Poll: Is Valve becoming worse over time?

[Assassin Xaero]

Maybe they are doing what they want to do... If I was in their position (video game developer), I would make what I wanted to instead of completely giving in to what the community wants. For one, you will never please everyone in the community, and two, sometimes the community is full of morons who want stuff that is overly complicated/impossible and don't understand how much of a pain in the ass it is to actually make games.

 

[Calhoun347]

Valve has stayed the same or gotten better. So Epsiode 3 is taking time, boohoo. It will be better for it. L4D1 was great, L4D2 is awesome. I've never had that felt that close to a group of 3 strangers in such a short time-span before. Episode 2 was lived up the standards that the Half-Life series has set and TF2 continues to be my favorite Team-based online FPS. (L4D2 being my favorite Co-operative FPS.)

So what if L4D2 came out a year after the first, It's better than the first and a complete game in it's own right.

I find it interesting that just because they are taking a long time to release a game, everyone says that they are fucking up.
There are plenty of sequels that have come out years later, so get some patience and get over it.

But the whole point of the episode format was to release sequels in a short amount of time, so we wouldn't be waiting years for sequels. So as far as what their established goal was, Valve has failed terribly.

Heh, The Episodic idea was a mistake from the get-go, because of Valve Time. But I still don't mind. The Epsiodes have still been nothing short of Excellent.

 

[Xanadu84]

Valve never said when they would release Episode 3. Yes, I am looking forward to it, but you can't blame Valve for breaking promises they never made. It's been too long you say? Because Valve never takes a long time to put out their games? Yes, episodic content, at least useing Valves style, was a failure, and quickly, DLC proved to be a superior choice for presenting smaller then full sized gaming content. But they tried something different. I applaud that. In the mean time, there is no drought of video games.

I'm going to go drastically against the grain here, and say that sequels are some of the best games ever made. Strictly speaking, they are usually better then the original. Sequels are good. They give developers a chance to look at the original, and have a better idea of what works, and what doesn't. New IPs and game types are wonderful. They strike new ground, and are great to explore. But quite possibly the biggest thing they give to the world of gaming is the chance to let that new IP evolve, get better over time. Valves sequels are getting better all the time. Maybe Portal jumping loses its freshness the second time around, and maybe the rush of coop zombie shooting just isn't as surprising when you've done it before, but when Valve does a new iteration, sense of freshness aside, the new iteration is, strictly speaking, better. And constantly making better and better games is all I will ask for from a developer. We have played Chess for thousands of years, Half Life or Portal will continue to be worthy of playing unto its 3000th incarnation.

Please, stop complaining about L4D2. Yes, TF2 has better, more regular updates. It would be great if L4D was just as well supported. But L4D1 does have user generated content, a new game mode, a campaign, and some tweaks along the way. Far better then most games out there. Valve was presented with the choice of keeping L4D1 having constant updates, or they can put their energy into L4D2, where they have improved everything, and make a game that is the best they can make. The fact that they make the best game they can make is the reason why it's worth buying from them. And after feedback from fans, they have started treating L4D2 to the constant update treatment. There's a new game mode every week, and they have made a new campaign and are looking into tweaking some very fundamental things. They have gotten better.

Yes, it will be great when Valve releases the class updates on 360. Now, tell me that the Orange Box wasn't still a fantastic deal on console, and I will call you a liar. Sure they are better at developing for the PC, and they don't really develop for the PS3. They aren't doing this because they're jonesing for less money, or to piss you off. There doing it because it lets them focus on making a better game. It's not perfect, but what is?

There is no problem with Valve that can't be solved by simply remembering that other developers sell games as well. Everything Valve has done is good, and getting better with time. You can just decide if this better game is something you want. If you don't, fine. If you do, Valve will keep impressing you more and more.

 

[Nikolai Smirnov]

Well there is one thing valve should be working on right now,

the engie update for tf2

 

[ThorUK]

Not sure if they're becoming worse - they certainly did some questionable things since HL1 and it's expansions (their heyday IMO). For one thing, they made STEAM, which is unforgivable. For another they've been releasing mods and expansions as stand-alone games to make larger profits, which, again, is a fairly bad thing to do...

 

[Tyrgils]

I have to disagree with you on your points for a number of reasons. While L4D2 had the same core concepts of L4D, it added many more things which fans in particular would have wanted to see, for example: melee weapons and realism mode (two things which keep me fascinated for hours in the game).

