Half-Life 2 (PC)

[Concept]

You think once its finished the people who have been pre-loading will just get it straight away? I.e. It goes gold and is straight on the net.

Nope. The Steam purchase (or ability to play Half-Life 2) won't be made available until the US retail version is released.

Really, playing the game on Steam only serves a practical purpose for people outside of the US where the game may be delayed for a short time due to localisation issues. Someone raised a good point though in another forum.

The original release candidate for the original Half-Life only took 48 hours to be approved. Since Half-Life 2's RC is due on the 15th, that means, two days later the game may be approved to go gold. Just like in '98.

The timing would fit the (probable) date for the last pre-load. (They've all been weekly more or less so far).

Maybe, and this is a very slim chance, if the game gets a quick release candidate approval to go gold, Valve may make the game available on Steam then. Perhaps before the end of the month.

This isn't likely though.

[Spatial]

We must be getting really close by now.

Pre-loading's done ( all bar some minor update which allows you to activate it I assume ) so I'm still going to be optimistic and say we'll all be playing the game with dirty great big grins on our faces by the end of the month.

[ascender]

I think the problem with Steam getting an early release is with Valve's publishing deal with Vivendi. I'd have thought Valve would love to be able to release it on Steam as soon as a Gold RC has been accepted by Vivendi, but unless there's a clause in the contract to allow this, I can't see it happening. I mean, if you're Valve, it would be great publicity for your distribution system if its the first place you can play HL2. Sort of vindicates their decision to go down this route in the first place.

I've downloaded on Steam just in case this happens. And if I'm not downloading anything else at the time, my internet connection might as well be doing something useful. But I still haven't decided if I'm going to just buy the boxed version instead.

I'd have thought we are getting close though as these model files take the Steam "install" up to 2.5 Gb now.

[Concept]

The pre-loading isn't quite done yet I don't think. There's still things like the maps, the source engine itself, AI routines etc. etc. to download, but I imagine the content for those'd be smaller than what we've preloaded so far.

As for Half-Life 2 being released on Steam first... Well unless Vivendi have a vested interest in letting Valve release Half-Life 2 before the retail date, it won't happen. Either their contract will stipulate that fact or Valve will understandably be aware they'd get their arses sued off them if they did so. The only way I could see Vivendi allowing early purchase over Steam would be if they took a cut of the profits for every copy sold over that system.

I do agree with you though... What better to way to promote your online content delivery service than with the most anticipated PC game in years? So there is a chance, but it's not very probable.

The full game is supposed to be 3.5GB uncompressed, which means we've either got one large 1GB preload (like the first two) or two smaller 500MB downloads similar to the last. Either way, I can't see it being more than one or two preloads now... My completion rate for the latest started at 82% in full, so I'd imagine total completion next time will resume at the 90% mark.

Hopefully, if the RC is approved before the end of September and Vivendi are prepared for gold distibution, it might not take as long as we expect. You'd expect, after all, that Vivendi would want things to go smoothly and get the game out of the door as efficiently as possible once the release candidate has been given a good going over. Half-Life 2 is by far and away the jewel in their crown after all.

[Concept]

Eurogamer's apparently got hold of some more new binks from this year's E3. Downloading now.

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=56583

[ascender]

The client is mis-leading as when you complete a pre-load and check the status, it says 100% and that a locked copy of HL2 is now available on your computer. But there's prolly at least two more to go.

Like you say, things are finally moving along nicely and it won't be long now. But where have we heard that before????

* fingers crossed *

[Concept]

Yeah, the client says that each time a preload is complete, but then restarts you back to how far you were overall on the completion line when you next resume a preload.

But yes...

You'd hope with the probable unveiling of more binks over the next few weeks, and hopefully another two weekly preloads, the steam preload will be finished before September. Bar the downloading of all the executable files of course.

I just hope for commercial reasons, Vivendi doesn't sit on the RC and wait until mid-October before approving Gold status. Because then we'd be looking at November.

And even though they're on different formats, can you imagine Half-Life 2, Halo 2 and San Andreas within a couple of weeks of each other? Three of the largest games of the year competing for the same cash. It'd be madness.

But then this is Q4...

[Spatial]

Special thanks goes to our forum member, Concept, for provinding the original information and some screenshots

Concept, you forum tart !

[Concept]

Concept, you forum tart !

Apologies for the whoring.

But apart from this place and Game Critics, there aren't many other forums I browse on a regular basis.

