How to feel about Valve (a love/hate rant of sorts)

[Crystal Cuckoo]

Personally I can't stand Valve. Half Life makes it big, and suddenly it's better than games made by the greatest men in history.

I personally love Team Fortress 2, but I feel Valve will simply forget about it once Half Life comes out. Basically, they'll whore out like everyone else.

Because, y'know, they'll REALLY want to stop working on a game that they've invested so much into already.

Also, this whole "Ps3 hard to develop for" thing is getting old. I'm not saying it isn't hard to develop for. But they're not even trying. The devs said it themselves. They don't even wanna try to understand it.

That makes them lazy.

Not really, it allows them to make better use of their time, perfecting games on the platforms they were made for.

Yeah, I guess you're right. That's why Half Life 2: Episode 3 is already out. And it's not like they're wasting time by trying to add sign language or something.

Oh wait a second....

Key word in my post being perfect.
Valve aren't like most developers- they won't easily give into the rampant demand of games from their fans. Instead of rushing to release a game, they'll take the time to actually release a decent game.

 

[Gildan Bladeborn]

Blast it all, Steam offering the entire Half-Life series for a measly 16 dollars has finally overcame my "I can ignore this forever, whee!" threshold, so I now own all the Half-Life games. And since I'm having fun playing them, I suspect I shall shortly be cursing Valve's name for more than just not understanding what "Episodic" gaming means.

On the bright side, I might get distracted by all the other games I still have to finish and not get around to exhausting my Half-Life content until they actually release Episode 3.

 

[wewontdie11]

I feel kind of like an abused spouse with Valve. They keep smacking me with incredibly long waits between supposedly episodic games and them going back on their word about updates and games etc., but I keep going back to them because their games are that damn good.

 

[Ironic]

I have a lot of respect for Valve, because of the way they're handling TF2. They're STILL updating it, and seem to be less of a faceless corporation and more of a corporation that uses its face to diligently make more brightly coloured shits and giggles to throw our way.

 

[BloodSquirrel]

Yup, those five people who in the PS3 and hate good games would definitely buy an amazing Valve game.

That aside, I agree. Valve makes the best games, but has quite a waiting period.

What? "in the ps3"? Learn words.

Learn words, the 'p' and the 's' need to be capitalized as it's short for "PlayStation."

You just missed the point so hard that I think you went back in time and killed JFK.

Also, this whole "Ps3 hard to develop for" thing is getting old. I'm not saying it isn't hard to develop for. But they're not even trying. The devs said it themselves. They don't even wanna try to understand it.

That makes them lazy.

You obviously don't understand how business works.

Business do not make decisions about whether or not to create a product based on how hard-working they are, they base them on "Return on Investment". The people who run valve sat down, looked at what it would take to get their games running on the PS3, looked at how much money they would make, and decided that they could make more money getting their other games out faster.

Quite frankly, I can see their point. Who, exactly, would they be selling to? Western shooter fans who own neither a gaming PC or an Xbox 360? Valve's fanbase is on the PC, and that's who they're selling to. The 360 is just a bonus because they can port to it easily.

I've yet to be convinced that most of the people complaining about Valve's games coming to the PS3 would have bought them anyway. It mostly has the stink of fanboys bashing a company because they're conspiring with the enemy.

 

[Katana314]

Jesus J. Mary.

If you're a Valve fan, it's because you get single games you think are great.

If you're a guy who buys into the industry hype, you buy 20 games a month, another of those cutscene-filled graphics wanks each anticipated to be the next messiah of gaming, until it gets massively trashed on Zero Punctuation.

This should be a massively obvious question, but why do you think all those games suck? It's because they're designed to cater to the impatient person who wants a game for Christmas. Valve takes time with their games, and to make up for it, they make sure the multiplayer games they release will be around for a while. They add content and fix bugs, they open up their SDK enough that you could play a new mod every day, etc. When you really look at it and say "there's nothing left to do on my Steam account" you've definitely missed something.

 

[Abedeus]

I HATE THEM!! SO MUCH!! IT HUUURTSSS!!

For not releasing Half Life 2: Episode 3 in favor of Left 4 Dead 2. And no Portal 2 yet.

Other than that, I love them for Portal and Team Fortress 2. Especially Portal and TF2.

 

[PartyMonkey]

If you want a game that is going to be both Pretty and brilliant to play with a fantastic story line then FUCKING WAIT FOR IT...if they just make it quickly then it is going to be the biggest pile of crap ever...do you really want that to happen to the new Half-Life?

 

[Kstreitenfeld]

Why do they hate the ps3 so much? They could be making more money. It baffles me.

Or they could make even more money spending the time on other things.

