Half-Life 2

[Soulburner]

Half-Life 2 Delayed To April 2004

PARIS, Oct 7 (Reuters) - The theft of part of its source code has delayed until April 2004 the launch of "Half Life II", the hotly anticipated alien-hunting game of Vivendi Universal Games (Paris:EAUG.PA - News; NYSE:V - News), a company official said.

"A third of the source code was stolen. It's serious because it forces us to delay the launch of the game by at least four months, that is to April 2004. Just the time to rewrite parts of the game," VU Games president of international operations Christophe Ramboz told daily Les Echos in its Tuesday edition.

According to Les Echos, a hacker broke into the email of the game's developer, Gabe Newell, the founder of Valve Software, and planted a spying program.

[weta]

<center>Reports of Half Life further delay mistaken?
It will ship at Christmas, it appearsThe Inquirer

Valve must love this, with Reuters and now even The Wall Street Journal covering the story, they couldn't buy this level of publicity, but better than that they're getting it all for free.

[JSR]

what a strange twist of events. who knows whats next? it's a long time until christmas............but, you'd have to think they wouldn't miss the holidays

[JSR]

now, apparently there was a beta of hl2, not just the source code........and it's been leaked

http://www.neowin.net/

scroll down

[Beefy]

now, apparently there was a beta of hl2, not just the source code........and it's been leaked

http://www.neowin.net/

scroll down

It's not a 'beta' as such. It seems as though more of the code from the game was taken than first thought. Apparently, some people who got the code also managed to get a lot of textures and game data, so they could put together a fair few of the maps...

[PersianImmortal]

It turns out now that there's an alpha being floated around and people who have it are saying it is playable. I think it's meant to be part or all of the E3 playable demo or something similar.

I'm personally very annoyed that more and more now the kiddies cannot wait for a final to be released - they have to basically suck the life out of every possible avenue to get a game (legal or otherwise).

For me, I don't want to see or hear about HL2 until I have the final copy installed on my PC. I mean what's the point in giving away half the surprises and secrets and ruining the playing experience?

Not to mention that a company goes to great lengths to develop a new game with a new engine and their code is ripped off, they are constantly harrassed for not meeting a tentative release date, and now an alpha/beta is being sent around to add insult to injury.

If this is the same "community" which will be playing HL2 online you can count me out.

[Beefy]

I'm personally very annoyed that more and more now the kiddies cannot wait for a final to be released - they have to basically suck the life out of every possible avenue to get a game (legal or otherwise).

For me, I don't want to see or hear about HL2 until I have the final copy installed on my PC. I mean what's the point in giving away half the surprises and secrets and ruining the playing experience?

Not to mention that a company goes to great lengths to develop a new game with a new engine and their code is ripped off, they are constantly harrassed for not meeting a tentative release date, and now an alpha/beta is being sent around to add insult to injury.

If this is the same "community" which will be playing HL2 online you can count me out.

I'm with you on that one PI. It was the same with the Doom 3 Alpha that made the rounds months ago. I didn't touch it, as I am happy to wait for the full game. It's kind of sad that people are going to such lengths to get their hands on a portion of the game like they are... and if this is the same community who will be populating servers and forums once the game is released, then it's not going to be the enjoyable experience I was hoping for. It will be CS all over again. :(

[Osiris]

I was actually a bit surprised at Todd Hollenshead's response - that he hoped that Valve would stop chasing the culprits and get around to finishing the game.

I agree that Valve shouldn't let it distract them from their core purpose, but I think they have a right to be angry at what's been done and a right to find the perpetrators.

Maybe Todd was just annoyed with all the publicity Half-Life 2 has been getting :).

[Fox]

Dunno wat Todd Hollenshead's havin' a beef about...

http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?threadid=11383

...although it may just be propaganda, make the theves panic type thing.

[weta]

<center>Hacker Speaks! Vague Threats Made to Valve</center>

The so called "Anonymous Leaker" that was possibly responsible for the distribution of the Half-Life 2 beta yesterday ( And also allegedly the one who stole from Valve to begin with ), has made a statement.

Read more for full details...

Anonymous Leaker:

"To all those saying HL2 was delayed because of the hacking action, ill just remind you that what was leaked is what Valve has, nothing more and nothing less, so its pretty good to understand it wasnt finished yet.
Also I'd like to point out the E3 [demo] was one big fake by Valve. Ever tried to kill that soldier in physicstown ? Notice the door will still get kicked ? No scripted sequences ?

To everyone saying this is no Beta: I'd like to point out that THIS is what you wanted Valve to release on 9/30/03, theres no such thing as a much better release in Valves network! "

To Valve: I suggest you stop lying to your customers about how much was stolen/compromised, or I'll have to release everything just to prove my point. And you know what you got, as I do."



Neither I nor Half-Life News, in any way, supports the theft and release of Valve's software. That being said, I am also tired of the obvious half-truths and whole lies that Valve PR has given out in regards to many things Half-Life 2 related.

Half Life News

[JSR]

:laugh:

[weta]

<center>Valve's Top 10 Secret Files
Half-Life 2 isn't the only thing hackers uncovered...</center>

In what is possibly the biggest news story of the gaming year, hackers broke into Valve Software's Network and stole the source code to Half-Life 2.

While much has been made about the leak and its ramifications and consequences, few people have commented on the OTHER incredible stuff that was found on Valve's network. And it's up to a serious, responsible journalist like myself -- with a history in this humor column of deep investigative journalism -- to get to the bottom of this and bring this information to the public. So, forget what you've heard about the stolen Half-Life 2 source code. Take a look at THESE.

GameSpy

[The__tweaker]

lol I've read em' all.. ^^ Very funny indeed.. :laugh:

[Osiris]

Nice to know that we can still have a laugh at things :).

By the way, I've posted an editorial on TweakTown Gamer about the whole situation.

Ultimately, I don't think Half-Life 2 sales will be horribly affected by this event - it might just alter the release date.

[The__tweaker]

But if we send em' 100 bags of cheese doodles..:?:

Then they most likely finish the damn game by this time next week..