HL2 ep2 - new Q&A and screenshots


Thanks for the links :)

Well the last question's answer, clearly explains why this episode was delayed as hell...

8 hours for something as delayed as this ? Laughable at best. I rather spend my money on Shivering Isles (which I did), where just the main quest and a couple of misc quests, took me about 25 hours to complete. And I still haven't finished all the quests or explored all the isles.

What I have to say to Valve is this: Your notion of episodic content is a joke.
 
Thanks for the links :)

Well the last question's answer, clearly explains why this episode was delayed as hell...

8 hours for something as delayed as this ? Laughable at best. I rather spend my money on Shivering Isles (which I did), where just the main quest and a couple of misc quests, took me about 25 hours to complete. And I still haven't finished all the quests or explored all the isles.

What I have to say to Valve is this: Your notion of episodic content is a joke.

you sir, are correct.
 
I don't care how long it takes. It'll be worth it.

They're releasing 3 new games on 3 platforms, overhauling the engine (multithreading, dynamic lighting/shadowing, improved physics) and tweaking HL2 + episode 1 for the consoles. A huge amount of work.
 
point of the matter is, its not episodic gaming. they take too long. Better not be 6 hours of gameplay to beat on HARD again, waste of money.
 
I don't care how long it takes. It'll be worth it.

They're releasing 3 new games on 3 platforms, overhauling the engine (multithreading, dynamic lighting/shadowing, improved physics) and tweaking HL2 + episode 1 for the consoles. A huge amount of work.

What evanisthecoastie said.

I don't care how much work it takes really. They promised episodic content. That means more content for the game. More story to tell. Overhauling the Source engine, with features, that will delay the so called "episode", much more, makes absolutely no sense. That's not what episodic content is and they blew it.

Also, it took me 3-4 hours to finish Episode 1 and I usually try to find secrets and explore what I can in a game. Episode 1 was disapointing IMHO, but I had hopes Episode 2 was going to improve that. With all these delays, I completely lost interest in it. I just want it to be released so that I can play Portal. But I'll wait for the package to be cheaper. No way, I'm paying full price for it as I did with Episode 1, which was a BIG mistake...
 
I think the Half-Life saga has jumped the shark. From that interview it seems Ep 2 will be "run & shoot your way from point A to point B, then fire a nuke into the portal to destroy it." Valve will toss in a few tidbits about the G-Man, but won't offer any real insight into the character's history and motivations. Blah... This linear formula quickly killed my interest in HL2. With all the new games on the way in the summer/fall, Ep 2 will be relegated to the bargain bin before I pay any attention to it.
 
I agree that it's been too long to still classify it is "episodic" gaming, but I'm still excited as all hell for this. I played through episode 1 again for fun and I restarted HL2 last night due to my extreme boredom.

It's funny how much better episode 1 looked than HL2 and it looks like they're doing the exact same thing with episode 2: that screenshot is noticably better looking than anything in episode 1. Plus, I think the gameplay will be more to my tastes since from the shots I've seen there's less creepy shit and more run and gun in forests versus mini-striders and such.

Also, portal and TF2!!
 
I don't mean to sound like the stereotypical PC gamer, but that second screen in the original post needs hardcore AF. Either that or the wood texture needs to be redone...

I agree with everyone about the silliness of their "episodic" releases, but I do think this will still be worth the purchase. HL2 was such an amazing game, even moreso (in my opinion) because it was a sequel that had to top what is arguably one of the best games ever.

HL2 Episode 1 was a great ride, and hopefully some larger and wider environments will help spice up the gameplay in this entry, as well as answer some questions.
 
I can't believe how greedy you all are. Modern games take a long time to make, deal with it. It will be an excellent game and you should be happy that you get the chance to buy something so cool and entertaining. We could just go back to NES style games and companies could crank those out every few days if you would prefer that...

Jesus where do you people get this idea that you deserve everything to be done perfect (x360 glitches) and in your time frame. Really you are beggars and you should be happy about every half decent game that makes it to the store shelves.
 
