HL2 code robbery suspects apprehended

Asok

Taken from theregister www.theregister.co.uk
Article:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/06/11/halflife_2_arrests/

By Tony Smith
Published Friday 11th June 2004 09:20 GMT

Law enforcement agencies have arrested a number of people in connection with the alleged theft last year of the source code to the long-anticipated first-person shooter, Half-Life 2, it has emerged.

Details remain scarce. The game's developer, Valve Software, last night issued a press release simply announcing the arrests and little else besides. The FBI's Northwest cybercrime taskforce, the team investigating the theft, would only confirm that arrests had been made.

Neither party has said how many arrests have been made, when they took place or where.

Nor have they confirmed a variety of rumours that have emerged this year of equipment seized in San Francisco and a connection between then theft and German suspected of authoring the Phatbot worm.

At the time of the alleged theft, Valve CEO Gabe Newell claimed his email account had been hacked. He also said be believed some sort of keystroke recorder had been installed on some of the company's PCs. Valve had also sustained a number of Denial of Service attacks, he added.

Half-Life 2's source code leaked last October. Only the game code was circulated on the Internet - no content was included, making it impossible for the source to be played.

On the back of the alleged theft, the game's distributor, Vivendi Universal, said the game would not ship before Christmas, as previously scheduled. Instead, it said, the title would appear some time in 2004.

Ironically, the announcements of the arrests comes a week after it emerged that the game might not be finished this year after all. Half-Life 2's does not appear on Vivendi Universal's mid-year release timetable - a list that includes a number of other titles earmarked for the company's Christmas line-up.

The theft also caused some embarrasment for graphics chip maker ATI, which last Autumn pledged to ship the single-player version of Half-Life 2 with its then brand-new Radeon XT graphics cards. ®

[CrimsonGhost]

For the low down.

http://www.shacknews.com/docs/press/061004_halflife2.x

shinzon

anyone else beginning to see a pattern here at all

1) Theft of half life 2 source code, we cant release the game till we fix everything up that was stolen

2) rumours of a summer release begin to surface

3) Suspects nabbed in half life 2 theft, now HL2 doesnt appear on the mid year release lists and may not be released at all this year

To be honest i think half life 2 is in a bigger mess then we are lead to believe, all these arrests rumour etc seem to prove this, i wouldnt be surprised if half life 2 isnt released at all

Shin

mr_angry

Its not exactly encouraging news.

tman

this is heartening news.... COCK heartening

Deadwing

For the love of fu*k. What next?!

Breaking news: Half-life 2 source code stolen by giant eagle, dropped into local volcano known as "Mount doom". Release pushed back to 2010.

User45701

If they have cought them then they must suffer to there last breath.
as for the HL2 delay - bollox

Scruff

me thinks at this stage waiting for HL2 is becoming like waiting for the 2nd coming of jesus ...look how long the believers have been waiting so far for that!!:dunno:

Sarky

Wagers on Duke Nukem Forever coming out first, anyone?

bambam

how'd the key logger get installed on yer mans PC. Was it an inside job. Surely the uber tech heads at Valve would have good security - DMZ, firewalls, tough email attachment policies ??

bizmark

What total bull****

The game must suck something awful if they keep haveing to push it back again and again Doom3 must piss all over half life2

Pugsley

"Everyone here at Valve is once again reminded of how much we owe to the gaming community," added Mr. Newell.


And all debt's will be repaid by giving us a graphically revamped TFC, and HL under HL2 engine

mr_angry

Originally posted by Scruff
me thinks at this stage waiting for HL2 is becoming like waiting for the 2nd coming of jesus ...look how long the believers have been waiting so far for that!!:dunno:

Originally posted by Sarky
Wagers on Duke Nukem Forever coming out first, anyone?

My money's on Jesus!

tuxy

Half-Life 2's source code leaked last October. Only the game code was circulated on the Internet - no content was included, making it impossible for the source to be played.

so where did the playable beta version thats been avilable for sometime come from?

neXus9

It's good that all the gamers gathered together to help valve find the w*nkers that stole the source code.

jaggeh

who cares (tm)

plenty of great games out this year already

Farcry
X2
Theif 3
rome total war later on, and doom 3 slated for summer.

to hell with halflife 2, give me elite 4......

