Half-Life 2 Expansion Revealed

[Sonic 295]

No need for me to explain it so I'll give you the easy copy and paste job.

Half-Life 2 expansion revealed

 

Valve is working on the first expansion pack to Half-Life 2, provisionally titled "Aftermath", according to a cover story from UK gaming magazine PC Gamer's May issue.

 

The expansion is tentatively scheduled for a "summer" release in the northern hemisphere - winter in NZ. Of course, experience suggests that any date given by Valve should be taken with a large mouthful of salt, however.

 

Contrary to previous rumours, the expansion will reportedly not feature Half-Life 2 co-star Alyx Vance as the playable character. Alyx is set to be a much more active partner to Gordon Freeman, though.

 

"We really want Alyx to grow as a character," said Valve designer Robin Walker in the PC Gamer interview. "There was the promise of that in the first game, but we spent so much of our time introducing her as a character, we didn't really get a chance to spend time with her for an entire section. She would flit in and out. Since she's with you quite a lot, we're working on ways to make her a lot more interesting to be around, a lot more interesting to interact with.

 

"It's kind of ironic that despite so much of the theme of Half-Life 2 being about other characters and other people, you spent most of the game alone."

 

As the title suggests, the expansion will be set after the events of Half-Life 2. Valve writer Marc Laidlaw explains: "You've done critical damage to the Citadel. The whole place is going to go up, taking out City 17 and what's in its immediate radius. You and Alyx are leading the flight from the city getting up close and personal with some of the creatures and sights from the end of the game."

 

Valve are developing the expansion in-house, a departure from how Half-Life's expansions were farmed out to third-party developer Gearbox. Moreover, some of Walker's comments in the PC Gamer article suggest the game might be a Steam-exclusive, avoiding the complications of working with estranged publisher Vivendi Universal Games to deliver it as a boxed product.

 

"The reason we're able to do this, and why it's so exciting is because of Steam. If we were doing this without Steam we'd have to put it in a box, we'd have to start figuring out shelf space over a year beforehand. You'd see it six years from now," Walker hyperbolised.

 

"We're enthusiastic, we want to make games. We're people who love to create, but we don't have the thrill of smaller projects," admitted Walker. "We can't just throw something out there and see how the customers enjoy it. As soon as Half-Life 2 came out, the mod community created all these combinations of monster battles that we hadn't gotten around to. We never did the Xen Controller versus the Tentacle. This time we want to be the ones to have that fun."

More Details: http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=58579

 

I'm all for an expansion to Half-Life 2, but after reading through that article and discovering that it could be "Steam-exclusive" concerns me. Simply put.... Steam is ****. If Valve go ahead with the "Steam-exclusive" delivery of the expansion there will be many fans put off at the idea of paying and downloading.

[Cygnus X-1 12]

No offense to anyone, but I never saw what made Half-life and HL2 any good.

[BWare 0]

No offense to anyone, but I never saw what made Half-life and HL2 any good.

!!!

well, I don't take offense over a VIDEO GAME, but I really loved both of them. They're just really well made games... first one was a great blend of fps and role playing to a small extent- very compelling story, solid gameplay, etc. Half Life 2 is just amazing

 

but yeah... strange parallel here between RA1 and Half Life. Remember the RA1 expansions? Aftermath and Counterstrike. Hmmmm......

[Cygnus X-1 12]

I thought the story was interesting enough, but the gameplay just put me off.....

[chickendippers 1]

Why? What was wrong with it?

[Cygnus X-1 12]

Especially at the begining, there was too much nothing to do, and the graphics werent that geat, the movemnet was weird, the auto targeting was nice, and where was the ingame music?? And there was only one camera view, and no sort of cutscenes or animations. Didnt play HL2.

[chickendippers 1]

I agree that the intro was a bit boring, but it really sets the scene - nothing was wrong with the graphics especially at the time.

I don't find the movement any different from any other FPS and there's no auto-targeting, you weren't playing the PS2 version were you?

The ingame music is ambient, it's silent so you can hear all the clunks and groans to scare you and then a booming track comes in and the adrenaline goes off the scale.

Of course there was only one view, it's a First Person Shooter, although you could use the console and put it into 3rd person if you wanted.

There aren't any cutscenes becuase the story is developed through the eyes of Gordon Freeman - a quality that I find unique and very clever, you're right in the action!

[Cygnus X-1 12]

Perhaps its not my style. And yes it was the PS2 version.

[BWare 0]

word of advice: play HL2

[chickendippers 1]

Well, I didn't play the PS2 version, but by the time it was released on the PS2 the graphics were outdated. I don't know who was incharge of the conversion but maybe they didn't do a very good job of the controls?

[fox34343 1]

the ps2 version has updated graphics, and some very nice co-op missions.

[chickendippers 1]

It might just have the high-definition textures that came with Blue Shift?

[apocolyp4 0]

No as the PS2 version came out a few month before blue shift was released.

[Cygnus X-1 12]

Whatever they did the graphics could have been better for the PS2.

 

At least Republic Commando is good, so I'll still get my FPS playtime

[Arificial 0]

In my opinion, they are equally as good. But, Valve has made the multiplayer very hard and incomprehensible to understand, I mean, who would pay to play an online multiplayer for PC? well apparently, everyone who owns it, but not me, I mean, Valve even explained that hackers have now found a process of stealing your account and using it because they have been banned for cheating. And with the steam six Mod that can have your account stolen more quickly? I, for one, will not be part of that situation, no way, no how!

[chickendippers 1]

What? I had no problems with installing/updating Half Life 2 and I'm not confused.

[BWare 0]

I mean, who would pay to play an online multiplayer for PC?

WHA??? Dude, there is a MASSIVE amount of people who play online multiplyer games on the PC. A vast majority! I myself am a huge fan of Counterstrike, and play it whenever I'm not completely swamped with work (which is not often- premed is a freaking pain).

[dapperdan 0]

i love playing counter strike online, its fantastic and its a great community.

[Cygnus X-1 12]

The online gaming is what shot PC gaming up and over console gaming by alot. And the modability of PC games as opposed to console games.

[Sonic 295]

The online gaming is what shot PC gaming up and over console gaming by alot.

That gap is closing now with services such as XBox Live.

[Cygnus X-1 12]

Still cant mod console games. Unless you have a PS2 emulator for you PC, and even then, its only moded on your PC, not on the Console.

 

BTW the PS2 emulator is only so good, lots of buggs still, and it costs like $300 so the original is better. They sell for what, $120 now?

[chickendippers 1]

The PS2 7000 (the slimline one) costs £100

[dapperdan 0]

yeah, i got one of those slimline ones, pretty nifty too, like the size of a book. :shock:

[chickendippers 1]

Only bought it 'cos my PS2 broke and the shop refused to replace it without the recpit - grrr, wish Sony made better quality stuff.

[dapperdan 0]

i usually find that if u take things back to asda they will accept them without reciept but they giv u storre credit for that department u got it in