HL2 Gold.

Damien_Azreal · Post by **Damien_Azreal** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 10:41 pm

Yep, VU announced earlier that HL2 has officially went gold. The street date is Nov 16. Here's the press release.

VIVENDI UNIVERSAL GAMES ANNOUNCES PLANS TO LAUNCH
THE MOST ANTICIPATED PC ACTION GAME OF 2004

Half-Life® 2 to Ship to Retail Outlets Globally This Holiday Season

LOS ANGELES (October 18, 2004) – Vivendi Universal Games (VU Games) today announced that Half-Life® 2, the sequel to one of the most critically acclaimed PC titles in gaming history, will ship to retail outlets around the world in November. The Company confirmed that Half-Life 2, developed by Valve Software, has gone gold with a planned retail street date of November 16, 2004. The countdown to the highly anticipated retail street date has begun around the world, as VU Games completes plans to ship localized versions of Half-Life 2 simultaneously in English, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Traditional and Simplified Chinese, Korean, Thai and Japanese.

“Half-Life 2 has surpassed our expectations in every sense – its high-quality graphics, ground-breaking physics and immersive first-person shooter gameplay set a new standard for PC action games,” said Bruce Hack, CEO of VU Games. “Half-Life 2 will go down as one of the best-selling PC titles, and we are thrilled to deliver this ground-breaking title to the worldwide gaming community this fall.”

Hailed as “...the best game ever made” by PC Gamer, Half-Life 2 earned a top-rated review score of 98, the highest score bestowed by the magazine in more than six years. The game has received numerous accolades for its technical excellence, captivating story and addictive game play, including more than 10 awards and nominations at the 2004 Electronic Entertainment Expo. In addition to being named “Best PC Game” by 1up.com (Ziff Davis) and Gamespy.com, the title also received a “Technological Excellence on PC” award from IGN.com. CNNMoney.com stated that “Half-Life 2 will redefine what gamers expect from their games visually – and the gameplay is a lot of fun as well.”

The global anticipation for Half-Life 2 has reached unprecedented heights, as consumers around the world mark their calendars to buy the game at retail on November 16th. The Half-Life 2 product will include Counter-Strike: Source. VU Games will also release a Half Life 2 Collector’s Edition that will include Half-Life 2 in DVD-ROM format, Counter-Strike: Source, Half-Life: Source, a free limited edition t-shirt, and a Half-Life 2 Prima strategy guide book.

The original Half-Life game was launched in 1998 under VU Games’ Sierra Entertainment publishing label. It earned more than 50 game-of-the-year awards and has been heralded as one of the best PC first-person shooter games of all-time.

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http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthr ... adid=44661

So to any and all, if you care... HL2 is coming.

Daedalus · Post by **Daedalus** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 11:45 pm

Damn Half-Baked... damn them all...

hmm... 'best game ever', where have I heard that before?

Damien_Azreal · Post by **Damien_Azreal** » Tue Oct 19, 2004 04:52 am

No game shall ever topple BLOOD. Never.

Post by **DustyStyx** » Tue Oct 19, 2004 06:24 am

At times like this I seriously think about adding an "auto-fix" feature for inappropriate, lambda related words.

-ED · Post by **-ED** » Wed Oct 20, 2004 01:37 pm

C'mon people! don't touch HL. if you consider it to be s*** - than don't touch it not to prove you have kapro-philia or something:)...
i actually loved HL at the time, it had it good points. i just don't like what it turned out to be... also HL never crossed Blood's way...

and more to say. HL2 seems to be much closer to horror and even...blood! once again because our wonderful pirates i saw a leaked version (there was noise on the net somewhere about spring, big hack of valve's net, remember?). it was selling in ANY software shop for 6$ (2 CDs). i tried it out, and it promised much more things that i like... the plot is more into horror and even portions of somethin mysteric, i dunno, may be even fantasy feel, hmm, no let's stop on horror. it looks less sci-fi than HL1... however leak didn't contain any of later levels closer to the end...
ah, anyway...

Gila · Post by **Gila** » Thu Oct 21, 2004 09:25 am

yeah i've read about that leaked alpha/beta/whatever. main problem - again, almost 100% of the game was scripted. it's like a f*** stone age now...

-ED · Post by **-ED** » Thu Oct 21, 2004 12:11 pm

yep. and many scripts were halted, so some monsters were... well example. i loaded level (i walked into it and game loaded it actually) with that huge tall thing much alike Herbert Well's martians' tri-legged machines, then system said 'script error' and that damn thing - it was JUST STANDING THERE DOING NOTHING! and it wasn't possible to destroy it.... yeah that sucks a lot...

btw, tomy knowledge the most unscripted game to come (from modern blockbaster FPS) is Stalker. atleast latest videos state every minute that 'this is unscripted' and 'that is unscripted' etc...

Damien_Azreal · Post by **Damien_Azreal** » Thu Oct 21, 2004 03:00 pm

Honestly I'm kindof interested about HL2's release. I could use something new to play. But I'm kindof p*** about one thing... it comes out two days after Painkiller's expansion! :x Now what am I gonna do.

Probably get both.

Gila · Post by **Gila** » Thu Oct 21, 2004 07:40 pm

actually about stalker, people from the magazines wrote some previews couple months ago, to say that actually stalker has alot of scripts too. guess we'll never find out. they only post screenshots and record videos and promise things. but for this moment i think they are promising just too much. remember how alot of neat features was promised for quake 2 for example - each time upon loading level the monster placement should be random, no triggered monsters/respawns, monsters with super-duper intelligence that can act in teams and other stuff like that. and what did we get? just a little bit cheesier and more eyecandy version of quake 1 with the alien invasion theme.

so actually i have alot of doubts on both hl2 and stalker. especially after doom3. as my friend once said, nowadays all modern fps are just "to check it out, run around a little bit, look at the graphics, then uninstall".

2 days left for the battle out of hell? hm. now that's some really good news. i'm doing trauma now on original pk so i guess it will be a good training before hitting on the addon pack.

Damien_Azreal · Post by **Damien_Azreal** » Thu Oct 21, 2004 09:41 pm

Painkiller: Battle ouf ot Hell comes out on Nov. 14, HL2 comes out on Nov. 16. :x What to do? Get both.

But I enjoyed Painkiller much more than HL, so BooH then HL2.

Hopefully HL2 will be more than just a good graphics engine, I'm hopeing for a good game in there as well.