Two New Aftermath Screenshots!

Exactly Pi.

Alot of people do care about the story, a surprising amount Glenn, and they'd certainly feel cheated did they have to wait another three years to find out what happened to Alyx and co.
People want more. And that’s what Valves giving them.

Besides, it isn't all story focused. Valve is focusing on specific Gameplay pieces that usually go awry. For example AI, alot of people were disappointed with the friendly AI, and Valves aiming to fix that. Normally people don't want allies alongside you, but if Valve can pull it off with Alyx then they've already broken ground.

Same with whatever else is planned. Who knows what’s coming? Who knows what they will roll into the package? Three episodes combined, that'd be alot longer than HL2 was.
Alot of people (not me), found Opposing force better than Half-life. I wonder how many the same will say the same for Aftermath? If Valve pull off such quality, we'll be seeing more of these within hopefully small time spans.

Roll on episodic content I say.
 
I think continuing the story in episodes seems like a nice idea as long as they are able to keep it interesting and functional. Considering the price they are planning (12-15 dollars was it?) a few episodes might be good products. For me the story in a game like HL is very important, and as long as episodic content supports the drive behind a good story I´m for it.

That being said I hope they don´t churn out episodes in infinity... 2 or 3 would be the maximum. At some point a complete overhaul (IE a whole new game) will be a better idea I think.
 
I just figured out why valve is releasing episodes :cheers: they want to make use of the source engine right now because in a couple years it'l be crap compared to other engines.:rolling:
 
The Source engine is modular and upgradeable.
 
Mr-Fusion said:
Unless they can somehow institute a massive amount of interesting and captivating dialogue with a healthy dose of immersive story
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I don't see what that has to do with the episodic format. In fact, given the shorter play time, it allows for more concise stories - or at least that's what Valve have said they are aiming for. The same goes for gameplay. The only reductive effect episodic has is to the amount of new content that can be added in one go in time, which given your second paragraph isn't an argument open to you (and would be rubbish even if it was! ;)).

It's not the crumbs of a cake, it's a slice.
 
armanguy said:
I just figured out why valve is releasing episodes :cheers: they want to make use of the source engine right now because in a couple years it'l be crap compared to other engines.:rolling:
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Congrats, you're officially an idiot.
 
I don't doubt the quality at all, and i know the source engine will only get better with time, creating a game that will probably be much better than HL2. We might even get episodes going up to a HL2 sequel if that happens. I visualise it at a staircase rather than a big jump to the next game. Still i prefer the big jump. I like being shocked into improvements rather than constant improvements, one at a time. e.g. HDR. If all this amazing stuff sprung out at me i'd love it. So i reckon i'd go with Neale and wait until i could buy all the episodes together, assuming they aren't extortionate.

Samon i do think alot of people on this site are interested in the story, and other fan sites, but not to the point where they'd have to keep 'faffing' around (sorry i love that word), and keep buying these chapters. People want a book to read, not pages. I just don't think it will appeal to that many people as before. Most of the online community doesn't even know who Gordon Freeman is...

Oh and i hope Aftermath is one chapter as you said Pi...and the others that follow are other titles of considerable length. I had the impression Aftermath was as a whole divided up into smaller chapters. I really don't think waiting ages for a single release is a problem. This community is good at waiting...heh.
 
I think someone ought to ask Valve.
 
Samon/Chris and Doug Lombardi share tooth brushes so i nominate either of them.
 
Maybe

Maybe all the episodes to come are named "Aftermath" and the coming one is episode 1 and the vehicle episode will be #2 and so on.

Think about it , naming each episode by it self will get tedious and it's more logical that all the episodes will deal in the Aftermath after hl2 to set a platform for HL3. It's fair to assume that each episodic content won't be set on different time but that it will be continuous.

The only problematic matter in the episodic content approach is how they are gonna deal with the story , how they are going to explain the re-awakening of Gordon in Aftermath and how , if all the episodes will follow the same timeline , they going to "cut" the story. Cliffhangers at every end of them is not a good idea.
 
Yeah, and it's a crap analogy.

Something the size of Aftermath would be more akin to several chapters than a few pages.
 
