I have had it with Valve

[Phoenix Arrow]

[
excuse me?
Ugly? Compared to what?

Gee, I dunno.... just about every other recent major release.

L4D 2

The lighting effects, textures and modelling are clearly inferior to all of the below.... look how that white balcony barely looks pasted onto the wall, and the big blocky 'gamey' looking hands. Ugly.

While I don't disagree with you, you have to remember that L4D2 is a multiplayer game with zombies so you get a massive amount of objects going on at one time and they have to dial it down a tad. That and half the photos you put were pre-rendered.
But yeah, they could've taken a lot more care over L4D2. They should've just left it a year in my opinion, polish it off some more plan a way to tie it into the first game in advance and split the manpower a little more. That way people would've minded less about the Portal 2 release moving slowly into the future. I'm sure it will be a good old fashioned Christmas release in 2011 in no time.

 

[TimeLord]

The TF2 updates are free. I don't complain about free stuff.

I could take a massive shit on your desk for free, and you would have every right to complain.

Honestly, you can't keep people silent if something is genuinely awful. Even if it is for free. Besides with the Mann Co store nobody gets to use the new weapons unless they pay for it.

Except for crafting, trading or drops....
You only pay for them if you want them right away.

 

[Orekoya]

When was the last time Valve [http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/meanwhile.jpg] announced a completely new series? L4D...how long ago was it?

Alien Swarm was released by valve in 2010 and it was free. L4D was released in 2008.

Now they just announced Portal 2...or should I say Portal: More of the Same."

It hasn't been released yet and I highly doubt that will be the subtitle.

I mean, at least they could have it on a new engine, but NO!

They have used the same engine for an entire decade.

WOW!

The Unreal engine as well as Gamebryo were made in 2002 and are still around. Source was made in 2004 so it is actually younger than those engines. Your post history shows no thread created by you to complain about those engines so I don't see what your issue is with the engine.

Not to mention they have completely forgotten their best franchise! Hey guys! Remember Dr. Freeman! You know, the whole of Earth and stuff

While Half Life is their most popular franchise, I would like to remind you that EA's most popular franchise is Madden. I'm, for one, am glad that companies do not work solely on releasing their most popular franchises. Variety is the spice of life afterall.

There should have been no "episodes" in the first place for HL2, and they should have all come out in the same year considering around five minutes were put into each section.

They are the perfect example of a lazy company, stop using the nasty Source engine, and get their engineers to make something that doesn't have Gamecube graphics.

I give up. I can't be pacified with TF2 updates forever. If Valve doesn't announce Episode 3, or HL3 running on a new engine soon I'm just done with them as a developer.

Actually I think they were done with Ep. 3 a long time ago, Gabe just ate it.

What do you think about the company?

Now this just sounds like fact-less trolling based on opinion and not fact. I can't help you with it. This condition can only be treated by not posting on forums anymore.

 

[cl20]

honestly i think that valve is one of the better companies. Their games for one work, and are mostly supported to the bitter end. You can always be sure that problems will be patched up and that the final product will not try to rape the user in terms of usability or convinience.
But the HL thing is a bother, but in a world where game developers are being pressured to complete a game for a certain date and sacrifice quality, it is nice to have a developer that seems to be more intressted in the final product then the money they make.
yes im looking at you infinity ward with your 12.99 dollar map packs and 60 dollar games that have more bugs than a soviet hooker in a siberian prison camp.

 

[reyttm4]

I don't see why the points you listed would aggravate you, like maybe make you loose respect or lower your expectations for their games. But you're getting angry over this, really?

-snip

Just came back to the thread and saw this post. Bravo. I read through the last few pages and didn't even bother replying and defending my argument, because every post was a valve fanboy throwing insults around like a mindless idiot. Thats usually what happens when you assault a company with your opinions. its like Valve hit the "release hounds" button, and a thousand rabbid fanboys came flying at me with every bite, tear, and claw they could throw into one post.

-snip-

You Valve hounds can keep insulting me, flaming me all you want, but it's not going to change my opinion. Nothing you say will convince me otherwise.

You can keep posting empty insults, or you can just let the thread die. Its up to you.

Good day, gentlemen.

I just want to say please don't label all Valve fans as the above, every fan base has their black sheep, and I agree with the idea of opinions as much as you do and that's coming from a Valve fan.

 

[czfjrod]

Halo is infinitely more competitive than TF2, especially on the professional gaming circuit.

So is Counter-Strike, but their clans and leagues had a 5-year headstart from Halo's, and TF2's only been around 3 years.

Fans are ridiculous, demanding, self-entitled folks who can never be pleased no matter what you do.

And if you are seriously saying "Portal 2 is more of the same", yet pining for more Gordon Freeman and his SPAS-12 shotgun and gravity gun, you're a bit inconsistent my friend.

I strongly agree with your Yahtzee reference, but fandom, when you boil it down, really comes from the powerful instinct known as curiosity. And not all fans are the same. The "fans" people are dissing are the kind of hardcore followers joked about in such media as the one Futurama episode [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where_No_Fan_Has_Gone_Before] involving Star Trek [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trekkie]. While these certainly are the majority, not all fans are like this.

