Final Hours of Half-Life 2

Chris D

Chris D

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Gamespot recently announced the sequel to an incredible article they wrote a long time ago. The article went through in great detail the final hours of Half-Life and the strains and struggles before it. Many more strains and struggles and six years later you can now read a similar article on the final hours of Half-Life 2:
Gabe Newell is about to make a promise. It's 11am on an overcast morning in Bellevue, Washington, and Newell, the impresario behind Valve, lumbers into the company's starkly decorated 10th-floor conference room. He pulls out an Aeron chair, plops himself down, and runs his stubby hands through his reddish-brown hair.[br]Gabe Newell, Valve's founder and managing director[br]
"OK," he says, taking a deep breath. "During any project there comes a time to draw a line in the sand and put a stick in the ground and say, 'This is it. We're ready,'" he says. "That moment, I'm happy to say, is right now. We finally know when this game is going to be done."
Click to expand...
I haven't read it yet but the first page is a treat and reminds me of when I read the original many years ago. You can catch the new article here.
 
thanks. Chris for the interview, im back, family troubles, i pm'ed you and your off msn. You still ready? Thanks
 
Some very mild spoilers. There's also some level concept art, but I doubt it's anything like the finished game.
 
ive read the 11 first pages - no spoilers so far...
how long is this? im only on part 3...

btw, may be a spoiler on page 12 (its a concept if a level, not ever gamespot is sure if its in the game , or just a "concept thrown around during the development process?")
 
No spoilers really... damn good article.
There are a few if you're going to be really picky... but its nothing that major. Something very special on one of the scanned paper drawings...which will get people talking in the forums...
 
Wow, what a nice read that was. It is all pretty amazing really.
 
Read all 25 pages. Absolutely no spoilers.

But it's an awesome read. It explains everything from the date fiasco to the hack. You really sympathize with Valve, and in the end, it is all forgiven. It reads like a character study of Valve and Gabe and all the toil they had to go through. In the end, you owe it to them to tell their story.
They also drop some nice hints of future stuff (XBox port, new episodes, ATI levels.)

To be required reading for all those who purport themselves to be HL2 fans of any sorts.
 
Interesting:

"On that note, one cabal has already started work on what Newell refers to as the "ATI levels," a series of single-player levels that will require a super-high-end graphics card to run. Valve hopes to release those over Steam later this year."
 
might be a few very mild spoilers like he said, don't worry about it though it was still a great read...
 
Very good read, glad its all in the open now. No more lies from now on I hope.
 
Hopefully this will put a firm end to annoying plethora of "half life is coming out today in 10 hours" threads.
 
I`m on part five now. Just 2 minor spoilers till now (it says who are the combines and dr breen)
 
the level concepts DEFINATELY contain spoilers. If you want to be left in the dark as far as suprises go. don't look at them.
 
Finished. One hell of a read.

I think this is what raising the bar was supposed to be (but since hodgson or whatever his name was got scrapped, I doubt it's much more than a book full of pictures).
 
Axel G... what a foo.

What kind of idiot criminal revisits the scene of a crime?
 
LAYP said:
Wow, what a nice read that was. It is all pretty amazing really.
Click to expand...

yeah it was...that part about Valve being hacked does show how bad a negative impact the incident had on the team.. especially when u an employee asks the boss "is this going to destroy the company?" :|

i know i would have been desvastated by it...but good on Valve to bounce back and show they have that special something to overcome what they did.. :thumbs: :cheers:
 
DeltaBlast said:
Finished. One hell of a read.

I think this is what raising the bar was supposed to be (but since hodgson or whatever his name was got scrapped, I doubt it's much more than a book full of pictures).
Click to expand...
yup... so i don't think i need to read raising the bar... much less buy it.
GJ gamespot. screwing prima book sales :cheese:
 
As someone mentioned, one level concept has an incredibly large spoiler -- if it is implemented, the biggest spoiler of the game.
 
EDIT....sorry, I posted a level design with a questionable piece of information, so questionable in fact that valve doesn't even know if it's true.
 
On that note, one cabal has already started work on what Newell refers to as the "ATI levels," a series of single-player levels that will require a super-high-end graphics card to run.
Click to expand...

AWESOME. :thumbs:

Amazing read. :cheers:

Eternity said:
As someone mentioned, one level concept has an incredibly large spoiler -- if it is implemented, the biggest spoiler of the game.
Click to expand...

I made an effort not to look at those. :O
 
Extreamly good read got me super hyped + i felt the pain valve felt.
 
lol... we're collecting pictures of valve employees.... now I'm scared :p
 
Damn!
There's enough info in there to make a movie about Valve since they started working on HL1.
 
woaw i just read a line i did not want to read, it said:
gman=father?
 
Indeed a very long story, though very, very interesting.
 
This is probably the best read ever. I really learned a lot from it.

At least now we can learn how much stress Gabe and his gang has gone through since e3 2003. Poor bastards. I feel for them ..
 
As the story goes, when in doubt, just tell the truth.
:)

unless your trying to lure a hacker to the US.
 
Hehe, yeah the hacker-Gabe "relationship" was great :) It's safe to say that he got pwned.
 
Interesting stuff; shows that Gabe Newell definitely isn't the anti-christ, but also confirms an almost embarassing lack of professionalism on his part.
A project lead that for a substantial period of time remains in the dark about the development status of the game and the sentiments of his team and finally reacts by sticking his head in the sand - not very impressive.
I wonder what potential trouble this spells for Team Fortress 2, which should be just as ambitious a project as HL2 has been.

On that note. does anyone have any ideas why the multiplayer side of the story has received no attention whatsoever in the article?
 
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