Possibility as to why the delay...

A2597

A2597

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To the admins, sorry for ANOTHER thread on this issue, but I didn't see one that this would easily fit into...


OK, we all know its been delayed, but right now everyone is upset that Valve hasn't said anything else. Consider this:

Last week sometime Valve finds a showstopper bug, and it's being a REAL pain to fix. By late last week, they relize that there is no way to get it out on time, and let us know that its delayed.

Now, if it was just one bug, I think they would have mentioned that, but I think its more then that. I think that they really tried to meet this deadline, even though that ment cutting out some things they wanted, motion blur being a possible one, and who knows what all else. Rather then quickly release a statement saying whats wrong, Valve is trying to figure out how long some of the bugs will take to fix, and what that they cut could be added to the final game. This proces would most definately take a number of days, then they have to prepare a statement as to what they are going to tell up, etc.

I think there is a good chance they are adding content they wanted in the game from the start, so that only serves to make it a better game for us.

Edit: As SOON as I ht submit I see a subject this could fit in...*sigh* I'm sorry...and I can't delete this... :(
 
there is no nvidia bug. they are optimising the game so it will run better on nvidia hardware
 
We don't know that for certain, so quit will ya? Yes, NVidias cards stink, better publicity from ATI, whom Valve has a contract with I might add...
 
maybe there is a bug somewhere near the end of the game :)

maybe it is a steam prob

maybe it is nvidia, or some card prob.. maybe anything we will find out soon
 
I personally think a lot has to do with steam.
 
better hw support? show stoppper i don't think so.

I think it's the subscription of steam which isn't ready, valve knows that if people are not able to subscribe to steam the before hl2 is released most wont. It's the hardcore gamers that might subscribe to steam and it's those gamers that run to the store if it's earlier in the store then on steam.
So releasing now with incomplete steam would mean the subscription service would fail. Valve delays to prevent that, vivendi is actually on our side with this....
 
I know there's no nVidia bug, I was kidding. But you can bet there's some serious time consuming nVidia optimizations going on right now.
 
If you think of it, it can't take that long to fix such an nVidia bug, can it? I'm not into making computer games, I'm just enjoying playing them.
 
well if they really are delaying the game to the holiday season it must be a big bug/s
 
They stated it was not to do with steam, I think I read that on planethalflife...

Here it is:

HL2 Delay Aftermath 47 Comments
9/24/2003 9:56 PST | Half-Life 2 | by Fragmaster
Please forgive the editorial-ish news post, but I thought we should clear a few things up.
Half-Life 2 hasn't been delayed because of NVidia, ATI, or Vivendi. So don't blame them. It hasn't been delayed because Steam isn't ready either. HL2 just needs more development time. It's no different than the original Half-Life, and I think that turned out pretty well.

When is it coming out? I'm not going speculate on that. As you've probably noticed, trying to estimate release dates is pretty dumb. I hope HL2 comes out this year but... who knows.

One more thing: some people are giving us a hard time about how we didn't post enough "proof" back in July that the game was delayed. Yeehaw, let's kill the messenger! In short, there's nothing we could have posted that Valve would have confirmed since they stuck firmly to that 9/30 date until yesterday. And (understandably) a good number of folks would only believe news from Valve. Nuts.
 
it's combination of things

1) nvidia cards optimization <-- grr :flame:
2) steam servers <-- meh :flame:
3) "game is just not finished" <-- ;(
 
Im about 99% sure that the game is finished in a sense. Its prob just the Nvidea card thing. It is most likely that the Nvidea card problem took them by surprise, so up untill the test thing they though it would still be good for the 30th. Then they saw the test results, and started working on it, but knew they couldnt change it around a bit for the NVidea cards in time for the 30th.

(Thats just my threory)
 
nw909 why do you even bother yelling at these people, its their fault for being dumb but its not gonna help if everyone starts fighting. im on your side, and i agree, but these people dont read anything. might as well just let mods close threads
 
What do you mean, dont read anything, what is there to read that proves your side (im not completly against u tho, i just think that it was the Nvidea thing that caused the late change in releas date announcment)
 
I think at this point it really doesn't matter...it's delayed and we wait...period.

But I still tend to think they would have been pretty sure the game was very close to completion before coming out of the woodwork after more than 4 years of silence.

It seems very odd to me that they would risk a delay (especially considering how late HL1 was) by announcing it early without being SURE they would make it. Add to that how sure Gabe and valve seemed to be from day 1 that it WOULD make sept 30th...that leads me to believe it's something else, outside the game itself.

My thoughts

Obviously they want to sell a lot of games a make a lot of money. This whole thing with Nvidia is a very big blow to that in the sense that "normal" people can not afford to buy a new video card just because of a game or two comes out. Sure the game will run okay with dx 8, but a lot of people were turned off by the news the game won't be as "pretty" with this. I think this is a concern to valve as there are more Nvidia cards out there than ATI.

Steam. Steam clearly is and was a problem and did not work to their liking and was late being released from beta. Since the game is built with this in mind, and with the option of being able to but it via steam in place...that just wouldn't look good if steam barely worked. They need to fox this...no questions at all about it.

