The day before Valve starts preloading Half-Life 2 assets onto its Steam network, it appears the publisher may have made an embarrassing mistake. Several Web sites--most prominently HL2World.com--have reported that Valve accidentally released a file containing all of the dialogue from Half-Life 2 when it initially distributed the Counter-Strike: Source beta to cyber cafés last week.

　　According to reports, the dialogue is embedded in a .gcf file sent out along with the beta. Apparently, it was included for closed-captioning purposes and was overlooked because .gcf files aren’t meant to be opened. Obviously, it was not meant for public eyes and contains numerous spoilers about the game, including its ending.

　　However, despite reports, the Half-Life 2 dialogue leak is officially unconfirmed. Valve did not respond to requests for comment as of press time and has not made any announcements regarding the alleged leak. However, some reports say the dialogue-laden .gcf has been identified and will not be included with the CS: Source beta data offered to CS: Condition Zero owners.