Half-Life 2 Gets Episode 1

Valve has announced that, instead of entitling their first downloadable mini-expansion to Half-Life 2 'Aftermath', the pack is now simply Episode 1. From the Gamespot article: "When asked whether the name change is indicative of a change in direction for the Half-Life 2 franchise, Valve marketing director Doug Lombardi replied, 'episodic.' When asked the follow-up question of whether the new name meant that beginning of a regular flow of content, Lombardi replied, 'yes.'"

Comments

It wasn't that good of a movie

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't see why Star Wars has to cross-over into Half Life 2 like this.

Re:It wasn't that good of a movie

[Anonymous Coward]

Even worse, I hope they don't charge more than 20.00 bucks for this if its going to be one of many. EA is bad enough adding a few models to their games and charging 39.99 for the priveledge.

Half-Life 2 Episode 1 features a new...

[Anonymous Coward]

...talkative weapon Jar-Jar the Crowbar. His friendly jabbering promises to make busting up crabheads and boxes more popular then ever.

Re:Half-Life 2 Episode 1 features a new...

[Dr. Eggman]

Alt-Fire allows you to hurl him forward, embedding him in the head of enemies. You can walk up to the enemy to pick it back up. 99% of the population bury it in the head of the first combine they see and never pick it up again. The other 1% hold on to it until episode 10 where they can bury it in Dr. Breen's head.

Re:Half-Life 2 Episode 1 features a new...

[Midnight Thunder]

...talkative weapon Jar-Jar the Crowbar. His friendly jabbering promises to make busting up crabheads and boxes more popular then ever.

On the condition the wielder hasn't had a mental break-down first.

Re:Half-Life 2 Episode 1 features a new...

[Ninjy]

I'm having flashbacks of Enserric from NWN HotU.

Re:Half-Life 2 Episode 1 features a new...

[tigersha]

Actgually Alt fire makes him increase his jabbering 500%, thereby making your enemies flee in horror and the heads of those that are close simply explode. owever, if you use this fearsome weaponn without the earmuff powerup YOUR head explodes.

Overpricing Ahead?

[bateleur]

So evidently they reckon SiN Episodes is going to be making big money.

They're probably right too. It's much easier to sell a game for $100 if you split it up into ten $10 "episodes". Combine this with the advantages of sidestepping traditional retail and I can definitely see the appeal.

Re:Overpricing Ahead?

[Dr. Eggman]

We just need to see if those 10 episodes equate to a longer, more detailed game than the full Half-Life 2. I'm in the camp that thinks we'll be getting a better deal buying episode to episode rather than waiting for a compilation album.

I am optimistic and hope that each episode allows minor innovations that ultimatly result in an evolving sort of engine, bringing ever expanding longevity to the game (as modders revisit the original Half-Life 2 and integrate the new features much like modders such as Black Mesa:Source are doing to the original Half-Life.)

I enjoy storylines in games and believe that episode content will be one of the best things to advance their prominence since the original Half-Life.

Re:Overpricing Ahead?

[bateleur]

I certainly agree the potential is there.

I suppose my experiences with episodic novels, films and TV have left me with a surfeit of cynicism!

Re:Overpricing Ahead?

[antic]

Ever played a game where you feel like you're going through levels just for the hell of padding out a game? Go this way to get an item. Next level. Go that way to find such and such.

They will be at risk of taking this shortcut to push out episodes and bring in the cash.

(I never played Half Life, but I am in the middle of playing HL2 on Xbox and quite enjoying it.)

Re:Overpricing Ahead?

[mrchaotica]

I would tend to think the opposite: they've got to make each episode interesting enough by itself to get people to buy it. Since it's going to be shorter and has to be interesting, there's no room for useless padding.

Unless, of course, each episode is going to be as long as the entirety of Half-Life 2 (which is possible, since it was pretty damn short compared to Half-Life 1)...

Too Vague.

[Dubpal]

While I see the reasoning behind the name change, I'm not sure I like it.

