Half Life 2 as an episode

[Terranboy]

Am I the only person who absolutely hates this episode crap? i'm looking around the internet and seeing "Yay, HL2 E1 is out". I just don't understand why you would want to play a game 4 hours at a time every few months. Are they going to release them all at once as a normal $50? Or continue to release 4-5 hours at a time for (an outragous) $20? So you get into the 20 hour range (like HL2) and it's costing $80...Am I really all alone?

 

[99.vikram]

Pretty much. I love the episodic approach.

 

[Terranboy]

Also, I'm not just a mild liker of the game. Sometimes I think I'm in love with the HL games. I love them all. Like...a lot. I just hate this.

 

[southpaw5253]

Heck no your not alone!!!
I went out and got Episode 1 (just beat it) and thought it was cool and all...but I'm not a fan of the episode approach. Just FYI: HL: Ep1 is 15 bucks at stores, so it comes out to $60 for gameplay equal to the length of HL2 (which is what it cost when it first came out anyway) and so its not ALL that more expensive. Valve said they include bonus material with it. For Ep1 I was unimpressed with the "bonus material": which was Half-Life Deathmatch:Source
They did include a commentary for the game which is neat and all...but, once again I will state: They should have released all the episodes in one pack.

 

[99.vikram]

Episode One was more content packed than HL2, there's no arguing that.
Levels were better designed, and the environments were more "complete". I don't think Valve could have pulled tat off if they hadn't gone episodic.

 

[hungryduck]

I think its better than waiting another 4 years for more half life content.....

 

[Terranboy]

I disagree. Wait builds suspense. I was so freakin' excited the day I picked up my HL Collectors Edition I couldn't stand it. It was finally here. I would rather them release all three episodes as HL3 in 3-4 years with a super updated next gen Source Engine and tons of new stuff and story. I also think the episode approach hurts the game's continuity. Like a gameplay element that makes you think, "Wait...why couldn't I do that in Ep1 which was technically 5 minutes ago" See what I mean? When all is said and done I think it will hurt the series.

 

[bigburpco]

Disagreed 100%.

 

[Black Op]

With episodic games, the concentrated aspect of the levels ensures that they'd be much more memorable moments that I could play through in a single sitting. Compare that to games like HL2 where you just encounter a couple of enemies, waste them, move on, and repeat. EP1 is able to make a higher percentage of these encounters to have more significance. Finally, $20 clearly isn't too much if you payed for it. Nobody IMHO should criticize pricing if in the end, they'll dish up the money anyway. Don't you people enjoy the economic concept of Supply and Demand?

 

[TheDan]

But if Valve took three years to create Half-Life 3 (or something equivalent to all the episodes put together), then we'd have people complaining about how long it's taking to be released. I'd rather have a smaller amount of gameplay more frequently, than have to wait ages to get it all at once. Much like I prefer to eat frequently throughout the day in small amounts, rather than wait longer for a proper meal.

 

[Kouler]

Its only going to be 3 eps before HL3, so just enjoy it man, its awesome stuff.

 

[Dirk Pitt]

1992 called dude, it wants its 300 baud modem back.

 

[jimmyjam]

since when was hl2 a 20 hour game?

 

[99.vikram]

Since 2004?

Each chapter ~ 1.5 hour. 12 major chapters out of 15.
Therefore game length = 12 * 1.5 = 18 hours.

 

[jimmyjam]

which, notably, isn't 20 hrs
even so, it wasn't even that long

 

[99.vikram]

Yesssitis yesssitis

Half-life 2 is as long as (if not longer than ) HL 1, IIRC.
HL 1 definitely lasted 20-30 hours on first playthrough.
I didn't even include trainstation or dark energy.

 

[Asknoone]

Am I the only person who absolutely hates this episode crap?

Yes.

 

[A True Canadian]

Am I the only person who absolutely hates this episode crap? i'm looking around the internet and seeing "Yay, HL2 E1 is out". I just don't understand why you would want to play a game 4 hours at a time every few months.

Here's an idea. If you prefer to play these episodes all at once, then wait until they're all released before playing them. :O

 

[bigburpco]

Make a mod and join them together, if you're so inclined.

 

[jondy]

Yesssitis yesssitis

Half-life 2 is as long as (if not longer than ) HL 1, IIRC.
HL 1 definitely lasted 20-30 hours on first playthrough.
I didn't even include trainstation or dark energy.

Not for me mate, or even the majority of the gaming community. I'd reckon the average playtime, as far as I can remember people posting, being 12-14 hours.

 

[Przemek]

So it appears I'm odd, because it took me more than 20 hours to beat HL2 on the first run

 

[DevgruSeal]

Somebody said they would rather wait for a "super updated source engine."

What you have to take into consideration, is that they can't get user feedback on the updates to the source engine. We couldn't have gotten to see HDR without VALVe first taking steps to see how gamers would react to it.

The whole point of the Episodes.

