have to have a release date in mind...hopefully they will decide to tell us sometime soon. (soon being like the next few days)
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