 

[Steve the Pocket]

I think the reason Episode 3 isn't done is because they made all these loose ends and systematically ignored the fact that they'd have to be tied up eventually. What Barney's been up to, where Adrian Shepard has been all this time... WHO THE BLOODY HELL THE G-MAN EVEN IS... And now they're running around like chickens with their heads cut off trying to come up with a solution that makes sense and doesn't also feel like a huge cop-out.

And the PS3 thing pisses me off. I don't even own one, but it's a total dick move. I knew when they bundled all but the very last piece of the series in one package they were shooting themselves in the foot, because what are they going to do with Episode 3 for console owners? But I never imagined the answer would be "nothing". That's just stupid. Couldn't they just call up the guys who ported the Orange Box in the first place and have them port Ep. 3 as DLC or something? Makes no sense at all.

Sometimes I get the mental image of Valve as a mental hospital for autistic savants whose one talent is making video games. They crank along at their little hobby, living in a vacuum and unaware there's an audience or even other human beings in the world period, occasionally getting bored and moving on to something else because they have poor attention spans, and every now and then finishing a game and handing it to the nice men in the clean white coats with a smug "LOOK WHAT I MADE" grin, who then package it up and sell it because they realized there's a gold mine in all these special kids. You know, like that one episode of Malcolm in the Middle where the teacher has the Special Ed class make these lanyards or whatever as part of a child-labor ring.

I know it's a goofy fantasy, but it seems to fit the way they do things.

 

[Undeleted]

I just don't get what's so special about it...? It has a serious lack of both character and story,

I just thought this part was funny, "Yeah when I'm playing a video game i want a fleshed-out main character and a story for the ages. Half-Life? Whatever. I'll just play DOOM, a game with zero character and bare-bones story,"

 

[Xvito]

I just don't get what's so special about it...? It has a serious lack of both character and story,

I just thought this part was funny, "Yeah when I'm playing a video game i want a fleshed-out main character and a story for the ages. Half-Life? Whatever. I'll just play DOOM, a game with zero character and bare-bones story,"

It would serve you well if you'd learn how to read...

I'll try to explain as simple as possible then: Half-Life has no story and no character. Doom has no story and a little character. Half-Life ISN'T FUN. Doom IS FUN.

Get it? If you don't get it, then I don't care. And you'll just have to live with your ignorance.

 

[TheCameraman]

I just don't get what's so special about it...? It has a serious lack of both character and story,

I just thought this part was funny, "Yeah when I'm playing a video game i want a fleshed-out main character and a story for the ages. Half-Life? Whatever. I'll just play DOOM, a game with zero character and bare-bones story,"

It would serve you well if you'd learn how to read...

I'll try to explain as simple as possible then: Half-Life has no story and no character. Doom has no story and a little character. Half-Life ISN'T FUN. Doom IS FUN.

Get it? If you don't get it, then I don't care. And you'll just have to live with your ignorance.

Personal opinions, look it up.

Oh, and if you can't find the story in Half Life, then I'm afraid I cannot help you. Also, the characters in it are more fleshed out than most video game characters. The exception would be Gordon, but I think he's supposed to be like that.

 

[Xvito]

I just don't get what's so special about it...? It has a serious lack of both character and story,

I just thought this part was funny, "Yeah when I'm playing a video game i want a fleshed-out main character and a story for the ages. Half-Life? Whatever. I'll just play DOOM, a game with zero character and bare-bones story,"

It would serve you well if you'd learn how to read...

I'll try to explain as simple as possible then: Half-Life has no story and no character. Doom has no story and a little character. Half-Life ISN'T FUN. Doom IS FUN.

Get it? If you don't get it, then I don't care. And you'll just have to live with your ignorance.

Personal opinions, look it up.

Oh, and if you can't find the story in Half Life, then I'm afraid I cannot help you. Also, the cahracters in it are more fleshed out than most video game characters. The exception would be Gordon, but I think he's supposed to be like that.

Nice one! Contradicting yourself for the win!

This discussion is honestly getting really silly... Fanboys should stay away from The Escapist. You don't need to act like I'm an idiot just because I don't value the same things you do.

Also, you really should read all of my posts in this thread before accusing me of anything.

 

[Undeleted]

I just don't get what's so special about it...? It has a serious lack of both character and story,

I just thought this part was funny, "Yeah when I'm playing a video game i want a fleshed-out main character and a story for the ages. Half-Life? Whatever. I'll just play DOOM, a game with zero character and bare-bones story,"

It would serve you well if you'd learn how to read...

I'll try to explain as simple as possible then: Half-Life has no story and no character. Doom has no story and a little character. Half-Life ISN'T FUN. Doom IS FUN.

Get it? If you don't get it, then I don't care. And you'll just have to live with your ignorance.

