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Welcome to the Half-Life Portal - the source of everything regarding Half-Life!
| CVG Doug Lombardi Interview
by Wester | 22 comments |
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On Saturday 3rd May, 2008 @ 00:38 UTC
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In regards to Episode Three, Portal's sequel, etc, check it out at CVG (here's a select excerpt):
You guys are taking your time with the Half-Life episodes, too. How's Episode Three coming along?
Lombardi: Well, the gap between Half-Life and Half Life 2 was six years. It's not quite four years since then and we've already released two follow-ups that we're really proud of. We didn't milk the cow, so to speak, and pump out more of the same content.
While the word 'Episodic' conjures up this idea of TV where episodes are aired every week, maybe that's not the best term to use for this. I do think that we've hit upon something that allows us to have a more enjoyable development experience - to spend six years on the same game is kind of a death march.
We've hit with episodes around every 14-16 months. It won't be another six years until you see Freeman, but it won't be next week. I think we're improving our ability to produce interesting new content in a more timely fashion.
Maybe it won't be as long as Half-Life 2, but hopefully it'll be just as good and just as innovative. |
| No Portal 2 this year
by Wester | 0 comments |
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On Saturday 26th April, 2008 @ 21:24 UTC
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A select excerpt from Eurogamer:
"In typical Valve tradition, it won't be Portal with different colours," said Lombardi, dressed as a companion cube. "I think that when you hit something like that, you have two choices: you can quickly replicate it and stick it out there - do the opportunistic thing and cash in on it; or you can do the crazy thing like we did after Half-Life was so successful and go off and try and say, 'Okay, that was revolutionary, so its successor has to be equally as revolutionary.' |
| VALVe publication GDC 2008 slides
by Wester | 545 comments |
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On Wednesday 12th March, 2008 @ 19:32 UTC
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Check them out over at VALVe. |
| Portal 2 announced
by Wester | 0 comments |
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On Friday 22nd February, 2008 @ 21:13 UTC
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Kimberly Swift, lead designer of Portal, has confirmed over at X-Play in an interview that as Doug Lombardi alluded to, there will indeed be a Portal 2 in full. Be sure to check out the video. |
| New 1UP VALVe interview: afterthoughts on the Orange Box
by Wester | 0 comments |
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On Monday 11th February, 2008 @ 08:38 UTC
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A select piece from the interview, make certain to check it out in full:
GFW: Granted, there's a lot more to Half-Life's story than who and what the G-Man is, but it seems that the longer those questions go unanswered, the less likely you'll be able to answer them to everyone's satisfaction.
GN: We have some good answers. I totally recognize, though, that you can't become excessively cautious and fearful that the reason people are interested in what's happening is the mystery. Because that just means you're avoiding the ongoing problem of telling new stories and creating new characters. I think people are worried, like, what happens if we kill off characters? I was just responding to an e-mail from a fan who had this idea that somehow we could bring Eli Vance back, and I was like, "No, he's dead!" He really is dead. People die in this universe; it's not a kids' TV show where the cast of characters is static, and what can happen to them is constrained by the fact that customers are able to view the TV shows out of order, right? Which is a horrible constraint to put on TV writers. That's something we've never had to deal with.
GFW: How far in advance did you decide Eli's fate?
GN: A pretty long time. There's a difference between plot points and character arcs and other decisions that we make about set-pieces and weapons, which tend to be plastic, as opposed to story stuff, which we need to work out in order to build toward conclusions and a sense of closure. It's a lot easier to produce smaller stories like Portal.
GFW: Are you interested in producing more stories of Portal's sort?
GN: The interesting thing about Portal is that we know who the protagonist, Chell, is, and we'd already planned that character's part in something that occurs later. With Portal, we sort of opportunistically said, "Oh, she fits in here. This makes sense. |
| VALVe announces Steam Works
by Wester | 355 comments |
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On Tuesday 29th January, 2008 @ 19:10 UTC
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As reported at ShackNews:
January 29, 2008 - Valve, creators of best-selling game franchises (such as Half-Life and Counter-Strike) and leading technologies (such as Steam and Source), today announce Steamworks, a complete suite of publishing and development tools - ranging from copy protection to social networking services to server browsing - is now available free of charge to developers and publishers worldwide.
