You'd heard what I have, what everybody has - the first release candidate of Half-Life 2 has been sent to Vivendi Universal. At this point, they'll test the shit out of it and determine if it's ready for retail release. From what I've seen, any other company would have released it already. They're perfectionists is all. Locals have been playtesting it for months.
At this point, it's just a matter of whether you grab it at retail or grab it on Steam. I've gone through the pre-load process on two machines here, so you're welcome to guess which way I plan to get it. We do have to wait for it to hit stores before we can download it, which kind of defeats the purpose of electronic delivery to me, like waiting to plug in an appliance until a store gets a new shipment of batteries. It's nonsensical.
I'm sure this was all negotiated beforehand and what can you really do about it.
(CW)TB
