What Valve said (with Comments by Feath)

[Black]

It has nothing to do with the release candidate, but the time between "Gold" and the "Store" for "Ground Control II" was exactly 2 weeks. It's also a big game and published by Vivendi.
Just some info.

 

[Dr0ndeh]

i am confident that the first RC will be accepted, and accepted fast. early october is a realistic date for me. possibly even sept 30th (however unlikely)

remember he quoted that the RC would be submitted BY the 15th, not ON the 15th, they could send it tommorow.

 

[2o3]

Ok Chris. But if there was no CS.S would HL2 be on my hard drive now. I think it would mate.

So you would be happy with a game that would likely not work on your hardware setup due to lack of hardware testing, as apposed to waiting for a near flawless game? Fair enough if you would rather have a non-working copy now I suppose...

1) How about you come to Seattle and playtest the whole game now?

2) We get about 2.5X the money for Steam sales, if I recall correctly.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Jade [mailto:Jadrie@ :imu:
Sent: Wednesday, July 21, 2004 6:45 AM
To: Gabe Newell
Subject: Hey Gabe


Thanks in advance for answering this,
I must say I'm impressed you don't just close your email account down with the torrent of emails coming at you, and that you answer all these questions.

Now my little questions..

1) So, as you mentioned a while back, bribery works on you.. would authentic Maine Lobster get me the game a bit earlier? or perhaps a shirt? gotta love how lobster is dirt cheap here =D

2) another thing I've been debating, whether to buy the boxed game so I have it to gloat over, or to get from Steam, and be able to play sooner, and give more of the money right to you guys. How much cash is lost in the process from the boxed version to you guys, compared to steam?

Thanks for listening to the community!

...a trait other game developers should pick up on.

-Sam

In this quote Gabe seems to think the whole game is done. So that leads me to think I would'nt be getting just a unfinished game.

 

[Feath]

In this quote Gabe seems to think the whole game is done. So that leads me to think I would'nt be getting just a unfinished game.

It's not that game wouldn't be finished but it may have lots of bugs that mean it doesn't run on your hardware.

 

[B.Calhoun]

Very nice work Feath.

And the question of the day is......with all this information feath, when do YOU expect for hl2 to be released?

 

[vicefredav444]

Thank you feath, for breaking everything down into its simplest form.
I don't understand what people were thinking when Gabe said the cs:s beta was being used to test the source engine out. If they couldn’t use cs:s as a tool, they would have probably given us something else to test the source engine.

Imagine working on a game for so long, putting all that effort into artwork, sounds, level design, and everything else. Then right at the very end just because of tiny engine bugs the entire experience is ruined. The condition cs:s beta is in right now and the sept 15th date gives us an idea of how bug free the engine is.

I think hl2 is done right now and could run on allot of computers, but until it can run on every computer, its not going to come out.

 

[Kiva128]

I'm still optimistic about an October release.

 

[trantjd]

Thanks so much for that post Feath! I've been trying to stay pretty optimistic and your post should silence all the whiners in other threads. Not literally silence them, of course (they'll always make something out of nothing to moan over), but at leasts, now, they should be easier to ignore.

I think September is out of the question, but an early October release is what I'm hoping for!

 

[RhapSidious]

Well this thread is a nice change.

You know, I've wanted HL-2 for the past year and half like a madman, but the longer I've had to wait, the more I got used to it.

I'm not saying I wouldn't love to be playing HL-2 instead of posting here right now, but with all of the QC that Valve's trying to do before hand, it should be a VERY, VERY polished game by now. Probably ALOT more details, easter eggs, cool random stuff, etc.
So the game is probably a lot better one, than if it would have made the Sept. 30 2003 date.

Besides the fact that we will have HL-2 and CS:S (and possibly even HL:S) on our computers by Thankgiving by the ABSOLUTE latest (God willing :angel .

Bottom line - It should be a happy holiday for us all.

Good job Feath on quieting the masses. As for me, time to quiet my mind. :smoking:

 

[RenegadeY2K4]

To me all th remakes are keeping HL2 from coming out.

 

[Alec_85]

Excellent work my friend *goes back to the waiting game*

 

[B.Calhoun]

Well this thread is a nice change.

You know, I've wanted HL-2 for the past year and half like a madman, but the longer I've had to wait, the more I got used to it.

I'm not saying I wouldn't love to be playing HL-2 instead of posting here right now, but with all of the QC that Valve's trying to do before hand, it should be a VERY, VERY polished game by now. Probably ALOT more details, easter eggs, cool random stuff, etc.
So the game is probably a lot better one, than if it would have made the Sept. 30 2003 date.