I can't believe how greedy you all are. Modern games take a long time to make, deal with it. It will be an excellent game and you should be happy that you get the chance to buy something so cool and entertaining. We could just go back to NES style games and companies could crank those out every few days if you would prefer that...

Jesus where do you people get this idea that you deserve everything to be done perfect (x360 glitches) and in your time frame. Really you are beggars and you should be happy about every half decent game that makes it to the store shelves.

I totally agree with you and was about to post something similar. People just bitch about everything Valve does anymore even though they are one of the few companies left that really still hold the PC platform in very high regard. PC Gamers are killing PC gaming and nothing else. What a bunch of whiners!!

"Why does it take them so long?? Why isn't the game longer.. Why is it only 3 games being released in one package? Why only a few engine optimizations and improvements?..I see a Jaggy in screenshot # 3 are they going to fix that? Episodic content is a joke. I expected a game a week..blah blahblah whine whine bitch bitch moan moan....."
 
I totally agree with you and was about to post something similar. People just bitch about everything Valve does anymore even though they are one of the few companies left that really still hold the PC platform in very high regard. PC Gamers are killing PC gaming and nothing else. What a bunch of whiners!!

I agree with you that there are a lot of people who whine at Valve for no real reason (CS gamers mostly). However the only reason people are annoyed about the "episodic" title is because it isn't really episodic. They promised releases something like 6 or 8 months apart when they announced this whole venture, and that's the entire point of episodic content: it's shorter, more responsive to the community in terms of content, cheaper to make, and is released much sooner and more punctual than a traditional release. If they're releasing content more than a year (probably close to a year and a half) past their previous effort, I'm beginning to lose sight of why there is only eight hours of gameplay on the table.
 
I totally agree with you and was about to post something similar. People just bitch about everything Valve does anymore even though they are one of the few companies left that really still hold the PC platform in very high regard. PC Gamers are killing PC gaming and nothing else. What a bunch of whiners!!

"Why does it take them so long?? Why isn't the game longer.. Why is it only 3 games being released in one package? Why only a few engine optimizations and improvements?..I see a Jaggy in screenshot # 3 are they going to fix that? Episodic content is a joke. I expected a game a week..blah blahblah whine whine bitch bitch moan moan....."

First and foremost, I pay for my games and I DEMAND quality. On to the release dates, one thing is to expect the game "when it's done". Another is when they send out flashy words together, like "Episodic Content", which means more content in less time. What Valve is doing is NOT episodic content. It's a joke and nothing more.

And btw. Did you actually read that Q&A ? The delays are more than obviously related to console development. They couldn't care less about PC gamers, if the console market is where the money is. Get your facts straight. No company cares about you. They just "try" to do something that appeals to the majority, so that they can have more profits.
 
I agree with you that there are a lot of people who whine at Valve for no real reason (CS gamers mostly). However the only reason people are annoyed about the "episodic" title is because it isn't really episodic. They promised releases something like 6 or 8 months apart when they announced this whole venture, and that's the entire point of episodic content: it's shorter, more responsive to the community in terms of content, cheaper to make, and is released much sooner and more punctual than a traditional release. If they're releasing content more than a year (probably close to a year and a half) past their previous effort, I'm beginning to lose sight of why there is only eight hours of gameplay on the table.

No more, no less!
 
The problem is that they promised essentially a regular retail game but sliced into pieces and released at regular intervals over the same overall piece of time with the same overall content.

However, all the other stuff they tacked on sank the release interval promise. Now they're trying to update the tech between episodes. Updated facial animations, adding HDR. Now they're trying to add in full-blown multi-threading into Ep2, and co-release it with Portal and TF2.

All that extra weight is bloating the development time between releases. It's still the same price and length as a single unit would have been though.

But at the end of it all?

I'm still going to buy it when it's released. If it's "too long" of a wait, then just stop waiting.
 
First and foremost, I pay for my games and I DEMAND quality

Thats great, but if you don't like the product or think it took too long to make or that it does not offer enough hours of entertainment then do not buy it. You are in no position to tell the game developers that they are taking too long or that they are adding too many new features or that they should do this or not do that or anything else. Its like going up to the president and trying to advise him on foreign policy with only as much information as you can get from fox news.

