Release Candidate in September?

[Chris D]

In Gamespot's latest "rumor control" article it is reported that Half-Life 2 is expected for a November release, with the release candidate only being shipped to Vivendi on September 15th. Here's a quote:

Before asking Vivendi for confirmation, we went to marketing rep Doug Lombardi at Valve. "We're currently planning to send release candidates to Vivendi by September 15th," he told us. The timing's right. "However," he adds before we can get our hopes up, "VUG hasn't given us a ship date yet. Might be best for you to ask them directly. Let me know what you hear."

Whereas this all sounds authentic enough, I still can't help but doubt that quote from Doug Lombardi. If you replaced "release candidates" with "gold masters" I'd have a better time believing the whole thing, especially considering the game was thought to be in RC stage since this time last month.[br]Our PR guru, Icarus, has e-mailed Doug Lombardi for a statement on this and we'll update you all as soon as we have any new information.[br]
[br]
However, if all of this does pan out to be true, and the game is indeed released in November, there still isn't much longer to wait. And it's not as if this was out of the realms of possibility all along, as Doug Lombardi had recently stated that we would see the game in Summer/Autumn (Fall).[br]
[br]
You can read the full Rumor Control article here.

 

[thehunter1320]

quick! hide! he's gonna pull another Lombardi on us!

 

[Feath]

Lombardi said nothing about November. Gamespot are the ones saying that November. A first RC in the middle of September would mean something a lot sooner than November. Unless it will take Valve a month to fix all the issues with the RCs.

Also, Valve said that they are going to submit a RC after the CS Beta. (http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showpost.php?p=574214&postcount=656)So I have no reason to doubt this quote.

 

[WhiteBoy]

Here's hoping the time between now and November go quickly.

 

[Maxi]

I think dougy boy mixed up some words there...

 

[DeltaBlast]

However, if all of this does pan out to be true, and the game is indeed released in November, there still isn't much longer to wait.

How often did you guys tell us that we didn't have to wait much longer?

 

[Chris D]

How often did you guys tell us that we didn't have to wait much longer?

As often as necessary so we can try and make things sound a lot better than they actually are to minimise the "Oh noes :O! HL2 is teh delayed agen!!!111"

 

[The Monkey]

Well this sucks.

 

[azz0r]

Damn gamespots been crap today, Im a subscriber and Ive tried to download the Day of reckoning video review + San Adreas video but its forced me to watch the stream and put them on initiating for hours in DLX

You have to consider that Viv will wanna beta test it for about 2 weeks, so defo mid Nov.

 

[Striker]

ah what ever... don't really care anymore

 

[Dynasty]

omg, ANOTHER delay. cmon valve, stop dicking around by saying things that you cant measure upto or dont mean.

FFS!! WE'VE WAITED LONG ENOUGH!!

 

[Mountain Man]

I agree. This is getting rather annoying.

 

[SiNNeR]

I agree. This is getting rather annoying.

i second that

 

[Seppo]

Well, now I'm laughing. No wait...yep, I'm crying

 

[The Mullinator]

Didn't gamespot say that the rumor that HL2 wasn't comming out on September 1rst awhile back was false?

Besides, like it said in the newspost here, Gabe said over a month ago that they were going to be getting a release candidate in a few days (they never said anything once the estimated time to the RC was up).

So mistaking the time to the first release candidate by more than a month when you originally said it was only going to be a few days away (that was more than a month ago) seems unlikely. If thats the story they give then I have to say that I am suspicious that something is going on with Vivendi that might be causing everyone problems.

 

[BlueWolf72]

the game is coming..........chill

 

[Dynasty]

Well, now I'm laughing. No wait...yep, I'm crying

lol. i just wanna cry aswell. cs:s is pretty amazing, so it just makes us want hl2 even more!!! it must be a con or something. i can just imagine gabe saying:
'lets release cs:s beta so everyone wants hl2 more, then, destroy their hopes by releasing it 2 months later than promised. sorry, even later.'
'muwahahahahahaha' - rest of valve staff.

ffs, get a grip valve.

