For all those PC gamers, this is an awesome announcement!

For XBOX owners, this is news story contains a bitter-sweet message...

HALF-LIFE 2 OFFICIALLY DATED

Worldwide release officially confirmed for November

9:51 Okay it' s the story, you, we and every connoisseur of PC games in the world has been waiting, for an official date for Half-Life 2 has finally been confirmed by Vivendi, with the most eagerly awaited PC game in the world debuting in stores on November 16.

Ending months of rumour, speculation, setbacks and downright fibs, November 16 will finally see Valve' s epic sequel erupt onto desktops worldwide and CEO of Vivendi Games, Bruce Hack had this to say: " Half-Life 2 has surpassed our expectations in every sense - its high-quality graphics, ground-breaking physics and immersive first-person shooter gameplay set a new standard for PC action games. Half-Life 2 will go down as one of the best-selling PC titles, and we are thrilled to deliver this ground-breaking title to the worldwide gaming community this fall."

However despite the excellent news which we tipped you yesterday and on Friday, the announcement has added one further twist, with Valve' s very own Doug Lombardi' s comments to the US media appearing to cast doubt over HL2' s appearance on Xbox, fuelling speculation that it may now appear on Xbox 2.

Still that' s a story for another day and the real story is HL2, in your hands, in under a month.

Are we excited? Just a bit.