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Half-Life 2 Episode One Delayed 72

Posted by Zonk from the but-only-by-a-little dept.
Folks looking forward to their next fix from City 17 will have to wait a few more days than expected. The last time a release date was announced, they were aiming for April 24th. Now folks are going to have to wait for May 31st for the expansion to the hit game. From the Eurogamer article: "You're on top of an exploding building, okay, so how do you not all die. It answers a bunch of those questions. It also raises some questions about what the G-Man's real role is in the Half-Life universe, so there are some surprises there for people". Here's hoping it is worth the wait.
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Half-Life 2 Episode One Delayed More

Half-Life 2 Episode One Delayed

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  • The game will be released Q3 next year. Many gameplay vids before that.

  • Great... (Score:2, Funny)

    by trepan ( 593758 )
    ...so now what I am supposed to do for the month of May?

  • Conspiracy? (Score:4, Funny)

    by ucaledek ( 887701 ) on Monday March 27, 2006 @01:23PM (#15003925)
    Maybe the G-man doesn't want his role revealed. I wouldn't doubt it'd be too hard for him to take out a few programmers everytime the release date nears.
    • Maybe the G-man doesn't want his role revealed.

      I think that part of the game's brilliance is not letting us know who the G-man is, who he works for, what he does, etc. Look at all the speculation online as to the truth. Gaming guides for HL2 have a "Spot The G-man" checklist. Things like that wouldn't exist if we knew what his real role is.

      It also reminds me of a story I heard about Raymond Chandler. Shortly after "The Big Sleep" was made into a movie, Chandler was asked to explain the many double crosse

  • What's the story line, Kenneth? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by hal9000(jr) ( 316943 ) on Monday March 27, 2006 @01:30PM (#15003975)
    "You're on top of an exploding building, okay, so how do you not all die. It answers a bunch of those questions. It also raises some questions about what the G-Man's real role is in the Half-Life universe, so there are some surprises there for people"

    So I am a big fan of Half-Life and Half-life 2. It's the only game I play when I have time, but I never got the story line. I think the Valve floks know how to make a fun (Ravenholm still gives me the creeps), interactive, addictive game, but the story line, such as it is, ain't too compelling. It's too bad too, because I think they did have an oppty to have a more interesting story in the game and the components seem to be available to provide more puzzle solving manilplate the world more.

    • Re:What's the story line, Kenneth? (Score:4, Informative)

      by Grand ( 152636 ) on Monday March 27, 2006 @01:34PM (#15004002)
      I have no idea how 'true' this timeline is, but I found it somewhere a while ago and thought it was a pretty interesting read.

      http://members.shaw.ca/halflifestory/timeline.htm [members.shaw.ca]
    • I always thought Half Life 2 was strong because of the atmosphere it produces and the mystery they maintain in the story line. It's anything but shallow to me. In fact, I was drawn in hook, line, and sinker.
    • You don't know the storyline because Gordon doesn't know the storyline.
    • The problem I had was that so little information regarding the storyline existed in the game. You play a smart guy, PhD in theoretical physics, you fight back invaders from Xen, travel to another world/dimension, kill the Big Bad, and then wake up to find you're back on earth and there's this gigantic building in the middle of town that's growing and this organization called the Combine spitting out tripods to impale people. It's natural that, well, you'd have a few questions to ask. But you don't. You
      • There are a lot of newspaper clippings in the game that tell what happened, you have to have the resolution set decently and some stuff you have to use the zoom on, but if you're just running from room to room you will definately miss it. There was a link to it in another post here [slashdot.org], but I'll repeat it [members.shaw.ca], on that page is links to some of the newspapers [members.shaw.ca] found in the game.
        • Three words : Show your sources.

          The overall problem the parent posts are trying to bring up is the fact that a HUGE amount of 'backstory' (for the lack of a better word) doesn't exist IN GAME. Even the link you showed is full of flaws and is largely extrapolated.

          Under the supervision of researchers Eli Vance and Dr.Kleiner, crystals are retrieved from Xen, and organisms are analyzed.

          In Half-Life 1, the scientists reacted to the headcrabs as if it was the first time they had seen them. With the exception

          • Under the supervision of researchers Eli Vance and Dr.Kleiner, crystals are retrieved from Xen, and organisms are analyzed.

            This is justified by the Opposing Forces expansion, where you see scientists experimenting with Xen crystals and aliens. There's even a Headcrab Zoo. It's still speculative, because particular scientists were never named, AFAIK.

            I'll agree that timeline page is pathetic resource by and for idiots, due to the lack of footnotes.
    • The best explanation of the Half Life story I have found is here http://members.shaw.ca/halflifestory/ [members.shaw.ca]. You are not spoon fed the story in Half Life. Instead, you need to take the time to look around at the objects in the game -- not only listen to what NPCs are syaing, but read newspapers and posters stuck to the wall...

  • Delayed (Score:4, Funny)

    by SailorFrag ( 231277 ) on Monday March 27, 2006 @01:33PM (#15003997) Homepage
    Valve pushes back a release date.