Except that it's totally innacurate. Aftermath is six hours, people! That's more or less a third of HL2!
 
Finally some new media?

But what do you mean by episode 1? Will there be more? Have I missed something?
 
Well I'm quite pleased with the new media of Aftermath, I look forward to playing the game sooner or later. It doesn't bother me that Aftermath isn't very long.
 
Episodic content for the win.

I keep seeing "I want the full cake, not just crumbs".... Well, are you going to eat the cake all at once, or cut it up in pieces to eat over time? Plus making a new engine now would be stupid. They can just upgrade different parts of Source as they need to.
 
You should all stop whining...Think of it this way....

Regardless of whether you think it's a good idea or not, it's going to happen, and you're all going to buy it anyway!
 
who cares about this expansion. a day late, and a buck short.
 
The only problem is that Half Life 3 will probably be delayed even further because of all the episodes.
 
JellyWorld said:
The only problem is that Half Life 3 will probably be delayed even further because of all the episodes.
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They are anticipating you won't care because your void of time will be filled with tasty mini content.
 
Well I guess I will take that ETA with a grain of salt since the original ETA was November, then December then Feb/March and now it's April....


anyway looks awsome, should be alot of fun when it eventually arrives.
 
I've a feeling they're delaying it to add new tech to the engine. Playtesting motionblur and maybe DoF. And some HDR. And maybe some image-based rendering. And parallax mapping!

...or not :(
 
The screenshots are great and Im defenetly going to play it,
but the question is, is this what we have been waiting for?
Valve probably dont wants to show new stuff they are putting in but so far we didnt see any new monsters, location, characters, weapons, gameplay elements,...

lets hope we see some new stuff! :D
 
armanguy said:
episodes that sounds gay! i want a full game not episodes damn!
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If you use "gay" as a negative insult, I'm just going to dismiss you as a 12 year old idiot. Perhaps I should put this in terms you'll understand: YUO NT ALLOWED TO TLK!!11

armanguy said:
yeah i hate buying things over the internet with credit cards just doesnt feel safe at all! i rather have a box and manual it cooler too that why i dont bunr pc or console games i love the novelty of having the box and everything
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Buying with a credit card online is actually safer than using it in real life. Less chances of card details being stolen, more consumer protection from the bank, etc.

Samon said:
Besides, how many people complained about the amount of content Valve showed in countless trailers and screens? They pissed and moaned because they thought Valve showed too much. Now if thats the case Valve clearly don't want to spoil anything for Aftermath, and therefore have decided to release some fairly non informative screens.

If by Aftermath we've gone spoiler free with no information on new weapons or enemies, then all the better.
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QFT.

Varsity said:
Except that it's totally innacurate. Aftermath is six hours, people! That's more or less a third of HL2!
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If Aftermath takes me 6 hours then it's pretty close to Pi's figure of 50%. I'm pretty happy with that.

Hectic Glenn said:
People want a book to read, not pages.
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What a crap analogy. Here's a better one. I like the "Riftwar" saga by Raymond Feist, he's written several trilogies of books in this world he's created. If one of those trilogies was one book, I'd never finish it. However, they're neatly divided so as well as flowing from one to the other, there are suitable "stopping points" at the end of each book where I can put it down and feel I've finished. I often don't finish long games or books, and I think 6 hours is probably close to my perfect length.

One more thing - what's with the "ohnoes this will delay hl3" attitude? What do you want from Half-Life 3 that isn't going to be in these episodes?
 
As a side note, as usual, Valve's PR team (chiefly composed of Lombardi) has done an absolutely awful job of truly explaining what their chief product, Aftermath, is going to be. I think I can safely assume that 90% of the people who bought Half-Life 2 and are aware of or will be aware of the expansion have no idea it is merely a chapter of 'episodic' content.

It seems to me Valve's downgraded. From what I can tell, Aftermath started out as a traditional expansion (with a release aiming for the end of the summer), got chopped up along the way and now we're getting a business model pioneered by Sin Episodes -- something I'm not even interested in.

