With the release of Valve's next generation first person shooter (hopefully) imminent, Igniq have compiled a handy list of facts.
Here's what we know so far:
The history:
* Half life was released in 1998 & became an instant favourite with addictive gameplay and superb graphics* More than the game in itself, the engine let fans create their own modifications with the full support of Valve. This supported, extendable game platform started a revolution in gaming and a boom of games based on Hlaf-life followed
* Highly popular off-shoot games like Counter-Strike and Day Of Defeat sustained the gaming community for years as the mods served in place of a new release from Valve.
* Development of HL2 has been ongoing since HL was released ?????
* A team of? have worked on it since then
* The development of the game was no doubt delayed while Valve put energy into preparing their Steam gaming platform* Rumours of a release date were always circulating but never officially confirmed, heightening anticipation to a fever pitch
* Disaster struck in '03 when the source code for the game engine was leaked by malignant hackers
* The full impact of the leak was not alluded to by Valve, but Vivendi, the publisher, said they expected a release in Summer '04
* Valve later said that they expected a release candidate to be ready for publishers in August '04, in line with the scheduled release date of September 30 2004
* The September ship date was put back, and Gabe Newell said in an interview: "Right now it's for the holidays. I wish we had a clearer date to give people at this time."
* On 17 Aug the full storyline to Half-life 2 was reportedly included in a file sent out with the Counter-Strike Source BETA test
* Last month, Gabe Newell's forum account was hacked and used to make a false Gold announcement; the announcement was later officially confirmed as false by Valve.
* The encrypted files for the game began pre-loading through Steam on 26 Aug, a sign that the game release is very near
* Release candidates are expected to be delivered to Vivendi on 15 Sept
* A recent slip of the tongue by an investment banking firm analyst stated that the game will be released in Nov.
* Valve or Vivendi have not confirmed an official date for release, but November looks to be the best estimate.
The characters:
* Gordon Freeman, the theoretical physics Ph.D at the Black Mesa research facility is back
* Alyx Vance - The daughter of one of the scientists at Black Mesa, Alyx helps Gordon in much the same way the security guard character did in Half-life (!!!!!!!!!)
* G-Man - The creepy black-suited man who appeared briefly in the first game makes more than a cameo appearance in the sequel (!!!!????!!!!)
The story:
* There is not much information available, we do know that Gordon begins the game confused and disoriented after the events at the end of the first game.
* The world is decaying, the populace is dwindling as a result of the nightmare creatures set free from the Black Mesa research facility in the first Half-life.
Players take the role of Freeman again, and must find a way to save the world from the plague he helped create.
The features:
* (We hope) the much loved gameplay of the original. The technical wonders will be secondary to most gamers and Half-life 2 will ultimately be judged on how fun the experience is.
* Advanced artificial intelligence - the characters you encounter will act as if they have a mind of their own, reacting to your actions and having the ability to use anything in their vicinity to help or hinder you.
* An advanced physics engine will create an environment as near to real-life interaction as is possible with todays gaming technology. All objects will act in a realistic manner, from the water to the trees, to the man-made objects in the game
* Using a system similar to what you see in movies like Toy Story and Monsters Inc, the graphics in this game will be ultra-realistic
What will I need to play it?
*Steam, and a computer with?
What are the expectations of this release?
* Monumental. Every aspect of this game will be scrutinized upon release. Gamers have had so many false alarms about a release date, that they may not be forgiving of any flaws they find.
* New gaming engines from id Software and Crytek have raised the bar to a very high level, Valve's engine will have to be equal or better than these to avoid a letdown.
What will this release mean for gaming?
* Healthy competition among the top games developers, meaning more choice for the fans.
* The sprawl of games modified from the game engine (DOD, CS, Natural Selection among many others) will all be updated to new versions.
* New games from the engine will also be produced by the modding community, keeping Half Life fans supplied with new games for many years.
How can I get it?
* If you have Steam installed, you will be able to purchase it online and start playing immediately when it's officially released.
* The game will also be physically on the shelves, but you will still need to use Steam to play it.
