>What is your personal favourite Valve game/series?>I think Portal 2 is our best single-player game. I play Dota 2 the most of our multiplayer games.>Q: What do you regret about Half-Life then? That’s an interesting thing to say, regarding that the HL series is one of the most critically acclaimed of all time.>The issue with Half-Life for me is that I was involved in a much higher percentage of the decisions about the games, so it’s hard for me to look at them as anything other than a series of things I regret. It’s simply easier for me to be a fan of things that in which I was less directive.>If you are involved in a game, everything ends up being a set of trade-offs. Anything in a game is a sacrifice of things not in the game. I just feel those more personally about Half-Life for a bunch of reasons. And Xen.
valve used to be really good at making games that are good bases for modding oncehopefully hl3 continues that tradition
>>744578706I'm sorry, but I refuse to believe anyone at Valve, especially not Gabe, plays DotA 2
>>744579570He very famously plays a lot of dota 2 or at least used to
>>744578706Younger Gabe that just released HL2 would call old gabe an old grumpy defeatist fag.
>>744579570the reason valve keeps sharting out MOBAs is almost solely because gaben is (or was) a huge mobafag and kept on hiring other mobafags.
>>744578706i agree
>>744579570Literally the only way valve could have allowed themselves to sink as low as they did over Dota was because Gabe and the other higher ups actually like the game.
>>744578706>I'm more critical of things I personally worked on/directedOf course?
>>744579570Dota 2 seems like one of the very few things Valve are *actually* passionate about, at least compared to how they treat other things. Like, the game definitely makes a LOT less money than Counter Strike yet it receives 100x more love.
>>744586065Shhh, let them have their bait thread.
>>744578706Portal 2 is reddit humor the game, it's a perfect time capsule of 2011.
>>744578706because slavic aesthetic caused billions of russians to shat up dota and cs servers
Portal 1 is the better game. Portal 2's redditennial writing has not aged well at all.
>>744578706This thread is tabloid bullshit, what’s he’s saying is completely reasonable yet you highlighted the most out of context quote
>>744579570That's because you're a retarded newfag. Gaben was well known to have played tons of dota back in the day
>>744578706half of /v/iggers have never even played half life 2. game is overrated as hell.literally the midwit iq meme.it evented unskippable walking segments and had "puzzels" that are on the same level as Wood Shape Puzzles for babies.
>>744587927Ask me how I know you just played the game recently for the first time
>>744586168You say that but saying Portal 2 is their best single player is certainly eyebrow raising. It's worth noting this was said before Alyx though.
>>744586737Portal 1 is the better story. Portal 2 makes massive improvements on its gameplay as evidenced by how the community use Portal 2's gameplay mechanics as its base for mods.
>>744579570Non-Dota fags will never ever understand.We Dotatards are a different breed.
>>744579570iirc he plays vs bots, not sure if with a team full of bots or the player vs bots mode. You'd have to be crazy to think gabe is subjecting himself to real pubs
>>744588456nta but I haven't seen 1 decent game dev from "back in the day" who hasn't degraded in some way over time. They all get old and out of touch.
>>744588563People like Portal 2's mechanics, but the puzzle design seems too minimalistic with portalable surface placements. Takes too much thought out of their placement.
He looks like Santa Claus if he turned into a coke dealer.
>>744588563>Portal 2 makes massive improvements on its gameplayThe mechanics feel dumbed down compared to the first game though, they introduce a lot of new puzzle elements but really besides that it feels like it lost something special going away from the Half-Life formula. It had a linearity and on rails experience that bothers me even if art style wise I do think it has a much stronger identity of its own.
>>744578706Dude glazed Portal 2 hard because it was the most hands-off he's ever been with a single-player game from Valve. Based on the interviews with the devs, it gave the impression that he wasn't even involved in giving feedback or having any kind of directive on the production whatsoever. As for his regret, looking back, the dude was kind of impulsive with the decision-making on HL games. I recall he was the one who wanted Eli to be killed at the end of Episode 2 when the writers didn't plan for it. I suspect he also was the one who pulled the plug on all HL projects back in the late 2000s. It's just too sudden and kind of a cop out when Valve already hired a lot of manpower for the games, even involving other studios to make more HL games at the time.
>>744589160>, but the puzzle design seems too minimalistic with portalable surface placements.This has always been such an npc take, just not where the challenge in portal puzzles comes from. You only need to look alot of the legitimately hard test chambers the community ends up making and seeing how they tend to not cover the test chambers in white surfaces either and yet easily end up being harder than anything in portal 1.>>744589989>The mechanics feel dumbed down compared to the first game thoughNo. Thermal discouragement beams alone are such a massive complexity upgrade over the spheres. At best you can attempt to make the argument that portal 2's single player campaign does not do enough to show off how much better portal 2's mechanics lends itself to puzzles. Which is certainly the reason why this conversation keeps happening.
>>744578706>And Xen.I played HL1/2 for the first time ever this year and xen wasn't even that bad, I don't know where all this xen bashing comes from. by comparison, nearly every section in HL2 feels like THAT level, the kind that kills any excitement you might have for replaying a game. No I don't want to drive an airboat around for 2 hours, no I don't want to play catch with dog, no I don't want to go through Ravenholm, no I don't want to play the floor is lava across a shitty ass desert. i honestly couldn't believe HL2 was so critically acclaimed when I beat it, crazy how hard physics puzzles can carry a game
>>744579570There is a literal Gabe Newell announcer pack in the game with his actual voice. He used to come out and start The International and watch the teams play. Gabe fucking loves DOTA. He plays Sand King. Is he good? Who knows I'll be curious if he has any love for Deadlock.
