Valve's Adrian Finol broke the silence with a forum post, and an update on Valve's Steam website with nothing but a new screenshot which indicates that Deathmatch is coming, even says "SOON"! Valve did promise a community surprise, and this could be it!

Well it seems Valve is giving hackers a piece of their own cake as not only did they, supposebly, leak a fake, non-working HL2 version, but now they have also banned over 20,000 people from Steam for attempting to pirate Half-Life 2 with the CD-Key 5J52E-FVKXV-882FQ-YJXRQ-DOD98. The forum thread also has word that Valve is working on a securROM fix for owners of the CD and DVD editions of the game who are unable to play due to overzealous copy-protection (thanks VE3D).

Several people had been complaining about skipping gameplay and audio in 'Half-Life 2' and Valve's Erik Johnson confirmed that they have identified the cause of the problem and a fix is in the works and expected "no later than tomorrow."

HL Fallout is reporting that TransGaming Technologies announced today it will be porting Half-Life 2 over to Linux which is due out on December 7th. Linux gamers can experience the new interactive world of Half-Life 2 with TransGaming's release of Cedega 4.2. Cedega also supports Steam, Valve Software's online distribution technology, along with a number of other Valve titles.

In Half-Life 2, the player again picks up the crowbar of research scientist Gordon Freeman, who finds himself on an alien-infested Earth being picked to the bone, its resources depleted, its populace dwindling. Freeman is thrust into the unenviable role of rescuing the world from the wrong he unleashed back at Black Mesa. And a lot of people people he cares about are counting on him. Beware of the spoilers...

Valve's Chris Bokitch put up a note on their Editing Resource Collective website that the Half-Life 2 SDK is coming soon. "It would be an understatement to say that there's been a lot of interest expressed about the forthcoming release of the full Source SDK. Well, the time draws near! I'm not going to mention a specific day, but certainly the word "soon" is appropriate here. The upcoming release will include Half-Life 2 mapping support and additional sample maps, support for cubemaps, and the mod source code."

In Half-Life 2, the player again picks up the crowbar of research scientist Gordon Freeman, who finds himself on an alien-infested Earth being picked to the bone, its resources depleted, its populace dwindling. Freeman is thrust into the unenviable role of rescuing the world from the wrong he unleashed back at Black Mesa. And a lot of people people he cares about are counting on him. Beware of the spoilers...

Half-Life 2 is out, and you better believe it! But with new game releases come new bugs, and this is no different for Valve's HL2. For people who are running into the bug on startup that looks like "Map Version is 0, expecting 19," Valve's Erik Johnson suggested trying this to see if it works:

1. Go into your "/Steam/SteamApps folder"
2. Rename the file called sourcemodels.gcf to something else.
3. Relaunch the game.

This is going to require a redownload of this file, but if you want to get playing tonight it's probably the best path. There are a couple of people now who were in this situation and fixed the error in this way.

Valve made good on its promise and has unlocked Half-Life 2 for people who pre-ordered it through its online delivery system Steam. "Half-Life 2 is available now for purchase and to play. Those who pre-purchased their copy via Steam may access the game by double-clicking on the Half-Life 2 icon in their Steam Games directory. To purchase your copy via Steam, please visit www.steampowered.com." The Source remake of the original Half-Life is now also available.

HL2DB and GameSurge are holding a Half-Life 2 Release Party on IRC and GameSurge Radio, with various events scheduled for the hours leading up to the release (midnight on November the 15th), including a possible interview with members of Valve Software. From 9PM Pacific Standard Time, an interview with Sven Viking and Sniper of the Sven Co-op team -- on the subject of their upcoming co-operative mod for HL2 -- is to be held in the #HalfLife2 channel on irc.gamesurge.net.

As has been rumored the past few days, 'Half-Life 2' is indeed being sold early at various big stores in the U.S., such as BestBuy, Wal-Mart and even a few select EBGames. The lucky ones who managed to purchase a copy will get a major disappointment, as Vivendi ordered Valve to not activate the Half-Life 2 Steam authentication servers. Basically, anybody who bought HL2 can't play it yet. Valve issued a statement saying it is not their decision, but Vivendi who threatened Valve with breach of contract if they did.

Since the game itself will have no manual included, Prima Games and Valve today announced the availability of the first two official Half-Life 2 publications. Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar and the official Half-Life 2 game guide, both scheduled to arrive in retail outlets around the world on Friday, November 12, 2004.

