Anyone else think valve has canned episode 3...

[JTsyo]

Hey, if somebody refuses to buy a DLC or short episode that's their business.

But in my mind this isn't a movie you sit down and watch continuously for at least an hour and half. It's a game most people play for maybe 20 minutes at a stretch. If they can produce a long game then great. If they can produce short episodes, that's great too. The important thing is that they maintain the quality and overall bang-for-your-buck.

Valve has done that extremely well and to expect more from them is just asking too much. With all the companies out there putting out crappy DLCs, crappy sequels, and bad console ports I'll never have anything bad to say about the ones that consistently put out quality products.

huh? If I can only play for 20 minutes I usually don't even bother other than small games like Chime. Something like HL2, I would only start playing if I can get in about 40 mins at least. Though there hasn't been a game yet that I beat in a single weekend.

 

[motsm]

huh? If I can only play for 20 minutes I usually don't even bother other than small games like Chime. Something like HL2, I would only start playing if I can get in about 40 mins at least. Though there hasn't been a game yet that I beat in a single weekend.

Ditto. I don't bother playing if I think I'll be cut short after only 20 minutes. Hell, that's less time than it takes to watch an episode of Seinfeld without commercials.

 

[wuliheron]

huh? If I can only play for 20 minutes I usually don't even bother other than small games like Chime. Something like HL2, I would only start playing if I can get in about 40 mins at least. Though there hasn't been a game yet that I beat in a single weekend.

More power to you, but obviously you aren't your average person and most DLCs and episodes are far longer then even 40 minutes.

 

[zerocool84]

Hey, if somebody refuses to buy a DLC or short episode that's their business.

But in my mind this isn't a movie you sit down and watch continuously for at least an hour and half. It's a game most people play for maybe 20 minutes at a stretch. If they can produce a long game then great. If they can produce short episodes, that's great too. The important thing is that they maintain the quality and overall bang-for-your-buck.

Valve has done that extremely well and to expect more from them is just asking too much. With all the companies out there putting out crappy DLCs, crappy sequels, and bad console ports I'll never have anything bad to say about the ones that consistently put out quality products.

Considering the average gamers plays for much longer than 20min at any time, your point is invalid.

 

[Maximilian]

Considering the average gamers plays for much longer than 20min at any time, your point is invalid.

This. Where did 20 minutes come from anyways??? I could piss away 20 minutes just thinking about what to do next :\

 

[wuliheron]

Believe it or not most people don't spend their lives glued to the computer or console. Websites such as this one may represent hardcore gamers, but most people are casual gamers. They may come home from work, spend twenty minutes gaming, then fix dinner, and maybe do another twenty minutes of gaming or move on to other things.

 

[zerocool84]

Believe it or not most people don't spend their lives glued to the computer or console. Websites such as this one may represent hardcore gamers, but most people are casual gamers. They may come home from work, spend twenty minutes gaming, then fix dinner, and maybe do another twenty minutes of gaming or move on to other things.

Like I said, average gamer, average means more than just on Anandtech.

 

[wuliheron]

Like I said, average gamer, average means more than just on Anandtech.

What you said was:

Considering the average gamers plays for much longer than 20min at any time, your point is invalid.

If you want I can recommend a few good courses in effective communication and English.

 

[StinkyPinky]

Maybe they're waiting for the next gen console. THat way they can release a super duper graphical powerhouse. It's not like they need the money right now.

 

[Maximilian]

Believe it or not most people don't spend their lives glued to the computer or console. Websites such as this one may represent hardcore gamers, but most people are casual gamers. They may come home from work, spend twenty minutes gaming, then fix dinner, and maybe do another twenty minutes of gaming or move on to other things.

So you clearly arent a hardcore gamer or even a PC gamer... begs the question what are you doing here then? Are you here to represent the soccer moms who spend 20 mins playing angry birds or what?

FYI these fabled people who play for 20 minutes and fix dinner are of no concern to the half life dev team...

 

[Zenoth]

I do believe that they'll release a "full" title instead, namely Half-Life 3, because technically if they release "Episode 3" then it means that it's still part of their so called episodic content ideology, which in turn should mean that such an episode would just be that, just an episode, with just a few hours of game-play even after all those years of waiting, which of course would be unacceptable.

The logic course of action, in my opinion, is to just leave that episodic content idea behind and take the time they need to develop a "proper", full-fledged triple A title, because that's what Valve excels at... granted Episode 2 was great, but Episode 1 was merely acceptable, big projects like the original Half-Life or Half-Life 2 may well take long to do, but I prefer seeing Valve do that instead of anything else.

Now I hope that they won't announce Left 4 Dead 3 before they announce their next Half-Life game.

 

[gorcorps]

So you clearly arent a hardcore gamer or even a PC gamer... begs the question what are you doing here then? Are you here to represent the soccer moms who spend 20 mins playing angry birds or what?

FYI these fabled people who play for 20 minutes and fix dinner are of no concern to the half life dev team...

Oh fuck off... Once you grow up, get a real job and have a family your gaming time takes a hit. Half Life has been a popular series for a long time now and the fans have grown up. Just because someone has better things to do with their life now doesn't mean they can't be Half Life fans. Based on the age of the first one MOST of the gamers that have followed the series from the beginning probably have kids by now. You don't have to be a lone loser to be a HL fan.

