Fans of Half-life 2 are quickly getting accustomed to the fact that Doom 3 will be released first and that H-L 2 is unlikely to see a summer release. It would seem that September 30 is again becoming the favorite release date for the highly anticipated title.
As Gabe Newell had already mentioned and now Doug Lombardi has confirmed, a solid release candidate is expected to be with Vivendi in August.
Now that Valve is getting a bit more confident on the progress of the game, its team has started playing hinting games with the press and we can now attempt guesses at when the RC version will reach Vivendi. Using Gabe Newell's latest comments then, a mid-to-late-August date sounds possible for the game going gold. Mr Newell said, right now we are looking at our bug numbers... Each day you fix some bugs and you find some new bugs. The net number tells you how quickly you will get to zero. At our current rate of find/fix bugs, we'll be down to zero bugs in 16 days...
If the numbers work out, then a summer release clearly is out of the question but suddenly a symbolic September 30 seems to be much more likely. Valve itself is clearly hoping for an early fall release and according to Doug Lombardi, we're hoping to see the product on store shelves this fall but we do not have a confirmed ship date at this time...
