I really liked HL2 a lot at the time but I have no idea how it would hold up now
You could always play it again.
I played through it the other day for trading cards because I'm a fucking nerd, and all the bits about it that were fun back then were still pretty fun.
I could!
I have so many dang games in my backlog that'll have to wait though
I wish that someway, somehow, that I could save every one of us
Gamecube controller is the most comfortable one to hold I've ever used but functionally it was awful
The only thing I kiiind of didn't like about it was that the yellow analog stick didn't have a proper head on it.
Everything else was aces.
I didn't like the non-roundness of the weird c-stick hole thing. I just kept trying to do circles or half-circles or whatever with it but kept getting it stuck in those little corners all the damn time.
The controller was also too small (long live the Duke!)
I think for some people it really kind of represents a trend of "Oh, Valve is announcing some shit that I don't really care about again" for people who actually do want to be excited about things that Valve has to say.
That is definitely the vibe I am getting.
0
Snowbeati need somethingto kick this thing's ass over the lineRegistered Userregular
edited September 2013
also at this point i'm sick of valve's marketing shtick because they're all predicated on the expectation of big things (i.e. videogames they've been implicitly promising people for various absurd amounts of time)
so they play games with their fans' expectations and at this point the whole thing feels horribly cynical and condescending, especially when the "huge reveal" turns out to be yet another form of monetization expansion
Snowbeat on
+1
Snowbeati need somethingto kick this thing's ass over the lineRegistered Userregular
Gamecube controller is the most comfortable one to hold I've ever used but functionally it was awful
The only thing I kiiind of didn't like about it was that the yellow analog stick didn't have a proper head on it.
Everything else was aces.
I didn't like the non-roundness of the weird c-stick hole thing. I just kept trying to do circles or half-circles or whatever with it but kept getting it stuck in those little corners all the damn time.
The controller was also too small (long live the Duke!)
Well, the C stick needed a proper head so that it could be an actual stick instead of a nub, although most of the games that used it leveraged it in such a way that you weren't touching it very much most of the time.
And like I said, I must be a pretty little princess, because it fit my hands like a glass slipper on the night of the big ball.
Edit: Oh, I see what you're saying... that actually probably would have been less of a problem if it had a nice head on it so your finger would stay put, because I typically like the little corner things. It helps you to know exactly where your are holding the stick without having to look at it. But because it had that stupid little nub head, if you were too quick with it, your finger would fall off.
Gamecube controller is the most comfortable one to hold I've ever used but functionally it was awful
The only thing I kiiind of didn't like about it was that the yellow analog stick didn't have a proper head on it.
Everything else was aces.
I didn't like the non-roundness of the weird c-stick hole thing. I just kept trying to do circles or half-circles or whatever with it but kept getting it stuck in those little corners all the damn time.
The controller was also too small (long live the Duke!)
also at this point i'm sick of valve's marketing shtick because they're all predicated on the expectation of big things (i.e. videogames they've been implicitly promising people for various absurd amounts of time)
so they play games with their fans' expectations and at this point the whole thing feels horribly cynical and condescending, especially when the "huge reveal" turns out to be yet another form of monetization expansion
Really the flak here is that people were building up their expectations for something they weren't doing (Half Life 3) and wanted to be excited for that. This is still pretty cool stuff, and it's a neat way to build up tension for them concerning their future market options.
Lots of us think it is neat, I'd expect. Is it "OHMIGOSHSTANDINLINEFORTWOWEEKSWANTITNOW" exciting? No. I don't think it was meant to be, though.
if you throw up a countdown and then spread your reveal out for a week, then you mean for it to be incredibly groundbreaking. or at least give it the auspices as such.
+2
EncA Fool with CompassionPronouns: He, Him, HisRegistered Userregular
I just don't find that position tenable. I'd love Konami to announce Suikoden 6 instead of Metal Gear, but that doesn't mean I'm going to dislike Komami for not publishing something I want over something someone else wanted. I'm also not going to call Metal Gear shit just because I don't like the franchise.
