Homelanfed E3 Impressions of Half-Life 2

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Homelanfed have posted their updated impressions of Half-Life 2 at E3, and while they say nothing new about what was presented at the Expo, a small extract from a paragraph near the end is what's truly interesting:

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.
Click to expand...
This is true confirmation that Half-Life 2 seems prepped for an early to mid-Summer release, with the beta stage being a final pointer before the game goes gold and is ready for mass production to CD-Roms.

Catch up on the information here!
 
At last. The wait draws to a close.

Now all i need to do is by a decent GFX card. I have a Via m/b with an Athlon XP 2700+. The m/b AGP is x4. Can anyone recommend a good card?
 
supermeerkat said:
At last. The wait draws to a close.

Now all i need to do is by a decent GFX card. I have a Via m/b with an Athlon XP 2700+. The m/b AGP is x4. Can anyone recommend a good card?
Click to expand...
if ur poor radeon 9600pro/xt, more then poor but not rich radeon 9800 pro, and if u got more cash then u can spend get teh radeon x800pro/xt

wow theres a lot of variety now. All of which will run hl2 with acceptable framerates and DX9 on.
 
Just glad to finally see the release on the horizon! And damn, I can't wait any longer :D
 
If it went into beta by let's say June 10th, you think a month to two is long enough for beta? I don't.
 
So to Valve, "beta" actually means "release candidate"? Cause when I hear "beta" I'm thinking "at least six months to go".
 
Abom said:
mass production to CD-Roms.
Click to expand...

Don't want to "nit-pick" too much, but do we actually know that the game will be distributed on CD-ROMs? Has VALVe actually announced which medium they'll be using to distribute the game (aside from the obvious - STEAM)?
 
Nope no word on it......... probably CDs not dvds cause not everyone has a dvd player yet...... maybe a dvd version but IDK

yea beta for them means release candidate when... plus once they announce gold you do realize that hopefully they would have started making copies already... takes a good 2 weeks for everything to get made and shipped... so once they announce they go gold and if they havent started making copies then we still gotta wait a half a month but thats not bad at all
 
oD1Nz said:
Don't want to "nit-pick" too much, but do we actually know that the game will be distributed on CD-ROMs? Has VALVe actually announced which medium they'll be using to distribute the game (aside from the obvious - STEAM)?
Click to expand...

If I recall correctly Gabe said in his buying options post, where he also mentioned the steam subscription etc, that the collectors edition would be DVD, and the other store editions CD. This was quite a while ago though, they didn't know how many CDs it would be back then.

EDIT: Oh wait, http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showpost.php?p=455479&postcount=563
 
oD1Nz said:
Don't want to "nit-pick" too much, but do we actually know that the game will be distributed on CD-ROMs? Has VALVe actually announced which medium they'll be using to distribute the game (aside from the obvious - STEAM)?
Click to expand...

To be honest, I think the main distribution method will be CDs in this case, as they've mentioned nothing about DVDs for the normal SP + MP version of the game yet. I just wrote CD-Roms because it's still the most popular form of storing for games right now, although that's going to change soon enough.
 
Crapola. It better not be out mid-June, I've got fuppin' A-Levels till the 29th :/
 
Mid-September, folks. Why are we talking about buying it already?
 
so has the game already gona beta? or is it going to go beta ni a couple of weeks? :upstare:
 
"This is true confirmation that Half-Life 2 seems prepped for an early to mid-Summer release, with the beta stage being a final pointer before the game goes gold and is ready for mass production to CD-Roms."

awesome!
 
And this is Doug "It's not a lie, it's marketing" Lombardi we're talking about.
 
Abom said:
Homelanfed have posted their updated impressions of Half-Life 2 at E3, and while they say nothing new about what was presented at the Expo, a small extract from a paragraph near the end is what's truly interesting:

Quote:
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.

This is true confirmation that Half-Life 2 seems prepped for an early to mid-Summer release, with the beta stage being a final pointer before the game goes gold and is ready for mass production to CD-Roms.

Catch up on the information here!
Click to expand...

I'm sorry, maybe I am understanding this wrong, but to me this is bad news not good news.
Clearly going to beta stage is a good thing, as you've all stated, but if beta was planned for e3 (which I confirm is true, got the interview) and by e3 it was a couple of weeks away, that means theres been a delay!
Is that not obvious? they've lost 2 weeks in a very short amount of time (i.e. from when Doug said this to e3), who knows if its a problem that is a one off or something that slowed the entire process down.
I fail to see how a delay is a positive thing.
Sorry. (I mean no disrespect btw, just don't understand the optimisim in such bad news)
 
I think the point is that it's close to beta at all. Spot on or a few weeks off makes little difference at this stage; at least it's close.
 
All it does is basically finally confirm that the game is absolutely on target for a Summer release, and unless some heinous bug turns up, it won't be delayed further.
 
