Details on Half-Life 2 - Orange and Black Editions

A post at Game|Life lays out details on the upcoming Half-Life 2 releases. Instead of an unwieldy name (Half-Life 2 : Episode Two and a bunch of other stuff) they've given the PC and console releases color-coded names. The PC release, containing Episode Two, Portal, and Team Fortress 2 will be available as Half-Life 2: Orange. Half-Life 2: Black will be the 360/PS3 release, and will contain all of the above plus Episode One and the original campaign. Both boxes are expected in 'late summer' of this year.

Re:shame

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd be surprised if they won't make such a pack as well. They pack everything together in special deals, it's only a few clicks you know, I bet they even wrote an idiot-proof interface for marketing, so they can go all crazy without bothering anyone else.

And by the way, episode one was short, but quite good. Then again, they have no competition to compare them with. All other PC games I've bought recently weren't worth the DVD-case they came in. Valve seem the only one right now that can deliver a game that's somewhat finished, has been play-tested, and isn't designed to only please idiots for a short while.

Re:Games without freedom zero == no sale for me

[spyrochaete]

I didn't trust Steam one iota when HL2 came out, so I enjoyed the pirated version for a few months. A friend ended up giving me his boxed copy of HL2 so, with nothing to lose, I tried Steam. I haven't had a single problem with it yet, and have purchased many great games at low prices (Episode One, $18; Psychonauts, $20; Uplink, $10) since.

Yesterday marked the end of my first customer service issue with Steam. I purchased Outrun 2006 which froze my machine every time I started a race. Because Steam acts merely as the distributor they directed me to Sega for technical support. I emailed a detailed report to Sega but they never got back to me. I explained my situation to Steam support who immediately refunded my money and revoked my rights to access the game from the Steam client. No fuss, no muss, and they're the only software retailer I've ever dealt with who issued a refund for a nonworking game.

And for the record, 3D Realms created a Steam-like distribution system, Triton, with the release of Prey. Before long they decided it wasn't working out so they ditched Prey and untethered the game from Triton (and now it's for sale on Steam). I expect Steam will do the same when their time comes, though Steam's EULA clearly indicates that customers may only access games while they are "subscribers." Still, Valve has proven itself to be a highly reputable company with high standards so I trust them completely with my investment.

Re:Games without freedom zero == no sale for me

[Kelbear]

For all the FUD about advertising and Valve arbitrarily taking my access to games I paid for, and the grandmother rape stuff...

My experience thus far has been nothing but positive. I look at the news window and see a release. I decide I want it, I buy it, and then I play it.

Potential future issues are still there, but irrelevant to me. I'm done with the games. If Valve died somehow so that I couldn't use steam to play my games, it'd be trivial for them to release a tiny patch to allow us to keep playing and burn our own backups. But I wouldn't care, by the time they could die, I'm already done with their games and I don't care anymore.

The bottom line, is that with all the /potential/ for abuse, the actual experience for me has been better than buying the physical media.

Obviously, I can't speak for other people, but I'm just laying out my opinion same as the others who don't like Steam.