 

[Dr. Freeman]

when the fake gold announcement was confirmed as fake.. it was obviously disappointing but at the time i said it be best to take every news now with a grain of salt..

yup.. some pple will be ticked off or saddened :|

 

[lans]

So what valve were talking about a RC or a possible gold date in August was total Bullshit. Well, I'm amazed people are surprised after hanging around with valve for 8 months, I knew like many other promises valve made, this one would never be true.

Ah well, I'll buy another game instead, this game seems hopeless I tell you, hopeless - even the publisher has no clue what's going around!

 

[HybridM]

You just have to stop anticipating the game so much. You can want hl2 more than anything in the world, but that won't make it come faster. So instead I suggest everyone who is upset by this sort of news finds something else to do. The time will go much quicker.

They could delay it until 2006 for all I care, not because I don't want the game, but because we're all going to benefit in the long term. If this game is good I guarantee you won't care about the delays.

If it's not good then... I dunno.

 

[Bio]

Cant they ever hold a deadline, HELL!!!

 

[dart321]

Bah. Now November! Oh well, at least I'll have better internet then to play CS: Source. Might work out for the best for me.

 

[obsidian]

2 words, BS. why preload 3months in advance?!?! doesnt make any sense.

 

[Feath]

You have to consider that Viv will wanna beta test it for about 2 weeks, so defo mid Nov.

Let's consider that shall we?

Then let's go back to reality and look at Half-Life. Half-Life was tested by Sierra for two days. http://www.gamespot.com/features/halflife_final/part5.html

Publisher testing won't be a huge play the game to test for minor bugs thing. It will be a test to see that the game actually runs and the RC doesn't have anything missing.

 

[niugiovanni]

*deletes preload. I'm not wasting a gig or two for 3 more months. If you ran any other business in the world this way you'd lose all of your customers. Valve should thank God that none of us have lives and will continue to put up with this.

 

[Feath]

*deletes preload. I'm not wasting a gig or two for 3 more months. If you ran any other business in the world this way you'd lose all of your customers. Valve should thank God that none of us have lives and will continue to put up with this.

Put up with what? Them finishing the game. What evil bastards they are, wanting to actually finish a game before releasing it. Gasp.

EDIT: Valve may miss some insignificant dates like the preload, but they missed that date by about a week. People are acting as if they've missed the preload date, then 3 years later finally got around to preloading. And all that time you were giving Valve £10 a second until it came out. Waiting a week for something (especially something so insignificant to the release of the game) is NOTHING; you lose absolutely nothing. It's the equivilant of a film starting 5 minutes late at the cinema. You don't go on a huge rant about how the cinema should be lucky that you are so patient and other such crap.

The first RC is going to be sent a few weeks later than we expected. That's because the CS:S beta isn't bug free. What do you expect Valve to do? "We know there are bugs but we're going to submit the RC anyway". Why submit something that you know will fail.


Valve haven't said that Half-Life 2 will come out in November. Gamespot just said it looks that way. All Valve said was that they think Half-Life 2 will be good enough to submit to Vivendi on the 15th of September. Even if they did say it will come out in November (Which they didn't) it's still stupid to get angry. Why get angry at them because they said the game will come out in the Autumn and then you find out it is actually coming out in Autumn.

 

[niugiovanni]

So you disagree? You feel that when someone says they are planning to release a product, and they don't release that product, then those who are waiting should feel honored to have the priveledge of doing so. Fantastic.

It's not just a game for a lot of people if you consider the investment. Take into account the amount of people who have paid hundreds if not thousands to update their machines in response to release announcements. Think of people, such as myself, who have purchased stock in companies with the expectation of a market shift from this game's release. There are a lot of people with quite a few legitimate reasons to be unhappy with this process. Try not to just think about yourself and what you'd like to do when the game is released before you slam the opinions of others with poorly structured umbrella arguments.

