This is a triumph
2007 – 2010
Team Fortress 2 – Oct 2007; 19,175 accounts
Eight whole years after the original saw it’s first release, Team Fortress 2 launched with the Orange Box (with the beta going out to any pre-orders via Steam). It saw Valve shift from the seriousness of the multiplayer shooters of before into a cartoony, hyper-violent realm; and it paid off. TF2 is massively popular, spawning a whole sub-culture of memes, running jokes, and an unhealthy obsession with hats. It also showed how Valve operated at a simply higher level than all the other developers out there; three years on and TF2 is still being updated with significant amounts of content, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to stop.
Tom Hatfield: I never really played an online shooter before TF2, every time I tried I butted up against a hostile community and mechanics geared towards a twitch aiming ability I’d never built up. TF2 changed all that, it’s greatest acheivement is how phenomenally new player freindly it is. Classes like the Medic and Heavy allow new players to get the hang of the mechanics before branching out into more traditional shooter territory. The result of all this is that even now, years after the initial release a new player can easilly integrate into what has to be one of the most welcoming shooter communities around.
Thom Senior: Sometimes I like to think back to when TF2 was first released. It was great back then, it really was. Straight out of the box it revamped the online shooter, took it away from the hardcore crowd and infused everything with a sense of fun. Back then, as I planted myself on the balcony on 2Fort and sniped as many fools as I could, I could never have imagined what TF2 would become. Now I charge to the front line with a bow and arrow throwing jars of piss at my enemies alongside a Demoman wielding a colossal haunted bastard sword. I find myself on the wrong end of a Heavy wielding the Killing Gloves of Boxing and, as I wait to respawn, I think to myself, how the hell did all of this happen, and I laugh. I fucking love this game.
Richard Cobbett: The best thing about Team Fortress 2 isn’t the game, it’s that so long after release, you can still jump onto a public server and have fun. The cartoon graphics, the characters, the sheer fun of playing it makes for an online shooter where people don’t for the most part care if they win or lose as long as they had a good time. That almost never happens. By this point, the idiots and hardcore kids have usually taken over a game, whinging and bitching about every little change and making for a hostile environment. Team Fortress 2 just keeps getting bigger, more interesting, and more fun with every update. It’s one of the few multiplayer games I really feel I can say that about, and one of the very, very few I can stand to keep jumping back into this far into its lifecycle.
Andrew Brown – Continuity clan: TF2 is special to me for two reasons; one is that the game does not take itself so seriously, many other team based games focus on realism while TF2 can laugh with itself – I mean, a large Russian man running around with a sandwich? However even with this it’s still a fun game to play seriously, since these things aren’t just silly wee jokes they are actually useful to a co-ordinated team. The second thing that kept me with this game is the support competitive gamers receive from Valve, they release updates that make our game, which is fairly different from standard TF2, more balanced while also making the non-competitive gamers style of play more interesting and fun.
Erik Germerud – Continuity Clan: Valve seem to actually listen to their games’ communities, and make changes accordingly. Too a certaint extent obviously, they can’t go changing the game on every little whiner kids que.Team Fortress 2 captured me with it’s unique look, and I still love it. And when I started playing, even being a noob at the game, I understood almost everything and the game is mostly balanced. There are some imbalances every here and there, but I trust valve to even them out.
Craig Lager: I love TF2 because I get to be a dick. I’m a career spy, so my only real job is to do stuff that pisses people off. Stab them in the back. Blow their stuff up. Make them dis-trust their entire team. It’s genius, and it’s slotted in between the rest of this amazingly styled shooter.
Portal – Oct 2007; 520 accounts
Much like Half-Life 2 showed us a new way to think about puzzles, Portal showed us how to think about, well, portals. ‘Thinking with Portals’ was the first in a fairly decent list of Memes to spawn from this 4 hour, experimental release; piggybacking on the Orange Box – the package containing TF2, this, and HL2:Ep2. Portal actually started life as an indie offering called ‘Narbacular Drop’ by Nuclear Monkey Software and it didn’t take long after Valve seeing this for them to be snapped up by the company and put to work. Since Portals release it’s been confirmed that the cake is in fact a lie, and yes, Glados is still alive.
