I'm beginning to hate Valve.

[TrevHead]

I used to be pro Valve but have just gotten sick of them as of late.

#1 They stopped making the games I like, too many MP focused games and not enough SP games I like. Also I agree that HL3 is a fricking joke, it's one thing to not hype a game, but it's another to keep gamers in dark not knowing what the hell is going on. This blind faith in a delayed game = quaity will backfire in fans faces as when HL3 finally does come out there is going to be alot of massively disappointed ppl who hate the changes made or not made from HL2 gameplay. Time doesn't automatically equal quality when we have had ACM, Duke Nukem Forever and Diablo 3 which had much of the mechanics thrown out in beta. Infact it wouldn't surprise me if the current build of HL3 looks like DNF with a miss mash old old and new content.

#2 Greenlight has made it so I rarely buy indies from Steam nowadays as not a single game I've voted for has made it. Before Greenlight a good varied selection of games made it to steam, but nowadays Steam has grown more into this platform for Johnny come lately indies gamers, In the past it used to be just XBLA timed exclusives like FEZ and Dust but now the same is happening with PC indie game as games are on other PC stores for ages while on Steam the game is stuck on Greenlight. This has prompted me to buy my games from elsewhere rather than sit and twiddle my thumbs wondering if the game I want will win the digital equivalent of the X factor (which won't happen as I have niche tastes and don't give a hoot about trends and gimmicks).

#3 Imo Valve has gotten too big for it's boots and should be whipped into shape, but sadly most PC gamers are so in love with Valve and Steam that most criticism is white knighted or ignored. Yeah Valve "saved" PC gaming but that doesn't mean they're 100% infallible.

#4 Selling "Alpha" builds on Steam is BS

 

[ProfessorLayton]

Also, they released CS:GO last year so...

CS:GO was a $15 arcade game and also an abomination. Portal 2 was the last full price retail game they've put out.

Are you saying it's Valve releasing them? I don't follow. What the fuck are you talking about? If I were to start a rumour about Blizzard, are you also going to fault Blizzard when it turns out to be false?

I don't think you're aware of how "responsibility" works - you usually have to do...like anything to be to blame.

Yes, I am saying Valve is releasing them. They released a Saxton Hale comic thing, where the covers contained threes and lambdas. This was quite a while ago, though. Either way, you can go here, [https://twitter.com/Ekanaut/status/142476850931834880] here, [http://i.imgur.com/fT5LA.jpg] or here [http://www.teamfortress.com/images/posts/mailstorm.jpg] to see some examples of official Valve teasers. So yes, they are releasing stuff like that. Come on, all it takes is a quick google search and you'd be able to find plenty of Half Life teasers that were released by Valve.

 

[UltraPic]

Yeah Valve "saved" PC gaming but that doesn't mean they're 100% infallible.

When, and more importantly how ?.

 

[Lilani]

I started getting a bit pissed when Half Life 2 came out. It's a great game blah blah, everybody loves it yadda yadda, but I'm wondering if and when an ACTUAL sequel to Half Life 1 might be in the works? If you renamed HL2's Gordon Freeman to say... Cliff Stone, then Half Life 2 would have basically nothing to do with the first game. No similarities in tone, setting, plot, anything. Just the name of the main character, and a crowbar instead of a knife. Oh well, I'll always have OpFor.

I think you don't quite understand what a sequel is. A sequel doesn't mean similar tone, setting, or plot. In fact, doing JUST those things would give you a duplication of the original, not a sequel. A sequel is simply a continuation of events. It continues the narrative, but doesn't necessarily have to have the same tone or setting. And that's exactly what HL2 is.

Spoiler: Sort of spoilers for the ending of HL1, putting it in this just in case.

HL1 was basically a test issued by the G-Man and whomever he works for to see if Gordon Freeman was the person they wanted. At the end of HL1, Gordon is "hired," and basically put into stasis until they need him. Since the G-Man appears to have some sort of ability to travel through time and space, it makes sense he'd just cart Gordon around to whatever events and places he's needed. At the beginning of HL2, the G-Man is waking Gordon up on Earth 10 years after Black Mesa.

So to summarize, the G-Man is using Gordon to stir shit up. HL1 was his test run, and HL2 was his first big assignment.

 

[MrHide-Patten]

It's their choice if they want to release a sequel, frankly I don't think Episode 3 is something you can tackle lightly, in no part thank's to threads like this perpetuating it. It's Duke Nukem Forever all over again, people are going to over hype this game into a black abyss and will never be happy with the final product. Although I expect something of measurable quality from Valve as opposed to what produced DNF.

 

[rob_simple]

I'm sure it's already been pointed out here, but the stunning waves of entitlement radiating off the OP compelled me to throw my two cents in:

The difference between Valve and the other studios you mention is that they didn't lie about a product which they actually released. Gearbox showed false footage of a game they then released and received money for; Bioware (allegedly) lied about what Mass Effect 3 was going to be and then made money off of that. Valve have not released anything so all they've really done is gone back on what I'm not even sure they actually promised; just what they said was their plan.

All developers lie out their arse, no matter what industry we are talking about. I remember reading an interview with the director of Aliens Versus Predator 2 (the movie, I mean) where he said that the first movie sucked because it focused on the humans too much so he was going to make his all action, and what did we get? A fucking ninety minute episode of Dawson's Creek that happened to feature Predators and Aliens.

Game developers are no different: they spin you bullshit to keep you interested because that is how PR works. Sure, it is a bit dishonest, and in Valve's case even if they said, 'it'll be ready when it's ready' I'm sure most fans would still eagerly await it, but it is no reason to hate a company when the practice is commonplace in literally every institution with a marketing department.