 

[Feath]

So you disagree? You feel that when someone says they are planning to release a product, and they don't release that product, then those who are waiting should feel honored to have the priveledge of doing so. Fantastic.

It's not just a game for a lot of people if you consider the investment. Take into account the amount of people who have paid hundreds if not thousands to update their machines in response to release announcements. Think of people, such as myself, who have purchased stock in companies with the expectation of a market shift from this game's release. There are a lot of people with quite a few legitimate reasons to be unhappy with this process. Try not to just think about yourself and what you'd like to do when the game is released before you slam the opinions of others with poorly structured umbrella arguments.

I'm saying that those people waiting shouldn't complain about having to wait, not that they should be happy about it.

Lack of understanding of Game development is no excuse for being stupidly angry at Valve. If you bought any hardware JUST for a 40 hour long game, you're an idiot. If you bought it to take advantage of many games, you're not. You can still use that hardware to run other games. And it will still run Half-Life 2 when it finally comes out.

Valve said "We are hoping to get the game out for a fall release". November is a fall release. Therefore: No delay. Just because you thought the game should come out earlier means nothing.

 

[Ender01]

I hope it doesn't come out till 2005, just for the comedic value.

 

[Dedalus]

the game is coming..........chill

greatest first post ever.


and welcome to the forums

 

[niugiovanni]

I'm saying that those people waiting shouldn't complain about having to wait, not that they should be happy about it.

Lack of understanding of Game development is no excuse for being stupidly angry at Valve. If you bought any hardware JUST for a 40 hour long game, you're an idiot. If you bought it to take advantage of many games, you're not. You can still use that hardware to run other games. And it will still run Half-Life 2 when it finally comes out.

Valve said "We are hoping to get the game out for a fall release". November is a fall release. Therefore: No delay. Just because you thought the game should come out earlier means nothing.

Honestly, I can understand their positions. Waiting for HL2 has been a very frustrating experience. I also believe that, while actual anger is pretty uneccesary, being anything but happy with this experience is justified. I feel bad for the mod teams mostly because they have so much creative development which, no matter how hard they work to refine it, can't come to a tangable conclusion until the game is released. That has to be very frustrating.

We're all excited for this game and some of us have a great deal invested in its release. To me, there's nothing unreasonable about being upset. At the same time, I understand your position as well.

 

[Mr. Redundant]

"Oh noes ! HL2 is teh delayed agen!!!111"











(lol someone had to do it Chris, Im surprised I got here so late and it had not already been stolen )
but seriously, this was expected. Im still thinking its gonna be a december release (dont jump all over me please, I just wont get my hopes up anymore)
No one honestly expected it in September Im sure.

 

[Sprafa]

Don't care about release dates as long as it is in my life time.

 

[Hallucinogen]

Haha, Valve sucks =P
Learn from ID, they promise they deliver.

 

[poofyfinger]

ILL SAY IT AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN 2005 !!!!!!!

For those who say I am an attention-seeking troll: You're right and so is the above statement!!!!

 

[Rocketman9mm]

they better hury. this is starting to give up a DNF vibe. and You'd think they'd actually want to release the game prior to the xmas season since a slew of other good FPS games are due out. and they actually will ship!

 

[Mr. Redundant]

does this mean Valve have in turn delayed Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines?

oh crap.

 

[azz0r]

Haha, Valve sucks =P
Learn from ID, they promise they deliver.

Yeah, a linear boring fps that barely anyone cares about anymore.

 

[Hallucinogen]

Atleast they kept their word unlike "some" other developer *cough* VALVE *cough*

 

[nge001]

ATTENTION:

THERE IS A MONTH BETWEEN SEPTEMBER AND NOVEMBER.

IT'S CALLED 'OCTOBER'.