Gabe, you created an obligation when you ended Episode 2 on a cliff hanger. You should have just let Marc Laidlaw and the game devs just make more games.

As long as it had kept the core writers, I'm sure everyone would be happy. Hell, any "innovation" is being handled by the modding continuity. Breadman of Entropy: Zero created a more fun combat loop then any of the HL2 games have. Singularity has a better physics weapons just by being able to use it independent of the selected weapon and making the object transparent.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I. Do. Not. Care. About. The. Tech.

Exactly. The tech doesn't matter. Tech only exists in service of the gameplay, and (introduced with HL1), the story (previous to HL1 the 'story' of most games was just a quick blurb on why there's monsters and why you have to shoot them).

Gamers DGAF about new tech. Gamers wanted to be told a story. We LOVED the story.

Valve could've used the existing engine, built NOTHING AT ALL NEW, and just finished the story with existing assets and we'd all have been over the moon happy.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

You know, I knew the next HL game to come out after Ep2 would be a VR title. It was the most obvious direction Valve could go considering Gabe treats the HL series as a tech demo. Seriously, I think out of anyone at Valve, he has the least respect for the franchise. What I didn't predict that it would a a VR exclusive title and that it would retcon the ending of Ep2 so a character that died(and who's VA had died), would be alive again. Hell, they didn't even ask one of the MC's original VA to reprise her role(or cast into a different character if the age was an issue).

I have way more trust in the fan community to continue the story. Entropy: Zero took some cues from Epistle 3, so I hope the breadman and the Project Borealis are sharing notes, so the can have a shared continuity. I really, really liked the voiced MC of Entropy: Zero and the combat loop, with more enemy types and weapons was superb.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

Unfortunately devs at Valve eventually will be swallowed by the money making machine called Steam. It’s the way the company is structured, the people working on the most profitable projects are rewarded the most.

Like the team working on In the Valley of Gods has disintegrated after Valve bought Campo Santo. The devs are all working on other things inside Valve.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago

I think that's the thing that annoys me the most. Sometimes, a game doesn't get a sequel because sales were bad or the studio was bought out or even went bankrupt. Here, it's just because the guy running the company doesn't feel like it. They have a constant stream of free money from Steam sales to fall back on, so why not just let your game devs do something? I haven't kept up to date, but wasn't there this huge gap of time where none of the TF2 devs had logged and played any TF2?