Episodic!

[Yuri]

Haha.

My old mod which has yet to be completed was entitled

"Half Life: Episodes"

It was way before Aftermath was announced and this whole episodic content thing. The episodes all had names but would be Episode 3: Terminal Velocity and stuff like that.

I'd like to flatter myself and say that Valve has stolen me and Snowball's idea.

 

[NB.]

People have always wanted something new in the industry, well episodic content is something new. Anyone who complains about episodes should never complain about the industry stagnating again. Because here you are whining about something new before you've even tried it. A single episode will cost about as much as a new CD. And you get about 4-6 hours of play time for it. Plus you get new on every few months. I'm glad devs like Valve and Ritual aren't afraid to try something new. When Valve took their new approach to FPS game with HL1 I'm sure there were some people going "lol gay i want mor munsters and biger gnus lol id makes perfekt gaems lolololllollloool!!11!!1!" It's different and it could be really good.

I don't understand your point at all, how is episodic content going to stop the games industry stagnating? It does'nt matter one iota how a game is delivered, the only thing that matters is whether a game is fun. Just because you spread one games worth of content over 5 'episodes' does'nt make it any better. It just means that instead of paying regular price for a game that is like 20 hours long (what £25?) you end up paying £12 a piece for episodes of 4-5 hours or so. Well say 4 episodes would equate to a full game then you're talking £48. Does'nt sound too hot to me. Just sounds like Valve want to charge more.

Of course the other thing that bothers me is the fact that coming from Valve 'episodic content' probably means annually.

 

[Mr-Fusion]

Exactly. Releasing in episodes has no bearing on new gameplay and creative originality.

Episodes that come out regularly though?. Regularly is going to be about 2-3 years with valve, in that time Infinity ward would have release 3 or 4 call of duty games, EA 5 The Sims expansion packs, throw in about 5 generic FPS games on the Doom 3 engine. It's going to be tough to keep episodes fresh and new with the market being flooded with so many bridging games in the interim. For example 4 Generic Doom3 engine Games may be the equivalent of 1 hl2 episode in terms of new gameplay, fun and immersiveness. So when you play the hl2 episode after having played the 4 Generic Doom3 engine games it doesn't feel as new because the GD3EG (generic doom3 engine games) have, in total, included very similar gameplay elements.

Does that sound spastic? It made sense when i was thinking about it.

 

[M1CH43L]

Yeah I like Episode 1: Aftermath. Its just kinda retarded with Episode 1, but the game wont be any different (I hope).

 

[Xhawk>>GT<<]

All I know is that people that bought the Gold HL2 Package need to get Aftermath free, damnit!

 

[Sloth]

Haha.

My old mod which has yet to be completed was entitled

"Half Life: Episodes"

It was way before Aftermath was announced and this whole episodic content thing. The episodes all had names but would be Episode 3: Terminal Velocity and stuff like that.

I'd like to flatter myself and say that Valve has stolen me and Snowball's idea.

Ahh, good memories... To bad we didn't get off the ground!

I don't care about the new name, i just want more Half Life!

 

[bigburpco]

Yay, but it sounds so stupid...

 

[Yuri]

Ahh, good memories... To bad we didn't get off the ground!

I don't care about the new name, i just want more Half Life!

I hoped you would back me up, Mr. Sloth.

 

[Rennmniscant]

Greeeat... yet ANOTHER title with Episode in it. It was great with TV shows... Bearable with Star Wars... Star Wars games made sense, but HL2?! What are these guys thinking???

Episodic content's a great idea though. Valve already supported the idea with that Minerva series if I remember right, so it'd be fit to see something of their creation. It's gonna be hard for them though, 'cause they gotta think of some really cool and original stuff per episode, or they are gonna have a lot of angry customers on their hands!

If they manage to pull it off right, they might as well start writing their names for the history books.

 

[RaBiD WeAzEL]

I'm sure EA won't want to produce new boxes for the next episode every 2-3 months.

