How is it not gold?

[Jesus Lincoln]

I know that VU hasnt said anything about the RC, but arent Mags leagally binded to only review finished games, if they reject the RC, and change a few things, wouldn't the mags have reviewed a non-finished game??

 

[frusion]

they reviewd a near finished game..practically the full

 

[CrazyHarij]

Nah, Magazines review an unfinished "beta" occasionally. They review whatever is sent their way from the publisher.

 

[Concept]

Until we're told by Valve or VUG, I think it's safe to assume the game hasn't gone gold.

Magazines aren't legally bound to review post-gold copies of games. That depends on editorial decision or the ethical stance of the publication in question.

 

[Jesus Lincoln]

It just SEEMS illegal to give scores for a game that "isnt done"

I know this isnt what would happen, but isnt it influancing an audiance and giving it a score, what if the RC is rejected and they make it worse? (not going to happen)

 

[Ownzed]

I swear it's done...

 

[frusion]

yeah the game is done...it has to be lol..we are --- this close for it to actually be released

 

[Interitus]

At this point, are they really going to be changing enough to be affecting reviews of it?

 

[Concept]

I'd imagine the RC changes would be more focused on technical compatibility issues rather than significant content change.

 

[f|uke]

It just SEEMS illegal to give scores for a game that "isnt done"

I know this isnt what would happen, but isnt it influancing an audiance and giving it a score, what if the RC is rejected and they make it worse? (not going to happen)

1) Legality doesn't enter into it

2) Whats the problem, man? Do you really think that the finished product would get a lower score?? If anything, this only means that the final game is even better then the reviewed product.

 

[Jesus Lincoln]

No, i dont believe that at all, but thats the kind of thing you would hear in court, little things like that.

 

[redundant]

Going from RC stage to gold stage would change none of the actual game, just the coding of it.

VU is just checking for bugs, they don't get to say "Yeah, I don't like the whole GREEN grass thing... how about BLUE?"

 

[SupaKoopa]

At this point, are they really going to be changing enough to be affecting reviews of it?

well, everyone knows they're adding the biozeminades as the last stage of development, so...

 

[operative x]

wtf is that

 

[redundant]

Yeah, i can't wait for the biozeminades.

 

[ne0_shiny]

it probably is done but they are testing dod:s hl:s etc..
btw wtf is a biozeminades, if its a spoiler dont tell me

 

[TyroPyro]

From the guy CSNation talked about who used to work for GoneGold.com:

The same source that told me RC5 was recently submitted to Vivendi for testing just e-mailed me this:
Sierra should announce Half-Life 2 is gold tomorrow along with a release date. If not tomorrow then very soon, the game is done.

I trust this source--if I didn't, I wouldn't have posted his original e-mail. I don't have a second source that I can verify this information with, but I'm not Bob Woodward and this isn't the Washington Post. It's a blog, and those of you who read it regularly are counted among my friends. So this information is for you. I know that you won't freak out if it takes a few days to happen.

[UPDATE: Sierra is obviously not publishing this game (although they were originally)--it's Vivendi. I assume that's what he intended to say. I'm not going in and changing Sierra to Vivendi because I don't want to be altering what was sent to me, so I'm just including this note instead.]

The first post got linked all over the place and it turned into a Donner Party computer gaming frenzy. So before you new people get all hysterical on me, what I know is in this post. I'm not telling you who the anonymous source is via private e-mail. If I tell you, he won't be a source anymore. That's why I have sources--I don't rat them out.

 

[killahsin-[CE]]

games going gold don't mean their done, they mean they are relatively bug free and going to be replicated. A content lock milestone is when the game is 'done'. Than you do optimizing and what not, and bug squashing.

You can be sure HL2 is 'done'.

 

[Dagobert]

but arent Mags leagally binded to only review finished games

50% of the reviews you read are from 'unfinished code'.

 

[DavE0r]

its gold when its gold tbh. i dont really think theyd change any major plot lines this far in to making the series!

 

[TimG]

sorry for my obvious stupidity..
but theres one thing thats confusing me a bit

so if you've pre-loaded hl2 (and all the pre-loads have been done now) you've got whatever version they've finished in an encrypted form.. but if theres still debate about bug issues .. hows that gonna work?. people are gonna have to pre-load again some patches/fixes to get the proper bug free gold version when (and if) its eventually finished?

if that is the case, and bug issues is wots delaying it,.. why can't they go gold now and offer fixes/patches on the site? lots of games come out with bugs and then offer patches (max payne for example)

 

[2Fast4U]

You only preload things that will not be changed.

 

[Burn]

Indeed, most of the preload will be pretty much everything but coding, the code is where the bugs are, so when it comes out, you will update hl2 to add the code to your preload.

 

[TimG]

ahh i see..
thankyou

 

[TonicBH]

a quick question (probably a dumb one, but I'll ask it anyway): Does Vivendi have a say on the content within the package? or are RCs just bughunts?

Because if they had a say, they could request them to code in a HL2DM. Far-fetched, but who knows nowadays...

(Then again, they could have a HL2DM, maybe they just ain't tellin' us. )