1up has posted its video interview with Gabe Newell, thus ending
their weeklong lust for all things Half-Life. In the two part video interview (totaling 17 minutes), Mr. Head Honcho
Newell himself talks about pretty much everything you could think he would say, from his displeasure at next-generation
consoles to the episodic content for Half-Life 2 to a Half-Life movie. Of note from part one:
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Half-Life movie? "Maybe someday," Newell declares, after admitting that he and his company have actually tried writing a script.
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The upcoming episodic content well be not longer, but better than Half-Life 2.
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In a somewhat technical discussion, Newell talks technology he hopes to see fully operational in the future, where everything up close to the player is 3-dimensional, and everything in the distance is a 2D image, thereby lowering the on-screen polygon count.
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His 2 most painful memories of Steam: Getting it operational, and the launch of Half-Life 2. "From a technical standpoint, I think it's evolving. From a 'not annoying the hell out of the customers' standpoint,' I think we are out of that hole."
In part two, Newell gets a little bitterer when talking about Microsoft?s upcoming Windows successor (?There is
nothing in Longhorn at all that will help me?), on Sony?s Cell processor (?tiny little errors can grind [a program] to
a halt, and there is no visibility into why that?s happening?). Showing that he is not simply bashing Sony, Newell
references the Sega Saturn / PlayStation One debate, where Saturn tried to make games more complicated with sprites and
Sony focused on 3D graphics. He does have some kind words to say about World of Warcraft, which he calls a ?great
experience? that also benefits from the fan base.
Whether or not you always agree with Newell, he is still an interesting character to listen to him speak, as he is
very blunt about his opinions. What do you think of the interview?
