Half-Life 2 hits arcades, Survivor-style

Awesome!

HOLY CRAP! SELL THEM ON EBAY, PEOPLE WILL WILLING TO PAY TOP DOLLAR FOR THIS!

Oh Dear Sweet Lord do I want to try that out.

Has anyone notice on the 12th picture down at the top it says "ENERMY" and not enemy. WOO HOO GO MISPEELING

Far more interesting is that the screenshots are in 720p. That means arcades are finally getting HD content. Having the source engine powering it all means that even if the game isn't all that entertaining, the graphics will kick the living s**t out of every other machine around it.

Who wasn't at least compelled to spend a buck for five minutes of 'house of the dead? The local arcade is still alive- I think the only way they made money off of me was when I bought a slice of pizza for two bucks. But still with each unit costing 3 grand how much of a profit did they expect to make?

I'm surprised that arcades were able to last as long as they did in the US. Fundamentally the system was flawed because of the rule that there was only one unit for one game

I'm not sure how popular pc arcades (pc cafe, pc bang... etc) are in your neighborhood, but there were three in my hood that each lasted for a few years, but for some reason went out of business, even though they were always each at least quarter capacity with a rate of three-five bucks per hour of play. I know that you have to update your units every year, but it's still alot cheaper than buying a freakin new arcade unit for every damn game vs having eight solid choices and keeping your customer in a maintained position.

I thought FPS didn't do well in Japan? But I guess if the Arcade is dead in the US, they did have much of a choice. Maybe these will pop up the The Sharper Image's x-mas catalog, sign me up!

Edit: 'did' should actually be 'didn't'

Posted Nov 30, 2005, 6:51 PM ET by EdZ
Far more interesting is that the screenshots are in 720p. That means arcades are finally getting HD content. Having the source engine powering it all means that even if the game isn't all that entertaining, the graphics will kick the living s**t out of every other machine around it.
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Do realise that this is the "Japanese" Arcade market, they have had HD resolution games for absolutely ages, then again, they've had HD technology long before anyone else. The fact remains that many arcade games never see the likes of the Western shores either because they are too expensive, they are made for Japan only, and as the article implies, the arcade market is almost dead in the West. Although here in the United Kingdom, it is truely well and alive!

As interesting this colaboration between Valve & Taito is, I can't really expect it to do too well unless I'm proven wrong. I mean we all know FPS games never sell well in Japan. And if this game becomes a flop though it has got unique control methods (Similar to Gundam arcade cabinets!), it would cost Taito even more seeing as they are already losing lots of money.

They probably enhanced it a bit to make it more action-oriented, giving it that arcadish feeling.

What's really interesting is the controls. How the heck am I suppose to control Gordon with that thing? Reminds me of the Virtual-On games :p

I'll pass on this one. Plus, arcades in my local area is either DDR or Initial-D related. It's pretty much dead over here.

Watch some mod freak make a home version of this set-up in his basement. It'd be well worth it considering you could hawk it on Ebay for a nice profit.