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 (thanks Jeux-France). Read more for somenew screens ...

Noticed on VPRO that Polygon Magazine has a quote from Valve's Gabe Newell that Half-Life might be delayed until 2005. "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."

Over on Slashdot they have a mention of a weblog on recent developments regarding the Half-Life 2 source code theft from last year. Apparently there is progress made by the FBI who have raided a San Francisco resident's home in relation to the leaking/theft of Valve's upcoming hit product. The article shows a scanned FBI search warrant. Go check it out!

Hostile Intent is a Total Conversion for Half-life that rose from the ashes from The Sherman Project. Every original feature for The Sherman Project is still in, but the new team has thought of many new original ideas and concepts. The HI Team has released a new patch (available for Windows & Linux) addressing several issues such as telefragging, updated maps and a few other things. Read more for details & download links ...

Hostile Intent is a Total Conversion for Half-life that rose from the ashes from The Sherman Project. It was taken over by a group of hardcore fans that didn't like seeing the project die. So they put together a small team that soon went out and became a huge team consisting of the most talented people from the Half-life community. Eventhough the concept behind Hostile intent hasn't changed, it is infact different from The Sherman Project. Every original feature for The Sherman Project is still in, but the new team has thought of many new original ideas and concepts. After 3 years in development, let the madness begin! Read more for details & download links ...

Sven Co-op 3.0 is now available for download. Sporting over two hundred and fifty features and changes ranging from new physics and AI systems to the Improved Cockroach, 3.0 is the largest, most significant update in Sven Co-op's history. Read more for details and download links ...

Earlier today VU Games president of international operations, told Reuters the source code theft would result in a four month delay (Valve, though, has not confirmed that delay), pushing Half-Life 2 back to April 2004 (story). Now CNN reports following:

When hackers broke into the computing system of Valve Software, they stole more than just the source code to Half-Life 2. They also stole enough game maps and other components to put together a playable build of the game. Today, five days after the first leak, they have released that build.

Today's release of a playable version of the game brings Vivendi's comments from earlier today into question. Ramboz told Reuters "a third of the source code was stolen". However, with the stolen game now out, it's possible a more complete version of the source code was taken...

VU Games president of international operations Christophe Ramboz has been quoted on saying that "A third of the source code was stolen. It's serious because it forces us to delay the launch of the game by at least four months, that is to April 2004. Just the time to rewrite parts of the game." While previously Vivendi US had said it was delayed until the holiday season, with the recent source code leaked (and earlier this morning there are rumours of an actual BETA game leak) things probably got delayed further. To be continued!

HL Rally.net released some new screens (also available below) "a remodelled Subaru Impreza, a brand new Skoda Fabia, a stylish new look for the Lancer Evolution".. Half-Life Rally is a racing modification for the highly acclaimed and everlastingly popular game, Half-Life by Valve Software. Unlike most mods currently being made for the Half-Life Engine, the goal of HL-Rally is not to blast your enemy to smitherines with relentless repetition prone to excessive cheating and hacks, but to race cars and be the first and fastest across the finish line, out-running your opponents in any way possible to gain a few milliseconds on them.

Shacknews got some more details on the recent Half-Life 2 source leak from Gabe Newell (thanks Blues). Here is a clip:

1) We've taken our network connection down to pretty much a minimum. We're still finding machines internally that have been compromised.

2) The suite of tools that the attacker was using included the modified version of RemotelyAnywhere (basically a Remote Desktop-style remote admin tool), Haxker Defender (a process, registry key and file hiding tool), the key logger, and various networking utilities that allowed them to transfer files (compressors, NetCat, and FTP). We also are pretty sure they were sniffing our network to gather passwords and other information. Haxker Defender includes a file system driver that allows an attacker to have stuff on your machine that is invisible, unless you do something like mount the drive under another OS that has NTFS support.

We have determined one way of detecting some infected machines, which is using a connection viewer to detect connections to anomalous hosts external to our network.

We still don't know their entry method.

By now everybody heard about the leaked source code for Half-Life 2. While at first it was not certain these files were actually legit, it has now been confirmed by Valve's own Gabe Newell and he issued the following statement about it (thanks VE3D). Read more for the full deal ...

Shacknews has gotten word from Valve's Doug Lombardi that the long rumoured delay of Half-Life 2. Doug's reply states" The previously announced September 30th release date for Half-Life 2 is being pushed back. We are currently targeting a holiday release, but do not have a specific "in-store" date to share at this time. We will release that information as soon as we have confirmed a new date." Not really a big surprise, especially with the flimsy Steam service, but still a rather big disappointment.

