Whats The Big Deal About Valve?

[Thedutchjelle]

I'm not a fanboi but I so far am rather content with Valve:
1) I have an ancient GPU (X1600 mobility with a whopping 128 MB). I like Valve for using an engine that looks good without me having 10 FPS. Even the medium/low settings on TF2 (Which is what I must play on, I refuse to let go of 1680x1050) looks great imo.
2) Orange Box gave me HL2, HL2:EP1, HL2:EP2 , TF2, Portal (I bought it for TF2, didn't even know what HL was and I had seen things about portal). Fantastic games for only 60 euro the whole package. Awesum.
3) The unending wave of updates for TF2, my most played game, is awesum.
4) Steam for Mac and the move of the Source engine to OpenGL and Macintosh OS X is awesome beyond words.

The only things I dislike so far are CS:S (I kept getting 0wned so badly, maps feel lacking and undetailed) and L4D2 (or more precisly, that everyone has it but me and I ain't paying no 50 euros if I just bought L4D)

 

[jamesworkshop]

Valve are a great company with great products so its not hard to see why they are liked but this looks like the thread to say it

System shock > half life

 

[LWS666]

i like valve due to the L4D series, where as yahtzee said, "most games use co-op as an excuse to have a side kick follow you around hoovering up all the health and ammo, but in L4D your partners are actually needed". i also made many friends over XBL on versus.

 

[Pegghead]

Well y'know, different tastes for different people. Personally I am an enormous Valve fan and could easily type something along the lines "IMO made of epic sweEtness wIn is so Awez0me and brill1ant in gloRIness s4ndviches N cake z0mfg SO clevr good SIR!" but then I remember that I didn't like Mass Effect while it seems everyone would marry it if they could.

 

[Davrel]

don't say HL1 is better than most games today because it isn't, it's a piece of shit by todays standards

I know this is largely opinion, but that is just...completely wrong.
Graphically, yeah HL1 looks crud today; but thats an entirely moot point for obvious reasons. The same goes for any other inadequacies that the game had due to the technological limitations of the time.

What is important is that it was FUN! The story was strong, the enemies were varied, the environments were inventive, the puzzles were clever and actually related to the progress you made through the game, and it really felt like you were Gordon Freeman having to fight for survival through perhaps the worst day at work ever.

Additionally, it was incredibly well polished; entering Black-Mesa at the start of the game is one of the most widely recognised and memorable scenes from any game ever for a reason. Considering the size of the industry now, I challenge you to list me 5 recent games from the same genre that are as good in all aspects and consist of more than just shooting generic "oh-look-its-a-terrorist-but-he's-not-a-Muslim-honest!" archetypes.

N.B. I'm not a Valve fan-boy; I hate TF2 and strongly dislike Portal - I'm a Half-Life fan.

 

[shemoanscazrex3]

I don't have a PC or X360 so my only options are The Orange Box and Half Life the unreleased Dreamcast version. I only really liked HL & HL2+ep1&2. Then again I'm not an online gamer and Portal didn't really interest me as much. I know this much when Episode 3 or Half Life 3 comes out I'll be standing outside of Gamestop at 930am waiting for the doors to open. I will also be calling out from work whenever that day comes

 

[ScienLOLogy]

Look, i know it's my first post,buuuut I'm just going to say it.

Successful troll was successful.

 

[shemoanscazrex3]

Valve are worshipped because PC Gamer worshipped HL1 and then HL2. Is the latter a good game? Not if you haven't played the first, and then it is still dubious.

Plus 3 of their biggest games are simply 3rd party mods turned into cash cows - CS, TF and Gmod, not to mention their lazy attitude towards the PS3.

As you can see, I love Valve....

God I wish they would make L4D for the PS3

 

[cyber_andyy]

when I tried to play Team Fortress 2 no one was playing it (that usually means it's not that great)

I call bullshit.

http://www.game-monitor.com/search.php?game=tf2

Console version most likely.

If thats the case then he is forgiven. :3

 

[WolfThomas]

I think someone explained it quite well in another thread (which is locked so I can't properly quote them).

"Looking over the few posts I bothered to, I saw plenty of reasons:
-Steam revitalized the PC gaming industry
-Valve created one of the most critically acclaimed games of all time
-They made the best zombie game we've seen in ages
-They created a game that actually requires you to think in a different way about puzzles solving and physics
-Their TF2 community is among the best communities in gaming today
-They actually listen to what their fans have to say
-They don't cut out whole sections of the game they had ready pre-release and then charge me for it as DLC "
jboking

 

[butterkniferampage]

Well saying there is poor characterization in Half Life 2 confuses me a bit. There is wonderful characterization in HL2. And you probably tried to play tf2 on xbox or ps3. Naughty, naughty. As for the "one game a year" thing. When their games rack in that much cash, and are that good by most people's standards, releasing more than one game a year sounds weird. And what about Left 4 Dead? Best co-op game hands down.

 

[T-Bone24]

Half-Life is 12 years old. Half-Life 2 is 6 years old. There's no point judging them by today's standards, at the time they were each groundbreaking, and I still think that the characters in Half-Life are some of the richest, most realised characters in the industry. The engine is getting on a bit, and don;t complain about an overused physics engine, because that was top of the line 6 years ago. You're judging these games as if they were released today.

The big deal about Valve? They have the best customer service and are the developer that seems to take care of their community the most. If you make a good mod for the Source engine, there's a great chance that Valve will hire you. They take care of a community. Take Team Fortress 2 for example. At launch, it was an incredibly fun, albeit quite bare class-based shooter, with 6 maps and 3 weapons per class with 9 classes. Since then, they have added thirteen new maps and 8 arena maps, 4 game modes, and new weapons and tweaks for each class, for free, on a regular basis. If that's not taking care of a game, I don't know what is.

Another thing Valve do incredibly well is character. As I said, the Half-life characters are some of the deepest personalities in gaming, and they have even injected life and character into each TF2 class. That sort of dedication is practically unheard of.

That, my friend, is the big deal with Valve.

To quote Mikel Reparez: "Change one letter in Valve and you get Value."

 

[Sarah Kerrigan]

three words. Half Life 2

 

[Angus565]

The thing I don't get is that people always complain about how long they take to relase games, then last year the release L4D2 and some people were boycotting it beacause it was released "Too Soon" Am I missing somthing?

But anyway, Quality is better then quantity. You are entitled to your oppinion but so are people who like Valve. Also you should really play Portal.

 

[Kwaren]

I bought the orange box for the 360 and was not impressed with any of it.

 

[Foxbat Flyer]

I enjoy valves games because they are fun. They have good story lines, and i dont mind half action with a bit of puzzle sections thrown in, mix it all up with good atmosphere in a blender, and you get a highly enjoyable game

 

[Rauten]

I bought the orange box for the 360 and was not impressed with any of it.

See, there's the problem.

 

[Tharwen]

It seems to me that you just don't like them because it takes them so long to produce games. How about you just play them as they come out and don't bother waiting for them specifically. You clearly don't enjoy it.