Just finish it already! Bastards...

I thought Ep1 was more like 4-5 hours of gameplay. And what is this "Valve will be releasing the long-awaited Team Fortress 2 later this year". Are they saying Ep 2 will be available before TF2? I thought it was going to be out at the same time.

God this is poor. I'd rather they just release a new episode every few months. Don't bother adding a whole bunch of new features or anything, use the same engine and such. Just make new maps, character scenes and dialogs, etc.

I don't care if you made HDR/Bloom/etc 10% blurrier when staring at the sun or made the striders hop/skip/jump. Just put out a quality game.

A short-as game every 1-1.5 years is just weak.



"Space. It seems to go on and on forever. But then you get to the end and a gorilla starts throwing barrels at you."
-Fry, Futurmama
This comment was edited on Mar 9, 10:24.

...are homophones (sound the same) not homonyms (spelled the same, mean different things).

woohoo, it will be longer. So instead of including only one "get-hostages-from-a-to-b" and repeat over 10 times, we'll get at least three missions of this type.

I can't wait to play Ep2... seriously

I took my time in Episode One because I knew it was short and it still only took me about 7 hours to finish. I paid $14.95 for Episode One, so it was probably worth it. BUT, I hate the huge delay between episodes, that just sucks.

Long gameplay, good gameplay, short dev period. Pick two.

What I hate most appart from platform fanboys is idiots who whine when a game gets delayed. With the amounts of money involved, you can bet your arse that there's a good reason to delay the game.
So be thankfull that it does get delayed and teh bugs get worked out, otherwise you'll have nothing to do but whine on message boards AND have a shitty game, instead of 'waiting' a month or two and playing a good game.

Of course the real kicker is this:

I think we’ll get closer to a year and be on a 12 month cycle. We’ll see how it goes after this trilogy is done.

Suggesting (in my mind) that after EP3 all the other stuff they release will be episodic in nature.

Hoo-fucking-ray Valve. Ugh.

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Diablo & Diablo 2 for the DS, it makes sense Blizzard!
http://www.1000to0.com

"Episode 1 took 18 months to complete and Episode 2 will end up being about 13 to 14 months, so we’re trimming it down," he said. "Oh, and we just started on it yesterday, so see ya in 2010 or so. Baring any more source code thefts, of course. Or acts of God. Or Gabe's birthday. Or a re-paving of the parking lot. Or bowling night, once a week. Any of those, and it could easily be 2012."

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http://yearzero.nin.com/

I think the point is Valve's current implementation of episodes is a development period equivalent to or more than an expansion pack with arguably less content than an expansion pack.

Suggesting (in my mind) that after EP3 all the other stuff they release will be episodic in nature.

Yeah. I would have rather they stopped after HL2 and at most just finished TF2. Will we ever see a new game release on the order of HL or HL2 from Valve again? My guess is if we do it's at least 5 years away.
s{
This comment was edited on Mar 9, 11:08.

Considering I only paid about $10 for it on sale the week after it was released in the store, I'm OK with episodic content that lasts 6-8 hours each every year or so at that price.

Like some others, I go slow, take my time, and wander around looking for little tricks or better ways of doing things. I feel I get my $$$ worth.

And it's not like they are holding your kid hostage or anything. So it takes a bit longer - who really cares? It's a video game. For those complaining about it, what are you - an ADD 8 year old?



http://house-update.blogspot.com/

Last update: Tuesday, March 06, 2007

This comment was edited on Mar 9, 11:09.

just release a new episode every few months. ... use the same engine and such. Just make new maps, character scenes and dialogs,

,new stories, new scenarios, new content - like NWN.

Apparently whatever HL2 tools exist are too complex for average storytellers to use, there should be a huge community cranking new adventures out every couple months, but there's not.

And it's not like they are holding your kid hostage or anything. So it takes a bit longer - who really cares? It's a video game. For those complaining about it, what are you - an ADD 8 year old?

Unfortunately many gamers (none here of course ;P) are.

FWIW I've always thought exactly the same - I'll play it when it comes out. It's not like I've given them any money yet so they're hardly fucking me over, or whatever other rabid Valve/id/Epic/EA-bashing 8 year old might think.

For those complaining about it, what are you - an ADD 8 year old?

So-what if Fred is?

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I Am Trying to Believe - April 17th, 2007

I appreciate the "I'll play it when it comes out" - but it's fairly obvious then that you'd not consider yourself a die-hard fan, right?

I've been itching to play more Half Life since I finished the first one back in '99 (got it a bit later here in Ireland ) My problem is, the episodes were supposed to speed up content delivery; I'm sure someone could dig up a quote with a claim from Lombardi of 6 months an episode? I seem to remember that. And what happened? Episode 1 came out, and it was a total re-tread. No new locations, no real furthering of the story line... What did they spend their time on? Really?

Sure, 2 looks vastly different, and with new locations and enemies, but I thought Source was modular? Seems like a dog to work with...

What did they spend their time on? Really?

Counting their piles of money?
http://media.arstechnica.com/articles/culture/teardowns.media/jobsmcduck.jpg
http://www.abandonia.com/images/games/Duck%20Tales1.png

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I Am Trying to Believe - April 17th, 2007
This comment was edited on Mar 9, 12:03.

Well, the "whining" in part has to do with both of these very delayed "episodes" are also delaying a proper full-length Half-Life 3 game. That's what many gamers want Valve to spend their time on. Episodic games have the sole purpose of generating revenue for recycled game content.

Its not that im a rabid fan. I like Helf Life 2, I really did.

My problem is two fold:

1- I cant stand episodic content, most companies cant get it right (Sam & Max seems to be the only exception), but to top it off, its an obvious money grabbing scam. Using HL2 as the example, they release the game back in '04 (I think) with a nice engine, then over the next few years they release the 3 'episodes' which added up equal about the full cost of a regular full release of a game. Except your not getting your moneys worth.
There is no new engine bar a few minor updates, a few new textures and models but really just a big rehash of previous stuff and some more voice acting.
The claim of the total play time being equal is false too as the start of each of these episodes has to dedicate time to orientation, story telling, and then building you up to a full aresenal of weapons. From a Devs point of view thats great, its easy to give the player a one or two weapon situation with limited enimies than it is to give them a much larger situation in which the player has more at his disposal. The player looses out on these better scenarios and the stop-start element of playing each episode in a row.

(hmm my second point was kinda folded in the above).

Im not saying that the Episodes are not fun to play, but they rob the player of so many things that the supposed trade off of being able to play every 6 months or so (ha!) is not worth it.

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Diablo & Diablo 2 for the DS, it makes sense Blizzard!
http://www.1000to0.com

I'm just wondering whether, at ANY point in the history of video games, gamers actually DIDN'T whine constantly about release dates.

This comment was edited on Mar 9, 12:16.

I'm just wondering whether, at ANY point in the history of video games, gamers actually DIDN'T whine constantly about release dates.

Well, back in the day of Nintendo Power - you didn't usually know about a game until it was available, or it had already shipped.

Wasn't much room to bitch about carts you didn't see in the store....

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I Am Trying to Believe - April 17th, 2007