so whats happening with the RC?

[Dr0ndeh]

is it now a forgone conclusion that the first RC hasnt been accepted? or is vivendi stalling because of these legal claims? its now been 6 days since its been sent, a long time for an RC.

personally i think it hasnt been accepted, especially if the version of CS:S they sent has the same bugs as the current release of the beta.

 

[Chris D]

We just really don't know.

People shouldn't be expecting Valve to keep us updated every step of the way with the release candidates. It's not common for developers to even confirm one has been sent.

 

[Dr0ndeh]

i started writing 'valve havnt said anything' in the post but then i realised its true that they dont want/need to keep us informed.

i just didnt see a thread on the subject, and if theres one thing this forum needs, its one more thread.

 

[Hish]

well, it think we will get some bad news from valve regarding the rc status, especcialy with these lawsuit against VU

and a friend told me, that VU is mad at valve because they will sell hl2 on steam or something :S so i dont see anything good

 

[schaf]

Off course it isn't common that they told us, that it has been sent, but they would tell us, if it is gone gold.
And it would be gold, if VU accepted the RC.
Or am I missing sth.?

 

[KagePrototype]

i just didnt see a thread on the subject, and if theres one thing this forum needs, its one more thread.

Really? 'cause I was thinking this forum needed a bit of patience.

Don't worry if the game hasn't gone Gold yet, just be glad that we're in the RC period and the game actually is done. It could took another couple of weeks for all we know.

 

[Lateralus]

let's hope VU have finished

 

[Dr0ndeh]

Really? 'cause I was thinking this forum needed a bit of patience.

Don't worry if the game hasn't gone Gold yet, just be glad that we're in the RC period and the game actually is done. It could took another couple of weeks for all we know.

i would say i have quite a patient attitude when it comes to the release of hl2, i was just curious to hear other peoples opinions on the RC, wiether they think its been accepted or not, or wiether its still in testing.

 

[KagePrototype]

i would say i have quite a patient attitude when it comes to the release of hl2, i was just curious to hear other peoples opinions on the RC, wiether they think its been accepted or not, or wiether its still in testing.

Hey, I'm not accusing, I'm just joking about.

 

[affen]

I think they already tested the RC and probably declared it as good to go gold since Valve took their time to prepare it. But I'm afraid that the problems between Valve and VUG may cause delay since VUG doesn't agree with the release of HL² through Steam.

 

[Dr0ndeh]

Hey, I'm not accusing, I'm just joking about.

no problem, dont worry i didnt take it as a personal comment, its just i think a couple of people missed the point of the thread. (which i couldve made clearer i spose )

 

[Lanthanide]

The for VUG problem is, though, that VUG need a cash injection because they're seriously losing money. HL2 is a quick way to get some money, especially with Christmas coming up. So they can't stall forever, and they definately won't stall into 2005 (they'd miss the Christmas segment and make huge losses).

As for the RC - we've been told that they typically get tested for 72 hours. This doesn't neccesarily mean 3 straight periods of 24 hours, it could simply be 8 hours a day for 9 working days (which would be just under 2 weeks due to weekends) or it could be 10-12 hours per day. We just don't know. Also, they may not work weekends, in which case they've only had 3-4 days to work on testing it, which falls short of the 9 working days.

Simply put:

1) We have no idea how long it will take them to test it fully to get to a hypothetical state of acceptance
2) As we have no idea of the above, we likewise have no idea how long to wait before we should expect "gold!" or an absense of reports (rejected).
3) Basically, we shouldn't -expect- (or get our hopes up) to hear something for the next two weeks. After that time, however, you could expect Valve to say they've sent off another RC, or that the game has gone gold.

 

[Dr0ndeh]

As for the RC - we've been told that they typically get tested for 72 hours. This doesn't neccesarily mean 3 straight periods of 24 hours, it could simply be 8 hours a day for 9 working days.

thats a really good point actually, i didnt think of that.

 

[Darth Valium]

xmas wont do any differences on hl^2's sales. the ones who are allowed to buy it(16+, depends on your local ratings) 've got their own money, so they will buy it nevertheless its xmas or just february.

xmas is much more important for hardware sales and kiddiestuff(spoken for computer business).

 

[shad3r]

i thought the 72 hours was meant to be a continuous stress test?
ie 3 days 24/hrs per day.

there are some good articles on game testing on pennyarcade on the "industry" page.
http://www.penny-arcade.com/industry.php3
(the ones by Prokfry)

he mentions that in the period leading up to a release they test 24 hrs a day.

 

[ship]

We just really don't know.

People shouldn't be expecting Valve to keep us updated every step of the way with the release candidates. It's not common for developers to even confirm one has been sent.

Chris, I agree with you.

However, with a game like Half-Life 2, the history of missed release dates and bad PR, and the monumental achievement that is represented by this game, wouldn't you be excited to tell your loyal community of fans about the progress of the game every step of the way?

Seriously, I'd be absolutely giddy and would love to tell the fans that, "Vivendi is playing the game as we speak! Man, we're all so excited to hear what they have to say. Should be any day now!"

Screw professionalism. Updates, updates, updates!

 

[Lanthanide]

They never said that was the case, so you can't assume that it is.

I admit, 8 hours over 9 days is unlikely, but it is still a possibility. IMO it's better to be cautious when expecting news rather than to get upset over nothing.

 

[jimbones]

So what happens if the issue with vivendi isn't solved?

