Half-Life 2 Now Episodic

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/halflife2aftermath/news_6144151.html

I wonder how long this'll last, seeing as it looks like they're gonna be relying on Steam to deliver their content. Fortunately, I'm smart enough not to install that piece of shit they call an online delivery service onto my PC, so they won't be getting my money.

"Episode One"... I guess they felt it'd attract Star Wars fans.

"modern" episodic games are dumb.

i miss the good ol shareware days where you could get all the episodes in one order and they would all be released at the same time.

They won't get my money, that's for sure.

Does this mean the first one will be free?

Actually, STEAM isn't half bad anymore. To be honest, I think it's kind of cool and I hope more companies take their approach as long as its done effectively.

Dittohead said:

I hope more companies take their approach

For the sake of all that is right and good in this world (what little there is) I hope that doesn't happen.

gargoylol said:

"modern" episodic games are dumb.

Exactly my thoughts on the issue. Everybody hails modern episodic games as though it's the most original and unique idea they have heard of. Seems they forgot about the shareware age, which was not only superior in every way, but also only happened 10+ years ago.

My opinion is that modern episodic games are just an excuse to release 2 hour excursions chock full of flash and mediocre gameplay without getting yelled at for it being a "full" game. This way they can publish more hollow crap, more frequently, and get away with it, and then have the audacity to charge an over inflated price for it. Everybody loses!

It seems like an unescapable dilemma, but realize that many of life's answers are in the double negatives. If buying modern games is a lose-lose proposition, then not buying modern games must be win-win.

I'm smart enough not to install that piece of shit they call an online delivery service onto my PC, so they won't be getting my money.

So you have no clue what the service is like. Genius.

This way they can publish more hollow crap, more frequently, and get away with it, and then have the audacity to charge an over inflated price for it. Everybody loses!

And you have no clue what kind of overinflated price they're asking. Fucking insightful.

It seems like an unescapable dilemma, but realize that many of life's answers are in the double negatives.

And you just plain have no clue.

Meantime, I'm playing DOD:S this weekend as Valve offers it at the overinflated price of zero dollars.

You just uncovered a massive clue shortage.

Bucket said:

And you have no clue what kind of overinflated price they're asking.

I'm guessing around $10-$20 per episode. Depending on the amount of gameplay, new additions, and so forth, the value of the entire package will vary.

I've heard Sin Episodes will be about 6 episodes long, each about 5 or so hours in length, with each episode being about $10+. I'm sure the gameplay will be "next gen", which means the 5 hour gameplay is a general estimate, and mileage will vary. That's anywhere from $60-$120(depending on the price per episode, obviously) for a full, traditional 30 hour game, assuming it takes you that long to even play the entire thing. Doesn't seem too bad, but we'll see if they can actually deliver.

Meantime, I'm playing DOD:S this weekend as Valve offers it at the overinflated price of zero dollars.

DOD:S is a mod, not an "episode". And don't they charge for it if you buy it seperately? You've obviously already payed $50 or so for Half-Life 2, so it seems they give it to you free in that case.

I need to do more research, obviously, but time will tell. Also note that I never said you had to agree with me. $20 for a 5 hour game that probably isn't really that great or innovative seems overinflated to me. I feel that everybody loses as companies that use an episodic approach are able to pump out more mediocre games, saturating the market with drivel we've already seen five times over, only now in bite sized chunks. You may disagree, and believe it's a better approach to modern gaming or don't really care either way, and enjoy the game regardless. It always depends on the content and actual game in question, though.

Regarding DOD: only Steam is required. HL2 optional.

And these bite-sized chunks of mediocrity sound a lot like the community you and I are members of. You take the good with the bad. Or, of course, you could skip out on the entire thing just to turn your nose up on people who may or may not be getting/supplying the bad. Whatever. It's a free world.

Steam is fine now. It had problems back when it started and when HL2 was released because I think Valve underestimated the load it would carry.

