I have a piece up at Tweakfactor.com detailing the muted circumstances of Half-Life 2 being pulled from a lot of 3rd party 9600XT cards. As Half-Life 2 was a big part of ATI's 9600XT launch, it seemed that this issue has really been glossed over on and I'd like to bring a bit more attention to this as a lot of consumers seem to be unaware of the fact that it has been pulled.

"While it is understandable that the unexpected additional cost of bundling a game may throw a wrench into the plans of manufacturers financially it would be nice to see them try to remedy the situation and be more forthcoming and explicitly state whether or not their particular card includes the bundle. How can this be done? Powercolor has taken a step in the right direction by offering some of their customers the coupon even after they have apparently decided to opt out of the plan. Sapphire does a good job of stating which cards have the bundle and which cards do not, all in one handy Excel file located on their website. Gigabyte needs to pull their press release or issue another one saying that the game is not being included. There are few things worse than being misled as a consumer and it leaves a bad taste in everyone's mouth. "



Link: TweakFactor