40°

Half-Life 2 Not Really "Episodic" After All

Valve marketing guy Doug Lombardi says the developer may have chosen the wrong word when it described the follow-ups to Half-Life 2 as "episodes."

Ever get annoyed by the fact that Valve seems to take longer to make an "episode" than most developers take to make an entire game? Lombardi says it's because they're not really episodes at all, they're just shorter games. "The notion of the word 'episode' conjures up this idea of television where you get something new every week," he said in an interview with CVG. "And people say, 'We thought that episodic meant we were going to get something new every six months or every year.'"

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escapistmagazine.com
thor5701d ago

"We thought we could rip off our customers by releasing games based on the the same sh!tty engine (where everything has to be orthogonally aligned), take ages to do so, release a "value box" that includes the games you've already bought, and make our games much shorter and call them "episodes" to appease people. And we were right."

solar5701d ago

nice one troll. how many AAA titles does Valve have again? i lost count. 5? i think.

thor5701d ago

Episodes 1 and 2 were too short. They were also not any improvement over Half-life 2 IMO. They looked and played the same.

I don't know how many people now have 2 copies of Half-life 2 and Episode 1, but I expect it to be a lot. That's something they should never have done.

solar5701d ago

not many console guys took a chance to get HL2 for consoles. yes it was released on Xbox1 but Valve thru it in there to help ppl to understand what Ep.2 was about. you got 5 games for the price of one. not bad imo.

and the Ep.'s were to continue the story. not improve over what HL2 is. Ep.2's release was in TOB. that was its release date. basically if you were to buy TF2, Portal, and Ep.2 at $20 apiece that is the price of the console release of TOB. so you basically got HL2 and Ep.1 for free.

20°

Cyber Manhunt 2: New World Gameplay

Here is a look at the game where you play as an A.I. that must investigate and solve crimes at a corporation.

110°

Microsoft's Absurd Antics Have Me Scared For Dishonored And Arkane Lyon's Future

With Arkane Austin no more and Lyon living for who knows how long, the superb Dishonored is in serious danger; Microsoft cannot be trusted.

Relientk779h ago

I love the Dishonored series so much and really want Dishonored 3. Microsoft better not screw this up.

JEECE6h ago

I mean, I think the fans will probably kill Arkane Lyon by cooking up reasons to hate whatever they do next without playing it. I've never seen a game so artificially disliked as Deathloop.

thesoftware7305h ago

Lol, why don't we just say, we are worried about all studios owned by MS now. They will keep closing studios until they have none left ...🙄

Skuletor3h ago

Just merge them all into a single studio, have it churn out a single Call of Duty every year and call it a day, lol.

Barlos2h ago

Don't be scared, you'll be fine.

Skuletor2h ago

It's exputer, fine is one word I would not associate with them.

Profchaos2h ago

I think it's becoming clear based on matt bootys comments there's no future for any IP that can't sell above 10 million within the launch window. But is also a small game that gives them prestige

/S it's beyond a joke right now

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230°

Rumored PlayStation May 2024 showcase could happen this week per industry insider

A renowned industry insider has suggested the rumored PlayStation May 2024 showcase featuring Silent Hill 2 could happen this week.

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videogamer.com
Petebloodyonion8h ago

Bogus!
Why would Sony do that and how would this benefit them?
1) It would piss off their media partners (IGN, Gamespot, Edge, etc.) since they would have to allocate resources fast to cover the event.
2) Risk of not having great coverage or proper coverage from the various source
3) It could give the impression that they are not confident in their own stuff.
4) They would miss the chance to hype the event losing viewers and losing free marketing time.

Again I'm calling it bogus unless it's a small showcase before the big one or because they want to announce that Hellbalde 2 is also coming on PS5.

SlothLordPootus7h ago

As far as I can remember, they typically give a week heads up for these sorts of things.

Lightning777h ago

I was about to say Sony always gives a week in advance for their show.

VersusDMC6h ago(Edited 6h ago)

Last year it was a weeks notice.

https://blog.playstation.co...

May 17th announcement for may 24th show.

VersusDMC6h ago

Nintendo always tweets that a direct is happening tomorrow but no one cares.

Sony gives a week or days of notice and we get anti sony type fake outrage like this.

But good luck trying trying to get some Sony hate going...

Petebloodyonion6h ago

You just mention it!
Sony gives a week in advance NOT just a couple of days.
So I fail to see what Sony's hate movement I'm trying to start when it's a basic business strategy to not piss off your partners (ask Sega).
And I doubt it's hate to ask how it would benefit Sony in doing so.

thesoftware7305h ago(Edited 5h ago)

@Versus
Huh? What?

Bro you really should relax, if what you read was some kinda negative against Sony.... seriously, is that what you got from the comments?

Bro, he was debunking the rumor, and gave perfectly good reasons why it would be unlikely, and your Nintendo Direct comparison is different, as this is supposed to be a BIG Sony showcase, not a surprise 20 min direct, and Sony 's pattern has been one week.

Slow down warmonger.

VersusDMC5h ago(Edited 5h ago)

@thesoftware730

"1) It would piss off their media partners (IGN, Gamespot, Edge, etc.) since they would have to allocate resources fast to cover the event."

That is implying Sony is preventing them from doing their job properly therefore negatively affecting their business...but i guess that's a reach in your mind?

And it's not like they need that many resources to cover the stream. They just need 3 people to react to the stream live and make some easy articles made up mostly of summaries of Sony provided press releases. They would have enough time to "prepare" if it was announced with one days notice.

Petebloodyonion3h ago

@Versus
" That is implying Sony is preventing them from doing their job properly therefore negatively affecting their business...but i guess that's a reach in your mind"

No, it simply implies that some media all over the world might (keyword MIGHT) not properly cover the event like having proper articles for each game announced, or having a proper preshow. maybe some popular YouTubers won't have time to prepare or simply your local newspaper doing an article on tech and game.

So why would Sony take a chance?
What benefit would that give them?

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 3h ago
Petebloodyonion6h ago

Before I get tons of replies for Sony given a week in advance, my initial comments are related to the notion that the Show could happen this week as the title mentions.
Now to be fair the complete article mentions that Jeff said the Show could happen later in May giving time for Sony to give the normal 7-day notice.

Again not trying to start a negative thing here just thinking that it's bogus that Sony will have a show this week

notachance5h ago

Yeah as much as I’d like to hear what sony’s 1st parties have cooked, it’s not their style to shadow drop a showcase.

Still waiting for ghost of tsushima 2, I’m ready whenever man..

KwietStorm_BLM1h ago

You're assuming media outlets don't know about it.

+ Show (3) more repliesLast reply 1h ago
5h ago
Hofstaderman4h ago

Going in with no expectations but likely will see something that resonates with me.

DeadlyFire11m ago

Nah they will announce it probably, but it won't happen right away soon though yes.