I myself will be getting more HL2 goodness.

Bucket said:

Regarding DOD: only Steam is required. HL2 optional.

Okay.

And these bite-sized chunks of mediocrity sound a lot like the community you and I are members of. You take the good with the bad. Or, of course, you could skip out on the entire thing just to turn your nose up on people who may or may not be getting/supplying the bad.

My standards are not as high as they appear to be. I'm actually fairly moderate when it comes to games. I own many games that most would call utter trash. Same goes with my tastes in mods and levels for Doom. However, I'm sick of spending my money on games that either aren't very good, aren't very long, or that I will only play once or twice. Not to mention my computer can't even run most games out on the market and I'm pretty much left out.

As a result, I've learned to come by what I have and not buy the latest thing becuase it's brand new and shiny. Probably the latest game game I've bought is Doom 3, and that just barely ran on my computer thanks to John Carmack and his optimizations. Rather than buy a completely new game which is a tired rehash of the genre and isn't a very good value, I'd much rather continue playing Doom 2 and the levels, mods, and projects the community continues to release and that already exist. Most of the maps are crap, which is true of anything, but atleast it's entirely free. I don't have to pay $5 per map, episode, megawad or mod.

Maybe in a few years when Half-Life 2 can be bought in a mega or platinum pack for $20 with a bunch mods and all the episodes, I'll buy it. For now, I simply can't afford it.

Snarboo said:
As a result, I've learned to come by what I have and not buy the latest thing becuase it's brand new and shiny. Probably the latest game game I've bought is Doom 3, and that just barely ran on my computer thanks to John Carmack and his optimizations. Rather than buy a completely new game which is a tired rehash of the genre and isn't a very good value, I'd much rather continue playing Doom 2 and the levels, mods, and projects the community continues to release and that already exist. Most of the maps are crap, which is true of anything, but atleast it's entirely free. I don't have to pay $5 per map, episode, megawad or mod.

Same here. The fun I still get out of Doom is significantly higher than what I get out of a modern €50 game. It's hard to motivate myself buying games in such a situation. I rented Doom 3 and Quake 4 in a video store, played them for a few days and gladly filed both under 'not worth keeping'.

Maybe in a few years when Half-Life 2 can be bought in a mega or platinum pack for $20 with a bunch mods and all the episodes, I'll buy it. For now, I simply can't afford it.

I'll buy HL2 when it runs without Steam but not before that.

Bucket said:

Meantime, I'm playing DOD:S this weekend as Valve offers it at the overinflated price of zero dollars.

No! The (very) overinflated price of having Steam on your computer.

AirRaid said:

Steam is fine now.

No! The basic principles and reasons why it exists (and I don't mean the excuses, I mean the reasons) guarantee it will never be fine.

Snarboo said:

My opinion is that modern episodic games are just an excuse to release 2 hour excursions chock full of flash and mediocre gameplay without getting yelled at for it being a "full" game. This way they can publish more hollow crap, more frequently, and get away with it, and then have the audacity to charge an over inflated price for it. Everybody loses!

Sounds about right.

People that bash Steam are fuckin' goofy.

I downloaded the Steam BETA when it was released to check out CS 1.6, I think. It worked damn good on my computer and it was really cool, I could talk to Harvey no matter what server he was on, etc.

If you'd check my SteamID, you'd see it's extremely low, I had Steam 30 mins before it's actual release, thanks to teh IRC circle. Never had a problem with it then.

I bought CS : CZ for the hell of it when I saw it on a site for $20 when everwhere else (including Steam) was selling it for $40. I don't consider it a bad purchase because I liked CZ and I stopped playing 1.6 MP in favor for CZ's for the longest time until I totally abandoned CS because it just got way too retarded (though my custom models kick ass!)

I've had nary a problem with Steam, I'm pleased with the performance I get in games and I get updates fast too. I've ordered a game package through Steam and it worked just fine, I got each game when it was released and then they sprung HL2 DM for free in there with the package I ordered, plus Lost Coast was fun too.

