BTG: The Final Hours of Half-Life 2

[Bc9b]

Damn good article/book.

Edit: What the hell, the link was right before! I don't know what that altavista crap was. This link works now too.

[Erkki]

I was just coming here to post that... Well, at least I can fix the link

http://www.gamespot.com/features/6112889/index.html

I've only read the fist too pages so far, which mention that valve is going to reveal some things in the feature, about the code theft, the delays and more.

[MrHoatzin]

I find it funny that Valve provides laundry service to its peeps, while EA whips theirs until they fall appart into a bloody pile of meat, bone and offal. What is even more firghtening is that both are perfectly viable production models in the industry.

Also, now, having read the 91 tomes on the labour pains of half-life 2's parents, I am less sure about the awesomeness of the game... I mean, I too saw the scenery-like, cardboard cutout feel of some in-game bits we've seen a year and a half ago, but I figured they were negligible; I trusted these motherfuckers... unbeknownst to me, they only begun making the game proper a year ago...

Another item worth noting: a very rich person funding the game with no reserve is a good thing. The game industry needs to sport more patrons of Gabe's caliber...

[baconian]

The great thing about Half-Life is that Gordon walks around with everyone assuming he knows what to do.

never thought of it that way. brilliant.

It was going to be a nightmare to give players so much freedom

this is where things get interesting.

yep it's 5 am, i'm drunk, full pouch of drum(bali shag in jesusland), and im gonna finish reading this.

If Half-Life 2 isn't viewed as the best PC game of all time, it's going to completely bum out most of the guys on this team

game developers are people too.

Valve wasn't beholden to a game publisher, but it did feel beholden to the fans

this almost made me cry.

This allowed the team to perfect the gameplay and work out story issues like pacing long before an artist touched the level

pah. who needs 'em

OK, here's what we can do to meet your date or a date close to it: We can cut all this stuff and ship a game that's half of what it's supposed to be

they did The Right Thing

He was the video game equivalent of the X-Men's Professor X, running his own school for the gifted. While the code theft might have meant millions in lost revenue for Valve, Newell was much more concerned about the morale and well-being of his team.

aww. seriously, these guys are why people sometimes say that there are no more geniuses around. they're busy making computer games.

He told him how cool it was that he was able to break into Valve's network. In fact, it was so cool that Valve wanted to hire him as a special security consultant to protect Valve from any future attacks. "Da Guy" couldn't believe it! Newell was offering him at job at Valve headquarters in Bellevue, Washington.

i'm reminded of spaceballs - evil will always triumph, because good is dumb. pow! screw you!!!

a series of single-player levels that will require a super-high-end graphics card to run. Valve hopes to release those over Steam later this year

oooh. i might need to make some serious purchases later this year.

wooo!

postscript: i'll be in italy on the 16th, far away from my pre-loaded bundle of joy. fuck it, i'll be in italy.

[jokemaster]

I wanna work for valve just to get my own crowbar and beat the part of the pinata I can get away with.

Seriously, an awesome read for whoever thinks about going into the game business or is even remotely interested in what goes into making an awesome game. The article almost made me cry.

[Redwall]

Did anyone else see the scanner pinata and think 343 Guilty Spark?

[Marek]

I continue to be highly interested in Valve's cabal thing. It sounds like a really clever way to manage such a giant team, as you're giving people small bits of ownership over specific levels and making them emotionally invested, instead of having them just execute whatever the lead designer commands and having their contributions spread all over the game. Their prototype-heavy development is pretty fascinating. I do wonder what the texture artists were doing while the orange levels were being made though. Were they setting up a giant collection of all-purpose Eastern Europe-city inspired textures?

[Kester]

I continue to be highly interested in Valve's cabal thing.

Knowing about this does shine something of a light on the original Half-Life. I've always been bemused by how different some levels of that game were. Not just that some were awesome (fighting helicopters!) and some were downright awful (jumping puzzles over slime pits!), but in the general design approach, both artistically and gameplay-wise. Black Mesa just never seemed to form a cohesive whole to me. Now I know why!