Ah, fair enough, thats cool.
I'd taken that for granted myself from Doug saying in interview it'd be beta (hopefully) by e3, so from my perspective it was bad news.
stretch.gif
 
It doesn't take a "henious bug" to delay it. Just scope-creep, or maybe a little bit of, "hey, I've got a great idea, and we need to implement it _now_!" Seems to happen a lot with Valve.

BTW, summer of what year anyway? :)

(Suddenly, little pale people, with aluminum foil hats come crawling out of their caves...)
 
so what does this mean? i knew this before they wrote the article...
 
hahahahaha yea indeed i think they mean 2020 :P :cheers:

But if it's this summer that would be ****ing great.
 
i think distributing a game that will likely take up more than 4GB once installed, through steam, is the most ridiculous idea ive ever heard of. condition zero was bad enough with its preloading.
 
I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings, but this is no reason to believe HL2 will be released early to mid-Summer. In fact, this is probably a reason to believe it won't be coming that soon.

It was said that Valve is "hoping" for beta in a few weeks (indicating, as the news post mentioned, there's been a recent delay). Even assuming Valve makes it to beta in a couple weeks, it will probably be months before you're playing it. I'd estimate end of Summer at the earliest, assuming they make beta in a few weeks and have no other delays.

Consider the fact that just a little while ago they were expecting beta by now. Now they're "hoping" for beta in a few weeks. Don't expect an early to mid Summer release kids.
 
MadDogCoconut said:
I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings, but this is no reason to believe HL2 will be released early to mid-Summer. In fact, this is probably a reason to believe it won't be coming that soon.

It was said that Valve is "hoping" for beta in a few weeks (indicating, as the news post mentioned, there's been a recent delay). Even assuming Valve makes it to beta in a couple weeks, it will probably be months before you're playing it. I'd estimate end of Summer at the earliest, assuming they make beta in a few weeks and have no other delays.

Consider the fact that just a little while ago they were expecting beta by now. Now they're "hoping" for beta in a few weeks. Don't expect an early to mid Summer release kids.
Click to expand...
I think it was a couple of week ago that it was reported Valve had reached "alpha stage", and now they are ready to enter beta in a few weeks, it doesn't sound like there has been any sort of delay. As for not seeing it before the summer is over that really depends on how Valve defines their "beta" stage. From previous interviews it sounds like everything now is focused on gameplay tweaks, and they have been using hundreds of play testers for a VERY long time now. So I don't think the beta stage would take very long to get through and for the game to go gold.
 
the mullinator said:
As for not seeing it before the summer is over that really depends on how Valve defines their "beta" stage. From previous interviews it sounds like everything now is focused on gameplay tweaks, and they have been using hundreds of play testers for a VERY long time now. So I don't think the beta stage would take very long to get through and for the game to go gold.
Click to expand...

Here's the situation. They said "well we had hoped to be beta by now, but we're not, so we hope to be in a few weeks." That's not what I consider good news. It shows they're behind whatever updated schedule they've been working on. And who knows what "few weeks" means? Who knows what "hope" really means? There's probably a reason he didn't say "we expect to be beta in a few weeks."

Once they've gone beta, it will likely be several more weeks. And here's the real rub: Even once Valve says the game has gone gold it could be several months before you're playing the game. Remember how CZ "went gold" many, many weeks before distribution?

Valve saying "We hope to be beta in a few weeks" is hardly a cue to start rejoicing. And it's hardly a sign that they're "on target for an early- to mid-Summer release." Really now.
 
MadDogCoconut said:
Here's the situation. They said "well we had hoped to be beta by now, but we're not, so we hope to be in a few weeks." That's not what I consider good news. It shows they're behind whatever updated schedule they've been working on. And who knows what "few weeks" means? Who knows what "hope" really means? There's probably a reason he didn't say "we expect to be beta in a few weeks."

Once they've gone beta, it will likely be several more weeks. And here's the real rub: Even once Valve says the game has gone gold it could be several months before you're playing the game. Remember how CZ "went gold" many, many weeks before distribution?

Valve saying "We hope to be beta in a few weeks" is hardly a cue to start rejoicing. And it's hardly a sign that they're "on target for an early- to mid-Summer release." Really now.
Click to expand...
When CZ went gold Valve's job was finished, it was the publishers that caused the further delay. Valve had sent the game to magazine reviewers and did not even touch the game after it went gold so it wasn't Valve's fault for that strange delay.

So lets say it takes 3 weeks from now to go into beta, that will make it mid june. Then lets say they take a month of beta testing, that will make it mid July. Then the game can go gold and probably take 1-2 weeks for it to finally be released on store shelves, that will make it early August. That is a mid summer release and those time periods all seem realistic to me.
 
I'm sure it's going to be a late summer release, if summer at all.

Mullinator I love your siggie!
 
Its funny because that actually was something this guy said in a thread he made before he was banned.

I think his name was something like DoOm3>Hl2****orZ. :laugh:
 
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