Waxy.org is the sandbox of Andy Baio, an
independent journalist and programmer living in
Portland, Oregon. I created As if Valve Software wasn't already suffering enough from the leaked Half-Life 2 source code and today's announcement of an expected April 2004 release date, Neowin broke the news that a fully-playable beta release was leaked today. It was apparently spread via IRC channels, and will likely soon hit Usenet and the rest of the Net. There are several screenshots of in-game play available.
October 8, 2003: The leaked release is functional, but barely. You have to load maps manually from the console (e.g. 'map e3_bugbait'), and most maps don't load at all. The E3 tech demo maps appear entirely scripted, with enemies moving into predefined positions and otherwise ignoring you completely. This indicates that either the AI code is incomplete or overridden for purposes of the E3 demo. A 15-minute movie of in-game play shows that several other maps can be played, but it's not immediately obvious how they were able to load them. I expect that a guide to tweaking the alpha release will be published soon.
October 9, 2003: Here's a very brief guide to getting the game to run. (Basically, just double-click each map in the /hl2/maps directory.)
9:18 AM
The crazy part is: some hacker who stole code from Valve compiled this. Who knows what they buried in this 'Beta'?
10:44 AM
With Half-life's unending troubles and Halo's pathetic port, Doom 3 is looking better and better.
2:46 PM
I really got a kick out of shot5.jpg. Oh no, how will I defeat the evil ERROR! Maybe they give you a semi-automatic debugger.
4:09 PM
I agree with Michael, long live Doom3, that's just a personal opinion though.
Valve aren't exactly having the best of times at the moment, perhaps if they hadn't hyped the game and released as much info, there wouldn't be as much pressure to get it to gold. I mean look at Max Payne 2, nothing is heard for a long time then bam, news suddenly spreads that it's gone gold, probably the best way to do it :)
12:11 AM
i've read that there's been a backlash against valve for the quasi-DRM'ish stuff they've been working on. the basics are buying the games online and possible subscriptions to the online part of the games. like the PS2 games you buy and have to pay 10$ a month to play. the faithful halflife fans are wretching at the idea. and me too, i don't know that i'd buy a game i had to pay 10$ a month to play online. haven't so far, and probably wont until grand theft auto goes online!
anyhow the suspicion is that this hacker is someone that isn't too thrilled with the direction valve is going. there's been discussion on slashdot about it. poke around in the games section. YMMV.
8:38 PM
Trout, Grand Theft Auto DID go online, and its toll free to play ;-) wether u got GTA3 or Vice City for the PC you can install "Multi Theft Auto" and frag, frag, frag your way to victory.
As for anybody making all the fuss around the code leak from Valve, Need I remind you the same was done last year with Doom 3? even though it was a VERY playable alpha that looked superbly amazing, Nobody really seemed to care that much. PLEASE NOTICE - Doom 3 was scheduled for a release much earlier than Jan '04 before the alpha was stolen, something around Sep. 30. Now, hackers published the playable HL2 Beta and suddenly everybody's pissed about the delay for the scheduled release dates. Where's ur head at?
...besides, we ALL know wer'e gonna play the beta, as I did last year with Doom 3. It's gonna be a playable teaser for the full game and demos to come and surpass our every expectation... So no baptist cermons please, HL2 Fanatix.
-Dror S.T
P.S - As for the suspicion about who this hacker is, try ATI Technologies. They're the ones who leaked Doom 3 last year to show off their top of the line "Radeon 9600/9800/9900 PRO". They're on the Valve suspect list because they're signed on the Source Code Access List, but claimed they decided not to modify the code.
10:21 PM
Frankly, these screen shots make one thing abundantly clear... Valve was never going to make that early 2004 deadline. My thoughts on the matter? Valve leaked old alpha source themselves as an excuse to push it back even further, since they are so wildly behind schedule. Dunno about the playable beta, though.
10:23 PM
or here's one... the guy from valve who commented online about how his computer was hacked? Is he responsible for something he knew wasn't going to be done on time? Maybe this whole thing is HIS desperate move to give himself more time and not lose his job.
2:19 PM
The guy whos computer was hacked was Gabe Newell, the Owner and probably CEO of VALVe. So it wasnt purposeful on his part, atleast I hope not.
2:20 PM
I forgot to add that VALVe never had intentions to charge for 10$ a month if you bought it in-stores. Or you can pay 10$ for a month by month subscription.
3:34 PM
i've played the beta, it runs very well. it is obvious that valve has released it, the source code has nothing to do with beta. valve was never going to make the September 30th release date, there was no hype, then all of a sudden the source code is stolen, now the beta is out. who would keep a source code worth millions on a computer, which could be hacked so easily.
6:58 PM
beta is awesome. full game will be awesome-er
1:10 AM
Well, first of all let me say that valve was heading towards the perfect game release here.They have worked hard for some years and never really hyped the game like ID did with doom3. The hype first came up when the spectacular E3 movies were shown. But the game was supposed to be released only moths after E3, so i think, that it was the best the could do. Of course you have to advertise a product like HL2. And valve kept this Advertisement sober. But now with all the beta shit out, they missed the, what i think would have been the perfect release.
The only positive result out of the valve desaster may be, that anybody can see right now, what a great job valve did on the coming game...
I already ordered it, and i will play it with pleasure. And donīt you try comparing MaxPayne 2 with HL2....just wonīt work out.
bye
4:48 PM
where can i get it?
3:34 AM
Just been on another website about half-life 2 beta and source code. According to that website the hacker has released a statement on a IRC where he threatens valve to admit game was not finished in time for release of 30th September or he will release the full source code and a pre-gold version of half life 2. What is valve up too? Who is telling the truth, the pre-gold half-life could be very interesting.
11:24 AM
Is the pre-gold version of hl2 really leaked???
If yes... then it sucks cuz we wont have hl2 full