RC on Sept 15

[bodhi]

http://www.gamespot.com/news/2004/09/01/news_6106283.html
-> HL2 being released in Nov.

Posted on Gamespots Rumor Control:

"VUG hasn't given us a ship date yet. Might be best for you to ask them directly. Let me know what you hear."

doesnt that sound a little bit odd - shouldnt doug be in contact with them. he, amongst others, is actually making the sodding game, why doesnt he know the actual ship date. and why would VUG give anyone of the us the date when people at valve dont even know

 

[Sushi]

I can see it already...

Oct 1st, Vivendi HQ

Vivendi: We are impressed with your RC Gabe, but we need another one, in level c2a2b, a cup is not properly aligned with the wall, so we will need another RC for another two weeks of testing.

Gabe: Goddamnit, anyone here got a knife? I left all of mine at home...

I was hoping for a September release, but now that seems to be as much as a pipe dream as an August release. I'm not too pissed off at Valve, since now every little tidbit of news that is delay related has made me numb to the dissapointment of delays. Now I will have nothing to tide me over until GTA:SA it seems (wouldn't it suck if those two games came out the same day?).

 

[Feath]

doesnt that sound a little bit odd - shouldnt doug be in contact with them. he, amongst others, is actually making the sodding game, why doesnt he know the actual ship date. and why would VUG give anyone of the us the date when people at valve dont even know

Methinks that Vivendi don't want to commit to a date until they know for certain. There has been some tension between Valve and Vivendi, lately. Apparently.

 

[sevenredseven]

Yeah, they made one game six years ago.

And guess what? People are still playing it and it's mods, because of the hard work that Valve have put in over those 6 years.

Yeah, Microsoft made Windows 1.0 nineteen years ago.

And guess what? People are still using the Windows operating system , because of the hard work that Microsoft have put in over those 19 years.

 

[bodhi]

Methinks that Vivendi don't want to commit to a date until they know for certain. There has been some tension between Valve and Vivendi, lately. Apparently.

tension or no tension, what kind of amateurish operation have they got going on for gods sake. theyre supposed to be major companies, not two kids in a school yard. they should be talking to each other to get the game out instead of being subjected to angry posts and rants (like this one:hmph: ). maybe if they hurried up and released it they could go their seperate ways and they wouldnt have to talk to each other anymore

 

[Xrenity]

anyone mailed Gabe yet?

 

[bme]

anyone mailed Gabe yet?

and ask for how many phases of preload are left. if it's not a top secret , and he answer the question. then walla people we might have a estimated release date. isn't that great. :thumbs:

 

[subtlesnake]

Everyone who follows computer games should know that no dates are ever 100% certain. Delays are a normality, and in the constantly changing world of game development all that can be given is an approximation. Stop taking their word as gospel, it's that simple.

 

[Alec_85]

Valve said further preloads will happen in the next couple of weeks ...
I wonder what they mean with "couple of weeks": could be about 8 more

Well as long as "couple of weeks" equals 2 > X > 2 then I'm happy

Oh and.... Welcome to the forums! :thumbs:

 

[kaellinn18]

Ok follow me on this one people. This is going to be full of logic, so it may be tough for some of you. Now, I'm not saying that this is what has happened, but it is most definitely feasable.

1) RC on September 15th - No problem there. CS:S beta should be ending soon and final preloading should be happening as well.

2) Production of RC - Actual burning of the CDs/DVDs won't take a lot of time at all. In fact, I would bet you money that Vivendi has already produced the boxes and manuals for the game and are simply waiting to drop the actual game into them. It would make sense wouldn't it? It's not like the freaking box art is going to change or they're going to make a sweeping change to the engine that would require a manual rewrite. Even if they did make a change, you just throw an addendum in the readme file; that's what they are there for.

3) Sept 30th (ish) release - Given the above conditions, this is not stretching it the least bit. Actualy shipping of the game can be done in a matter of days if VU wishes. If you people would stop blindly complaining about things and actually think for yourselves (instead of having people like me think for you), then you might come up with something like this on your own and save the forums 2,000,000 spam posts.