Steamworks, the same suite of tools used in best-selling PC titles Half-Life 2 and The Orange Box, is available for all PC games distributed via retail and leading online platforms such as Steam. The services included in Steamworks may be used a la carte or in any combination.
Specifically, Steamworks offers:
* Real-time stats on sales, gameplay, and product activation: Know exactly how well your title is selling before the charts are released. Find out how much of your game is being played. Login into your Steamworks account pages and view up to the hour information regarding worldwide product activations and player data.
* State of the art encryption system: Stop paying to have your game pirated before it's released. Steamworks takes anti-piracy to a new level with strong encryption that keeps your game locked until the moment it is released.
* Territory/version control: The key-based authentication provided in Steamworks also provides territory/version controls to help curb gray market importing and deliver territory-specific content to any given country or region.
* Auto updating: Insures all customers are playing the latest and greatest version of your games.
* Voice chat: Available for use both in and out of game.
* Multiplayer matchmaking: Steamworks offers you all the multiplayer backend and matchmaking services that have been created to support Counter-Strike and Team Fortress 2, the most played action games in the world.
* Social networking services: With support for achievements, leaderboards, and avatars, Steamworks allows you to give your gamers as many rewards as you would like, plus support for tracking the world's best professional and amateur players of your game.
* Development tools: Steamworks allows you to administer private betas which can be updated multiple times each day. Also includes data collection tools for QA, play testing, and usability studies.
"Developers and publishers are spending more and more time and money cobbling together all the tools and backend systems needed to build and launch a successful title in today's market," said Gabe Newell, president of Valve. "Steamworks puts all those tools and systems together in one free package, liberating publishers and developers to concentrate on the game instead of the plumbing."
"As more developers and publishers have embraced Steam as a leading digital distribution channel, we've heard a growing number of inquiries regarding the availability of the platform's services and tools," said Jason Holtman, director business development at Valve. "Offering Steamworks is part of our ongoing efforts to support the needs of game developers and our publishing partners."
Steam is a leading platform for the delivery and management of PC games and digital content. With over 13 million active accounts and more than 250 games, plus hundreds of movie files and game demos available, Steam has become a frequent destination for millions of gamers around the world.
For more information regarding Steamworks, please visit www.steamgames.com/steamworks. |
| Orange Box soundtrack available
by Wester | 0 comments |
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On Thursday 27th December, 2007 @ 02:18 UTC
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As reported at The Steam website, for $9.95:
Embark on a musical odyssey spanning the shades of the Orange! Featuring 19 original compositions, the official soundtrack to the Orange Box delivers troop-rallying anthems of Team Fortress 2; the rich, textural soundtracks of Half-Life 2: Episodes One and Two, and Portal's atmosphere, sometimes temperamental, electronica.
As a special bonus, the CD features two versions of Janathan Coulton's "Still Alive": the in-game mix featuring Ellen McLain as the voice of GlaDOS and Coulton's vocal mix, an exclusive track unavailable anywhere else. |
| 1UP Orange Box impressions
by Wester | 0 comments |
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On Sunday 7th October, 2007 @ 02:56 UTC
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1UP.. Head on over there for a rather sating video that shows the much more imposing nature of Episode Two in comparison to 1 and HL2, and great glances at both TF2 and Portal that's spoiler-free for those who have had their sensitivity rubbed to rawness in that respect.
4 days... 'til then, I can only remain on the edge of my seat. |
| The Orange Box - GOLD!
by Wester | 0 comments |
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On Friday 28th September, 2007 @ 01:38 UTC
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GameDaily
Duteously brace yourselves at your leisure for the 10th, with exposure to this... enough said! :-) |
| Teamfortress 2 Benchmarks
by Wester | 0 comments |
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On Wednesday 19th September, 2007 @ 22:09 UTC
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Over at AMDZone... you'll be pensively wanting at least a GeForce 8600 GTS or something on equal footing (a Radeon X1950 Pro or GeForce 7900 GS, for an example) if you want to get 60FPS+ average (depending on which company you prefer, I suppose; not that it denotes a level of wisdom).
That aside, check out the article. |
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