Planet Half-Life has a brief, but informative, Q&A with Valve's Gabe Newell. Questions are about the limitations of the manipulator and co-op support.

There is a Half-Life 2 Q&A on HomeLAN Fed this morning. Valve's Gabe Newell answers a few questions about the development time, gameplay, mods and a few other related topics though not a whole lot of new info is mentioned.

JCal went out and asked a few mod makers about their opinion of Half-Life 2 and the possibility of transfering their mods to the game when its released in September. On hand are Charlie Cleveland of the Natural Selection team, Ben Irwin of the Firearms team as well as Neil Manke of They Hunger among other great mods.

There is a new Half-Life 2 preview on C&VG, offering an online version of the PC Zone magazine print article. There are several pages of impressions and developer quotes.

GamingNext's Q&A with Valve's Gabe Newell is up, asking Gabe about (what else) Half-Life 2. Questions are about the Source engine, AI, engine licensing, character expressions, making mods and a few other things.

To say it was an adventure to get this video to you guys would be an understatement. What we've got here is a ~25minute video of Half-Life 2 in-game footage taken straight from E3 2003 in 720x480 or 360x240 flavors. We're putting out the high-res video at first to just FileShack Mercury members since we're really quite certain this thing will floor our servers but it will be open to the general public this week shortly after the initial rush.

- Half-Life 2 E3 2003 video, 25minutes, 720x480 @ 491megs
- Half-Life 2 E3 2003 video, 25minutes, 360x240 @ ~150megs (being converted/uploaded now)

The 720x480 version file page has a capture from the actual video to give you an idea of the quality. We're really pretty confident this is the best quality video out there. Both files are in DivX format, we're working on other formats but wanted to get what we could out right away.

In case you hadn't seen the Half-Life 2 teaser trailer from E3 yet, we now have it on FileShack in DivX format - no watermark or anything. Grab the high res or low res version.

GameSpot is offering impressions of the Half-Life 2 build being shown at E3. What they are showing at the show, is different from what they showed to sites and magazines a few weeks ago. Video is available, but only for GameSpot Complete members.

Still another sequence reveals that Half-Life 2 will have drivable vehicles in it. Freeman hops into a dune buggy armed with a high-tech weapon, and begins yet another escape sequence as a huge flying buglike monstrosity begins its attack with a high-powered machinegun. Freeman smashes through obstacles and Combine troopers in this car, sometimes using its weapon to take others of them out. Freeman eventually gets blocked by destroyed vehicles and hops out of his buggy only to discover a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, which he uses to guide missiles towards his persistent assailant.

Check it out here. Update: IGN also has this teaser video.

Of course we're not the only one with a Half-Life 2 preview. After you've read Steve's article head over to GameSpot, PC.IGN, GameSpy or Computer & Video Games for more. All except C&VG feature the same screenshots, since the C&VG guys have access to the assets of print magazine PC Zone they have a few other ones.

As promised here's a first hand experience preview of Half-Life 2 following my visit to Washington a little while ago. Generally with the occasional previews that I do here (just a few a year?) I try to keep cool and just be as objective and informative as I can. Things got a little bit crazy though when I saw Half-Life 2 though, I couldnt believe it.

... it can't fit under the rocks so it begins to poke around sniffing and grunting looking for alternate entrances, as it’s wrapping around the back Gordon makes a break for it and creates some distance between himself and his pursuer. However once crabby-spider-bull spots Gordon that distance closes quickly before getting distracted by another group of humans accompanied by an armored vehicle. The group of course panics and piles back into the vehicle only to have crabby-spider-bull start ramming their vehicle in an attempt to push it over a nearby ledge. They call in reinforcements however and Gordon can see the 8-foot menace getting gunned down by an airship as he makes his escape. [snip]

Yes, crabby-spider-bull. I came up with that one myself. Also the secret to life is... HWM.

Well since it seems to be the hip thing to do and we've gotten the OK to say so, tomorrow at 3.30pm PST we'll have an in-house preview of Half-Life 2 complete with first-hand impressions and screenshots straight from Valve Software. There's also a good chance that the meaning of life will be revealed as I've been holding that one back for a while.

So although we wont be seeing any legit full blown Half-Life 2 previews showing up just yet, there is quite a bit of info floating around in internet land that is no longer under NDA and many of you who happen to have gotten your hands on some magazines are probably privvy to this, but here you go some more Half-Life 2 info in addition to the previous info (and more here) (Thanks John, Carnivac, Eric):

- ALL objects in the game world are affected by the physics
- Movement speed of HL will be retained
- Drivable vehicles in both single and multiplayer
- Engine technology scales based on your system specs
- Known locations: City17 in east Europe, a harbor, a jail, the suburbs, a dried up ocean, an icebreaker (large ship)
- Multiplayer is important and multiple game modes will be supported
- Coming out before Christmas 2003 is 'certain' (read: Sep 30th)

- The editor is called 'Hammer' and will be included, sounds like a complete development environment for maps, mods etc.

- TF2 will be using the HL2 engine, once they decided to use the HL2 engine they stopped giving information as they didn't want to blow anything relating to it. TF2 will 'arrive soon'.

Keep in mind, NO LINKING OF SCANS. If you want to see what the game looks like, go buy PCGamer, CGM, or CGW.

Well this seems to be quite the common theme the past few days. Once again we've got a Half-Life 2 headline! Todays news is the first ever public and actually clear images of the game in action, and the strange news that Half-Life 2 will be showing at the ATI booth of all places for E3, instead of a publisher booth which is certainly the norm. (warning very minor spoiler below) Thanks RickyJ for the link.

