second pre-load

[ne0_shiny]

according to www.half-life.com the second pre-load happened
i dont have steam on this computer so i cant really tell or not
but how many of these are there gonna be?? :bounce:

 

[SMT]

1. Yes, it happened.
2. Nobody knows for sure. There will be at least one more.

 

[KagePrototype]

Gabe commented once that HL2 was 3.5GB altogether. So far, we've download just under 2GB through 2 preloads. I reckon there's going to be 2 more, MAYBE one more but that's pushing the Steam bandwith quite a bit.

 

[CombineHarvester]

The feeling is that there will probably be 2 more, the next this Thursday as they seem to come out once a week now. Hopefully this is the case. This would still put us on course for a release at the end of the month, a week or two after the last preload. The spanners being the CS:S beta (which should finish soon) and VU' possibly waiting until the "holiday season".

Either way we'll know in about 3 weeks I reckon.

 

[paintballphreak]

what do you mean 2 preloads? i dunno when i preloaded it i only did it once and it says a locked copy of hl2 is now on your comp

 

[KagePrototype]

what do you mean 2 preloads? i dunno when i preloaded it i only did it once and it says a locked copy of hl2 is now on your comp

On August 26th Valve uploaded files from HL2 for preload, and another load of files were added onto that one on the 2nd of September. You probably started preloading after the second stage, so it only seemed like one to you. Many people believe there will be two more batches of files to download in the coming weeks before the whole thing is available for download, which will then be unlocked on the release date (which we don't know yet).

 

[Some_God]

Man.. I hope the game will come out in SEPTEMBER.

 

[iamaelephant]

Half Life 2 will not make it to a September release.

Honestly, I can't believe there's still people who think it will make it out this month. It's not going to happen.

 

[Narcolepsy]

Half Life 2 will not make it to a September release.

Indeed. But sometimes denial can be so much more appealing, it seems.

 

[thebarge]

Half Life 2 will not make it to a September release.

Why? Just because of speculation? Because some people say that once it goes gold it'll have to be play tested by Vivendi? Last I heard, they were only doing minor changes to HL2 based on play testing at VALVe, and doing some bug fixes to CS:S. I would be willing to bet that Vivendi has already done its testing on HL2. Some little play changes here and there doesnt mean HL2 will need to be completely tested over again.

If the game has already been tested by Vivendi then when it goes gold the only thing left will be to send the master off to the duplicators. It doesn't take that long to duplicate.. especially on a game so highly anticipated. The duplicators will be running night and day, and by as many people/machines as possible.

Once this is done.. the only thing left is to box and ship. I'm not saying it'll be out in September, but I am saying that no one on these forums can definitively say that the game will NOT be out in September.

 

[Narcolepsy]

Why? Just because of speculation? Because some people say that once it goes gold it'll have to be play tested by Vivendi? Last I heard, they were only doing minor changes to HL2 based on play testing at VALVe, and doing some bug fixes to CS:S. I would be willing to bet that Vivendi has already done its testing on HL2. Some little play changes here and there doesnt mean HL2 will need to be completely tested over again.

If the game has already been tested by Vivendi then when it goes gold the only thing left will be to send the master off to the duplicators. It doesn't take that long to duplicate.. especially on a game so highly anticipated. The duplicators will be running night and day, and by as many people/machines as possible.

Once this is done.. the only thing left is to box and ship. I'm not saying it'll be out in September, but I am saying that no one on these forums can definitively say that the game will NOT be out in September.

When the RC is submitted to Vivendi on September 15th (at the earliest, and we know about Valve and dates), it would take at least 2 weeks to duplicate. Such magnitude of a release has rarely been rivalved - they'll need a lot of copies. So, September 30th might be conceivably possible if NO testing was done. But testing has to be done - at least a week or two's worth. Even if they've already tested before, they'll have to again (and extensively) with the new RC. That's why September is impossible.

