How did Valve get put on its pedastal anyway?

[Ninjaman09]

Originally Posted by saturnotaku

Ain't that the truth. That said, I still have my HL2 Collector's Edition on order, and I'm hoping against hope it comes with HL1: Source.

Heh heh...me too. Despite all I've said, I really want Valve to succeed and pull this game off, because I do think it could be the best FPS we've ever seen. I'm just being careful, is all. Even though I've defended Doom 3 quite a bit, it is certainly not the greatest game I've played this year. Heck, I don't even touch it anymore since I beat it. However, it never disappointed me, and I think that was because I managed to keep away from gushing magazine reviews (*cough* PC Gamer *cough*) and pre-release hype.

Originally Posted by majortom

i just hope that hl2 doesnt suck, like some other game, ahem*unreal2.

This is an awesome example of what I was talking about. Unreal 2's history is, in many ways, very similar to Half-Life 2's. Huge hit game, fairly new developer (well sorta), big anticipated sequel. I still don't know what they were thinking when they made Unreal 2.

[aAv7]

But wasnt unreal 2 developed by someone other than epic? I think that's a big reason for the suckage!?

[Ninjaman09]

Oh yeah, it was. By Legend Entertainment. Whoops. Well anyway, you get my point.

[aAv7]

Yea, I know what ya mean. =) Any game overhyped seems to be a let down...imo doom 3 suffers from the huge hype it had. There comes a point where no game can live up to the amount of attention it gets. Half Life 2 is def. at that point, after the delays (and more delays currently) people are expecting this game to be near perfect. I'm sure we will read plenty of HL2 sux threads come 2006 when it does ship. It's quiet games like farcry that kinda come out of nowhere that are the best kind to play. Your expectations are low...so even if it's mediocre, your still pleased. I will say though, that I'm sure HL2 will be coded much better than Unreal 2 was. That thing chugged on my ti4200 at the time of it's release (when a ti4600 was the best card in town) It even suffered slow downs on my old 9800 pro and 5900nu.....I swear, it was worse than Halo in the coding dept.

[majortom]

the best thing that valve could've done was to have kept their mouths shut until hl2 was gold, or even just beta before releasing a subtle ad, like a pic of a crowbar (like they did in some gaming magazine last year). noone (well, many of us), hoped but didnt truly expect a sequel. and they totally squandered an awesome, AWESOME chance to have a totally cool release. grrrrr!

[Vash]

Originally Posted by saturnotaku

Ain't that the truth. That said, I still have my HL2 Collector's Edition on order, and I'm hoping against hope it comes with HL1: Source.

It's either that or a gold brick. The Collector's edition is $80!!

[Cheimison]

As far as games go, I just ignore the hype. I heard Doom 3 was coming out years ago and I didn't think about it ever again until it hit the shelves. The only reason I'm even pissed about HL is because I was expecting to have at least two games worth my $400 graphics card.

[Drunken_Master]

Originally Posted by Greg

I think...

Valve goes up because:

o Half Life was a good game, so we reckon Half Life 2 will be even better.
o Counter Strike is fun and popular.

Valve goes down because:

o We have waited 5 years for Team Fortress, Half Life 2, better Counter Strike, with some release dates promised or associated hype.
o We realize that beyond Half Life, Valve hasn't made jack.
o Gabe said stuff and made people unhappy.

Valve goes down another notch in my book because they're forcing FX users to use the DX8.1 path in Source:CS. If it's any indication of HL2, I'll be playing the game in DX8.1. They should have left it as a user option... Getting into the VC competitive fray has forced Valve to make questionable decisions that make their customers pay.

[Ages120]

Half-Life was a landmark in fps gaming. A good story, first use of squad ai, interpolated smooth animations, mounted weapons, and an sdk that has spawned some of the most playable games ever made. Theres a lot more that was seen first in Half-life that is common place in games now. Most of it though is when you were done with Half-Life you didn't just stop and leave you kept coming for the multiplayer that was also constantly being updated.

Quake, Doom, and Unreal games just didn't differ enough in design to make milestones. They did however keep engines moving forward in a good direction. Source might be a runaway hit since its giving a good sdk that not many other games beside quake3 and half life have given to the community. Also Steam makes it easier to let go of the sdk since it is always giving hackers new challenges.

[Leech]

I'm going to have to pipe in here.. A comparison between Epic, iD and Valve doesn't quite work well, after all, at least iD and Epic have ported their games over to linux! For years linux users have tried to get half-life ported, and hoped that maybe half-life 2 would be ported, but that doesn't look like it's going to happen.

You want a good story, play Deus Ex. Rather an original story. Too bad the cyberpunk genre is so lacking in video games. You'd think it'd be a lot more popular.

Doom 3 (in my opinion of course) is really only good for it's engine. The single-player game is ok, but the engine's capabilities (at least what little it shows in the game, with all the darkness) are simply amazing! Much like with Quake 3 (which I didn't play at all, because I don't really care too much for the MP games, except for CTF, which is always pretty fun) I'm just waiting for the games that use the Doom 3 engine.

By the way, Legend Entertainment, who created Unreal 2, also used the Unreal engine to make that Wheel of Time game, was that crappy too? Never played it..

(Off Topic, had to reply to that FF crap and agree with Arioch) The Ultima games were the best. I still occasionally pic up Ultima 4 today and play that. I don't really see any of the old Final Fantasy games being remade. I lost count at how many different projects are out there to recreate the Ultima games.

Leech

[|JuiceZ|]

Originally Posted by ultimate17

But wasnt unreal 2 developed by someone other than epic? I think that's a big reason for the suckage!?

exactly. U2XMP is sweet though & the graphics are still gorgeous.

[Ninjaman09]

Originally Posted by Leech

(Off Topic, had to reply to that FF crap and agree with Arioch) The Ultima games were the best. I still occasionally pic up Ultima 4 today and play that. I don't really see any of the old Final Fantasy games being remade. I lost count at how many different projects are out there to recreate the Ultima games.

Really...? That's funny, I could have swore 1-3 were all remade, since I have them. Besides, most people agree - no need to mess with perfection!

Anyway, that's an unfair comparison. Japanese-style console RPGs and American-style computer RPGs are completely different genres. And the Baldur's Gate series rocks Ultima's ass any day of the week.