HALF LIFE 2: EPISODE 3 - first concept art!

[Arrqh]

Their mistake, as it were, was to continue to iterate on technology and not just content with each release. The right way to do episodic content is what Telltale did with Sam and Max where they don't iterate on tech and have a new episode out every month and a clearly thought out plan for the whole thing.

I really enjoy all the Half-Life games, but IMO Valve has shown exactly how not to do episodic content... the only reason they get a pass is because the result is so enjoyable.

 

[IJD GAF]

I really hope they release it on PSN and Live Arcade. I have Orange Box for 360, and that's really the only way I'm apt to play it.

Is that even feasible? Would the game be small enough? I imagine Microsoft might make an exception on its limits. Not sure Sony's deal.

 

[Hermiod]

^The limit is 350mb for XBLA games, so no. They might do it on PSN, but Valve aren't exactly friendly with Sony.

For me, anyway, the Half-Life series are PC games, not console games.

 

[IJD GAF]

Well, yeah. I know a lot of people feel that way. But when Orange Box came out, a lot of console owners were wondering how they'd put out the third installment. And like it or not, there's a market there.

I think they might let 'em make an exception. They're putting out Portal: Still Alive, after all.

 

[Hermiod]

^Which is not going to be part of any continuity. There may not even be any GLaDOS.

I don't deny there's a market there, I just looked at my Xbox 360 controller after finishing Portal on the PC and wondered how the hell I'd be able to do what I just did using it.

We don't know what Valve's plans are for Episode 3. There may be more Portal or Team Fortress to go along with it, or something entirely new. Or they may just release Episode 3 at a cheaper price. Or they episode may be the length of a full game.

We don't even know for certain that Episode 3 is the absolute end. I did hear talk about an Episode 4 developed by another team, as OpFor and Blue Shift were.

I would certainly like to see more multiplayer Half-Life 2. A pack of additional official multiplayer maps after all this time would be a bit of a stretch, but it'd be welcome.

 

[Rii]

We don't know what Valve's plans are for Episode 3. There may be more Portal or Team Fortress to go along with it, or something entirely new.

I'd love to see a remake of Ricochet featuring portals, I've always thought Valve missed a real opportunity by not committing more resources to that project. It could've been an amazing 2-4 player deathmatch game, instead it's merely an interesting concept mod.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

The Half Life games are the ones I've gone back to most over the years. I do have to admit though, Orange Box was an exercise in getting pay up for stuff they already had, for those of us who already owned HL2 and Ep1, and didn't want TF2.

 

[Hermiod]

^Not if you bought it from Steam. If you already have a copies of HL2 and HL2:Ep1 on your account you can give your Orange Box "copies" to someone else as a gift.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

^Not if you bought it from Steam. If you already have a copies of HL2 and HL2:Ep1 on your account you can give your Orange Box "copies" to someone else as a gift.

Of course it was, unless you were planning on buying a gift for a friend anyway. Why should you have to buy 5 games when you only want 2? I know you can buy separately now, but you know they were just gouging the loyal fans at first.

 

[Hermiod]

I don't recall how much the Orange Box cost at the time of release, but I considered it worth it even with the fact that I already had the HL2 and Ep1.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

I don't recall how much the Orange Box cost at the time of release, but I considered it worth it even with the fact that I already had the HL2 and Ep1.

I remember thinking Ep2 and Portal would have worked out £10 cheaper, whatever the price was. Sure it's a bargain if you wanted them all though.

 

[PKerr]

I didn't mind replaying HL2 because we now got Achievements on the 360 version.

My thing is this, I hope they bring the graphic up to next gen standards.

 

[Twilight]

My thing is this, I hope they bring the graphic up to next gen standards.

IMO Source is up to next gen standards, after its upgrade for Episode 2. Certainly HL2 looks a tad long in the tooth, particularly in the lighting department, but Episode 2 (and 1, for that matter) had beautiful implementation of HDR, way improved character model animations, and really amazing new cinematic physics (for ep2, anyway). I think the game looks fantastic on both PC and 360, and rivals all of the greatest looking next gen games.


The modularity of Source allows for fairly simple upgrades to be made - I expect more improvements to be made for Episode 3, probably in the post processing and particulates areas.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

My thing is this, I hope they bring the graphic up to next gen standards.

IMO Source is up to next gen standards, after its upgrade for Episode 2. Certainly HL2 looks a tad long in the tooth, particularly in the lighting department, but Episode 2 (and 1, for that matter) had beautiful implementation of HDR, way improved character model animations, and really amazing new cinematic physics (for ep2, anyway). I think the game looks fantastic on both PC and 360, and rivals all of the greatest looking next gen games.


The modularity of Source allows for fairly simple upgrades to be made - I expect more improvements to be made for Episode 3, probably in the post processing and particulates areas.

I think now texture resolution is the main problem, but I think that's one great thing about the HL2 games, they run on pretty much anything. There are a few glitches here and there because of that, though.

 

[Cutter John]

Guess I need to start thinking about finishing Episode 2.

Stuck on that last level damnit!

 

[Twilight]

^Remember to run over all of the hunters that accompany each strider (usually 2 to 3) before trying to stick the magnusson to the strider (otherwise the hunters will knock it off).

I think that's the main trick to the level. On the last wave of striders you can make your stand at the little red barn that's close to the White Forest base - they'll all have to pass in front of you to get to it, and you can pick them off one by one.

 

[Canadave]

Guess I need to start thinking about finishing Episode 2.

Stuck on that last level damnit!

Heh, I still need to finish Episode 1.

This, however, is partly due to the fact that it likes to crash to the desktop in certain places... it's easy enough to get around, I just have to drop the screen resolution to the lowest possible for a few seconds, but given HL2's long load times it makes things rather tedious and I get frustrated.