"Valve rarely release games" - NONESENSE!

[Moth_Monk]

This occurred to me after reading the other thread about Valve that describes them as an "anarchy." Now I've several times here on The Escapist and elsewhere it suggested that Valve haven't really released many games and that most of their money comes from Steam.

Yes most of their money does come from Steam, that is obvious. However it is not true that they have not released many games.

Here's a full list:

Half Life - 1998

Team Fortress Classic - 1999

Half Life Opposing Force - 1999

Deathmatch Classic - 2000

Ricochet - 2000

Counter Strike - 2000

Half Life Blue Shift - 2001

Day of Defeat - 2003

CS: Condition Zero - 2004

Half Life Source - 2004

CS: Source - 2004

Half Life 2 - 2004

Half Life 2 Deathmatch - 2004

Half Life Deathmatch Source - 2005

Day of Defeat Source - 2005

Half Life 2 Episode 1 - 2006

Half Life 2 Episode 2 - 2007

Portal - 2007

Team Fortress 2 - 2007

Left 4 Dead - 2008

Left 4 Dead 2 - 2009

Alien Swarm - 2010

Portal 2 - 2011

Dota 2 - 2012

CS: Global Offensive - 2012

Half Life 3 - 2098

As you can see Valve has released at least one game every year since 1998, and in some cases more than one game. This is in fact more consistent than a lot of other developers.

Well that puts that common misconception to rest.

Edit: I would also like to point out that the next installment in the Half Life series hasn't really been in development that long.

Deus Ex Human Revolution - 2011, Deus Ex Invisible War - 2003; FOR EXAMPLE

 

[Kordie]

Deus Ex Human Revolution - 2011, Deus Ex - 2000; FOR EXAMPLE

Fixed that for you... What is this Invisible war you speak of? Nope, never happened...

 

[baddude1337]

I think a lot of those are published by Valve, not made by them. I know for a fact the HL1 expansions were made by Gearbox and not Valve.

EDIT: Also, the problem with the next Half Life is that the three episodic games were meant to be released within a year or so. Then they got delayed and delayed, and there is still no sign of episode three even though it was confirmed shortly after HL2's release along with the others. Some games may of been in development longer or about the same time, but they don't tease their fans about it. They wait until they have something concrete and decent to show.

 

[Aeshi]

Plus most of those were just mods that Valve decided to make official (like Alien Swarm, Team Fortress & Left 4 Dead which were just mods for UT2004, Quake and Counter Strike respectively.)

 

[Moth_Monk]

Deus Ex Human Revolution - 2011, Deus Ex - 2000; FOR EXAMPLE

Fixed that for you... What is this Invisible war you speak of? Nope, never happened...

Oh sorry about that. ;-)

 

[MellowFellow]

As you can see Valve has released at least one game every year since 1998, and in some cases more than one game. This is in fact more consistent than a lot of other developers.

Sorry op I just couldn't resist.

OT: I've always heard more people complaining about HL3 not being released yet than how many games valve releases total.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Plus most of those were just mods that Valve decided to make official (like Alien Swarm, Team Fortress & Left 4 Dead which were just mods for UT2004, Quake and Counter Strike respectively.)

Also, the Half Life expansions were outsourced to Gearbox. It's still a pretty respectable output. An average non-EA or Activision cash cow development cycle is, what, 2 years? With five or more not being too far out of the ordinary for huge releases? Just thinking back to the release of Half Life 2, we've had /something/ big released every year or two since. I think the problem is that people compare Valve's output to major publishers, when the truth is that they're a big developer, not a small publisher. The fact that they own a retail store is irrelevant here. I mean, is Walmart a publisher?

 

[Reggie Rock]

The problem i encounter with Valve? What do TF2, portal, half-life, counter strike and left 4 dead have in common. THEY ARE THE SAME DAMN GAME WITH 1 OR 2 DIFFERENCES.

All of the games have exactly the same control scheme, are FPS based, and it is incredibly stale. I didn't like the overall playing of half-life. Jumps were clunky, difficulty was easy mode, they constantly flaunted physics like it was a magical foreign concept and i didn't enjoy the way it played. BUT IN THE VALVE WORLD! I can't enjoy any more of their games, because they never bothered to change that playstyle nor did they even bother to really change the art style of the game (TF2 being the exception).

This is the problem people have with valve. It isn't that they haven't released any new games,it's that the games they released have been far from "new".

