The same fucking halfwits that were whining about Valve even before Half Life 2 was even released are the same people still whining now. Hell it's the same idiots posting useless shit in other game threads too.
Nothing has changed with you people. You guys always take the lowest common denominator (4 hours), you always throw out major aspects of points (3 to 5 years vs 1.5 years) just so you can fabricate some bullshit (see Riley regarding HL2 and Ep1 development). Valve spend 2 years on HL2, decided it wasnt fun and they started over, and 3 years later the game was done. HL2 has been out for 1.5 years (released Nov 17th 2004), not 2 years. In the last year and a half they have developed Lost Coast, HL2 XBox, DoD Source, Steam updates, Source Engine updates (HDR etc), CSS updates, and who knows what else Im not thinking of or they havent told us about...and now Ep1. They have not spent the greater part of the last year and a half developing Ep1 except for pre-production and planning stages.
If you dont like Half Life 2 or their games fine...millions of people do. Do you people really get off on being assholes, making up bullshit about Valve, Steam, Half Life 2, etc? If you dont like it, move on and get a life, or at least voice your opinions with some ounce of respect for other people that do like the games and for the developers that create them. I've said it time and time again...I dont agree with everything Valve has done, but I'm appearently more aware than some that Valve doesnt rule the universe and if they do something I dont like, it doesn't ruin my life.
I've just spent the last 2 hours and 45min playing, starting from the beginning and playing on Medium. I've just started Chapter 4 (of 7), so I'm just over halfway. The game is excellent! Very well paced, nice graphic effects (Citadel Core), animation and AI updates to Alyx are very nice to watch, use of HDR really enhances the visuals, interesting puzzles, and the design forces the player to use other items as weapons instead of just guns all the time. Story is excellent...sorry but some of you may have difficulty following it as you actually have to use your brain a little (same as with Half-Life 2).
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Currently playing GW Factions, Day of Defeat Source and HL2:Episode 1.