Echoes of Episode Two

1up is carrying an interview from the latest CGW, talking with David Speyrer (Half-Life 2: Episode Two Project lead) about what we can expect in the next episodic content release. Typically, Valve is not exactly forthcoming with information on the title, which is expected around Christmas. Just the same, Speyrer has some interesting things to say about Valve's design process. From the article: "It's cool to realize that so many of the elements that we take for granted today, like the gravity gun or our companion A.I., were risky R&D projects during the development of Half-Life 2 or Episode One. Continuing at that rate as we release more episodes is pretty exciting for us as designers, and for our customers. We'll bring many elements from Episode One forward into Episode Two, but we expect to use dynamic scripted sequences extensively. They allow close interaction between NPCs during combat--such as Alyx wrestling with zombies in Episode One--and because they happen spontaneously, every player will see different interactions at different moments in the game."

Re:Walkthroughs.

[cluke]

You obviously don't read much of gamefaqs. Even if there was 1,000 unique possible interactions, some guy would have them all documented in a .txt file and posted within 48 hours of the game's release.

Re:I should really play HL2

[Bedouin X]

Oh you stop running alright. The two "driving" seqences are waaay too long. The novelty has been crushed and run over several times by a dune buggy by the time they finish.

Bundling sucks

[Bobtree]

So you have to buy HL2: Episode 2 to get Portal and Team Fortress 2. Maybe bundling makes sense for retail box copies where it's cheaper than multiple product launches, but why require it for downloads? Couldn't they sell plenty of downloads at $5 or $10 each and let the bundled versions be a discount? You'd think that an alternative distribution channel like Steam would want to provide advantages over retail, rather than stick you with the same thing either way.