Valve Software has released the Steam update tools for the Half-Life dedicated servers. These updates will allow server admins to upgrade to v1.1.2.0, they are required if you want to keep your Win32/Linux servers in sync. These updates also address a large amount of tweaks, improvements and bug fixes. Read more for details & download links ...

Ensuring that the long-awaited sequel to one of the industry's most groundbreaking games will not only live up to five years of anticipation, but will also give gaming enthusiasts a reason to fasten their seatbelts in front of their PCs, Microsoft DirectX 9.0 will bring scientist Gordon Freeman and his creeping, shooting alien nemeses back to life - with the vibrant graphics and enhanced gameplay needed for a truly immersive experience - with the release of "Half-Life 2" by Valve Corp.

Developer Valve has revealed that it plans to offer a $9.99 monthly subscription system to purchasers of Half-Life 2, as well as releasing three separate versions of the game - which has now seemingly slipped to November. (thanks Gamesindustry.biz)

In an email, later confirmed as authentic, posted to forums on Half-Life2.net, and a later follow-up on the forum thread, Valve boss Gabe Newell confirmed that the company intends to offer an optional subscription which will grant members free additional content for Half-Life 2, delivered over the Steam digital distribution system.

Valve unleashed the seventh Half-Life 2 video via Valve's Steam distribution program. The new Barricade trailer runs a little over 2 minutes and showing off more gameplay footage from this upcoming FPS. Read more for download links ....

Ok, somebody needs to make up their mind and stop toying with all the HL2 fans out there. After a rumoured delay about a week ago, and then rather dismissed as a "miscommunication", our Nordic colleague's over at Gamereactor now have "confirmed" word from Vivendi Norway that HL2 is indeed being delayed. Now whether this is actually true, or maybe only for the European/Nordic version is not certain, but more details will most likely be available during the upcoming ECTS. Read the full article over at Gamereactor.

Valve, creators of Half-Life, the world's largest PC action gaming franchise, will team up with Vivendi Universal Games UK (VUG UK) at ECTS in London to present Half-Life 2 for the first time in Europe. In development for the past five years, Half-Life 2 was first unveiled in May 2003 at the E3 games convention in Los Angeles, where it received 12 Game of Show accolades and E3's Overall Game of Show award.

Valve unleashed the sixth Half-Life 2 video via Valve's Steam distribution program. The new Bugbait trailer runs for about 3 minutes (the longest one so far) and showing off more gameplay footage from this upcoming FPS. Read more for download links ....

Another day, another HL2 trailer. Valve unleashed the fifth Half-Life 2 video showing off more gameplay footage from this upcoming FPS. As usual is it a self-running Bink formatted video showing off tunnels. This footage was part of the the original E3 trailer, just in high resolution. Read more for download links ...

Just noticed on Gamespot that they got confirmed word about Half-Life 2 getting delayed from the original September 30 date to "somewhere later this year". They DO stress that it would still ship this year, but they are most likely aiming for the holiday season now. I am sure this will both disappoint as well as piss off quite a few people ... UPDATE Contrary to the above Shacknews says that according to Valve, this is the first time they heard about a delay .. Who should we believe, the publishers or the developers .. To Be Continued!

A little bit later than was announced Valve has released new Half Life 2 footage through their Steam service. They have just unleashed a self-running Bink formatted video showing off a bunch of the physics as part of gameplay aspects of Half-Life 2. Read more for download links ...

Yesterday there was, initally, the story that Half-Life 2 was not coming to xbox, then GameSpy got the confirmation from Valve that it WAS scheduled. Now GameSpy has talked to Microsoft Xbox Group product manager David Hufford that it is coming and explaining how the confusion about the fate of the Xbox version of HL2 came into existence in the first place. Check out the soap story!

Evil Avatar dug up some Half-Life 2 news from Seattle Bizjournals, were product manager David Hufford from Microsoft Xbox group says "As of now, Half-Life 2 is not going to be on the Xbox... Here is a small clip:

Raisys, who owns Microsoft stock, expressed disappointment that the combat game Halo 2, the sequel to one of Microsoft's few exclusive smash hits, won't be available for the holiday season. Halo 2 isn't expected to be available until March 2004.

In addition, Hufford acknowledged that another anticipated combat game sequel, Half-Life 2, made by Seattle game developer Valve Software, won't be available for the Xbox as had been previously announced.

"As of now, Half-Life 2 is not going to be on the Xbox," he said. "Valve is sending us mixed messages on that."

Half-Life 2 was unquestionably THE game to see at this year's E3. For the people who did not manage to get to see it (which probably means most of you), we now have it freely available on our file servers. This 25 minute trailer shows engine & in-game footage and comes in hi-res, so be prepared for a lenghty download (thanks GameSpy). Read more for download links ...