Half Life 2 - What's going on

[John Hall]

I just read a post in this newsgroup indicating that HL 2 is being delayed
until next October. What's going on here. This game should have been ready
to go a year ago. Can they really be having that much of a problem with the
code, or is there another issue.

My suspicions lie with Nvidia. Nvidia's top of the line DX 9 cards do not
run DX 9 correctly and benchmarking with HL 2 was a disaster with these
cards. ATI's DX 9 video cards on the other hand ran the game beautifully.
Apparently Nvidia's problem lies with their hardware, not the drivers. They
have attempted to overcome the hardware problems with driver patches but
that hasn't worked very well.

So then last year after the kerfuffle with Nvidia's benchmarks, Valve
announces a delay in the release of the game till the fall, and then again
to this spring. Now it's October. Why? My guess is that Nvidia has brought
pressure to bear to delay the release of the game until they can fix their
crappy hardware. With such a large installed base of video cards, most of
which cannot play HL 2 very well, their leverage would be considerable. I
predict HL 2 will be released shortly after Nvidia releases their next
generation video card.

My 5 cents.

JK

 

[Mavra Chang]

Not to mention everybody that was to get a free copy with the ATI cards.
When will we be seeing our copies? The fact that I was getting a free game
worth $40 bucks tipped the scale on my purchase. I ended up taking a 9600XT
instead of the 5700 ultra because of this. By the time this settles out
it'll be time for PCI Express and for sure I'll be thinking twice before I
pick another ATI.

mc

 

[Jamie_Manic]

I just read a post in this newsgroup indicating that HL 2 is being delayed
until next October. What's going on here. This game should have been ready
to go a year ago. Can they really be having that much of a problem with the
code, or is there another issue.

I think it's quite possible the game just wasn't ready for release when they
said it would be and the hack is their excuse. The hack would obviously have
caused some delay, no-one could deny that, but not this much. They're
probably trying to finetune Steam as well....

Problem is that HL2 is losing ground, when you look at the big FPS games on
their way - Far Cry in particular - and it starts to look less important.

 

[Andrew]

I just read a post in this newsgroup indicating that HL 2 is being delayed
until next October.

It was written on Usenet, it must be true.

This game should have been ready
to go a year ago.

It was originally planned for last September.

My suspicions lie with Nvidia.

ATI made a financial contribution to the game, not NVidia.

My 5 cents.

Overpriced by 5 cents.

 

[Andrew]

Not to mention everybody that was to get a free copy with the ATI cards.
When will we be seeing our copies? The fact that I was getting a free game
worth $40 bucks tipped the scale on my purchase. I ended up taking a 9600XT
instead of the 5700 ultra because of this. By the time this settles out
it'll be time for PCI Express and for sure I'll be thinking twice before I
pick another ATI.

What are ATI supposed to do? Walk into Valves offices with guns and
force them to release the game?

Everyone with a financial interest in the game are losing out with the
delay.

 

[Mike P]

You should be thankful that the fiasco happened, otherwise you would have
gotten a slower card.

 

[Christian Merkle]

So then last year after the kerfuffle with Nvidia's benchmarks, Valve
announces a delay in the release of the game till the fall, and then again
to this spring. Now it's October. Why? My guess is that Nvidia has brought
pressure to bear to delay the release of the game until they can fix their
crappy hardware. With such a large installed base of video cards, most of
which cannot play HL 2 very well, their leverage would be considerable. I
predict HL 2 will be released shortly after Nvidia releases their next
generation video card.

Idiot...

The HL2 Source-code has been leaked to the internet. Valve now rewrites
main parts of the game.

 

[Dave]

Figures. Wouldn't surprise me at all.

It was written on Usenet, it must be true.

There it is!

Is this according to "Standard Dev Answer #53"? Sheesh, no wonder Carmack
says "When it's done!" Anyone remember a guy named George Broussard?

It was originally planned for last September.

BWAHAHAHAHAHA! (sorry!)

Could have just as easily been Valve wasn't close to being on schedule,
regardless of whose cards are doing what with the renderer...

ATI made a financial contribution to the game, not NVidia.