On to the release dates, one thing is to expect the game "when it's done". Another is when they send out flashy words together, like "Episodic Content", which means more content in less time. What Valve is doing is NOT episodic content. It's a joke and nothing more.

I suppose you could do better. Valve has put out two amazing games in a respectable time frame and I don't think episode 2 will be any different. Did they fall short of initial time
estimates? maybe, but it happens. If you are not a programmer you have no idea how one little change at the very end of a development cycle might create an issue that requires the entire redesign of a large part of the code. I have worked in 3-6 man development teams for 6+ months culminating in commercial quality software so I do have some insight on things like this, and until you do you will not understand the things that can happen that can delay development. It's like building a 50 floor building and at floor 25 you realize the top floor won't work with the current design, so you have to tear down, redesign, and rebuild. That may or may not be what happened here, just one thing that can lead to delays in the launch of a game, which I see more people bitching about on here than anything else.

And btw. Did you actually read that Q&A ? The delays are more than obviously related to console development. They couldn't care less about PC gamers, if the console market is where the money is.

More than likely, there are separate teams working on each platform, or at the very least a smaller team working on porting from the development platform to the other (PC to 360). The only reason console development would delay the PC release is if they are being forced to release them at the same time or within a certain time frame of each other, and that is just corporate policy, nothing you can do about it.

Get your facts straight. No company cares about you. They just "try" to do something that appeals to the majority, so that they can have more profits.

Of course... but whether or not they are altruistic toward PC gaming is irrelevant. The fact is that releasing quality games for the PC is beneficial to the continued validity of the PC as a gaming platform.
 
Bottom line: if it wasn't for the episodes, Half Life 3 would still be at least 2 years away. And no, TF2 and Portal wouldn't be free.
 
The delays are more than obviously related to console development.

I doubt it. I read that their tools are well enough developed that they can implement stuff into the 360 version simultaneously to the PC. And the PS3 version is being handled by someone else, almost parallel with the PC/360.
 
I suppose you could do better. Valve has put out two amazing games in a respectable time frame and I don't think episode 2 will be any different. Did they fall short of initial time
estimates? maybe, but it happens. If you are not a programmer you have no idea how one little change at the very end of a development cycle might create an issue that requires the entire redesign of a large part of the code. I have worked in 3-6 man development teams for 6+ months culminating in commercial quality software so I do have some insight on things like this, and until you do you will not understand the things that can happen that can delay development. It's like building a 50 floor building and at floor 25 you realize the top floor won't work with the current design, so you have to tear down, redesign, and rebuild. That may or may not be what happened here, just one thing that can lead to delays in the launch of a game, which I see more people bitching about on here than anything else.

More than anything else you wrote, I think this needs to be replied to.
I am a software developer and you know what, when I have work to do for one or more customers and I compromise to something (release date or "Episodic Content"), I tend to honor that. For the good name of the company and my own. Common sense isn't it ? It's how everything works. Valve had an engine ready (already with improvements from Episode 1) and a story to continue. If you didn't know, that's all you need to have "Episodic Content". There is absolutely no need to completely change a game's engine, with whatever feature, because it is totally pointless, to an episodic content release. I hope that's clear enough. They had no major problem, unless the Source engine was essentially flawed and they needed to correct it, for Episode 2, which I don't think is the case.

That said, you are right about one thing. If I don't think a game is a "quality" game, then I won't buy it. Problem is, some games don't have demos do they ? And I'm no pirate, so I do have to buy some games based on expectations. Some exceed expectations, others do not. Episode 1 was one of them and even though I had good expectations for Episode 2, I'm tired of waiting, so have fun with it, because I probably won't play it as soon as it gets out (if it get's out).
 
Well, I'm really looking forward to this. Hopefully I can find it on sale for $10 like I did EP1 when it first came out. ;)
 
Well, I'm really looking forward to this. Hopefully I can find it on sale for $10 like I did EP1 when it first came out. ;)

With Portal and TF2 in the package ? No way it's only going to cost $10...
 
