Loads of HL2 gibberish occured overnight as some people were able to get hold of retail copies of the game. From what I can tell, Shacknews reported that Valve were considering unlocking the game early because those with legitimate retail copies (albeit sold too early) were unable to play their game.

It turns out that this is bullshit, but you can follow the forum games at a couple of places here: shacknews.com and steampowered.