Was the Hacker right?

[Edcrab]

I find it interesting that because the maps were not loading correctly, you all jump to the conclusion that they weren't as "updated" as the e3 maps. The actual truth being that the maps were all compiled for an earlier build of the engine and it was stolen before they were ported over to the new build.

Bugs aside, there just isn’t the same level of content as seen in the videos- not just loading difficulties and crashes. Sounds missing, outdated models, some enemies not even present… if the hacker “got it all”, I challenge the lifeless ****wit to release it and stop talking shit. Even if they were compiled for an older build, he must have more then he's saying, or not the whole deal. It's been a while since he actually said anything, mind you. Could have plans... yet if more was leaked it just wouldn't have the impact. "Oh... more HL2 content. Yay."

/me yawns

Either ol’ AL is not the hacker, or he’s talking out of his arse. If he isn’t the hacker, it’s an incredible achievement to influence the opinions of so many in itself.

My opinion is that the "hacker" wasn't lying for I have seen no reason to not believe him/her.

It's your opinion, so fair enough. Mine is that him being a criminal and all might be seen as a reason not to believe him/her. If it is them. Bloody conspiracies...

 

[The Dark Ange]

Bugs aside, there just isn’t the same level of content as seen in the videos- not just loading difficulties and crashes. Sounds missing, outdated models, some enemies not even present… if the hacker “got it all”, I challenge the lifeless ****wit to release it and stop talking shit.

Actually I believe all the files are there, it's just some are not loaded properly. I'm almost certain, (it has been a while since I toyed with it) that I found most of the files that were missing. It was just that they weren't loaded properly or were corrupted. The biggest problem with the maps and mostly what you were saying was lacking would of been caused by the incompatibility issues.

he must have more then he's saying

I doubt he has anything more. He did give out a lot of stuff(estimate would be around 8 to 10 gigs) and it's been too long. It would be too incriminating if somebody found something no one else had on his machine.

Oh, and this may be a little off topic, but has valve explained that little confusion about that vampire game's release date yet?

 

[Edcrab]

Hmm. I suppose what I have to remember is that this guy compiled it himself- so maybe it is an earlier build afterall. There does seem to be an awful lot of physical content for how little is actually viewable and/or playable. Seems very plausible, doesn't it...

As for the Vampire game? Valve have made no comment, but the developers (Troika, I believe) have stated it will still come out Autumn 2004, or so I heard.

 

[theGreenBunny]

Does it really matter whether it was all they had? Fact is it was delayed, and we won't be seeing it before summer 2k4. That won't change. Besides, there's simply no way to know.

Oh well, feel free to discuss it anyway. That's what this speculation forum is for after all.

 

[Zakat]

Edcrab, in the CNN article about HL2 that was posted some days ago it was said that Vampire - The Masquerade - Bloodlines was delayed til 2005.

 

[Brian Damage]

... And Troika said that that was false...

 

[Zakat]

Sorr Brian, didn't know that Thanks for the info btw, got sad when I 'heard' it was delayed.

 

[Brian Damage]

To be totally honest, I dunno if any of the info flying around at the moment about Source can be trusted. Which could be either a good thing or a bad thing.

 

[Someone]

You all remember the news of a HL2 Alpha being leaked right?

Anyways, when the Hacker released the Hl2 Alpha on the internet, he also said that when he was on the VAVLe network that this "Hl2 Alpha" was the only thing that VALVe had and this was the only progress that they had made on the title...

Another strange thing that adds evidence the Hackers statement was that in the console of the Hl2 beta, it said that it was a late september build!

Back when he said that everyone thought that it was a pure bullshit statement...

But nowing seeing how VALVe has been acting lately with them saying that, I think there is more truth to the hackers statemeants then thought before...

No way in hell do I believe that was all Valve had.

Why in the world would valve make a game in secret for 4+ years, suddenly come out with its announcement and release date (which was only months away) KNOWING full well the game was perhaps a 1/4 done and they couldn't possible make the date? Since the game was secret they could have announced it ANYTIME....why would they announce it when it wasn't even close to being done? That makes zero sense.