"Aftermath" was a title that gave direction. It's the story after the events of Half Life 2. For the majority who haven't been following the development of the expansion, and knew nothing of the original title, the new moniker "Episode 1" seems to beg the question "Of what?".

Re:Too Vague.

[ShinGouki]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beg_the_question

Re:Too Vague.

[Haeleth]

Quoting from the article you linked:

More recently, to beg the question has been used as a synonym for "to raise the question", or to indicate that "the question really ought to be addressed". For example, "This year's budget deficit is half a trillion dollars. This begs the question: how are we ever going to balance the budget?" This . . . is now the most common use of the term.

So, how long are pedants going to persist in this pointless prescriptivism? The language has changed. Deal with it.

Re:Too Vague.

[DeafByBeheading]

First they mangled "toe the line"... Then they mangled "bated breath"... Now they're mangling the meaning of "beg the question". What's next? "Call a spayed a spayed"?

Re:Too Vague.

[n54]

Uh... what else would you call a spayed? :)

Re:Too Vague.

[hunterx11]

He wasn't speaking, he was writing. And there's even a "preview" button. How are people supposed to debate rationally if we cannot have unique terms for meaningful concepts?

Re:Too Vague.

[Anonymous Coward]

debate rationally You must be new here.

Re:Too Vague.

[The One and Only]

So, how long are pedants going to persist in this pointless prescriptivism? The language has changed. Deal with it.

When the language changes to become more ambiguous and less meaningful, those of us with an interest in precise communication can and must complain.

Retail

[Dr. Eggman]

I would just like to remind people that earlier interviews noted that retail stores would sponser "episode packs," a combination of 3-4 episodes, rather than each individual episode.

Not that I plan on buying retail, but I thought I'd just throw out that possibility just to freakout the retail buyers.

Better choice I think

[wick3t]

First Counterstrike, then Aftermath. I think it's unnecessary for Valve to give their games the same names as Red Alert expansion packs.

Re:Better choice I think

[wolrahnaes]

That might make sense if Valve had decided the name of Counter-Strike, but they had nothing to do with it until well after it became popular.

Re:Better choice I think

[Sigma 7]

First Counterstrike, then Aftermath. I think it's unnecessary for Valve to give their games the same names as Red Alert expansion packs.

The RA expansions are basically hard to find anyway, and thus the naming system should be okay. We'll be fine as long as Valve doesn't choose "Yuri's Revenge" as the next title... Which they will on April 1st.

Re:Better choice I think

[Anonymous Coward]

Someone may care but seeings as where C&C completely SUCKS compared to anything that even remotely deals with HalfLife...

Re:Better choice I think

[Hard_Rock_2]

Well now that they have realeased C&C the first this month, which basically has all the C&C games, its become very easy to find. I just saw around 6 copies in walmart today.

Re:Better choice I think

[Cheapy]

Funny story about that. Way back when, I always used to hear about how good Counterstrike was. Now, I had played the Red Alert games, and thought Counterstrike was great, so I had always agreed with them.

It wasn't until about 3 years ago did I learn there was a difference.

Re:Better choice I think

[xenoterracide]

Counterstrike was hard for me to find (ebay). I bought a combo pack with Red Alert & Aftermath, maybe 3 years ago. I think they will do a Tiberian series before yuri.Though Renegade and Covert Operations are more likely.

Episode 1: The Alien Menace

[gsonic]

G-man: Freeman, I am your father!

Re:Episode 1: The Alien Menace

[the-amazing-blob]

Hey! That's not supposed to happen until episode 5!

I'll Pass

[Anonymous Coward]

Valve is becoming more and more like Id - a hasbeen still running on past reputation.

I'll pass on this roundabout attempt to raise prices for Valve's games. And with how boring HL2 was I will probably pass on Valve's games at any price from now on. Slapping a physics package onto an aging DirectX engine isn't going to cut it with so many new and formidable contenders in the pc fps market.

Hey wait a second.....

[Premo_Maggot]

I thought Half-Life 1 was episode 1??

