Yeah, system shock 3 would be cool, but I think Deus Ex fits my bill for any system shock needs.

<i>These conspiracy theories drive me nuts. Why in the world would either company possible want to leak a playable build of HL2 or the source code when they have so much to lose if they get caught?

A little group of weeny hackers took the source code and released the playable build.</i>

The same little group of weeny hackers that released the Doom 3 alpha?

Let's see....who else has a knack for releasing betas for huge upcoming games, but might also have access to HL2 beta code?

Nvidia? There's a motive, but not a means. Who else....

Could it be...

ATI???

Hmmmmmmmmmm.

Did it occur to anyone else, as soon as the source code actually leaked and there were rumors of delay, that Valve themselves may have released the code as an excuse to delay the game?

I mean, honestly. April 2004? I mean hell, as late as the first week in September Gabe was swearing up and down how Vivendi was off their rocker about a November delay. Yeah, this isn't Valve, but it wasn't Valve when Vivendi said the game was released, and who was right?

The rule of thumb in the game industry? Whoever's saying the later date is the most right. If Gabe says April 2004 and then Vivendi says May 2004, guess who's right? It doesn't matter on the source.

Basically, the publishers need to get their act together and haul ass on release dates. You're telling me that somehow the film production company has less to pull together and do than a game development company? Yeah right. It's just that game devs are so freaking disorganized that they can't pull their crap together and hash out a release date. The publishers, EA, Vivendi and the like - they're the ones that need to penalize game dev studios for missing dates. I know, I know, in the beginning it'll create subpar games. But if the game's good, it'll be good anyway. If it's a Tomb Raider Angel of Darkness, no amount of time is going to magically change it into a good game.

Even if my little conspiracy theory is wrong, if you're going to push a release date as heavily as Valve did, either keep the damn date or shut your hole.

This game will rock. But not on the PC. The mouse demo thing just ain't happening with BGE. Nevertheless, with the exception of perhaps Zelda: Windwaker, this is the closest anyone has come to recreating a Disney quality level in a game. The demo makes the game look fantastic.