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Ati Confirms Half-life 2 Power Bundle!

  • 01-10-2003 5:09pm
    #1
    Creamy Goodness
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 26,581 ✭✭✭✭


    Taken from www.computerandvideogames.com

    Confirmation finally of the Radeon/Half-Life 2 bundle, but the game's delay has thrown a bit of a spanner in the works

    13:13 Graphics chipset manufacturer ATi chose the rather austere location of Alcatraz to announce its latest foray into the graphics market yesterday. Unveiling to eager press the Radeon 9800 XT and Radeon 9600 XT, the company also finally revealed, in an official capacity, that consumers purchasing either card will receive a free copy of Valve Software's highly anticipated FPS sequel Half-Life 2. Notice omission of the word "bundle".
    While many were expecting ATi's latest Radeon cards to come bundled with Half-Life 2, the delay of the game has resulted in a package a little different to what was hoped.

    Purchasers will now receive a free copy of Valve's sequel "when the game ships", those forking out for either of ATi's new cards apparently having the option to redeem an included voucher of some sort (word is that consumers will have to pay for shipping, handling and tax fees if they use the voucher) or to download HL2, presumably through Steam.

    Also, and here's a nice nugget, reports indicate that the number of free copies of Half-Life 2 on offer is limited. Which, well, sounds rather odd, really. But you might want to get a Radeon 9800 XT or 9600 XT pronto if you like keeping up with the graphics Joneses and want to ensure that you benefit from the HL2-for-free deal.

    However, if this is the case, we do assume that the offer will be done on a per territory basis, otherwise the limited availability "situation" would be ridiculous.

    As for the new graphics cards themselves, the Radeon 9800 XT is being described by ATi as the "most powerful visual processor avaiable." The card, which will set you back a cool $499 in the US (we're waiting for UK and European prices), features 256Mb of memory, a 256-bit memory interface (we don't know that means, but it sounds fast) and architecture "efficiently designed to process instructions in parallel, maximizing performance."

    The 9800 XT's baby brother, the 9600 XT, is apparently "the world's first visual processor developed using a low k dielectric process" and features four pixel pipes (the 9800 XT has eight full pixel pipes) and 128Mb of memory. The card is currently priced $199 in the US.

    Digging around ATi's website, we've discovered word of a trailer that contains a sneak-preview of Half-Life 2. Sadly it seems that the trailer, which we're guessing should be avaialble here has so far failed to materialise. The only trailer currently avaiable features comments from Valve Software's Gabe Newell, but no HL2 footage


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