"Valve has announced that it will deliver a release candidate version of Half-Life 2 (HL2) (a game required under the 2001 SPA) to Sierra/VUG within the next few weeks. If Valve delivers a release candidate version that complies with the contract and is a Final Milestone, then VUG will have six months to release the product under the 2001 SPA. Valve is pressing VUG to release the product early within that six month window, and its representatives have made a number of public statements without our consent or concurrence that the product will be published and released to the general public in September of this year."

What does this mean? Well, basically, it means that VUG could help delay HL2 for up to six months. VUG could then use this time to force Valve to "back down from demands contained in its original August 14, 2002 lawsuit". What is means for us is that HL2 is probably not coming out soon. And that sucks.

remember that VUG needs the money from HL2 also... I don't think they can afford to wait 6 months...

Good point PH, so lets not get discouraged :P

I wonder how far it is from RC1 until they release the final version...

Saying "We're giving you the release candidate now, so now it's up to you", as it sounds like Valve is doing, isn't as correct as it sounds... Until they give Vivendi/VUG the final version, they're still the ones responsible for the wait...

I've gotten to the point where I'm more angry with Valve than VUG, and will not buy HL2 over Steam, even if it means waiting a week or two before I can get my hands on it!

-Mr.G

You don't have to worry about that. STeam can't release HL2 until it's on store shelves. Valve is definitely getting thier just desserts for jerking the fans around though. I'm not the least bit sorry for them.

I tire of this wait, I no longer care about HL2 like I once did. It's like a friend who says he's available to hang out on day X, but then 'Oh, something came up.. I can't make it.'

I ope Valve gets bought by Microsoft for this abismal 5 year wait period...

current mood: Angry

Delays and delays again. This is starting to feel like Duke Nuken Forever! Hopefully Valve will get rid of Vivendi after this.

WRT DNF, that might actually be closer to release than anyone had thought.
They just announced they've licensed a physics engine from a swedish company...

Read more (and download the demos) here

I won't blame Valve for the delays, as long as they deliver a solid game which I'm sure is the intention. From the videos this would seem to be the game of the year because of all the gameplay elements being implemented, but we will see (that is, if it gets a 2004 release date).

DNF... that's a complete different story. I'm still hoping they get to release at least a 'good' game someday, or even better if they shut me up and deliver an excellent product, but what has been happening with DNF is not a simple delay but it's like they have nearly completed the game and gone again from scratch a couple of times by now.

If they just license the engine, that probably means they want to use it. So they can't be far into the game if they didn't have an engine!

It's a physics engine, not a graphics engine.

If you follow the links (there were a link further in the thread I posted), you'll see that they say all they need to do is add the hooks, and it'll be set to go. They already had a physics engine, but it was a first-gen engine, so it was limited to how much it could do before performance tanked, but with this new engine, they'll be able to allow for more physics interaction than before...

I am sure that is how many HL2 fans feel, but the damage has been done for people that were sitting on the fence. I know a few people that have decided that they would just forget about the game and look forward to other products that will be coming out, and not hear about all of the "mistakes" that have been made in the past.

This is reminding me alot of the Return to Castle Wolfenstein mess.