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Half-Life Episode 1 Gold, Details on 2 and 3
Gamespot has the word that the first of the Half-Life 2 episodes has gone gold. They also have details on the upcoming Episodes 2 and 3. Episode 1 is to be released on the 1st of June. From the article: "In addition to two new multiplayer modes and the Lost Coast tech demo, Episode One will sport a preview of its sequel, Half-Life 2: Episode Two. The expansion, the existence of which was revealed in February, will add another four- to six-hour mini-campaign to the Half-Life 2 saga when it is released later this year. Previously, the game had no official release window or date. Today's gold announcement also was the first official confirmation that a third Half-Life 2 episodic update is in development. Like Episode Two, Valve divulged little in the way of information about Episode Three, saying only that it was the last 'in a trilogy ... that will conclude by Christmas of 2007.'"
No, I haven't. It didn't even occur to me as something that would be a likely solution.... what would Valve do, give me a *special* patch for special customers? If I had called at all, it would have been to demand my money back... but since this happened quite some time after purchase I didn't think it was particularly worth it.
Customer support always assumes that the customer doesn't know what you're doing. I'd rather not spend an hour or more having somebody walk me through a re-install just to see the problem recur. (I had already done this). Further, I had already verified that it was a HL2 update issue (rather than a change of a machine) because it literally changed from working -> broken within a single Steam update. I had played some time before, shut it off, turned it back on, watched Steam update itself, then watched it not work anymore. All my other intensive games, (Doom3, FarCry)... working perfectly.
The game was simply fucked, which turned me off as a customer permanently. I'm sure you guys offer great customer service or whatever, but I'm one of those people that doesn't want to waste hours of my life talking to you over a problem that *may* or may not be resolved to retain me as a customer for a delivery system that I have grown to absolutely despise.
I'm not trying to sound like a crank or a zealot here: I just feel strongly that customer service, regardless of its quality, does *not* make up for a shitty situation. Prevention vs Cure, etc.
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On a related note, I've just given up on purchasing computer games at all. Even without steam, return of 'bad games' is just aboute completely impossible. No store will accept returns for any reason anymore out of fear of piracy. This includes situations where the game simply sucks. Steam is worse, because you can't even dump off your mistaken purchase on the used game stores and get *something* back.
I'm not sold on digital delivery at all. As much as I hate the way the publishers do business, at least I have something to show for my money that they can't take away.
6 hours?? That's it? Wow, almost every expansion pack released beats that then.
Not sure what your definition of "recent" is (nor should time really matter), but here's a few from the past few years:
Gothic 2: Night of the Raven (30+ hours!)
Every NeverWinter Nights expansion (that's at least 5 right there)
Swat 4: Stetchkov Syndicate
TrackMania Sunrise Extreme (that's a FREE expansion)
Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil (better than the original Doom 3)
Morrowind: Tribunal and Bloodmoon
Call of Duty: United Offensive
Painkiller: Battle out of Hell
Rise of Nations: Thrones & Patriots
Hearts of Iron 2: Doomsday
There's a lot of GOOD expansion packs out there. There's no reason to settle for half-assed, over-priced, raw meat like this "Episode" release.