Well I done got told here didn't I. Nothing else to do but hang my head in shame and move along~

Oh and by the way Half-Life has way more story than DOOM does and you were supposed to be Gordon's personality. hth

 

[TheCameraman]

-Snip-

-Snip-

It would serve you well if you'd learn how to read...

I'll try to explain as simple as possible then: Half-Life has no story and no character. Doom has no story and a little character. Half-Life ISN'T FUN. Doom IS FUN.

Get it? If you don't get it, then I don't care. And you'll just have to live with your ignorance.

Personal opinions, look it up.

Oh, and if you can't find the story in Half Life, then I'm afraid I cannot help you. Also, the cahracters in it are more fleshed out than most video game characters. The exception would be Gordon, but I think he's supposed to be like that.

Nice one! Contradicting yourself for the win!

This discussion is honestly getting really silly... Fanboys should stay away from The Escapist. You don't need to act like I'm an idiot just because I don't value the same things you do.

Also, you really should read all of my posts in this thread before accusing me of anything.

Automatically calling those with different views fanboys is not a good argument tool. Also, I have only played through Half Life and Half Life 2 + EP1/EP2 once, and I liked it, however, I do not worship it, and I consider it a "good" fps.
I'm terribly sorry if it felt like I was stating subjective facts, I was merely implying that I find the characters in the Half Life Universe to be deeper and more interesting than most characters in games today, however, I should perhabs have clearly stated that this is a personal opinion.

However, the claim that there is no story in Half Life I find to be rather untrue, as the story is pretty deep, you just have to pick it up as you play instead of getting it spoonfed through cutscenes. I find this to be a good thing, it definitely adds to immersion.

Also, I wouldn't say I'm the agressive one here, at least I try not to be.

Edit: Oh, and the personal opinion remark was aimed at the "Fun" comment.

 

[Xvito]

-Snip-

-Snip-

It would serve you well if you'd learn how to read...

I'll try to explain as simple as possible then: Half-Life has no story and no character. Doom has no story and a little character. Half-Life ISN'T FUN. Doom IS FUN.

Get it? If you don't get it, then I don't care. And you'll just have to live with your ignorance.

Personal opinions, look it up.

Oh, and if you can't find the story in Half Life, then I'm afraid I cannot help you. Also, the cahracters in it are more fleshed out than most video game characters. The exception would be Gordon, but I think he's supposed to be like that.

Nice one! Contradicting yourself for the win!

This discussion is honestly getting really silly... Fanboys should stay away from The Escapist. You don't need to act like I'm an idiot just because I don't value the same things you do.

Also, you really should read all of my posts in this thread before accusing me of anything.

Automatically calling those with different views fanboys is not a good argument tool. Also, I have only played through Half Life and Half Life 2 + EP1/EP2 once, and I liked it, however, I do not worship it, and I consider it a "good" fps.
I'm terribly sorry if it felt like I was stating subjective facts, I was merely implying that I find the characters in the Half Life Universe to be deeper and more interesting than most characters in games today, however, I should perhabs have clearly stated that this is a personal opinion.

However, the claim that there is no story in Half Life I find to be rather untrue, as the story is pretty deep, you just have to pick it up as you play instead of getting it spoonfed through cutscenes. I find this to be a good thing, it definitely adds to immersion.

Also, I wouldn't say I'm the agressive one here, at least I try not to be.

Well... There was this other guy in the thread (look up a few posts) and I got pretty angry... Especially since you told me to "look up" personal opinions.

I didn't mean to sound angry... Well, I kind of did. But you get my drift.

Also, I just didn't find the story to be very good at all. "Ooooh mystical things from another dimension, take this suit and crowbar and beat the shit out of them will you?" And that's basically the same as Doom, only I find Doom to be the more enjoyable game.

And the "fanboys"-thing wasn't really just aimed at you, it's just that every time I express me feelings towards Half-Life around here; it seems that half the forum starts bashing me.

 

[TheCameraman]

-Snip

Automatically calling those with different views fanboys is not a good argument tool. Also, I have only played through Half Life and Half Life 2 + EP1/EP2 once, and I liked it, however, I do not worship it, and I consider it a "good" fps.
I'm terribly sorry if it felt like I was stating subjective facts, I was merely implying that I find the characters in the Half Life Universe to be deeper and more interesting than most characters in games today, however, I should perhabs have clearly stated that this is a personal opinion.

However, the claim that there is no story in Half Life I find to be rather untrue, as the story is pretty deep, you just have to pick it up as you play instead of getting it spoonfed through cutscenes. I find this to be a good thing, it definitely adds to immersion.

Also, I wouldn't say I'm the agressive one here, at least I try not to be.

Well... There was this other guy in the thread (look up a few posts) and I got pretty angry... Especially since you told me to "look up" personal opinions.