[jokemaster]

......If you click the 'back to behind the games' button there's a Final Hours Of Half Life article, along with MGS2 and others.

[Thrik]

This article is brilliant. I've always thought well of Valve, and thought all this bad talk they've gotten from people for delaying the game is unjust. If they're willing to sacrifice their credibility for a better game, then so be it -- I'd rather have the better game.

[manny_c44]

I trusted these motherfuckers... unbeknownst to me, they only begun making the game proper a year ago...

This really shocked me too. People had always maintained that the hacker hadn't really gotten the whole thing, but I guess he did...and there was basically nothing there.

Anyway a great article. The Potemkin village allusion was right on the money (if you've played the Stolen build).

[Chris]

Man, I almost feel lame admitting it, but reading this article seriously was one of the most extreme emotional rollercoasters I've had recently. Of course, that's in large part due to me only really reading dry academic text lately, but man. It got pretty hard to read when it was just page after page saying "And that's when things really got bad", only to top itself a page later, then ending on a fairly triumphant note. I fucking hope this game is great.

[jokemaster]

If HL2 doesn't become the best-selling game ever there is no justice in the universe.

[Bc9b]

The MSG2 one was good to. It seems that that many of the articles, with Daikatana and Trilobyte, seem to theme on explaining that it is more than stupidity that thngs like HL2 releace date thing and the charicter swich in MGS2. I personaly think it's helarious that Hideo Kojima took 'You only play rugged old-looking guys in these games' as an insult.

[jokemaster]

Am I the only one who didn't mind the char switch in MGS2?

[Thrik]

I didn't mind it because I completely isolated myself from the hype and all advertisement prior to playing with it, and missed their mind tricks which got people all wound up into thinking you'd play as Snake throughout.

Hell, even the ingame cutscene which introduces Raiden was set up to make you think it was Snake. They really are evil.

[Jake]

unbeknownst to me, they only begun making the game proper a year ago...

Sounds like there was a big slump in there for a bit, but it also sounds like they spent years working pretty feverishly on the engine/backend technology before making any actual levels... which is what I'm assuming you're calling "the game proper."

[Erkki]

Yeah, it seems their developement filosophy is quite a bit different, using methods of agile software developement. Not that I know if other devs don't do that.

Reading that feature, made me really hope HL2 will be the best game ever (or one of them) and I definitely want to buy a version through Steam (it's already pre-loaded anyway). Maybe even Silver, to get HL:Source, but can't afford the gold...

[MrHoatzin]

Sounds like there was a big slump in there for a bit, but it also sounds like they spent years working pretty feverishly on the engine/backend technology before making any actual levels... which is what I'm assuming you're calling "the game proper."

Aye, that I am.

[jokemaster]

I'm getting Silver.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

What does the silver edition include?

[Chris]

I, uh, ordered the gold.

[AGA]

Bronze ($49.95 ex tax):

Half-Life® 2*

▪ Counter-Strike™:

Source™

Silver ($59.95 ex tax):

▪ Half-Life 2*

▪ Counter-Strike: Source

▪ Half-Life 1: Source*

▪ Day of Defeat™:

Source*

▪ PLUS: Valve's back catalog available on Steam!

Gold ($89.95 ex tax)

▪ Half-Life 2*

▪ Counter-Strike:Source

▪ Half-Life 1: Source*

▪ Day of Defeat: Source*

▪ Valve's back catalog available on Steam.

▪ PLUS: HL2 posters, full strat guide, soundtrack, hat, collector's box, postcard & more

(all from the front page of

Steam's site.)

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Thanks, AGA. I guess it'll be silver for me. I don't need all those strat guides, posters, hats, and other cluttery crap.

BTW, does the silver have it on DVD?

[AGA]

What I gather is, with Gold they send you a hard copy of the game on disc, with the other two they don't...

The site says "allow 6 to 8 weeks for delivery of Half-Life 2 Gold merchandise.", and the features list mentions a special-edition box. So unless they're just sending a nice box for your hat and posters, I'm guessing you get a hard copy too...

Either way, I bought Gold, since I'm a sucker for shiny merchandise.