Adding to that, knowing that Half Life 1 was delayed for more than a year, I can't imagine Valve making a game in secret where they can annouce it at ANYTIME, and then just giving some random date knowing full well the game wasn't close to being done. That would be the most idiotic thing ever if they did that.

But more importantly....how would the hacker know what Valve have or don't have? He/she would have ZERO clue...all they would know is what was on certain computers they hacked (probably one or two at most, most likley one). There is ZERO evidence the hacker got in EVERY single computer valve uses, and that would be the ONLY way they could know what Valve had. Plus, who says ALL their computers are internet ready? There just isn't any proof with this.

Adding to it more....why did they wait until weeks before the announced release date to announce it being delayed? If they had only that much done, than they clearly knew it wasn't even going to be close to sept 30th months before...so why wait to announce it's delayed when they knew this was an incredibly anticipated game? They knew it would piss fans off beyond belief if they waited until the last second to delay it, yet they did just that.

No, I believe there is a lot more going on behind the scenes than any of us can know. I think the NVidia issue, as well as Steam not working great, and then add in the hacker all have contributed to the delay. But for the most part, I think the game is very close to done (and was in september), but they are now taking the time to straighten out all the issues which could arise from the stolen source code, as well as fixing the Steam and NVidia crap, and now that they have the time, probably tweaking things, bugs, issues which were there all along.

 

[Brian Damage]

Nicely said.

 

[Shuzer]

Nicely said.

I concur

 

[Zakat]

Agreed. Very well said.*Thumbs up for "Someone"!*

 

[vacs]

No way in hell do I believe that was all Valve had.

Believe what you want. You are just another manipulated "Gabe for President" fanboy!

Why in the world would valve make a game in secret for 4+ years, suddenly come out with its announcement and release date (which was only months away) KNOWING full well the game was perhaps a 1/4 done and they couldn't possible make the date? Since the game was secret they could have announced it ANYTIME....why would they announce it when it wasn't even close to being done? That makes zero sense.

It makes absolutely sense when you revisit the HL1 development history. Valve has again overestimated themselves! Even Gabe admitted in one of his emails to HL fans.

Explanation:
During last year's E3, valve had coded a pretty good looking and performing engine and most of the level were already designed but not texture mapped like Gabe stated in some interviews which popped up during E3 2003. Valve was at that moment pretty self confident that they would be able to finish the game before September, forgeting completely that things are never as easy as they seem in the beginning. And so it happened, they got surprised how fast a few months can pass and how fast September was approaching... the rest is history.

At the E3, Gabe was sure they could finish the game in time, he really thought that 6 months would be more than enough to finish the game they already have been working for 5 years. So the E3 was the perfect moment to announce HL2 and let the hype slowly build up until the game is released on 30th September.

Adding to that, knowing that Half Life 1 was delayed for more than a year, I can't imagine Valve making a game in secret where they can annouce it at ANYTIME, and then just giving some random date knowing full well the game wasn't close to being done. That would be the most idiotic thing ever if they did that.

Again, valve overestimated themselves. They thought they had learned a lesson with HL1 but did exactly the same mistake again with HL2 as Gabe said it himself.

But more importantly....how would the hacker know what Valve have or don't have? He/she would have ZERO clue...all they would know is what was on certain computers they hacked (probably one or two at most, most likley one). There is ZERO evidence the hacker got in EVERY single computer valve uses, and that would be the ONLY way they could know what Valve had. Plus, who says ALL their computers are internet ready? There just isn't any proof with this.

Why would valve store some random old builds on different computers. Of course they make backups of all their different builds but those will be stored all together somewhere on separate backup server. The builds you find on work computers are the latest code. If the hacker got access to one of those backup servers he would have had access to all the different builds and he would for sure have taken the most recent backup.

