According to a new post by Valve's Gabe Newell on the Half-Life 2 Fallout forums, some Half-Life 2 assets will start preloading through Steam soon. Things that won't change until the game ships; like textures, audio, etc, should be appearing on your harddrive starting August 17. Of course this doesn't say anything about a release date, but it can't be months away if they are starting to do this.