Valve sends along an email announcing that the Source SDK Tools are now available through Steam. Here's what's included

A precursor to the release of the full SDK, which will be released shortly after Half-Life 2 is made available, the Source SDK Tools release offers a comprehensive toolset for starting production on Source-based MODs, including Hammer, XSI EXP for Half-Life 2, compiling tools, the Source Model Viewer, documentation on programming, modeling, building materials, and more

Worthplaying is the latest site to go hands-on with Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, the Source Engine powered action RPG from Troika.

ModDB.com has posted a Q&A with Rick Ellis of Valve, asking him about various modification related topics. Thanks HLF.

Because we need a little more drama around Half-Life 2's release, here you go. The guys at SumeaLaunchpad are reporting that The Pan European Games Information system has given Half-Life 2 a rating that may cause the game not to be available for retail sales in Australia. There hasnt been a decision just yet, but here's something to cause a litle nail biting:

The Pan European Games Information (PEGI) age rating system has given Half Life 2 an R(18+) rating. This means that minors are unable to purchase the game in numerous countries like Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Italy, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and the UK. What's really interesting about this is how the game fares in Australia. The Australian Office of Film & Literature Classification (OFLC) has yet to classify Half Life 2, but if the board follows suit from their European counterparts, it'll mean that one of this years highly anticipated titles is banned outright from sales here. Currently, Australia has no R rating for games, so game titles need to meet the highest rating available (MA 15+) or they will be refused classification.

Thanks Blues / VE

Also on GameSpy is this brief Q&A with Valve's Doug Lombardi. He answers questions about Half-Life 2 installation, Team Fortress 2, the ATI voucher and mentions that more content for Counter-Strike: Source is on the way.

HomeLAN Fed has a new Half-Life 2 Q&A, asking Valve's Doug Lombardi about the magazine reviews, the early release of Counter-Strike: Source, SDK release plans, plans for Day of Defeat: Source, plans to port products like Blue Shift and Team Fortress Classic to Steam, Steam subscription option plans, and a few other things though Lombardi isn't very forthcoming with information on most of the more interesting topics.

It's a shocker! Half-Life 2 out of seemingly nowhere has GONE GOLD! Here is the official PR we got from Vivendi announcing as much and more importantly a promise to ship the game with a shelf date of November 16th.

LOS ANGELES (October 18, 2004) Vivendi Universal Games (VU Games) today announced that Half-Life 2, the sequel to one of the most critically acclaimed PC titles in gaming history, will ship to retail outlets around the world in November. The Company confirmed that Half-Life 2, developed by Valve Software, has gone gold with a planned retail street date of November 16, 2004. The countdown to the highly anticipated retail street date has begun around the world, as VU Games completes plans to ship localized versions of Half-Life 2 simultaneously in English, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Traditional and Simplified Chinese, Korean, Thai and Japanese.

Half-Life 2 has surpassed our expectations in every sense its high-quality graphics, ground-breaking physics and immersive first-person shooter gameplay set a new standard for PC action games, said Bruce Hack, CEO of VU Games. Half-Life 2 will go down as one of the best-selling PC titles, and we are thrilled to deliver this ground-breaking title to the worldwide gaming community this fall.[snip]

Steam users: Half-Life 2 will be unlocked on Steam on November 16th as well. Unless of course any retailer breaks the street date and puts it out on shelves sooner, then Steam will unlock Half-Life 2 sooner.

Computer & Video Games and GameSpot are the latest sites to chime in with reports from insiders who say that Half-Life 2 is indeed finished and / or gold. C&VG reports that Half-Life 2 has been submitted to the BBFC for certification (which usually doesn't happen when the game isn't close to being done yet), while Gamespot has this to say

Ever since the release candidate for Half-Life 2 was submitted to VU Games in mid-September, a piñata has hung in the lobby of Valve's headquarters. The plan: to bust the sucker open when the game achieved gold status. Earlier today, GameSpot learned from an informed sourced that "the piñata has been broken" and the game has gone gold. Further evidence of the game's completion was a press release issued this afternoon touting the first review of "the entire game." Though nothing official has been announced yet, it appears the fat lady is at last clearing her throat.