Shred

I dunno, this is really starting to p*ss me off - when the hell am I gonna get my hands on this game:mad:

There's only so many times a you can play through Half Life 1 (or so I'm led to believe anyway:p )

Creamy Goodness

Originally posted by Shred
I dunno, this is really starting to p*ss me off - when the hell am I gonna get my hands on this game:mad:

There's only so many times a you can play through Half Life 1 (or so I'm led to believe anyway:p )

erm the game was only annouced last year like at E3 so it's not like it's been delayed a lot.

neXus9

Originally posted by shinzon

To be honest i think half life 2 is in a bigger mess then we are lead to believe, all these arrests rumour etc seem to prove this, i wouldnt be surprised if half life 2 isnt released at all

Shin

Duke nukem forever..................(shudder):(

Retr0gamer

HL2 doesn't look all that groundbreaking. Frankly Far Cry seems to have surpassed it graphically and in terms of gameplay ideas.

Daikatana anyone?

tman

Originally posted by Retr0gamer
HL2 doesn't look all that groundbreaking. Frankly Far Cry seems to have surpassed it graphically and in terms of gameplay ideas.

Daikatana anyone?

aye, I started playing through FarCry from the beginning on sunday.
Half-Life 2 has its work cut out if its going to have the same kind of impact on me as the 'Pier' level

Xithus

personally my fav level was the gunless one

half life has so much to live up to is gonna critically bomb by the time it comes out as all its effects will be dated by games coming out over the next few months.

jaggeh

that last post by xithus was actually me on his pc, forgot to log him out :P

Shred

erm the game was only annouced last year like at E3 so it's not like it's been delayed a lot.

Yeah I know. It's just that I really (foolishly) had my hopes built up for a release of late last year and it just seems to keep slipping more and more. 'tis frustrating like:(

mr_angry

Originally posted by Retr0gamer
HL2 doesn't look all that groundbreaking. Frankly Far Cry seems to have surpassed it graphically and in terms of gameplay ideas.

Daikatana anyone?

To be honest, Far Cry didn't have a story. Half-Life is pretty much guaranteed to surpass it in that regard. Also, the original Half-Life was delayed a year, and it certainly didn't disappoint. There's hope yet.

Shred

To be honest, Far Cry didn't have a story. Half-Life is pretty much guaranteed to surpass it in that regard

Exactly, that's what I love about Half Life - the story and the brilliant atmosphere. You can see from some of the screenshots of HL2 that it has the same atmosphere at least, if that makes sense:dunno:

Pretence

I've got a P4 2Gig, 1/2 GIg of RAM and a GeForce5600 (265RAM). Is there any point getting this game or is I going to run like pants on my machine?

calhob_ie

Is it just me or is half-life's story not just the usual hackneyed cliche rubbish? Aliens form another dimension, Government conspiracy etc.

Its the way it was told that was revolutionary, ie no dependance on cut scenes. Which is a feature thats been copied by several games now, Farcry for example has examples of this, looking through your binos and catching conversations that affect the plot.

Anyway I reckon DOOM 3 and Half-Life are gonna be great examples of engines that really need a game. I reckon the games coming out in the future using there licensed tech are gonna be far more exciting than the games themselves. They've already pretty much stated that about doom3 anyway. Oh and I reckon Stalker could be a bit of a dark horse as well, bit like the old czechs in Euro 04. Anybody else looking forward to that as much as me?

Chris

Retr0gamer

Have to agree with calhob_ie about HLs story. It was crap and the usual unimaginative crap that you would expect from an American developer. However the way it was told was what set it apart. You felt far more involved since you hardly ever lost control of your character.

Stalker looks the business and I've high hopes for it. The eastern european developers have been turfing out a high percentage of quality games in the last few years.

orangerooster

Truth is that we have no way of judging how HL2 will turn out-could be **** or it could be as good as the first or better-to say its going to be crap cause its engine will have fallen behind or just saying its crap cause your pissed at valve is sheer stupidity.Deus Ex and Half Lifes engine are woeful by todays standards but those are still excellent games ditto Thief one and two,system shock two,freespace two etc.Just cause its effects wont be as impressive as they would have been a year ago doesnt mean its not going to be an extremely playable title-so stop whinging like kids and wait to see how it plays.

neXus9

Originally posted by Retr0gamer
HL2 doesn't look all that groundbreaking. Frankly Far Cry seems to have surpassed it graphically and in terms of gameplay ideas.

Daikatana anyone?

When I was playing the demo of far cry it had annoying pop-up details which threw away the whole draw distance aspect of the game. Hopefully these will be gone when I buy the game.