It's not that, I just kept telling my friends it would be Half Life 3 rather than Ep3CopperBoom said:
Valve Outgrows Its "Episodes Phase"
- Thread starter Andy Chalk
- Start date
So Valve will no longer be doing what it absolutely fails at. News value: 0.
One "Episode" every few years is not episodic gaming. Only one company does it right: Telltale. And then there's the serial "sequels" like the Madden content-updates... err "games", but those aren't episodic either.
Just make Half-Life 3, mmkay?
One "Episode" every few years is not episodic gaming. Only one company does it right: Telltale. And then there's the serial "sequels" like the Madden content-updates... err "games", but those aren't episodic either.
Just make Half-Life 3, mmkay?
(Insert obligatory Half-Life (2 Episode) 3 request here, followed by "pretty please")Andy Chalk said:
I think Valve does this on purpose now. They enjoy watching us fans scramble over every announcement, hoping it will be THE one.
Was that a fat joke, or did it has some deeper meaning?HankMan said:
Hey. Long as it is not content that I hate pay to get access I am all for it.
I really can't see how you can release extra stuff later for something like Half Life, with L4D and TF2 it's a pretty simple matter, because of the way they're set up.
TF2 can have stuff added because it's dynamic, and there's not much story, for example, if your team wins in one map, it doesn't change how you're going to be doing in the next map. L4D can have extra stuff chucked in because it's episodic, and there's stuff happening between episodes you can explore with DLC.
But, with Half Life, the idea is a single experience that can be played from start to finish without being chucked back to a menu screen. If you cut it down into several episodes like L4D, then you're basically back to episodic releasing! That's the only real way to add new content that isn't just bug fixes. It's a loose-loose situation! D=
TF2 can have stuff added because it's dynamic, and there's not much story, for example, if your team wins in one map, it doesn't change how you're going to be doing in the next map. L4D can have extra stuff chucked in because it's episodic, and there's stuff happening between episodes you can explore with DLC.
But, with Half Life, the idea is a single experience that can be played from start to finish without being chucked back to a menu screen. If you cut it down into several episodes like L4D, then you're basically back to episodic releasing! That's the only real way to add new content that isn't just bug fixes. It's a loose-loose situation! D=
I just hope that they're keeping episode three under massive wraps and are going to surprise the world big time by announcing at the last minute that they're releasing it. Either that or they've forgotten about it and I'm going to jump off a bridge.
...Couldn't this of waited till AFTER Episode three Valve? Now it feels like we will never get it.
Good, I can't stand the episodic format. I'll pay for your damn game guys, just give me the whole package so I can get on with it and I'm not left waiting on them to get around to the next one. Not to mention the worst part is if a series just never gets finished for whatever reason (*insert joke here*).
Plus usually they're downloadable, I always prefer a physical retail over dlc any day.
Plus usually they're downloadable, I always prefer a physical retail over dlc any day.
"We'll have to see how much our customers want us to push in that direction" is basically Valve being the mean older brother here and dangling that sweet DLC just out of your reach and telling you to jump. Yes they're going to yank it away (Valve Time), but you might be able to get it with enough effort.
Really?Andy Chalk said:
REALLY??
If my memory serves me correctly, Valve's "episodes phase" was designed to shorten development and release cycles. And if my memory serves me correctly, Valve failed spectacularly at this goal. Instead, they released a handful of smaller products on the same timeline that most games publishers release full games.
And now they're moving toward even shorter development cycles? This seems to me to be like NASA announcing "After three failed moon landings, our next mission will be a landing on Jupiter."
Don't get me wrong - I believe that Valve's games (when they do come out) are some of the best around. They optimize for product quality, not for schedule, and I appreciate that greatly. But an announcement like this one sounds like BS to me...
ehh, makes sense enough - the ZP orange box review showed that Valve never really quite got the grasp of episodic gaming to start with. And, let's be fair, I only remember 2 AAA games trying the episodic route - Sin Episodes, which never made it past the first "show", and this HL2 one, which never got the time thing right. Also, DLC became the huge thing, so that sort of replaced the need for episodic gaming outside of the Telltale-esque adventure crowd, which actually suits the episodic thingy more.
