Steamcast Interview with Gabe Newell

Hectic Glenn

Hectic Glenn

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In Steamcast's latest podcast (created for the Steam powered forums), their fellow forumer Nightcabbage went to visit Valve for a tour. During his stay he got a chance to sit down with Gabe for 30 minutes to answer some of the communities burning questions. About episode 3:
Right now, the Half-Life 2 Episodes themselves are on a third sort of ‘rhythm’ and, you know, we think it makes sense for the product and for what we’re trying to do there and the reason we’re not talking about it is mainly we don’t have anything to say. It’s not like we decided we released too much information, it’s just that if we had information that we were in a position to deliver to people we would and right now we don’t have anything to say about it. And it really is a consequence of these different sorts of rhythms to release schedules which we’re trying out.
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Gabe, ever coy about Ep3 but always interesting to hear his thoughts. You can stream or download this episode here or read the full interview transcript here.
 
in others words....

gabe: episode 3 will be anounced september 2011
 
What I took from that, was that with each release they try a new development schedule, and half-life is on a long one... so nothing we didnt know i guess.

It was good to hear they havnt given up on the idea of releasing the 360 versions of HL2 and Episode 1 on Steam (With achievements, imp particles, HDR etc), I had forgotten all about it, It would be nice to one day play the entire series in a consistant form.
 
Very interesting interview, I love reading this stuff from Gabe and the other Valve fellas.
 
Lobster said:
It was good to hear they havnt given up on the idea of releasing the 360 versions of HL2 and Episode 1 on Steam (With achievements, imp particles, HDR etc)
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This, definitely.
 
Or, like he said, they're just not ready to show anything for it yet.
 
Makes no $ense to show off ep3 while you are about to launch L4D2.
 
quite a long interview

I'm interested where they go with the community investment idea.
 
Well, good thing Black Mesa: Source(well, not "Source" but everyone calls it like that anyway) gonna be released by the end of the year... uhhh... hopefully. So we'll have something to play while we wait for Ep 3.
 
Dr_Crowbar said:
Well, good thing Black Mesa: Source(well, not "Source" but everyone calls it like that anyway) gonna be released by the end of the year... uhhh... hopefully. So we'll have something to play while we wait for Ep 3.
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Oh, good. I can look forward to a game released eight years ago. Lucky me.
 
Doh, 1998. How irredeemable of me to get that date wrong. Well, it's all the more PROFOUND a comment now, isn't it Eejit.
 
I can act as second for the seppuku ceremony if you like.
 
I predict the upcoming GT interview

GT Reporter: So is there in news on Episode 3?
Gabe Newell: Well, you all will be happy to hear that Episode 3 will....

Doug Lombardi: STOP IT NOW, STOP IT! Stay tunned for more of Gordon's a-a adventures kk BYE BYE! eee uhm sdfidfsojuhmLeft for Dead 2 will feature many new zombie types, including the new hazmat suit zombie.

GT Reporter: Fantastic news.
 
CaptinDirt said:
I predict the upcoming GT interview

GT Reporter: So is there in news on Episode 3?
Gabe Newell: Well, you all will be happy to hear that Episode 3 will....

Doug Lombardi: STOP IT NOW, STOP IT! Stay tunned for more of Gordon's a-a adventures kk BYE BYE! eee uhm sdfidfsojuhmLeft for Dead 2 will feature many new zombie types, including the new hazmat suit zombie.

GT Reporter: Fantastic news.
Click to expand...

It would be sweet if they actually did that so that Doug would just suddenly come through a wall like the Kool-Aid guy.
 
I'm shocked that I didn't see this one comi-- oh wait. I did.
 
is it just me or did gabe pretty much admit that TF2, L4D, and L4D2 have slowed the progress of episode 3? a victim of the "rhythms"
 
Gabe Newell on EP3
"Right now, the Half-Life 2 Episodes themselves are on a third sort of ‘rhythm’ and, you know, we think it makes sense for the product and for what we’re trying to do there and the reason we’re not talking about it is mainly we don’t have anything to say. It’s not like we decided we released too much information, it’s just that if we had information that we were in a position to deliver to people we would and right now we don’t have anything to say about it."