Besides the fact that we will have HL-2 and CS:S (and possibly even HL:S) on our computers by Thankgiving by the ABSOLUTE latest (God willing :angel .

Bottom line - It should be a happy holiday for us all.

Good job Feath on quieting the masses. As for me, time to quiet my mind. :smoking:

That made me just think about Thanksgiving vacation. WOOHOOO hl2 over the thanksgiving vacton would be sweet, although id like it sooner.

 

[wonkers]

I seriously hate CS. If source is such a great engine why has it taken months and months of bug fixing. Shouldn't they be done by now?

A month of CSs and they are still finding bugs? How many can their be?

 

[Gaheris]

http://www.gamespot.com/features/halflife_final/ The final RC was submitted on the Thursday and it was approved on the Saturday. This could mean that Half-Life 2 could go Gold on the 18th. But it's unlikely.

That was a pretty good read

 

[DigitalAssassin]

Well now, that calmed the community down a lot. Way to go Feath for taming the masses.

 

[marksmanHL2 :)]

Heh, Thats two other people on these forums who have my avatar



Oh and nice post Feath

 

[marshmallow]

I predict HL2 will come out shortly before the Thanksgiving holiday (maybe a week or so to allow for mass distribution), which I believe is the most lucrative selling period for video games in the U.S.

I'd be really surprised to see before Halloween.

 

[smsKONG]

I seriously hate CS. If source is such a great engine why has it taken months and months of bug fixing. Shouldn't they be done by now?

A month of CSs and they are still finding bugs? How many can their be?

I don't know. A zillion, three maybe 12.....answers on a postcard to:

I'm a Retard and want HL2 to be crap
P.O.BOX 111

Seriously it takes as long as it takes, and they find as many bugs as they find- For example would you like to play HL2 and find that when you threw a grenade and it touched certain entities or other players it just hung in the air, defying gravity before exploding( this happened to me when I threw a grenade just as a team mate bobbed in front of me...the HE floated at head height where it had touched the other players head, and since my team were doing a good job of blocking me in on all sides, I lost practically all my health).

Personally I'd rather that this bugs and all the others be they large or small were ironed out BEFORE release. Regardless of whether or not you like CS, the bugs that affect system compatability will definitely be present in HL2 aswell, CS is a good test on a large scale and best of all doesn't give anything away about HL2.

But then, what do you care. You'd rather buy HL2 now, get it home and find it won't work, right? Find out you've got a 2 month wait while valve get round to your problem, yeah? What if you couldn't download the content you needed tho, what if you'd bought the single player only package cos you weren't online...do you think you'd be happy in that case? No I don't think you would, so stop whining and wait until they're done.

 

[B.Calhoun]

I don't know. A zillion, three maybe 12.....answers on a postcard to:

I'm a Retard and want HL2 to be crap
P.O.BOX 111

Seriously it takes as long as it takes, and they find as many bugs as they find- For example would you like to play HL2 and find that when you threw a grenade and it touched certain entities or other players it just hung in the air, defying gravity before exploding( this happened to me when I threw a grenade just as a team mate bobbed in front of me...the HE floated at head height where it had touched the other players head, and since my team were doing a good job of blocking me in on all sides, I lost practically all my health).

Personally I'd rather that this bugs and all the others be they large or small were ironed out BEFORE release. Regardless of whether or not you like CS, the bugs that affect system compatability will definitely be present in HL2 aswell, CS is a good test on a large scale and best of all doesn't give anything away about HL2.

But then, what do you care. You'd rather buy HL2 now, get it home and find it won't work, right? Find out you've got a 2 month wait while valve get round to your problem, yeah? What if you couldn't download the content you needed tho, what if you'd bought the single player only package cos you weren't online...do you think you'd be happy in that case? No I don't think you would, so stop whining and wait until they're done.

Its called steam. Patches. Its a really cool program.

 

[NeptuneUK]

Its called steam. Patches. Its a really cool program.

What if you couldn't download the content you needed tho, what if you'd bought the single player only package cos you weren't online.

b00yah!

 

[Sprafa]

b00yah!

"I put a cherry on top?"

 

[Spugmaster]

I, like many others, tend to not want to set myself up for dissappointment.

I have said all along, and will say it again now that I will be happy to be playing this game by christmas. Any sooner is a bonus to me.

