Half-Life 2 starts the tease

There's word at Gamespot that Half-Life 2 is going gold on Monday. They caught a post by Game God Gabe Newell on the forums that seems to indicate, in no uncertain terms, that we will see the game soon. How can we be sure that this isn't just specualtion? Well, the post is, "We're going gold Monday…" That makes it tough to read between the lines. This would mean that Valve is comfortable with the game — but it also means they're comfortable with the marketplace. It's a tough call to follow a title like Doom 3. Do you wait until the craze for your competition has died down? Do you trust that customers have another 60 bucks in their pocket? Regardless, we're looking at having the title in our trays within weeks, if not days.