Thom Senior: Games are rarely this smart. In fact, games rarely make me /feel/ this smart. I remain convinced to this day that Portal’s unique brand of FPS puzzling actually increased the size of my brain, which better enabled me to relish the delicious and perfectly balanced conflict between Glados and I. She needed me, I was the reason for her existence, and to begin with I needed her. Her cryptic clues let me get to grips with the portal gun and held my hand through the first deadly sections, but after a while I got smarter, I broke out, got behind the scenes and went on the attack. Glados descended into madness and in the end it was simply my duty to put her out of her misery. A perfect story arc with wonderful puzzles in the space of three or four hours. Oh, and we can’t forget the song.
Edward Fenning: This is one of the most unexpected games, that after I showed it to some non-gamer friends they went out and bought it themselves. Even my mum enjoyed it, though she felt the need to make a sound everytime something happened or she did anything. I can’t think of many titles that can be enjoyed so regardless of gender or previous gaming experience. There’s everything in Portal; action, puzzles, speed, mystery, humour and even a twisted sorts of love. It came along and did its own thing in a way nobody before or since has come close to replicating. Plus it allows me to show people why my hobby is so fucking cool.
Craig Lager: This.
Half Life 2: Episode 2 – October 2007; 452 accounts
Episode 2 saw Valve stretching the source engine to create the prettiest Half Life experience yet. Gorgeous outdoor locations were the norm and the episode was at its weakest when it had you trapped in claustrophobic underground Antlion hives. The final section in which you fight off an approaching army of Striders stands as one of the greatest set pieces in the whole series, and the devastating ending is the perfect set up for what we hope will be a spectacular final to one of gaming’s greatest series.
Thom Senior: It’s worth remembering how harsh it was. Episode 2 doesn’t pull it’s punches. By now I’ve spent over a dozen hours fighting for Alyx and the resistance. In Episode 1 we fought our way though hell to escape the city. Valve made me wait ’til Episode 2 to see if we had even survived, and then they mortally injured my companion, one of the few gaming characters I’ve ever really cared about. After that, by god, I was determined to get her back. I was willing to kill hundreds to do it, and Valve obliged by sending hordes of giant insectoid creatures right at us. The resulting fight ranks as the most joyous time I’ve ever spent with a virtual shotgun.
Craig Lager: For me, episode 2 was all about The Car. That Dodge Charger (or similar) was amazing. The way it grunted its way up to a subjectively blinding speed, looking subjectively awesome and slick compared to that crappy buggy we used to use. And the warmth for it is only increased by Alyx’s reaction when you first drag it in front of her. Shame it doesn’t have a seat for a gnome, though.
Left 4 Dead – Nov 2008; 3,883 accounts
Just like so many Valve offerings before it, Left 4 Dead started out as a mod. It had a group of people with weapons taking on Counter Strike bots only equipped with knives. Over time and after iteration after iteration, Left 4 Dead was drawn up and finally released to critical acclaim. The one thing that does make left 4 dead stand out however is the standard of release far below that which people were used to with Valve. Not because of a poor game, but because of awkward netcode implementation, leaving many people unable to join games or unable to find a server to play on. This has all since, thankfuly, been fixed.
Tom Hatfield: For me, there’s only one real way to play Left 4 Dead, and that’s to get four PCs in a room, wire them together and get everyone playing over LAN. Not only will you do better than you would otherwise, but hearing the tangible yelps and screams of panic in person give it a whole new immediate nature. Plus you can have long irate conversations afterwards about whose fault it was that you didn’t set fire to the second tank.
Thom Senior: They scream. People always scream when they play this game. Over VOIP, in LAN sessions they always do, because it’s fucking terrifying. There’s nothing quite like the sight of a Tank charging towards you, casually backhanding a car out of its way, drawing back its huge arms, ready to break every bone in your body. When you see that, or a huge horde of zombies charging round a corner there’s only one thought in your head: ‘I’m going to die’. But you don’t, you stick together, communicate, use the corners, get good with the weapons. Then you start to make progress. Section by section you somehow press on, surviving ’til you reach the final act. It’s then, with the helicopter only metres away, with your friends all on board screaming for you to get on, shooting zombies off your back. It’s then that you die, when a tank smacks you off the rooftop to the city far below. You’ve lost, but it’s hilarious and dramatic and brilliant. That’s Left 4 Dead.
Steve Peacock: I much prefer co-op play to competitive play, and the way Left 4 Dead sneakily ensures the co-operation of your team mates is fantastic. My pool of partners for co-op games tends to include a few people that, if given the opportunity, will do “hilarious” things just to be annoying. Left 4 Dead won’t let them, which also means my murderous rage doesn’t get too much of a chance to burn the back of my eyes.
