"We have resolved the issues that caused some to experience delays with Half-Life 2 authentication earlier today. We appreciate your patience and hope everyone enjoys the game."
As anyone who has attempted to play a shiny new copy of Half Life 2 will know, in efforts to curb piracy manufacturer Vivendi Universal Games requires shop-bought copies of the game to be authenticated online with partner Valve. No problem... except that the game is so popular that the servers could not cope with demand! So busy were kept the servers that they were temporarily overwhelmed. However, a note on the website says that the problem has now been solved.
In separate news, it looks like Tomb Raider is coming to a mobile near you, when mobile games publisher In-Fusio completes a project with Eidos to bring a mobile phone version of Tomb Raider to millions of users across the globe.