Valve's Gabe Newell has been hitting the Half-Life 2 Fallout forums, offering info on the game's size, voice actors and international language versions among other things. Thanks Jamie.

In a Q&A about the Half-Life mod Codename: Gordon on HomeLAN Fed, Gabe Newell is asked for an update on Half-Life 2. Keeping the September 30 release date in the back of our minds, Gabe says "It's in great shape. We anticipate delivering it to Vivendi in August".

Valve Software sends along this press release, announcing that arrests have been made in the Half-Life 2 source code theft case.

"Within a few days of the announcement of the break-in, the online gaming community had tracked down those involved," said Gabe Newell, Valve's CEO. "It was extraordinary to watch how quickly and how cleverly gamers were able to unravel what are traditionally unsolvable problems for law enforcement related to this kind of cyber-crime." ...

Computer & Video Games is the latest site with a hands-on Half-Life 2 preview, reprinted from a recent issue of PC Zone magazine. There are impressions of the game along with quotes from Valve's Gabe Newell and Doug Lombardi.

Well we just got back from the HL2 show and there are a few things to note that I'll put in courier just to annoy everyone:

- Half-Life 2 multiplayer is Counter-Strike on the Source engine and will be available at the same time as when Half-Life 2 ships. Counter-Strike gameplay doesn't seem to have changed much, if at all. Graphics of course, are much improved.
- Half-Life 1 is also ported over to the Source engine and will be available at the same time as when Half-Life 2 ships.
- During the presentation, Gabe Newell reiterated that Half-Life 2 is shipping this summer, although no specific date was given.
- Team Fortress 2 was not mentioned at all.

We have also gotten some footage of Counter-Strike running on the Source engine that will be available on FileShack later this evening.

GameSpot, PC.IGN and GameSpy all have new Half-Life 2 previews this morning, offering hands-on impressions and several new screenshots.

So what, exactly, did we get to play? We got to play through a couple of different sequences, one of which was a story-driven, largely noninteractive expository sequence near the beginning of the game and the other of which was an action sequence involving action both on foot and behind the wheel of a nitro-equipped buggy (the one shown off at last year's E3). We can say that the initial sequence, though there was no real gameplay to it apart from just walking through an environment, was more impressive; it demonstrated to us that Valve still has a knack for creating dramatic, suspenseful sequences that can be exciting even without any kind of real action happening onscreen. That's as impressive of a feat as ever

What about a release date? According to IGN and GameSpy, Valve is shooting for this summer.

Exclusive visit to Valve Software in the US is an article on Telenet G@Me$, describing a recent visit to the Valve offices. The article contains several photos, along with a quick Steam Q&A and very brief Half-Life 2 impressions. More Half-Life 2 coverage can be found at NeoWin where they were at an ATI press event which included a demonstration of the game by Valve's Gabe Newell.

Zee Germans at Half-Life2.de have obtained themselves some new Half-Life 2 screenshots. No scans from a magazine preview, the real thing. Check them out here. Thanks Carnivac.

VGPro.com has a quote from Valve's Gabe Newell, who recently commented about Half-Life 2 release delays in Polygon magazine. Thanks Blues News.

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 $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

Not that this was supposed to be taken as evidence the game won't be out this year in the first place, but Halflife2.net points out this quote came in reply to the delay in September 2003.

Expect to see new Half-Life 2 media & previews soon, as Computer & Video Games has posted a story about how the next issue of the UK magazine PC Zone will have a new 10 page article on the game after playing it at the Valve offices recently. Of course, it's doubtful they were the only ones invited we'll probably see a lot of new articles. PC Zone goes on sale April 29, online coverage probably won't be far behind that.

Valve never got around to putting all the Half-Life 2 E3 videos on Steam, but they did include them on the Counter-Strike: Condition Zero CD. We now have the last two videos (Coastline and Striders) mirrored on FileShack. Note that these are just high-res clips from last year's E3 trailer, this is not new footage. Here's a list of all the videos in case you are missing any or want to download again.

- Half-Life 2 Striders Bink Video
- Half-Life 2 Coastline Bink Video
- Half-Life 2 Barricade Bink Video
- Half-Life 2 Bugbait Bink Video
- Half-Life 2 Tunnels Bink Video
- Half-Life 2 Trap Town Bink Video
- Half-Life 2 Kleiner's Lab Bink Video
- Half-Life 2 Docks Bink Video
- Half-Life 2 G-Man Bink Video

New on HomeLAN Fed today is this Q&A with Valve's Rick Ellis. Rick is asked about licensing the Source Engine which is powering Half-Life 2 and also the new Vampire: The Masquerade game.

IGN has started GDC coverage and among the few pieces they have posted so far is this Half-Life 2 Source Engine Demo article. It's not terribly in depth, but it covers a few areas of the engine such as the renderer, physics, AI and character expression.

Isn't this just unexpected? Softimage has just released Softimage|XSI EXP, a fully featured version of its model/animation toolset to create custom content for Half-Life 2. You can grab the 161mb download from FileShack. Using EXP you can create and animate new characters, level props, etc. The Softimage website has tutorials available.

Whether you are a 3-D professional, a novice or just curious, the XSI EXP for Half-Life 2 guides you through all the features and functionality in SOFTIMAGE|XSI, and lets you actually output Half-Life 2 characters and models. From polygon modeling and lightning fast Subdivision Surfaces, to nonlinear animation mixing and interactive simulation and rendering, it is all here.

Model tools are here, but when will we see the game itself?

Maxitmag.co.uk has posted a new Q&A with Valve's Gabe Newell, asking him about (what else), Half-Life 2. There is also this report on Game Reactor (in Swedish) mentioning that Valve is already working on collecting ideas for Half-Life 3. You can get a rough translation of the news item through this site, thanks Computer Games Online for the tip.

CNN Money has the latest Game Over column from Chris Morris, who takes another look at the impact of the Half-Life 2 source code theft. Valve's Doug Lombardi is quoted as saying the company "is currently targeting this summer for the completion of Half-Life 2". It is also mentioned in the article that there is a new Source Engine licensee. We received this press release from Valve Software on that, announcing that Arx Fatalis developer Arkane Studios is the second company to license the engine. Work is already underway on the PC game powered by the engine.

Slashdot Games reports on this blog post, in which a certain Chris Toshok gives an overview of January 14 when he had his place raided by the FBI. According to the warrant handed to him, the FBI was looking for everything related to Valve Software and Half-Life (2). Nine PCs were taken. Thanks Marc.

Over at BlueWolf72.com you can find a Half-Life 2 editing Q&A, featuring user submitted questions answered by Valve's Rick Ellis. Thanks HomeLAN Fed.

Computer & Video Games has new images from Half-Life 2, two screenshots and a piece of concept art. Thanks Wes.

There's a Half-Life 2 editing Q&A on Half-Life 2 Online Source, asking Valve's Rick Ellis about content creation. Thanks HLF.