They're one indie studio - yes, a very rich and successful one, but they're still independent and they aren't exceptionally huge. They work on the projects that their teams are most enthusiastic to work on, and they take their time.

That's why all of their games are critical and commercial successes.

They've earned much their patience from watching hastily made games in the past like Ricochet, DMC, and Half-Life: Source slide into the failure zone and learning from those mistakes. Apparently after The Orange Box, they were too afraid to finish off the trilogy without having good tech to back up the writers and the design cabal. It makes sense that they wanted to test out their new tech on new games (ie. L4D, Alien Swarm, Portal 2) instead of going totally secretive like their 5-year hiatus on Half-Life 2.

Seriously, I never liked valve, I played TF2 and got bored after 3 months and the rest is yust boring. I didin't even compleate HL1, L4D stops being fun after you've compleated the stages not after 500 fucking times (same whith L4D2)....

All games are eventually boring after a while of being played over and over. WoW may be a rare exception, so I'm told, but I think it's because it's reinforced by the friendships made online, which are also found on community games like CS, Halo, and Quake.

 

[The Funslinger]

This really has nothing to do with the topic, but seriously WHAT THE FUCK is up with people's obsession with bacon?

It's nature's perfect food.

If you don't want your share, I'll take it...

You're seriously going to tell me that bacon is better than say, steak?

Steak is the solution to ALL of life's problems.

 

[Fuselage]

Why is this ok, but CoD or console fanboys aren't? They're the same, annoying thing, except Valve fanboys have this smug, elitist attitude about it.

I totally agree here. Valve fanboys are infuriating. If you didn't enjoy Half-life, or prefer Halo as a multiplayer shooter to TF2, then you're apparently a blighted casual who shouldn't even consider rubbing shoulder with the self-anointed 'true ones' of the Valve fanbase.

I love Valve, but what I find hilarious is someone playing TF2 calling a Halo player a blighted casual (which I assume has happened to you?)

Halo is infinitely more competitive than TF2, especially on the professional gaming circuit.

TF2 Is more when you get bored of killing Spartans or Elites and want a change.

 

[Olrod]

As far as I'm concerned, Portal is the best thing to come out of the "Half Life" series.

Of course, I'm absolutely rubbish as FPS-style games, but still.

I expect great things from Portal 2.

Imagine if Portal was like jewellery... "Hi honey, I bought you a diamond ring and a diamond bracelet. I'll not bother buying you a diamond necklace because it's just more of the same. Happy anniversary love!"

 

[captaincabbage]

lol there's plenty of other developers who are bringing out top grade games to keep you busy all the time, so getting hung up on one developer who has kinda lost the plot is a bit lame.
Besides, Portal is a fun game, and L4D is still all peaches.

In my opinion, you can either go have a little sook about it, or stop being hung up on ONE developer and just carry on with life and play something else.

 

[Cosplay Horatio]

L4D2 needs better mutations. Valve is just trolling with the insanely difficult bi-weekly mutations. If valve doesn't improve them I'm gonna sell my copies of L4D and L4D2 then delete the DLC's and just rent L4D3 if it's ever gonna be released.

 

[CaptainKoala]

When was the last time Valve [http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/meanwhile.jpg] announced a completely new series? L4D...how long ago was it?

Now they just announced Portal 2...or should I say Portal: More of the Same."

I mean, at least they could have it on a new engine, but NO!

They have used the same engine for an entire decade.

WOW!

Not to mention they have completely forgotten their best franchise! Hey guys! Remember Dr. Freeman! You know, the whole of Earth and stuff!

There should have been no "episodes" in the first place for HL2, and they should have all come out in the same year considering around five minutes were put into each section.

They are the perfect example of a lazy company, stop using the nasty Source engine, and get their engineers to make something that doesn't have Gamecube graphics.

I give up. I can't be pacified with TF2 updates forever. If Valve doesn't announce Episode 3, or HL3 running on a new engine soon I'm just done with them as a developer.

Actually I think they were done with Ep. 3 a long time ago, Gabe just ate it.

What do you think about the company?

Half Life 2 took 10 years to develop. Why do you think its their best franchise? Hmm? I'll tell you: because they took their time and nit-picked the whole thing with the finest comb they could find. They found every element that wasn't good or mediocre and made them incredible. Thats the way things get done. I would rather have a few astoundingly amazing games than 10 OK games.
And FYI, they rewrote about half of the Source engine for Portal 1. The concept of portals was so foreign that it wouldn't have worked with out A LOT of engine changes.

The Source engine is an incredible piece of software, at the time of creation it had state-of-the-art unmatched graphics. And today, the graphics are still amazing. Why do you think there are more mods for HL2 than any other game? Because the Source engine is extremely powerful, relatively small, and easy to understand for a beginners and experts alike.