When Valve release Half Life 3 and it's just Half Life 2 but Gordon is wearing a hat, then maybe you'll have a point, until then, try and remember: everybody lies.

 

[Lilani]

Also, Half-Life 3 isn't coming. It's the new Duke Nukem Forever, both in the sense that 1. It's never going to be finished (if it's being made at all) and 2. If it IS made, everyone's expectations for it will be way too high, and everyone's going to be thoroughly unhappy with it.

...Except the situation surrounding Valve is nothing at all like the situation that was surrounding the dev of Duke Nukem Forever. Unlike that situation, Valve is not failing, Valve is not short on money, HL is their flagship franchise, and there have been no major power shifts in the company. You really are comparing apples and oranges, here.

 

[FireAza]

And yet they've been giving us years and years of free content for Team Fortress 2. Seems like a fair trade-off. Clearly they've realized that episodic doesn't work for Half-Life 2 and they've changed how they're gonna do it.

 

[RedDeadFred]

I don't hate Valve and your argument, while somewhat valid, is pretty weak. I don't like them very much though. I consider the Half Life games to be extremely overrated and I don't like the Left for Dead games at all. I did like Portal 1 and 2 though so I think Valve is alright. There are definitely much better developers though.

 

[Edl01]

If I'm hearing this right you hate Valve because you feel entitled. I have an idea lets releasae Half-Life 3 early, and have a choice of 3 endings that will cause 3 different coloured explosions!

 

[00slash00]

so you hate valve because they havent released episode 3? people dont hate EA or Capcom because they dont release games fast enough, people hate them because of fucked up business practices and shit like that. thats why people let valve get away with the fact they they arent interested in making episode 3. your complaint doesnt seem to be that valve doesnt care about quality or that they treat you like a money dispenser instead of a gamer, your complaint seems to be that you love valve games so much, you wish there were more of them

 

[Something Amyss]

They purposfully built up expectations and did not follow through. That's exactly what Gearbox did with ACM.

No, Gearbox built up expectations by claiming a tech demo represented the final product, which it didn't. Valve never gave any concrete details that I can find. It's nowhere near the same.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go shower. defending Valve makes me feel dirty.

 

[Lovely Mixture]

You can be critical of them for long development times, mediocre playtesting, and lack of concrete announcements. It's something about them you don't like.

But to hate them for not releasing a game is kind of silly.

They aren't hurting any body, they aren't gauging their customers for money, they're providing a service (which is DRM but is milder than the DRM that most hate), and they're opening up a market for indie developers.

 

[NiPah]

I honestly hope your weren't planning on a getting any real conversation out of this, save for maybe a bunch of hero worship of Valve.

It would help if the anti-valvers would actually spend some time to think up an argument which is not so easily shot down, all I've seen is shit comparisons that don't stand up to scrutiny and a bunch of people posting petty personal attacks on people who are fans of Valve. Like moths to a flame, every time someone posts something about how much they hate Valve you'll get 10 posting posting "people defend Valve because blah", doesn't matter how crap the original argument is, you always seem them.

 

[Rariow]

There's not been a bad Valve game yet, and Valve hasn't ever made a "vertical slice demo" that proved to have 5 seconds of actual game footage in 10 minutes of demo. Boom. Difference.

Let's put it this way: A bad released game < A good unreleased one. When (if) episode 3 comes out and (if) it turns out to be as bad as Alien Colonial Marines, I guarantee you, the shitstorm directed at Valve will be about fifty times bigger than that directed at Gearbox right now.

 

[DrunkOnEstus]

I think it's never coming. They make so much money off of hats and $100 fake wedding rings that I'm sure they scoff at the idea of a solely single-player game. If there's no multiplayer, they can't really monetize Half-Life 3 out the ass.

They're either waiting for the successor to the Source engine to be finished, or they're brainstorming a way to have Half-Life be always-on without doing half-life:deathmatch again. Yes, the coolest company in the world loves Always-on DRM, mass microtransactions, and buys up little talented studios in order to assimilate them into the giant mass.

The difference between them and EA is that Valve has a fucking excellent PR team. Perception is everything.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

They said ages ago they are not doing an ep 3 of half life.....guess they got bored. lol. But ive never liked valve, to me they are like EA, they are not even a game company anymore, just Steam. An making a fortune off that, why would they bother making games?

An this is the thing, people think "they dont rush stuff, thats why they are awesome" erm.....no. Thy just dont make stuff because they dont have to. Yet. They havnt even started on HF3, they are not spending years tweaking and mulling over level design until they are satisfied? People think they are, but there not. I like the half life games, but if you play them with new eyes, most of what you love is the scenery and graphics. The fighting is mediocre. A large part of it is walking around just taking in that lovely background. An the crab heads are laughable as enemies. There is no HL3 planned, if anything it will be ep3 turned into a game.

Again, as i said before, Valve is not a game company anymore since Steam.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

Companies aren't under any obligation to release these products when we want. I don't mean this just legally; I mean it ethically/however-you-want. I feel no sense of loyalty tarnished here.

I would disagree. They promised 3 episodes. They gave 2 so the story isnt finished. I played HF2 on the Orange box release in 2007. A half finished game that they dont want to finish. If any other company release a game with only two thirds the content, there would be anarchy. But yet valve gets let off with the " they will get round to it one day and it will be good". They are like cowboy builders. They made people pay for an incomplete story. If EA did the same thing, people would explode from all there bitching.