News ATI/Valve statement on Half Life 2

This is from Saturday, so you probably have all read this already, but I'll post it just in case all you Gordon Freeman groupies haven't seen it. Full text taken from the Inquirer:

I understand that many of you are anxious to get an update on the status of Half-Life 2 and our products that include the Half-Life 2 offer. Valve is working diligently to assess the situation and we will update you on the game's delivery schedule as soon as we can. For additional information on the status of the release, please contact Valve. However, in the interim, ATI and Valve have arranged for our customers who qualify for the Half-Life 2 offer to receive an added bonus. Please see the information below.

We understand that our customers are anxious to start playing Half-Life 2. For our customers who purchase RADEON products that come bundled with Half-Life 2 and activate their Half-Life 2 Product Key via STEAM before Half-Life 2 is available at retail, Valve and ATI are offering the Valve Premier Pack free, which includes the games: Half-Life, Counter Strike, Team Fortress Classic, Deathmatch Classic, Half-Life: Opposing Force and Ricochet. This is a limited time bonus offer that expires once Half-Life 2 is available.

Customers can use the activation key from their Half-Life 2 coupon to download the Valve Premier Pack from Steam, Valve's online delivery mechanism, free of charge, or can order a Steam Installation CD from ATI. Half-Life 2 will be available via Steam the same day it is available at retail. Use of the Valve Premier Pack requires an internet connection and is subject to acceptance of the Steam Subscriber Agreement. For more information please visit www.ati.com/online/hl2.

 

Nice... You can get all of those games without a premier pack. Instead of spending $200-$500 you can spend $5 and get Half-Life and then Steam allows you to download everything they mentioned.

 

yahbut you get a top of the line direct x 9 compatible card, and i'm pretty sure you still hafta payfor opposing force...

 

No you don't have to pay for OpFor. When I downloaded Steam it asked me for a cd-key. I typed in my HL cd-key and it let me download everything.

Quite a few bought the card for HL2. Because of the delay the people who bought the card get HL2 and a "premier pack". Before the delay the plan was to release HL2 on Steam earlier for people who bought the ATI cards (from my understanding anyway). Now they don't get it early but instead get a premier pack that doesn't do anything for them really.