Left 4 Dead 2 – Nov 2009; 11,480 accounts
Controversy! Drama! No later than a year after Left 4 Dead is released a sequel is packaged up and let loose on the world. Questions were put to valve about there promise of more content for the original left 4 dead and various other issues with releasing a sequel so quickly. This led to a mass boycott before release, only dissolved after Valve flew the two leaders of the group to Seattle to show them the game.
Craig Lager: As with the original L4D, I don’t think anything can bring players as close to each other as much as a zombie holocaust can. Anything where someone can be left bleeding out on the floor as they scream down the microphone “Just leave me! Get the fuck out guys!” is solid in my book. It’s also been pointed out to me that I always seem to survive. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that I always play as Nick.
Thom Senior: Left 4 Dead never became the sport that Counterstrike is. It was brilliant fun but didn’t have the longevity that many hoped. Eventually the story wore thin and the levels became familiar. Left 4 Dead 2 simply gave us more. More special infected, more weapons and more levels. I still love the drama of Hard Rain, with its Suger Mill of witches and terrifying second half storms, and there’s nothing quite as relentless as the finale to the New Orleans campaign as you charge across a suspension bridge as it’s bombed to smithereens by the military.
Going Forwards
That’s everything to date, twelve long years of Valve. It’s clearly not the end though. Portal 2 has been announced, development continues on both Left 4 Dead titles and Team Fortress 2, and of course we should see HL2: Ep3 at some point. Hopefully. I’m certain Valve will be around for a long time yet, drip feeding us amazing content to fill our hard drives with. And of course Steam will continue to grow, providing a platform to hook gamers up with each other and to Developers that, as we have seen, use it to continue to make games. I’m sure you will all have your own opinions though (some of you will *shock* probably even disagree) so do fill fire off a comment below and tell us what you think. Valve are important, whichever way you look at it, and should be talked about and celebrated.
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A real nice read.
Considering I really came to PC gaming about 6 years ago, and without an active connection, I missed out on Steam until I finally caved in and installed it on my Dad’s machine. And thus I came online. I finally got the Orange Box 3-4 months after release and played through Half Life and still load up TF2 when I want a laugh.
Nice to see Tex getting a mention. How’d he get on there?
I know him from my J-Server/PCG Chat days (as in when it first started and wasn’t all, like, busy and popular. Man, that was before this whole site even existed. Fucking hell.
He’s the first member of PCG chat I saw in person. Don’t remember you in the J-Server, but always recognised your name in chat.
As an aside, how much is your steam account worth? Little website worked it out for me. It’s quite terrifying when you realise that how much you’ve spent on games and now have an account worth £671 http://www.steamcalculator.com/uk
That values it at £944 but that’s obviously not taking sale prices into account, nor stuff I got for free. Still :S
It said it in dollars in the email. You bastard, I though I was going crazier.
Lol, that site values Lost Coast at $99 because it’s in the Valve complete pack.
Fun piece, really enjoyed this trip down memory road.
Hmm, £913 for the value of my Steam account. Again, not taking sale prices into account, but still… bloody hell!
Going back through them to get screens was a pretty awesome afternoon I tell ya.
A very impressive piece of work :p
I still remember the day I played the Half Life: Opposing Force demo. That opening sequence was awesome, bodies lying everywhere and marines fighting aliens all over the place. It was the first time I played anything Half Life, so while it was a Gearbox game it did introduce me to Valve’s excellent original game.
And those Modern Warfare 2 statistics on Steam display ALL current online MW2 players on the PC. It’s a Steamworks game, so it has to be tied to a Steam account, much like Dawn of War 2 and the newer Total War games. All players boot up via Steam, so no one with a legal copy is excluded.
Re:MW2 – Oh, ace. Edited. Thanks.
Nice rundown there. I must admit I’ve never finished any of the Half-Life games. Always play the first third or so, but for some reason they make me physically sick so I have to stop playing. Which is a shame, ’cause I liked what I played.
In terms of what I’m still playing, particularly loving DoD:S and TF2 at the moment.
Could one of the fools citing Halflife as revolutionary please play Thief, followed by System Shock 2 D:
Visionary games… THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE.