I didn't mean to sound angry... Well, I kind of did. But you get my drift.

Also, I just didn't find the story to be very good at all. "Ooooh mystical things from another dimension, take this suit and crowbar and beat the shit out of them will you?" And that's basically the same as Doom, only I find Doom to be the more enjoyable game.

And the "fanboys"-thing wasn't really just aimed at you, it's just that every time I express me feelings towards Half-Life around here; it seems that half the forum starts bashing me.

If you saw my edit, I pointed out that the "personal opinion" remark was aimed at your comment about "fun" games. Personally I can't stand doom, played it back in the day, found it boring then, played it a couple of weeks ago, found it boring now. Therefore the statement that half Life is unfun and Doom is fun is mainly objective.
The reason you become questioned by so many when you state you don't like a game is because you are critcizing a game which has many fans, and many of these fans would probably like to advocate their cause, some with arguments, some with insults. This is, however, true for most, if not all games that has a relatively loyal fanbase. If someone "insults" a game I like, I prefer to find out what they don't like and then ask them to compare it to something of which they find good, so I partly know why they don't like it. I'm not an extremely huge fan of Half Life, so I didn't bother to put that much work into my original post, and I'm sorry if I sounded brash.

Anyway, just to finish, what Fps do you consider to have a "good" storyline, and what exactly is a "good" storyline? I know Bioshock as one of the fps's this generation with the, in my opinion "best" characters, and the most immersive story, but I can't really think of anyone else.

And a little tip: Remember, try not to insult or post personal attacks against your opponent, as discussion and arguments are a usually much more powerful tool to get people to agree with your side. The first one to fire the first insult has usually lost the discussion.

Anyway, I think I'm sick, so I'll have to call it a night. Have fun.

 

[Xvito]

-Snip

Automatically calling those with different views fanboys is not a good argument tool. Also, I have only played through Half Life and Half Life 2 + EP1/EP2 once, and I liked it, however, I do not worship it, and I consider it a "good" fps.
I'm terribly sorry if it felt like I was stating subjective facts, I was merely implying that I find the characters in the Half Life Universe to be deeper and more interesting than most characters in games today, however, I should perhabs have clearly stated that this is a personal opinion.

However, the claim that there is no story in Half Life I find to be rather untrue, as the story is pretty deep, you just have to pick it up as you play instead of getting it spoonfed through cutscenes. I find this to be a good thing, it definitely adds to immersion.

Also, I wouldn't say I'm the agressive one here, at least I try not to be.

Well... There was this other guy in the thread (look up a few posts) and I got pretty angry... Especially since you told me to "look up" personal opinions.

I didn't mean to sound angry... Well, I kind of did. But you get my drift.

Also, I just didn't find the story to be very good at all. "Ooooh mystical things from another dimension, take this suit and crowbar and beat the shit out of them will you?" And that's basically the same as Doom, only I find Doom to be the more enjoyable game.

And the "fanboys"-thing wasn't really just aimed at you, it's just that every time I express me feelings towards Half-Life around here; it seems that half the forum starts bashing me.

If you saw my edit, I pointed out that the "personal opinion" remark was aimed at your comment about "fun" games. Personally I can't stand doom, played it back in the day, found it boring then, played it a couple of weeks ago, found it boring now. Therefore the statement that half Life is unfun and Doom is fun is mainly objective.
The reason you become questioned by so many when you state you don't like a game is because you are critcizing a game which has many fans, and many of these fans would probably like to advocate their cause, some with arguments, some with insults. This is, however, true for most, if not all games that has a relatively loyal fanbase. If someone "insults" a game I like, I prefer to find out what they don't like and then ask them to compare it to something of which they find good, so I partly know why they don't like it. I'm not an extremely huge fan of Half Life, so I didn't bother to put that much work into my original post, and I'm sorry if I sounded brash.

Anyway, just to finish, what Fps do you consider to have a "good" storyline, and what exactly is a "good" storyline? I know Bioshock as one of the fps's this generation with the, in my opinion "best" characters, and the most immersive story, but I can't really think of anyone else.

And a little tip: Remember, try not to insult or post personal attacks against your opponent, as discussion and arguments are a usually much more powerful tool to get people to agree with your side. The first one to fire the first insult has usually lost the discussion.

Anyway, I think I'm sick, so I'll have to call it a night. Have fun.

Bioshock has one of the best settings and some of the best characters in gaming. The mythology of the game as well as the over-all feel of the game are awesome. But as far as stories go; it was a bit predictable.

The FPS that has the best setting and the best characters and the best story in any FPS (and almost any game) is Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath. A game which is absolutely sublime from start to finish.

Although it didn't make me cry, which is why Kingdom Hearts is still my favorite game of all time.

That's it for today folks, good night.