Half-Life 2 (PC)

[Concept]

Oh yeah. It's a complete farce.

For every high there has to be a crushing down. It's been like this through Half-Life 2's development all the way since September 2003. To be fair, we can't blame Valve for this, but whoever lied has destroyed my sense of anticipation for the game now. Which was probably their intention. To do that to people.

When everyone found out and huge disappointment reared it was bound to take the wind out of Half-Life 2's sails as things slowly gathered speed.

The trouble is, how can any of us from this point onward take future information we're given by Valve, Vivendi or whoever and consider it as legit now?

People are just going to laugh at another (real or not) gold annoucement, release date or pre-load. And that's a disaster for Valve. People aren't going to take news at face value anymore - This was probably the last straw for most. It also means the likes of IGN, Gamespot and Eurogamer are going to be incredibly cynical when it comes to such reporting in the future too. Things wouldn't be so bad if Valve would just shut everyone up and offer an official confirmation through a statement issued to the media, but no... Everything has to be complete silence.

It isn't their fault, but this has really damaged the curve to Half-Life 2's release build up.

After reading the game is being put into production... And then to discover oh no, it's not...

I'm kind of apathetic to the whole situation now.

[Concept]

http://members.lycos.co.uk/lemmingzappa/Post.JPG

Hacker tards and the Internet. Such an irritating combination.

[Spatial]

BWAH HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA !

Personally I think its completely hysterical ( and I'll stop using the giant red text now ).

Me and every other Half Life nut have been so excited over this and its just one (more) farcical hurdle. Its impossible for me to to be irked about any more HL2 delays or snags as we should all be so used to it by now.

But, like a scorned lover who just can't get enough of the good stuff, we all know we'll be on tender hooks over the next few days about this. There are so many highs and lows, but we're still all waiting for the game to be released and want it bad. Such is the power of teh HA1f-L1f3 !!!!

But on a serious note

If that was Gabe's password no wonder someone was able to hack it. Those Valve muppets have learnt nothing, absolutely nothing, about any type of security since last years problems. For a commerical company ( and ex-Microsoft employee's no less ) that really is worrying. If thats how well trained Microsoft goon's are, no wonder there are so many problems with XP and security etc.

[Concept]

Aye. Retrospectively, I can see the humour in this now.

Still... Can you imagine the real gold announcement?

Just the very happening will have people rolling around in the hay.

Pinch of salt. That's what people'll take.

[Tom Salter]

Concept - that's the funniest picture I've ever seen.

Gabe Newell: Genius and Total Retard at the same time. How does a man be so talented?!

[Concept]

Yeah. Half-Life 2's development is a roller coaster ride.

The game's a mirage I tell thee. It doesn't really exist.

[Ish]

I think they should stop Gabe using computers....

I can't stand this up and down much longer. Knowing I've got half the damn game sat on my PC... its all too much... come on Valve... come on...

[Concept]

Right... I signed up and went on a rather directionless mini-thought/rant spree at the official Steam forums with a couple of posts. Ironically, coupled together they're the longest I've written in a while, and they weren't even originally at the forum I prefer to regularly post in: NTSC-uk.

Go figure.

Anyway, I thought these thoughts serve more purpose here really. After this rant, I think I'm done with Half-Life 2 until it's released and I'm either actually holding it in my hand or it's unlockable on Steam.

I'm beginning to miss my console gaming.

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This is my first post on these forums, so please don't jump down my back if you don't entirely agree with what I say. An opinion is only an opinion.

I know I'm dragging up an old thread and a happening which everyone isn't too best pleased with right now, but there are some points I'd like to get across.

Before I'm misinterpreted, I want to make it clear that I think Half-Life 2 is going to turn out as the title we all want it to be.

Well I think posting news in forums is about useless, because Unless you have no life and live on the boards, the info will get buried. I prefer where they post important info on the news site. That way I can pop in see what they think is important and I am done. Instead of wading through here to find tid bits.

