VALVe no longer doing single player only games?

[Woodsey]

Ummm... link?

And Valve have always had a fairly big hand in the multiplayer pot, so I don't really see the issue. I don't think anyone can claim the Portal 2 co-op took away from the singleplayer either.

Yep, this has been true for years. Not since what, Half Life 2? have they made a full single player game.

Damn you Valve.

Deathmatch says otherwise.

Deathmatch? What are you talking about? I thought I was talking about single player games...

You failed it.

Half-life 1 and 2 both came with a death match for their respective titles.

Oh, I see what you're saying now. It doesn't change the fact that Half Life 2 was the last full single player game, even if it had multiplayer content.

Portal 2 was a full single-player game.
So was Portal.
And episode 1.
And episode 2.

Our ideas of a 'full' game are just different. I don't think of CoD MW as having a full single player game either. Like I said in another post, if you can beat it in one sitting, it isn't 'full' enough for me.

So would you rather have 30 hours of 'meh', over 7 hours of excellence?

To be fair, TF2 is making them bloody rich at this point, and adding co-op to portal 2 in my opinion was the only way they could validate releasing portal 2 at full retail price. Even then, eight hours of singleplayer and from what I hear a fairly short mutiplayer isn't worth full retail price, again, in my opinion. Still, no point complaining as at the end of the day, more content for the buyer = good stuff.

I've played both, and there's roughly 15 hours of gametime for a single run-through of them.

There's also a bunch of achievements for both campaigns that can substantially add to your playtime. I have not done them myself, but I've been told a lot of them are quite challenging and can (and do) take up a lot of time.

Edit: On topic, I don't see that as a bad thing. They are clearly able to provide high quality single and multi-player experiences. That's no reason to get bent out of shape over it.

Now the delays on Episode 3 are worth getting bent out of shape over.

Whoa. I'm not getting "bent out of shape" over Portal 2. I liked the damn game, I'm just glad I didn't have to pay £40 for it. I already have all the single player achivements, and the only mutiplayer one I can see being an issue is the one requiring you to run a friend through the tutioral after you've beaten the game. Thats only tricky because you effectively need three friends, one of whom will be screwed out of an achivement. And I'm more annoyed that valve are making more and more plotlines to connect into Episode 3, and yet there is nothing about the damned game. Hopefully now, with portal over and done with valve can finsh the story that made their company famous...

Portal 2 has nothing to do with Episode 3, beyond existing in the same universe.

 

[CleverNickname]

Left 4 Dead (2?) is actually a great subversion to this silly complaint. It's a pure multiplayer game... that you can play in single player AND they had a Mutation mode where you were alone entirely (Last Man on Earth). It makes no sense for a MP game but they did it anyway.

 

[Trolldor]

Yep, this has been true for years. Not since what, Half Life 2? have they made a full single player game.

Damn you Valve.

Deathmatch says otherwise.

Deathmatch? What are you talking about? I thought I was talking about single player games...

You failed it.

Half-life 1 and 2 both came with a death match for their respective titles.

Oh, I see what you're saying now. It doesn't change the fact that Half Life 2 was the last full single player game, even if it had multiplayer content.

Portal 2 was a full single-player game.
So was Portal.
And episode 1.
And episode 2.

Our ideas of a 'full' game are just different. I don't think of CoD MW as having a full single player game either. Like I said in another post, if you can beat it in one sitting, it isn't 'full' enough for me.

I can beat Fable 1 in a single-sitting. Five and a half hours to be exact. Shorter than even some Modern shooter games.
Obviously not a full single-player game then.
Your definition is arbitrarily retarded. If the experience is complete then length doesn't matter.
Modern shooters have disappointing campaigns not simply because the length is short, but because they completely fail to do anything with it.

Arbitrarily retarded eh? Fine, that doesn't bother men. What bothers me are short games like Portal 2. It's great for what it's worth, but it's not worth full price for it's single player experience. If you feel otherwise, good for you. I'm glad you feel like your purchase is justified.

Bioshock was a great FPS/single player game. Hell, even the Fallout Games are FPS and more than 5 hours long. Plus The Elder Scrolls...

The new Bioshock, and Dues Ex look to be great too. I'll be really pissed/surprised if they are as short as Portal 2.

And again, your definition is nothing short of arbitrary.
Portal 2 is a complete experience. It lacks nothing.

 

[Wintermoot]

unlike 99% of the current FPS games VALVe doesn't focus on the MP but still on the SP, Portal2 is how MP SHOULD be done as a ADD-ON!(unless you make it MP exclusive like TF2 or Counter Strike)
HL3/EP3 is probably going to be SP ONLY (if it ever where to release)

 

[Pyro Paul]

Yep, this has been true for years. Not since what, Half Life 2? have they made a full single player game.

Damn you Valve.

Portal 2? And why are so against multiplayer? Just get some friends online.

Portal 2 was just way too short. Any game you can finish in one sitting is not good enough to buy at full price for me. Thankfully I bought Portal 2 used.

I just don't enjoy multiplayer that much. Co-op is good, but I get bored with Deathmatches and Capture the flag type games quickly.

I will just have to wait for the new Bioshock and Dues Ex games for my single player FPS fix. Now if Valve releases that level editor for Portal 2 soon, who knows... I may change my mind about Portal 2.

Every first person shooter in existance can be beating in one sitting.
exactly how long is a 'full game' to you?

