Yes, I am horribly, horribly late with this.

Those who launch their Steam client more than once a year will notice that Valve has put some downloadable trailers up for Portal and Team Fortress 2, which are scheduled to be released by the end of this year, barring any delays. (We shall see!)

I was going to be getting Half-Life 2: Episode Two anyway because Episode One was so awesome, but now it has only strengthened my resolve 🙂

I am always happy to see more Half-Life, since it is definitely one of my favorite gaming franchises (if not my most favorite). Half-Life 2: Episode One came out today, and boy is it awesome. Valve promised between four and six hours of gameplay. I clocked in at around four and a half, and I have only one thing to say about it.

It is worth every cent.

One of the great things about Valve is how much effort they put into making their games. This is no exception and literally trumps SiN Episodes: Emergence; no wonder they waited a month to launch. They didn’t want to upstage Ritual again. Everything about the game just screams polish.

I am going to play through it again to listen to the commentary. Talk about a solid, solid title.

This probably won’t receive a lot of attention, because Valve has already received more than enough over the past two years. But, there is an important question raised in the wake of the somewhat disappointing announcement.

The question isn’t "Well, what did you expect?" Valve has a reputation to live up to, sure.

At stake here is the idea of episodic content for Source that Valve proposed shortly after the launch of Half-Life 2. The notion was that an episode would take perhaps three or four months to produce, and would be followed by another in a short time span. This isn’t going to happen. We might be seeing the first SiN episode pop up by Christmastime, but Valve is holding on to Aftermath very tightly.

On the other hand, this is Valve we’re talking about. Come next spring, we will have an incredibly polished first episode to look forward to. Valve understands the value of impression, and Valve certainly has never let us down there. After all, we are all witness to what an extra year contributed to HL2.

I hope we don’t see a lot of fuss made over this minor delay. Yes, Valve will do what it feels is best for its product. We cannot do anything to influence this. The least we can do is not attack them; Valve has never known a commercial failure, but they may be the most loved and hated game developer operating today.

Tom Leonard, AI programmer
Valve Software

Date: March 28, 2005
Time: 6:30 pm-7:30pm
Place: University Of Utah
80 S Central Campus Dr (1620 E.)
Salt Lake City, UT 84112

Building: Engineering/Mines Classroom Bldg (EMCB)
Room: 104

Who’s Tom Leonard?

Tom Leonard works at Valve where he most recently helped design and build Half-Life 2, focusing on creature AI, level design, and core AI implementation. Immediately prior to joining Valve, Tom was the CTO of Buzzpad, Inc. Before that, he spent five years at Looking Glass Studios, where he was notably the lead programmer of Thief: The Dark Project, writing the AI and core architecture for the game. Tom lives in Seattle with his wife and daughter.

This is a free event and everyone is welcome

Please check the SIGDA website as more details will be posted: http://sigda.asuu.utah.edu