Ships Ahoy - Half-Life 2: Episode One [Jun 01, 2006, 6:42 pm ET] – Share – Viewing Comments
Valve announces that Half-Life 2: Episode One is now available via
Steam:
Valve Launches First of an Episodic Trilogy
Bellevue, WA, June 1, 2006 - Valve®, developer of the blockbuster series Half-Life® and Counter-Strike™, announced Half-Life® 2: Episode One is now available via Steamgames.com for just $19.95 and at retail outlets around the world.
The first in a trilogy of episodic games, Episode One reveals the aftermath of Half-Life 2 and launches a journey beyond City 17. Episode One does not require Half-Life 2 to play and also includes a first look at Episode Two, which will ship by year's end.
In addition to the new single player experience, two multiplayer games are included. And those who purchase Episode One will have free access via Steam (www.steamgames.com) to Half-Life 2: Lost Coast, the interactive technology demo that introduces High Dynamic Range lighting to the SourceTM Engine, Valve's award-winning game technology.
I feel that the buisness model behin episodic gmae s is great
*winces*
That is your prerogative. But who is the business model great FOR, exactly? You, or for the publisher? (Hint, it's not you).
1.Publishers have constant trickle of cash coming in(less stress on the creative minds making the game)
And that is good, how? Let me give you a few words : Electronic Arts. Their developers have very little stress making games, because they're all yearly updates anyways. When was the last time one of these updates blew you away?
Also, a steady trickle of cash leads to complacency, see Blizzard since World of Warcraft. I'm not denying WoW is a great game, but what have they done since then?
Furthermore, episodic content means "more of the same" rather than a true sequel. Do you really think Valve is going to radically overhaul their game in these episodes? Not going to happen. Whereas if they made an expansion pack or a HL3, they'd be more inclined to do something new. (or at least partially new).
Finally, they get to charge you 20 bucks for four hours of gaming.
.Instant feed back ( every 4-6 months the game will jsut be that much better)
That is actually a very good point. The question is if the developer LISTENS to their fanbase (We all know most don't,) but it's still something that would potentially benefit the gamer.
3.gamwes using same engines (usually) longer,meaning in the long run we may not need to buy newest vid card as much.
How long have you been playing games? When was the release of a new engine the only time you needed to upgrade? So many changes are made to an engine that you typically WILL upgrade before the engine's End of Life.
Furthermore, it seems that in the last few years, the industry is stepping away from licensing and going back to making their own engines. Which makes your point irrelevant.
4.Game engine getting fully utilized...EP1 i hear is ALOT better looking then HL2.
That has nothing to do with it being episodic content, but is simply because HL2 is by now two years old, and if ep1 looked like HL2, it'd look like crap compared to today's games. Every game two years down the road is going to look better than today's games. Again irrelevant.
5.because of less push from its publisher(buiness behind the art)we are gonna see alot more and from the looks of it better gaming
Eh? How exactly do you figure that? Believe me, every publisher on Earth is EAGERLY watching Valve and Ritual's test runs with episodic content, and if they deem them succesful, EVERY ONE OF THEM will switch to it. Great. Instead of complete games, we'll soon be playing the game version of Stephen King novels. Only three more months until a next chapter, I'm so excited! Woohoo!
The fact that there is no publisher pushing Valve is because of Steam. It has nothing to do with the content being episodic.
10 years down road we can go to diff webpages and a company will offer a 1 long romp into a world or a death match map.For a quick(ultra quick by then) we get game and time and play.When we are done we put (more quarters) more money onto game we get more game time,If we so choose to buy game we do.
Holy shit, and you feel that this is GOOD??
That you actually have to BUY your entire game piecemeal? Let's see, I buy the base engine, I pay 5 bucks for two extra character classes, I take all the swords for 10 bucks, and a bow for five bucks, then I take two towns for 20, a dungeon for ten, and three boss monsters for 15.
Give me a fucking break. And imagine the work you'll have to do to just figure out which of these are cool and which aren't? You'd have to spend fifty hours on a forum reading posts just to figure out which add-ons to buy and which not to buy.
