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Games Entertainment

Half Life 2 Episode 2 Due Out October 9th 83

Posted by Zonk from the hail-to-the-freeman dept.
Shacknews reports that Half-Life 2 Episode 2 is finally, finally, due out on the 9th of October. The game will release for the PC, 360, and PS3, and will be joined by Team Fortress 2 and the FPS/Puzzler Portal. "Today's news follows rumors originating last month that the PlayStation 3 versions of the games would be delayed into 2008. Valve's Doug Lombardi noted to Shacknews that development has been progressing well on all three platforms. Electronic Arts is distributing the games at retail as a package entitled Half-Life 2: The Orange Box, which also includes the original Half-Life 2 and last year's Half-Life 2: Episode One. It will sell for $49.99 on PC and $59.99 on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Previously, the company intended to sell a slimmer package, The Black Box, which would not include Half-Life 2 or Half-Life 2: Episode One, but those plans were cancelled last month. It is expected that Steam customers will retain the option to purchase only the newly-released games."
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Half Life 2 Episode 2 Due Out October 9th More

Half Life 2 Episode 2 Due Out October 9th

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  • Now I just have to beat episode 1

  • Yes, yes, more sequels, yes! (Score:4, Funny)

    by xxxJonBoyxxx ( 565205 ) on Friday June 15, 2007 @11:30AM (#19520589)

    Half Life 2 Episode 2
    Yes, yes, more sequels, yes! BTW, is the overall value of this title, er, .5 x 2 x 2 x Life x Episode = 2 Life Episodes?

  • Team Fortress 2 (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Cowclops ( 630818 ) on Friday June 15, 2007 @11:36AM (#19520695)
    I'm psyched about Team Fortress 2. All the exploiting retards (yes, bunnyhopping is an exploit, you CAN'T tell me an absurd speed acceleration "trick" that requires you to jump around like an idiot was intentionally designed into the game) will continue to exploit in their ancient version of TFC, while I can play a non-exploiting round of TF in TF2. If you want to be good at an FPS, be good by aiming more accurately and having quicker reflexes than your enemies, and in TF's case, mastering each class. Don't beat up on everybody by practicing an ancient (it dates back to quake 1) physics bug that pretty much can't be fixed without breaking the game or coming up with a new game engine.

    After all, just because it makes the game more fun for you doesn't mean it makes it more fun for everyone else who is playing. And just because it takes practice to exploit doesn't mean its still the "proper" way of playing the game. Sure, athletes that take steroids still have to work on their strength and skills... but its still not fair to the people who understand that steroids/exploiting makes the game into an unfun excercise.
    • Actually, it's trivially easy to stop bunny hopping.

      QuakeC code:
      local float speed;
      speed = vlen(self.velocity);
      if (speed > maxspeed) self.velocity = self.velocity * (maxspeed / speed);

      Put that into playerprethink() in CLIENT.QC or any of the other functions which get called every frame, and a person will never be able to travel faster than their maximum speed. Add a if (self.flags & #FL_ONGROUND) around it if you want them to be able to fly through the air faster than their maxspeed.

      No, Bunnyhopping

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Chabo ( 880571 )
      Bunny-hopping doesn't give you extra speed in TFC, it just makes you harder to hit. In HL2, it DOES make you go faster, but you have to time it just right (I was on the team for Half-life 2 Done Quick [invisionfree.com]).

      However, in CS, they purposely made it so that jumping slows you down, to make it so that bunny-hopping no longer was effective at keeping your speed up.
  • Excellent. This means that factoring in the usual "Valve can't make release dates" fudge factor, it should be out sometime in December, just in time for playing over the Christmas break!
    • Since you are factoring in the Valve Fudge Factor (VFF) means you must be talking about December 2009 right???
  • I absolutely LOVED Half-Life 2, it ranks up there in my top 10 favourite games of all time...never got around to playing Episode 1.

