For those who get their jollies from listening to corporate drones tell them where Windows technology is going, Seattle was their playground last week. At this year's WinHEC (Hardware Engineering Conference), thousands of attendees listened to Microsoft urging them to grasp its "Longhorn", develop drivers for WinXP 64bit Edition and demonstrate just how well they can, umm, imitate Mac OS's attractive lines in its forthcoming versions of Windows.
Seriously though, some interesting products were presented, from tablet PCs to the latest ATI X800-based graphics card technology. It was during ATI's presentation that Valve's Gabe Newell took over to demonstrate just how great Half-Life 2 is going to look, should it ever see daylight. Originally scheduled for release at the end of September last year, delays were announced at the 11th hour. Publisher Vivendi hastily reschedule to April this year, a date that was later retracted. When news emerged that developer Valve had mysteriously been hacked and precious source code stolen, naturally, this led to speculation of further delays. Recently, however, Newell claimed that the theft had no impact on the release. In February this year, Valve's Doug Lombardi announced a Summer 2004 release for the beleaguered title, which everyone took will a helping of salt.
Newell began his presentation with a showreel of Half-Life 2 footage running on X800 technology. Reported on the Neowin.net's WinHEC weblog as new footage, the showreel actually contains the same gameplay shown at last year's E3, specifically the Strider attack scene. Still, very nice it looked in its latest X800-powered clothes that, according Newell, is a full 40 percent faster than nVidia's GeForce 6800. Neowin's reporter goes on to write that Newell "confirmed that we'll see Half Life 2 this summer". At this point we're still unconvinced, though Vivendi have confirmed that they will be presenting footage of two new demos at E3, which opens in LA later this week. Let's hope there's evidence of some real progress. We can only cross fingers, touch wood and hope we won't be in the same situation this time next year.
Seriously though, some interesting products were presented, from tablet PCs to the latest ATI X800-based graphics card technology. It was during ATI's presentation that Valve's Gabe Newell took over to demonstrate just how great Half-Life 2 is going to look, should it ever see daylight. Originally scheduled for release at the end of September last year, delays were announced at the 11th hour. Publisher Vivendi hastily reschedule to April this year, a date that was later retracted. When news emerged that developer Valve had mysteriously been hacked and precious source code stolen, naturally, this led to speculation of further delays. Recently, however, Newell claimed that the theft had no impact on the release. In February this year, Valve's Doug Lombardi announced a Summer 2004 release for the beleaguered title, which everyone took will a helping of salt.
Newell began his presentation with a showreel of Half-Life 2 footage running on X800 technology. Reported on the Neowin.net's WinHEC weblog as new footage, the showreel actually contains the same gameplay shown at last year's E3, specifically the Strider attack scene. Still, very nice it looked in its latest X800-powered clothes that, according Newell, is a full 40 percent faster than nVidia's GeForce 6800. Neowin's reporter goes on to write that Newell "confirmed that we'll see Half Life 2 this summer". At this point we're still unconvinced, though Vivendi have confirmed that they will be presenting footage of two new demos at E3, which opens in LA later this week. Let's hope there's evidence of some real progress. We can only cross fingers, touch wood and hope we won't be in the same situation this time next year.
Read More Like This
Comments
config 9 May 2004 15:41
1/2
I expect they'll set a release date of September 30th (officially Autumn, right?) to commemorate the original release date. Some time on August, UK retailers will send emails to customers with pre-orders stating that it's slipped to November.
I actually believe that Valve have purposefully stalled 'til ATI get these X800 board out, because with any less powerful GPU it's just unplayable. They leaked their source code to create a distraction, though the code was prolly early prototype stuff but close enough to whet the appetites of any budding modders and third-party engine licencees.
...or perhaps I'm bored of waiting for HL2 and am starting to jump at shadows / hallucinate...
G.
I actually believe that Valve have purposefully stalled 'til ATI get these X800 board out, because with any less powerful GPU it's just unplayable. They leaked their source code to create a distraction, though the code was prolly early prototype stuff but close enough to whet the appetites of any budding modders and third-party engine licencees.
...or perhaps I'm bored of waiting for HL2 and am starting to jump at shadows / hallucinate...
G.
robojimbo 10 May 2004 15:58
2/2
When was the last time Gabe Newell said something and meant it? Oh wait, that's never happened.