Valve is one of my more disliked companies because they get all this praise for doing less work and doing practices that we would all hate if it were anyone BUT valve. And releasing mods as full retail price games? That is unacceptable in any circumstance.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

The problem i encounter with Valve? What do TF2, portal, half-life, counter strike and left 4 dead have in common. THEY ARE THE SAME DAMN GAME WITH 1 OR 2 DIFFERENCES.

All of the games have exactly the same control scheme, are FPS based, and it is incredibly stale. I didn't like the overall playing of half-life. Jumps were clunky, difficulty was easy mode, they constantly flaunted physics like it was a magical foreign concept and i didn't enjoy the way it played. BUT IN THE VALVE WORLD! I can't enjoy any more of their games, because they never bothered to change that playstyle nor did they even bother to really change the art style of the game (TF2 being the exception).

This is the problem people have with valve. It isn't that they haven't released any new games,it's that the games they released have been far from "new".

Valve is one of my more disliked companies because they get all this praise for doing less work and doing practices that we would all hate if it were anyone BUT valve. And releasing mods as full retail price games? That is unacceptable in any circumstance.

It's one thing to dislike FPSs. It's another to say that five games as different as TF2, Portal, Half Life, Counterstrike, and Left 4 Dead are "the same damn game with one or two differences." You may as well say the genre hasn't changed since Doom. Yes, they use the same engine, but if you want to go by that logic, Gears of War, Mass Effect, Monday Night Combat, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Bioshock and Mirror's Edge are all the same game with one or two differences, too.

Edit: and I'm not even a Valve fanboy. I couldn't care less about Half Life, and pretty much the only game they made that I still play is TF2. But I'm not gonna sit back and say "their games suck and are all the same." They don't and they aren't.

 

[Reggie Rock]

The problem i encounter with Valve? What do TF2, portal, half-life, counter strike and left 4 dead have in common. THEY ARE THE SAME DAMN GAME WITH 1 OR 2 DIFFERENCES.

All of the games have exactly the same control scheme, are FPS based, and it is incredibly stale. I didn't like the overall playing of half-life. Jumps were clunky, difficulty was easy mode, they constantly flaunted physics like it was a magical foreign concept and i didn't enjoy the way it played. BUT IN THE VALVE WORLD! I can't enjoy any more of their games, because they never bothered to change that playstyle nor did they even bother to really change the art style of the game (TF2 being the exception).

This is the problem people have with valve. It isn't that they haven't released any new games,it's that the games they released have been far from "new".

Valve is one of my more disliked companies because they get all this praise for doing less work and doing practices that we would all hate if it were anyone BUT valve. And releasing mods as full retail price games? That is unacceptable in any circumstance.

It's one thing to dislike FPSs. It's another to say that five games as different as TF2, Portal, Half Life, Counterstrike, and Left 4 Dead are "the same damn game with one or two differences." You may as well say the genre hasn't changed since Doom. Yes, they use the same engine, but if you want to go by that logic, Gears of War, Mass Effect, Monday Night Combat, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Bioshock and Mirror's Edge are all the same game with one or two differences, too.

As different as those 5? Please. All games play the same way, with the only difference being guns, the enemy and the map. Mechanics don't change, engines don't change and physics don't change.

It would be perfectly fine if they were sequels. Half-life one and Half-life 2 being similar is fine. So is portal 1 and portal 2. But these 5 different series only change about 3 variables to try and call themselves "new". It's lazy is what it is.

Secondly, all the games you listed not only vary in genre, but differ in engine, mechanics, art style and ding-ding-ding DIFFERENT LEVELS OF DIFFICULTY (something which valve obviously finds boggling to the mind), but in audience and playstyle.

I'm not saying that their bad games, but i'm saying that if you put the portal gun in half-life the game would be remarkably similar to portal.

 

[DoPo]

This occurred to me after reading the other thread about Valve that describes them as an "anarchy."

And what is your point with this sentence? Somehow you make that description sound negative and/or wrong.

Also, yes, they haven't released many games - that is correct. Let's go through the list:

Half Life - 1998 - yes, a game.

Team Fortress Classic - 1999 - a mod for HL

Half Life Opposing Force - 1999 - a mod for HL

Deathmatch Classic - 2000 - a mod for HL

Ricochet - 2000 - a mod for HL

Counter Strike - 2000 - a mod for HL

Half Life Blue Shift - 2001 - a mod for HL

Day of Defeat - 2003 - a mod for HL

CS: Condition Zero - 2004 - began as a mod for HL, spun off into a standalone game

Half Life Source - 2004 - Just HL with a new coat

CS: Source - 2004 - more of a new game than than HLS, but still, it's CS

Half Life 2 - 2004 - yes, a game

Half Life 2 Deathmatch - 2004 - the multiplayer segment of HL2, released separately

Half Life Deathmatch Source - 2005 - the second part of the HL re-release

Day of Defeat Source - 2005 - I'm going to give it the benefit of a doubt, since I haven't seen it, so I'm assuming that it's more of a separate game than CS:S.