Isn't that just about what EA does with every game?

TIMELINE:
-Game release
Next month - Expansion
Next month - 2 Expansions
Next month 1 and 2/3 Expansions...

And it goes on like that for a while.

Episode 1! ---- CLICK HERE (Image)



PS - My icon is still from when HL2 went GOLD... I guess it still somewhat applies since I got the Gold Package...

 

[clarky003]

Im all for it, but I dont get it.. are people that desperate?. I would rather wait and see them develop HL3 than play the rest of what they have written in short bursts at a time. If it doesnt feel as epic or the plot looses its substance in this drip drip style, I.. well... :/

 

[BabyHeadCrab]

all we need is that douche that played anakin

 

[A.I.]

1- Name does not matter for the quality indeed, but at least they could have been a bit more orriginal no?

2- Doesn't really matter if you compare it or not, People still want quality for their money and if they have concerns they should let them hear,
so Valve does extra work to make it worthwhile/prove us wrong.
And like other mentioned, Some want to see HL come to end end and see if Valve has more up its sleeve then HL2 and mods.

3- 12€ HL2:ep1 25€ Sin episodes, 50€ TF2, 60€ year MMO fee , 12€ HL2:ep2 etc. Well no problem for me if its worth it.

4- Sounds easy for you but isn't for a whole lot of players

I disagree:

2- Because I'm afraid Gabe miscalculated the company's manpower and now they are working on dozens of projects, which might degrade the quality of their products. Instead of innovation in games and gameplay, we see innovation in content delivery etc.

3- I don't own a credit card. Are there going to be alternatives for delivery?

 

[Pi Mu Rho]

I disagree:

2- Because I'm afraid Gabe miscalculated the company's manpower and now they are working on dozens of projects, which might degrade the quality of their products. Instead of innovation in games and gameplay, we see innovation in content delivery etc.

That's just wild speculation on your part, though.

3- I don't own a credit card. Are there going to be alternatives for delivery?

Each episode will also be sold at retail.

 

[Nuada]

Screw this. After paying €60 for a game I find that what I really got was half a game. It was good enough that I was willing to pay for the so called 'expansion pack' but **** this. I'm not going to continuously pay out for chapters to a game that as far as I'm concerned I already paid for and only got half the product.

 

[Pi Mu Rho]

That's an issue with your perception then. Regardless of whether Valve release episodic content or not, you'd still always feel that you got "half a game". The content of Aftermath hasn't changed - only the name.

Aftermath/Episode 1 is still an expansion pack in the traditional sense. However, rather than working on HL3, Valve are releasing it in chunks, just like expansion packs but on a more regular basis.

 

[Nuada]

Yeah I know but when I...I won't say 'finished', none of us have done that...When I completed the part of HL2 that was released I was pissed off. It just stopped. Now I've no intention of paying out more cash on a regular basis for an unknown period to get that ending. Gonna cut my losses here.

 

[polyguns]

That's just wild speculation on your part, though.



Each episode will also be sold at retail.

not wild, i mean alot of people would expect that stuff given the history. Valve is stretched very thin, that should be common sense. i mean how could you ignore the fact that EVERYTHING they do has been delayed. Hell has friends ever worked on steam?

I think they are trying to be a super dynamic company, but not a super dynamic game developer. look at windows; true they make assloads of money, but their software is buggy as hell. people bought hl2 and have suffered from the stuttering bug since the getgo, still not fixed.

not trying to troll, but the guy has reason to believe what he does, theres definate history to lead to those beliefs, not just mere wild speculation

 

[Pi Mu Rho]

Except, without any evidence to back those assertions up, it is wild speculation. You don't know the reason for the delays any more than I do, and Valve certainly aren't saying. It's in Valve's interests to ship product - it wouldn't make sense for them to spread themselves so thinly that it affected ship dates. More than once now, Valve have pulled a product mid-development and restarted it from scratch.

I have no idea what your second paragraph is trying to say, so I can't formulate a response to it.

