GameSpot: The Final Hours of Half-Life 2

[warning]

Link here.

Now, for the first time, the team at Valve opens up about its journey in stunning detail. No question was off limits: From the missed release date to the code theft to the lawsuit with Vivendi, you'll hear directly from Valve about what really happened. And you'll find out about other struggles that have never before been revealed to the public. Ultimately, this is a story about sacrifice. A story about how 84 passionate gamers gave up nearly everything over five years to create what Newell believes is the best first-person shooter ever created.

This is the story behind the making of Half-Life 2.

I know many of you are junkies for this game like I am.  I suggest you read this article.  Very, very interesting stuff.

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I'm on page 19 now.  Jeez this is good reporting.

[AgtFox]

Yeah, Geoff Keighley is a good writer.  He also did the Behind the Games on Trilobyte for Gamespot that talked about the rise and fall of the company.

Funny, I just looked at my bookmarks and I still have the story linked right here.  I'm sure he's done other stories like this, but the Trilobyte one really stood out for me and it is obvious this one will as well.

Yep, he's done many more for Gamespot...here are the links to all his Behind the Game stories

[warning]

Two more interesting quotes:

And finally there is one other game on the horizon: Team Fortress 2, which Newell says is far from a dead project.

:shock:
I would never have guessed this game was still in the pipeline.  Wow.

Now the cycle starts again. There will be a next game, a new set of challenges, and yes, perhaps another release-date promise. Or maybe not. "I don't think that's ever going to happen again," Newell says with a laugh. "Gamers should trust us on quality issues, but we've pretty much emptied the account when it comes to trust on release dates."

All in all a very fine article.  Long but well worth reading.  I'm so stoked for this game I could puke.

[Turtle]

One of my favorite artists is working on TF2, so definitely not a dead project.

[Raintitan]

Valve made a serious error in dealing with the first ship date, but I still think we need more companies like them that are committed to making something great without being controlled my their distributor/publisher.

After reading the article, I'm glad I bought it through Steam.

[Hetz]

Amazing article! I am very happy now that I purchased the HL2 Silver package via Steam. What a great group of people over there!

I can't wait for Tuesday!  

[Big Jake]

without being controlled my their distributor/publisher.

Can someone PUH-LEASE tell me what I'm missing???  I looked at the prices on Steam, THEY'RE NO CHEAPER THAN RETAIL!!!

And they aren't bearing the burden of advertising this game, they're not putting physical media with steam...how can they justify the same price?!  How do so many people overlook this?  What am I missing?

[Ascendent]

More support for Valve, as they get more of the money instead of the publisher. I wish it were cheaper as well but, if the costs are the same and I can just download the game to my hardrive, and the people who created the game get a bigger percentage of my money this way then I'm all for it.

Ascendent

[Greggy_D]

Very cool link.  If I remember correctly, Gamespot did one of these "final hours" stories on Tiberian Sun.

[jonsauce]

I read through the article this morning.  Awesome!

[Kevin Grey]

without being controlled my their distributor/publisher.

Can someone PUH-LEASE tell me what I'm missing???  I looked at the prices on Steam, THEY'RE NO CHEAPER THAN RETAIL!!!

And they aren't bearing the burden of advertising this game, they're not putting physical media with steam...how can they justify the same price?!  How do so many people overlook this?  What am I missing?

They can't price it cheaper on steam for two likely reasons:

1) No way in hell VU signs a contract to distribute the game to retail and pay all of marketing just to have Valve try and undercut them with a cheaper version on Steam.  That would have made the already messy legal battle between the two worse.

2) Retailers are going to balk- why devote shelf space and other resources to a game when the dev/publisher is going to undercut them with online distribution?  Throws that whole MSRP thing right out of the boat.

[Scuba-V]

As much as I'd like to support Valve, I need to have the physical discs.  It provides so many guarantees that a download doesn't.

[Kevin Grey]

As much as I'd like to support Valve, I need to have the physical discs.  It provides so many guarantees that a download doesn't.

You can backup the steam download to DVD or CD.  And the retail version requires internet to authenticate via Steam.  The game doesn't come with a manual so you effectively are getting the same package with all associated guarantees either way.

[Jeff]

Can someone PUH-LEASE tell me what I'm missing???  I looked at the prices on Steam, THEY'RE NO CHEAPER THAN RETAIL!!!

And they aren't bearing the burden of advertising this game, they're not putting physical media with steam...how can they justify the same price?!  How do so many people overlook this?  What am I missing?