Well the rumors are swirling that Half-Life 2 is just about done. As you guys know we carried a story a little while ago mentioning that Valve was submitting release candidates to Vivendi doing their final bughunting. Word has it that Valve has submitted RC5 recently addressing just a couple of bugs. Assuming those are fixed and nothing more is found in further testing we could be looking at a gold announcement in the very near future. The guys at CSNation, HL2Fallout, and even the former GoneGold guy are all saying this.

This is of course assuming VU doesnt hold the game up in court. But given the last couple of glimpses we've had of VU's financial situation they probably arent very eager to do that.

Update: the Steam website notes that the sixth phase of Half-Life 2 preloading is now underway. This phase will result in the Half-Life 2 maps being loaded on your computer, so Valve doesn't expect them to change much if at all.

Valve sends along an email, announcing that starting tomorrow at 1PM CST, you'll be able to buy Half-Life 2 through Steam. As noted before, Half-Life 2 won't be immediately available (with no release date set as of yet) but Counter-Strike: Source will be. This also means the CS:S the beta will end tomorrow. ATI/Half-Life 2 bundle owners can use their product key to get the Bronze version, or use the credit and then upgrade to Silver or Gold. Here's the pricing

1. "Bronze" -- $49.95
-- Half-Life 2*
-- Counter-Strike: Source
*(To be made available upon product's release.)

2. "Silver" -- $59.95
-- Half-Life 2*
-- Counter-Strike: Source
-- Half-Life 1: Source*
-- Day of Defeat: Source*
-- Valve's back catalog currently available on Steam *(To be made available upon products' release.)

3. "Gold" -- $89.95
-- Half-Life 2*
-- Counter-Strike: Source
-- Half-Life 1: Source*
-- Day of Defeat: Source*
-- Valve's back catalog currently available on Steam
-- Complete Half-Life 2 Strategy Guide from Prima Games
-- 3 different Half-Life 2 posters
-- Half-Life Collector's box
-- Half-Life 2 hat
-- Half-Life 2 postcard
-- Half-Life 2 stickers
-- Half-Life 2 Soundtrack CD
-- Chance to win a trip to Valve! (1 trip offered for every 5000 Gold packages purchased).
*(To be made available upon products' release.)

According to this HalfLife2.net forum post, the standard retail version of Half-Life 2 will be DVD only with the game not appearing on CD. It's not know what the release will be like in the rest of Europe.

If the guys at EuroGamer are to be believed, we'll be seeing Half-Life 2 in stores November 23 (North America) and November 26 (Europe), despite recent legal news. This according to sources at Vivendi Universal Games and recently contacted UK retailers. The story also mentions there won't be online reviews of the game until it hits stores.

A VU Games source told Eurogamer this morning: "There is a good chance Half-Life 2 will make it before this Christmas. We're targeting the holiday season", adding that until it physically had a gold master it couldn't set an exact date. Nevertheless, the publisher is clearly confident behind the scenes that it can make the pre-Christmas rush, with marketing plans being prepared

Half-Life 2 preloading continues as Valve has announced the start of Phase 5. Steam users who choose to preload will receive the Counter-Strike: Source maps in encrypted form. Additionally, a new Counter-Strike: Source beta update has been released fixing a problem with voicecomm.

Half-Life Fallout received an email from Gabe Newell, who announces the two different retail editions of the game along with the three different Steam packages people will be able to purchase. Whenever Vivendi decides to release the game, there will be a standard edition on 6 CD-ROMs or the previously mentioned Collector's Edition on DVD-ROM. This is what will you'll be able to get through Steam

Bronze - HL2* and CS:Source.
Silver - HL2*, Counter-Strike: Source, Half-Life 1: Source*, Day of Defeat: Source*, Valve's back catalog currently available on Steam.
Gold - HL2*, Counter-Strike: Source, Half-Life 1: Source*, Day of Defeat: Source*, Valve's back catalog currently available on Steam, Complete Strategy Guide from Prima Games, 3 different Half-Life 2 posters, Half-Life 2 hat, Half-Life 2 postcard, Half-Life 2 stickers, Half-Life 2 Soundtrack CD, Chance to win a trip to Valve! (1 trip offered for every 5000 Gold packages purchased).
*To be made available upon product's release.