    Anyone care to share a first-hand opinion? Yes, I know it's (apparently) short, so other than that anyone have any comments about it?
    • I found the shortness detracted from the fun as it was just over way too soon and suddenly, but it's still a pretty good value for what you pay. The game isn't as tight as the base Half-Life 2 (there's a bit too much lead alex around with the flashlight and let her do the work). The gameplay is still very solid, and I didn't find any major problems with anything. In all, I liked it, but it wasn't as good or satisfying as Half-Life 2 was, even considering I expected less as I was paying a lot less.
    • It was fun, I won't begrudge them that. My only real gripe is the time between "episodes." I always thought one of the main goals of episodes was delivering smaller content, but rapidly. The secondary benefit was while concentrating on small chunks, they could make that single chunk fun all the way though instead of artifically dragging it out with poor levels of copy/paste jobs like much of Halo 1. Instead the lag between Episode 1 and 2 is a bit on the lame side. My friends were hoping 4 episodes per
      • After a recent reinstall of steam, I was reading through the news archives - when episode 1 came out, they promised episode 2 in 6 months time.

        Think it's just TF2 and portal that have pushed the schedule back and back. Still, reckon it will be worth the wait when it arrives.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by KDR_11k ( 778916 )
        I never finished HL2 so I'm not puying any of the episodes. I think Valve is going to see decreasing sales for each episode as people who didn't buy or finish one episode wouldn't be able to play the next one so the most they can sell is just as much as the previous game and each person that doesn't buy a new game will be lost for the later ones.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Tyir ( 622669 )
      If you loved HL2, then you will love Episode 1. Same kind of stuff, probably even more polished than the HL2 was. Unfortunately, as you said, it is short, almost too short.
    • Afair, it's literally just a short sequel. As you enjoyed HL2, it's probably worth getting for a few hours of extra gameplay and story.
    • But don't buy it overpriced. In fact, see if you can borrow/buy cheaper copy. I didn't register my account with my original one. I used another name so I could give/sell it away. I did that on purpose because I knew the episode would have zero replayability.
    • The map design is better, the graphics are improved (espe lighting), some of the "fight your way through a building" which in HL2 were... well, not tedious, but samey, now have more tension in them simply through the way the levels are designed.

      You end up with some very panoramic or otherwise impressive views because of the way they are designed as well, and Episode 2 seems like it will continue that.

      The gameplay is less varied, mostly because HL2 had several "episodes" to it (eg the driving), and this is s

  • *yawn*? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by lawaetf1 ( 613291 ) on Friday June 15, 2007 @12:31PM (#19521473)
    I love Half Life, Half Life 2, Half Life 2 - Episode One... but I have to take issue with a year and a half delay between one episode and the next. Calling it "episode two" does not make it episodic play in the sense that there is much real-life experiential continuity between the two. It has been so long now that I've somewhat forgotten how EP1 ended. Something about Alex getting killed (or was that from the preview of ep2?) and a train leaving and everything blowing up? I recall Valve saying they were developing the episodes concurrently but at $50/game and a 16 months inbetween, one may as well call them HL3 and HL4. Worse, the games are not "full" games in that they can be reasonably finished in 12-15 hours.

    What made HL great is the more the story line than the software. It should not take over a year to write a new chapter and devise some new maps. If you want to create a true episodic experience, release new versions every 6-8 months with incremental improvements.

    Reading this post I feel like comic book shop guy in the Simpsons. There is not an emoticon to describe how I am feeling!!

    • Re:*yawn*? (Score:4, Informative)

      by sunderland56 ( 621843 ) on Friday June 15, 2007 @01:02PM (#19521929)
      Episode two is more than just new maps. They're thoroughly revising the core game engine (better rendering, better physics, better support for multi-core processors). There are also AI changes to support cooperative game play - in other words, instead of Alex just following you around and giving you hints, she will actually help you perform tasks. The nice thing with how Valve/Steam works is that once the core game engine updates are done, they will allow any game to use them, not just HL2.


      The core engine changes also allow things like the portal gun in Portals - which is a separate third party game, but which needed changes from Valve to work correctly.


      In the meantime, if all you want is new maps, fire up Hammer and make some of your own!

      • Portals - which is a separate third party game

        First of all, it's "Portal" -- singular, not plural. Second, Valve hired all the developers of the prototype (called "Narbacular Drop"), so it's actually a first-party game.

