Source: Doug Lombardi from Valve via mail

With the release of Half-Life 2 nearby and with a lot of sites posting different things about which Half-Life 2 book is really included with the Collector's Edition of the game, I mailed Doug Lombardi from Valve with some questions about the books, the Gold version merchandising and today I got a great reply back. Here my mail:

Hello,

I'm Geert "Dark Raven" Huberts and I run the Half-Life and Half-Life 2 fan site Frontline Message Board (http://www.f-m-b.org/) and also help out at HalfLife-2.nl, Half-Life Gaming.com and HL2Files.com. I'm mailing to you with a question about the available books about and for Half-Life 2 (The Prima Strategy Guide, Raising the Bar and the Mod Makers Guide). I know that the Strategy guide comes with the Steam Gold version of Half-Life 2, and I also know that the Collector's Edition comes with a book. My question is which book? Several sites have posted that it's a sample version of the Strategy Guide, others post it's the full version and again other sites have posted a small description which could indicate either the Guide or Raising the Bar. Is it possible to give a indication as to which book will be shipped with the Collector's Edition?

Having preordered both the Gold version and the Collector's Edition (Is it true that the CE will be available from 2 December in Europe?) I was wondering when the merchandising of the Gold version will be shipped. This is because I'm planning to put online a review of all the books that will be available and I would love to start with the Strategy Guide and then move on to the two other books, which are also already ordered. Thank you for your time.

Best regards,
Dark Raven.

Founder/Owner of F-M-B.org (http://www.f-m-b.org/)
Co-Admin at HL2Files.com (http://www.hl2files.com/)
Newsposter/Article writer at HalfLife-2.nl (http://www.halflife-2.nl/)
Newsposter at Half-Life Gaming.com (http://www.hlgaming.com/)

And here the reply from Doug Lombardi:

Hi,

The strategy guide and Raising the Bar are due to arrive in stores by early next week.

The Steam Gold offer includes the full strategy guide, and the merchandise included with that offer is shipping now to those who have placed their orders.

The retail Collector's Edition contains a 112-page sampler publication that contains a few of the chapters from the strategy guide and one chapter from Raising the Bar.

Cheers

The Gold merchandising has been shipped and we will be getting it very soon. The Collector's Edition will contain a sample book and we can all look forward to buying the other Half-Life 2 books next week. Also stay tuned for the book reviews coming here as soon as the books arrive. Many thanks to Doug Lombardi for the information.