Valve

[Parmenides]

I'm fine with them jumping to HL3 to continue the saga. I imagine that's what they have planned. But they aren't taking their time to get things right. Gabe is/was sitting on top of the project while surfing for new hat ideas. Their priorities are/where in other places.

 

[SirMaster]

I hope they are working on a new engine. Source is great but it's definitely showing its age. It's more than 7 years old and it's only DirectX 9.

 

[Q-BZ]

I hope they are working on a new engine. Source is great but it's definitely showing its age. It's more than 7 years old and it's only DirectX 9.

It's amazing they've gotten so much mileage out of it.

It would be nice to see them take the leap forward. Make Source DX11 and let's see what she can do.

 

[MantisIT]

Which I still firmly think is a bad idea and that Episode 3 would be a much better use of their time.

Damn right, but nooo- we need more stupid cake themed memes to pop up and hear 100,000,000 times.. Very important stuff there.

 

[bigdogchris]

Source?

And your hopes and dreams don't count

Blizzard started D3 is 2006. That means a 5 year development cycle. I can see HL3 being as big and being out within 2017, so to me, it's resonable to say they have started working on it.

If you do not think you will see HL3 by 2017, then that means it's OK to think they have not started on it.

 

[WhiteZero]

Blizzard started D3 is 2006. That means a 5 year development cycle. I can see HL3 being as big and being out within 2017, so to me, it's resonable to say they have started working on it.

If you do not think you will see HL3 by 2017, then that means it's OK to think they have not started on it.

You're assuming D3 will make it out this year...

 

[phide]

I hope they are working on a new engine. Source is great but it's definitely showing its age. It's more than 7 years old and it's only DirectX 9.

Updating the renderer itself to D3D11 is really a pretty trivial process. The engine doesn't need to be scrapped to accomplish that.

 

[htpc_user]

last I heard valve was hard at work adding hundreds of useless novelty items to their extremely popular hat simulator, also known as tf2.

Tell me he did not just say this. Dem der are fightin' words.

 

[Soulmetzger]

Tell me he did not just say this. Dem der are fightin' words.

Every game needs more hats.

 

[Tolyngee]

After more than 3 years, if it's released, calling it an "Episode" is pushing the term

Worked alright for George Lucas.

Lucas' eps are full movies though on their own. If every three years Lucas was pushing out 40-min films that all connect together but each separately are only 1/3rd the length of a normal film, theaters would tell him to just put out the whole damn film altogether every nine years, no?

 

[phide]

I don't think it's all that different to be honest with you. I don't necessarily think the timing of episodic releases is all that important assuming each episode acts and plays similarly to a full game and has some sort of beginning and some sort of reasonable finale, which both the Half-Life episodes have.

 

[limitedaccess]

The episode situation really is another example of concept vs. implementation. As a concept the idea is not bad, but the only game I heard that implements it well was Sam and Max.

 

[Tolyngee]

I don't think it's all that different to be honest with you. I don't necessarily think the timing of episodic releases is all that important assuming each episode acts and plays similarly to a full game and has some sort of beginning and some sort of reasonable finale, which both the Half-Life episodes have.

Timing isn't important, but length is. They don't act and plat similarly to a full game as they're short.

Theaters aren't going to run 40-min movies. So comparing episodic game content that's 1/3rd the length of a regular game from that dev is not comparable to Lucas' Star Wars episodes.

I mean, LotR IMO was grand and epic, but how many tickets would they sell if that was a 12-hr show for the entire director's cut of it all? One $30 ticket, or three $10 tickets spread out each showing 1/3rd of the story?

And then there's episodic content: Now 18 $10 tickets (okay, maybe $8 or even $5 if theaters will agree to reduced prices) for a 40-min flick. If they keep prices the same, not as many ppl bother on such a short film. Lower prices, and people come, but they have to see if over and over for it to make the same profit.

Does buying Sam & Mas one ep at a time make as much sense at $5-$10/ep for five eps, or just buying the whole season once they are all done @ $10 total? Have to be a pretty big fan or S&M to pay $5+ for an hour or so of content.

Then again, MMO fans pay monthly fees, so who knows... Different strokes for different folks, but theaters have to pander to the mainstream to pull people in...

 

[Tolyngee]

The episode situation really is another example of concept vs. implementation. As a concept the idea is not bad, but the only game I heard that implements it well was Sam and Max.

Those are actually different cases, though. While for the most part the characters are the same, it's like saying CSI can't be seen as a per-episode basis, it must be seen as a season, or even rather as a series in whole.

HL2 really is a continuation of the same storyline. The same as LotR really is one movie broken down, probably say the same for Star Wars. But the story would be too long for a single showing in the way theater's work.

I almost even said Star Trek, but actually I do think those pretty much are different stories, and fit well as separate. Lots of one-time characters there, which LotR and Star Wars didn't have.

 

[ryken]

Valve is always slow to the market. They need to get more games out.

you're the dude who cooks chili for 30 minutes and serves it up, right?

 

[phide]

Theaters aren't going to run 40-min movies. So comparing episodic game content that's 1/3rd the length of a regular game from that dev is not comparable to Lucas' Star Wars episodes.

I don't understand what relevance a theater owner's preferences towards a minimum exhibition length has to do with episodic content in PC gaming.

 

[infect0]

I hope they are working on a new engine. Source is great but it's definitely showing its age. It's more than 7 years old and it's only DirectX 9.

