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VIVENDI UNIVERSAL GAMES ANNOUNCES PLANS TO LAUNCH THE MOST ANTICIPATED PC ACTION GAME OF 2004
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Half-Life® 2 to Ship to Retail Outlets Globally This Holiday Season

LOS ANGELES (October 18, 2004) – Vivendi Universal Games (VU Games) today announced that Half-Life® 2, the sequel to one of the most critically acclaimed PC titles in gaming history, 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.

“Half-Life 2 has surpassed our expectations in every sense – its high-quality graphics, ground-breaking physics and immersive first-person shooter gameplay set a new standard for PC action games,” said Bruce Hack, CEO of VU Games. “Half-Life 2 will go down as one of the best-selling PC titles, and we are thrilled to deliver this ground-breaking title to the worldwide gaming community this fall.”

Hailed as “...the best game ever made” by PC Gamer, Half-Life 2 earned a top-rated review score of 98, the highest score bestowed by the magazine in more than six years. The game has received numerous accolades for its technical excellence, captivating story and addictive game play, including more than 10 awards and nominations at the 2004 Electronic Entertainment Expo. In addition to being named “Best PC Game” by 1up.com (Ziff Davis) and Gamespy.com, the title also received a “Technological Excellence on PC” award from IGN.com. CNNMoney.com stated that “Half-Life 2 will redefine what gamers expect from their games visually – and the gameplay is a lot of fun as well.”

The global anticipation for Half-Life 2 has reached unprecedented heights, as consumers around the world mark their calendars to buy the game at retail on November 16th. The Half-Life 2 product will include Counter-Strike: Source. VU Games will also release a Half Life 2 Collector’s Edition that will include Half-Life 2 in DVD-ROM format, Counter-Strike: Source, Half-Life: Source, a free limited edition t-shirt, and a Half-Life 2 Prima strategy guide book.

The original Half-Life game was launched in 1998 under VU Games’ Sierra Entertainment publishing label. It earned more than 50 game-of-the-year awards and has been heralded as one of the best PC first-person shooter games of all-time.

About Half-Life® and Half-Life® 2

In 1998, Half-Life revolutionized the game industry with its combination of pounding action and continuous, immersive storytelling. Valve’s debut title was named “Best PC Game Ever” by PC Gamer and launched a franchise with more than eight million retails units sold worldwide. In 2004, Half-Life 2 will take the suspense, challenge and visceral charge of the original to new heights of realism and responsiveness. Half-Life 2 opens the door to a world where the player’s presence affects everything around him, from the physical environments to the behaviors – even the emotions – of both friends and enemies. 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 and its population 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. The intense, real-time gameplay of Half-Life 2 is made possible only by Source, Valve’s new proprietary engine technology. Source provides major enhancements in the advanced facial animation system, physics, graphics and AI. Half-Life 2 will be available for the PC.

About Vivendi Universal Games

Headquartered in Los Angeles, VU Games is a leading global developer, publisher and distributor of multi-platform interactive entertainment. Its development studios and publishing labels include Blizzard Entertainment, Sierra Entertainment, Fox Interactive and Massive Entertainment. VU Games’ library of over 700 titles features multi-million unit selling properties such as Warcraft®, StarCraft®, Diablo® and World of Warcraft® from Blizzard Entertainment®; Crash Bandicoot®, Spyro The Dragon™, Empire Earth®, Leisure Suit Larry™, Tribes® and Ground Control®.

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Valve released it through Steam before it went gold which pissed off VU and VU managed to get an injunction that forced Valve to release an encrypted version through Steam that nobody can decrypt and play until the game is on store shelves. Basically keeping people from playing until they can buy it in stores, which is only advantageous for VU.

VU is only pissed cuz if Valve is successful with electronic release, a lot of game publishers are gonna get circumvented. VU sucks.

I'm not excited about HL2 in the least either. I didn't like HL, but maybe I'll demo HL2 at a friend's place and be proven wrong. That would be nice. In any case, its totally overhyped.

[ 10-21-2004: Message edited by: Flux ]

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I actually played HL2 about 3 weeks ago (well, the developer version at anyrate) It's awesome. Just flat out stunning, and the gameplay seems really nice. Makes Doom3 it's bitch graphically.

It's nice when some of your customers at work say that they need their machine to stop crashing when the play HL2 cause they work for Valve

[ 10-21-2004: Message edited by: AcidWarp ]

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“I have noticed even people who claim everything is predestined, and that we can do nothing to change it, look before they cross the road.”

“Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.”

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Originally posted by Snag:
hi, welcome to 2 days ago!!! It was for he 18th! Don't always have to be an elitist "i knew it before you" a$$ ya know.

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Ah, yes I do. And it was 3 days ago. They teach math up there, or do they just replay Dudley Doright all throughout gradeschool?

Reasoning: Valve wouldn't have released the game through Steam if they thought it wasn't done, and they released it through Steam 2 weeks ago. With big-name developers, publisher approval and going gold is secondary. If Valve said it was done, VU would do a superficial review and start printing discs.

So, when you drive to the store to buy the game instead of downloading, should they comp you for the gas? Seriously, like its such an inconvenience to let a download go in the background. You do it when you DON'T pay for games, which I'm sure you burn backups on your own precious 5-cent CDs. Is there anything on this planet you do NOT whine about?

AW - are you talking about the leaked alpha, or are you talking about an official copy released through Steam? A friend of mine got ahold of the compiled alpha and was able to load and play maps on a Radeon 9700, but I wasn't too impressed. Maybe I just didn't get a good look at it, I dunno.

[ 10-21-2004: Message edited by: Flux ]

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Originally posted by Flux:
So, when you drive to the store to buy the game instead of downloading, should they comp you for the gas? Seriously, like its such an inconvenience to let a download go in the background. You do it when you DON'T pay for games, which I'm sure you burn backups on your own precious 5-cent CDs. Is there anything on this planet you do NOT whine about?

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You can buy it retail with box/case/book/CD for 49.95, or you can download it from Steam for the very same price and get nothing but the data.

Now re-read Snags post.

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Maybe you should've re-read his post.

Here's a perk - not having to pre-order OR be among the hyped-up masses to pick up your precious CD case and useless manual at 12:01 the day of release, or worrying about not pre-ordering and having to go back to the store to check for copies on the shelves. It'll just be there, ready to play on your HD in the comfort of your own home.

and you would've saved on gas.

If it was such a horrible idea, I don't think Valve would've released Steam in the first place.

Snag - great comeback (IOW great comeback).

[ 10-21-2004: Message edited by: Flux ]

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The customer actually had bought the machine from us, and it was having a wacky problem that we sorted out. He got his gig with Valve because he was one of the original creators of Day of Defeat, which him and his buddies sold to Valve.

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“I have noticed even people who claim everything is predestined, and that we can do nothing to change it, look before they cross the road.”

“Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.”

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Originally posted by Flux:
Snag didn't mention anything about wanting the manual or box or anything like that. he just complained about using one CD.

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He didn't have to, and yet.. somehow I understood what he was saying. I think it had something to do with my giving people the benefit of the doubt, and treating them like I would anyone else in RL.

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[ 10-22-2004: Message edited by: Flux ]

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Originally posted by Snag:
I did blow it long ago...now I slap your mom after every time I see you! She said she was so loose it would just run out...but then you fucking came along...

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Originally posted by outrider:
Man I haven't heard anything like that since junior high school.

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Canada doesn't have secondary schooling

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“I have noticed even people who claim everything is predestined, and that we can do nothing to change it, look before they cross the road.”

“Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.”

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