That’s my point, Mr Lambert. Half-Life was already obsolete when it was released, then System Shock 2, a very similar game in theme and content, completely eviscerated it.
As is common in any artform, this kind of thing is not widely recognised. People seem to prefer sensational, zealous worship of something simplistic that doesn’t frighten, intimidate or confuse the player by being more complex than Pac-Man.
Obsolete? How many games of its kind even come by in the whole gaming world?
And the sales of Half Life certainly don’t say that System Shock 2 eviscerated it. How the game compares is subjective of course (I’ve not played SS2, have heard it’s excellent, of course).
I don’t understand, no one is hating on SS2. I have heard nothing but praise for SS2. I have heard a little more hate for HL than it. Are you pulling that out of your ass? No offense, but you just seem a bit butthurt because they talked about Valve (not just HL, mind you) and not SS2.
And would you really categorize HL as something simplistic? Relative to the gaming world, you KNOW that’s not true. By far.
Call me out on anything, and I don’t mean to offend. It’s 7 AM here.
Sales mean nothing in a world where Gears of War/God of War/Modern Warfare/World of Warcraft (noticing a theme?) are this popular.
I’ve no cause to be ‘butthurt’ as you so delicately phrased it ;> I just hate witnessing.. delusion. Half-Life was uglier than Unreal, less freeform than Doom, all it had going were some scripted animated scenes you could rarely have any influence on. A game mimicking films. Not a laudable achievement.
System Shock 2 is almost unheard-of in comparison, despite being very much more a ‘game’, embracing interactivity, freedom, choices, different paths – while also managing to be a far more effective story experience due to the high quality of the writing and voice acting, and the ever-developing plot.
I think that SS2 (bear in mind that it is one of my favourite games) is probably more similar to Pac-Man than Half Life is. Consider: you’re running through a dark environment with thumping music, pursued by creepy, implacable enemies, and haunted by ghosts…
Decent comparison, but Pacman couldn’t levitate medikits off shelves from 20ft away. Touché.
I have never heard System Shock be compared to Pac-Man before. That is most funny.
My point, cloaked in flippant sarcasm as it was, was that you seem to be assuming that only one game of a generation can be hugely influential. Which is, frankly, bullshit. Half-Life was hugely unique in its scripted approach to storytelling. System Shock 2 was a revelation in its superficially open approach to a linear SF horror tale. Thief was a superbly unique mission-based game with a powerful story competently told via its unique scenarios. They were all hugely influential games; why we should seize hold of one and wave its dick around as the GREATEST GAMING DICK OF ALL over the others is beyond me. I played all of these games around the time of release and they have all stuck with me, and one can easily trace their influences through modern gaming. It’s unnecessary to pick a favourite.
I’m arguing that Half-Life and Valve don’t deserve the attention they get. I’m playing the alternate voice, calling out Half-Life as ‘not all that special’, while bringing up lesser-known and far more advanced experiences from the same time period in comparison.
Valve finally hit the bigtime with Portal, Left 4 Dead, TF2 and Episode 2, which were;
1) An outside team acquired.
2) An outside team acquired.
3) A gameplay concept over a decade old, written by comedians.
4) Finally, a decent Half-Life game other than Opposing Force.
I don’t dislike them – I merely regard them.. Well, like Blizzard. A grossly overrated developer who did some decent work, from some aspects of Half-Life, to Diablo 2, but nothing ‘definitive’ in the realm of Grim Fandango, Fallout, System Shock, Shadow of the Colossus, Sacrifice, Jagged Alliance, Men of War, etc.
These are games that redefined genres, or simply sat unchallenged in their place by being so far ahead of the pack.
I don’t understand the hate against Pac-Man, either. It’s a simplistic game, but the reason it’s so deep is because it utilizes this simplicity very well.
No hate, merely a comparison. I wouldn’t pay the same price for Pac-Man as I did for a 30 hour FPSRPG with branching paths, multiple endings and many character options.
Deus Ex versus Half-Life, for example.. The value in terms of depth, options, gameplay-hours and memorable entertainment are incomparable.
And I hate a pet-hate for Pacman after watching a parent play it for around five years, every day D:
I haven’t played the games Thief or System Shock 2. And “griefer” Jakkar makes me very disinclined to do so. But out of curiosity I did look up their Megacritic metascores.
