Valve are better comedians than they are game designers

[Rhalle]

What sort of quality are you talking about? Ep 1 was just as bloomy and crappy.

Most people seem to think that Ep2 was better. I disagree, but both are lacking. Episode 1 begins with a roller-coaster ride with your virtual girlfriend back into the Citadel. That's a pretty good metaphor, I think.

Episode 1 featured the first engine compromises for consoles. The world geometry was simpler to accomodate them. Also, does anyone remember how Valve hyped the "free-world roaming" feature the game supposedly had, which was realized by a radar in the buggy that would alert on hidden items as you drove around?

Of course Episode 2 has all the soap-opera moments and exposition, so most people, it seems, say it is 'better'.

 

[MapMan]

unlockable weapons is the worst thing that happened to tf2. Hats are less evil cause they actually dont have any gameplay value, but still, its lame. I know people who play purely for the hats. Its a new fad, they collect hats instead of stamps. Whenever i entered a server, kids were constantly talking about hats. Hats this, hats that. Hat Hattress 2. TF2 is a mp game from valve for absolute casuals. I really want to see how their dota turns out....

 

[barker_s]

Yeah with the majority having less than 50 people playing them. And the ones that are a bit more popular than that are extremely dumbed down and primitive, forced into 50m x 50m areas so they are more like shooting ranges (see CoD) because there is no other way they would survive there.

Battlefield Bad Company 2 is the opposite of what you're describing and I believe it's doing pretty well on the consoles.

What does Valve have to do with it? An engine?

They kinda did it, you know.

Who cares about that in a genre where the good part comes from pressing a button and see shit blow up?

You're telling me that graphics and eye-candy are unimportant factors in FPS games?

Worst parts of it you mean? The point is in HL2 that was a small part, in Episode 2 it's there all the time. If they removed all "protect Alyx" moments you would've completed the addon in under 2 hours.

There are no "defend Alyx" parts in Episodes as far as I remember. And she's got nearly infinite health, so even in standard firefigts it's really hard to let her die.

Episode 1 featured the first engine compromises for consoles. The world geometry was simpler to accomodate them.

Any proof (quotation, screenshots) would be most welcome. Otherwise I call bullshit, kind sir.

 

[attackfighter]

Using this opportunity I'll ask you a question. Why does The Codex seem to hate Valve so much? They're focused on the PC, they make pretty good games, they update their damn games with new maps/weapons/campaigns for free (how many developers do that, huh?).

In before: "this is Codex, we hate everything mainstream".

Because Valve is in competition with Blizzard and no one here could ever stand the thought of Blizz not being #1. This is the part where they run off to buy $20 mounts and 3 full price, pre-planned expansion packs and then come back to bitch about hats and shit.