disappointed said:
Vigormortis said:
I seriously think you underestimate how commonly known the Half-Life series is among gamers.
I didn't mean Half Life wasn't mainstream - heck, even normal people have heard of Portal - but some of the stuff people are suggesting... Not much point arguing over Avatar: The Last Airbender if all most people know of it is the movie.
Ah. Fair enough. The wording in your original post made it sound like you were referencing Half-Life specifically. As if implying it's not well known. (which made no sense to me.
)
And yes, it's unfortunate most people now think of that awful film instead of the animated series. I'm not even a fan of the show and even I feel angry at M. Night.
disappointed said:
Vigormortis said:
Also, considering two failed experiments still led to some of the best games to be released in those respective years, I'd hardly consider them (the Episodes) to be blemishes.
Yeah, the only way I could work it is if you count Half Life 3 as a thing, then it's a blemish because it doesn't exist. Or, if you don't then the series ending is just terrible - worse than ME3.
When I think of "blemish on a franchise", I think of a bad entry. As in, in the case of video games, a really poorly made game that's no where near as good as the other entries in the series. Episode 1 and Episode 2 were anything but poorly made. The viability of episodic content, in the form Valve was aiming for, may have proved untenable, but that doesn't mean the episode games themselves were bad. So I just can't see them as a "blemish" on the series.
As for the ending, yes it was a hell of a cliff-hanger. One they've left us sitting on for years. (which at this point is almost a joke, a rude joke, because of how long we've been waiting for a conclusion) But, at least the ending
made sense and fit the story arc. Mass Effect 3's ending(s) were a complete departure from what the rest of the series was; and the more you think about even the smallest aspects of them, the less sense they make.
So, in a way, I agree that Half-Life 3, metaphorically speaking, is the real blemish of the Half-Life series.
(side note)
I still wonder why people assume Valve's never going to make Half-Life 3. It's still their favorite series to work on (collectively), and they often use it as not only a way of showing off their new ideas and story telling techniques, but as a test bed for new game-play concepts and engine tech. It really doesn't seem likely they'd just "forget" about it.