Listen, if you're going to do episodes, at least show me something interesting. Not a generic street, with the same car models, and the same enemies, and the same weapons -- and perhaps I'd really want to play it.

P.S. Half-Life III can't even be in the cards. Oh, and when are they going to officially cancel Team Fortress II?
 
Eternity said:
As a side note, as usual, Valve's PR team (chiefly composed of Lombardi) has done an absolutely awful job of truly explaining what their chief product, Aftermath, is going to be. I think I can safely assume that 90% of the people who bought Half-Life 2 and are aware of or will be aware of the expansion have no idea it is merely a chapter of 'episodic' content.
Click to expand...

It's still an expansion. Nothing in that regard has changed.

It seems to me Valve's downgraded. From what I can tell, Aftermath started out as a traditional expansion (with a release aiming for the end of the summer), got chopped up along the way and now we're getting a business model pioneered by Sin Episodes -- something I'm not even interested in.
Click to expand...

It's still an expansion. However, Valve are switching to a model where they release content more regularly in the form of several expansion packs, rather than working and not releasing for several years. That's the episodic content model. Ritual didn't pioneer it either - Valve started it first.

Listen, if you're going to do episodes, at least show me something interesting. Not a generic street, with the same car models, and the same enemies, and the same weapons -- and perhaps I'd really want to play it.
Click to expand...

What's that got to do with it being episodic?
It's an expansion pack following on directly from the events in HL2 - are you expecting them to have changed all the content?

P.S. Half-Life III can't even be in the cards. Oh, and when are they going to officially cancel Team Fortress II?
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It can't be on the cards? Why not? You're not privy to Valve's internal business, projects and schedules.
 
As I stated several times, there's a big difference between strategically made episodic content and a traditional expansion. Furthermore, this is something Valve has not done before -- and when I'm expected to pay for something, I usually buy it with the assumption that it will contain material that was not in the original game.

I'm sure Half-Life III is perhaps in pre-preduction, and who knows if Team Fortress II is vaporware yet, but I don't see HL3 coming out any time in the next two to three years -- hence, it's not in the cards.
 
I'll ask again what I asked earlier - what do you want in Half-Life 3 that isn't going to be in the episodic content?
 
Well , in HL3 I would like to see DOG being captured and re-programmed to attck Gordon and Alyx. With all the tech and A.I level that will exist when HL3comes , DOG can be a kick-ass mid-game boss , like in HL1. He would be able to throw stuff and block objects the player throws and so on with little to no scripted events.

It would be nice if they made so you'll have to disable DOG rather than destroy it because Alyx will probablly want him back . This can give a possibility to the player to choose between destroying or keeping him - open-ended feature which won't affect the overall story too much ( what Valve wants) but still give a sense of freedom and choice to the players.

Perphaps they can place the part where the Combine captures DOG in one of the hl2 episodes.
 
Tamer17 said:
Well , in HL3 I would like to see DOG being captured and re-programmed to attck Gordon and Alyx. With all the tech and A.I level that will exist when HL3comes , DOG can be a kick-ass mid-game boss , like in HL1. He would be able to throw stuff and block objects the player throws and so on with little to no scripted events.

It would be nice if they made so you'll have to disable DOG rather than destroy it because Alyx will probablly want him back . This can give a possibility to the player to choose between destroying or keeping him - open-ended feature which won't affect the overall story too much ( what Valve wants) but still give a sense of freedom and choice to the players.

Perphaps they can place the part where the Combine captures DOG in one of the hl2 episodes.
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Well whatever you want in HL3, there's nothing stopping it being in the episodes - Valve is upgrading the engine, not just content, so anything is possible.
 
Wow. The last level of HL2 with *gasp* a different sky box! I can't wait for this game! I definitely will be camping out side of Best Buy the night before its release.
 
It may just be me but is alyx having some streching problems in one of those screen shots?
 
Obi_Kwiet said:
Wow. The last level of HL2 with *gasp* a different sky box! I can't wait for this game! I definitely will be camping out side of Best Buy the night before its release.
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Please... just shut up now. I'd be the last person to tell people they can't share their own views on a forum, but this is for your own good.
 
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