Good. So based on this 'new information' what now are peoples esitmates for the release of EP3? :LOL:
 
They just are not making anything right now except for TF2 updates, Steam, and L4D 2. Once they get L4D 2 out the door, they will start actually making Portal 2, etc. Right now it's all concept art and we will not even see a trailer for Episode 3 this year at all.

As for the interview it was the best I have heard on Valve. I truly believe they need to keep Mr. Lomabrdi to the investors and keep stuff such as interviews going to the public for Mr. Newell. Newell has this way of smiling at you and telling you "no" in a long nice manner. Lombardi takes the approach of "CaptinDirt" and that really is his job. His job is to talk about what the company is going to put out. Gabe Newell though has always been with the fans and let's face it, owns Valve.

Good to see Gabe is improving and now making his own morbid knife collection going strong. :p That 3D image printer isn't cheap neither.

Oh and one last comment. I would really like to see Valve move into a larger building (I hope in New England hahaha), hire more people to work inside the larger building, and create a Source 2. Source really is starting to hinder Valve and how they develop their games. The Source engine really isn't made for multi-core CPU systems nor was it designed for a GPU to have a CPU. They also are having to struggle to make it more compatible with older systems. They need to make a Source engine 2 with DX10/11, etc support, up to 8 CPU support, and have VAC 2 to go along with it. It's unbelievable how many people still pirate Valve games and how easy it is to get past VAC.

*Oh and that whole whining about the whole "I thought up the idea of the Spitter" thing, people do not read. It's been said countless times and still in the announcement page what happened.
 
hool10 said:
They just are not making anything right now except for TF2 updates, Steam, and L4D 2. Once they get L4D 2 out the door, they will start actually making Portal 2, etc. Right now it's all concept art and we will not even see a trailer for Episode 3 this year at all.
Click to expand...

How do you know this? Before Left4Dead was announced we thought Valve was working on Portal 2 and Episode 3 we had no idea they were making Left4Dead2. For all we know Valve may be working on a completly new game. The fact remains we haven't a clue what's going on at Valve.

hool10 said:
Oh and one last comment. I would really like to see Valve move into a larger building (I hope in New England hahaha), hire more people to work inside the larger building, and create a Source 2. Source really is starting to hinder Valve and how they develop their games. The Source engine really isn't made for multi-core CPU systems nor was it designed for a GPU to have a CPU. They also are having to struggle to make it more compatible with older systems. They need to make a Source engine 2 with DX10/11, etc support, up to 8 CPU support, and have VAC 2 to go along with it. It's unbelievable how many people still pirate Valve games and how easy it is to get past VAC.
Click to expand...

And why is Source hindering the way Valve develops their games? Source is very well suited for Valve games, it runs on low end systems and it can handle the different types of games such as Team Fortress 2 and Portal with no problem. The Multi-core in Left4Dead is one of the best available. It scales very well across duel and Quad cores and uses each core evenly. The amount of Zombies on-screen with full AI is very impressive and not many engines could top that. As for DX10/11, Valve have stated that there is no point in supporting it yet as the Steam survey showed that there wasn't enough Full DX10 compatible systems to justify it. Instead Valve has focused on making some DX10 features work on DX9. For example at the time of Episode 1 and Episode 2 there was more DX9 Sm2 users than DX10 users so Valve focused on getting HDR which in every other engine is a SM3 feature working on SM2 cards as more users would benefit from it.

VAC2 has been in use since June 2005. As for Anti-piracy that's Steam's job not Source. VAC does it's job in stopping pirated copies playing on VAC secured servers and as far as i know there is no way round it. There will always be cheaters that's a fact but overall VAC is solid and effective.
 
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