Release date?

[AK__64]

And don't give me any more of this "when it's done" crap. They have to have an internal release target, otherwise Valve will never finish it. Why can't they go public with the target and, if they hit a snag, just push it back a bit? I think Newell is a genius and loved HL2 but his policy of not announcing release dates is a bit annoying.
Also, in a episodic distribution system, I think a pre-announced release date is even more important, so I don't miss anything. Just my pair of pennies...

Re:Release date?

[JimmehAH]

April 24th
Confirmed with Doug Lombardi by halflife2.net I seem to remember.

Re:Release date?

[AK__64]

Saweeet! tyvm

Re:Release date?

[heartless_]

Blizzard who is arguably the top game developer doesn't set internal release dates. They have the "when its ready" schedule and they are banking on it. It works and it produces some of the best selling and IMHO funnest to play games ever.

One of the real losses is the bargain bin.

[(H)elix1]

If they ship this only via steam, there will be no bargain bin like you see in the retail channels. I've been burned a few too many times when they charge an extra $30 for five to seven missions as an add on - at this point, I just wait for the add on to hit the cheap deals. Poke around on Steam's web site. You would be silly to buy the backlog of the titles, plus HL2, for $80 when you can pick up the entire anthology for $20 or less, plus whatever price you can get the full cut of HL2 for $20-30 at the store. If they go download only, there is very little chance they will hit that level.

The other bit is games tend to be way to short these days. C&C: Generals really needed the add-on pack, as did Warcraft 3, as did many others to feel like a 'real' top tier game. You get what, 7 missions per nation/race/etc, with the several being unit trainers? HL was worth every penny. Opposing Forces was ok and added a lot of fun to multiplayer. Blue shift left me feeling robbed. I waited on HL2 until it hit the bargain bin, and if not for Counter Strike, would have felt shorted had I paid full retail. (lord knows I'm still bitter about Doom3) The point being, while they may be honest - this bit is a mere chapter or so in a longer story - I really resent the current trend to shorten games to generate a better revenue flow and try to price it for optimum wallet extraction. Maybe it works... Won't with me. I won't give them $10 for each three hours of game play.

Re:One of the real losses is the bargain bin.

[djroute66]

Who says there isn't bargain bins in the digitally delivered world? Digitally delivered products will drop in price if no one buys them, just like actual media from a brick-and-mortar store.

Re:One of the real losses is the bargain bin.

[KDR_11k]

Valve regularly rebundles their HL games in order to keep the price of the box at 50, HL1 didn't fall much below that before HL2 was released so the bargain bin didn't really start losing now, it always did.

Re:One of the real losses is the bargain bin.

[Pulse_Instance]

With the very low cost to store a copy of a game on a hard drive, have a backup and even if you wanted have a backup of the backup. This is going to cost you very little money to store. However, take a look at brick-and-mortar stores where the boxes for the game actually does contain space and you actually have either sell it or get rid of it to make way for new games. The cheapest option for the brick-and-mortar is mostly likely to move the game to the bargain bin and hope it sells.

Re:One of the real losses is the bargain bin.

[The OPTiCIAN]

This started as a reply but gets ranty.

> I really resent the current trend to shorten games

Wow - I feel the opposite. I have memories of wading through level after level of old games and just wishing it would end. There was a Final Fantasty game for the gameboy that was bad, and Crusader: No Regret was enormous. I spent an age playing No Regret and gave up on it eventually (I think I had a hdd crash that killed my save files or something). Later I learned I was probably far less than half way through the game at that point (part of this would be that I insisted on playing on the insane difficulty level but it was stil just huge). I think games are moving towards a model where they have a tighter plot and less mindless filler, and that's a good thing. Consider some of the old 8 bit games as well - you didn't have a hope in hell of finishing a game like Jet Set Willy.

