Surely, surely, surely...this means that it's going to come out soon. Even with the litigation, Vivendi must be showing signs that all is good.

Well Valve have always said they will go ahead with the online distribution whatever Vivendi say, so not nessasarily. Also the nature of steam means if a bug is found its easy for them to update/change this preloaded content.

Do you mean to imply that Valve might release the game without Gold approval from Vivendi? Perhaps I'm reading you wrong. All I meant to say is that with Valve still pushing HL2 quite strongly (they could have easily held back another week with phase 4) I can't imagine they're not going to release it soon. Maybe I'm being naive

No they need approval, but so far as HL2 being available over Steam as well retailers, (the reason for the Valve/Vivendi problem) valve say they will use it regardless. So what i mean is its unlikely they would hold back the preloading as they say they will use it whatever the outcome. So they are probably just keeping to their schedule. My second point was just to add that should Vivendi want something changed in the game before it goes Gold then Steam can just roll out an update. There is no need for them to wait for Vivendi.