    In other news, water is still wet.

    Of course, when they *do* finish, their games tend to be pretty great. So I don't mind.
  • i live at my school, hence a boarding school. this is good for me because it is exactly one week before i come home for summer. i wont miss out on alot. i know most of you are upset, but this is good for me.

  • Windows, Office, Ubuntu, Half-Life... (Score:4, Funny)

    by amliebsch ( 724858 ) on Monday March 27, 2006 @01:38PM (#15004034) Journal
    How about we post news articles when things actually do ship on time.
  • Good, that will give me a chance to finish Oblivion before it comes out.
  • As usual, the article mentions that Episode 2 is already in development. Why can't they finish the first one before starting on the second one? How is that even possible?

    • Re:As usual (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Probably because they don't need every employee they have to finish up the first one. There's no use for a graphical designer if all the graphics are already gold for example. Could be there's just some coding bugs to work out, which leaves everyone but the programmers open for the next project.
    • They're probably in pre-production. With the various stages of production, some personel are need and other aren't. Example, you don't really need the group the story-writers towards the end when completion isn't too far off.

      My guess:
      Episode 1: they're finishing off the coding, but a majority of each piece is complete. Enough to put them together and start refining.

      Episode 2: they're laying out the storyboards, perhaps some concept art for new enemies and locales. Maybe their starting new artwork for th

  • HL breaks the mold (Score:3, Funny)

    by phlegmofdiscontent ( 459470 ) on Monday March 27, 2006 @01:53PM (#15004166)
    I mean, in other FPS games, you're a space marine or some variant. In Half Life, you're a theoretical physicist. It gives hope to one such as myself, who aspires to be an observational astrophysicist.
  • ..the code leak?
  • The worst bit is that Gabe Newell has said it took him 7 hours to finish. Not because that's a bad time, but because the fucker already played it and is waving it in our faces.

    I'm hooked on HL2, and it's like shooting up in front of a recovering smackhead when he says that. Damn him and damn Valve (but I'll buy it anyway).

  • Half-Life 2: Episode One? (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Does this title make no sense to anyone else?

    Half-Life 2 has come and gone...but now we're getting Episode One? Wouldn't Episode Two be a bit more fitting.

    • Does this title make no sense to anyone else?

      Half-Life 2 has come and gone...but now we're getting Episode One? Wouldn't Episode Two be a bit more fitting.

      I couldn't agree more - although the original title of Half-Life: Aftermath actually made a lot more sense, since it is obvious that it is the aftermath of the Citadel blowing up. That, and it allows creating jokes about Valve having games named after the C&C Red Alert Expansion packs: Counterstrike, Aftermath, which soon be followed by Yuri's Rev

  • How can you not figure it out? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by garyok ( 218493 ) on Monday March 27, 2006 @03:15PM (#15004799)
    G-man

    Gordon Freeman

    Jeez, do you guys need a map? He's a time-traveller pimping out his own past ass to himself and his anarchist buds from the future so shit happens the way they want. Why do you think he's going to so much trouble to make sure Gordy's always in the right place at the right time? And why he always knows where one step ahead of Gordy is?

  • I did RTFA' but $20 for a "episode"? I don't know about the rest of you folks but $20 does seem to be a bit much. Maybe if it was long enough, say at least 3/4 or 2/3 of HL2. I mean, HL2 came out about ~2 years ago and they still want $40 for it through Steam (Yeah, I know you could probably get it cheaper elsewhere)
  • i honestly don't see why they're releasing these episodes serially. ya, it may generate a buzz for the next release, but why not just release as they're completed? heck, if there were 20 episodes out, i'm sure it'd keep quite a few people busy and antisocial for a very long time. what's so good about the HL storyline is that it's so completely open. they can create episodes that add little bits and pieces and have the community do some detective work and piece everything together. really, to me, and i'

  • Ahhh, episodic games (Score:3, Interesting)

    by trawg ( 308495 ) on Monday March 27, 2006 @10:43PM (#15008151) Homepage
    One tenth of the game for one fifth of the cost!

    I think I'll pass on this up and coming trend.

    • I think Valve figures that if World of Warcraft can get people to pay fifteen dollars each month, they can get ten to fifteen for an episode of HL2. Some people are much more willing to shell out some, small amount of cash every now and then, rather than 50-60 dollars relatively seldom.

      This way, people are also getting their fix more often.
      • That's fair enough - but what happens if/when Steam dies? Can I still play my games?

        I like being able to occasionally go back to my games catalogue and pull out a game I bought 10 years ago and install it and play it. I'm scared of Steam (and by extension, other DRM systems).
  • One word: STEAM.
    No thanks. I'm not interested in my system calling into the net every time I play, even every time I want to design a map.
    Despite my enjoyment of HL2 (yes, I bought it, yes, I finished it) STEAM simply pissed me off too much.

    HL was great. HL2 was brilliant. STEAM was idiotic.

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