Unfortunately, Polywell Magazine recently reviewed Mr.Gabe Newell, and he recommended that the Valve Software was determined to do what it takes to guarantee Half-Life 2 is THEt first person experience when it's released-and that means delaying the game until 2005, he says.
This isn't decent news, I was really hoping Half-Life 2 in 2005. Here's a quote on what Mr.Newell said in the review:

"We've already spent millions into this project, and we're willing to spend as much as we need to make this the best first-person experience ever. If that means delaying the game to 2005, we'll do it without any hesitation.

If it means sinking another USD 20 million into the project, we can do it. Rest assured, if we delay the game, it'll be only to blow your socks off even more when it finally releases."


... :S

(EDIT: Well it looks like Half-Life 2 is still aiming for this year after reading more carefully and more half-life fan sites with interviews and other proof of information and sources. w00t!

I'm proud to present that the info, media, other stuff, pre-ordering, community, and site info section is nearly all done! Now enjoy!

Three new Half-Life 2 Bink Videos have been released. They are: Pysche, Coastline, and Striders. Striders and Coastline is ripped old footage from Half-Life 2's last show at E3, just at a higher resolution in Bink Video, and Psyche is a bink video with some new short footage with the G-Man.

You can download Coastline here
You can download Pysche here
You can download Striders here

Enjoy! Your welcome!

Well, to begin with, regarding the GDC 2004, it looks like Half-Life 2 with the Source Engine showed up at this year's GDC. Here's a snoop from the IGN report:

"While the demonstration was aimed at the game development community and it only included video from the E3 demonstration, we did get to see the technology behind the engine in a little more detail.
The demonstration was split into several parts, highlighting the renderer, physics, AI, character expression/emotion, sound and multiplayer features of the Source engine, as well as highlighting some of the built-in world creation tools available to developers."


And a snoop from the Gamespy report:

"The first thing you notice is simply how detailed the models in Half-Life 2 really are. Only when the editor is zoomed in all the way can you start to see the edges of the polygons -- closer than you'd ever have an excuse to go in-game. The skin is immensely lifelike: it's got blemishes and zits."
Sounds good!

Also, the SoftImage&#124XSI EXP for Half-Life 2 has been released. You can download it here. It's a 161.9 MB sized download, so beware dial-up users!

Here's some information in the readme about the SoftImage&#124XSI EXP for Half-Life 2: "The SoftImage&#124XSI EXP is a complete version of SOFTIMAGE&#124XSI that lets you output Half-Life 2 characters, props and worlds. The XSI EXP for Half-Life 2 has all the tools you need to make your very own artwork for the world's coolest game, from polygon modeling and lightning fast subdivision surfaces, to nonlinear animation mixing and interactive simulation and rendering."

Sounds great! But then again, it's no promised Half-Life 2 SDK, but at least the next good thing, and good enough!

At last now, Half-Life 3(yes, hence I said 3en confirmed by Gabe Newell, and is already underway in developement!! It is strange that Gabe Newell refuses to deliver any more information about Half-Life 2 that is still waiting on it's release date and will offer information about Half-Life 3...but so far we only know that in Half-Life 3 that the conversion of Alyx Vance from a NPC to a fully playable character. Alyx is Gordon Freeman's female sidekick in H-L 2. The revelations did not stop there however and Mr. Newell also promised plenty of alien-based revelations. And you can still expect to see Half-Life 2 at this year's E3 in May and that it still targets a Summer 2004 release date!

Doug Lombardi, director of Valve Software, now confirms that the release date that they are targeting for Half-Life 2 is no longer April 2004, but Summer 2004. We can expect Half-Life 2 to be displayed again at this year's May 12-May 15 E3 trade show. This doesn't sound good...stay tuned. :@

Believe it or not, Half-Life 2 is GameSpy's most wanted game of 2004, it's #1 of the list! Man, if Half-Life 2 actually wins GOTY 2004.....LIEK OMG lol just keep up dudes k? K!

Well it appears now that some web sites are reporting half-life 2's release date this september. Check out the full story here. Of course it's not official, no release date for Half-Life 2 is official ATM but I'd say that September 2004 is a more realistic release date then April 2004. I'd also presume to see Half-Life 2 show up at this year's E3(E3 2004).Stay tuned. :S

Slashdot Games has reported that a man from San Fransisco had his home raided by the FBI and Secret Service in regards to the theft of Valve Software's Half-Life 2 leaked pre-beta source code demo. Its a good read...this might be the hacker who stole the source code pre-beta demo from Valve Software. Hopefully we'll have more news soon. Stay tuned. :S

You can check out the interview here...its pretty interesting stuff.

Enjoy!

--Wester

Valve refuses to confirm anything of this, yet new years have seem to brought some official rumours, that the Half-Life 2 SDK will be released soon. This may be because of the email to HalfLife2.net by Rick Ellis, software engineer of Valve Software, noted that the Half-Life 2 SDK may be released soon. Although the confirmation was quite vague of Rick Ellis, it seems to be quite logical and reasonable that an SDK of Half-Life 2 would be released soon. However, Valve Software is still focused on managing their Security Systems more efficiently so no source code or unfinished alpha or beta techical demonstrations may be hacked, stolen, and leaked by hackers, so it would not seem logical that the SDK of Half-Life 2 be released before the game is actually speculated to ship, supposedly April 2004, well, I really hope so among others, of course!