I agree with you that Half Life 2 was just too short. An aspect of this might have been the poor quality of the plot wrapup and closing levels. Some early bits were excellent - the priest in the zombie village; the coastal outpost where you get the buggy; the bug section. But everything after the moment the player has killed the bug in the gym feels like an afterthought. There was a similar feel about the Xen section of the original.They're getting there but there's lots of room to improve.

It's hard to finish a game well though. The original No One Lives Forever was fantastic from start to end, but apart from that, I can't think of many endings that have impressed me. The Interactive Fiction _Spider and Web_ was pretty cool. I imagine the ending of nethack would have to be cool through sheer satisfaction. I think a lot of the problem with endings is they just realise the aims of the game without making a point. That's fine for mario games. But where's the conclusion about the nature of the human spirit at the end of the half life games, or the fact that even if the combine were evil "at least they made the trains run on time"?

Re:One of the real losses is the bargain bin.

[patternjuggler]

The other bit is games tend to be way to short these days.

There's a demographic split between people who have lots of free time and those that don't. I'm in the former camp, and I always prefer quality over quantity. I would always rather a game felt like it should have gone on longer than the opposite, though I suppose there is some dollar/hour-of-play threshold I wouldn't want to go above, say $5/hr.

The console game 'unlockables' approach is a pretty good way to cater to both demographics- a player can play straight through the game in say 10-20 hours and feel like they've experienced most of what they paid for, but if they really liked it or just have a lot of free time they can play through as different characters with different abilities and get different outfits and get high scores or get to secret locations or whatever.

I think the right approach for developers is to spend their effort on content that the majority of players will experience- if 90% of the players will only play the game without finding secret areas or something, spend 90% of the art budget and level developing time on the parts of the game most people will see (unfortunately for games with one or more shelf-level-events, that also means spending more time on the earlier levels than the later ones...).

I really resent the current trend to shorten games to generate a better revenue flow and try to price it for optimum wallet extraction.

Games are going up orders of magnitude in complexity on multiple fronts but budgets aren't going up nearly as fast. I think it's the right thing to do to make the games shorter. Think of it in a competitive sense too- if you have half the budget of the game you are trying to compete with, why not make your game half as big so at least you have chance of attracting the players who got used to a certain density of content and level quality and so on- if you do it well you'll have more money for the sequel or add-on pack and can then compete on playing time also.

Games that are long but reuse a lot of textures and character models and other content and seem as if very little thought has gone into making the levels interesting to play and don't give the player much to do as they move from point to point are usually the grade-B or C games.

Re:One of the real losses is the bargain bin.

[Anonymous Coward]

Blue Shift was designed as a Dreamcast-exclusive extra. They KNEW it was too short to be worth paying for, but when HL Dreamcast was canceled, the HL fans DEMANDED access to Blue Shift, so Valve/Sierra/Whomever complied. They even had SEVERAL package deals, such as if you had bought Opposing Forces you could get $15 or $20 off the already very cheap Blue Shift, and some other deals, plus now they've given it away for free to Steam members who already had HL before Steam was released with a WON CD key (on top of OpFor).

If you feel cheated by Blue Shift, you should have read the reviews from magazines, websites, and players about it before it was released. ALL of them would have informed you it was extremely short. There's a certain minimum price point a game has to be at to be on the shelf and taken seriously by customers. If you see a brand new game on the shelf for $10-$20, what is your honest reaction? "It must be crap not worth playing." Not to mention whatever margins there are for shelf space vs. revenue, shipping, packaging, promotion, etc.

My point is that there was ample information available at the time as to what Blue Shift was and why the gameplay hour per cost ratio would be awful by anyone's standards. If you were too lazy to find this information on your own, or just felt the need to buy anything with the "Half-Life" label on the box, it's your own damn fault.

Re:One of the real losses is the bargain bin.

[Anonymous Coward]

Just look at the dollar per hour for going to the movies, or doing that cheesy pottery thing at the strip mall... renting a video, going out to eat...

It really puts the cost of gaming into perspective. $10 for 3 hours is actually pretty good.

Re:One of the real losses is the bargain bin.