Half Life 2 Episode 1 - 2006 - an episode to HL2

Half Life 2 Episode 2 - 2007 - an episode to HL2

Portal - 2007 - yes, a game

Team Fortress 2 - 2007 - while

Left 4 Dead - 2008 - yes, a game

Left 4 Dead 2 - 2009 - yes, a game

Alien Swarm - 2010 - yes, a game

Portal 2 - 2011 - yes, a game

Dota 2 - 2012 - yes, a game

CS: Global Offensive - 2012 - I actually don't know much about it than the name. I would assume it's bringing something new rather than just another spin off of CS

Half Life 3 - 2098

So, as for actual games they are 2/3 of this list. Now, if you look into how different they are to each other...well, we have mostly HL, Portal, and L4D (with a sequel each), plus AS, Dota 2[footnote]as a side note, it's bugging me it's not DotA. Yeah, I'm petty like that, in fact, I think it's also missing Allstars...[/footnote] and some mods, some of which were elevated to standalone instalments.

 

[Reggie Rock]

This occurred to me after reading the other thread about Valve that describes them as an "anarchy."

And what is your point with this sentence? Somehow you make that description sound negative and/or wrong.

Also, yes, they haven't released many games - that is correct. Let's go through the list:

Half Life - 1998 - yes, a game.

Team Fortress Classic - 1999 - a mod for HL

Half Life Opposing Force - 1999 - a mod for HL

Deathmatch Classic - 2000 - a mod for HL

Ricochet - 2000 - a mod for HL

Counter Strike - 2000 - a mod for HL

Half Life Blue Shift - 2001 - a mod for HL

Day of Defeat - 2003 - a mod for HL

CS: Condition Zero - 2004 - began as a mod for HL, spun off into a standalone game

Half Life Source - 2004 - Just HL with a new coat

CS: Source - 2004 - more of a new game than than HLS, but still, it's CS

Half Life 2 - 2004 - yes, a game

Half Life 2 Deathmatch - 2004 - the multiplayer segment of HL2, released separately

Half Life Deathmatch Source - 2005 - the second part of the HL re-release

Day of Defeat Source - 2005 - I'm going to give it the benefit of a doubt, since I haven't seen it, so I'm assuming that it's more of a separate game than CS:S.

Half Life 2 Episode 1 - 2006 - an episode to HL2

Half Life 2 Episode 2 - 2007 - an episode to HL2

Portal - 2007 - yes, a game

Team Fortress 2 - 2007 - while

Left 4 Dead - 2008 - yes, a game

Left 4 Dead 2 - 2009 - yes, a game

Alien Swarm - 2010 - yes, a game

Portal 2 - 2011 - yes, a game

Dota 2 - 2012 - yes, a game

CS: Global Offensive - 2012 - I actually don't know much about it than the name. I would assume it's bringing something new rather than just another spin off of CS

Half Life 3 - 2098

So, as for actual games they are 2/3 of this list. Now, if you look into how different they are to each other...well, we have mostly HL, Portal, and L4D (with a sequel each), plus AS, Dota 2[footnote]as a side note, it's bugging me it's not DotA. Yeah, I'm petty like that, in fact, I think it's also missing Allstars...[/footnote] and some mods, some of which were elevated to standalone instalments.

Don't forget that the left 4 dead was originally a mod for HL2 and that DotA 2 is a bigger debacle over whether or not valve can claim that one.

 

[DoPo]

Don't forget that the left 4 dead was originally a mod for HL2

OK, that I didn't know.

and that DotA 2 is a bigger debacle over whether or not valve can claim that one.

Yeah, but the topic is about Valve releases. It's still going to be released by them (if there haven't been any changes to the situation), so I'll class it as game.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

The problem i encounter with Valve? What do TF2, portal, half-life, counter strike and left 4 dead have in common. THEY ARE THE SAME DAMN GAME WITH 1 OR 2 DIFFERENCES.

All of the games have exactly the same control scheme, are FPS based, and it is incredibly stale. I didn't like the overall playing of half-life. Jumps were clunky, difficulty was easy mode, they constantly flaunted physics like it was a magical foreign concept and i didn't enjoy the way it played. BUT IN THE VALVE WORLD! I can't enjoy any more of their games, because they never bothered to change that playstyle nor did they even bother to really change the art style of the game (TF2 being the exception).