Not to mention, Steam. Do you know how many dozens of gigabytes in updates/free expansions they've done for all their games just THIS year? A ton. They work hard, not only making new games, but also making sure that the games they've made stay alive and working well. Valve games have better support and bug fixes than games from any other company.
And finally, why make a new engine? The Source engine is fantastic and its worked flawlessly up to this point. Nothing is outdated about it, even after all these years. No company would make a new engine because, 'the other one is old' if it still works perfectly and keeps up with modern innovations.
Be patient, Valve will release it, and no matter how long it takes its going to be worth it. Valve has never let me down with any game. They are all great.

 

[czfjrod]

lol there's plenty of other developers who are bringing out top grade games to keep you busy all the time, so getting hung up on one developer who has kinda lost the plot is a bit lame.

In my opinion, you can either go have a little sook about it, or stop being hung up on ONE developer and just carry on with life and play something else.

Try going to the Final Fantasy community and telling them that. To many gamers worldwide, Square Enix seems to be the only good company in the entire JRPG industry, and to the rest, they're the only company at all. But this thread is about Valve, and Extra Credits already explained that, so...

 

[Mr. Socky]

I give up. I can't be pacified with TF2 updates forever. If Valve doesn't announce Episode 3, or HL3 running on a new engine soon I'm just done with them as a developer.

Actually, I stopped being pacified by TF2 updates long ago. I dislike how it unbalanced the game and made it difficult to determine the role of a specific class anymore. Add in that I never liked Half-Life 2 in the first place, and Valve is one of my least favorite developers.

 

[Superior Mind]

First off I don't know what's happening with Episode Three. To be honest when they said "Episode Three will wrap up the story of Gordon Freeman" I just thought "Woah, here we go." We were always in for a massive development time. Think how many things need to be addressed to create a satisfying conclusion to the Gordon Freeman saga, the development time was always going to be monterous. This is not to consider other factors, This is Valve's baby, they've been working on it for well over a decade and they're not going to rush themselves for you or anyone else who try to rush them. They want it to stand out.

If you've ever gone through a Valve comentary you'll know how things you didn't even think of were considered in production. I think for Half-Life there's a few things that date the game, one of which in my opinion is Gordon's unemotive response to everything that happens around him. Considering things like Mass Effect have given a shot of 'epic feeling' to the gaming industry they need to consider things like that to make Half Life conclude in a satisfactory way.

That being said I do with Gabe would stop being so bloody cryptic about it all, a bit of information would be nice.

In the meantime they're keeping busy with the Left 4 Deads and the Portals and the endless TF2 updates to both keep themselves alive as a company and to pander to their consumer base. Can't complain really, they're all, (mostly in terms of TF2 updates,) good quality products.

 

[Firetaffer]

Do you HONESTLY THINK that they 'gave up' on Half-life? JESUS CHRIST THIS IS SUCH A HIGH-BUDGET STUDIO I REALLY DOUBT THEY WOULD DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT JUST TO TROLL THE FANBASE.

 

[Aegis A'Sha'Se]

Everyone hates their release schedule, but it's really no worse than Blizzard.

Master 'Snake Plissken' is correct. I mean, Blizzard did take what, ten, fifteen years to release a sequel to one of the most popular RTS's of all time, and Valve is kinda busy designing and developing all those hats for TF2 and ensuring that Steam continually works.

Personally, I don't entirely blame them for not having the next installment of Half-Life done yet.

 

[thatstheguy]

When was the last time Valve [http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/meanwhile.jpg] announced a completely new series? L4D...how long ago was it?

Now they just announced Portal 2...or should I say Portal: More of the Same."

I mean, at least they could have it on a new engine, but NO!

They have used the same engine for an entire decade.

WOW!

Not to mention they have completely forgotten their best franchise! Hey guys! Remember Dr. Freeman! You know, the whole of Earth and stuff!

There should have been no "episodes" in the first place for HL2, and they should have all come out in the same year considering around five minutes were put into each section.

They are the perfect example of a lazy company, stop using the nasty Source engine, and get their engineers to make something that doesn't have Gamecube graphics.

I give up. I can't be pacified with TF2 updates forever. If Valve doesn't announce Episode 3, or HL3 running on a new engine soon I'm just done with them as a developer.

Actually I think they were done with Ep. 3 a long time ago, Gabe just ate it.

What do you think about the company?

So you criticize VALVe for not making a new series, then go on to criticize them for not making a sequel to a series. Down syndrome much?

 

[Nouw]

Really, you're blaming the engine? Take a look at the videos for Portal 2 gameplay and I dare you to say 'more of the same.'

I double dare you, say that again. I'm not an expert with the rest but what you said with Portal is wrong.
[sub]I'm not a fanboy, I have Relic for that![/sub]

 

[Snotnarok]

You realize...valve is independent right? They're not being published or funded by another company. So their games comeout in larger timeframes.

I have no idea why everyone is so dead set on graphics, the games look great to me. I don't need super realistic looking graphics because it's a escape from reality. But if you need to see every hair on someones ass I guess that's your thing.