 

[Mess]

Brilliant - an afternoon's gameplay every year.

Can't wait.

 

[Boogymanx]

Teehee

 

[Dinkleberry]

Medic!

 

[polyguns]

Brilliant - an afternoon's gameplay every year.

Can't wait.

hehe, truf


ok, i'll give you speculation, but not wild speculation. we know they start over on their games midway through, it took what 6 years to make hl2? they have all these tft hl, hls, good lord im not gonna start naming all the baskets valve has their eggs in. that alone will slow you down.


by dynamic company, notdynamic game dev, is they are trying to encompass and take over every aspect of the game, which is the walmart type of strategy. handle everything the gamer needs, but no cost benefit to the actual gamer. its not about the game, hell hl2 was hl with physics. they didn't even put in a lean button, and had boring boss monsters.

i dunno, we'll have to see, but hey, if forums aren't for speculation, what are they for?

 

[RaBiD WeAzEL]

Dunno if anyone saw the picture I put up earlier...

HERE

 

[Pi Mu Rho]

hehe, truf


ok, i'll give you speculation, but not wild speculation. we know they start over on their games midway through, it took what 6 years to make hl2? they have all these tft hl, hls, good lord im not gonna start naming all the baskets valve has their eggs in. that alone will slow you down.


by dynamic company, notdynamic game dev, is they are trying to encompass and take over every aspect of the game, which is the walmart type of strategy. handle everything the gamer needs, but no cost benefit to the actual gamer. its not about the game, hell hl2 was hl with physics. they didn't even put in a lean button, and had boring boss monsters.

i dunno, we'll have to see, but hey, if forums aren't for speculation, what are they for?

No lean button? OH NOES!

 

[CookieCuttah]

Will they ever....Make babies?

 

[Yuri]

hell hl2 was hl with physics. they didn't even put in a lean button, and had boring boss monsters.

That is one of the stupidiest things I've ever, ever heard anybody say about the Half Life series.

 

[Qhartb]

Okay, I can agree that the name's not as good, but why is everyone reacting like they just announced that Aftermath is going to be episodic. They announced before we even knew it was going to be called Aftermath that they were working on the episodic continuation of the series. When Aftermath was announced within a week interviews confirmed that it was indeed the first episodic content for HL2. Valve never gave any reason to thing plans had changed, and now there's an uproar over them announcing that things are still going as planned.

The only think I can think of is that the community and game sites confused the issue by increasingly calling it an "expansion pack."

 

[Asknoone]

hell hl2 was hl with physics. they didn't even put in a lean button, and had boring boss monsters.

A million miles from it. Half-life 2 was far more plot oriented than HL ever was. What an absurd statement. I'm not even going to bother listing the different reasons because quite frankly, I find walls just a teensy bit unsociable.

Lean button...wasn't there...impacted gameplay...so much....you know, I think I'm going to cry.
Hard boss monsters? Because boss battles usually suck complete ass. Oh wow, lets just throw Mr numpty into an arena and drench the player in ammunition to which to fill his hide. HL2's boss battles in my opinion were far more interesting, even though they weren't even bosses - they made sense. Thanks, but I like to think games have evolved from the days of Doom.

 

[wilka91]

is that some sort of bad joke?

what episode 1? so what is Half-Life 2? like some episode 0? prequel?

valve totally suck!!! better release it quick though!

 

[Sn4tcH]

I might just go the way I do with TV. I don't usually watch the season, I wait for the box set.

 

[polyguns]

oooooo, your pretty smart

thatmay not be a bad idea at all. then get all episodes in the bargain bin

 

[clarky003]

Dunno if anyone saw the picture I put up earlier...

HERE

hehe, QFT

I agree with Pi, but that doesnt change the now increased cheese factor.