      • it also means all your mods can break when they push out a new patch.
      • GP post:

        recall Valve saying they were developing the episodes concurrently but at $50/game and a 16 months inbetween, one may as well call them HL3 and HL4.

        Parent post:

        Episode two is more than just new maps. They're thoroughly revising the core game engine (better rendering, better physics, better support for multi-core processors). There are also AI changes to support cooperative game play - in other words, instead of Alex just following you around and giving you hints, she will actually help you perform

      • The problem is that they should have been implemented in Half Life 3, not in between episodes. Episodes = short games at a frequent pace. Despite my love for the series, I'll be skipping Ep2 until I can finish the damn game in one sitting. I'm sick of Valve's 'scheduling'.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by CryogenicKeen ( 1088911 )
      In this Interview :

      http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=65 345 [eurogamer.net]

      Gabe essentially says that what we are playing now (Episodes 1, 2 and 3) IS Half-Life 3.

      "Probably a better name for it [Half-Life 2: Episode One] would have been Half Life 3: Episode One, but these three are what we're doing as our way of taking the next step forward, but Half-Life 2 was the name we used," said Newell.

      And yes I too would love, oh love so much for the game to be out tomarrow or yesterday. But when I look back on how muc

    • I love Half Life, Half Life 2, Half Life 2 - Episode One... but I have to take issue with a year and a half delay between one episode and the next. Calling it "episode two" does not make it episodic play in the sense that there is much real-life experiential continuity between the two. It has been so long now that I've somewhat forgotten how EP1 ended. Something about Alex getting killed (or was that from the preview of ep2?) and a train leaving and everything blowing up? I recall Valve saying they were dev

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Chabo ( 880571 )
        You realize that HL:Source is Half-life 1 ported to the Source engine, right? Not a new game? ;)

        • You realize that HL:Source is Half-life 1 ported to the Source engine, right? Not a new game? ;)

          Yes I was aware of the fact, I'm playing HL:Source because I never played the original. Yes I consider the original HL a better game than HL2 ... I like the graphics in the newer one, but the older one is a tougher game and better over-all.

          I'm tempted to try to find a copy of HL:Blue Shift and HL:Apposing Forces to see if they are any good.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Chabo ( 880571 )
      First off, the $50 package is for HL2, HL2:Ep1, HL2:Ep2, Portal, and TF2. If you only want the latter three, then you will be able to buy those separately over Steam.

      Second, with Valve's dev cycles, it would take them 5 years to make another "full" game. So making a new episode every 18 months is fast for them.

      Third, if you're unsure of the plotline, you have several options, including a replay of the game (sounds like you own it), or a viewing of the many videos online where people show their run-throu
    • You can't rush something as complex as E2. Even the maps take a long time to make, as any mapper can tell you.

      Sure, they could release stuff every six months, but the quality would be much lower, and the episodes would be very, very short. E2 is well worth the wait.
  • Then they don't deserve to be called "episodes."
  • Actually, Valve is doing much more than just making maps and storylines. Episode 1 saw a major revision to the source engine (HDR) and Episode 2 has a similar update to the engine so it remains 'current'. Also the programming behind portal and the changes to the engine it requires (orginally in Source you could never see your character). So dont think this is just new levels, it requires quite a lot of programming to get working properly.
    • Sorry but that's not quite right. Some modders were able to implement the "portal technology" in HL2 shortly after Valve showed off their tech demos.

      Take a look [exitemod.com]
      • I stand corrected. The 'portal mods' I had seen before this all had the flaw of the player being unable to see themselves through a portal.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Atriqus ( 826899 )
      Yeah, that's great and all, but if they're going through the effort of adding so much to the engine, why not just make a full-fledged game? From the consumer perspective, TF2 is the actual game being released, and portal and EP2 are just tech demos.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by micpp ( 818596 )
        excuse me? I'm buying it for episode 2, which is the game. Team Fortress is a multiplayer component and Portal is a tech demo.
      • From the consumer perspective, TF2 is the actual game being released, and portal and EP2 are just tech demos.

        Speak for yourself. Of all 3 features, TF2 is the only one I don't give a flying shit about.
  • Forget Portal and HL2Ep2...

    I just can't wait for TF2! Heck, I remember preview screens back in 2000.

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