The Real Reason Why Half-Life 2:Episode 3 is taking so long is.....

[crooked_ferret]

When I first saw in the OP that HL2EP2 is being delayed because of Sign Language, I hoped that meant Gordon Freeman was learning sign language to communicate with the NPCs, then I actually read the article and raged a fucking hole in the wall because Alyx shouldn't need to use Sign Language, Gordon should.

excessive potty mouth aside, you do make a good point, it would actually be an opportunity for the player to learn a little bit of sign as well, and possibly even add to immersion.
as I said just above though, I really do believe this to be some sort of excuse, this installment is just taking way to damn long.

 

[bob-2000]

that's actually pretty awesome, yay Valve!

 

[Teh Ty]

Really? They can't just make small jestures that they would only know?

 

[walkingdead127]

I like this idea. What ever enhances the story and developes a very important character is a good idea to me.

My question is why did they not think of this in the earlier episodes.

 

[atomictoast]

Valve does realize that the deaf can read subtitles?

 

[Swaki]

ive always wanted to learn sign language, but it does seem to be an incredibly big thing to start working on for the group of deaf people who cant read.

here i was hoping that it took so long to complete because they also had to find two games better than tf2 and portal to include, but hey now i can learn to communicate whit the deaf guy that walks around reading posters at the school where i try to learn German on night classes.

 

[XSA37]

Ummmm... ok. I think that adding sign language might be going a bit overboard. Either that, or we have all been caught up in a wonderful hoax.

 

[pantsoffdanceoff]

Um, do we get subtitles on what Alyx and Dog are saying? It would be nice to know what my teammates are planning to do under fire without me needing to KNOW ANOTHER LANGUAGE!

 

[socialtangent]

That's pretty awesome of Valve to go that extent to develop a character, but I think we're missing the true reason.

TOO MANY RAVEBREAKS! [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgFuLmyUpIQ]

 

[Bigeyez]

There must be more to it than that? Really, I mean how long can it take to program a character to 'speak' in sign language.

Of course this isn't the REAL reason why it's taking so long. I'm just making light of the situation. I don't really think this is why the DLC is taking so long to come out lol. I think some people in this thread didn't catch that though.

 

[Good morning blues]

Yes, I'm sure the only reason that Episode 3 is taking so long is because literally everybody on the dev team is busy working on putting sign language in. Everybody in this thread is being perfectly reasonable.

Though I should say that this is one of the reasons that I like Valve - they really are committed to accessibility in their games. Why more other developers don't use a closed-captioning system like the one Valve made for Half-Life is utterly beyond me.

 

[sgtshock]

That's great what they're doing for the deaf community, but how exactly is this going to work ingame? Are we going to have to learn rudimentary sign language at a certain point? Is it going to be another language option alongside English, Spanish, etc?

It also worries me the way they talked about Alyx's deaf crush backstory. In the video it was implied they weren't 100% certain on including this, and were throwing it out there to see if it was recieved well. Shouldn't the plot be finished by now? Just how far along are they with Episode 3?

 

[Connor Lonske]

*Gives Neo face* Bullshit!

 

[UsefulPlayer 1]

I love it. I trust Valve will take me on the most epic adventures as Gordon Freeman. Sounds like Alyx and Dog are going to do some stealth. No problem with me. At least this is evidence that their working on it.

 

[toasterslayer]

Valve does realize that the deaf can read subtitles?

Its not for deaf players...

 

[Sightless Wisdom]

*Sigh* guys, read the article and stop suggesting subtitles. It's not about deag people playing the game. Anyway it's at least good to see they're putting so much time and effort into Ep.3. But it damn well better be long and entertaining. Not like Ep.2.(it was fun, but not long enough)

 

[Pielikey]

good thing everyone read the article.

Can't Dog like read lips or use ventrillo or something? I don't think sign language is all that necessary.

Also how could Dog be in any way stealthy? He's gigantic, unless he has a cloaking watch device I don't think he would be all that ninja-like.

 

[General Alexei]

Huh. Nice to think think that valve are doing this kind of thing. Sure it delays the game, but it games the game BETTER. I would rather wait ages for a brilliant game then get a crap one in about a year.



Is that Left 4 Dead 2 in the background of the image in the link?

 

[Banana Phone Man]

If Valve pull this off it could be brilliant, if not I can always save some images for the fail blog.