It appears some people are upset - they bought a retail copy of Half Life 2 thinking they could play right away, but Valve is sticking to the 16th date despite reports that Valve would "unlock" Half Life 2 earlier if it appeared that retail copies were making their way off the shelf anyway.

It's only one more day people…beat the hell out of the "one more year" date we had to work with last time.

Validating Steam Files now......can't wait to play it. I also couldn't resist the new Leisure Suit Larry, of course I got the uncut, what fun would a censored game be?