 

[Wildhound]

When the RC is submitted to Vivendi on September 15th (at the earliest, and we know about Valve and dates), it would take at least 2 weeks to duplicate. Such magnitude of a release has rarely been rivalved - they'll need a lot of copies. So, September 30th might be conceivably possible if NO testing was done. But testing has to be done - at least a week or two's worth. Even if they've already tested before, they'll have to again (and extensively) with the new RC. That's why September is impossible.

Doom 3 (to my knowledge) only took eighteen days from Gold to release. Now whatever about it not being as good, you can't say its release wasn't as much of a big deal. It's safe to assume there will be a similar quantity of copies of HL2 available on release day as there were of Doom 3.

 

[iamaelephant]

John Carmack also stated that Doom 3 went through several release candidates, and no doubt so will HL2. I'm no expert on the gaming industry, but from what I've heard it is fairly rare for the first RC to make it through. A September release is close to impossible. Accept it.

 

[Narcolepsy]

Doom 3 (to my knowledge) only took eighteen days from Gold to release. Now whatever about it not being as good, you can't say its release wasn't as much of a big deal. It's safe to assume there will be a similar quantity of copies of HL2 available on release day as there were of Doom 3.

Yes - that's from gold to release. We're still not anywhere near gold - the RC is just the beginning...

 

[dream431ca]

My Hypothesis is that after the RC is released next week (we hope)...and Vivendi approves it..then Valve will probably send the third pre-load (hopefully the last one) to steam users. REMEMBER..this is just a GUESS. I don't KNOW. hehe :thumbs:

 

[Cyber$nake]

I say RC on 15th, gold on 30th, release in mid-october. If its shorter that they say it is it might take less time for them to go gold, but still i say early-mid october.

 

[Feath]

When the RC is submitted to Vivendi on September 15th (at the earliest, and we know about Valve and dates), it would take at least 2 weeks to duplicate. Such magnitude of a release has rarely been rivalved - they'll need a lot of copies. So, September 30th might be conceivably possible if NO testing was done. But testing has to be done - at least a week or two's worth. Even if they've already tested before, they'll have to again (and extensively) with the new RC. That's why September is impossible.

A week of testing may be an overestimation. It took 48 hours for the final Half-Life RC to be approved. http://www.gamespot.com/features/halflife_final/part5.html

Finally, the Valve team finds the error in the game that has been preventing multiplayer games from functioning correctly. It's a one-line fix - so simple, yet so elusive. A new "release candidate" CD is quickly burned and sent off for final tests. As Newell explains, "[There's] a 48-hour cooling off process where everybody makes sure you haven't done anything silly, like forgotten a file."

I'm not sure what testing goes on when a publisher tests a RC. The quote seems to allude to a quick test just to check that no files are missing, but I'm not sure whether Gabe is referring to Sierra when he says "Everyone". But seeing as Gabe said that you normally go through a couple of RCs, I doubt that the tests are as simple as that.

Testing can't take THAT long. I've never seen any news relating to developers sitting around for a couple of weeks waiting to see if their RC has been accepted. You'd think it would be the in the news as often as gold news is. And the tests can't be in that detail because so many games have been released in bugs. I think it's just a test to see that the game runs on different types of hardware. If so, then Half-Life 2 will probably have few bug fixes because Valve have tested the Source Engine on a shedload of different systems (using the CS:S beta).

I'm sure where that someone with more knowledge about this process will correct me

 

[Wildhound]

Yes - that's from gold to release. We're still not anywhere near gold - the RC is just the beginning...

I'm not saying it will be out this month. To be honest I'm not bothered one way or the other. I was just adding a random bit of information.

 

[Asuka]

Man.. I hope the game will come out in SEPTEMBER.

Same here. The wait is killing me because i feel the game is coming very soon.

 

[Narcolepsy]

I'm not saying it will be out this month. To be honest I'm not bothered one way or the other. I was just adding a random bit of information.

Got it. I guess I'm just getting a bit paranoid!