If you have ever worked in large software company you would know all that.

Adding to it more....why did they wait until weeks before the announced release date to announce it being delayed? If they had only that much done, than they clearly knew it wasn't even going to be close to sept 30th months before...so why wait to announce it's delayed when they knew this was an incredibly anticipated game? They knew it would piss fans off beyond belief if they waited until the last second to delay it, yet they did just that.

First of all they didn't wait until weeks before the announced release date but merely a few days. Rumors that the game was delayed were circulating much longer but the official statement from valve that HL2 has been delayed just came 2-3 before the 30th September!

At E3 they were sure that the game will be finished by September. During Juin-August they slowly but inevitably noticed that they can never make it. The reason why they did wait until a few days before the 30th September is the same as always in this business: money, money and again money.... and of course there was also the deal with ATI which they didn't want to deceive (reason here again is money).

No, I believe there is a lot more going on behind the scenes than any of us can know. I think the NVidia issue, as well as Steam not working great, and then add in the hacker all have contributed to the delay. But for the most part, I think the game is very close to done (and was in september), but they are now taking the time to straighten out all the issues which could arise from the stolen source code, as well as fixing the Steam and NVidia crap, and now that they have the time, probably tweaking things, bugs, issues which were there all along.

Get real, GFFX shader performance for sure is a issue with HL2 but not the reason why HL2 got delayed.

The main reasons for the delay are:
* game not ready
* steam also not ready for mass content delivery

The source code leak is only a minor reason why the delay happened and NOT the main reason.

Why is it so hard for people to accept the truth that the game was not ready the 30th September 2003 and is also now not yet ready to be released. Why is it a problem to accept that valve had not finished the game last September. It's not a shame, it happens everywhere all the time. Why are people blindly defending valve in that the leak is the main source (no pun intended) of the delay!

It's because of things like these that I understand why some people hate valve. Valve has no idea how to "communicate" or how to talk to their fans. Sometimes they are just plain ignoring their fan base (like for the time being) and sometimes they are just talking too much. As usually, the middleway is the best way to do it.

I've got no problem with the delay. Just finish the game and release it ... I will buy it for sure. And if you have some time left valve, just admit that the game was not anywhere being complete last year. Just for the sake of it!

 

[Brian Damage]

Oh, I'm sure that the game wasn't quite ready on Sept 30th, but I still do not believe that the cracker got all they had... there was, as has been stated before, stuff missing in terms of features and graphics, things were outdated, and if the hacker had any more of it, he'd probably have released it by now...

 

[Stage]

Props to you vacs, for fighting a losing battle against the mindless hordes that this place is filled with.

 

[dream431ca]

The Hacker STOLE the code. Which means he probably didn't get all the code

 

[wonkers]

What if Valve released the videos and a release date as a counter offensive to the intrusion of the Cracker? If he/she was going to release what was stolen Valve could have hyped it themselves.
I don't know why they made a release date. But the best way to take the power away from the Cracker is to release what he stole and more in videos and press anouncments. What did he steal anyway ? Not a whole lot.

Also lets get things straight. A malicious "hacker" is known as a Cracker. exspecially because he re-worked Valves code to make his "cracked Game" It's NOT A FRIGGEN BETA or ALPHA. please stop calling it that. It's a cracked peice of software.

 

[Chainer]

all possibilities.

 

[Brian Damage]

Why bring up a two month old thread to make such a pointless comment?

 

[Jackal hit]

what the hell.. i thought i was reading a new thread ... of an old discussion. bah! waste my time :'(

is there an option to close threads after a certain period of time?

 

[Jackal hit]

what the hell.. i thought i was reading a new thread ... of an old discussion. bah! waste my time :'(

is there an option to close threads after a certain period of time?

yes there is...

*closed*

 

[Brian Damage]

Did you just quote your own prior post? Why?

 

[Jackal hit]

because i can do anything i want. I'M eccentric *growl*

on topic: nah the hacker was wrong and contradictory to himself.