They are still making stuff, neat stuff. The "stop liking things I don't like" argument just seems silly here to me.
also at this point i'm sick of valve's marketing shtick because they're all predicated on the expectation of big things (i.e. videogames they've been implicitly promising people for various absurd amounts of time)
so they play games with their fans' expectations and at this point the whole thing feels horribly cynical and condescending, especially when the "huge reveal" turns out to be yet another form of monetization expansion
They said several times this was Steam related and not game related.
also at this point i'm sick of valve's marketing shtick because they're all predicated on the expectation of big things (i.e. videogames they've been implicitly promising people for various absurd amounts of time)
so they play games with their fans' expectations and at this point the whole thing feels horribly cynical and condescending, especially when the "huge reveal" turns out to be yet another form of monetization expansion
I agree, yeah.
See, this is what I'm saying.
Edit: IE- this is why people are grouchy. Personally I couldn't care less what Valve decides to do, I got other shit going on.
HL2 holds up really well because it's a very very unique shooter
they don't really make immersive shooters anymore
compare to something like Borderlands which spoon feeds you the narrative and all the color commentary
in HL2, everything must be absorbed from the environment by osmosis
it's easy to play HL2 and not understand anything at all about City 17, unless you actually pay attention to what's around you
that's what makes it so cool, IMO
Valve has a pretty good understanding of "the Beautiful Road".
Turns out writing for video games is hard.
This is definitely true, but HL2 isn't perfect in this because the rest of the game after City 17 isn't half so detailed and nuanced. The first 2 or 3 hours of that game are absolutely its best.
HL2 holds up really well because it's a very very unique shooter
they don't really make immersive shooters anymore
compare to something like Borderlands which spoon feeds you the narrative and all the color commentary
in HL2, everything must be absorbed from the environment by osmosis
it's easy to play HL2 and not understand anything at all about City 17, unless you actually pay attention to what's around you
that's what makes it so cool, IMO
Valve has a pretty good understanding of "the Beautiful Road".
Turns out writing for video games is hard.
This is definitely true, but HL2 isn't perfect in this because the rest of the game after City 17 isn't half so detailed and nuanced. The first 2 or 3 hours of that game are absolutely its best.
The pacing of those areas is completely different, though. Like the details in City 17 always fall off whenever you're actively being chased by shit. There's a lot less explicit narrative later in the game, but areas like the Ant Lion beechs are still full of that kind of detail and evocation, it's just that you don't have any characters that an look and talk at you to connect with with. All the abandoned houses, the garbage that looks like the remains of little beach-front huts, it remains pretty consistent throughout whenever there's lots of time spent not running from something.
I dunno what your criteria is for "perfect", but I don't think the detail just falls off because they got bored/ran out of time/forgot about it, I think it falls off because the pacing of the game changes.
Really the flak here is that people were building up their expectations for something they weren't doing (Half Life 3) and wanted to be excited for that. This is still pretty cool stuff, and it's a neat way to build up tension for them concerning their future market options.
Lots of us think it is neat, I'd expect. Is it "OHMIGOSHSTANDINLINEFORTWOWEEKSWANTITNOW" exciting? No. I don't think it was meant to be, though.
I knew going into this it wasn't going to be game related. (Me goofing on all the HL3 mania aside).
My issue is they had a 48 hour countdown that revealed the following information
-Valve is working on Hardware (We already knew this)
-The official name (Steam Machines)
-And they're doing a beta test... for 300 people.
That's really not worth a 48 hour countdown; they could have revealed that on Monday and not really been concerned about flooding the webs with too much information. I mean, just off the top of my head..
-Who are they partnering with? They'll tell you later
-What's it look like? They'll show you later
-What are the specs? They'll reveal them at a date that is not today.
It was a vapid announcement of stuff we mostly already knew; they could have just rolled it into the SteamOS announcement, honestly.
