Half-Life 2

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Valve Half Life 2 auction "reached $8 million"

Bundle turns into real bundle in the graphics jungle

We have contacted Valve Software to ask whether it put its Half Life 2 game and prequel out to bid to graphic chip protagonists ATI and Nvidia.
So far, we haven't heard back from Valve and we wouldn't expect ATI to comment. But sources close to Nvidia suggest that the bidding could have reached as much as $8 million before it withdrew from the auction.

Valve made an unprecedented attack on Nvidia and the performance of its technology last week at an ATI sponsored day.

Half Life 2 is being hyped as a super game, and is, as the saying goes, "eagerly awaited". A kind of pearl beyond price. But according to our information, Nvidia withdrew as the bidding rose to ever more crazy heights and the price of this possible jewel in the crown spiralled.

According to our sources, who stand by the auction story, Nvidia felt, that as graphics market leader, it would find itself compromised with other games companies and with its graphics card partners.

If the reports of this auction and these allegations are true, this would certainly put a different colour on Valve's statements about Nvidia's benchmarks.

We wonder that if such an auction did take place, and if Nvidia had ended up with a Half Life bundling deal, whether Valve would still have the same view about its benchmarks.

We've contacted Nvidia about the allegations but the company refuses to comment.

The Inquirer

[JSR]

no one i goin' to put their head on the choppin' block, to corroborate the facts or not......the fact is that it is valve whom , in a position to make hardware companies bid for their ....."services"............did so, and therefore created this controversy in the first place , for the love of the all mighty dollar, that's business....now, it's just a bunch of stupid rhetoric to mask true intention :thumbs do

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Brandon Bell, Firing Squad

Half-Life 2 Performance Preview Part 1
Half-Life 2 Performance Preview Part 2

Part 1 was posted on the previous page, but I've put it here as well, just in case some of you missed it.

[JSR]

even though hl2 will be demanding, just not as demanding as doom 3, nor ut 2004 in 64 code........nonetheless it's a start of the next phase in developement

[E^vol]

even though hl2 will be demanding, just not as demanding as doom 3, nor ut 2004 in 64 code........nonetheless it's a start of the next phase in developement

Like the leap from Pong & Pacman to Nintendo (1st Gen.), I also believe that we'll be seeing a huge leap forward in graphics quality in the near future, HL2 & Doom3 are just the start.

[weta]

E^vol: Whilst there are obviously bigger and better titles in development. Most people will agree that at this moment in time Half-Life 2 is the finest game available (30th September) and that it will sell by the truck load.

[JSR]

i believe doom 3 will surpass it, on so on and so forth, so yes, hl2 has bragging rights.........for now

[E^vol]

I'm pretty sure that the people @ Compucentre (a crappy local store), are :confused: about the release date for HL2...
They have the HL2 date as being NOV 20th !!!
Are they ? I think so...

[JSR]

who really knows...........it's supposed to be released w/ati's 9800xt card........maybe that's the day...........and the question is if it will be out in full version format selling as a stand alone or will valve play games w/ us due to their connection w/ ati

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IMPORTANT: I cannot believe I just now remembered this, but when I was on the tour, Gabe told me that Steam would begin to send Half-Life 2 the game to individual's hard drives a week before it released via Steam. I'm assuming this is for people that choose in advance to get it from there. A Steam employee also told me that the material sent to your hard drive would he heavily encrypted, in order to prevent anyone from playing any of the game early. And obviously, people would be notified in advance that the material was being sent to their hard drives. If this is the case, then an announcement would need to be made no later than next tuesday (the 22nd) for it to be sent by the 30th via Steam.

Half-Life 2.net

[Missing]

Every video game store I visit has a different release date... The worst being from Babbage's which has it listed for February 3. Electronic boutique has it for November 14 and Gamestop has it for February 2. I just wish I knew when I was going to need 400 bucks for a new video card....

[Sovereignty]

Well it was officially delayed today. I doubt they'll get it on shelves before christmas.

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"The previously announced September 30th release date for Half-Life 2 is being pushed back. We are currently targeting a holiday release, but do not have a specific "in-store" date to share at this time. We will release that information as soon as we have confirmed a new date."

Doug Lombardi, Valve Software

[JSR]

gets out before the vcard/game, there may be compelling evidence to snub the bundle and buy it as a stand alone

[E^vol]

VALVE IS FULL OF CRAP !!!