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"EA to publish Half Life 2"

I should've posted this in one of the console forums, oh well...

Just over three months ago, one of the most contentious relationships in game history came to an end. On April 28, after months of overt legal disputes and covert bickering, VU Games and Valve Software announced they were ending a half-decade-long publishing deal. The arrangement saw the former publish the latter's groundbreaking PC first-person shooters Half-Life, Counter-Strike, and Half-Life 2.


However, Valve's next console game--after the PlayStation 2 Half-Life and the Xbox Counter-Strike--will be distributed by one of VU's main rivals. Today, Electronic Arts revealed that as of this fall, it will be the international publisher of the forthcoming Xbox version of Half-Life 2, which will now ship in October 2005. EA will also assume distribution duties on a new Game of the Year edition of Half-Life 2 for the PC, which will include Half-Life 2 and Counter-Strike: Source, as well as Half-Life 2: Deathmatch and Half-Life: Source, in a single box.

However, Valve will now officially self-publish all its PC products, although the newly announced--and carefully worded--agreement will let EA "deliver a collection of Valve games to players worldwide" in the future.

"We consider Half-Life and Counter-Strike to be two of the best game franchises of all time," said Tom Frisina, vice president and general manager of EA Partners, in a statement. "We could not be more excited to have the opportunity to help deliver these outstanding games to players around the globe."

Valve founder and president Gabe Newell had similarly kind words. "By combining EA's unparalleled operation structure and distribution channel with Valve's award-winning development teams and games community, we've established an awesome combination for delivering great products to console and PC gamers around the world," he said.

The EA-Valve arrangement covers the boxed, retail editions of Half-Life 2 and Counter-Strike: Source but does not affect digitally distributed versions of the game. As before, those games will be delivered and updated via Steam, Valve's online service.

This is great news. I cant wait for Half Life Underground 2006.

It's less challenging if everyone is forced into being a worse player.
In CS there isn't even a setting for draw distance.

smv wrote:
> Hedfix wrote:
> And if everyone has a controller it doesn't matter.
>
> Everyone is slow and inaccurate? That doesn't matter?

Not if it's fun, no.

Everyone's in the same boat and the games work well designed around such a control system.

Hedfix wrote:
> And if everyone has a controller it doesn't matter.

Everyone is slow and inaccurate? That doesn't matter?

Memorandum! wrote:
>
> VAC2 on CS:S does an excellent job of detecting and deterring
> cheaters, and as for the standardisation...I don't really understand.
> As long as the framerate is smooth eye candy doesn't really matter.
> If someone is playing it at 80fps with 6xAA and 16xAF it might look
> prettier than my 'standard' settings at 60fps, but it doesn't put me
> at any disadvantage just because the game doesn't look quite as
> nice.
>

Shame if your running on a less powerful PC so you can't see as far as the next guy because the draw distance is lower. I'm sure this must be a real pain in games like Far Cry. Thankfully on a console the draw distance is the same for everyone ie a level playingfield.


> Keyboard + Mouse works great. Mouse for looking/targeting and WASD
> for movement. It is and always has been the best system for FPS.

Nope.

smv wrote:
> You have to be fussed about speed and accuracy, they are the biggest
> gameplay elements in a game like Counter-Strike.

and you just don't have enough against my skillz :' }

Hedfix wrote:
> And if everyone has a controller what's the problem?

Because it's a really frustrating way of playing. The speed you can turn at is heavily restricted, the speed you can move your crosshair is extremely slow...the list goes on and on.

Playing FPS is a lot more entertaining without a highly restrictive control system.

Hedfix wrote:
> Memorandum! wrote:
> >
> Wow, one hand is pressing buttons on the right and the other is
> twiddling a stick on the left!!!
>
> It's no different in terms of having to 'do something' different
> with
> each hand.
>
> Apart from it's not fun, awkward and extremely off-putting when all
> you're trying to do is shoot someone.

But the same could be said about a controller.

You really don't have much argument here.

smv wrote:
> Hedfix wrote:
> I'm not fussed about speed or accuracy
>
> Nice triple post :P
>
> You have to be fussed about speed and accuracy, they are the biggest
> gameplay elements in a game like Counter-Strike.

And if everyone has a controller it doesn't matter.

Memorandum! wrote:
>
> Wow, one hand is pressing buttons on the right and the other is
> twiddling a stick on the left!!!
>
> It's no different in terms of having to 'do something' different with
> each hand.

Apart from it's not fun, awkward and extremely off-putting when all you're trying to do is shoot someone.

Hedfix wrote:
> I'm not fussed about speed or accuracy

Nice triple post :P

You have to be fussed about speed and accuracy, they are the biggest gameplay elements in a game like Counter-Strike.

It's like not being fussed about being able to move when playing Dance Dance Revolution.

edit: Hmm, i see there's been about ten more posts since I clicked reply. Bit behind here.