face it man. Valve make great tech, and that's it. even their employee handbook says they're a mainly tech focused place of work.
I wouldn't say that. They aren't the bleeding edge on tech or art, they seem to focus on the entire package. Writing & design seem to be their strongest points - just compare Narbacular drop to Portals 1 & 2.
I don't think there's much chance that's real. Would he really crap on Activision when Steam sells Call of Duty? Would he really abuse end users like that? Mock them? Shit on Valve's work in Half-Life?
I don't think there's much chance that's real. Would he really crap on Activision when Steam sells Call of Duty? Would he really abuse end users like that? Mock them? Shit on Valve's work in Half-Life?
I'm skeptical.
...
A Message From Gabe Newell
By Andrew Bridgman
It's a comedy piece and a rather good one for that matter, wish it came from the G-Man himself though
And as far as the announcement's went, I was really disappointed. I'm sure there are some people that this appeals to but I'm just not one of them, and that controller looks pretty bad, can't imagine how dual trackpads are going to feel to play games on.
I don't think there's much chance that's real. Would he really crap on Activision when Steam sells Call of Duty? Would he really abuse end users like that? Mock them? Shit on Valve's work in Half-Life?
I'm skeptical.
Yea I don't think he would ever be that blunt at least not in public, but I think it needed to be said and I bet a lot of people at Valve have had similar thoughts.
I'm glad they are trying to shake up the console market, it might get the console makers to start making some different decisions.
As for the controller I wonder if any controller will work like it does now. If it sucks and you have to use it all the time like xbox or PS3 forces you to then it could blow. But if they let people use any kind of controller they want and provide a platform for mapping controls then the controller isn't such an issues, it could be just one option among many.
Still I need to get the controller in my hands before I pass judgement on it.
I'm not even sure if they are set on this design they said that they are releasing a bunch to the public for testing and that the first 300 or so aren't even the style they have been showing off so whatever they settle on will probably be based on user feedback. They say that's how they like to operate, that giving users a sandbox and letting them drive the innovation is how good things get made, maybe that works?
That seems to be pretty popular design theory going around these days. Instead of trying to predict future markets or rigidly control how users interact with a system or service, ship with a basic set of features and build what the users want as they want it.
No one cooked up facebook in a vacuum and released it perfectly as it currently is. It's grown and evolved over time just like a lot of things have been doing lately.
MS and Sony cook up a new chunk of hardware and then rigidly stick to that design for the next decade, squashing change and progress, ignoring their customers and then only making minimal changes to things that users don't care about when it comes time to rigidly lock in hardware for the next decade.
I'd rather go back to the freewheeling days of PC gaming when things where more fluid and innovation was happening more than just planned obsolesces once every 10 years.
I don't think the criticism of the idea that making a new Half-Life is stifling innovation. Each of the HL games are known for being innovative and genre redefining and so I think fans who want HL3 don't want just a sequel for sequels sake and to wrap up storylines that are unfinished, but a game that is just as innovative as the previous.
I'd rather go back to the freewheeling days of PC gaming when things where more fluid and innovation was happening more than just planned obsolesces once every 10 years.
100% agreed Vig. Gaming consoles is literally the only field in technology that I can think of that works in ~7-10 year iterations like this. Imagine if we'd had to wait 10 years for the next phone to come out. Then we'd still be sporting flip phones.
At the same time, I'm very aware that better hardware =/= better graphics, gameplay. On the other hand there have been very few big titles lately that have deviated from the established gameplay standards of their respective genres.
I don't think the criticism of the idea that making a new Half-Life is stifling innovation. Each of the HL games are known for being innovative and genre redefining and so I think fans who want HL3 don't want just a sequel for sequels sake and to wrap up storylines that are unfinished, but a game that is just as innovative as the previous.
Honestly, I just want an episode 3 to wrap up the story.
At the same time, I'm very aware that better hardware =/= better graphics, gameplay. On the other hand there have been very few big titles lately that have deviated from the established gameplay standards of their respective genres.
Yea I completely agree.
But... there have been titles that have shipped recently and I could tell that they wanted to do something but had to scale back because it was running on 10yr old hardware.
I don't think the hardware innovations should drive design but I think the hardware needs to be fast enough to get out of the way of a good design and restrict it as little as possible.
the only reason Dx9 is still a thing, is because of ps3/xbox360. the only reason it's been dropped by the new Cryengine, and Unreal Engine, is because the new consoles run on Dx11.
it's logical to assume that we're now going to be stuck with Dx11 being the main graphics platform for fuck knows how long. which is kind of ridiculous.
spotted huge potential -
hired it -
gave it the tools -
gave it the distribution platform -
made a fuckton of money.
face it man. Valve make great tech, and that's it. even their employee handbook says they're a mainly tech focused place of work.