Fallout 3, Bioshock, deus ex, half life 1 and 2...
all of them can be beaten in 10 hours or less.

for games like Deus Ex, Fallout 3, and Bioshock, the experience is often drawn out longer because of the RPG elements included in the game which promote exploring, treasure tresure huting, and side quests so to 'level up' and become even more powerful and potent.

the core game however is still a mear ~10 hours long.

Going through portal 2 and finding all the easter eggs and secret areas can prolong the game to the same length as any of those titles, however because of the lack of inscentive to do these tasks, most people simply don't.

 

[Lenvoran]

Games that include multiplayer do not necessarily mean that the company has to skimp on the singleplayer. Most companies do, but it's not a set in stone thing,

 

[CheckD3]

I don't understand why this is a bad thing. It's not like CoD where they forget the story in favor of the multiplayer, and in fact it feels like they worked harder on the campaign than the co-op, and tried to make the co-op feel like a single player game that you can play with your friend rather than argue who gets to play or have to watch as they hog your game\not share their game

Valve doesn't usually make half-assed games, and they always give a strong emphasis on single player, they just added a new feature to give it a unique feel rather than re-releasing an update version of their game in Valve time

 

[Pyro Paul]

Also, how is co-op Bad? the co-op has a unique story line all to its own.

it should be completely disregarded simply because you need another person to play it?

you Do recall many games even from the 8-bit era had 2 player co-op... right?

i think it is some what refreshing and nostalgic that companies like Valve are taking advantage of the fact that we can play co-operatively rather then competatively. my most fond memories are playing games like Double Dragon, TMNT: turtles in Time, and contra with my friends on console.

 

[Pyro Paul]

Yep, this has been true for years. Not since what, Half Life 2? have they made a full single player game.

Damn you Valve.

Portal 2? And why are so against multiplayer? Just get some friends online.

Portal 2 was just way too short. Any game you can finish in one sitting is not good enough to buy at full price for me. Thankfully I bought Portal 2 used.

I just don't enjoy multiplayer that much. Co-op is good, but I get bored with Deathmatches and Capture the flag type games quickly.

I will just have to wait for the new Bioshock and Dues Ex games for my single player FPS fix. Now if Valve releases that level editor for Portal 2 soon, who knows... I may change my mind about Portal 2.

Every first person shooter in existance can be beating in one sitting.
exactly how long is a 'full game' to you?

Fallout 3, Bioshock, deus ex, half life 1 and 2...
all of them can be beaten in 10 hours or less.

for games like Deus Ex, Fallout 3, and Bioshock, the experience is often drawn out longer because of the RPG elements included in the game which promote exploring, treasure tresure huting, and side quests so to 'level up' and become even more powerful and potent.

the core game however is still a mear ~10 hours long.

Going through portal 2 and finding all the easter eggs and secret areas can prolong the game to the same length as any of those titles, however because of the lack of inscentive to do these tasks, most people simply don't.

10 hours is a great number. (Personally I don't pull 10 hour gaming sessions anymore) I consider that full enough. Again, this is just my 'arbitrary' definition of a full game. Most modern FPS games are less. Portal 2 was less. I want more.

the everage length of a Portal 2 game is 10 hours. most players take 11-12 hours to beat the game the first time... savvy players that think in portals and played the first one extensively can do so in less then 8 if you don't search for easter eggs and secret messages.

so... how is portal 2 NOT a full length game?

 

[Beryl77]

In the iPad app "The Final Hours of Portal 2" from Geoff Keighley, there is a passage that worries me a bit in regards to the next Half-Life game:

Today the industry is abuzz about Facebook games and mobile games on devices like the iPad. Valve has neither. But online gameplay, like the co-operative campaign in Portal 2, will surely be important in the future. In fact, Portal 2 will probably be Valve's last game with an isolated single-player experience. What this all means is something Newell is still trying to figure out, but he knows Valve needs to continually innovate by placing both short- and long-term bets.

This could also just be an interpretation from Geoff Keighley. I don't know whether Gabe Newell said it with these words.

 

[Grabbin Keelz]

So bland gameplay won't be a a purely solo thing? Calamity.

That was a low blow Sam....real low.

 

[Troublesome Lagomorph]

There were half-life games back in the day that were not only SP.
TF2 is not single player at all.
What about Half-Life 2 Deathmatch?

In other words: Valve has been making games with multiplayer for a long time now.

 

[ajemas]

Yep, this has been true for years. Not since what, Half Life 2? have they made a full single player game.

Damn you Valve.

Except for the first Portal, a huge chunk of Portal 2, and Half Life 2 episodes 1 and 2.
And why is this a problem? Just because Portal 2 has a multiplayer section doesn't take away from the fact that the single player part is testicle-shatteringly amazing to play.

 

[Gigatoast]

Because people are lonely and have no friends, so any game that doesn't have a 20 hour single player campaign isn't worth full price. Seriously, Portal 2's story mode was about the same length as HL2. Why are people complaining? Oh yeh, because you people are f**king spoiled.

 

[Assassin Xaero]

Well, judging by Portal 2 it's not taking anything away from the single player game

... Yet.

Look at Call of Duty. The campaigns in 1 and 2 were decent length and pretty good, but a few games down the line we get MW2 which took a whole 4 hours and was pretty bad on top of that. Another example: BioShock 2. Sure it wasn't the same people, but the single player got shafted for a horrid multiplayer that was dead before the game was released.