Softimage Co., a subsidiary of Avid Technology, Inc. announced today that the SOFTIMAGE/XSI software, the industry-leading nonlinear 3-D production environment, was used exclusively by Valve to create all the characters, models and props for the new game Half-Life 2. This widely anticipated sequel to one of the best selling PC games of all time introduces life-like in-game characters that herald the next generation of characters for interactive entertainment. To exceed the expectations of a more sophisticated audience and deliver the new title on schedule, Valve converted its production pipeline to the award-winning SOFTIMAGE/XSI environment.

ATI Technologies Inc. leading graphics technology provider, and Valve, creators of Half-Life, Counter-Strike and other award-winning PC action games, announced the first public showing of Valve's Half-Life 2 will take place at next week's Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, CA. The product will be shown on ATI's RADEON 9800 PRO 256MB, the highest performance 3D card currently available, in a state of the art theater located in ATI's booth (South Hall, 646). Half-Life 2, published by Vivendi Universal Games, will be demonstrated by Gabe Newell, Valve's co-founder and Managing Director, every half-hour. The original Half-Life was launched to tremendous reviews in 1998, won over 50 "Game of the year" awards worldwide, and launched a franchise with over 8 million units sold.

The cat is out of the bag, the NDA liften and severla previews have surfaced as expected. We got 20+ screens for your viewing pleasure, some familiar, some character art, some editor shots and others previously only seen as magazine scans but now in hi-res. Read more and check them out! If you want to check the previews, you can find them at PC.IGN, C&VG, GameSpy or Shacknews.

The French site Newtechnix.com tossed up some new screens from Valve Softwares upcoming fast-paced action 'Half-Life 2'. The game will make its public debut at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). Check out the screens here!

Gamesindustry.biz let us know that it's been confirmed that an Xbox version of Half-Life 2 is in development, with Valve's Doug Lombardi telling German Xbox magazine AreaXbox that the console port is underway.

"Yes, we're also working on an Xbox version, though not releasing any specific details on that until after E3," says Mr Lombardi.

This doesn't rule out versions on other consoles - it seems unlikely that AreaXbox would have asked about PS2 or GameCube versions - but given the difficulty of porting the title to those platforms, we'd suspect that the Xbox will be the only console to see Half-Life 2.

CNN today tossed up a pretty interesting article about Half-Life 2 that is under developement by Valve and will be published again by Vivendi. The story includes some game information / features and also some new screens. Here is a small clip:

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.

Full article here!

Andy @ VE3D received some more Half-Life 2 information from Jeff Green @ Computer Gaming World:

Just letting all y’all know that we are joining the pile-on and featuring Half Life 2 on our June cover. It’s a 6-page feature based on an interview and demo of the game we had a Valve’s office in Seattle, and includes a bunch of exclusive screens.

The magazine is being mailed to subscribers *tomorrow*, so it will be in some folks’ greasy palms within a few days. The official on-sale newsstand date is May 6.

Shack today got this very brief statement from Valve Software, 'Half-Life 2 will be shown at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo'.. Gamez.nl got a magazine cover from PC GamePlay, 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.

As expected, the version 1.1.1.0 patches for Half-Life and version 1.0.0.5 patches for the retail edition of Counter-Strike are now available for download. This release includes the Ricochet mod, a new demo recording facility, additional anti-cheat measures, the new C-S map de_piranesi, and various other improvements and bug fixes. You can use the SierraUp utility (from the "Configuration->Update" menu) that was distributed with previous releases, and Steam users should be able to upgrade around this time as well. (thanks Blues). Read more for links on where to grab these hot patches (and dont be surprised if half of the links will be out of service due to high traffik).

As expected the Half-Life v1.1.0.9 patch and the Counter-Strike v1.0.0.4 (retail CS only) have been released. These updates have tons of fixes and tweaks such as the new Anti-Cheat protection, HLTV changes, integration of Steam technology and so on. Either use the SierraUp utility, from the "Configuration-Update" menu, that was distributed with previous releases or if you are one of those Steam people, you should have it by now (thanks blues). Read more for a detailed fix list and links where to grab the files.

Action Halflife has now officailly been released. Action Half Life is designed to simulate the experience of being in an Action movie. Movies like Hard Boiled, Face Off, and Die Hard are the inspiration for AHL. AHL aims for something called 'Movie Realism'. Find out more and download from Action Half-Life!

Half-Life for PS2 that is developed at Gearbox Software got the relesedate set. Sierra today announced that Half-Life for PS2 is shipping to retailers across North America on November 14 and around the world by November 23. *yum yum*

Multi award-winning first-person shooter to blow away Sony users… This November will see the release of one of the most eagerly awaited PlayStation 2 games to date - Vivendi's brilliant Half-Life.

Meet the guy behind the game. Randy Pitchford, the man behind Vivendi’s unstoppable Half-Life for PlayStation2, he will be visiting the UK on September 25th

13th Street posted up a new trailer for the Playstation 2 port of Half-Life. Grab this trailer here.

Today new patches was released to Half-Life and Counter-Strike from Valve. Included in the Half-Life patch is Deathmatch Classic, a new Automatic update system, optimised model drawing and more.

• Half-Life 1.1.0.7 Full Update
• Half-Life 1.1.0.6-1.1.0.7 Patch
• Counter-Strike Retail 1.0.0.2 Full Update
• Counter-Strike Retail 1.0.0.1-1.0.0.2 Patch
  
  Valve patch time!!

The Opera website has been updated with the debut release of this Half-Life modification, Opera. The release is an 87 MB download and to help you get started, they have also published a "The Opera" Operations Manual. You find everything here!

Half-Life Blue Shift is now out in retail. Blue Shift is an expansion pack for HL from Gearbox Software and to celebrate the release of Blue shift, PlanetHalfLife offers four new screens.

Valve Editing Resource Center has posted links to the new Half-Life: Blue Shift level design SDKs. Take me there!

The Deathmatch Classic MOD (13.7 Mb) for Half-Life is done since a few days back "Quake 1 mod". We got some screens from it and you can also download it from our ftp. Read more below!

We got some new images taken from Gearbox's new Half-Life adventure, Half-Life Blue Shift.

Over at vault site we just noticed that there will not be any Half Life released for Dreamcast. "The word from Ebgames: Half-Life for the Dreamcast has been cancelled and will not be released at all. End of line."

Sierra Online has announced that Half-Life Blue Shift, the newest episode in the award-winning Half-Life franchise, has gone gold and will ship to retail outlets around the world in June.