And Vivendi. Clearly they want to make money too and marketing says selling something closer to Christmas will gain more cash. It doesn't matter whether people believe this to be true or not, it IS a fact that most things are marketed this way and aim for close to christmas releases. A "holiday" release seems to agree with this.

So that's my thinking. Those are the things that "seem" to make more sense to me. One of those, or a combo, or all three....but I think the game for the most part is probably as close to being done as possible. Sure there are no doubt some bugs they will squash during this time, but I really don't buy there are show stopping bugs remaining at this point in the development when they had all the time in the world to wait to announce the date of release when they were 100% sure it was done.

And i HIGHLY doubt fragmaster knew anything at all. You could pick any high profile game and guess it will be delayed and be right a good % of the time because that's the nature of the beast. I also HIGHLY doubt Valve knew the game wouldn't make the date way back in July after stating it would be out on sept 30th...that makes zero sense at all. They simply could have said "Holidays" instead and not commit themselves to a date if they truly had doubts.
 
Very good points...

Originally posted by Someone

Obviously they want to sell a lot of games a make a lot of money. This whole thing with Nvidia is a very big blow to that in the sense that "normal" people can not afford to buy a new video card just because of a game or two comes out. Sure the game will run okay with dx 8, but a lot of people were turned off by the news the game won't be as "pretty" with this. I think this is a concern to valve as there are more Nvidia cards out there than ATI.
Click to expand...

Hmmm, that makes me think of an idea:

An ATI only release. If that happened to be the only thing, that would be groundbreaking. I'm sure that couldn't happen, though ;(
 
*sigh* here we go again.

Fragmaster said..
"...but I thought we should clear a few things up.
Half-Life 2 hasn't been delayed because of NVidia, ATI, or Vivendi. So don't blame them. It hasn't been delayed because Steam isn't ready either. HL2 just needs more development time."

There he goes again. He's speculating and he's feeding it out like it's the word of [insert supreme being here].

more..
"...some people are giving us a hard time about how we didn't post enough "proof" back in July that the game was delayed. Yeehaw, let's kill the messenger! In short, there's nothing we could have posted that Valve would have confirmed since they stuck firmly to that 9/30 date until yesterday. And (understandably) a good number of folks would only believe news from Valve. Nuts"

This sorta proves my point. Let's kill the messenger? Who the **** gave him the message? "There's nothing we could have posted that Valve would have confirmed since..." Yeah, because anything you would have said other wise (besides disguised speculation of a release date) would have been shot down by Valve as false - that is, untill they decided that the game was, indeed, delayed. Fragmaster wasn't told by an insider source that the game was delayed, he made a call - was too arrogant to back away from it when Valve continued to say, "Sep. 30th", and he just so happened to be right.

Because there was an officially announced delay, his speculation turned out to be true (good call, I might add) and he continues to praise his word as if it were but from the source of Valve itself. The guy is full of him self.

Now he all of a sudden KNOWS the reason why HL2 wasn't finished? He just KNOWS that it wasn't because of Nvidia , ATI, or Vivendi?? How the **** does he KNOW? I ask again, what are his sources - that is all I wish to know. If he 'just knows' then I tell the arrogant piece of ego to come forward with WHY. I don't hate fragmaster, I just hate the way he's going around thinking any of his word is truth. Fragmaster is supposed to be a respectable leader in the Half Life press field, right? Well, he's disappointing the hell out of me.
 
Okay, I won't delete my post above but I do want to say that I know I may have come off as hostile and I really have no ill feelings toward Fragmaster or anyone.

All I ask is: If anyone has a source and refuses to say who it is, then don't even bother mentioning you have one. Refusing to mention who your source may be is not what I would call convincing. I am reluctant to believe anything, anyone says without proper evidence or information on the source. If you ask me, that's rather fair and that is all.
 
Fragmaster is an idoit.. he doesn't know why its delayed.

"Its not finished" could mean Steam isn't ready... Steam is part of HL2. It could mean anything. Single player could be done.. or not.. multiplayer could be done.. or not...

I'll tell you one thing for sure, Steam ISNT ready for HL2. Regardless of the state of HL2 single/multi player, Steam is not ready yet. Even if the rest of HL2 was completely done (which i think it pretty much is), it wouldn't have come out the 30th anyways because the platform HL2 is running off (Steam) is not done.
 
Originally posted by TechnoHippyChic

An ATI only release. If that happened to be the only thing, that would be groundbreaking. I'm sure that couldn't happen, though ;(
Click to expand...

They already spent too much time trying to optimize the game for NVidia cards. In addition it would be a poor move sales-wise. Over half the market uses NVidia cards now, that means most of them would just say "screw it" and not buy HL2 because it wasnt made for their card.
 
Yeah, I meant to add: an ATI only release, for now. While their making it better for nVidia... Pipe dream...
 
Ares if you read the comments section of that planethalflife post he claims to have a few inside sources, and seening as its planethalflife (and it gets a damn load of hits) im betting that his information is quite likely to be true.
 
hehe, a chance to show off my new spangely chart, lol! ...

results.gif


This was results of a poll i did on here (which then got deleted ;( ).
 
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