But that only qualifies it as an expansion-pack, really. Not a lot of changes for a series that is already repetitive. "Don't fix what isn't broke" comes off quite cowardly.
Take the Gears of War games. The concept of the game (3rd person shooter) isn't original, but EPIC changed the overall feel, atmosspere and interactive enviroment (excluding new modes, weapon additions, new enemies and enviroment makeovers).
Experimenting once in a while doesn't hurt, valve should adapt to this, especially when they are dealing with repetitive gameplay.

You have a point, it does only qualify it as an expansion pack, however I still believe that with a dedicated game series which is embraced for it's particular flavour of gaming, the changes shouldn't deviate away from the core concept too much, because when you're dealing with sequels, you're basically just tacking bits on to the old one. Now, I will never say that Valve should not try and be more innovative as a whole, but really 'innovation' doesn't always translate to 'fun'. Take Portal for example. Excellently written, and the Portal physics were unique, but otherwise it was just another puzzle based FPS. So, for Valve as a business the secret is striking a balance between innovation and formula so that they can keep the fans of the first games while bringing in new players with small innovations and better graphics etc.

 

[bam13302]

unless their non portal 2, not HL2E3, e3 'surprise' is something i would actually care about

 

[thePyro_13]

I love pretty much all valve games, their still doing a good job in my opinion.

What they did with L4D annoyed me. I had just bought he game, so then they release a sequel less than a year later and stop patching the original, most of the players moved across to L4D2 and I was stuck sitting in 'no mans land' with only bots to play with.
I feel robbed in that regard.

 

[Leftyrem]

Well, I still think Valve's doing a bloody good job.
Yeah, so Half-Life 2: Episode 3 (Westham 0) isn't really getting far.
So what? As long as they're not standing around with either their thumbs up their asses or just going "BIBBIDEBIBBIDEBIBBIDEBIBBIDE' all day long, and actually working on another title, I'm happy.
I'm still having a bloody good time with Half-Life and Team Fortress.

no half play wow the others just take naps or eat doritos

 

[Chubb Secure]

Technically they cant get worse because thay havnt bloody made anything recently so they are about the same as usuall good games with shed loads of time in between

 

[ezeroast]

Valve have been releasing games since 1998 to 2010 with no sign of slowing down.
This year "so far" Valve has been working on and released The half-life series, Team Fortress 2, and portal for the Mac. The year is not yet over, they have teams working on many different projects currently. Portal2, Team Fortress 2 constant updates, Episode 3 (Or maybe Half-life3)as well as L4D2 and 1.
I think they are doing ok

Edit: I would MUCH prefer them to take longer to make quality games rather than smash out crap games every 6 months.

 

[humor_involuntario]

To the point with

Lets see here.

Past work by Valve- Half life saga, half life 2 saga, portal, TF2.

Recent work- L4d1 followed by L4D2 instantly.

Half life episode 3 is taking one hell of a long time, and yet they can crank out L4D2 in ONE YEAR?! But episode means 1/3 of a gme, and L4D2 is a totally new game (lol).

Valve is the new EA imo.

actualy the only reason for they taking so short is that L4D2 is just L4D with mele and new maps, it even reuses the source engine, just with a modification to calculate mele damage! while (i hope) half-life episode 3 will use source 2.0. waaaay more work.

 

[Maverick Siragusa]

..........What exactly is wrong with the L4D series?

not much of a plot except for escape the zombies

if they ever make another orange box they should have it include a left for dead 3 with all the others things like HL2E3, team fortress 3, and portal 2.that would really make them go in the right direction

 

[bananazx03]

Have you ever played the original half life?(p.s.- it sucked) Of course valve has gotten better over time. To be fair, left 4 dead, although it's a fun game, is trash compared to half-life 2. In any case, the new episodes seem promising and portal 2 is going to rock.

 

[Cody211282]

I wouldn't say they are bad, just average as hell and over hyped. Honestly Portal is the only game I found myself thinking was all that good that they made. Also I love the fact that they have no idea what the point of episodic content is.

 

[Harlemura]

I like to think they already have all the games they've announced ready for release, they're just not going to release them until everyone stops complaining about them for less than five minutes.

Works for me, gives 'em more time to work on updating games and making 'em better.