So do you like that they went the episodic way?

[VortigauntLover]

Would you have preferred the episodes like they are, or Half-Life 3 (or Half-Life 2: Aftermath), with all 3 episodes combined, being released in 2009?

Think about it.

Personally, it makes me like the episodic idea A LOT more. No new Half-Life for 5 years?

:flame:

 

[Shift]

Yeh I do like the episodic approach, even though it feels like a long wait for each episode, its a hell of a lot quicker a standard of getting the games out than going for a full Half-Life 3. But even so I expect that to happen after the episodes.

 

[Stene]

I dunno. I just think Ep1 was very very short, I wonder what really took them so long on it. Maybe I might have rather waited for them to release Ep1+Ep2 together as one game, because it was bullshit to wait 2 years for basically nothing but some stupid 2.5 hour lasting shooter. It brought nothing for the modding scene, nothing really important for the story except the ending was nice, and really nothing new for the gameplay. And having HL2: Deathmatch packed together with it was the most pointless thing ever, along with "OMFG Half-Life 1 Deathmatch: Source! Even more uglier than ever!"

 

[Qonfused]

I don't like it at all, actually.

 

[Blackthorn]

I like it, gives me something to play. It'd be good if they just combined all the episodes when they're all out though.

 

[PimpinPenguin]

I don't, because it makes me feel like Valve are not making them to their potential. Episode 1 is a prime example for the length we had to wait, it wasn't that great, just more of the same. I feel if we got a full length game, Valve would have to take more risks and offer more. A couple of new enemies would not have been enough. What i am not liking with the Episodes are that they are all following the same formula, Lose weapons, Slowly retrain the player on new and past features, zombie level etc. If we got a new game we wouldn't be stuck with that. I like that we are not waiting as long. But overall i think i prefer a fully fledge game like Half-Life 2 to the episodes, it just seems to have more of a wow factor. But i'm not making my final judgement till after Episode 3.

 

[FISHY CRACKERS]

well if the three hadnt been separated, we'd probably be getting a TAD bit impatient by now, but itd be a long as hell game

 

[Absinthe]

I like them, because I liked Half-Life 2.

The cycle should be full releases and then episodes that take advantage of the existing groundwork. Repeat until nirvana.

 

[tschumann]

I like the Episodic approach because I have to wait less. they could have done it a bit better though, like by adding something new.

 

[David.Seth2]

I really like the episodic format a lot. I agree that episode 1 was too short, and had an anti-climatic boss battle ending. Plus I would have liked to see some new enemies. But at the same time, had Valve put in more new enemies, I think it would have felt a little jarring. I mean, if all of a sudden there was a few new baddies to fight, especially during episode 1, wouldn't it seemed weird that we never saw them before during HL2? The hunters and zombines were enough to fill my need for new enemies without compromising the feel. But for HL3 or whatever it will be called, I hope it is non episodic.

One last thing. While ep1 was kinda short and felt a little like the same old same old, it was a logical and crucial step to show how Gordon and Alyx survived the Citadel explosion and fled City 17.

 

[Sufferin-rebel]

Episode One took long due to the transition of coding from Half-life 2 to Episode One, but personally I don't think that is enough, But I do know coding is a hell of alot of work.

as it was said, I'm not making judgements on the episodic progress till after Episode Three ships.

 

[Qhartb]

Yes, I like it. I wish they'd retroactively improve the older games, though. I want Very High res textures, commentary, and HDR options in HL2!

Even though the episodes can seem short, they've still some of the best gaming to be had. Heck, they pack more fun into 6 hours than some other games manage in 20 hours. And if they released Eps1-3 together as HL3 a year or more from now, that would be a far worse wait than what we have now. Plus they wouldn't have gotten the feedback to know what their customers really responded to.

Also packaging Ep2 + Portal + TF2 was fantastic. I can't imagine the Portal or TF2 releases doing quite as well without having some Half-life in there. Heck, I probably wouldn't have gotten into TF2 at all, I'd just have bought Portal separately if not for the Orange Box.

 

[Esquire]

Episodic content succeeds in keeping the HL universe alive in our hearts. If HL3 was released 3-5 years after HL2... we'd have gone 3-5 years without any active involvement in HL. Dotting mini-releases of HL2 keeps the story continuing, and also serves to make it unnoticeable that the gfx are getting old. If you think about it, we are still actually playing HL2!

 

[chimpmunk]

"... so we will be able, thanks to episodic content, to deliver games faster and quicker..."

Those were all lies.

 

[Stene]

Yeah, I remember when Ep1 was released and this was how they told us about the dates:

"Ep2 on December 2006, and Ep3 on December 2007".

WHAT THE HELL SERIOUSLY. Also, if they'd just done HL3, then we would probably see much more mods coming out for HL2. And they could've hired some other studio, like Gearbox to do some expansions packs like Opposing Force and Blue Shift. And before HL2 was released in 2004 there was alot going on still on the HL1 story and on the mods, Sven Co-op kept it alive real long and still does.

 

[Laivasse]

I don't, because it makes me feel like Valve are not making them to their potential. Episode 1 is a prime example for the length we had to wait, it wasn't that great, just more of the same. I feel if we got a full length game, Valve would have to take more risks and offer more. A couple of new enemies would not have been enough. What i am not liking with the Episodes are that they are all following the same formula, Lose weapons, Slowly retrain the player on new and past features, zombie level etc. If we got a new game we wouldn't be stuck with that. I like that we are not waiting as long. But overall i think i prefer a fully fledge game like Half-Life 2 to the episodes, it just seems to have more of a wow factor. But i'm not making my final judgement till after Episode 3.

This, more or less, although that doesn't mean I don't think the Episodes were great. I would just rather have had a game that was to HL2 what HL2 was to HL1.

 

[Adabiviak]

If Valve would stop making improvements to the Source engine and stopped working on other projects like Portal and TF2, to focus solely on developing episodic content, they'd probably be released somewhat faster. Personally, I couldn't think of a better way to spend time away from developing this content than what was previously mentioned. I think releasing the story in episodes like this is as much of an experiment on Valve's behalf to see if this is a better business model too.

 

[Combine_Advisor]

As much as i would like to post a full critic on how i resent episodic games,i lack the nerve.So here is the simple anwser:
No