they'll make an entire game just to get a licensing deal with EA
Hmm? Which game was that? Licensing deal with EA? I've seriously never heard anything about that.
Also, I'm not a "fanboi". I mainly like the Source engine (which is only 25% Valve's anyway- underneath all that polish it's nothing but Quake) and Half-Life's story. I play their games because I like them, not because I have some irrational affinity to the producer. Believe me, if Valve ever does something truly stupid I'll be one of the first to complain. I don't play Left 4 Dead because it simply does not interest me. Actually, there's a Gmod map called Electric Onslaught which is essentially Left 4 Dead only slightly different and a hell of a lot more fun.
You can say a lot of things about me, but I've never made a thread devoted to seeing people agree with me.
Such a sweet way of distorting what I stated and being an ass again. Let me explicitly state that this thread is meant to let people rant about games whether they agree with me or not. They can rant about the same thing over and over, be it something I don't care about or something against my own rant, if that will make them feel better.
Look at Valve. Every employee of Valve Software knows what he's doing. They PLAY games, not just make them, and they know what the consumer wants.
They do? Unless they use some hidden accounts or private setup, all TF2 developer stats are crap. It's like they don't even bother touching it. I also don't want any more HL or L4D games, I hope they know I want that and move to something better, like Portal 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, etc. And ultra-high quality boring games? Such a cute fanboy. =p
Spore.... Man, I regret pre-ordering it so much. Slightly more than I regret buying HL2 crap. I mean, I can see how Spore can be entertaining for little kids and how the creature editor was pretty much the only good bit of it, but so much disappointment due to that early demo.
There's no need for personal attacks.
It's not like Valve's games are the only ones that exist you know. During playtesting they probably use special dev. copies that don't call in to Steam (for good reason I bet, Steam is nice for getting good deals but the "No connection? NO GAEMS 4 U" is crap, made almost insulting with "offline mode" which does absolutely nothing except make it so that Steam doesn't even try...) and there's the separate accounts mentioned above. Listen to the commentary, it's very interesting. They have it all down to a precise science.
While you personally may prefer another Portal to Episode 3, just as many people have the reverse opinion. There's no need to be all offensive just because someone has different tastes. Let's start a fistfight because I like A1 steak sauce, why don't we?
I don't get the love for valve games. Arn't they exactly the opposite of what a good game should be? Everything's linear and prescripted, the gameplay is mind-numbingly simple, everything's damn easy once you figure out the basics (Except for whit portal, that becomes easy once you've figured out some of the puzzles). There's no freedom to roam, there's no emergent gameplay and for the on-line games the community tends to suck. Only good thing they have is outdated graphics.
Not really. "Linear is bad" is as much of a fallacy as "original is good". Let's see... Super Mario World, Metroid, Super Mario 64, Doom, Final Fantasy, Earthbound, Paper Mario, Super Mario RPG, Super Smash Brothers Brawl's Subspace Emissary mode, Marathon, Super Mario Galaxy, Zork, Planetfall, Bioshock, System Shock... Most of these are pretty generally accepted "good" games, and all strictly "linear". There's absolutely nothing wrong with being "linear". "Linear" basically means that you move forward without making important decisions. It makes it easier to tell a coherent story. Anyway, if you're just shooting at things, who cares? I'm not saying that "nonlinear" games are bad, just that it doesn't automatically make them good either, and certainly isn't a bad thing.
As for "mind numbingly simple"... That's a good description for about 75% of games. Not video games. All games. Go fish, any and all FPS games, rythm games... Just because it's simple dosn't mean it's bad.
The problem is that you're taking industry buzzwords too seriously. I put them in quotes for a reason. They don't really mean anything in terms of game quality. Everything's easy once you figure out the basics? Yes, that's true. Everything.
My ass. And even the stuff they've done with L4D2 has amounted to paying for cinematic campaigns. Lying *** mother-****ers.
Again, when did this happen? I must be out of touch.
. They have an even base of established customers, and the customer base is large enough that they can make a profit simply pandering to these people.