You'll be able to purchase through Steam next week (no pricing was mentioned in Gabe's email), when you do so the final version of Counter-Strike: Source will become available immediately. Other games will unlock when released.

As noted on the Steam website, the fourth Half-Life 2 preload phase has started. This time, Steam will download majority of Counter-Strike: Source in encrypted form. Thanks bigimp.

GameSpot has a new story up about the legal battle between Valve and Vivendi Universal (see previous story), as they've found out that Vivendi Universal Games can hold on to Half-Life 2 for six months after receiving a gold candidate from Valve. In the court filing, VUGames' senior vice president and deputy general counsel Eric Roeder says that Valve "made a number of public statements without our consent or concurrence that the product will be published and released to the general public in September of this year". The story also mentions that until Vivendi ships the game to retail, Valve is unable to release the game through Steam as it has to be made available at the same time as the retail release.

When asked if VUG could be targeting a "late-cycle" release date for Half-Life 2, Lombardi said, "We've been asking, but Vivendi has refused to communicate an expected retail release date for Half-Life 2." Additionally, Lombardi clarified Valve's perspective when it came to the company's desire to get the game into the hands of gamers. "We delivered the first release candidate last week, and hope to deliver the final version very soon," Lombardi said. For its part, VU Games declined GameSpot's requests for comment.

Though unannounced, both the GameStop and EBGames websites are now listing a Half-Life 2 Special Edition. Carrying a $79.99 price tag and a November 1st release date, the SE features a DVD-ROM edition of the game, a limited edition t-shirt and the making-of book. Thanks PC.IGN.

GameSpot has a lengthy update on the Valve vs Vivendi Universal lawsuit that has been going on since 2002 when Valve sued Sierra (part of VUGames). The Half-Life developer originally sued Sierra because the publisher put Valve games in Internet cafes in the US and around the world, which Valve alledges is a copyright infringement. Vivendi later counter-sued, saying Valve had made misleading statements to them about their online distribution plans. Vivendi also wants Valve to honor a previous agreement and publish whatever Valve is going to work on next, and they would like to be awarded ownership of the Half-Life franchise as well. Various motions will be heard by the court October 8 (the trial won't be until March 2005). How all of this will affect the release of Half-Life 2, we won't know for a while (though Vivendi Universal Games sure could use the money).

In court filings, Sierra/VUG says that the current distribution of Half-Life 2 via Steam exceeds the scope of the current software publishing agreement between the two parties. It is apparently seeking the court's assistance in compelling Valve not to use Steam as an avenue of distribution. On Friday, when asked if Valve was remained intent on making Half-Life 2 available to gamers via Steam, regardless of what was determined on October 8, Lombardi replied, "Yes."

After getting an email from Vermouth pointing to a forum post by Gabe Newell about the status of Half-Life 2 I decided to check with Gabe myself to make sure we werent looking at another spoofed post. So, here you go.. a couple of quick bits from Gabe on what up:

"Yes, the RC went to VU yesterday""

RC being a release candidate.. which means they hope its done but a couple of bugs may still show up in testing. RC cycles can be fairly quick or drag on for weeks. Oh and for completeness, here is Gabe's response to my asking for confirmation:

"Yes.  Getting close"

Also on HomeLAN Fed today is this Q&A with David Hodgson, writer of the upcoming Making of Half-Life 2 book "Raising the Bar". The book will delve into the history of Valve Software and chronicle the development of Half-Life 2, also mentioning last year's release fiasco.