I'm probably gonna buy Episode One as well.

Sounds like what they were going to do with it anyway. As long as the episodes don't cost too much, I'm all for it. I know I'll be buying the first episode, just to see how it turns out. Damn cliffhanger stories!

BBG said:

People that bash Steam are fuckin' goofy.

I'd say the same about people who don't see the dangers of such a system. I most certainly won't install some parasitic spyware just to play a game.

Things like Steam must be fought with all the power we have or otherwise in a few years you might have to use a computer you no longer have control over.

Steam Sucks. I couldn't even install the HL2 Demo. <NOT ENOUGH AVAILABLE SPACE ON DRIVE D> Sorry I didn't know TWICE the needed space to install it wasn't enough.

BBG said:

People that bash Steam are fuckin' goofy.

I have never had sex with a cartoon character. Not even Jessica Rabbit!

From personal experience, Steam is aptly named because that's what a fresh pile of dog shit on the pavement does on a frosty morning.

I've bleated on about it far too often and taken up a great deal of forum space venting spleen over Steam. There is absolutely nothing of value in Steam to the end user but there are plenty of downsides to having it. Anything it does can be done by equally or, more often, better methods.

Aside from actual viruses, I can't think of a more pathetic, annoying, obtrusive piece of software that I have had on my machine.

gargoylol said:

"modern" episodic games are dumb.

i miss the good ol shareware days where you could get all the episodes in one order and they would all be released at the same time.

You mean back when game levels involved square room -> hallway -> square room -> hallway -> finish?

1993: Square Room -> Hallway

2006; Square Room with Bump Mapping -> Hallway with Specularity.

i cant imagine what makes people dislike steam. what kind of fucked up shits going on with your PC to make steam mess up, cuz it works wonderfully on my pc and i really wish more companies would use an online delivery system.

yeah, right, I can see how this is going to go. I'll be come hopelessly addicted to cockwars, which will be hailed as the best game ever, 'cept not enough people buy it therefore the game's final episodes are cancelled and I'll never know how the story ends.

no. no. no. I will not be doing this.

Goat said:

I really wish more companies would use an online delivery system.

Say that when you have...

Steam (Valve)
Vapour (EA)
Mist (Activision)
Fog of War (Blizzard)
Haze (Bethesda)
Microsoft Virtual Game Update System(tm) (Microsoft)

...all running on your computer simultaneously, each sucking up a ton of system resources. Also the games cost the same from all the developers despite not having to pay for packaging and distribution.

Goat said:

what kind of fucked up shits going on with your PC to make steam mess up

It's not just that it ran like a pile of stale wank and tried to suck the life out of my machine at the same time: there's also a principle involved. Why should I host their fucking advertising and information gathering tool for them?

Plus Steve makes another good point that concerns me. I will not use another Steam delivered program. If other companies follow suit, I will not use their products either. The cost (not financial) isn't worth it.

Mivalekan said:

You mean back when game levels involved square room -> hallway -> square room -> hallway -> finish?

If anything, modern games are more like the above pattern than ever before.

right now steam is taking up 8 megs of ram. i just created a quick CSS server, and played around a bit then quit. steam is now taking up 14 megs of ram. if thats causing you grief, you probably oughta upgrade.


if bandwidth is your concern, you can tell it not to update your games..


and not having hard copies of games is convenient for me. i dont have to worry about cd keys, or the cds themselves. if i format and reload my pc (rare), download steam put in my username and pw, and whammo, im downloadin the games.

steam has never ever crashed on me and if i dont want it to run, right click, close. its not like its some kind of malware.


advertisements: ive never seen an ad on steam besides the update news thing that says "hey we're releasing new models for the terrorists soon, keep an eye out!" or "hey heres a new game comin out based on source yadda yadda". the system information gathering thing is totally optional too, but who cares if they know what my system specs are