did I say "over" hype in my post anywhere? No. I said Hype. Period. IMO, hype is a bad thing in ANY quantity, and everyone is guilty of it: publishers, developers, mag editors, and even gamers themselves.
All I'm saying is that they waited 5 years to drop this on people, what does another six months matter? ESPECIALLY if there is any chance what-so-ever that it is not going to make the proposed release date and piss off impatient fanboys.
This wouldn't be a big deal if it wasn't valve. Valve is the developer of one of the most loved PC titles of all time, and the title in question is its sequal. Everything they do at this point is a big deal, like it or not.
Valve could have announced HL2 a week before it hit shelves and people's blood would still boil for it, it would still sell like hotcakes, and blissful happiness would ensue... but at least then a hacker wouldn't have time to set up shop and ruin a perfectly good thing for everyone. That's all I'm saying.