On top of what Kevin already said, there's no physical manual anyway.  And the physical materials that you get cost about 50 cents each to produce (discs and box), so you wouldn't be saving a lot.

[Greggy_D]

This is getting really sticky.

Looks like BB has released it for sale across the country.  Can you imagine buying it today and NOT being able to play it because Steam has your retail copy locked out until Tuesday?  

AND the Steam buyers are pissed because retail is now selling the game.

Can Valve actually fuck up this game/release any more that it already has?

[elborto]

Looks like BB has released it for sale across the country.  Can you imagine buying it today and NOT being able to play it because Steam has your retail copy locked out until Tuesday?

Oh, boohoo.

AND the Steam buyers are pissed because retail is now selling the game.

They are? Why would they?

Claas

[disarm]

for what it's worth, i was just in BB for other reasons and picked up a copy of HL2...they had a display full of them in the front of the store, along with the CE and Prima guide, so i grabbed mine a little early.

so what's in the box?  you get the 5 discs in paper sleeves, a 6x4.5" reference card with install instructions on one side and controls on the other, and a mail-in rebate card good for $20 off an ATI video purchased by March 1, 2005.  that's it...unless you consider the box art to be something special (i got the G-man).  although there's not much to see, i've thrown up a picture here if anyone is curious.


in the end, having it now does me absolutely no good because it isn't playable yet...but it does save me another trip to BB later.  the other upside is that i should be able to unlock it early on Tuesday morning at the same time as all the Steam buyers and get some play time in right away.  in any case, i have my copy now and it only cost me $46 thanks to a handful of those BB Bucks from McDonalds

[Greggy_D]

elborto it's not hard to figure out.

Steam users are pissed because Valve said they would unlock the Steam purchases when HL2 available via Retail, even if it was early.  It's now available via Retail.

Retail users are pissed because they bought the physical disks and cannot play because it's locked via Steam (which should now be unlocked because HL2 is available via Retail).

[Laner]

Steam users are pissed because Valve said they would unlock the Steam purchases when HL2 available via Retail, even if it was early.

They did?

[Greggy_D]

http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/34091

[Laner]

That looks like a shacknews comment, and not an official statement from Valve.  THere's no mention of early unlocking in the actual press release.

[Greggy_D]

Well I would expect them to comment on truths.  Maybe he talked to someone at Valve.  I can't see him pulling that out of his ass.

[belfong]

Very cool link.  If I remember correctly, Gamespot did one of these "final hours" stories on Tiberian Sun.

Click here for all the Behind the Games series. There's one on Prince of Persia Sand of Time, Sims Online, C&C Generals, Blizzard, Daikatana, 3dfx, LucasArts, etc.

[Raintitan]

As a Steam user,  I would be annoyed if the retail customers could play it and I couldn't.

But, it doesn't look like anyone can play it right now. I don't see any reviews, nothing.....which leads me to believe that there may be some sort of surprise in store for us (which could be good...or bad).

I can't think of a game where no real reviews or other people posted impressions right before it came out. I consider the PC Gamer UK article to be a fluke at the moment.

Interesting times...

[Gryndyl]

As a Steam user,  I would be annoyed if the retail customers could play it and I couldn't.

But, it doesn't look like anyone can play it right now. I don't see any reviews, nothing.....which leads me to believe that there may be some sort of surprise in store for us (which could be good...or bad).

I can't think of a game where no real reviews or other people posted impressions right before it came out. I consider the PC Gamer UK article to be a fluke at the moment.

Interesting times...

The US PC Gamer had a review also, and I seem to recall there was at least one other major reviewer that had a review. All of them were drooling fanatics over it.

[disarm]

As a Steam user,  I would be annoyed if the retail customers could play it and I couldn't.

But, it doesn't look like anyone can play it right now. I don't see any reviews, nothing.....which leads me to believe that there may be some sort of surprise in store for us (which could be good...or bad).

I can't think of a game where no real reviews or other people posted impressions right before it came out. I consider the PC Gamer UK article to be a fluke at the moment.

Interesting times...

there's a good reason why you don't see many reviews yet.  in order to protect their property, Valve refused to give review copies to anyone.  if you wanted to play the game and review it early, you had to travel to Valve and play it on their systems.  the few places that have reviews (PCGamer UK/US) agreed to play at Valve HQ.  the rest of the reviewer world waits for the official release like everyone else.

[ChrisGwinn]

Gamespot, Gamespy, etc. say that reviews will be up at noon PST.  Sounds like the press embargo for internet sites ends then.

Oh, and HL2 Bronze is $5 cheaper on steam than MSRP for stores.