If anything, this latest incident has shown that information doesn't get buried if it's released into the forum community. Instead it appears to have the opposite effect and ripple through a variety of sources, before eventually reaching distortion.

Valve team members may think it ludicrous that people seriously considered a gold announcement could be made so fleetingly, but you do have to acknowledge that on past evidence, it wasn't that all hard to interpret in such a way - At least not initially. After all, the intended and actual dates for the pre-load were put forward through forum posting, so it wasn't completely impossible to believe that just maybe acknowledgement of the game's development conclusion may have been forwarded this way too at some point.

If the president of Valve posts on forums to relay pieces of Half-Life 2 information to fans, and someone hacks a forum account in his name, it's possible what's said may be taken as accurate from the source. Even if it does in hindsight seem relatively off-key. Yes... Posting a gold announcement in a minimalist and trivial way wasn't very likely looking back on it, but people believed it was a piece of promotion used to amplify itself through word of mouth. And we are talking about delivery of this information through the most expansive form of communication we currently have on this planet. So in other words such news was always going to spread fast.

You only have to examine the scenario a little to realise the legal implications of announcing a gold date without Vivendi's approval (and I highly doubt they'd want it on a forum) renders the logic of the hacked post almost null. So I'd like to think regardless of the IP trace, people would have realised within hours of even Valve's official confirmation it was BS.

Now... I'd agree this wouldn't be such a huge deal if the news hadn't extended itself to the upper echelons of online videogaming media. But it did.

A number of significant news sites with huge audiences reported on this announcement as fact, and since then it's been reported as fake. In consideration of this, those very same audiences are going to potentially (or probably you could say) doubt the validity of any future news regarding this game. Even if it clearly derives from Vivendi or Valve.

And that's the depressing thing about this. Yeah... Laugh it off if you want as a nothing event this weekend, but the fact that someone impersonated a key figure at Valve to put forward an important piece of information, has most likely punctured the authenticity with which any future announcements are going to hold with regards to a wider perception.

Let me make it clear - It isn't any of Valve's fault what happened and I'm saddened that yet again, another external stone which Valve weren't responsible for has just been put in Half-Life 2's path with the way people perceive it's development. Having said that, it's possible to write the importance the fake gold announcement off, but I do believe it's had some damage on the validity with which future gold news is going to be accepted.

It's been complete up and down with Half-Life 2's development and to be honest, it's a credit to Valve's strength they've managed to keep on top of things in terms of what they have to achieve.

Four things. Four things that would normally help de-rail a videogame's development.

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1) Previously set-in-stone September 2003 delay
2) Source code hacking incident
3) Script leak through CS: Source Beta testing
4) Two (relatively minor) pre-load delays
5) False gold announcement

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In consideration of these happenings, and that there always seems to be some kind of twist with regards to significant news announcements involved with Half-Life 2, I don't think it's beyond the realms of plausibility that when legitimate news does come of the game's development conclusion, people are perhaps going to be slightly wary.

And that for me, is what I find slightly depressing about this latest happening. Like Valve, the community should be completely rocked when Half-Life 2's production comes to a close. Instead, because of this gold announcement, and because the news spread to so many sources, I can just envisage people are going to be really cautious. And it's unfortunate because as a fan, I'd really like to see the finishing touches to Half-Life 2's development saga be looked on fondly.

Please don't think I lack faith in the community or the people supporting Half-Life 2. I realise Valve, Vivendi, many here and elsewhere will be pleased when things are wrapped up. But because of the action of one individual, in the back of the mind, I can see videogame fans in general approaching the end-game without the enthusiasm they might have had, thanks in part to the premature celebrations we've experienced thanks to the stunt pulled yesterday.

Of course the hacker's plan was probably to announce a fake date in the vain attempts to get Valve to issue a counter-statement and give some bearing as to a release. Thankfully that didn't work though.

