First off, you may ask what the Half-Life 2 tactic is. It's this: Deny the games existence, don't tell anyone, let speculation rage for five years. Then, three months before the game is finished, reveal it and stun the world.
Why should Eidios do this? To avoid the problems they had with AoD. From the release of PS2, AoD was announced and was promised for a Christmas 2001 release. Heres where they made thier first mistake. Nothing steams people up more than slippages. And I mean that really gets under the gamers skin. If there is no release date, we don't have to worry. But no, empty promises hurt, they hurt bad. All we got on that fateful Christmas was a few measly screenshots, which did look quite stunning at the time. All was well.
Fast forward to November 2002. Excitement rages, it's finally coming. But alas, after so many delays, it proves to good to be true. So, we allow January to pass, February is looking promising, as does March. April is a quiet month. Then June comes and slaps us in the face. The last few days of June deliver. The gamers take it home, slap it into thier PS2/ PC...and whats this? Bugs? After all this time? What a dissapointment. And the graphics look very average. Almost...dated.
So, Eidios, don't make any release promises. Do what valve did. Let us speculate, let us wait, just don't, make us angry.