+3
EncA Fool with CompassionPronouns: He, Him, HisRegistered Userregular
True, but this way they dominate newsmedia for the entire week. Countdowns are a cheap way to fuel advertising way beyond what they would otherwise have to do as news sites will speculate.
True, but this way they dominate newsmedia for the entire week. Countdowns are a cheap way to fuel advertising way beyond what they would otherwise have to do as news sites will speculate.
also at this point i'm sick of valve's marketing shtick because they're all predicated on the expectation of big things (i.e. videogames they've been implicitly promising people for various absurd amounts of time)
so they play games with their fans' expectations and at this point the whole thing feels horribly cynical and condescending, especially when the "huge reveal" turns out to be yet another form of monetization expansion
They said several times this was Steam related and not game related.
sure of course
and how many times have they played the "oh, it's actually this other thing!" with their mystery-box viral marketing nonsense?
0
EncA Fool with CompassionPronouns: He, Him, HisRegistered Userregular
Strategically, Half Life 3 would be a thing they would be better off not making until such a time as their other projects are not doing well, so that they could re-invest a massive amount of interest in their company and products. It would also be a useful thing to pair with the launch of their new box to help boost sales, but I'd not be surprised if they held any announcement until after they see how much the OS succeeds with their present catalog, and then use an announcement of the game to help spur sales once the initial interest starts to cool.
Gamecube controller is the most comfortable one to hold I've ever used but functionally it was awful
The only thing I kiiind of didn't like about it was that the yellow analog stick didn't have a proper head on it.
Everything else was aces.
I didn't like the non-roundness of the weird c-stick hole thing. I just kept trying to do circles or half-circles or whatever with it but kept getting it stuck in those little corners all the damn time.
The controller was also too small (long live the Duke!)
Well, the C stick needed a proper head so that it could be an actual stick instead of a nub, although most of the games that used it leveraged it in such a way that you weren't touching it very much most of the time.
And like I said, I must be a pretty little princess, because it fit my hands like a glass slipper on the night of the big ball.
Edit: Oh, I see what you're saying... that actually probably would have been less of a problem if it had a nice head on it so your finger would stay put, because I typically like the little corner things. It helps you to know exactly where your are holding the stick without having to look at it. But because it had that stupid little nub head, if you were too quick with it, your finger would fall off.
Oh yeah, I totally agree with you that it needed a proper head on it. I was just listing other reasons as to why the Gamecube controller isn't my favorite. I will say that it has really nice triggers on it (from what I remember, it's been a long time since I used one)
HL2 holds up really well because it's a very very unique shooter
they don't really make immersive shooters anymore
compare to something like Borderlands which spoon feeds you the narrative and all the color commentary
in HL2, everything must be absorbed from the environment by osmosis
it's easy to play HL2 and not understand anything at all about City 17, unless you actually pay attention to what's around you
that's what makes it so cool, IMO
Valve has a pretty good understanding of "the Beautiful Road".
Turns out writing for video games is hard.
This is definitely true, but HL2 isn't perfect in this because the rest of the game after City 17 isn't half so detailed and nuanced. The first 2 or 3 hours of that game are absolutely its best.
The pacing of those areas is completely different, though. Like the details in City 17 always fall off whenever you're actively being chased by shit. There's a lot less explicit narrative later in the game, but areas like the Ant Lion beechs are still full of that kind of detail and evocation, it's just that you don't have any characters that an look and talk at you to connect with with. All the abandoned houses, the garbage that looks like the remains of little beach-front huts, it remains pretty consistent throughout whenever there's lots of time spent not running from something.
I dunno what your criteria is for "perfect", but I don't think the detail just falls off because they got bored/ran out of time/forgot about it, I think it falls off because the pacing of the game changes.
I'm a gigantic Half Life 2 fan, and I especially love how the pacing changes at different parts of the game. Initially you're on the run, then you get to the airboat and you're still on the run, then it's a quieter little story sequence and then you're chased into Ravenholm and it's a slower, scarier pace, and then it's back to the city, etc.
