nfsu 2 will knock spots of juiced imo...

I'm personally waiting for Halo 2 and KOTOR 2. They are both coming out this winter.
(Of course I am also waiting for FL2, but since there's no word yet, I'll have to wait a while. )

Personally, i'm not waitin on HL2. I found the original mind numbing. I've never really enjoyed FPS though. I am however, getting a bit to excited over GTA:SA. Oh the joy and hermitisation when that comes out.

@ff

I don't know. I'll duck if it is a slap, but just something to shed a little bit of light on to the HL2 situation

Although, it will probably be either the slap or.....




Nothing

@ww2Jacob: If you're waiting for the PC version of KOTOR 2 then you'll have to wait until February to get it.

@Topic: It appears that Vivendi Universal is "strong-arming" Valve. Apparently, the two parties are in a lawsuit. I'm not entirely sure what it's about, but it seems that Half-Life 2 could be delayed ANOTHER six months before it's released. They are sueing each other. VU claims that Valve has been misleading Vivendi and concealing facts. Valve is countersuing Vivendi over an apparent breach of contract, refusal to pay royalties and delaying Counter-Strike: Condition Zero even though it HAD gone gold.
Because of this legal battle, Half-Life 2 could be delayed another 6 months.
The review of Half-Life 2 IS legitimate. This legal repartee between Valve and Vivendi Universal started back in 2002 because of a cybercafé distribution dispute. Apparently in that dispute, Vivendi breached their contract with Valve by distributing Valve's games without their authorization. So THAT'S what's going on here with Half-Life 2, Valve and Vivendi Universal. I nabbed this info from GameSpy.

Loc - I'm just shaking my booty .

Vivendi cannot win if the jury is sane enough. It stated in the contract that both Valve and Vivendi signed, that Valve would take care of online distribution, but Vivendi thought nothing of it, and decided that it would be okay for Valve to go ahead, becuase they predicted that not many people would purchase online. A big mistake on their part .....

"Steam" is a program which allows you to download encrypted pre-loads of Half-Life 2, and when the time comes, you can send the money to Valve, and they'll give you a password to open Half-Life 2, effectively allowing you to start playing immediatly. Over 1 MILLION machines have pre-loaded Half-Life 2 via steam, and are waiting until it goes gold, so they can send the money and start playing. Vivendi has suddenly realised that Valve gains ALL the profits via steam, and Vivendi gets none. In other words, Valve profits multiply by 2.5 , giving them somewhere around 100 million dollars to play with, and Vivendi gets none of it.

Being a greedy company, Vivendi haven't taken this lying down, oh no. According to their contract, Vivendi can hold half-Life 2 for up to 6 months in the gold phase before starting production, and that looks like what they're doing, waiting until the hearing on October 8th to see if they can get their dirty hands on Valve's profits from their innovative "Steam" system that they haven't even contributed a cent to. Unfortunatly for gamers, in the contract there is a clause that says that Valve cannot distribute Half-Life 2 until the retail version is on store shelves, in other words, when Vivendi has to stop their 6 month greed tantrum, so Valve can't leave Vivendi choking in the dust and release the game via steam.

That's basically whats going on .....

Edited by - Neo_Kuja on 9/28/2004 2:43:34 AM

@D_S 2004

here is a quote that explains one of the reasons i'll be getting need for speed underground 2

---

The game also delivers twice the visual customization upgrades as the original game, providing a staggering 70 billion possible car combinations for total automotive self-expression.

---

well that and the 200km squared driving area.

Neo - Maybe, however I still maintain that it is all for publicity. Do you really think that Vivendi would be stupid enough to put the whole gaming community off-side by holding back HL2? Not a smart move to irritate the people who buy the games .

It could come down to timing tho Esq.

Checking the Amazon charts across all systems on the UK site, HL2 is being whopped in the sales charts. GTA is second behind *spits* the Sims 2 and Rome Total war is even above it.

By delaying it further could end up just being a marketing thing. GTA is arguably a bigger franchised name than HL and the Sims is THE biggest selling game ever. Perhaps Vivendi are afraid of sale flops for their mainstream title with so many good games out and about presently.

HL is behind because no one who hasn't pre-ordered has bought it yet. There are definitely a lot of people who are going to buy the game but only after it comes out.

Possible GE, but high pre order sales are a good indication as to how eager people are for the game. People have known about HL2 since GTA:SA and GTA hasn't moved from the top 5.

Although, with the whole buy online from them thing, which i don't know quite how big that is, could make the pre order charts incorrect.

Its never a good idea for a publisher to release a game at a time when so many big names are coming out or have been recently released, its too hogh risk. The first month or so of a big name release is when most of the sales take place. Take a look at the game sites that deal with all systems, the big name at the mo is GTA.

I don't feel Vivendi require any more publicity than they have already had for the game, and the HL name can happily sell itself because Esq was right, if you continue to delay a game, then delay again etc people start to get annoyed. Look at the new Duke Nukem game by 3d Realms. Vivendi are a big publisher and i doubt they would continue to delay the game without a very good reason.

Just to give a bit more insight as to what i'm also getting at i asked about the release of World Of Warcraft, also being published by Vivendi. They couldn't give me a release date becuase they were not even told by Blizzard as to when it would be available for sale. Perhaps this is the same for Valve.

EDIT: Just read Neo's post. Pre order sales figures will obviously not show HL2 with a million bods buying through Steam.

Edited by - Bret Bretonian on 9/29/2004 4:01:31 PM