>>744593318>no I don't want to go through RavenholmFaggot
>>744592593>i-it's actually good, you just need to play the right mods and custom mapslol, lmao even
Why should I listen to someone who doesn't even have the discipline of not being a fat fuck?
>>744592593Look man if someone shits on Doom 2's mapset I'm not going to tell them they just shouldn't care because wads exist. It's a really deflating feeling when you're processing your next move in P2 and at times it's just I Spy the White Wall.
>>744593318I always thought it was weird that people hate Xen more than all the parts of HL1 that "pace" out the gameplay.
>>744594503Frankly even the actual game does a better job being a puzzle game than portal 1 where the "puzzle" was "do a portal fling" over and over. But it makes the point all the more clear to just point to the actually good test chambers the community made that show just how good portal 2's mechanics lend itself to puzzles and to leave it to you not not be a bitch and actually play a challenging portal puzzle for once.>>744595081Except we weren't talking exclusively about the mapset were we? We talk about the game as a whole, then that includes the mechanics, hell that even includes the built-in editor that specifically lets you not be restricted by the game's current test chambers.If someone says Doom 2, not just the mapset sucks, then yes you do fucking tell them to download WADs if the WADs makes them appreciate the enemies and weapons better than the mapset does.
>>744595485>Except we weren't talking exclusively about the mapset were we? We talk about the game as a whole, then that includes the mechanicsWell the first game's maps encouraged me to check out the challenge rooms. I don't think P2 is as good as the sum of its parts by comparison which is to say I don't think the single player used its mechanics and puzzle elements as well as P1 did with the stuff it had. Never mind the writing or roller coaster segments that will do nothing for you after the first playthrough.
pcbrostest
>>744578706I get his mindset, making a game brings a very different feeling from playing an unrelated one. When you make a game you know everything about it, the good and the bad. There are no surprises left in store for you because you made the store and have to live with the final product knowing you had to cut or change a bunch of shit that you felt were cooler as a concept during development.
>>744596105>still talking about mapsI get it, when all you have is a hammer>I don't think P2 is as good as the sum of its parts by comparison which is to say I don't think the single player used its mechanics and puzzle elements as well as P1 did with the stuff it hadIf you're talking the sum of its parts why did you immediately hone in on the single player? And "the stuff it had" is a pretty key word there since that is in itself something to judge the game by. A far more important reason really. New maps can be added, and really to have any longevity they need to be, but "the stuff it has" is always going to be what those maps will have to work with.
>The exact development cost for Portal 2 has never been officially disclosed by Valve Corporation. However, industry estimates and contemporary reports place its budget at a standard AAA level for its time, roughly estimated between $20 million and $30 million.Just a reminder that Portal 2 (Valve's best single player game according to their owner) cost between $20 and $30 million dollars to make. A month or two ago, Gabe bought a mansion in Miami for $70 million. We could have had THREE Portal games for that amount. THREE entire Portal games to enjoy. THREE entire pieces of art for the younger folks to use as inspiration. THREE entire Portal games that push the boundaries of game development.Instead, this rich prick got himself a "vacation" mansion he's probably gonna visit once a year. And some people STILL have the guts to defend him. Jeez.
>>744597078>If you're talking the sum of its parts why did you immediately hone in on the single player?Because that's the part that really matters for a game like Portal for me. I'm interested in assessing the skill and intentions of the game's designers, not what just anyone can do with their tools. The sky's the limit there, but I'm not going to lean on it to outsource the actual designer's jobs.
>>744578706Based Lord Gaben. Now release Portal 3
>>744598164" part that really matters for a game like Portal for me" =/= "sum of its parts"
>>744598164>The sky's the limit thereNot when maps are being made with the editor, the limit then is what the actual mechanics of the game are.
>>744601582>"sum of its parts"Of the single player experience, not the product you buy off the store. Portal 2's single player has a lot of segments and components that stand out, but they don't come together as well as Portal 1's in totality. If I wanted to assess the very best of all custom content made with a game, I think that should mostly reflect on the designers for those maps themselves, not the game that was tested and shipped. Portal 2's user maps don't inform me that maybe I don't really care about a HL3 from modern Valve, but the single player does.
>>744587927yeah, it's not a good gamethe main thing it has going for it is that a lot of its competition are somehow worseHalf life is a good game (for its time) but pretty dated now, but half life 2 is just a "good game" in the eyes of retards who don't play games.
>>744598071stop being a resentful and retarded communist, you are not entitled to gabens money or artistic production
>>744598071I don't care
>>744602514And the single player experience includes the mechanics, mechanics you grow to fully appreciate upon playing the user made test chambers. The strength of the mechanics were always there, you were just naive to them otherwise.
>>744605884Maybe Valve should hire those guys instead.
>>744586737Thanks for reminding me of that nerd in uni that made quoting cave johnson his shtick. What a cringelord holy shit.
>>744586737That's not the games fault that the reddit zeitgeist latched onto it. It's just extremely unfortunate timing