Ok now you went a bit to far with your argument "valve don't make great games they hire people who do". Because you are massively combining game design with game development In a way that is making my head spin. Obviously the core concept of Portal, Dota, TF2 and so forth did not stray far from the designs of their original creators. Do you know what did? THE ACTUAL GAME! Like, incredibly. So Much. In every case. Ever.
Developing the incredible art styles, the music, the writing, the flow, the community, the level design, the (in the case of TF2 and DOTA, revolutionary and incredibly polished) systems of marketplaces, matchmaking and community built around the games themselves.
I cannot fathom how much you are selling valve short on their massive creative endeavours outside of tech and systems.:polytwitch:
If Microsoft had half a brain they would open source directx. The above while great I can see leading to the old voodoo days of different versions of the same game based on what graphics hardware you have.
That seems more like something they would want to do just in case some asshat tried to hold the trademark hostage. Kind of like what Atari did by snatching up Unreal Tournament 2004-2020 trademarks and domain names. Then Atari and Epic parted ways and the next version of UT after UT2k4 was UT3 not UT2k7.
I was shocked this wasn't already done. I mean ... That's usually the sort of thing that people grab up and want to sell back to the company when they decide they want it. Or can you not do that with trademarks?
From what I've seen if you try to trademark something out from underneath another company you'll be forced to give it back. You have to prove that your trademark stands alone and has merit. Atari was able to do it with Unreal Tournament because they published the game. There was probably something in the contract that they had rights to the name.
I don't think this is quite the big news everyone has been making it out to be. The existace of a HL3 dev team has been known and leaked for some time, in various ways. The most recent before this was some tours valve gave to Pro DOTA 2 players for The International 3. Some photos from inside the office showed Half Life 3 mailing lists, as well as L4D3 and Source 2. I think there have been other leaks too showing these mailing lists and development groups.
However in the mean time, can we hunt down any portfolios from that list o names?
I can easily believe that someone at Valve is working on, or planning for Half Life 3. I don't believe that we are going to see anything concrete for quite some time. Working on a franchise at a company like Valve is not the same as being geared up for full production. I imagine they have at least a small team exploring ways to utilize their various popular IP ALL THE TIME. There is at least one employee "working" on every potential sequel in their stable constantly.
When the rest of the studio is actually behind Half Life 3 you'll know that its time to start getting excited. For now I wouldn't get too worked up.
I would not be surprised if they just created another new IP instead of a sequel.
All their new experiences and knowledge can only be good for a worthy sequel on the half life franchise.
Here are the specifications for Valve's 300 prototypes.
The 300 prototype units will ship with the following components:
GPU: some units with NVidia Titan, some GTX780, some GTX760, and some GTX660
CPU: some boxes with Intel : i7-4770, some i5-4570, and some i3
RAM: 16GB DDR3-1600 (CPU), 3GB DDR5 (GPU)
Storage: 1TB/8GB Hybrid SSHD
Power Supply: Internal 450w 80Plus Gold
Dimensions: approx. 12 x 12.4 x 2.9 in high
" The prototype machine is a high-end, high-performance box, built out of off-the-shelf PC parts. It is also fully upgradable, allowing any user to swap out the GPU, hard drive, CPU, even the motherboard if you really want to. Apart from the custom enclosure, anyone can go and build exactly the same machine by shopping for components and assembling it themselves. And we expect that at least a few people will do just that. (We'll also share the source CAD files for our enclosure, in case people want to replicate it as well.) "
Intel i7-4770 CPU
16 GB DDR3 1600 RAM
Intel 140 GB SSD
700W Power Supply
Dual NVidia GTX660, 4GB DDR5 total
I'd say that puts my current PC processing in line with the high-end of the prototype SteamMachines. I'm a little light in the GPU department, as I compromised with the lower-end standard that Valve went with. But I did double up on them, so my SLI arrangement does somewhat make up for that.
I probably won't be installing SteamOS on my PC just yet. I wouldn't commit that much PC hardware to the OS until the Steam Linux selection expands a bit more. But I am seriously considering building a smaller, SteamOS-focused box. I've got an old micro-case that my brother used to use. With the right Micro-ATX board, I could put together a capable SteamMachine.
Wow, nice speccs
I bet we're going to see a lot of people shed tears when these bad boys are going to cost more than the ps4.
I've never quite gotten the obsession with getting a supercheap product you're probably going to use for the next 5-8 years. I've no problems or objections if these boxes end up in the $1000-1500 range. I mean, that's probably what a decent phone costs in sweden anyway.