Yes, it's possible for an October/November/June 2008 release, but it is also equally possible for a release this month. Now lets all get on with out lives. Thank you for your time.

 

[wonkers]

If this turns out to be true. I won't buy the game. This time I put my foot down and if it's not out by the end of september it can go to hell.

In the back of my mind I can't see this being true. They were fixing bugs since before August. I beleive the RC has allready been sent in small portions to VU. They are prolly reviewing the content as we speak.

I don't know anything and neither does anyone else yet. Cross your fingers.

 

[el Chi]

Yeah, they made one game six years ago.

And guess what? People are still playing it and it's mods, because of the hard work that Valve have put in over those 6 years.

He was being sarcastic.

 

[el Chi]

If this turns out to be true. I won't buy the game. This time I put my foot down and if it's not out by the end of september it can go to hell.

In the back of my mind I can't see this being true. They were fixing bugs since before August. I beleive the RC has allready been sent in small portions to VU. They are prolly reviewing the content as we speak.

I don't know anything and neither does anyone else yet. Cross your fingers.

I really don't see the point in that? You'd be depriving youself of what looks to be a fantastic game and it would make absolutely no difference to sales because very few other people would do that. Certainly not enough for Valve or Vivendi to take any notice.

I hope you're right about the rest of your post, though.

 

[lonestar]

So you're saying that the CS:S beta was never released, and the preloads never happend?

no, i don't. my main point is just the release of hl2 and all the stuff valve said in the past, but missed it. we don't need to go into detail, it should be known. they better talk less. didn't it worked VERY WELL for the first couple years in this development cycle?!

that the cs:source beta makes progress and hl2 pre-loading has started, sure is a good sign, but... i dunno, it still seems so far away.

is this post from "erik johnson" in the phl forums actually by him? "there will be more preloads in the next couple of weeks", he wrote.

 

[Tiddalick]

1) RC on September 15th - No problem there. CS:S beta should be ending soon and final preloading should be happening as well.

2) Production of RC - Actual burning of the CDs/DVDs won't take a lot of time at all....

The RC is sent to Vivendi for verification (quality assurance), they won't suddenly start producing the game. It would take a few days at the absolute minimum for vivendi to pass it on for production.
They might be satisfied by valves own internal checking, but im sure they would have their own inhouse testing to some degree or another.

 

[The Monkey]

Not a word on the official site: http://www.half-life2.com/news.php

 

[Xrenity]

Not a word on the official site: http://www.half-life2.com/news.php

The site never gets updated...

 

[lonestar]

The site never gets updated...

sure? all the pre-loading news is listed.

 

[six_storm]

Well, everyone just needs to try and have HL2's release date as September 2005 and everyone can just go back to waiting for a long period of time. I'm sure that we will get a big bunch of BS statements from Valve this month saying that the game still isn't ready. Oh, I wouldn't be surprised if they had another "hacker". I think that was a big lie to cover up their mistakes last year. They should've just done like Id Software did with Doom 3 . . . "When it's done".

When I can d/l HL2 or have a copy in my hands, then I'll be satisfied.

 

[Burn]

Valve statements = NOT THE TRUTH.

There will be no sending of release candidates to anyone on September 15th. Valve just say this sort of crap all the time.

Agreed, I've lost all hope that Valve are able to make a date, Im hoping its true, but I dont have high hopes.

 

[CloSe2InSaNitY]

If this turns out to be true. I won't buy the game. This time I put my foot down and if it's not out by the end of september it can go to hell.

Yes, delaying should be boycotted, when there would be a poll per expample and 100,000 people would vote for ill leech hl2 , im not going to buy it anymore. They will take messures , they are fooling around with us, they have all been on a ****ing holiday

 

[Kiva128]

I don't get this...

Let's say Valve sends the RC on the 15th as planned. And let's also say that Vivendi plays it for a week to check for bugs. Now, assuming they don't find any (which they probably won't. or if they do find one and it's small they may just say screw it.) That puts us on sep. 22. If the game is bug-free that means it will go gold.