Is Valve just polite enough to wait until VU dishes out the retail versions or do they have a contractual agreement not to release HL2 before VU can via retail?

(Can someone mail Gabe about this? I CBA right now.. )

What if not and the legal battle makes them screw over VU and release it on steam?
But I suppose some form of contract forces them to wait for Vivendi since Valve already thinks the game is ready (RC).

This does not look good for us because Vivendi will definitely want this settled before they "accept" the RC and send it off to reduplication..

 

[el Chi]

Really? 'cause I was thinking this forum needed a bit of patience.

No. Less patience, more wild unfounded speculation.

 

[|_HeLL_|]

People seems like doesn't read much at Vivendi forums. Here are some crucial quotes from piotrr, a vivendi worker who worked on RC testings at vivendi (not in HL2 RC test) and he knows the way to do the things at Vivendi:

Everyone works 24/7 when nearing a release.. well, not specifically everyone, because you do need to sleep, but there is always someone working. Lucky developers, and testers, get paid more over weekends, but not most. They still work though, because "that's the way it's done"

For a release candidate to go through, there must be no severity 1 or severity 2 bugs. There could be some severity 3 bugs, but that's the worst.

I forgot to add that the AVERAGE amount of RCs for a game is four. Some games have fewer, some have more, but to have the very first RC accepted is very, very rare.

Remember what I said, most games take an average of four RCs before Gold, and each RC can take up to three days.. so that's something like 6-12 days between the first RC and Gold.

 

[Dr0ndeh]

the time involved varies grately between games, some go gold in a matter of hours, some go gold in a matter of months, you cant really generalise that much.

 

[Asuka]

About those quotes. Those sound true when talking about other games. But lets see the 1st Half-life was accepted with the 1st RC. How would they find a bug that valve hasnt found for months? I feel its been accepted.

 

[|_HeLL_|]

Well, HL1 RC1 was tested by Sierra Entertainment, which is not exactly Vivendi Universal at this time. Obviusly Sierra had other way to do the RC testings, surely less demanding than the Vivendi stress methods. I'm very positive about seeing the gold stage this week or next week.

Also I think the lawsuit will not affect the release date as the gamespot article aren't really news. Both companies know what is more important at this moment: release the game and make money.

 

[Asuka]

I also dont feel the lawsuit will not affect the release date in anyway.

 

[Bio]

Well lets just hope it dont, then all will be happy.

 

[Element Alpha]

I have a theory (don't say "ho no element has a theory again" please ).

What if Valve expected VU to reject their RC to stall the game untill the trial?
Maybe Valve, to be on the safe side, tested and tested their game until every single bug was out. They tested day and night to make sure, when the RC candidate was sent, VU would not be able to reject the RC for fear of being accused of unnecessary stalling by the judge, so they'd have to announce gold. And they couldn't delay gold for the same reason, fear of being accused of fraudulant intentions of blackmail by the judge.

Wich, to summ up, would mean -what we all really hope- that Half-Life² will roxor your boxor to the maxor and be completely bug free from the start.

And it'd be nice if they used steam to release extra levels for the game, so the whole world is playing the same extra levels at the same time. That would be cool too, I'm just saying.

 

[SpiderPig]

and a friend told me, that VU is mad at valve because they will sell hl2 on steam or something :S so i dont see anything good

???

theve sold other games over steam to that have been published by VU look at CS:CZ for example they arnt just using VU for production of HL2

 

[|_HeLL_|]

Very bad theory IMO.

 

[oldagerocker]

I think the court case will affect HL2, its obvious that Valve are pushing for Steam sales with the adverts getting people to preload, of which they gave the impression to VU they wouldn't do. I think Gabes really stuck his foot in it on this one.

 

[Stereo]

One word: coaster

 

[SpiderPig]

...of which they gave the impression to VU they wouldn't do.

really? who said? where?

 

[ukfluke]

keva, VU said it and theyre going to court over it.

 

[hunter-killer25]

were all forgetting something here. Halflife 2 singleplayer is said to last like 2 days continous play, if they dont play it 24/7 then they might not even be done going through the game yet.

 

[L337_Assasain]

It's been confirmed countless times, they test 24/7 (not with the same tester of course [though i'm sure I would])

 

[iamaelephant]

Element that is a ridiculous theory. More than likely the first RC has been rejected, and Valve are working hard on ironing out whatever bugs VU has found. Not unusual.

 

[Platinum]

sux ... i think it was rejected too ... and they dont just have 1 game to test ... they've got atleast 3

 

[Chadda]

Yeah seeing as it's taken a few days now I'm guessing it's back in the v-labs for bug squashing.

 

[killahsin-[CE]]

i think what people are forgetting is they sent 3 rc's on the same day hl2 hl:S and cs:S all of which will most likely have to be qa'd. Now that changes the 72 hour window doesn't it?

 

[wonkers]

VUG is taking their sweet time with it because they were lied to by Valve. If they arn't holding a grudge then they will hold it back to make more money in christmas.

If you don't know how bussiness works I don't care. Nor do I feel sorry for you. Read the news.

This game will be a big dissapointment. I can truly see it coming.

 

[Kiva128]

VUG is taking their sweet time with it because they were lied to by Valve. If they arn't holding a grudge then they will hold it back to make more money in christmas.

If you don't know how bussiness works I don't care. Nor do I feel sorry for you. Read the news.

This game will be a big dissapointment. I can truly see it coming.

Why don't you hop onto the negativy train along with elephant? There's plenty of room.