What? how does that event work? If that ssd component is treated as a separate drive then it is way too small.
*edit
After doing some research I know what it does now. The firmware places frequently accessed data on the 8GB like a cache and the whole drive is treated like a single 1TB
Here are the specifications for Valve's 300 prototypes.
The 300 prototype units will ship with the following components:
GPU: some units with NVidia Titan, some GTX780, some GTX760, and some GTX660
CPU: some boxes with Intel : i7-4770, some i5-4570, and some i3
RAM: 16GB DDR3-1600 (CPU), 3GB DDR5 (GPU)
Storage: 1TB/8GB Hybrid SSHD
Power Supply: Internal 450w 80Plus Gold
Dimensions: approx. 12 x 12.4 x 2.9 in high
" The prototype machine is a high-end, high-performance box, built out of off-the-shelf PC parts. It is also fully upgradable, allowing any user to swap out the GPU, hard drive, CPU, even the motherboard if you really want to. Apart from the custom enclosure, anyone can go and build exactly the same machine by shopping for components and assembling it themselves. And we expect that at least a few people will do just that. (We'll also share the source CAD files for our enclosure, in case people want to replicate it as well.) "
They could probably knock $150 off the final price if they went with AMD for cpu/gpu. Just saying.
I cant wait to try out the steam controller.
It looks -different-, that's exactly why I want to give it a go.
Plus this being Valve, I dont think they'll mess it up easily.
Im not a huge fan of the 1:1 for that right stick. constantly picking your thumb up and resetting it. you can argue you do that with a mouse, but really, most people have their sensativity way up so its only a flick of the wrist to get across the entire screen.
Finally some demos.
Looks pretty decent as a translation for KB&M for when on the couch, but it looks like I'm going to be right about Third-Person Action games where the twin-stick will still be king.
Could you not calibrate the touchpad to give you fairly low sensitivity in the centre and higher towards the outside. Giving you manouverability but high accuracy when you reset your thumb? And use the haptic feedback to tell you when you were using each.
Replies
I wouldn't say that. They aren't the bleeding edge on tech or art, they seem to focus on the entire package. Writing & design seem to be their strongest points - just compare Narbacular drop to Portals 1 & 2.
Ha!
I'm skeptical.
...
It's a comedy piece and a rather good one for that matter, wish it came from the G-Man himself though
And as far as the announcement's went, I was really disappointed. I'm sure there are some people that this appeals to but I'm just not one of them, and that controller looks pretty bad, can't imagine how dual trackpads are going to feel to play games on.
I'm glad they are trying to shake up the console market, it might get the console makers to start making some different decisions.
As for the controller I wonder if any controller will work like it does now. If it sucks and you have to use it all the time like xbox or PS3 forces you to then it could blow. But if they let people use any kind of controller they want and provide a platform for mapping controls then the controller isn't such an issues, it could be just one option among many.
Still I need to get the controller in my hands before I pass judgement on it.
I'm not even sure if they are set on this design they said that they are releasing a bunch to the public for testing and that the first 300 or so aren't even the style they have been showing off so whatever they settle on will probably be based on user feedback. They say that's how they like to operate, that giving users a sandbox and letting them drive the innovation is how good things get made, maybe that works?
That seems to be pretty popular design theory going around these days. Instead of trying to predict future markets or rigidly control how users interact with a system or service, ship with a basic set of features and build what the users want as they want it.
No one cooked up facebook in a vacuum and released it perfectly as it currently is. It's grown and evolved over time just like a lot of things have been doing lately.
MS and Sony cook up a new chunk of hardware and then rigidly stick to that design for the next decade, squashing change and progress, ignoring their customers and then only making minimal changes to things that users don't care about when it comes time to rigidly lock in hardware for the next decade.
I'd rather go back to the freewheeling days of PC gaming when things where more fluid and innovation was happening more than just planned obsolesces once every 10 years.
100% agreed Vig. Gaming consoles is literally the only field in technology that I can think of that works in ~7-10 year iterations like this. Imagine if we'd had to wait 10 years for the next phone to come out. Then we'd still be sporting flip phones.
At the same time, I'm very aware that better hardware =/= better graphics, gameplay. On the other hand there have been very few big titles lately that have deviated from the established gameplay standards of their respective genres.
Honestly, I just want an episode 3 to wrap up the story.
But... there have been titles that have shipped recently and I could tell that they wanted to do something but had to scale back because it was running on 10yr old hardware.
