Episode 2, TF2 & Portal - Expected Summer 2007

Hectic Glenn

Hectic Glenn

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In recent talks with CVG, Doug Lombardi has told us that the much anticipated 3 way package originally scheduled for the end of 2006, then moved to early 07, seems to have been struck down by the Valve delay virus. Sob sob![br]We can only speculate what the cause of this further delay is, however the sheer size of the upcoming release probably needs that much extra work to chug out the quality we are used to by Valve on PC as well as X360 & PS3. Bite your lips for now!
 
oh great....waiting a year and a half between episodes defeats the whole advantage of episodic content...
 
for ****s sake
I know this isn't really anyones fault, not even valves. But I wish they'd never of said late 2006, when it really is quite out of reach.
 
Oh well, being a valve fanboy i'm kinda used to it...
 
;(

well i would rather have a complete game later than an incomplete one now.
 
That's like... a lot of time. And it will be about 5 hours of gameplay again? (yeah, yeah I know it's the quality that matters etc.). Good thing they're releasing TF2 and Portal with it, at least we will get more playtime out of the whole package :thumbs:
 
Knowing the amount of content it's not surprising, but still.. They said episodic content would come out more often than it has been.
 
its those damn consoles *shakes fist*

they could atleast release some more eye candy! (tf2 preferably)
 
there's a surprise ;(

ah well, good things come to those who wait
 
by the time they have finished the 3 episodes they could have made Half-Life3
 
This actually works out well for me... I'll be building my next (actually my first) gaming rig around the time Episode 2 comes out :D

Unless it's delayed again...
 
Heh, Valve you better think again what episodes means ...
At least release TF before summer.
 
Remember HL2 guyz ........
They just haven't learned anything from that, bad marketing.
Ah well TF2 for our Xmas LAN-party next year ;)
 
I like it. Because, you know, before they were all like "Yeah, steam and episodic content is the greatest mother****ing invention of all times. We are the most bad ass company in all game industry. We are going to bring a REVOLUTION to the whole game industry. Instead of waiting years for new games to come out, we'll be able to release a new episode every six months."

And now they're proving themselves wrong and full of shit. Ep.2 will come out more than a year after Ep1. And you know what's the best part? When it comes out, you'll get 3 hours of gameplay and then it's a whole another year of waiting for the next 3 hours of gameplay from Ep3.

Plus, it'll be beautiful when Ep3 comes out in Q4 2008 (optimistic guess), by then on a 4 years old engine. No matter how many "graphical updates" they add to the engine ("Hey, look! Now the HDR lightning reflects off of things at a slightly different angle!!! Plus now thanks to our new facil animation system the characters will be able to blink their eyes one at a time, besides the usual both at the same time. IT'S ANOTHER REVOLUTION!!!"), I doubt it'll look that great against engines 2 years in the future. It's starting to look outdated already anyway.

I, like most, always loved valve for the care and attention and quality they put into their games, and always hated EA for the exact opposite ("Christmas is coming along, it doesn't matter if the game doesn't even run for more than 2 seconds without crashing, it's going to be released!!"). But you know what? Now I hate them both for similar reasons (although at different ends of the spectrum), and I actually think EA may be on to something when they rush their releases. I mean, everyone likes a polished high quality product and all, but uh, I'd rather have like 4 games a year coming out that are 70% quality compared to valve's, than having to wait more than a year for 3 hours of 100% quality valve gameplay. I know you can't compare valve to EA, but still, you know what I mean.

And I bet all this waiting has something to do with the new revolutionary slightly different angle of HDR lightning reflecting off of things.... bleh, whatever...
 
Yeah, steam and episodic content is the greatest mother****ing invention of all times. We are the most bad ass company in all game industry. We are going to bring a REVOLUTION to the whole game industry. Instead of waiting years for new games to come out, we'll be able to release a new episode every six months."
They never said any of that. They never took credit for inventing episodic content (which they didn't), they never claimed to be the best company, they never said the games would be every 6 months and they never said they where bringing about a revolution. They said that they would be able to release smaller games faster than that one big one, which is true.
 
You can't compare EA to Valve. EA has 7,200 employees and publishes for external developers, Valve has 104 employees* and is a developer (not a publisher, though they do distribute games via Steam, they don't actually fund them like EA do).