I also liked that during the airboat and buggy sections you could stop and explore little off-shoots of the main path. Especially during the buggy section, getting out and exploring the abandoned houses really made me feel like I was in a desolate world completely annihilated by the Combine. Really the entire game is just an experience that has always stuck with me and I replay it once every two years or so. I have no faith that Episode 3 will ever be released and I've long since stopped thinking any and every announcement by Valve is them announcing Ep. 3 or HL3, but if it ever did happen I would scream and immediately pre-order it and put in a vacation request form for it's release date (and maybe for the following few days as well)
Valve are deliberately making a number of the announcements underwhelming so they can catch you off guard when they open preorders for HL3 (premiering Source 2!!) on Friday with subsequent immediate release on Monday!
Day three of countdowns ends, people start filing out of the room, and right before he walks of stage, Gabe Newell coughs into his microphone and says "Oh, yeah, and Half-Life 3," then scampers off stage giggling furiously while "The Final Countdown" plays over gameplay footage that ends with a fade-to-black and then a release date.
yeah you can burnout goodwill for things like that really quickly
and valve has a lot less goodwill than most in the public eye for every announcement which isn't HL3. and this really isn't anyone's fault but theirs.
Eh, there seems to be a really strong contingent (It might just be a vocal contingent) that doesn't give a shit about HL3; either due to it being before their time, not liking the Half-Life series in the first place, or just no longer caring due to how long it's been.
yeah you can burnout goodwill for things like that really quickly
and valve has a lot less goodwill than most in the public eye for every announcement which isn't HL3. and this really isn't anyone's fault but theirs.
Eh, there seems to be a really strong contingent (It might just be a vocal contingent) that doesn't give a shit about HL3; either due to it being before their time, not liking the Half-Life series in the first place, or just no longer caring due to how long it's been.
sure
for example, i didn't actually expect this to be anything except what it is: a hardware announcement
but valve is clearly aware that a significant portion of their fanbase expects every "big reveal" to be some long-awaited holy grail of videogames (whether it's portal/half-life/team fortress/dota 3 etc.) and are capitalizing on that expectation every time they run one of these sort of marketing schemes
Posts
I could!
I have so many dang games in my backlog that'll have to wait though
I didn't like the non-roundness of the weird c-stick hole thing. I just kept trying to do circles or half-circles or whatever with it but kept getting it stuck in those little corners all the damn time.
The controller was also too small (long live the Duke!)
That is definitely the vibe I am getting.
so they play games with their fans' expectations and at this point the whole thing feels horribly cynical and condescending, especially when the "huge reveal" turns out to be yet another form of monetization expansion
Well, the C stick needed a proper head so that it could be an actual stick instead of a nub, although most of the games that used it leveraged it in such a way that you weren't touching it very much most of the time.
And like I said, I must be a pretty little princess, because it fit my hands like a glass slipper on the night of the big ball.
Edit: Oh, I see what you're saying... that actually probably would have been less of a problem if it had a nice head on it so your finger would stay put, because I typically like the little corner things. It helps you to know exactly where your are holding the stick without having to look at it. But because it had that stupid little nub head, if you were too quick with it, your finger would fall off.
Gate ridin scrub detected
I agree, yeah.
they don't really make immersive shooters anymore
compare to something like Borderlands which spoon feeds you the narrative and all the color commentary
in HL2, everything must be absorbed from the environment by osmosis
it's easy to play HL2 and not understand anything at all about City 17, unless you actually pay attention to what's around you
that's what makes it so cool, IMO
if you throw up a countdown and then spread your reveal out for a week, then you mean for it to be incredibly groundbreaking. or at least give it the auspices as such.
They are still making stuff, neat stuff. The "stop liking things I don't like" argument just seems silly here to me.
They said several times this was Steam related and not game related.
See, this is what I'm saying.