So let's hear from more of them folks with ATI vouchers...a big "Thanks,
Gabe!"...as if Steam wasn't bad enough. How's that big overhyped beta test
going? Rope in any more poor sods to squander their time por nada on this
typical misadventure? If this doesn't teach people a valuable lesson in the
pitfalls of deferred gratification, I don't know what will. Rebates and
vouchers suck. Pure and simple. Might as well give them an interest-free
loan with a very generous (i.e. indefinite)payment schedule. Next time, vote
with the wallet.
I imagine a few folks at ATI are learning some lessons too...

Overpriced by 5 cents.

Tax added...

 

[Ben Pope]

So then last year after the kerfuffle with Nvidia's benchmarks, Valve
announces a delay in the release of the game till the fall, and then again
to this spring. Now it's October. Why? My guess is that Nvidia has
brought pressure to bear to delay the release of the game until they can
fix their crappy hardware. With such a large installed base of video
cards, most of which cannot play HL 2 very well, their leverage would be
considerable. I predict HL 2 will be released shortly after Nvidia
releases their next generation video card.

Well my conspiracy theory is that aliens abducted the Valve team, performed
"experiments" on them and stole the source code.

Comments?

Ben

 

[Ben Pope]

Not to mention everybody that was to get a free copy with the ATI cards.
When will we be seeing our copies? The fact that I was getting a free game
worth $40 bucks tipped the scale on my purchase. I ended up taking a

Silly reason to choose a graphics card.

9600XT instead of the 5700 ultra because of this. By the time this
settles out it'll be time for PCI Express and for sure I'll be thinking
twice before I pick another ATI.

Silly reason to NOT choose a graphics card. One must wonder how you chose
the best one, luck I suppose.



Ben

 

[Steven]

I *used* to be excited about HalfLife 2, Doom 3.
That's come and gone.
Now I have BF1942, and UT2K3/4 and others.
I understand these things take a long time but...
wtf-ever, they'll be out when I see them on the shelves, when ever.

-s

 

[cowboyz]

I *used* to be excited about HalfLife 2, Doom 3.
That's come and gone.
Now I have BF1942, and UT2K3/4 and others.
I understand these things take a long time but...
wtf-ever, they'll be out when I see them on the shelves, when ever.

-s

A game installed is always better than a game in development.

 

[GT-Force]

A game installed is always better than a game in development.

It sure is!!!

UT2004 rocks, by the way

GT

 

[Noozer]

Idiot...

The HL2 Source-code has been leaked to the internet. Valve now rewrites
main parts of the game.

Why would they rewrite just because the source code was leaked? What
difference could it make?

 

[wm]

Silly reason to choose a graphics card.





Silly reason to NOT choose a graphics card. One must wonder how you chose
the best one, luck I suppose.



Ben

Why is that silly? I bought the 9600xt with HL2 because that
essentially meant that I was getting the card for $40-$50 cheaper since
I planned to buy HL2 anyway. The card is great at its price point,
better than nVidia's comparably priced cards, but it kicks the ass of
all the cards $50 cheaper than it.

~wm

 

[Dave]

The Gabe Newell Book of Periodically Rehashed and Occasionally Freshly
Creative Excuses? Something Robert Burns may have said about the best-laid
plans of mice and men, perhaps? Two words: "$#!+ happens"?

My guess is that Nvidia has
The Magic 8-Ball says: "Please Smoke Another (But Do Not Inhale) and Guess
Again!" Now I thought the Nvidia Reality Distortion Field was merely
localized in its radius of effect! Rut-roh, I better not let Nvidia near my
fridge if I want fresh milk for the morning coffee! NOW THEY'VE GOT VALVE
TOO! They nailed 'em with a TWIMTBP blurb! Augh, poor bastages never knew
what hit 'em! It's taking all this time to plan, execute, and insert the
TWIMTBP blurb before the game! Yeah, that's it!

With such a large installed base of video
I was idly toying with this notion sometime last year, (here or in
a.c.p.v.n) but I done quite rapidly dismissed it for several reasons: it is
the game that largely sells the video card, not the other way around. Does
anyone go out and buy Doom 3 so they can run a $300+ high-end video card? I
didn't think so! Neither Valve nor ATI would stand to profit from any delay,
even if the game likely doesn't exactly run like a twelve year old boy
should from Michael Jackson on a large percent of ATI install base as well.
People would buy the frickin' game anyway! Nvidia could not possibly buy off
Valve and ATI from all those potential profits and remain solvent thru the
quarter. Those running FXes could force DX8.1 and live with it until
Nvidia's next cycle, or grit their teeth, grab their ankles, and hop the
fence. For another, it is a little unlikely that it would have taken that
much time then, let alone (in retrospect) this much time so far to develop
an effective workaround, or even a rewrite of code path or two. That (of
course) leaves one probable cause: we have a sticking Valve. Either they
wisely realize that their game's minimum hardware requirements are (ahem) a
tad over the current median of their target audience and are waiting for the
proverbial "chicken in every pot", or they just plain ain't done yet. Now,
pray tell, which sounds more likely? There, that wasn't so bad, was it?

