Posible Fecha de HL2 26 de Noviembre

Half-Life 2 set for 26th November for Europe


The long, drawn-out Half-Life 2 release date saga appears to be drawing to a close at long last, with Vivendi-Universal Games' expected to formally announce a November 26th release date for Europe, with US gamers getting the game three days earlier on November 23rd.

Valve delivered a release candidate to VU on September 15th, and although an official 'Gold' announcement has still yet to emerge, Eurogamer understands that VU informed its UK retail partners this week of the expected release dates, having previously been fearful of not being able to release the game until early next year.

Indeed, recent news of legal wranglings between VU and developer Valve made talk of further delays look increasingly likely, although the company could ill afford to miss out on the lucrative Christmas opportunity for such an important game.

With marketing plans taking months of preparation and Christmas space at a premium, it was essential VU made retail aware of its plans - even though official confirmation may be still pending.

When contacted for confirmation, Valve's Doug Lombardi was still unable to shed further light on the matter, uttering the immortal words: "Unfortunately, I do not have a release date from VUG right now," no doubt under orders to wait until it's 'officially' announced.

On a related matter, despite the appearance of print reviews of the game next week, online readers are being forced to wait until the day of release before they can read review coverage of the game. Last night, Lombardi confirmed: "The online reviews will be held until the day the game is made available," with review code understandably being kept within Valve towers until then.