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Valve Talks Half-Life 2 Episodes 2 And 3

Posted by Zonk on from the return-of-the-freeman dept.

With the fall release of Episode 2, Team Fortress 2, and Portal growing ever closer (check out the new trailer), Valve is finally beginning to release some information about what actually happens in Episode 2 and some information about Episode 3's progress. From the Episode 2 preview: "Looking down the mountainside reveals a scene that immediately demonstrates one of the key elements of Episode Two: expansiveness. Far off in the distance is the semi-destroyed Combine headquarters, with mighty plumes of smoke rising into the sky amidst a shattered cityscape. Arcing up towards the sky from the imposing edifice is brilliant white stream of energy, meeting the cloud layer in a turbulent maelstrom--a 'portal storm,' Alyx notes."

6 of 77 comments (clear)

  1. hopefully.. by Archon-X · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ..EP2 will be much better than EP1.

    The coolest thing about HalfLife and HalfLife2 was the freedom that you were given. You'd get dumped in a complex or a lab, and you had to work out what to do, and where to go.

    For me, at least, HL2:EP1 - there were no alternatives. The maps had a very 'closed' feel to them, there was only one way to go, only one way to do things - it felt very, very static.

    Anyone else?

    1. Re:hopefully.. by seaturnip · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Did you play the same HL and HL2 I did? These games were always completely closed and linear. The linear cinematic experience is what those games were all about. This is hardly new to HL2:EP1.

      Actually, this is one reason I'm anticipating Portal more than HL2:Ep2. The lab-rat setting of Portal makes closedness and linearity perfectly natural and unnoticeable.

    2. Re:hopefully.. by Bob-taro · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The coolest thing about HalfLife and HalfLife2 was the freedom that you were given.
      I have not played EP1 (I will as soon as I can afford to replace my broken gaming computer!), but I would say HL2 gave you an amazing illusion of freedom, while still being a pretty linear story. Even within a level, there was pretty much one way of going through the level, and they did a very good job of steering you that way, while leaving you thinking you could have gone anywhere. I admit I haven't played a lot of different games (I've played the heck out of the ones I have, but I don't have very many), so maybe in HL1 and 2 you had a lot of freedom compared to other FPS games, but I think it's more about how well they designed it to feel open-ended. Maybe EP1 just didn't pull this off as well. I mean, even in HL2, was I the only one who wandered around the basement of the citadel for a looong time before realizing I was actually supposed to get caught in that cable-car trap thingy?
      --
      Prov 9:8 Do not rebuke mockers or they will hate you; rebuke the wise and they will love you.
  2. Copy protection? by Dster76 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I recently bought the holiday edition of Half-Life 2, which included the game and episode one

    I was so disgusted by the copy protection techniques (e.g., you must connect to our server before you can play, the software will attempt to connect to our server every subsequent time, you can never resell or return the software once you discover this) that I never played it.

    Did enough people accept all this that it didn't matter for their sales? Does this mean Episode 2 will have all of the above copy protection techniques? Obviously I won't drop any more money on such software.

    1. Re:Copy protection? by JimboFBX · · Score: 3, Insightful

      its called steam. Its a system of copy protection that not only is a convenience and not a problem, but it helps stop hackers too on online multiplayer games by blocking them from all games on their account if they cheat. And "subsequent" does indeed mean that yes, you ARE asserting that you needed a connection every time. Honestly I think your just a big liar though; nobody buys something and complains about connecting to the internet as some issue and thus wastes their money. Nobody is that much of a wheeny.

    2. Re:Copy protection? by Cowclops · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It sickens me to see all the people complaining about steam. "OMG GEORGE ORWELL 1984 BLAH BLAH BLAH THEY IS GONNA SPY ON ME."

      How about people actually TRY it and see that it works excellently. Now instead of a game being tied to the physical media or being tied to a single computer, the game is tied to YOU (your account). You can go to a friends house with the cache on a DVD or just spend the time downloading it and bam now you can play it there too. The only catch is that if you want to play it offline, you have to save your username and password on that computer, thus making sure people don't just install it on like 20 different computers and select "play offline."

      Nothing like going to work and playing TFC on my lunch break with about a 20 minute download beforehand.

      Tying the media to you instead of to a disc that can break means you can play the game on any system anywhere as long as its not playing on more than one system at once. I'd say thats a win-win situation for us and valve.

      I tolerated ignorant complaints about steam before they rolled it out, but now there is really no excuse to complain about a system that works quite well.

      And I'm sure if valve ever went out of business and you wanted to play their games, they'd probably just release one last patch to steam that eliminates the internet check. Not that valve is gonna be disappearing any time soon.