I actually thought it would be released around the middle of November once I heard the rumours about Vivendi delaying it due to a court battle with Valve.
This would make sense as the big advertising effort for it would be around the christmas shopping period, so that would mean bigger sales for Vivendi (and Valve). If you release the game too early, it loses christmas sales to another title, release it too late and people have already made other purchases.
For a lot of us here, we'd buy it regardless, but for a vast majority of people, it's just another game, and if they've already spent their money on other gifts then there is none left for it.
So it would make sense for Vivendi to want to release it about a month before christmas. I'd rather they released it earlier, but that's business for you.
Also, what the hell is up with that quote from the Vivendi rep saying something about they were evaluating the gameplay quality of hl2. If I hadn't have already seen the high scores from the magazine reviews I would have been worried that HL2 wasn't up to scratch... I really hope it's just another way of saying "we're looking for bugs!"
This would make sense as the big advertising effort for it would be around the christmas shopping period, so that would mean bigger sales for Vivendi (and Valve). If you release the game too early, it loses christmas sales to another title, release it too late and people have already made other purchases.
For a lot of us here, we'd buy it regardless, but for a vast majority of people, it's just another game, and if they've already spent their money on other gifts then there is none left for it.
So it would make sense for Vivendi to want to release it about a month before christmas. I'd rather they released it earlier, but that's business for you.
Also, what the hell is up with that quote from the Vivendi rep saying something about they were evaluating the gameplay quality of hl2. If I hadn't have already seen the high scores from the magazine reviews I would have been worried that HL2 wasn't up to scratch... I really hope it's just another way of saying "we're looking for bugs!"
SAID 