So, Valve announces gold on the 22nd. Give 2-3 weeks for manufacturing and shipping and that puts us at a mid october release. Now first of all, yes this is pretty much making up dates. But I can't imagine valve drawing this game out until november. That's 2 months! 2 months to do what? bug test cs:s? I don't think so. Pre load the game? That doesn't take 2 months now does it?

So what the hell!? Why would it take until _NOVEMBER_ to get this game out?

 

[Dr. Freeman]

Why bother going to a Half-Life 2 fansite then if you are just going to complain ALL THE FRIGGIN TIME.

Valve are no worse at dates than other developers. I read in another thread that someone's brother was taking the piss out of him because Half-Life 2 didn't come out on time but Doom 3 did. This is funny because I'd recently read in a magazine the quote "This little beauty will only come into its own, though, whenwe get games like Doom III, games written by genius level coders to bring us the true effects of what can be managed by a Geforce 3". Just because id didn't give an exact date till 2 weeks before release doesn't mean they are somehow better at making deadlines. Noone expected Doom III to come out in August 2004 and id certainately weren't claiming that it was going to come out then. They gave a series of estimations that weren't met.

The only difference between Valve and id is that Valve said one date.

i understand what u are saying man...and do understand Valve will be critized(sp?) regardless of whether they keep to themselves or continue talking to the community but in August after missing the beta release to voucher/CZ onwers and missing first Pre-load date, i came to the conclusion that is best to just shutup.

i mean give the "its done when its done" line until the game is ready for gold status and then release all the info needed for release and such.

this tactic here is kinda annoying even pple like myself who have defended Valve time and time again.
its time to stop talking til we see something of some real substance :|

 

[Freakaloin]

i wouldn't worry about guys...hl2 is just a video game so its not that big of a deal. more importantly...how are your families and friends and real life things?

 

[evil^milk]

Anyone got a reply yet?

 

[Mevoki]

i wouldn't worry about guys...hl2 is just a video game so its not that big of a deal. more importantly...how are your families and friends and real life things?

They're sitting infront of their computers, browsing halflife2.net for any news.

 

[bayaraa_us]

What does Pre-loading mean?
Doesn't it mean it's done with no more changes? And what if they find bugs in RC? Do we have to Re-Pre-load the new update again?

 

[Xrenity]

What does Pre-loading mean?
Doesn't it mean it's done with no more changes? And what if they find bugs in RC? Do we have to Re-Pre-load the new update again?

You're onyl preloading textures and sounds, not the actual game.

 

[knybbis]

i bet F.E.A.R. will be out before HL2 rotfl...

 

[Adrien C]

I use to think that Valve was one of the best game companys in the world, latly they failed me.

 

[Bait]

http://www.gamespot.com/news/2004/09/01/news_6106283.html
-> HL2 being released in Nov.

Posted on Gamespots Rumor Control:

Before asking Vivendi for confirmation, we went to marketing rep Doug Lombardi at Valve. "We're currently planning to send release candidates to Vivendi by September 15th," he told us. The timing's right. "However," he adds before we can get our hopes up, "VUG hasn't given us a ship date yet. Might be best for you to ask them directly. Let me know what you hear."

........

There is something about that statement I don't like, but I can't really tell what it is.....

 

[FISKER_Q]

Yeah, Microsoft made Windows 1.0 nineteen years ago.

And guess what? People are still using the Windows operating system , because of the hard work that Microsoft have put in over those 19 years.

Windows 1.0 is basicly MS-Dos, with colors. Windows 2.0 were the same.

Windows 3.1 was different, windows nt 3.51 was different.

Then came 95 and NT both different.

And then XP

So that's 6 releases. I didn't take 2000 into the figure though. It did have some major breakthroughs considered NT though.

On topic, Vivendi says 2005.