You may like that, but I think it'd be the fucking death of gaming as we know it. I would DEFINITELY stop playing games forever if it ever switches to that.
Kind of like back in the day we paid a quarter to get a romp in donkey kong...If we so chose we put more quartes in if not we went to next machine
Your analogy is flawed. A more fitting one would be that you put a quarter in donkey kong, and at the end of the level, you have to put in another quarter for "Bog Standard Level B", or you can choose to put in two quarters for "Somewhat Better Level C" or a whole buck for "Absolutely Awesome Level D!"
Wow, that sure sounds like great gaming alright
Creston
*winces*
That is your prerogative. But who is the business model great FOR, exactly? You, or for the publisher? (Hint, it's not you).
1.Publishers have constant trickle of cash coming in(less stress on the creative minds making the game)
And that is good, how? Let me give you a few words : Electronic Arts. Their developers have very little stress making games, because they're all yearly updates anyways. When was the last time one of these updates blew you away?
Also, a steady trickle of cash leads to complacency, see Blizzard since World of Warcraft. I'm not denying WoW is a great game, but what have they done since then?
Furthermore, episodic content means "more of the same" rather than a true sequel. Do you really think Valve is going to radically overhaul their game in these episodes? Not going to happen. Whereas if they made an expansion pack or a HL3, they'd be more inclined to do something new. (or at least partially new).
Finally, they get to charge you 20 bucks for four hours of gaming.
.Instant feed back ( every 4-6 months the game will jsut be that much better)
That is actually a very good point. The question is if the developer LISTENS to their fanbase (We all know most don't,) but it's still something that would potentially benefit the gamer.
3.gamwes using same engines (usually) longer,meaning in the long run we may not need to buy newest vid card as much.
How long have you been playing games? When was the release of a new engine the only time you needed to upgrade? So many changes are made to an engine that you typically WILL upgrade before the engine's End of Life.
Furthermore, it seems that in the last few years, the industry is stepping away from licensing and going back to making their own engines. Which makes your point irrelevant.
4.Game engine getting fully utilized...EP1 i hear is ALOT better looking then HL2.
That has nothing to do with it being episodic content, but is simply because HL2 is by now two years old, and if ep1 looked like HL2, it'd look like crap compared to today's games. Every game two years down the road is going to look better than today's games. Again irrelevant.
5.because of less push from its publisher(buiness behind the art)we are gonna see alot more and from the looks of it better gaming
Eh? How exactly do you figure that? Believe me, every publisher on Earth is EAGERLY watching Valve and Ritual's test runs with episodic content, and if they deem them succesful, EVERY ONE OF THEM will switch to it. Great. Instead of complete games, we'll soon be playing the game version of Stephen King novels. Only three more months until a next chapter, I'm so excited! Woohoo!
The fact that there is no publisher pushing Valve is because of Steam. It has nothing to do with the content being episodic.
10 years down road we can go to diff webpages and a company will offer a 1 long romp into a world or a death match map.For a quick(ultra quick by then) we get game and time and play.When we are done we put (more quarters) more money onto game we get more game time,If we so choose to buy game we do.
Holy shit, and you feel that this is GOOD??
That you actually have to BUY your entire game piecemeal? Let's see, I buy the base engine, I pay 5 bucks for two extra character classes, I take all the swords for 10 bucks, and a bow for five bucks, then I take two towns for 20, a dungeon for ten, and three boss monsters for 15.
Give me a fucking break. And imagine the work you'll have to do to just figure out which of these are cool and which aren't? You'd have to spend fifty hours on a forum reading posts just to figure out which add-ons to buy and which not to buy.
You may like that, but I think it'd be the fucking death of gaming as we know it. I would DEFINITELY stop playing games forever if it ever switches to that.
Kind of like back in the day we paid a quarter to get a romp in donkey kong...If we so chose we put more quartes in if not we went to next machine
Your analogy is flawed. A more fitting one would be that you put a quarter in donkey kong, and at the end of the level, you have to put in another quarter for "Bog Standard Level B", or you can choose to put in two quarters for "Somewhat Better Level C" or a whole buck for "Absolutely Awesome Level D!"
Wow, that sure sounds like great gaming alright
Creston
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