Vivendi Universal Games today announced that Half-Life 2 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

The Half-Life 2 Steam offers are now ready for purchase from Valve's Steampowered website. Details and pricing were already revealed yesterday, so check it out and have your pick. Those who purchase via Steam, will receive the final version of Counter-Strike: Source immediately. Half-Life 2 and other games in the Steam offerings will be made available to purchasers upon their release.

Tomorrow at 11 am PST, the Half-Life 2 Steam offers will be ready for purchase. Those who purchase via Steam, will receive the final version of Counter-Strike: Source immediately. Half-Life 2 and other games in the Steam offerings will be made available to purchasers upon their release. Read more for details and pricing for the various offers.

In Half-Life 2, the player again picks up the crowbar of research scientist Gordon Freeman, who finds himself on an alien-infested Earth being picked to the bone, its resources depleted, its populace dwindling. Freeman is thrust into the unenviable role of rescuing the world from the wrong he unleashed back at Black Mesa. And a lot of people people he cares about are counting on him.

Fan site Half-Life Fallout has received word from Valve's Gabe Newell the various purchase choices Half-Life 2 fans will have once the game is officially released. Apart from that the rumor has it that whether Vivendi holds back HL2 or not, Steam users will have access to Counter-Strike: Source. Read more for the puchase details ...

The third phase of the Half-Life 2 preload begins to Steam account holders today. This will allow users to download the majority of the models of Half-Life 2 in encrypted form. No purchase is required to pre-load Half-Life 2, but is required to activate the game. The moment the game is made available, those who have pre-loaded and purchased Half-Life 2 via Steam will be ready to start playing right away.

Valve's Gabe Newell has been known to trickle out little information about Half-Life 2's progress now and then on the HL2Fallout.com forums, and it seems he did again just that Friday night. After a long night of partying or not, Gabe has posted a short blurb simply stating "We're going gold monday..." Various online retailers have been changing the HL2 release date in their db's to early September over the past week, and it seems, for once, they may be right.

Update: Seems this was a fake/hacked forum post... bummer!

Half-Life 2 pre-loading begins to Steam account holders today. Over the coming days, those who have selected the pre-loading option will have encrypted Half-Life 2 files delivered to their PC. No purchase is required to pre-load HL2, but is required to activate the game. Purchase options will be released soon. Then, the moment the game is made available, those who have pre-loaded and purchased Half-Life 2 via Steam will be authenticated and ready to start playing.

More indications surfaced today, giving more credibility to the rumor that 'Half-Life 2' might be released in September. Valve's Gabe Newell has posted some interesting information on the HL2 Fallout forums : "8/11 the Cafe's turn on (tomorrow). 8/16 CZ/ATI users pre-load. 8/18 CZ/ATI turns on. 8/17 HL-2 pre-load starts (textures, audio and other stuff that doesn't change)." This indicates that big parts of the game are in the final stage and are probably going to get pre-loaded to gradually build up to the full release.

In Half-Life 2 the player again picks up the crowbar of research scientist Gordon Freeman, who finds himself on an alien-infested Earth being picked to the bone, its resources depleted, its populace dwindling. Freeman is thrust into the unenviable role of rescuing the world from the wrong he unleashed back at Black Mesa. And a lot of people people he cares about are counting on him. Read more for somenew screens ...

Valve's Gabe Newell has been spotted on the Half-Life 2 Fallout forum dropping by to post some info about who they signed to do the voice overs in HL2, available language versions and the size of the game. Half-Life 2 is about 3.5 GB uncompressed and about 2 GB compressed. This doesn't include CS:Source, HL-1:Source, DoD:Source, the SDK, or whatever (thanks Shacknews) Read more for list of the voice actors ...

Arrests have been made in several countries related to the break-in to Valve's network, theft of the Half-Life 2 source code, and release of the source code on the Internet. Read more for some additional details ...

At this years E3 Expo, there will be not one – but TWO – Half-Life 2 theatres to get a look at two different demonstrations with ALL-NEW content. Head over to South Hall and stop by the Vivendi Universal Games Booth #1200 and get your Half-Life 2 Access Pass to check out the demo and NOT have to wait in line – the access pass will get you into the demo at a pre-reserved time. After checking out the demo at the VUG booth, then head over to the ATI Booth #1608 - also in South Hall - for another ALL NEW Half-Life 2 demo.