 

[tokin]

I dont doubt this one bit. Valve never makes release dates on time, they say the cs beta only lasts for 2 weeks, lol...prolly for another 1-2months, and also not to mention they missed like what 2 or 3 of the release dates for the beta also. If this November issue turns out to be true i dont really mind that much because we've been heartbroken (lol) since september of last year, and it keeps happening every time they say a release date. The ONLY thing im confident of valve is that HL2 will be released before this year is over whether its next month or its December 31st. I'm also sure we won't see TF2 news for months and months after the HL2 release. Valve needs to get their shit straight if you ask me.

 

[Bait]

No one from Valve ever gave a time frame for which the CS:S beta would run. It was just speculation among community members.

And Valve realizes they suck with release dates. Gabe commented on the Sept. 30 2003 date saying they were too optimistic or something. They realize they screwed up, but that isn't detering them from making a kick ass game.

Anyways, whenever the hell the game comes out (hopefully soon) we are all going to buy it regardless of release date. Any idiot who feels so righteous about the fact Valve ripped them off should just not buy HL2 at the risk of being a hypocritical asshole.

I think all of that makes sense..............

 

[Adrien C]

Well, they said they suck with release dates, but comon, one year delay? And Why did ATI agreed with Valve id the game wasen't even finished yet ? It seems to me they did the same thing with HL1

 

[Bait]

Well, they said they suck with release dates, but comon, one year delay? And Why did ATI agreed with Valve id the game wasen't even finished yet ? It seems to me they did the same thing with HL1

Yep, it was. But HL came out and it succesfully kicked the living shit out of everyone who played it. The freakin' game is still going strong today. I'm playing through HL again, and it still kicks ass.

There is no real way to justify Valve messing up so big. Well, there is. So long as HL2 beats HL kick ass-ity level, I'm sure we can find it in our hearts to forgive Valve.

 

[Locust]

It is still a possibility that it will ship on September 30. They may have stuck to that plan.

 

[FoB_Ed]

Quote:
Originally Posted by tvharti
http://www.gamespot.com/news/2004/0...ws_6106283.html
-> HL2 being released in Nov.

Posted on Gamespots Rumor Control:

Before asking Vivendi for confirmation, we went to marketing rep Doug Lombardi at Valve. "We're currently planning to send release candidates to Vivendi by September 15th," he told us. The timing's right. "However," he adds before we can get our hopes up, "VUG hasn't given us a ship date yet. Might be best for you to ask them directly. Let me know what you hear."

........

There is something about that statement I don't like, but I can't really tell what it is.....

I think it's the part where Doug, the freaking Marketing Director for valve, says "Might be best for you to ask directly. Let me know what you hear."

Why would Doug say something like this? He should be the one in contact with vivendi, a marketing director wouldn't have non employees communicating with Vivendi in his place. I don't believe this information.

It is still a possibility that it will ship on September 30. They may have stuck to that plan.

That would be nice. It's a fitting date for all that's happened

 

[wonkers]

I don't think anyone who is dumb enough to give a release date that's more than a year off deserves my money. I am been generous on my part to even stay remotely interested in their product.

A year off people. Run the Sh*T through your head. Everyone keeps kissing butt but at the very least they were too dumb to realise they weren't done. That or they lied. And no one cares.

It blows my mind how people forget what happened a year ago. Keep telling me how they love the community. They never once apologized for Sept 30. If they Delay till November they won't say sorry because what? They didn't give you a date this time? Gimmy a break!

This is a PR nightmare that Valve can't wake from. I don't even want to hear rumours of a sept. 15th RC. That's pathetic.

I rant.

 

[subtlesnake]

I think it's the part where Doug, the freaking Marketing Director for valve, says "Might be best for you to ask directly. Let me know what you hear."

Why would Doug say something like this? He should be the one in contact with vivendi, a marketing director wouldn't have non employees communicating with Vivendi in his place. I don't believe this information.

Perhaps they are in contact, and Valve is waiting on a date. Pressed for something he doesn't know, Doug's response is entirely natural.

Again, we don't know the relationship between Valve and Vivendi. Maybe they'll be having a meeting in a short while in which everything is sorted out.

Edit: And maybe Doug is just curious to see how the PR department reacts.