When will Valve actually make THE game?

[brenflood]

This thread only serves to raise my hatred for humanity.
While the OP's wording was unfortunate, all responses on the first page, save for one, were unnecessarily dick. Even if he was saying Valve hadn't yet made a real game (which he wasn't), the response was inappropriate. Ignoring him would have been way more productive than responding in a such a butthurt manner. That way, it wouldn't show up on the new threads list, or if it did, it wouldn't stay for long.
I think he asks a very valid question. I would love to see a game that combines the innovative elements of previous Valve games. Certainly, HDR and AI types can integrated without any effect whatsoever on gameplay. The only real innovation that served as a genuine selling point for a game was the portal gun in portal. Every other experiment served more as a way to enhance an already solid formula (like the director in the left 4 dead series. I mean, four people shooting zombies would still be fun without it, but the experience would be inferior).
Valve actually did a good job in portal 2 of integrating open areas and making the previously small seeming Aperture Science labs much larger.
I do think the answer (assuming the results of their research actually are building to a final product) would be Half Life 3, which also may serve to explain why it's taking so bloody long for HL2: ep3 to come out. I would love to see a game that uses the Portal gun alongside more traditional firearms.

 

[NoNameMcgee]

My god, so far about 3 people have actually understood what the OP was saying. and you call yourselves an intellectual community...

On topic: I don't think Valve will ever do all those things one game, I really don't think its what they have been aiming for with all their little experiments. Though I'm sure they will take past ideas that worked well and incorporate them again.

 

[Frosted89]

Yeah, I don't think Valve's current releases are experiments for the Ultimate Game. They might take what they've learned from previous titles and improve it for future releases sure, but that's what any good game developer does. Besides, if there was such a game that applied the Cooperation of Left 4 Dead, the puzzles and writing of Portal, the action of Half-Life, and the multi-player experience of Counter-Strike,Day of Defeat, and Team Fortress; the world would implode in on itself from sheer awesomeness.

 

[Frotality]

i think they were hoping the concepts they explored in their games would catch on with the rest of the industry; somehow, against all logic, valve games are about the only successful and critically praised titles that the industry doesnt rip off.

its...unfathomable.

i dont think they plan to make an "ultimate game" themselves; knowing them (and valve knowing themselves), much of valve's development team would retire or die of old age mid-development.

 

[Caliostro]

So, if you try something new you're not making a game?

Well, someone needs to tell that to the man or woman that came up with the concept of "innovation"... Won't they be pissed!

No, I do not want an end to innovation, I am merely speculating on what a Valve game would look like with a culmination of all their advances up to that point.

Isn't that what all of their games do? Now, not every game fits every mechanic... You're making a game, not a stew.

 

[Voodoomancer]

It's Valve. When they release a game that uses all of their experimenting to it's full potential, they'll add in something totally new and experiment with that. Continue testing, and all that.

Also, astounding the number of people who don't read the post properly.

Also, Combine all they've done together? So, a man with a doctorate in a comedic quasi-50's setting fighting hordes of the undead with a quantum tunneling device?
...that sounds pretty awesome, actually.

 

[HerbertTheHamster]

Probably never. Episode 3/Half Life 3 will never get released due to the inability to slap hats on it.

Plus portals and guns probably don't really work that well together. The L4D director, on the other hand...

 

[idodo35]

well hopefully NEVER i mean look at valves catalog every game better than the last one!
I just hope theyll keep testing and make ever bettering games! just think about it!
in 10 years theyll have a "test" that will be awarded best game of the dacade just to be overthrown by the next game that learend from its predecesors mistakes!

 

[Pedro The Hutt]

My god, so far about 3 people have actually understood what the OP was saying. and you call yourselves an intellectual community...

On topic: I don't think Valve will ever do all those things one game, I really don't think its what they have been aiming for with all their little experiments. Though I'm sure they will take past ideas that worked well and incorporate them again.

Most of us posted before he edited his original post you harsh generalising conclusion jumper you.

And as many have pointed out, Valve are constantly putting the lessons they learned to good use. That said, just because you learned several lessons doesn't mean you -have- to put all your acquired knowledge into a single product. The key to good game design is to know what you should and shouldn't put into it.

The AI director from L4D would be pointless in games like Portal, and arguably even something like Half-Life which relies heavily on scripted events guiding the experience.

Plus I really think Valve starts out with a concept rather than sitting down at a table and deciding how to best accumulate all the cool things they've come up with over the years into a single game. Instead they have an idea and then use the experience they've acquired to get the job done. If that means the AI director or the changes to the Source engine done to make portals work aren't needed, so be it. And I'd fully respect that.

 

[Popido]

This reminds me... When was the motion control test supposed to start again?

I belive HL3 will have almost everything that they have developed till now, if you take a look how Portal 2 turned out.

Oh yeah, while we're at it. Portal 2: Animation and cross-platform.

 

[AdamRBi]

The combination of everything they've experimented with? Pretty sure they do that in subtle ways in all their games, you just notice the newer addition because that's the one they were playing around the most with. It's not as if they'd build and tweak an AI system for L4D or a Physics Engine for HL2 and not use it in other games. Just because Portal 2 or L4D2 don't have dedicated Physics Puzzles doesn't mean they don't use them (though really Portal is nothing but a huge Physics Puzzle).