If you are looking for any thread of causality here, I can assure you it is
mostly coincidence...and maybe Nvidia will ACTUALLY GET TO INCLUDE Doom 3
bundled with their new cards instead of a voucher...maybe we'll be seeing D3
before HL2, for that matter...

Well my conspiracy theory is that aliens abducted the Valve team, performed
"experiments" on them and stole the source code.

Yeah, man, with ya so far, Ben, but how's that explain WHY (on Earth...)
they deemed to release a sneak preview of the unfinished Gabe scalp trophy
they (ahem) acquired? Ah, so! Inscrutable motives. Them aliens, they be a
funny breed, that they be, especially them little bluish-grey ones...of
course now the big question is when they'll go gold with their "special
edition" developed in parallel using the stolen source code and advanced
clairvoyant abilities to finish the game without bugs, but with a little
extra standard-fare Alien Subliminal Mindwarping (TM) thrown in between the
lines, to be released just a hair in advance using Steam as a distribution
point, (and as an "updater" for the boxed versions that might have gotten
away) in order to subvert the minds of thousands of hapless gamers, thus
setting in motion the primary phase of their usual plot of global domination
(well, naturally! What else?) ??? I think the Weekly World News oughta get
wind of this before the public is caught unawares! Wow, I just realized how
Steam could be co-opted as a tool to promote confusion AND allow effective
datamining in order to more easily dispatch any preliminary resistance!
Things are worse than I thought! We need Duke Nukem to come kick some alien
boo-tay before it all gets hopelessly FUBAR! I wonder when HIS release date
might be...maybe the Dark Emperor of Nvidia knows something of this too!
Maybe the aliens are on Nvidia's payroll! Euhhh! <shudder>!

Ay-yi! Too much conspiracy for my poor remaining synapses! I'm going back to
my sheltered and bovinely complacent life now...and with that: it all sounds
like "MoooOOOO!" to me! For the love of some deity somewhere (insert your
choice), let's not bandy about expected release dates any more, it's "When
It's Done" or else I'll hafta pull the rest of my George Broussard
autographed wild cards out of my sleeve!

Comments?

Please see directly above.

 

[Ben Pope]

Why is that silly? I bought the 9600xt with HL2 because that
essentially meant that I was getting the card for $40-$50 cheaper since
I planned to buy HL2 anyway. The card is great at its price point,
better than nVidia's comparably priced cards, but it kicks the ass of
all the cards $50 cheaper than it.

Well if you consider the game as a discount on the card (not a very good
discount thus far) then fine.

But it's like choosing a credit card based on which free gift is best -
Oooh, I really want a clock radio and this CC comes with a free one. No.
Choose the card based on it's ability to perform in games (at a price), not
on which games come with it - in this case it worked out to be the correct
decision, but that is not always so. Your choice of card will affect EVERY
game you play, so it is of considerable value above and beyond the included
game.

Ben

 

[Ben Pope]

Why would they rewrite just because the source code was leaked? What
difference could it make?

It's a matter of security. These games can be added to, if you have the
source code you have undocumented API that may leave the host vulnerable to
attack - it's not going to go down well if when you install Valve software
(a Game, Steam, or whatever) you are opening yourself up to attack.

Ben

 

[shazbatt]

For my part I had pre-ordered HL2 last year but cancelled the order
when I got my 9600XT with voucher for HL2. I'm now looking forward to
the delivery of UT2004 dispatched by Play.com to-day and will buy
DoomIII when available.

As for HL2 I have totally lost interest. Don't believe that the 12
month delay has been caused by hackers and by the time I've played the
other games I'll have forgotten about HL2. Something somewhere stinks
but the sweet smell of other games will take that smell away. Never
mind Valve, I'm sure someone will wait...........

Tom B

 

[Mike P]

I don't know about that, every time someone posts in this ng they open
themselves to an attack and it doesn't seem to stop them... ;-)

Mike