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

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: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.

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...

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.

[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"?

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: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.