Poll: Anyone else beginning to lose patience with Valve?

[42]

Look i know we should allow Valve all the time to make sure all their game are of the utmost top quality, but i think i'm beginning to suffer from Valve Time fatigue syndrome. It just feels like they're dragging along with Episode 3, and I'm almost certain the Portal 2 DLC will be delayed. As well as that, they have 2 other game releases they're doing with DoTA 2 and CS:GO and that's fine, but i honestly think it's time Valve started moving towards getting a better hold of their dev cycles. I mean ok they tried this with L4D and that went down like a tonne of bricks falling on a small duck, with the whole boycott, but it's just driving me nuts at the moment.

Edit: I am in no way going apeshit or anything, nor a dig at Valve.

 

[Skops]

You come on the Escapist, questioning Valve timetables.. You brave son-of-a-*****.

OT: Yeah.. Really, I don't see what takes them so long. It's not like they don't have the money, staff, or tools to do it in a reasonable amount of time.

Although I own almost everyone of their games (mostly because of there deals that sell everything under 5 bucks, shit, I'll pony up 5 bucks or less for just about any game), I'm not exactly the biggest fan of Valve. From what I've played, almost every game they've made pretty much feels the same. Every game they've made post HL2, uses the source engine. Almost every game they make still uses sounds from Half Life 1. Apart from Ricochet and Alien Swarm (is it Swarm or Breed?) every game is an FPS.

I'll admit, Valve makes some pretty quality games. But imo, they're not nearly as great as everyone makes them out to be..

 

[New Troll]

As long as there's a Team Fortress, Half-Life episodes can take as long as they need.

 

[Funkysandwich]

Valve don't owe me anything. The games will be out when they are done. I can wait.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

Not really, the constant TF2 updates help that. I still really want Ep 3, though.

 

[Idlemessiah]

Valve will take as long as they like. Nothing we can do about it. So just put your feet up and play something else for a while... Whats that Fallout 3? Yeah I'll just be 2 more minutes...

 

[Don't taze me bro]

They can take as long as they like. I'm not totally psyched for Episode 3, as I wasn't super impressed with Episode 2. I'd much prefer a Half Life 3 with a shiny new graphics engine.

 

[SammiYin]

They can take as long as they want, not because I want them to make good games [I don't think they do personally], but because it winds their fans up, and stops me hearing about said games when they are out.

 

[Erana]

So, they should screw around with the creative process... Why?
Whatever they're doing works. Its slow, but I don't think I'm the only one who would prefer one game to play for years than a bunch of lesser titles to be forgotten.
And without evidence to suggest that they're not being consistently productive on some kind of project, why should we assume that making them rush their work wouldn't have a visibly negative impact on it?

 

[YuheJi]

Well, the fact of the matter is, they haven't really announced anything, nor do we know where they are in their dev cycle. What is there to lose patience for if nothing has been shown?

 

[Trivea]

"Beginning" to lose patience? You should have spoken to me a couple of years ago. It's not even that I'm dying to play the games, it's that Valve really doesn't have the industry firepower of the Big Companies to pull this shit with "oh it'll be out next month DID WE SAY NEXT MONTH we meant next year ha ha". No, I'm not dying for Episode 3, and I'm not going to keel over without DLC for Portal 2, but I think they're still just a titch too minor league in the grand scheme of things to be spitting on their fans like this.

 

[infohippie]

Why does this poll not include the option to answer it next April?

 

[Yvgeny]

Half Life is a franchise that needs to be handled delicately. I'd rather have them release a great game after several years, than a bad game after a shorter amount of time.

Have a bit of trust here, it's coming.

Still, wouldn't it be funny if they released HL3 in secret. Just at every retailer and on steam one day, with no release date, marketing, anouncements, or preorders

 

[Dr. Paine]

Nope.

Then again, I'm just ignoring it all until I see the TV spot (for Episode 3 that is- can't get the Portal 2 DLC, so I just stopped caring entirely on that one). In the meantime, I've got games to play, ponies to watch, and books to read. I think I can stand the wait.

 

[CGAdam]

Half Life is just another FPS with a silent protagonist. And they do take too long to release stuff. September 23rd is not summer, whatever they claim, nor do I expect them make good on that deadline.

 

[trollnystan]

To paraphrase Neil Gaiman: Valve is not your *****.

True, if I was more invested in the Half-Life series I'd probably be more frustrated but still. I'd rather they took their sweet bloody time and give out a good-to-awesome game, than having them rush it and releasing a half-assed game.

They take longer than other devs - with exceptions coughDNFcough - but in the end it's usually worth it.

 

[surg3n]

I don't mind waiting for quality - but it seems that it's the free DLC that has trouble making it to release. No money benefit, so they drag their heels like huffy teenagers.

Personally, I'm more pissed at Atari with their TestDriveUnlimited2 bullhickey. They fudge the launch, no multiplayer for about 2 weeks, promise DLC to make up for it, then 8 months down the line theres still no sign of it.

Publishers are moving features onto DLC, then using that to justify bad launches, then not providing it - there should be laws governing DLC. Maybe the first DLC should always be free, Valve do this already but it might set a presedent... we are sick of waiting for DLC, it would be great if publishers weren't allowed to release commercial DLCs until that first free one is released.

 

[Jadak]

To paraphrase Neil Gaiman: Valve is not your *****.

True, if I was more invested in the Half-Life series I'd probably be more frustrated but still. I'd rather they took their sweet bloody time and give out a good-to-awesome game, than having them rush it and releasing a half-assed game.

They take longer than other devs - with exceptions coughDNFcough - but in the end it's usually worth it.

I don't particularly care about any of Valve's game, but this is really the same as how I've come to view Blizzard. Specifically, that it's looking less and less like a case of the developer taking the time to perfect the product and more like the extra time is a result of simply not making an effort to complete things in any reasonable time.

Not to say that they might not go about managing that perfection anyways, but that being the justification for the time taken is bs.

But, they can do what they want, not going to hurt them any until it starts turning away customers. And let's face it, the people that are going to get upset about this sort of thing are going to be buying it regardless, no matter how much they rage in the meantime.