I don't think the hardware innovations should drive design but I think the hardware needs to be fast enough to get out of the way of a good design and restrict it as little as possible.
the only reason Dx9 is still a thing, is because of ps3/xbox360. the only reason it's been dropped by the new Cryengine, and Unreal Engine, is because the new consoles run on Dx11.
it's logical to assume that we're now going to be stuck with Dx11 being the main graphics platform for fuck knows how long. which is kind of ridiculous.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-could-amd-mantle-revolutionise-pc-gaming
Ok now you went a bit to far with your argument "valve don't make great games they hire people who do". Because you are massively combining game design with game development In a way that is making my head spin. Obviously the core concept of Portal, Dota, TF2 and so forth did not stray far from the designs of their original creators. Do you know what did? THE ACTUAL GAME! Like, incredibly. So Much. In every case. Ever.
Developing the incredible art styles, the music, the writing, the flow, the community, the level design, the (in the case of TF2 and DOTA, revolutionary and incredibly polished) systems of marketplaces, matchmaking and community built around the games themselves.
I cannot fathom how much you are selling valve short on their massive creative endeavours outside of tech and systems.:polytwitch:
If Microsoft had half a brain they would open source directx. The above while great I can see leading to the old voodoo days of different versions of the same game based on what graphics hardware you have.
could mean nothing... just interesting that they filed for the trademark recently.
Oh wow. Following a couple of links leads to:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=84311677&postcount=535
HL3 and L4D3 seem to be underway. Anyone recognise any Polycounters in this list? I've seen a couple, I think.
However in the mean time, can we hunt down any portfolios from that list o names?
When the rest of the studio is actually behind Half Life 3 you'll know that its time to start getting excited. For now I wouldn't get too worked up.
All their new experiences and knowledge can only be good for a worthy sequel on the half life franchise.
Here are the specifications for Valve's 300 prototypes.
The 300 prototype units will ship with the following components:
GPU: some units with NVidia Titan, some GTX780, some GTX760, and some GTX660
CPU: some boxes with Intel : i7-4770, some i5-4570, and some i3
RAM: 16GB DDR3-1600 (CPU), 3GB DDR5 (GPU)
Storage: 1TB/8GB Hybrid SSHD
Power Supply: Internal 450w 80Plus Gold
Dimensions: approx. 12 x 12.4 x 2.9 in high
" The prototype machine is a high-end, high-performance box, built out of off-the-shelf PC parts. It is also fully upgradable, allowing any user to swap out the GPU, hard drive, CPU, even the motherboard if you really want to. Apart from the custom enclosure, anyone can go and build exactly the same machine by shopping for components and assembling it themselves. And we expect that at least a few people will do just that. (We'll also share the source CAD files for our enclosure, in case people want to replicate it as well.) "
Intel i7-4770 CPU
16 GB DDR3 1600 RAM
Intel 140 GB SSD
700W Power Supply
Dual NVidia GTX660, 4GB DDR5 total
I'd say that puts my current PC processing in line with the high-end of the prototype SteamMachines. I'm a little light in the GPU department, as I compromised with the lower-end standard that Valve went with. But I did double up on them, so my SLI arrangement does somewhat make up for that.
I probably won't be installing SteamOS on my PC just yet. I wouldn't commit that much PC hardware to the OS until the Steam Linux selection expands a bit more. But I am seriously considering building a smaller, SteamOS-focused box. I've got an old micro-case that my brother used to use. With the right Micro-ATX board, I could put together a capable SteamMachine.
I bet we're going to see a lot of people shed tears when these bad boys are going to cost more than the ps4.
I've never quite gotten the obsession with getting a supercheap product you're probably going to use for the next 5-8 years. I've no problems or objections if these boxes end up in the $1000-1500 range. I mean, that's probably what a decent phone costs in sweden anyway.
*edit
After doing some research I know what it does now. The firmware places frequently accessed data on the 8GB like a cache and the whole drive is treated like a single 1TB
They could probably knock $150 off the final price if they went with AMD for cpu/gpu. Just saying.
I figured with Valve behind it, whomever they choose would bend over backwards to get decent Linux drivers.
Edit:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2049369/amd-nvidia-ramp-up-linux-driver-support-after-valves-steamos-announcement.html
Also yes, Mantle would put the steam box on a whole nother level.
Actually they did, see edit above (didn't see you replied until after).
It looks -different-, that's exactly why I want to give it a go.
Plus this being Valve, I dont think they'll mess it up easily.
[ame="
Looks pretty decent as a translation for KB&M for when on the couch, but it looks like I'm going to be right about Third-Person Action games where the twin-stick will still be king.
yeah I was put off by that too maybe you could just adjust the sensitivity but it might make it hard to aim accurately.