[bbcisdabomb]

Blue shift left me feeling robbed. Maybe it's because I got the Platinum Pack in the bargain bin, but Blue Shift was the most fun I had in a Half-Life game. After HL1 and OpFor, where you're running away, using stragaty and weapon selection to outsmart your foes, it was nice to play a game of Half-Life where I could quite easily kill everything with a shotgun. It wouldn't be nearly as fun without both HL and OpFor, but it's great in it's own way. And if you want some more to play, find the single player mods. Poke 646 kept me for about 10 hours, and it was free.

Ha ha ha ha ha

[sunbeam60]

That was a funny joke.

Half Life 2 was incredibly well received, both in terms of reviews (metacritic, rottentomatoes and sales numbers.

It sold massively, created a new method of distribution, which other vendors have embraced and cuts out the middle men so hated on Slashdot.

It was first to feature real-time radiosity lighting, scaled from DirectX 6 to 9 and pushed the character animation and expression envelope considerably.

Do you ever look in the mirror and ask: "Maybe I am wrong this time?"

Re:Ha ha ha ha ha

[GeekyMike]

You aren't a fanboy if you are right. The Half-Life series is an excellent product for any fan of FPS games. The story is very immersive and the visual effects are beautiful. The game won over 30 game of the year awards and earned it.

Combine the quality of the game with Valve's support of third party developers (the mod community) and the Steam delivery method and you have a game that is worth every penny you pay for it. I think I these episodes will definately end up on my steam account.

Re:Ha ha ha ha ha

[cecom]

Yeah, yeah, if only Half Life 2 didn't require an Internet connection to play a single-player game . Most people who buy it probably don't even realize it, except the hundreds of unlucky souls who bought it the first day and went home only to find out that the activation servers were overloaded.

To clarify, apparently Half Life 2 requires Internet connection even after it has been activated. It needs to talk to its servers at least once every couple of weeks, or ir refuses to start.

I remember reading a complaint from soldiers on a military ship - they didn't have an Internet connection while at sea, so they couldn't play the game. Too bad for them :-)

IIRC, Half Life 2 also requires opening a tunnel through the firewall. Again, this also applies to the single-player version.

This is totally unacceptable and it is really sad that the consumers and game reviewers at large have completely ignored this problem. I am looking forward to the day when the tiered Internet will require people to pay for the single-player game that they bought one year ago...

Re:Ha ha ha ha ha

[Kelbear]

When my internet connection is dead for so long that it can't talk to its servres at least once every couple of weeks, I'm probably admist a major internet blackout in my area, due to a freak accident, major disaster, or foreign military occupation.

I'd probably be more freaked out that my internet is gone and not coming back than my inability to play my old games in singleplayer.

Still, no question that it's a bummer to not be able to play the games of the past. But I suppose I'll just have to console myself with the games of the present and keep the classics in my memories when that day comes. I'll be bummed for a bit, but I'm sure I'll just move on and forget about it.

Re:Ha ha ha ha ha

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, but I still haven't bought it, though my hardware would handle it, because:

A) I don't want on-line registration/verification in order to play a game

B) my network connection is slow.

If they ever package it as a no-net version, I'll consider it.

Re:Ha ha ha ha ha

[Masami Eiri]

When will you people realize this isn't the case? Yeah, you need it the first time you install, but after that, you can play with Steam in offline mode. Its not that hard.

Re:Ha ha ha ha ha

[Anonymous Coward]

That is certainly not the impression one gets after reading dozens of complaints on steampowered's forums. Nor, even it it were true, does it solve the problem of initial activation. At least Windows XP allows activation by phone.

Canonical Order Clarification

[DanTheLewis]

Half-Life is Episode IV: A New Gordon.

Half-Life 2 is Episode V: The G-Man Strikes Back.

Half-Life 3 is Episode VI: The Return of the Headcrab.

Aftermath is Episode I. Counterstrike is off canon. Day of Defeat is like those Clone Wars cartoons.

Don't blame me. Valve decided to do it out of order.