 

[Yogibbear]

Hm... the name doesn't bother me... i'll just buy a blank sticker for 20 cents and write on it:

'Half Life 2: Le Expansion of Aftermammoth Proportions Episodes 1 through 79'

Btw... some people really are off topic... like that guy going on about only getting half a game? I mean seriously.... Exapnsions like this are not included in the price of your game that you bought two years ago for good common and logical reasons which I'm sure you understand...

Also that guy going on about the short hand naming...

HL2 EO, HL2 ET, HL2 ET

Well I think it'd just be HL2 E1, HL2 E2, HL2 E3... and then there's no confussion...

Btw... I also only really don't mind how valve goes about this expansion. Personally, any expansion will be well received and explored by myself. I'll never criticize Valve on a product before I get to play it. Maybe the epsodic content will flow smoothly, or maybe not... Maybe the name will change... maybe the game will be great! Maybe the world is flat? I'll stop typing now...

 

[ZoFreX]

Heeere's ZoFreX's patented uberpost:

What's in a name? It's like the reaction people got for Windows "Vista". I was gonna say it sounds a lot like Star Wars too, lol. But oh well, I'm sure it's going to be a great game.

I was actually gonna mention, I normally prefer codenames eg Longhorn vs Vista

I'm not shelling out each time for a few pages of a book thats been put into the same game i already own. Sure there might be some engine improvements which would be good, but these are almost based on a 'what happens next...' story telling basis, which i honestly don't care about. One person buy it, play it, post the story of what happens and everyone wins.

Yeah i knew they were episodic and i said it sucked then, i really can't stand episodes, yay? More like neigh.

The story is more fun to have it develop, plus you have the gameplay which tbh are what the game is there for, and Valve aren't stupid, they will try to make the gameplay solid - and as far as engine improvements go, it will probably be quite a similar progression curve to making a new game, just updated more often with a small feature each time.

ugh. What an awful name.
Im not looking forward to episodic content and at the moment, i cant buy the game anyway on steam so im interested in how they market/distribute shelf copies of aftermath (whoops, sorry, episode one!!!111). I'm sure EA won't want to produce new boxes for the next episode every 2-3 months.

I've got a feeling too that these episodes are going to be allot shorter than people want or expect.

Valve had better make Half-life 3 a full game.

Actually I bet EA are jumping at the oppurtunity to bring out a new Half Life game every year (or whatever it is). They must have known what they were getting into when they signed Valve.

You people complain about the stupidest shit ever. It's a damn name for the game, don't get your panties in a bunch, seriously. If it irritates you so much cut your wrist or something, because it isn't a big deal that you're making it out to be.

Hey, I'm the one that does community tech support and will be dealing with all the confusion, so I think I'm allowed to complain, thanks.

I'm disappointed with this because;

1. I already hate watching episodes on TV (ah, the neverending-to-be-continued stories)
2. I do not own a credit card (no HL in a box for me, no money for Valve from me)
3. I hoped Valve would make HL3 in a couple of years and then end the saga. And try to make some other game, or at least a game with a completely different story. Valve is now stepping on the path of id. Not good.:|

1 - hopefully each episode will have a defined "ending" as well as leaving room for a next episode, much like the games do anyway.
2 - You can use a debit card like I do, plus this may well be on the shelves anyway, I'm getting sick of this reason 'cos it isn't stopping you getting the game, it's just another point you can use to prove yourself right rather than questioning yourself.
3 - This is actually the first valid reason I've seen from people crying "we want HL3 instead!", ever.

In summary: Make it Half-Life Aftermath: Episode 1, or something. Half-Life 2 Episode 1 is not only retarded, but confusing.

 

[Link]

In summary: Make it Half-Life Aftermath: Episode 1, or something. Half-Life 2 Episode 1 is not only retarded, but confusing.

How is the first of the episode format games being called "episode 1" confusing you? You might wonder if it is in fact the name of the game which is retarded...

 

[ZoFreX]

"Half-Life 2 Episode 1" sounds like the first part of Half-Life 2, when it is the second. Calling the second part of something "Episode 1" is pretty confusing in my books.

 

[Link]

Worked for star wars