"You are once again Gordon Freeman," described Gabe Newell, managing director and co-founder of Valve. "You are awakened in the future. Several of the characters from [the original game] are back, including Barney the security guard, the G-Man, about whom you learn more and in whose employ you now are, and several of the scientists. There are new characters as well, most prominently Alyx, whose mother was killed during the events of the original game. The story is once again conveyed entirely within the course of playing the game."

Maybe people will now quit sending me that lame NVidia exclusive rumor eh? Hrm, probably not. :)

So there are a number of subscribers who have already gotten their copies of PCGamer, CGW, and CGM and all three of the magazines are happily offering up some pretty glowing previews of the game. You'll have to wait for May 6th-8th though for those magazines to come out, however in the mean time here are a few bits of info that are the common theme as reported by subscribers:

- Half-Life 2 will be released on September 30th, 2003
- Gordon went to work for the G-Man
- Setting is in European like city called City 17
- No cut scenes

Yup, imagine that.. a hard release date just over 5 months from now. Place your bets!

The first images of Half-Life 2 from a few magazines are starting to pop-up, and if you're one of the lucky ones you've already gotten a nasty-gram from one of the magazines in question. To keep things nice with our printed counterparts we wont be posting links to the scanned content of those articles you'll have to go buy the magazines when they are available. However the one morsel that has been deemed acceptable is this image (mirror) which is entirely blurry and doesnt tell you much of anything! If you know the shelf dates of magazines carrying HL2 stories drop me a line and I'll update this list:

- PC Gamer hits shelves on May 8th
- Computer Gaming World hits shelves on May 6th
- Computer Games Magazine hits shelves around May 6, also includes the first ever look at Thief 3.
- What else?

update: PC Gamer sent us the cover art for you guys:

Although incredibly brief this is probably deserving of a full news item all by itself since it's the first direct correspondence from Valve Software on the topic. We just got this very brief statement from Valve Software:

Half-Life 2 will be shown at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo.

Well, it's coming and the preview of the cover has shown up over at Gamerz.nl. The artwork pictured here is most likely done by Dhabih from Valve Software (his style) who many of you may remember for some previous magazine covers.

Also, our dutch speaking buddy Maarten here translated the Gamez.nl page and it basically says that the issue of PC Zone pictured above has its publishing timeline delayed by two weeks to hit shelfs on April 28th, which they say is the day that the Half-Life 2 NDA will be lifted and previews will assumedly be showing up in a few places.

Update: Another magazine cover can be seen at Gamer.nl, featuring Gordon and a female character. The magazine preview itself is said to mention the game will be out before the end of the year.

Update 2: VE3D has word from Computer Gaming World's Jeff Green that their June issue featuring a Half-Life 2 preview is being mailed to subscribers tomorrow. It will hit newsstands May 6. The US edition of PC Gamer will be out May 8.

Ah... well it looks like we're finally about to see Half-Life 2 announced. The most recent issue of Edge magazine overseas is carrying a simple ad with just a crowbar (seen here) and you'll note that the shadow completes the numeral 2. Edge magazine can most closely be compared to the now defunct Next-Generation magazine we had here in the US. Oh, and the May 16 date refers to the news stand date of the magazine.

In addition, the most recent PC Gamer magazine I'm told was carrying a teaser about next month as well. :

We kid you not. Don't buy any other magazine until you see our exclusive blowout coverage of what's certifiably the biggest game currently in development. That's got you thinking, hasn't it? Oh, we'll have a great reviews slate, previews of an amazing new franchise, and more Hard Stuff - but you'll come for the unveiling of...

The E3 show is just around the corner starting May 13th. Chances of Half-Life 2 being revealed on or before that date? Hmmmmmm. How much time between the announcement and the actual shelf date of the game? Could be anyone's guess. Should be quite the E3!

There was a news item on Evil Avatar yesterday, quoting an article from the February issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly. Basically, EGM is saying (the unannounced) Half-Life 2 and Deus Ex 2 will debute on consoles first.
Back in May of last year there already was the rumor of Deus Ex 2 going to consoles first. Warren Spector later said this is not going to be the case. I asked Valve about the EGM rumor

Valve is focused on developing next generation content for the PC. As in the past, we remain open to opportunities of creating content for other platforms. At this point, however, that's everything from Valve on this topic.

Yeah, that fluffy answer really doesn't tell us a whole lot. They have handed off console ports to Gearbox in the past and as they say, they remain open to future opportunities. Maybe they are considering a simultaneous PC and console release this time?

update Jack - Actually, this is Legalese for "we're not working on any console stuff now, but we may down the road." I wish they'd stop replying like this to a person whose first language isn't English.

There have been rumors floating around for a little while now that Half-Life2 was much further in development than most people would think. Valve has not even really officially announced the game although it has been referenced a couple of times in publications about the company. Well according to a report in the UK trade press (Thanks FGN), Half-Life2 will be announced at ECTS next week. But this is the really interesting part:

...the U.K. trade press have suggested that the long-awaited sequel to Half-Life is just six months away from completion.

Valve has been so quiet for so long it's near impossible to really tell what they have been up to. The only thing that really has been confirmed is that TF2 is late, and that Valve is developing their own in-house engine technology. Assumedly Half-Life2 would also be based on that tech. update: Gamestar is also carrying the story. (Thanks Yobock)