I play games to relax and enjoy atmosphere and mood. I have my pace and I don't want to be forced to rush. I'm totally capable of suspending my disbelief to spend days or months on sidequests while the main story line stands waiting for me.
Molyneux is the typical nerd computer scientist: "Wow, all these artificial intelligence, artificial life, emergent computing, evolutionary programming theories are really cool! I could make some games out of these things!"
We know the rest.
Come on. L4D 1 and 2 are good MP games but nothing more. Portal 2 is nice and well polished, but in a week or two you finish it and forget about it.
You ask me to name better developers? Bioware, Bethesda, Irrational, Obsidian.
Define the word "awesome".
I'm not talking about raw numbers. You may disagree with me, but since 2007 I feel that Valve has not contributed much to the gaming industry. Portal 2 was the biggest game, and yet it is a shortish puzzle game. Personal opinion, and of course I'm talking by my personal taste.
We are in the world of viral advertising and alternate reality games. Plus, Valve likes to troll its fans. I have no doubt that HL3 will be announced in a very strange way. They did it for Portal 2, do you remember?
Limbo
Physics-based puzzle games are quite common, but this one has a soul. Art direction and crystal-clear sound effects create a unique mesmerising dark atmosphere. Puzzles are balanced and not too hard and let you flow through the game without long pauses and frustration. Having to stop to...