 

[Kingreaper]

Take your favourite TV show: now imagine that, instead of an episode each week, they had one big, 24 hour, showing. Every three years or so.



Episodes FTW

 

[DevgruSeal]

Take your favourite TV show: now imagine that, instead of an episode each week, they had one big, 24 hour, showing. Every three years or so.



Episodes FTW

You can TiVo it, and watch through it at your leisure.

Much the same with waiting for Ep3 to be completed.

 

[smokeythebear]

You could not buy ep1 1,2 and when 3 comes out you buy all of them. This way they would be cheaper and you could pretend your playing HL3!

...or go **** yourself

 

[Malfunction]

I disagree. Wait builds suspense.

Wait also builds impatience in your fanbase.

I don't see how you can't understand why an episodic approach is best.

The developers have less pressure on them, so the quality is higher. The quantity is also higher. Three episodes for $20 each, for longer playtime than HL2 overall, for roughly $10 more at $60. You do the math.

Not to mention Valve can concentrate on other things, such as the continous development of Steam, and the digitally distribution system it offers.

 

[DevgruSeal]

Plus keep their mods (CS:S, DoD:S, etc) up-to-date and working...As well as updating graphics...

 

[Gergor]

I would rather them release all three episodes as HL3 in 3-4 years with a super updated next gen Source Engine and tons of new stuff and story.

If Valve do decide to release another full Half-Life game, it will probably be in 3-4 years anyway, and you'll have three episodes to play in between. It will probably be released sooner because there will be fewer technical issues to iron out because they were all ironed out through the episodes.

 

[Terranboy]

Take your favourite TV show: now imagine that, instead of an episode each week, they had one big, 24 hour, showing. Every three years or so.



Episodes FTW

If episodes were $10 a piece on the day of lauch, this would be the same thing. But they aren't, and if they were I wouldn't watch TV.

You aren't going to convince me to like Episodes, I was just wondering what other people thought. Call me a traditionalist if you want, but I like going to a store full of excitment and buying a game the day it comes out. I like having boxes and manuals. I like displaying the box on my self with my collection and I like sitting down at my computer and after a week or two of playing 1 or 2 hours at a time finally beat a game. I like that since of accomplishment. The thrill of getting to the last level and taking on the boss (or whatever). All that hard work over the last few weeks pays of as you watch the end game cutscene. After a while crank up the difficulty and get ready for another week.

I wouldn't want to buy a CD 2-3 songs at a time as they get done, and I would watch a movie 20 minutes at a time (certainly not if I had to pay for each part)

If Epi1 was free, I might play it. Might not be able to resist. But it would be more fun to wait. In this case the whole is much much greater than the sum of its parts.

 

[jimmyjam]

there's no arguing with the illogical, I suppose

 

[enthused]

just to let all of you know, Episodes 1, 2, and 3 are considered Half Life 3. Gabe said so himself (in this article) http://pc.ign.com/articles/711/711560p1.html

I think this is interesting as well as disheartening. While I enjoy the episodic approach, does this mean VALVe is hanging up the crowbar a little early?

 

[99.vikram]

Of course not! :sniper:

But I expect they want to try something beyond Half-life, which is what's best for the company.

 

[Kingreaper]

If episodes were $10 a piece on the day of lauch, this would be the same thing. But they aren't, and if they were I wouldn't watch TV.

Umm, the episodes of TV shows are free, just like the "once every three years" marathon would be free.

Games cost money: therefore, episodes of games cost money

You aren't going to convince me to like Episodes, I was just wondering what other people thought. Call me a traditionalist if you want, but I like going to a store full of excitment and buying a game the day it comes out. I like having boxes and manuals. I like displaying the box on my self with my collection and I like sitting down at my computer and after a week or two of playing 1 or 2 hours at a time finally beat a game. I like that since of accomplishment. The thrill of getting to the last level and taking on the boss (or whatever). All that hard work over the last few weeks pays of as you watch the end game cutscene. After a while crank up the difficulty and get ready for another week.

I get that, I just don't have the same mentality. I also don't play things through on anything less than my maximum difficulty level if I can help it (which explains why I was able to get over 11 hours of gameplay out of episode 1)

I wouldn't want to buy a CD 2-3 songs at a time as they get done,

I would

and I would watch a movie 20 minutes at a time (certainly not if I had to pay for each part)

I probably wouldn't either, because that'd be a serial, and I'm conditioned to feel that serials=free on tv.

If Epi1 was free, I might play it. Might not be able to resist. But it would be more fun to wait. In this case the whole is much much greater than the sum of its parts .

I guess that's where we differ. I like the idea of episodic game design, I like the idea of getting small, but coherent, chunks at a time.

Many games that currently exist ARE episodic anyway, they just aren't split up, games such as HL1 and HL2 are most definitely episodic (there are very clear boundaries where the game shifts to something new) which is why I think Valve are making a good move.

Doom 3 on the other hand wouldn't work in episodic format, it's not suited to it. That's why I wouldn't want to see ID start making episodic doom games.