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Games Entertainment

Half-Life 2 Gets Episode 1 65

Posted by Zonk from the has-to-be-better-than-phantom-menace dept.
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.'"
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Half-Life 2 Gets Episode 1 More

Half-Life 2 Gets Episode 1

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  • Half-Life 2 Episode 1 features a new... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 11, 2006 @02:02PM (#14695024)
    ...talkative weapon Jar-Jar the Crowbar. His friendly jabbering promises to make busting up crabheads and boxes more popular then ever.

  • Overpricing Ahead? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by bateleur ( 814657 ) on Saturday February 11, 2006 @02:06PM (#14695039)
    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.
    • We just need to see if those 10 episodes equate to a longer, more detailed game than the full Half-Life 2. I'm in the camp that thinks we'll be getting a better deal buying episode to episode rather than waiting for a compilation album.

      I am optimistic and hope that each episode allows minor innovations that ultimatly result in an evolving sort of engine, bringing ever expanding longevity to the game (as modders revisit the original Half-Life 2 and integrate the new features much like modders such as Black
      • I certainly agree the potential is there.

        I suppose my experiences with episodic novels, films and TV have left me with a surfeit of cynicism!
      • Ever played a game where you feel like you're going through levels just for the hell of padding out a game? Go this way to get an item. Next level. Go that way to find such and such.

        They will be at risk of taking this shortcut to push out episodes and bring in the cash.

        (I never played Half Life, but I am in the middle of playing HL2 on Xbox and quite enjoying it.)
        • I would tend to think the opposite: they've got to make each episode interesting enough by itself to get people to buy it. Since it's going to be shorter and has to be interesting, there's no room for useless padding.

          Unless, of course, each episode is going to be as long as the entirety of Half-Life 2 (which is possible, since it was pretty damn short compared to Half-Life 1)...
    • I would by at local piracy tend in front of my job, for US$ 5, anyway.

  • Too Vague. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Dubpal ( 860472 ) * on Saturday February 11, 2006 @02:07PM (#14695045) Homepage
    While I see the reasoning behind the name change, I'm not sure I like it.

    "Aftermath" was a title that gave direction. It's the story after the events of Half Life 2. For the majority who haven't been following the development of the expansion, and knew nothing of the original title, the new moniker "Episode 1" seems to beg the question "Of what?".

      • Re:Too Vague. (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Haeleth ( 414428 )
        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.

        • First they mangled "toe the line"... Then they mangled "bated breath"... Now they're mangling the meaning of "beg the question". What's next? "Call a spayed a spayed"?
        • He wasn't speaking, he was writing. And there's even a "preview" button. How are people supposed to debate rationally if we cannot have unique terms for meaningful concepts?
        • So, how long are pedants going to persist in this pointless prescriptivism? The language has changed. Deal with it.

          When the language changes to become more ambiguous and less meaningful, those of us with an interest in precise communication can and must complain.

  • Retail (Score:4, Informative)

    by Dr. Eggman ( 932300 ) on Saturday February 11, 2006 @02:10PM (#14695056)
    I would just like to remind people that earlier interviews noted that retail stores would sponser "episode packs," a combination of 3-4 episodes, rather than each individual episode.

    Not that I plan on buying retail, but I thought I'd just throw out that possibility just to freakout the retail buyers.

  • Better choice I think (Score:4, Interesting)

    by wick3t ( 787074 ) on Saturday February 11, 2006 @02:23PM (#14695107)
    First Counterstrike, then Aftermath. I think it's unnecessary for Valve to give their games the same names as Red Alert expansion packs [wikipedia.org].
    • That might make sense if Valve had decided the name of Counter-Strike, but they had nothing to do with it until well after it became popular.

    • Re:Better choice I think (Score:4, Funny)

      by Sigma 7 ( 266129 ) on Saturday February 11, 2006 @02:33PM (#14695147)
      First Counterstrike, then Aftermath. I think it's unnecessary for Valve to give their games the same names as Red Alert expansion packs.


      The RA expansions are basically hard to find anyway, and thus the naming system should be okay. We'll be fine as long as Valve doesn't choose "Yuri's Revenge" as the next title... Which they will on April 1st.
      • Well now that they have realeased C&C the first this month, which basically has all the C&C games, its become very easy to find. I just saw around 6 copies in walmart today.
      • Counterstrike was hard for me to find (ebay). I bought a combo pack with Red Alert & Aftermath, maybe 3 years ago. I think they will do a Tiberian series before yuri.Though Renegade and Covert Operations are more likely.
    • Funny story about that. Way back when, I always used to hear about how good Counterstrike was. Now, I had played the Red Alert games, and thought Counterstrike was great, so I had always agreed with them.

      It wasn't until about 3 years ago did I learn there was a difference.

  • Hey wait a second..... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Premo_Maggot ( 864012 ) <nessnoop@gmail.com> on Saturday February 11, 2006 @03:21PM (#14695390) Homepage
    I thought Half-Life 1 was episode 1??

  • Release date? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by AK__64 ( 740022 )
    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...
  • 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.
    • 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.
      • 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.
    • Valve regularly rebundles their HL games in order to keep the price of the box at 50, HL1 didn't fall much below that before HL2 was released so the bargain bin didn't really start losing now, it always did.

    • Re:One of the real losses is the bargain bin. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by The OPTiCIAN ( 8190 ) on Saturday February 11, 2006 @11:38PM (#14697824)
      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"?
    • The other bit is games tend to be way to short these days.

      There's a demographic split between people who have lots of free time and those that don't. I'm in the former camp, and I always prefer quality over quantity. I would always rather a game felt like it should have gone on longer than the opposite, though I suppose there is some dollar/hour-of-play threshold I wouldn't want to go above, say $5/hr.

      The console game 'unlockables' approach is a pretty good way to cater to both demographics- a player can
    • Blue shift left me feeling robbed. Maybe it's because I got the Platinum Pack in the bargain bin, but Blue Shift was the most fun I had in a Half-Life game. After HL1 and OpFor, where you're running away, using stragaty and weapon selection to outsmart your foes, it was nice to play a game of Half-Life where I could quite easily kill everything with a shotgun. It wouldn't be nearly as fun without both HL and OpFor, but it's great in it's own way. And if you want some more to play, find the single player m
  • Or perhaps even 3 if you count the first game?

  • Excellent. Great idea. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by TechieHermit ( 944255 ) on Saturday February 11, 2006 @05:21PM (#14695943) Journal
    Whenever I've played a truly enjoyable first person shooter, I've always hoped that a sequel would be made. If a great game franchise, like Half Life 2 or SiN, successfully pursues an episodic approach it'll be a great thing for everyone involved.

    * The game company will be sure of an ongoing revenue stream, so they'll continue to support the storyline, and

    * Gamers will be able to continue to enjoy adventures in a world they enjoy. Possibly for YEARS.

    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?

    This is a natural progression. I think it's great. And I hope they include a persistent multiplayer feature, alongside the storyline episodes. THAT would be almost IDEAL.

    • And then when the revenue stream drops slightly, that cliffhanger in the last episode that you were waiting to complete? Forget about it.
    • 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

  • 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.'

    What is he, a vorlon?

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