Re:Canonical Order Clarification

[LittleBigLui]

Barney shot first!

Shouldn't it be episode two?

[Snaller]

Or perhaps even 3 if you count the first game?

Excellent. Great idea.

[TechieHermit]

Whenever I've played a truly enjoyable first person shooter, I've always hoped that a sequel would be made. If a great game franchise, like Half Life 2 or SiN, successfully pursues an episodic approach it'll be a great thing for everyone involved.

* The game company will be sure of an ongoing revenue stream, so they'll continue to support the storyline, and

* Gamers will be able to continue to enjoy adventures in a world they enjoy. Possibly for YEARS.

I consider this a relationship model, as opposed to current games' "one night stand" model. If you like something, why WOULDN'T you want it to go on for years? Why WOULDN'T you get a subscription to it and keep enjoying it for as long as possible?

This is a natural progression. I think it's great. And I hope they include a persistent multiplayer feature, alongside the storyline episodes. THAT would be almost IDEAL.

Re:Excellent. Great idea.

[strider44]

And then when the revenue stream drops slightly, that cliffhanger in the last episode that you were waiting to complete? Forget about it.

Re:Excellent. Great idea.

[patternjuggler]

I consider this a relationship model, as opposed to current games' "one night stand" model. If you like something, why WOULDN'T you want it to go on for years? Why WOULDN'T you get a subscription to it and keep enjoying it for as long as possible?

Because it might be taking your time and money away from something fresh and different being made by a different company? Because eventually the people who worked on it from the start and made it good are going to get tired and move on, but the less creative ones will stay and run the whole thing into the ground by trying to make it their meal ticket for all time?

It's nice to sit down to play a game and know that you have some hours in of unexplored territory right in front of you- and there's a definite stopping point at the end of that. Just like it's nice to sit down and watch a two hour movie that draws you into a world and then ends decisively.

If you knew it was only going to be only a handful of hours and not really bring any closure, and then you have to wait for a month, that's going to make you approach the game differently. Starting to play HL2 for the first time you feel like you have something weighy in your hands: a game years in the making, this slow reveal as you glimpse the occupied Earth of the future and have to play for some time before the action starts, incredible graphics and physics and attention to detail like you've never seen before. Waiting a few months for a few new levels on a well established game engine is not going to feel terribly important, it's going to feel more cheap and disposable.

I don't deny that episodic content may become a source of revenue for some more types of games eventually than MMORPGs and the sports and racing games that release 'episodes' on a yearly basis, but for plot-based FPS type games they will have to find the right price and playing time per episode and time between releases to satisfy the consumer.

Re:Excellent. Great idea.

[Anonymous Coward]

If you knew it was only going to be only a handful of hours and not really bring any closure, and then you have to wait for a month, that's going to make you approach the game differently

Sounds just like the television show "Lost".

==We missed our release target.

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm sorry, but it seems to me that they probably are too far behind and thus are breaking it up into 'episodes.' If there are now three episode making up the story arc of aftermath, this means three times the bugs, less cohesion (you haven't finished the product when you release the first part), and far lower quality in the initial releases. Remember the DOD:source release? 4 maps, players STUCK together (2 months+ to fix), massive lag due to poor code, and poor performance on systems that ran hl2 and hl2mp fine -- even with the new lighting disabled.

No thanks Valve, I'm not buying a crappy steam product until you improve your track record. Or actually release a good third part game on steam...not ragdoll kung fu, beta mods, or 2 year old games that never made it to the usa.

Man of few words...

[LordNightwalker]

When asked whether the name change is indicative of a change in direction for the Half-Life 2 franchise, Valve marketing director Doug Lombardi replied, 'episodic.' When asked the follow-up question of whether the new name meant that beginning of a regular flow of content, Lombardi replied, 'yes.'

What is he, a vorlon?

Re:Man of few words...

[moonbender]

No.

Who Cares?

[famazza]

I would by at local piracy tend in front of my job, for US$ 5, anyway.