Thief: The Dark Project has a 92 and shows up listed at number 33, System Shock 2 also a 92 and listed at 36. Respectable. But both were beaten out by The Sims, which to me “revolutionized” boredom. Half-Life has a 96, 50 Game of the Year awards and 4th on their all time list.
Yes, I know he’s talking revolution. If the guy wants to argue about his games being revolutionary, fine, so was Donkey Kong and Super Mario World. Calling HL supporters “fools” for doing so, just silly. This guy is a speed bump. Roll over his comments and keep going.
Regardless of what you think of their proponents, both System Shock 2 and Thief are worth playing – they’re classics in every sense of the word. :)
Thanks! That’s advice I can respect and put to good use. Cudos to civil intelligence. LOL.
If you get SS2 working let me know how – I tried and couldn’t. Also I think Thief 2 is better than the first one.
I’ve not played Thief 2 but have heard that it’s better than the first. Or, at least, has more fun breaking into houses and stealing valuables and less boring gnomes and magic trees.
Re. SS2 – I’m sure I’ve gotten it running on XP but not tried since I moved onto W7… still, if you can run the first one on W7 the second has to work too, right? Heh.
There was a time the challenge to run older games would be fun, but now with age, I leave such things to younger souls.
With the current great games, great graphics, great support, and high-end gaming PC’s, I am satisfied to simply take your word on such classics.
@Jakkar: the ‘reply’ button has disappeared (at least in Chrome) so I’m having to reply to you here.
Whilst there is some kernel of truth in your arguments – the other games you’re mentioning are fine titles and influential beyond the level of recognition they received on release – you are also referring to the authors of this post as “fools” who are “deluded”, stating that people disagree with you because they “prefer sensational, zealous worship of something simplistic that doesn’t frighten, intimidate or confuse the player”, and implying that by liking something popular, gamers are idiots. How /dare/ players find something to like in a hit franchise!
By mixing up your not wholly unfair arguments with passive-aggressive insults you’re not doing yourself any favours. I’m certainly inclined to take you less seriously. Especially when you say things like this:
“Valve finally hit the bigtime with Portal, Left 4 Dead, TF2 and Episode 2″
Ah yes, the fabled big time! That must be what comes after Half-Life sells 6 million copies in six years, a feat just beaten by Half-Life 2, which has sold 6.5 million copies to date. And Steam, which in May 2007 had 13 million user accounts. Yeah, those Valve boys were strictly small-time before they used their vast wealth to acquire other promising teams and offer them the resources their projects deserved.
Of course, if you’d like to retroactively alter your statement to “Valve finally made a game I think was good/significant/influential/delicious” then go for it, but then we’re right back to the start of a completely pointless argument in which, simply put, you are wrong – because Half-Life was the first game that made extensive use of scripted sequences to tell its story and it set the mould for linear story-based FPS’s for years to come. This fact is about as uncontroversial as the idea that ducks float.
Anyway, I feel like I’ve been a bit excessively sarcastic so I’ll just add that you have good taste in games. And System Shock 2 is one of the best games ever, I’ll give you that.
Hello Shaun, thanks for the wordy but polite response =)
My implication is rather than people who have poor taste are morons, although in this case I’m deriding those who worship a game series -because it is popular-, as is often the case with the big-time franchises of the moment, such as Call of Duty, Gears of War, God of War, Halo, and as ever- Half-Life.
You should worship a game because you love it, or because it’s great – but this article is the continuation of a trend stretching across a decade to worship Half-Life not because it is GOOD but because it is SUCCESSFUL. Something I find as distasteful as obsessing over stock market reports.
It’s all about numbers and money. Good games that were too difficult, complex, or frightening (or all three, in some cases) frequently lose out in terms of success and profit because of these characteristics, while bad games with good marketting or a snowballing popularity cult around them due to their development pedigree, celebrity involvement or high review scores. Sometimes even just the luck of the moment, the fashion of the times coinciding with a game release in a given style and genre.
I dislike the worship of numbers.
I’m more interested in quality than success. Success, like an elected official, is the result of what most people like. And frankly, across history unto the modern day, most people have liked to burn witches, lynch the black, electroshock the gay and get so drunk every friday night they can’t remember where they live. The majority vote is not an indication of anything worthwhile. Just a general, dull conservatism that appeals to a cowardly mass.
I discuss gaming as an industry and an artform whenever I can, and frequently find a giggly feedback from most gamers that they don’t like difficulty modes beyond easy, or games with many weapons, buttons or multiple paths. “Dun wanna think, lol. Just wanna relax an ave fun.”..