Think about it - if the game had gone gold, don't you think there'd be an official PR email sent out and posted? If you look at say, the PHL site you will see comments like "We got this from Doug Lombardi" or "We got this news from Jess Cliffe".

I agree that retrospectively people shouldn't have taken a forum post in the context it was initially taken. But I also believe it's hard to not acknowledge that Half-Life 2 is currently the most anticipated videogame in development anywhere in the world. In light of that, people are of course going to clutch at things which help them believe, or distinguish more of what they believe, into plausible representation. And the news of any announcement coming from the Valve president's personal forum account, no matter how dubious the message, was always going to be leapt on. I think when people want something badly enough then they usually gloss over the glaring cracks to suspend the moment they'd hoped for long enough. At least until the reality sets in.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think Chris Bokitch pointed out that more than a four letter post would have been written in consideration of the gravity of any gold announcement, and that's a fair point. But people are impatient for Half-Life 2 because it attributes more interest and attention than, say, a regular title in development. We're talking about the most significant PC release since Doom, and I believe the impatience is partly built from the fragmentation of information, which seems to happen with Half-Life 2's development. Prior to the forum account hack, it does seem that credible information has been made available to the community amongst a variety of places apart from Steam's own official forum. If everything significant information-wise was to be accumulated within one place in terms of this format, then maybe there'd be a more centralised/fixated feel or appearance associated with Valve's communication to the community. Don't get me wrong - I think it's absolutely superb that the company is willing to actually talk back to it's fans. 99% of the time, development studios aren't willing to do this at all, and I've been pleasantly surprised at the responsiveness with which Valve approach their PR and community discussion. It's something I very much respect about the company.

Yet having said that, and bringing things back on topic, people are probably going to (however unfair) think it's the boy who cried wolf with any more important forum announcements, or gold announcements for that matter. Mostly due to the mess this hacker has cause by impersonating and generating information that unfortunately built quite a lot of momentum before it was ended.

And that's why I think Spooky (*a forum member at Steam) is completely bang on the money with the point he's making. If official information made available to the community was locked and centralised within one place then it would probably in all likelihood decrease the possibility for any further confusion, impersonations or security breaches. It would in the instance of this case probably have helped limit the damage caused and at least prevented some major news sites reporting on false information. At least people would then know where they stand with things.

But admittedly, this is all conjecture and hindsight.

What I'm more or less trying to say is that, the release curve, the anticipation and the way people see Half-Life 2 towards development conclusion, has just been completely knocked off it's stride. When a gold announcement comes, the hype and the excitement for the title responsible for that usually builds until the release date. Yet... Because a part of that curve has already occurred, when the -real- information is relayed to the press in a statement, then I can imagine a lot of fans are going to doubt it because of what's already happened previously, even if such information completely concrete. Just to be on the safe side.

That isn't fair on Valve or Half-Life 2 in consideration of the full facts, but I can see it happening.

Basically, the feel good factor associated with the acknowledgement of Half-Life 2's development conclusion... That psychology... I'm not entirely sure it's going to be there before the game hits the shelves in my view, at least not in the way we tend perceive it normally with the realisation of a development end.

I can only speak for myself, but until I actually hold Half-Life 2 in my hands, or I've unlocked it through a Steam purchase, then I'm going to take (hopefully understandable) caution to any news immediately associated with this game.

Personally, what I'm dreading now is that when the likes of IGN, Gamespot, GameSpy, Eurogamer et al report on the real gold announcement, people reading that news, the ordinary fan, may just scoff at the validity of it. Even if it's completely legitimate.

And I'm angry that someone could interfere with Half-Life 2's development in this way.

In any case, after all that, I do hope work on the game is going as planned, and that things are going well in terms of production. As for the quality of what we're all finally going to see, I have no doubts whatsoever that Half-Life 2 will knock everything for absolute dead.