Edit: IE- this is why people are grouchy. Personally I couldn't care less what Valve decides to do, I got other shit going on.
Valve has a pretty good understanding of "the Beautiful Road".
Turns out writing for video games is hard.
This is definitely true, but HL2 isn't perfect in this because the rest of the game after City 17 isn't half so detailed and nuanced. The first 2 or 3 hours of that game are absolutely its best.
The pacing of those areas is completely different, though. Like the details in City 17 always fall off whenever you're actively being chased by shit. There's a lot less explicit narrative later in the game, but areas like the Ant Lion beechs are still full of that kind of detail and evocation, it's just that you don't have any characters that an look and talk at you to connect with with. All the abandoned houses, the garbage that looks like the remains of little beach-front huts, it remains pretty consistent throughout whenever there's lots of time spent not running from something.
I dunno what your criteria is for "perfect", but I don't think the detail just falls off because they got bored/ran out of time/forgot about it, I think it falls off because the pacing of the game changes.
I knew going into this it wasn't going to be game related. (Me goofing on all the HL3 mania aside).
My issue is they had a 48 hour countdown that revealed the following information
-Valve is working on Hardware (We already knew this)
-The official name (Steam Machines)
-And they're doing a beta test... for 300 people.
That's really not worth a 48 hour countdown; they could have revealed that on Monday and not really been concerned about flooding the webs with too much information. I mean, just off the top of my head..
-Who are they partnering with? They'll tell you later
-What's it look like? They'll show you later
-What are the specs? They'll reveal them at a date that is not today.
It was a vapid announcement of stuff we mostly already knew; they could have just rolled it into the SteamOS announcement, honestly.
Seems sensible from their perspective to me.
and
that's dumb.
Gotta be in it to win it!
and valve has a lot less goodwill than most in the public eye for every announcement which isn't HL3. and this really isn't anyone's fault but theirs.
Is that bad? I don't know if this is bad or good.
they just need to god damn address it. do it, don't do it. whatever. just say something.
It's bad.
sure of course
and how many times have they played the "oh, it's actually this other thing!" with their mystery-box viral marketing nonsense?
Oh yeah, I totally agree with you that it needed a proper head on it. I was just listing other reasons as to why the Gamecube controller isn't my favorite. I will say that it has really nice triggers on it (from what I remember, it's been a long time since I used one)
I'm a gigantic Half Life 2 fan, and I especially love how the pacing changes at different parts of the game. Initially you're on the run, then you get to the airboat and you're still on the run, then it's a quieter little story sequence and then you're chased into Ravenholm and it's a slower, scarier pace, and then it's back to the city, etc.
I also liked that during the airboat and buggy sections you could stop and explore little off-shoots of the main path. Especially during the buggy section, getting out and exploring the abandoned houses really made me feel like I was in a desolate world completely annihilated by the Combine. Really the entire game is just an experience that has always stuck with me and I replay it once every two years or so. I have no faith that Episode 3 will ever be released and I've long since stopped thinking any and every announcement by Valve is them announcing Ep. 3 or HL3, but if it ever did happen I would scream and immediately pre-order it and put in a vacation request form for it's release date (and maybe for the following few days as well)
I'm not fucking made of stone over here.
Valve are deliberately making a number of the announcements underwhelming so they can catch you off guard when they open preorders for HL3 (premiering Source 2!!) on Friday with subsequent immediate release on Monday!
Best countdown ever.
Eh, there seems to be a really strong contingent (It might just be a vocal contingent) that doesn't give a shit about HL3; either due to it being before their time, not liking the Half-Life series in the first place, or just no longer caring due to how long it's been.
sure
for example, i didn't actually expect this to be anything except what it is: a hardware announcement
but valve is clearly aware that a significant portion of their fanbase expects every "big reveal" to be some long-awaited holy grail of videogames (whether it's portal/half-life/team fortress/dota 3 etc.) and are capitalizing on that expectation every time they run one of these sort of marketing schemes