That’s Half-life. Guide the eye, guide the player down a single path, illusions of freedom and engineered reward systems make them run a maze like a lab rat. I prefer an intellectual challenge, and as a matter of opinion, have more respect for like-minded individuals than those who avoid challenge or depth, who avoid intellectual or emotional involvement with their games.
Gamers happy to be led by a carrot on a stick to a predefined conclusion, en masse.
Ech.
Well, I’m rambling and I imagine you’re tired of my pretentious hippie bullshit by about.. now.
I’ll clarify my attitude by apologising for the way I come off – I’m frequently told I come across as offensive or aggressive in debate (online) – it’s something I don’t want to change, as the alternative is to be the type who apologises constantly – the issue is that I speak the same way in person but do so with such a lighthearted attitude and mobile, relaxed bodylanguage that the harsh, authorative bitchy tone is defused. Something about text carries an automatic note of coldness and authority, and poisons my speech.
“Valve finally hit the big time” etc; In terms of quality, yes. TF2 had great art, on par with Pixar with their great ‘Meet the’ shorts. Left 4 Dead embraced dedicated co-operative gaming, something I’d been waiting a long time for, designwise. Pity it was so simple. Portal was actually original. Episode 2 was actually good. I really enjoyed that one, it finally had a real sense of style and immersion, while the others felt like.. chores, shooting galleries. Only Opposing Force really immersed me and gave me an enjoyable experience, until Ep.2. Gearbox are better designers, more creative developers than Valve’s in-house times.
You went on to quote sales numbers. Frankly, you can sell anything to a bored consumer base. It just doesn’t count for anything, either in casual generalisation, nor would it in laboratory conditions. It’s not a pure sample, when these people are victims of peer pressure, fashion, and marketting manipulation. Once something is popular, the growth of popularity becomes.. often expontential.
“but then we’re right back to the start of a completely pointless argument in which, simply put, you are wrong – because Half-Life was the first game that made extensive use of scripted sequences to tell its story and it set the mould for linear story-based FPS’s for years to come.”
What I argue is whether that’s a good thing. Scripted sequences in games have turned games into films, removed interactivity in favour of cinematic drama. Abandoned the interactivity of the medium, its heart and primary strength, in favour of looking cool.
Good game design evolves the player shaping his world by choices, acting and the world reacting to him, and vice versa. If I want to watch a scripted sequence of a zombie punching through a wall and taking down a scientist, I’ll watch a film by George A. Romero. I like that games -can- be cinematic, but not at the expense of gameplay. In order to achieve cool scripted moments, Half-life lost all but the slightest sense of freedom, choice, or meaningful exploration.
Partially personal taste, partially just stating ‘games are an interactive, creative and unpredictable medium, films are a dramatic, detailed and visually attractive medium’ – that these are the strengths of each, and ignoring them doesn’t generally make for a good game or film.
Glad you agree System Shock 2 is good. Maniacal rambling.. COMPLETE! =D
You…Ramble. Quite a bit. Honestly, as a consumer and a gamer I believe one shouldn’t have to choose. All games no matter their gameplay deserve some playtime. Are some invariably better than other in terms of story? Mechanics? Absolutely but that is an individual choice and I have found a many unpopular games extremely rewarding. Point is, limiting yourself is pointless and only hurting yourself in the end. Variety is the spice of life.
Vast as your response is, you reveal the false precept of your argument within the first paragraph:
“in this case I’m deriding those who worship a game series -because it is popular”
“You should worship a game because you love it, or because it’s great”
As the article, I myself and others who have commented here have all stated or argued, this is precisely where we are coming from. You may not agree with us – that’s your prerogative – but you cannot ignore it or invalidate arguments to the contrary simply by the force of your own opinion. That’s absurd rhetorical solipsism.
I appreciate your attempt to elucidate why you don’t think Half-Life is a great game. Ironically its linearity is why I think it is such a success; its storytelling is taut and deliberate as a result of the narrative constraints it places upon the user. It’s a shame that you don’t feel this approach works for you, but this doesn’t invalidate it any more than it does the open-world approach of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. or other such games.
I quoted the sale numbers not to assert the validity of Valve’s “earlier” works, but solely to illustrate that an assertion you had made was fundamentally incorrect, a point which you appear to have missed.
