Half-Life 2: Episode Two boxes dropping this Fall
by Ludwig Kietzmann 
{ Feb 7th 2007 at 3:45PM }
It's all a big misunderstanding. When Valve declared that the Half-Life franchise would adopt an episodic distribution model, the world mistakenly assumed that the familiar television format served as the inspiration. However, with the announcement of a Fall 2007 worldwide release for Half-Life 2: Episode Two (previously scheduled for Christmas 2006 and then Summer 2007), Valve has made it abundantly clear that their idea of episodic content is actually based on the Star Wars episodes, which saw six episodes released in the span of about 30 years.
Ah, we jest to hide the inherent bitterness left by a further delay to the EA-published Half-Life 2 packages, The Black Box (PC) and The Orange Box (Xbox 360, PS3). Both sets include Episode Two, Portal and Team Fortress 2, while the latter adds a lot of bang for the lowly buck in the form of Episode One and a graphically enhanced Half-Life 2. You know, like the Star Wars special edition trilogy.
Remember: Gordon shoots first!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Tetelestia @ Feb 7th 2007 3:59PM
Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.
Horrible.
Je2037 @ Feb 7th 2007 3:51PM
Graphically enhanced Half-life 2? Any details?
Arturo @ Feb 7th 2007 3:51PM
NOOOOOO!!! DELAYED AGAIN!! *sobs in corner*
C. Grant @ Feb 7th 2007 3:58PM
Valve hates me.
rats @ Feb 7th 2007 4:54PM
yes, but Star Wars offers 2 and a half hours of movie - a HL2 episode offers the same time of gameplay. Weaaaak...
Mobat555 @ Feb 7th 2007 4:13PM
For all of you who are crying about this, there is a formula. Take a date valve plans to release and add two years. That way your only mildly let down in three years.
copa @ Feb 7th 2007 4:21PM
And Valve is still promising a PS3 port at this point:
"The PS3 is a total disaster on so many levels, I think it's really clear that Sony lost track of what customers and what developers wanted," said Gabe Newell.
"I'd say, even at this late date, they should just cancel it and do a 'do over.' Just say, 'This was a horrible disaster and we're sorry and we're going to stop selling this and stop trying to convince people to develop for it.'"
Iced_Eagle @ Feb 7th 2007 4:28PM
#1 They've stated that HL2 will receive full HDR treatment, and that after they release it for the consoles they will distribute it over Steam for PC as well :)
AirIntake @ Feb 7th 2007 4:35PM
Ouch, I have a long wait ahead...
Purple Haze @ Feb 7th 2007 4:36PM
Arturo are you am emo?
Khuffie @ Feb 7th 2007 4:50PM
Someone forgot the tag...
gLitterbug @ Feb 7th 2007 4:54PM
Wow how shocking, a company that hasn't failed to meet any deadline so far is surprisingly delaying a game. Sarcasm aside, how should episodic gaming ever get a good reputation if the big names fuck it up so badly. Guess in the end they will all just come to the conclusion that the episodic format "does not work".
Kizzle @ Feb 7th 2007 6:49PM
Valve is too busy finding new ways to:
*Annoy us with Steam
*Ruin Day of Defeat even more
*Put advertisements in their games
...to actually bring it out.
Seriously - it's a game that's about 1/3rd the length of a "real" game, and much of it is already in place from previous outings of HL2...and it STILL takes them a pathetic amount of time to release it. Someone take the cupcake out of Gabe's hands and get him cracking whip on the employees down there.
Mat @ Feb 7th 2007 5:13PM
I don't want to wait :(
Also some forgot to close an italics tag!
ITALICS! :)
Davidus @ Feb 7th 2007 11:18PM
This doesn't bode well for the 360 version selling well. Would you rather purchase a Half-life 2 with extras or Halo 3? Valve doesn't need to directly compete with Bungie's magnum opus, nor should they want to. I want Valve's games to sell well on consoles, but they don't seem to consider the business side of when the product is released.
Arturo @ Feb 7th 2007 5:15PM
@9 :
No, I've just been more excited about this than a lot of other stuff coming out and I'm sad to see it delayed again. =(
Proton @ Feb 7th 2007 9:02PM
Half-life came out in 1999, Half-life 2 came out in 2004, Newell has said that at the rate they were doing games, that it would take 8 years to bring out half life 3. Spliting it up into episodic content gets it to the consumer sooner. I for one would rather wait the 1.5 or so years between episodes. The half-life mythos is getting deeper every time we get an episode.
Scarabus @ Feb 8th 2007 1:28AM
*sigh* This saddens me once again. Episodic content is nothing but a stupid fad that doesn't work in practice.
Je2037 @ Feb 8th 2007 9:21AM
Full HDR, nice. I'm still curious to see how it looks on the 360, and how well they deal with the lack of M/KB.