Steam Beta to End on Tuesday, Full Version to be Released on Wednesday

[Apos]

The beta phase of Steam, Valve's new content delivery platform, is scheduled to end next Tuesday evening. The non-beta version is expected to come out the day after (11 am PDT, Sept 10).

According to Valve's Doug Lombardi:

Set up installers for the full version, which will be free of charge to existing Half-Life and Counter-Strike players, will be available from www.steampowered.com and leading game sites.

Check out this thread by Valve's Erik Johnson on the Steam forums for more details.

Essentially, anyone who owns any retail copy of any Valve game with a CD-key will be able to continue to play the free games that were available in the beta. In addition, the last "three" HL2 movies are scheduled to come out immediately after the full version of Steam is released.

Finally, Lombardi also noted that "Valve would like to extend its thanks to everyone who participated in this beta."

 

[Pjotr]

So does this mean there will be updates to the HL/TFC/CS clients also?

 

[synth]

This is excellent. It probably means they're wrapping up so they can release Half-Life 2 shortly.

 

[Apos]

So does this mean there will be updates to the HL/TFC/CS clients also?

According to Erik Johnson, about two weeks after this happens (Steam going to full release), they will release conversion tools that will make all mods and previous HL game installs a part of Steam.

Obviously, the Steam versions of HL/TFC/CS will be updated (Erik notes in that thread that they will be fixing some of the major bugs that cam eout in beta testing of in CS1.6)

 

[BoNeLeSS]

Originally posted by synth
This is excellent. It probably means they're wrapping up so they can release Half-Life 2 shortly.

hope so...

 

[Apos]

I don't think anyone can seriously deny that HL2 is coming out real soon. Whether it makes Sept. 30th specifically is certainly impossible to tell in you are still skeptical, but if not Sept. 30, it will most certainly be right around then. If they think they can hit Sept. 30, and they don't, it won't be long after that regardless.

 

[Mountain Man]

Sounds like they're in the process of wrapping things up. Excellent news indeed!

 

[LUSITANO]

guys get real sept 30!!!more like nov 30...u boys think they'll get steam, and hl2 up and running in 3 weeks?!! And whatever happened to the last 3 movies!!!!And if it does come out sept 30, hehe, what do they do with cs:cz...humm maybe they make it free

 

[Mr.Reak]

Originally posted by LUSITANO
guys get real sept 30!!!more like nov 30...u boys think they'll get steam, and hl2 up and running in 3 weeks?!! And whatever happened to the last 3 movies!!!!And if it does come out sept 30, hehe, what do they do with cs:cz...humm maybe they make it free

Before posting, read everything that was said above.

 

[dawdler]

Originally posted by LUSITANO
guys get real sept 30!!!more like nov 30...u boys think they'll get steam, and hl2 up and running in 3 weeks?!!

I actually think its makes much sense, if they have had the time to finish Steam, it means that work on HL2 is not that demanding, meaning its in the finishing touches when people doesnt have anything to do except the important coders. At least its not like HL, that was scrapped completely after E3 and delayed a year

 

[scribblehead]

Originally posted by LUSITANO
guys get real sept 30!!!more like nov 30...u boys think they'll get steam, and hl2 up and running in 3 weeks?!! And whatever happened to the last 3 movies!!!!And if it does come out sept 30, hehe, what do they do with cs:cz...humm maybe they make it free

you're an idiot...


Anyways, this is really good news, and it can only give away that they ARE indeed wrapping things up

 

[Pjotr]

Originally posted by LUSITANO
guys get real sept 30!!!more like nov 30...u boys think they'll get steam, and hl2 up and running in 3 weeks?!! And whatever happened to the last 3 movies!!!!And if it does come out sept 30, hehe, what do they do with cs:cz...humm maybe they make it free

He stated the 3 movies will come right after Steam goes up on Wednesday.

Besides that, since when did a game, developed during 4 years, get dependant upon 3 demo movies already seen by everyone from the Gamespy video? Gabe Newell goes up to Sierra and says "We can't launch HL2 yet, it seems we haven't released the 3 demo movies just yet, so we have to delay HL2 now"... duh!

Rest assured, this is the most planned and well executed major games release in history. They've gone back to their cave a couple of years ago and said "We don't care about what the public says, we know we can do the best game in the world and we will launch it when we are ready". Only 5 months before release they say anything about it at all, by this time they are more or less ready and have not much more than testing and touching up to do. Expect the game within weeks now and expect a fantastic experience to come. Expect major media events, an enormous amount of articles, reviews etc. Epexct a whole new level of fan sites and activity in the community, we will all love this game, we will play it like madmen and it will make history.

 

[scribblehead]

well said pjotr....well said indeed

 

[r00b]

can any acces the movies option on beta steam atm?

i canny :|

 

[Hish]

hi guys im not Hish im just a friend but i realy wanna know what "hl2 goes gold" means somebody plz ?

 

[scribblehead]

well gold is just an industry term for that the gamecode has been burned to a master disc and sent off to the "printers"

In the old days the disc was actually covered with a small gold layer on top, therefor the term "gold", but nowadays its just a regular disc that acts as the master copy

 

[DiSTuRbEd]

They have more than one master disc

 

[dawdler]

Originally posted by scribblehead
well gold is just an industry term for that the gamecode has been burned to a master disc and sent off to the "printers"

In the old days the disc was actually covered with a small gold layer on top, therefor the term "gold", but nowadays its just a regular disc that acts as the master copy

Considering the size of modern games, I would rather say master harddrive

 

[scribblehead]

Originally posted by dawdler
Considering the size of modern games, I would rather say master harddrive

I was just describing it in general terms, no need for nitpicking...jeeez you guys must be really bored :cheese:

:cheers:

 

[The hotdog man]

yup this rocks

 

[Mr Neutron]

Pjotr's on the right track: for those who doubt Valve's Sept 30 claim (or something very soon after--2 weeks max), you should judge it in light of their other claims. Yes, developers give wishful thinking release dates, but Valve has made statements to the effect that the game has been in polish-mode content-wise and something like POST-Beta (if there is such a thing) tech-wise since before the original announcement in May. So unless they're outright misrepresenting affairs, HL2 has had an extended crunch/polish phase compared to what we're used to from developers. Hopefully this translates into punctuality and quality.

 

[MrWhite]

So wait.. you have to have a Half-Life or Counterstrike key?

I was going to use my Opposing force key cause its the only one I can find... I lost my half-life one

 

[The Mullinator]

It sounds like an Opfor CD key will work just fine.

 

[RakuraiTenjin]

Gah. I have my HL Disc (And it's still installed) but my CD case broke in half a long time ago and I only have the back "holder part" that the CD can plug into... I don't have the CD key anymore Anyone know what I can do?

 

[Apos]

If you stilll have it installed, the key should actually be listed in your windows registry. I don't take any responsibility for you screwing up your registry, but if you know what you're doing, you can probably find it under some sierra/valve section.

If you don't have any key, then all you are prevented from getting are Op4, HL, etc.: games that you couldn't play anyway.

 

[chris_3]

hmmmm. im confused the only way to play hl2 multiplayer is to go through steam ???

 

[Apos]

Steam IS HL2's GUI and frontend, and everything else. There is no "through" Steam. Steam is the MP program. You can, of course, use other programs to do things like search through servers, but the console that loads up to load game resources IS Steam.

People seem to be confused about what Steam is, mostly because it has elements that can exist outside of HL2 itself.

 

[shapeshifter]

so the combo blue shit/opfor cd key will work? thank god, my orginal half life cd is lost, and I only have my back-up copy left