Doom-Ed

When it’s done …

Half Life 2 is considered as one of the most important games in history. When the delay last year was announced, analysts lowered their PC games growth forecasts.

According to Vivendi it will be on shelves November 16, just in time for the holiday season.

According to the PC Gamer November issue, Half Life 2 is a “must buy”. Maybe this is because the environment is leaned strongly towards Europe. The graphics engine may not have those spectacular light effects of a Doom 3, but at least most scenes are brightly lit and you don’t feel claustrophobic all the time. We hope that they still have duct tape in the not-too-far future Half Life 2 is settled in, so you don’t have to switch between flashlight and weapon, but instead can use both at a time.

It’s time for a new graphics card, since ATI Technologies Inc. and Nvidia Corp. have to sell their newest cards to someone. If there are still cards left over from the sales to Doom 3 players …

So the countdown starts for MIT graduate Gordon Freeman to shed some alien blood …

The wait is over. You can download the Doom 3 SDK. You’ll need Visual C++ 7 to play with it.

For an introduction take a look at id.sdk. It’s official information.

Have fun

http://steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=148079
shows a complete list of all packages Half Life 2 will be available.

When it’s done …

Finally you can play your game of choice on your OS of choice. With a (win32) retail version of the game, you can now download the Linux version and play away.

Plus there is the standalone Linux demo available.

Links broken? Looking for a Doom 3 patch? http://www.3dgamers.com/games/doom3/downloads/

For those of who who’d like to build maps of their own, there is GTKRadiant available, based on QeRadiant, the official editor for Quake 2, on which the official Doom 3 editor is also based.

It’ll be November 23rd in the US, November 26th.

I was startled this morning when I watched another site’s stats and saw it filled with requests for “half life 2 sex video“.

Further investigation showed that this is of course not a sex video, but nevertheless a very impressive video.

Some Mirrors:
Fileshack (looks like this server is overcrowded at the moment)

According to an announcement from Gabe Newell, the steam version of Counters-Strike: Source will be available around next week. The actual Half Life 2 (single player) will be locked until the legal issues concerning Valve and Vivendi Universal Games are solved.

According to PC Gamer’s Chuck Osborn there won’t be a Half Life 2 multiplayer: “Counter-Strike Source is the multiplayer.”

A Doom 3 patch has been released, updating your game to version 1.1. A number of improvements and fixes for both single player and multiplayer modes have been implemented, the patch is including a new “Dedicated Server” executable. The file is a moderate 17.4mb.

Mirrors:
Doom 3 Patch 1.1 Download

Looks like Valve has initiated phase 5 of Half Life 2 preload on the steam website. Of course, you can’t play it until it has been activated. Plus you can’t activate it until Half Life 2 boxes hit retail. Plus Half Life 2 won’t hit retail stores until the legal battles between Valve and Vivendi Universal Games have settled (kind of).

The moral of the story is that irrespective to all the hype about Half Life 2 preload, steam users won’t be playing the game any time earlier than ordinary buyers.