Half-Life 2 Not Really "Episodic" After All

[Radelaide]

I didn't like the idea of the episodes. They said shorter games, but I finished both in a day! It wasn't worth the effort. (rephrase) I think they should have made the two episodes, plus the new one into HL3. It would have been easier that way then to give two short games to the public.

Speaking of, does anyone know when the new game is coming out?

 

[SmugFrog]

Episodic content seems to be working fine for Sam & Max. I distinctly remember Valve stating they wanted Episodes to be regular releases, and if it was well received, they would keep doing similar things. There was a lot of talk on the net about this time of "episodic content" being the future of gaming.

Fact is, Valve can't stick to a schedule worth a damn; but that is also a good thing. So far them delaying their game release may be what keeps their games being exciting and worth waiting for. It just drives me insane how they clam up and won't even release screenshots or information.

Sometimes I wonder if they're just having one big party and then someone kind of sobers up and goes "Dude... we really need to get together next Monday and at least work on Episode 3 a little bit..."

 

[Eldritch Warlord]

Can anyone tell me that they finished Gears of War or Halo 2 and felt satisfied?

Yes, me. What? You want explaination?

Gears of War - We stopped the assault on the Jacinto Plateau and had a major victory over the Locust.

Halo 2 - All sentient life was saved from extinction and the Sangheili now know the truth about Halo.

Epic and important events, why shouldn't I be satisfied?

 

[EvilEngineNumberNine]

Because the story just dropped off a cliff. No nice wrapup so that I didn't feel cheated. Getting a major victory is a resolution for a battle. Doesn't feel like a resolution to a game. We can argue about this forever but the point is I felt like the plot ran straight into a wall and I have to wait until the next next game before they can fix up the truck and get moving again. I probably won't be playing the second Gears but I'll wait till it goes down to 20 bucks and maybe I'll pick it up. They're gonna have to put something new in there though, the first one was pretty boring. Also I'm talking about what if's and the fallacies of "planed franchises". What if those series that were listed ENDED on those games? Would you have been happy if they had ENDED on those notes?

 

[Melaisis]

Meh, semantics.

I enjoy HL2 and its er... semi-sequels; I won't complain if they take months or years to produce 'Episode' 3; providing its quality.

 

[shMerker]

I think it's worth pointing out that when Valve started out out on this there wasn't really any such thing as "episodic gaming". A longterm plan like "release three short Half-Life games at six month intervals" is subject to change given that human beings cannot predict the future with 100% accuracy. It's only since then that Telltale games and...no one else really, applied specific expectations to what episodic game would actually be. According to Eden games [http://www.joystiq.com/2006/05/02/alone-in-the-dark-to-bite-tv-formula/], episodic refers to the structure of the game, not it's development cycle or release schedule.

I really don't understand comments saying that the Half-Life episodes should've been released as expansion packs rather than standalone games. Why? What possible benefit does it afford anyone?

 

[Anarchemitis]

Good for you, Mr. Lombardi, good for you. Way to keep Valve ahead of the pack.

 

[shMerker]

On that gamespot article you linked [http://www.gamespot.com/pages/news/story.php?sid=6144151], I love the second comment down, from bioniccommando1:

LOL!! If Valve is making it there will be an episode once every 2 to 3 years. Wasn't Aftermath supposed to be out last year?

Some things just never change.

 

[Eldritch Warlord]

I really don't understand comments saying that the Half-Life episodes should've been released as expansion packs rather than standalone games. Why? What possible benefit does it afford anyone?

They are stand-alone expansions, but I don't see why they shouldn't be stand-alone.

Maybe they mean Valve shouldn't be pretending that they aren't expansion packs.

 

[Nalbis]

Its all well and good saying that Valve take forever to release shorter games, but have any of you noticed how small Valves development team is? Its tiny, if you've watched any interviews with Gabe you'd know this. Not only do they work on the Half-Life series they also work on a lot of other games at the same time. Not ONLY that but when they are making the Half-Life episodes they change things ALL the time, as if they were directing a movie. As far as i'm concerned Valve can take as long as they like making the Half-Life games because they are simply amazing.