I'm happy they are making an EP2 at all. Some of you are way to demanding. But I guess thats how things go, and companys have to put up with tear fests. :rolleyes:
 
First and foremost, I pay for my games and I DEMAND quality. On to the release dates, one thing is to expect the game "when it's done". Another is when they send out flashy words together, like "Episodic Content", which means more content in less time. What Valve is doing is NOT episodic content. It's a joke and nothing more.

And btw. Did you actually read that Q&A ? The delays are more than obviously related to console development. They couldn't care less about PC gamers, if the console market is where the money is. Get your facts straight. No company cares about you. They just "try" to do something that appeals to the majority, so that they can have more profits.

You can't spend you money on something else, for the simple reason that you can't spend your money on it at all. If it really bugs you that much that you can't have it right away, don't but it when it does come out. But really, there's no need to moan and groan every time Valve is mentioned. It's boring; no one wants to hear it.
 
What's funny is that some people will demand it come out right away, then complain if it's buggy or seems unfinished. I'd rather have it delayed and be good than just be another cookie cutter game like a lot seem to be nowadays.
3-4 hours on episode 1? Took me about 9-12 but i wasn't really pushing too hard to finish it quick tho...:p
 
About 3-4 hours over about 3 days tho. Like i said, i wasn't racing through it and just enjoying the scenery....:D
 
took me about 6 hours on hard... Though I did dig myself into a hole at the end by quicksaving before the strider in the train station with about 3 health.
 
You can't spend you money on something else, for the simple reason that you can't spend your money on it at all. If it really bugs you that much that you can't have it right away, don't but it when it does come out. But really, there's no need to moan and groan every time Valve is mentioned. It's boring; no one wants to hear it.

From my perspective, it's the other way around. It gets really tiresome to listen to all the Valve *!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!s saying "Oh yeah, Valve's episodic content is great", when...hmmm...it's a joke, because it's not episodic at all...
 
What's funny is that some people will demand it come out right away, then complain if it's buggy or seems unfinished. I'd rather have it delayed and be good than just be another cookie cutter game like a lot seem to be nowadays.
3-4 hours on episode 1? Took me about 9-12 but i wasn't really pushing too hard to finish it quick tho...:p

That's great. So you must be one of those people that's still anxiously waiting for DNF. Haven't you heard ? It's still coming out. And this is the typical comment you are making about Valve, but adjusted to DNF - "DNF is going to kick ass!! 10 years...That must mean it's going to be very good."
Just replace "DNF" and "10" with what corresponds to Valve's Episode 2 and that's what you and others are saying.

Plus, I'm not "moaning" or "complaining" about the delays. I'm complaining about Valve's definition of "Episodic Content", which is an absolute joke. Is that so difficult to understand ?

9-12 hours ? I'm sorry, but unless you just stood there, moving your mouse around, 9-12 hours is just very, very slow...
 
What's funny is that some people will demand it come out right away, then complain if it's buggy or seems unfinished. I'd rather have it delayed and be good than just be another cookie cutter game like a lot seem to be nowadays.
3-4 hours on episode 1? Took me about 9-12 but i wasn't really pushing too hard to finish it quick tho...:p

DNF better be the best entertainment ever put out since I dont think the was any game, movie or music that have taken that long to be produced. Even the entire LOTR trilogy which is probably the among the best movie ever produced took less time than DNF.
 
DNF better be the best entertainment ever put out since I dont think the was any game, movie or music that have taken that long to be produced. Even the entire LOTR trilogy which is probably the among the best movie ever produced took less time than DNF.


DNF better have a huge story and plot with all the time they've had to work on it.... oh wait..... I'm talking about Duke Nukem... theres not a whole lot of a story or plot,.... Lets go to the virtual strip club and see some shows, right after I shrink down a 100 mobs and walk on them. DNF FTW :D
 
Quite simply, valve just likes to promise things they cant deliver, and it pisses everyone off.
 
So they delayed a game... Not the first time this has happened in the industry. It's still episodic content, it's just a longer time between episodes than they originally planned. However, you are getting an upgraded engine, TF2, and portal to go with it. I know this is going to be a quality game, and that's why I'll buy it.
 
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