The game's quality or the strength of team behind it to my view isn't in question - Just the wider perception as to how people will perceive Half-Life 2's run up to release after the unfortunate mess which happened a day or so ago.

[Ish]

Nice post.

I agree with the points you make. But I'm still mega-excited about its release. Last September was the thing that knocked me off kilter in terms of anticipation. In fact it completely deadened my interest in the game for a good 6 months. I was kind of angry that such a balls up had gone on regardless of whether or not the game was going to meet the September 30th deadline.

But now... now I'm excited again. I can almost smell the packaging of the game. The gold thing was a minor blip compared to the major upturn of being able to grab the preload. For me at least.

[Spatial]

Gooooooooooooooo Concept !

I bet you got nothing but responses of "STFU N00B ! Ha1f-L1f3 is teh r0x0rs !!1111!!!!!"

From what I've read on other boards I think loads of people in the HL community have lost sight of the main issue regarding the faked post. It doesn't change anything in terms of HL2's development process, unlike the hack attempt etc.

Personally I'm still confident of a Septemeber 2004 release. The signs pointed to it being likely before the faked gold announcement, and they still do ( at least to my optamistic eyes ).

On another note, has anyone else read how the community is going nuts over a new G-man picture found in the preload cache? Apparently the file contained a password for a Second Test, but no one can figure out where it's supposed to be used.

People are speculating that the Valve fake gold thing was the start of Valve doing an ilovebees.com thing.

Me, I think the community might just be clutching at straws for just about anything these days.

[Concept]

Ish - I'm still looking forward to Half-Life 2's release, but I refuse to get hyped for it now until I'm literally either holding the game in my hand or I have it on my Steam account. Either way, the game's going to be brilliant no doubt. However, I just don't have the enthusiasm to get worked up for yet another news disappointment as of this moment, so you'll forgive my cynicism.

Spatial101 - I'm fully expecting I'll get no response or instead be spammed on the Steam forums. I was more or less just posting there to get some thoughts out.

I wish I could hold your confidence for a September release. Valve's Erik Johnson, before the fake gold annoucement, stated the pre-load would take weeks, and that coupled with the fact it takes more weeks to go gold and distribute the final product, leads me to presume a mid-to-late October release is in the works at the very best. Especially since the Steam and US retail release are supposedly at this point going to be timed to coincide.

Going gold to a delay of two months or over at the least... That's why I've lost some of my appetite right now.

Yeah, I saw that picture of the G-man hidden in the cache files which people found. A while ago, Valve created a backdoor page into the Half-Life 2 website for fans to find, so people are already thinking this new picture is another test of sorts. It may be, although like you, some of the 'release date' theories made by a few fans is blatant clutching of thin air.

[Ish]

Going gold to a delay of two months or over at the least...

Going down.....

Its only a game. Its only a game. ITS ONLY A GAME.

[Concept]

Heh.

You know what? I haven't had it on all weekend, but apparently Steam was DDoS attacked last night and down.

Security and Valve.

Yeah, it's only a game. And there are lot more.

Silent Hill 4 and September. How I'd forgotten...

[ascender]

Thought I might as well start the pre-load and its chugging along nicely although its going to take a while. Steam is a great idea, but I'm just wondering how the servers are going to cope when the game is available on it. I'm just guessing that there's going to be another couple of pre-loads between now and release day with one final d/load of an activation key/file once you've paid.

I'm assuming if your PC crashes and you lose your HDD, you're going to have to d/l the whole thing again - i.e. you're not going to be able to burn a copy once you've d/loaded and activated it?

[Rushy]

Questions

I have a few questions which I hope someone can answer as the HL2 release draws ever nearer.

1) Seeing as I am purchasing the retail version of HL2 is there any reason for me to download the HL2 pre-load via steam?

2) 16:9 support, will this option only function only on specific GFC cards/monitors? I have CS Source already and cannot get the 16:9 option to work.