 

[Maximilian]

Oh fuck off... Once you grow up, get a real job and have a family your gaming time takes a hit. Half Life has been a popular series for a long time now and the fans have grown up. Just because someone has better things to do with their life now doesn't mean they can't be Half Life fans. Based on the age of the first one MOST of the gamers that have followed the series from the beginning probably have kids by now. You don't have to be a lone loser to be a HL fan.

Thats no reason to dumb down half life.

Go play farmville instead.

 

[Texashiker]

Anyone else think valve has canned episode 3...
and decided to make a full half life 3 instead?

Yes, there has been discussion all over the net on how episodes are a failure.

Instead of working on a partial game like EP3, we are going to see something like half-life 3.

 

[gorcorps]

Thats no reason to dumb down half life.

Go play farmville instead.

I've read my post over and over again, and I honestly don't understand how you got "dumb down half-life" from "some half life fans don't have as much time on their hands". Nowhere in there did I say it should be changed... it's simply a fact that just because somebody doesn't have that much time to game anymore doesn't mean they never liked or played the HL series. I never even HINTED that they should change the game style to cater to those people, all I said was that these people do indeed exist. If some poor SOB can't play for longer than 20 mins at a time, why's that a problem? Just keep the quicksave button in the game and he'll be able to finish it some day. Why are people with demanding jobs and/or families not allowed to enjoy HL with the small amount of time they may have?

 

[AstroManLuca]

Yeah, I've always found Valve games to be very friendly to short gaming sessions. Even most checkpoint-save games are decent about it; most give you checkpoints every few minutes so you never lose much progress even if you have to drop everything.

Playing HL2, it was definitely evident that Valve had done a lot of playtesting to keep the game from getting too confusing. I prefer the challenge to come in the gameplay itself, not in trying to figure out what I'm supposed to do.

The real problem comes with games like Metroid Prime, where you have to use "save rooms" that are often spaced really far apart. I remember being unable to play Metroid Prime 3 because of this. Sometimes it took me nearly an hour just to get from one save room to the next.

 

[wuliheron]

Thats no reason to dumb down half life.

Go play farmville instead.

Get a life instead, preferably one of your own instead of someone else's.

Half Life 2 and the episodes are among the best selling video games of all time and a few extremists demanding that people shouldn't be able to enjoy playing the games for 20 minutes at a stretch or buy short episodes are welcome to buy some other game. The idea that Valve must change what is obviously a winning formula to suit the demands of a few spoiled kids online is a joke in bad taste.

 

[coloumb]

Freaky. At about 12:32am last night, just before I fell asleep, I briefly thought he same thing... [about EP3 being canned or why it had not been released yet]

 

[Wyndru]

I hope it will be HL3 instead. The episodes were too short, and not worth the initial release cost. If an episode does get released, I'll be waiting until a $5 deal or something close happens. If they made me wait this long, I can wait another couple of years and pay much less.

 

[dguy6789]

They're doing a Blizzard.

"Hah! We have enough money to make <insert sequel here> when ever we want. Deal with it bitches!"

And just look at the Starcraft 2 crowd... lapped it all right up.

You make it sound like SC2 is some common randomly thrown out game that took less than a year of development time. It's probably the best RTS since SC1. Nothing released between the two is even remotely on the same level of quality as SC2 is.

 

[AstroManLuca]

You make it sound like SC2 is some common randomly thrown out game that took less than a year of development time. It's probably the best RTS since SC1. Nothing released between the two is even remotely on the same level of quality as SC2 is.

Company of Heroes is better. SC2 is really just a reskinned SC1.

 

[Ross Ridge]

Once you grow up, get a real job and have a family your gaming time takes a hit.

Once that reaches the point where you can only play at 20 minute intervals, the only games you're buying are for your iPhone. As far as company like Valve is concerned you're irrelevent.

The fact is that average gamer spends a lot of time playing games. Even the Farmville crowd spends more time playing games then you might think. Zynga recently decribed there average player as being a 40-year old mom that spends 68 minutes a day playing their games.

 

[sigurros81]

and decided to make a full half life 3 instead?

I think they have, i base this on absolutely nothing but it makes sense to me. What do you guys think?

Look at the big brain on Brad. What tipped you off? The 4 years since episode 2?

 

[fatpat268]

Hl2 was too damn short for 50$. It felt more like half a game. If valve made Hl2 longer by adding the episodic content in it I would've loved it.

Wait... what? Really? HL2 was easily 12-15 hours of gameplay, which isn't too shabby at $50 (at least nowadays). Add in the fact that it was a pretty big step forward in FPS games at the time and that it had a robust moddable engine... I'd say it would be well worth $50. I completely disagree that it felt like half a game. It was all self contained and ended nicely. The episodes weren't deliberately cut out, and they were clearly additions to the story.

That said, I have full faith that Valve is making HL3 right now and that they're waiting for the perfect time to reveal it. After all, didn't Valve say they have a surprise planned before releasing Portal 2? I have a feeling that the events in Portal 2 will probably bridge any gap in between Episode 2 and HL3.

 

[AstroManLuca]

Yeah, I've never heard anyone accuse HL2 of being too short before. The closest thing is to say it was padded, which is sort of true with all the long driving segments and some repetitive parts. But it definitely wasn't short.

It is funny that Gabe Newell claimed that they were doing episodes as a way of releasing new content more quickly. They must have forgotten about that after Ep 2 came out.

Fun fact - Half-Life 2 came out about six years after Half-Life. It has been MORE than six years since Half-Life 2 was released, though!