The big kahoonas at Vivendi don't give two shits about when WE want to be playing the game. It's all about maximising the profits. They know the fans will buy the game whenever it is released but Ma and Pa Kettle looking for a christmas present for little Johnny are the real target here.

To sum up - Christmas, any sooner is a bonus...

 

[Rabid Cha-Ka]

I agree that anytime before Christmas would be nice. I am actually hoping that it will not come out before November 1st so that there will be a remote chance for CPU's and graphics cards to come down in price. We seem to be getting gouged on the prices for Radeon X800 Pro cards? Weeks ago Dell was selling them for $370 (with shipping) and now they are over $400 with shipping just about everywhere.

 

[Alec_85]

The big kahoonas at Vivendi don't give two shits about when WE want to be playing the game. It's all about maximising the profits. They know the fans will buy the game whenever it is released but Ma and Pa Kettle looking for a christmas present for little Johnny are the real target here.

Yeah. They should BLEED for it. Bleeeeeeed I say ;(

 

[Jarman]

Yeah. They should BLEED for it. Bleeeeeeed I say ;(

I see, but you are forgetting the poor little Johnny...

j/k

 

[Feath]

I think Vivendi will be daft to release the game in November (and no one is saying that they are going to do that, except Gamespot). Half-Life 2 will probably outsell any game no matter what time of the year it's released, and, if it's as good as we expect, the media attention developed by it it will carry on over to Christmas and beyond.

Half-Life sold well continuously because it was such a good game. Doom III was released in August but I bet it sold more than 5 good games will at Christmas.

 

[DieH@rd]

nice post Feath

I pray for November release date, but hey... who knows...

 

[Wesisapie]

there is no single player only package.
if you dont have the internet, get a friend to download the patch for you and whack it on a cd, OH WAIT YOU CANT DO THAT BECAUSE STEAM SUCKS!
theres no way in hell casual gamers are gonna like steam.

 

[oldagerocker]

there is no single player only package.
if you dont have the internet, get a friend to download the patch for you and whack it on a cd, OH WAIT YOU CANT DO THAT BECAUSE STEAM SUCKS!
theres no way in hell casual gamers are gonna like steam.

How many people do you know that won't be able to get Steam Online for the 5 minutes it takes to create an account?

 

[Naft]

Maybe October 3 is the release date for Half-Life 2.

or sept 30th.

ohnoes!

feath, you just put yourself up there with mr reak as far as helping people goes. congrats.

 

[smsKONG]

I forgot they'd ditched the sp version, but my point remains valid-

If your not online, yes you'll be able to play without steam (cz was the same..), however if you're not online and for whatever reason can't get online (there may not be many, but there'll be a few) and you're copy keeps crashing before you start, then you're pretty shafted....hence it is better to get these bugs sorted out now, rather than later- through patches for those online, but for those not, if it isn't sorted now, then what, take your copy back to the store and wait 12 to 18 months for a platinum editon patched upto 1.4.....


[EDIT]- btw-it's nice to see some intelligent types who take in what they read-cheers for the defense neptuneuk, a much appreciated bOOyah :cheers:

 

[niugiovanni]

Great Post Feath. That cleared up a ton.

 

[Mr-Fusion]

So basically CS:S revealed more source bugs, so Valves anticipated RC date of last month had to be pushed back

There are absolutely no guarantees they'll meet the September 15th date as well. More CS:S patches releases this week will be a bad sign. NO CS:S patches will mean source could be at a release worthy level.

 

[Navy Man]

wouldn't it be better if there was a release as that means they are dealing with them, therefore not many left to go ?

meh , woot hl2

 

[solideliquid]

Release date?

Feath-

In your estimation, when do you think HL2 will be released, based on the info we have so far from Valve and VU?

 

[[[LuCkY]]]

Well the more I think about it the more I think that a mid-late september release date.

Release? Not bloody likely.

 

[wibblemonster]

it will be here when its done people...

I would say before christmas, but a bug free version is what we all want so its worth waiting for.. innit!

good post Feath

 

[NeptuneUK]

or they cud always release it now and patch the shit out of it -_-

 

[Feath]

or they cud always release it now and patch the shit out of it -_-

You know, from about the 30th of September, I'm not going to have an internet connexion. I'd prefer it if I can actually play Half-Life 2 when it's released.

 

[NeptuneUK]

yes. i want HL2 to be perfecterised
hey feath, your thread seems to have made you somewhat famous around here!
can i have your aurograph!?