Half-Life 2 (Windows)

This page details pre-release information and/or media for Half-Life 2 (Windows).

1999-2000Valve's two years of experimenting and secret development on the sequel. 2001-2002The team works on various showreels and demos meant for an announcement at E3 2002, but ultimately that never happen thanks to the game lacking a release date. 2003Despite the team's best efforts (and some serious crunch) the game is still not ready for release and gets delayed, with an infamous leak making matters more difficult. 2004In wake of the leak and now with the new release date, the pressure is on to deliver Half-Life 2. Xbox VersionShown in E3 2005, along with Lost Coast. Characters & ScenarioThe game's plot was once quite different.

Marketing Material#

Screenshots#

This needs some investigation. Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page. Specifically: Add screenshots from the game's physical release box. One of the screenshots has the gasmask civilians with a Strider.

Likely as a remnant of the game's development, some of the game's marketing material still features cut content.

These screenshots were used on the Steam page, until they were replaced for the 20th Anniversary update.

Promotional Art#

Some promotional arts that are used for the Steam trading cards appear to feature cut content.

• Gordon's character art uses an early version of the Trainstation Plaza, as seen in the E3 2002 "Terminal" demonstration.
• G-Man's character art uses Citadel concept art as the background.
• Alyx is seen holding a socket wrench. It was intended to be Alyx's own iconic weapon in a similar vein to the crowbar, however, the idea never went through in-game.¹

References#

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-Life_2#Development
• ''The Final Hours of Half Life 2'' by Geoff Keighley.
• Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar and the strategy guide from Prima Games.