edgecrusher said:

In that case, I have completely forgotten.

Foolz said:

It's meant to be one of the most memorable endings in gaming.

Episode 2 ending was =

I so want Half Life 3 or Ep 3, I don't care which.

aspro said:

The final boss then the helicopter. What was great that I am missing?

Helicopter? The final "boss" of episode 2 was the attack of striders at the sawmill. Then the cliffhanger happens right after.

Ahhhh...now i remember.

i still think the end of episode 1 was better.

aspro said:

My question for y'all is this. Are Valve in the Doom situation that id found themselves in (as Foolz talked about in the last podcast)?

Personally, I don't think Valve has room to move with HL. Non-military shooters (as much as I love and prefer them) just don't sell.

And where can they innovate?  I thought that Singularity would have been the perfect starting block for HL3 (manipulating time rather than gravity but not in the hokey, though appreciated, Timesplitters way.

I guess they could steal it, no-one would notice or care.

What could Valve offer to make HL3 worthwhile creatively? (It would sell multi-millions regardless).

No Doom 3 blew chunks, Quake 4 (well aware this is Raven Software, but still) was an insult to Quake 3 Arena, and Rage? Only thing it did well was shooting mechanics, everything else? Gutter trash. Modern Day ID is a joke, a shell of their former glory as all the fucking talent left. Shit it took ex-Starbreeze cats to make a good Wolfenstein game again.

In contrast? Modern day Valve? Are excellent, as far as I'm concerned they have been making far better games than Half Life 2 since 2004. Episode 2 was a better paced and better thought out shooter than half Life 2. Portal is excellent, and Portal 2 while bloated still damn good and an impressive coop game. Left 4 Dead? Some coop crack (shut the fuck up Towers), Dota 2? It's one of the deepest playing games on the market. Counterstrike GO? Okay that's a dumbed down Counterstrike on some level, but its competitive matchmaking is still divine, probably because Counterstrike is still divine. Team Fortress 2, it's no longer the perfect MP game that it was in say 08-09ish if not 10, but even with hats, still pretty much excellent.

Half Life 2, while not my cup of tea, and a game I find overrated as sin, I see only one of us is a true member of #TeamFuckHalfLife2. At least shows Valve isn't a one trick pony territory dev, they have moments of sheer brilliance be it their presentation, be it their pacing, be it their level design, or what have you, Quake? Was all mechanics, the level design in the Quake games was pretty bad. Doom and Doom 2 are great, but you know I always felt Quake was inferior to Unreal. MP included, and Unreal 4 Life.


So I don't think the ID comparison works (Blizzard might be more appropriate), I do think that Half Life 3 would sell buckets. Marketing that game isn't hard, the game has the advantage of coming out so long after the original that they can get away with making a game with basically similar short comings and people will act like they did something special, and Valve has more resources and money to throw at a big project like this, plus they can market. PC cats will pony up for Half Life, and Valve will find some way to make the game draw more money than a traditional SP game could. Their track record for making a shit ton of money speaks for itself.

Why do we assume Valve needs to innovate? If anything, current gaming has shown us they don't need to innovate to draw money, and Valve's most successful games aren't innovative in the gameplay department. Every innovation about Dota 2 is stuff surrounding the gameplay, not the game itself. Portal and Left 4 Dead were the only innovative thing to come out of Valve since OG Half Life, and both were by people who no longer work with or for Valve. The portal gun seems like the obvious thing, but realistically this new tech should allow them to do even more creative things with physics and the gravity gun, and really what Half Life really needs.


A: Gunplay that isn't fucking shit.


B: Better enemy AI and just more enjoyable enemies to fight in general

Bonus points if they can finally tell a story that isn't total wank for the rest of us that didn't want 1984 done douchy, with a female character whose only purpose in the game isn't to be a good character, but jerk the player off (symbolically at least). Maybe make some of the talky parts skippable for those of us that don't want their lame ass story.

If anything the larger worry is if Valve makes Half Life 3 open world.

If it's going to happen though, I think it'll happen with them betting big on VR. Because they make too much money on all this other shit, for a straight up 60 dollar game to be their next big production project.

Left 4 Dead 2 is not mediocre, I'm not disagreeing L4D1 had better maps, it did. But the additions of melee stuff, the added enemy types, and above all else better enhancements to the versus aspect of Left 4 Dead 2, that game is top notch. The versus mode in that game is legit. The other modes were a blast too.

It's larger issue as a coop game is that Killing Floor is better. And it's a fucking horde mode.

Gagan said:

Left 4 Dead 2 is not mediocre, I'm not disagreeing L4D1 had better maps, it did. But the additions of melee stuff, the added enemy types, and above all else better enhancements to the versus aspect of Left 4 Dead 2, that game is top notch. The versus mode in that game is legit. The other modes were a blast too.

It's larger issue as a coop game is that Killing Floor is better. And it's a fucking horde mode.

The co-op is fun because it's co-op, unless it's the maps from 1.

I can totally see versus being brilliant. I haven't played it because the people I were playing with always wanted to do co-op. Are people still playing versus?

Gagan said:

I disagree, the levels aren't as well designed in 2, but that carnival level is still a blast to do with those mechanics, ditto that mall thing where you have to bring fuel to that car at the end.

Shit like the bridge sequence I felt miss the point of what is supposed to work about Left 4 Dead. Either way to duck you slacking on #TeamFuckHalfLife2, just trying to sweep that under the rug Tomas, I see through this.

Bridge sequence was pure comedy when we played it at least due us fucking up so badly lol.

Honestly I actually do like L4D2. But a lot (not all) of the level/map design is the worst kind of over-produced mediocrity so I can't help but bash it.