[Concept]

I thought some of you may be interested in this. Occasionally Valve answer questions posed by fans or people interested in their projects. Luckily, I received a response to a few queries of mine regarding the VST and Source engine performance. Of particular interest are the last couple of lines (underlined) on this email which suggest very much that Half-Life 2 is nearing completion (not that we needed that much confirmation). It looks as though the Source engine is going through some final few tweaks by the looks of things.

We have been focusing on optimization a fair amount in the past couple
of weeks, so it's quite possible that you saw the benefit of this work.

The VST is actually a way to measure the performance of the Source
engine's rendering pipeline, not how Half-Life 2 will perform. Half-Life
2 will use a number of the visual effects you see in the test (and a
number that aren't represented), as well as a number of other subsystems
like AI, physics, and sound spatialization to name a few.

While I'm super happy to hear that we've sped up the game for you, I'm
even happier that we can do these kinds of things with Steam. This is
the kind of feedback that would have had latency on the order of months
previously, where now we're down to days (or hours in some cases).

Erik

-----Original Message-----
From: Gabe Newell
Sent: Monday, September 13, 2004 9:56 AM
To: Erik Johnson
Subject: FW: VST Update Confusion



-----Original Message-----
From: xxx x [mailto: [email protected]]
Sent: Saturday, September 11, 2004 5:58 PM
To: Gabe Newell
Subject: VST Update Confusion

Hi,

Sorry to bother you.

After the latest update in Source, I noticed that the Valve Stress Test
takes longer to finish yet delivers a higher frame rate performance for
most users using mid-to-high range GPUs (judging by various forum
responses). Now, I own an x800Pro, and before I was roughly seeing 65fps
in the VST at 1280x1040 with all settings maxed out. However, after the
latest CS: Source Update I noticed a peformance increase of around 15fps
(on avg 80) with settings all set as high as they can go along with the
6xAA/16xAF/V-Sync on.

Which benchmarking result should be taken as representative of how
Half-Life 2 is going to perform? The VST before the recent update or the
version before? It's difficult to gauge a conclusion from a benchmarking
tool which appears to have changed it's standard response to hardware.


CS: Source is also performing better with an average rate of 73fps. I'm
not complaining at such a fps rate increase of course. It'd be fantastic
to think such an update is an indication of increased performance, but
I'm also surprised such a significant jump could be acheived during
periods of (what I perceive) to be final tweaking of the Source engine.

If this matter could be cleared up I'd be very much grateful. Thanks,
and good luck with finishing the game.

Also of interest is this 'making of' book produced by Prima focused on Half-Life 2's development. It's apparently finished, which means if literature about the game's completion has already been finalised to an extent, there surely can't be that much more longer to go. So hopefully this may put an end to a few vague fears of another shock/lengthly delay.

http://www.homelanfed.com/index.php?id=25999

http://www.primapublishing.com/catalog/display.pperl?0761543643

http://shop.game.net/ViewProduct.aspx?cat=2&mid=323253

[Ish]

Everytime I think I've got my HL2 anticipation level under control you go and post another teasing carrot. Damn you Concept.

[Concept]

Hey, it's going to get even better. In two days time, the game's release candidate is due to be delivered to Vivendi, and if previous weeks are anything to go by, we'll be seeing a fourth pre-load a little later this week. It may also be the last.

If anything, things are certainly picking up momentum again after that unfortunate fake gold fforum post a few weeks ago.

[Inertia_]

If anything, things are certainly picking up momentum again after that unfortunate fake gold fforum post a few weeks ago.

*ahem*

(whistles to himself)

[Concept]

Yeah, I know I'm a walking contradiction.

The new bink, information, pre-loads and the fact that the strategy guides are all but done suggests to me things are moving in the right direction. I know I was completely apathetic a couple of weeks ago, saying I'd stay away until release after another false dawn...

But hey, this is Half-Life 2. Probably only the biggest sequel since Ocarina of Time in terms of the sheer impact it's most likely to have. So yes, like Valve's bitch, I've plonked my arse firmly back in this thread again.

Just so long as there isn't a shock 2005 delay, which I highly doubt there will be. Then I'd be inclined to repeatedly bang my head against the wall.

[Len]

I refuse to be drawn, I refuse to be drawn....oh bugger. Stop getting me excited about HL2 again, I'd happily ignored it for the last week or so.

Deep breaths, calm thoughts etc etc...