Gabe Newell is about to make a promise. It"s 11am on an overcast morning in Bellevue, Washington, and Newell, the impresario behind Valve, lumbers into the company"s starkly decorated 10th-floor conference room. He pulls out an Aeron chair, plops himself down, and runs his stubby hands through his reddish-brown hair.
"OK," he says, taking a deep breath. "During any project there comes a time to draw a line in the sand and put a stick in the ground and say, "This is it. We"re ready,"" he says. "That moment, I"m happy to say, is right now. We finally know when this game is going to be done." The game he"s referring to is Half-Life 2, the sequel to Half-Life, one of the best-selling PC first-person shooters of all time. For years gamers have impatiently waited for definitive news on the sequel. Now Gabe is ready to announce a release date. As Newell talks about the game"s imminent completion he speaks with such conviction that you half expect him to give you the exact minute and second the game will be released. He sounds that sure of himself.