I'd much rather Valve release something amazing every 1 or 2 years than have them release a crappy game every 6 months *Cough* EA *cough*

 

[Shadders]

The whole ?episode? thing is a business model, not a ?gaming experience?. It?s about financial models, not delivering better game play sooner.

Look, Valve created a huge user base with the original Half-Life, and they delivered a good game with Half-Life 2. But attempting to deliver the rest of the game as ?episode? content has not really worked from a game players standpoint.

Sure, we get polished little games that take far less time to complete. But, we also have to pay more. Episodes 1, 2 and 3, at a conservative price of $20 each means that it costs almost double what a traditional, game costs of $30-35. Add to this the massive amount of time between episodes. Are we really getting better value for money? I don?t think so.

If Valves development tools were so great, then:

A: There would be a greater uptake by the game industry and we would see more Source Engine games.

B: The length of time between releases of episodes would be reduced. I can?t believe that the bottleneck is down to graphic designers/artists or getting the voice acting just so. I believe that the tools Valve have are also instrumental in the slow development cycle we see.

I?m not anti-valve, but I also don?t live in a land where they can do no wrong.

Steam is one of the better ideas when it comes to delivering online content, but Valve have allowed it to be sullied by third party DRM. Steam I can cope with, but allowing extra DRM crap on Steam delivered games, bugger off!

 

[2ndclasscitizen]

My two biggest concerns with Ep3 are

1) Is it going to be the end of the Half-Life story? Or are we then going to have to wait for another game, which would most likely need a new engine by that point, and

2) How are they planning on releasing it on to consoles? I didn't own HL2 before the release of the Orange Box (had rented and finished HL2 on the original Xbox) Hopefully they'll put it on to XBLA.

I just wanna know how it fucking ends!

 

[Jamanticus]

So valve have flip flopped on this. I want my regular flow of content or a long wait for a 20-hour game with rich graphics, story, etc. Damn you Valve!

Same here. It almost seems like a cop out to me that, since Valve has promised shorter, cheaper games, they can sit around and take long periods of time to make them. Of course, both Episodes 1 and 2 of HL2 were wonderfully created- it's just that they seemed not able to justify the wait in and of themselves.

 

[mangus]

The whole idea of episodic content is to release shorter games cheaper and more often, although in the half life episodes' case this is not so much the case. episode two was first available with the orange box, which was the same price as a full game, and thus completely worth it, though if for some strange reason all you wanted it for was episode two, it was no cheaper; also, it came out long after the release of episode one, for valve this IS a faster release schedule, but to the consumer it hardly seems so. Personally, I think episodic content for half life two is more about story expansion than creating an entirely new game. Though episodic content for things like starcraft 2 seems more like... well, blizzard can get away with charging three times as much (well, 2.4x as much) for one game if the game is starcraft 2.

 

[Zer_]

When the consider the quality that each level offered in Episode 2 you can understand why they took so much time. The environments are so rich and detailed. Most of the environmental models and textures for Episode 2 were redone.

 

[Jumplion]

While this news story was posted a few months ago *hint hint* what I read was;

"Our half-life episodes take longer to make than a regular game at double the length, but look at the companies over there! They're charging you double for the same length as us! Ignore the fact that we still havn't given any information on Half-Life 2 Episode 3, got and be angry at them for charging you so much."

A stupid attempt at putting the glare away from themselves. But I'm being pretentious, god damnit VALVe give us something, ANYTHING about HL2 Episode 3 or whatever.

 

[Pointsman]

*pulls up old thread*

This episode thing seems like such a bad idea to me. It only diminishes the worth of the games for me, it's kinda frustrating. The half-life 2 release was a huge deal. Episode 1 and 2 was meh, ep3 will be meh too. Hard to get worked up for only so much.