Its a modular engine that can be built onto infinitely. I mean really the engine is more like 11 years old if you take into account Goldsrc. I always thought that Source had tasteful updates that while not always breaking edge were for the most part stable across varying system power.

 

[[LYL]Homer]

I like to see graphical improvements as much as anyone, but not at the cost of adding years to the release cycle. I'd rather see them release something in the HL realm every 12 months and have something like 3 releases be on the same engine - just new story and maps. Then have the 4th release be an engine/graphics update.

I'd be happy to give them $30-40 every year instead of $60 every 4-5 years. I'm at the point now where I don't really remember what all happened in the last release. Come on Valve, I'm getting old here!

 

[ryken]

I like to see graphical improvements as much as anyone, but not at the cost of adding years to the release cycle. I'd rather see them release something in the HL realm every 12 months and have something like 3 releases be on the same engine - just new story and maps. Then have the 4th release be an engine/graphics update.

I'd be happy to give them $30-40 every year instead of $60 every 4-5 years. I'm at the point now where I don't really remember what all happened in the last release. Come on Valve, I'm getting old here!

you can't let the COD shit spewer affect timeframes for good developers. good games take time. Valve (with the exception of L4D2, which they made up for by charging $5 for it later) doesn't just turn out remade content for the sake of it.

 

[Deleted member 209935]

Eh, portal was overrated as is TF2. I got to the point where I started taking people off my steam friend list that were playing TF2 because of how asinine it got (childish I know, but whatever).

I remember putting off buying Ep1 back in the day because I thought it would be a sucky game due to the "episodic releases". When I finally did buy it I had a blast, it was on par/better than OpFor and Blue Shift of the original Half-Life.

Ep 2 came out in 07 right? Doesn't seem that long ago!

 

[Silus]

Worked alright for George Lucas.

Hah, confusing gaming market with movie market ?

Oh what great strides you take to defend Valve phide

 

[Silus]

Valve has stated that saying they would be doing episodic releases was a mistake. I would not be suprised if the next half life installment is actual half life 3. As impatient as I am I would much rather wait for HL3 to be done when they get it done and have it be a fantastic game.

This obviously differs from person to person, as it's a fairly subjective matter, but waiting has its limits. Also, if they scrapped Episode 3 entirely, to make HL3, then they're episodic content "idea" is beyond epic fail at that point, since it implies that they basically had to rename what was going to be episode 3 to HL3, simply because they take too damn long to do...something.

As to portal 2 being a sequal: First off portal 2 is reported to have a single player that is twice as long as the first, second they have added a whole bunch of cool new mechanics such as directable power beams, light bridges, bouncy goo and accelerating goo. That is not to mention a co-op mode which is also twice as long as the original portal and adds all kinds of new possibilities now that there are 2 people.
Also, consider Half life 2 was a sequel, that is not exactly what I would call a crappy game. Battlefield 2, sequel but good game, Mass Effect 2 sequel but good game.The problem is not that sequels are crappy games, the problem is when companies try to pump out a sequel in a a short period of time to capitalize on the brand name instead of taking the time to flesh it out as a full game.

Yeah, Valve didn't do that at all, with L4D2 for example...

As for Portal 2, you're making way too many assumptions for something that isn't out yet. You may think they're cool new mechanics, but you haven't played it yet to know for sure.
I enjoyed the first one, but definitely not at the price point they were asking for it (which is why I waited for it to reach the bargain bin). It needed to be much longer than it was to justify it's singular launch price.

 

[Silus]

I don't think it's all that different to be honest with you. I don't necessarily think the timing of episodic releases is all that important assuming each episode acts and plays similarly to a full game and has some sort of beginning and some sort of reasonable finale, which both the Half-Life episodes have.

Not when the purpose of episodic gaming is to release "more content in less time". If Valve releases episodes in about the same or more time than a full game, then that's a big fail right there.

 

[Andrew_Carr]

While I'm sure Portal 2 will be a good game and interesting, I don't think it's going to be the same as Portal was. I'd pay $100 per game if games were all as good as Portal(full length too, but yeah..). It was a rare experience for me because it was out of the norm and was also really well done and a lot of fun. Just by being a sequel Portal 2 is no longer unique and cutting edge and that's why I'd rather they do something else.

Leave the Portal 2 type stuff to modders and move on to something new, imo.

I'm not saying the sequel will be bad by any means. Just that it won't be as groundbreaking as Portal was and therefore is a waste of talented developer's time.

 

[christpunchers]

I'm not so sure that Valve is able to put out truly remarkable products out there anymore.

While another HL2 episode will sell, it's no later a super relevant product for the masses anymore. PC gaming has been eclipsed by consoles and these 13 year old's won't understand or care about HL.

What Valve needs to do, if they want to continue HL, is to start HL3 from scratch and really make it a stellar game that the first one was. If you compare HL2 to Episode 2, Episode 2 wins by a landslide because it is 100% more compact and has more meat to it while HL2 barely gave us any answers to the first game (which in itself was a great standalone requiring no sequel). HL2 was like a boring season of a TV show that you only watch because you're hoping that something great will happen while Episode 2 was a short but satisfying summer blockbuster.

 

[phide]

Hah, confusing gaming market with movie market ?

I don't believe I'm "confusing" anything.

Not when the purpose of episodic gaming is to release "more content in less time". If Valve releases episodes in about the same or more time than a full game, then that's a big fail right there.

I'm not debating that.