This is the problem people have with valve. It isn't that they haven't released any new games,it's that the games they released have been far from "new".

Valve is one of my more disliked companies because they get all this praise for doing less work and doing practices that we would all hate if it were anyone BUT valve. And releasing mods as full retail price games? That is unacceptable in any circumstance.

It's one thing to dislike FPSs. It's another to say that five games as different as TF2, Portal, Half Life, Counterstrike, and Left 4 Dead are "the same damn game with one or two differences." You may as well say the genre hasn't changed since Doom. Yes, they use the same engine, but if you want to go by that logic, Gears of War, Mass Effect, Monday Night Combat, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Bioshock and Mirror's Edge are all the same game with one or two differences, too.

As different as those 5? Please. All games play the same way, with the only difference being guns, the enemy and the map. Mechanics don't change, engines don't change and physics don't change.

It would be perfectly fine if they were sequels. Half-life one and Half-life 2 being similar is fine. So is portal 1 and portal 2. But these 5 different series only change about 3 variables to try and call themselves "new". It's lazy is what it is.

Secondly, all the games you listed not only vary in genre, but differ in engine, mechanics, art style and ding-ding-ding DIFFERENT LEVELS OF DIFFICULTY (something which valve obviously finds boggling to the mind), but in audience and playstyle.

I'm not saying that their bad games, but i'm saying that if you put the portal gun in half-life the game would be remarkably similar to portal.

So then I take it you've never played L4D or TF2? Because that's the only way I could see you getting them confused for any of the others. I haven't played Counterstrike, personally, but I've seen enough of it played to be leery of anyone claiming it's no different from the rest. Seriously, have you ever played anything on that list? Half Life is a story based single player shooter with a multiplayer mode ripped right out of quake. It's full of physics puzzles and story telling. Left 4 Dead is a co-op game where you try to get from point A to point B while keeping your team mates alive. TF2 is a team based shooter with all sorts of mechanics that aren't in the other games, mainly related to the way points are scored -- control points, carts, that sort of thing. And Portal is a bloody puzzle game.

Edit: Also, you missed my point. All those games I listed run on the Unreal 3 engine, just like all the games you listed run on the Source engine. That's why there's so many similarities in the physics, graphics, and gunplay.

 

[Zaik]

The problem i encounter with Valve? What do TF2, portal, half-life, counter strike and left 4 dead have in common. THEY ARE THE SAME DAMN GAME WITH 1 OR 2 DIFFERENCES.

All of the games have exactly the same control scheme, are FPS based, and it is incredibly stale. I didn't like the overall playing of half-life. Jumps were clunky, difficulty was easy mode, they constantly flaunted physics like it was a magical foreign concept and i didn't enjoy the way it played. BUT IN THE VALVE WORLD! I can't enjoy any more of their games, because they never bothered to change that playstyle nor did they even bother to really change the art style of the game (TF2 being the exception).

This is the problem people have with valve. It isn't that they haven't released any new games,it's that the games they released have been far from "new".

Valve is one of my more disliked companies because they get all this praise for doing less work and doing practices that we would all hate if it were anyone BUT valve. And releasing mods as full retail price games? That is unacceptable in any circumstance.

It's one thing to dislike FPSs. It's another to say that five games as different as TF2, Portal, Half Life, Counterstrike, and Left 4 Dead are "the same damn game with one or two differences." You may as well say the genre hasn't changed since Doom. Yes, they use the same engine, but if you want to go by that logic, Gears of War, Mass Effect, Monday Night Combat, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Bioshock and Mirror's Edge are all the same game with one or two differences, too.

As different as those 5? Please. All games play the same way, with the only difference being guns, the enemy and the map. Mechanics don't change, engines don't change and physics don't change.

It would be perfectly fine if they were sequels. Half-life one and Half-life 2 being similar is fine. So is portal 1 and portal 2. But these 5 different series only change about 3 variables to try and call themselves "new". It's lazy is what it is.

Secondly, all the games you listed not only vary in genre, but differ in engine, mechanics, art style and ding-ding-ding DIFFERENT LEVELS OF DIFFICULTY (something which valve obviously finds boggling to the mind), but in audience and playstyle.

I'm not saying that their bad games, but i'm saying that if you put the portal gun in half-life the game would be remarkably similar to portal.

So you don't like the source engine. Congratulations.

On topic: something like 1/3rd of those were published by Valve. But yeah, it's generally a 1-2 year gap tops. Just seems longer when valve releases whatever valve likes to work on, not necessarily what people want to see at any given moment.