“Scripted sequences in games have turned games into films, removed interactivity in favour of cinematic drama. Abandoned the interactivity of the medium, its heart and primary strength, in favour of looking cool.”
Here, again, you reach a point where you have a valid argument to make. There is a lot to be said about the removal of player authority in heavy-handed efforts to generate a cinematic experience. Games like Gears of War 2, blockbuster titles which make very little narrative sense, are in some ways descendants of Half-Life. Of course, this doesn’t any more invalidate that approach than the existence of ‘Tristram Shandy’ or ‘House of Leaves’ rendered ‘Pride & Prejudice’ or ‘Oronooko’ irrelevant or, to put it crassly, “wrong”.
The world, you see, supports a multiplicity of structure and form, just as does a wealth of different and often antithetical ideas. Personally, I enjoy luxuriating in this variety.
Anyway, I’m not sure there’s more argument to be had here. I understand where you’re coming from, and I agree that you have a point. Where we disagree is that you appear unwilling to accept that a linear and constrained approach to storytelling within a game can be a good thing, and I’m not sure it’s worthwhile trying to continue that line of discussion.
All the best fella, and hope that – like me – you’re looking forward to the new X-COM game. It promises an open-ended experience with a lot of exploration and player-driven development…
Annoyingly I can’t edit comments – should’ve re-read this before posting.
In my first line, “paragraph” should be “paragraphs”.
This line: “It’s a shame that you don’t feel this approach works for you, but this doesn’t invalidate it any more than it does the open-world approach of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. or other such games.”
Should read: “It’s a shame that you don’t feel this approach works for you, but this doesn’t invalidate it any more than the commercial and critical success of linear narratives does the open-world approach of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. or other such games.”
Finally, the fourth paragraph from the end, where I draw the literary analogy – that bit of my argument is poorly articulated. What I was getting at with those comparisons is that they represent different schools of thought in terms of what makes a novel – for the purposes of this discussion, I’m focusing on structure. So my point is simply that it is possible to read or play and enjoy both, as I say in the following paragraph.
Deathmatch Classic (DMC) was an homage to Quake, not a patching-in of basic deathmatch.
Half-Life already had that in the form of HLDM, which was awesome fun because you could kill people with snarks and satchel bombs and laser tripwires, and perform ludicrous manoeuvres such as the gauss-jump, where you used the recoil on the Gauss gun to fling yourself into the air.
Well too many people seem to think I’m wrong. So FINE. Edited.
Having read through a wee bit more of the archives here, and engaged in a few comment debates.. Shit, this blog is as mindless a community as its name implies D:
You’re all horrendous. Closeminded, cynical cunts without taste. Get off my internets!
Well that’s that then lads. Time to close up shop.
Thanks so much for you article and time. Despite the spoilers out there, you are to be highly commended. Looking forward to future articles from you.
Oh, wait! We’re back on! (thanks ;-) )
As I say on my Steam Profile, “Thanks to all the Friendlies out there that make bashers, stompers and griefers look about as useful as speed bumps in a parking lot. They slow us down a little, but are soon forgotten.”
Thanks for invalidating my decision to bother debating with you. Disappointing.
I figure you’re trying to be funny, but you’re not.
Speed bump: A stationary object designed to slow down drivers, but mostly ineffective, often irritating. It is best to drive over or around them, then continue to your destination.
Eh, I like to have faith in people!
Besides, always good to stretch the grey matter a little in a comments thread. Helps you clarify and articulate your own opinions as well as grasp other peoples’. :)
I understand, of course, and have often done so myself. Now, however, I have little patience for such people. I once heard someone say they are “like seagulls that fly into town, shit on everything, then fly off”. I like a good article with good discussion and mostly ignore the “seagulls” other than to avoid their castings. I give you credit for trying.
Aahhh. Apparently over at GameSpot the some “horrendous. Closeminded, cynical cunts without taste” just voted Gordon Freeman the “greatest game hero of all time”. Sorry. And just last month PC gamer readers voted Half-Life 2 Best PC Game of All Time. Half-Life made number 9. Bummer. They listed 100 games so maybe Thief or Shock got in there somewhere.
So sad when artistic, intellectual, know-better-than-all-others can’t get us “fools” off the internet. I guess we will just have to happily carry on, enjoying the games we love, while the self-acclaimed-elite smolder in the ashes of their failed rants. ROFL.