There is no reason that Valve cannot update Source for as long as they want. What features is it missing that other engines have, for example? Remember engines are designed for different purposes, Source for example is not designed for large open spaces.

Episodes are not 3 hours long, they're more like 5 hours. Either way, its more than you get from a movie and shorter development time. It'll only be a year between episode 1 and 2. It was 5-6 years remember between HL1 and HL2. I imagine valve will get better at producing episodes as time goes by.

Anyway, I'd prefer a polished game over a half finished one any day.

* From wikipedia
 
Formaldehyde said:
I like it. Because, you know, before they were all like "Yeah, steam and episodic content is the greatest mother****ing invention of all times. We are the most bad ass company in all game industry. We are going to bring a REVOLUTION to the whole game industry. Instead of waiting years for new games to come out, we'll be able to release a new episode every six months."
Click to expand...
As it's already been said, Valve didn't claim any of that.
Plus, it'll be beautiful when Ep3 comes out in Q4 2008 (optimistic guess), by then on a 4 years old engine. No matter how many "graphical updates" they add to the engine ("Hey, look! Now the HDR lightning reflects off of things at a slightly different angle!!! Plus now thanks to our new facil animation system the characters will be able to blink their eyes one at a time, besides the usual both at the same time. IT'S ANOTHER REVOLUTION!!!"), I doubt it'll look that great against engines 2 years in the future. It's starting to look outdated already anyway.
Click to expand...
Source is a modular engine. They can switch out or update any engine module that they care to, with relatively little re-integration. Source updates aren't just about HDR and animation, they're also about AI, physics, game logic, the sound engine, and so on. Obviously they'll have to do a rewrite of the renderer at some point (which could possibly be the reason behind the delay), but Source isn't really about having the best graphics to begin with. It's a tool to allow developers to create games that go beyond flash (hence the inclusion of a ridiculously deep and intricate set of AI routines).
I, like most, always loved valve for the care and attention and quality they put into their games, and always hated EA for the exact opposite ("Christmas is coming along, it doesn't matter if the game doesn't even run for more than 2 seconds without crashing, it's going to be released!!"). But you know what? Now I hate them both for similar reasons (although at different ends of the spectrum), and I actually think EA may be on to something when they rush their releases. I mean, everyone likes a polished high quality product and all, but uh, I'd rather have like 4 games a year coming out that are 70% quality compared to valve's, than having to wait more than a year for 3 hours of 100% quality valve gameplay. I know you can't compare valve to EA, but still, you know what I mean.
Click to expand...
To each his own. But I'd rather play one great online game for six months than play ten average online games and exhaust their replayability in the same amount of time.
And I bet all this waiting has something to do with the new revolutionary slightly different angle of HDR lightning reflecting off of things.... bleh, whatever...
Click to expand...
At least we agree on something :p
 
I think people need to be more patient and less bitchy. I'm happy with Steam and with Valve's fairly consistent release of content for DoD:S and CS:S. Unlike other companies Valve atleast has an excuse - they've got a ton of projects on their plate while the people behind Duke Nukem Forever and STALKER have no such excuses. Wanna complain? STALKER should've been out in 2003...DNF should've been out in 2001, I'll bet the house neither make it out before Valve's TF2/Portal/Episode 3 bundle comes out summer 2007.
 
sam_justice said:
that's upsettingly true :(
Click to expand...

then they would only get 40 dollars for hl2, instead of 60 for the same game broken down into 3 parts and delivered in smaller doses over steam.


imma gonna wait until al of these are out, before playing any of em. i was afraid of this.
 
Insano said:
To say the least...

I really blame the consoles for this one.
Click to expand...


do you blame consoles for all the other delays?

source is a tedius engine to dev for. takes a while to deal with its complexities.
 
jet jaguar said:
Duke Nukem Forever and STALKER have no such excuses. Wanna complain? STALKER should've been out in 2003...DNF should've been out in 2001, I'll bet the house neither make it out before Valve's TF2/Portal/Episode 3 bundle comes out summer 2007.
Click to expand...

Thats a stupid argument. Thats like saying you cant complain about george bush because saddam and kim whateverthatkoreanguy'snameis are worse.
 
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