 

[TheDutch3Z]

The problem i encounter with Valve? What do TF2, portal, half-life, counter strike and left 4 dead have in common. THEY ARE THE SAME DAMN GAME WITH 1 OR 2 DIFFERENCES.

All of the games have exactly the same control scheme, are FPS based, and it is incredibly stale. I didn't like the overall playing of half-life. Jumps were clunky, difficulty was easy mode, they constantly flaunted physics like it was a magical foreign concept and i didn't enjoy the way it played. BUT IN THE VALVE WORLD! I can't enjoy any more of their games, because they never bothered to change that playstyle nor did they even bother to really change the art style of the game (TF2 being the exception).

This is the problem people have with valve. It isn't that they haven't released any new games,it's that the games they released have been far from "new".

Valve is one of my more disliked companies because they get all this praise for doing less work and doing practices that we would all hate if it were anyone BUT valve. And releasing mods as full retail price games? That is unacceptable in any circumstance.

Just a question , on what difficulty have you played Half life 1/2?

 

[Reggie Rock]

Snip

I own all the games you listed and i can say with utmost certainty that my statement stands. Yes, all games have a different objective. But the way you accomplish that objective is always the same regardless of the game. My character in all of those games ( except TF2 again, due to minor speed differences in each character) controls the EXACT same way, move in the same clunky fashion, shooting x at y at location z.

Also, the unreal engine is so much different to the source engine. The unreal engine allows a lot more variety than the source engine does in terms of gameplay.

Snip

I... i don't understand your comment. No i don't like the source engine. I'm going to complain about things i view as bad.

Snip

Ah, good question. While i do play on medium mostly, the reason is that hard mode isn't difficult as much as it's creating a fake difficulty. "Fake Difficulty" is when instead of the AI improving/downgrading or something happens that makes it more difficult for the player to progress, changing the difficulty just makes enemies take more hits and you take less. It's certainly not only valve that does it, but it's cheap and just frustrating rather than frustrating but rewarding.

However, yes i have completed it on hard and it was harder than medium, but not as hard as i think a hard mode should be.

 

[TheDutch3Z]

Snip

Ah, good question. While i do play on medium mostly, the reason is that hard mode isn't difficult as much as it's creating a fake difficulty. "Fake Difficulty" is when instead of the AI improving/downgrading or something happens that makes it more difficult for the player to progress, changing the difficulty just makes enemies take more hits and you take less. It's certainly not only valve that does it, but it's cheap and just frustrating rather than frustrating but rewarding.

However, yes i have completed it on hard and it was harder than medium, but not as hard as i think a hard mode should be.

I asked cause:
1.There are people that dont know that there are different difficulties.
2.There are people that like to insist that "game is to easy" with only playing on easy.

I agree with you that "Fake difficulty" isn't good way to go for the developers but i can't see how Valve could improve the AI in half life 1 or 2 cause both of these game had the one of the best AI for the year they was out.

Also , enemies take more hits=something happens that makes it more difficult for the player to progress

 

[Reggie Rock]

Snip

Ah, good question. While i do play on medium mostly, the reason is that hard mode isn't difficult as much as it's creating a fake difficulty. "Fake Difficulty" is when instead of the AI improving/downgrading or something happens that makes it more difficult for the player to progress, changing the difficulty just makes enemies take more hits and you take less. It's certainly not only valve that does it, but it's cheap and just frustrating rather than frustrating but rewarding.

However, yes i have completed it on hard and it was harder than medium, but not as hard as i think a hard mode should be.

I asked cause:
1.There are people that dont know that there are different difficulties.
2.There are people that like to insist that "game is to easy" with only playing on easy.

I agree with you that "Fake difficulty" isn't good way to go for the developers but i can't see how Valve could improve the AI in half life 1 or 2 cause both of these game had the one of the best AI for the year they was out.

Also , enemies take more hits=something happens that makes it more difficult for the player to progress

I understand that the AI was great for the time, but i'm not a fan of that type of difficulty increaser. It usually just results in me hiding around corners and shooting single bullets at a time while trying like hell not to get hit (Because health doesn't regenerate. Remember that,,, i miss it ). It's not that there's anything inherently wrong with that, but it's something i've never been able to enjoy.

 

[Luca72]

I prefer to play differently themed games all running on the same engine (Source) as long as it's a stable one. I haven't run into any other engines that work as consistently well as Source. I'm not even saying Valves' games have the tightest FPS controls ever, just that they have the most consistent controls. There are too many FPS's that come out today that have beautiful graphics and completely broken physics.