Valve: We're Not Making Crappy Party Games

Leave it to Valve to come up with the only cool-sounding mini-game ever as an example of something they consider crappy.

If only they could get other game publishers to agree not to make crappy 'mini games' Meh Effect 2 has 2 of the crappiest mini games going and some pointless drivel that doesn't even count as a mini game, they make the idea of waving to 'saw a zombie's head off' sound like a fantastic game!

I dont get this culture surrounding ZOMBIES... What is up with people and their obsession with zombies??? I used to host LAN parties at my house for L4D and we all got bored of it...

On the other note, I hope VALVE comes back up with the next REVOLUTION in PC GAMING by their HL3... It seems, only Crytek is pushing the bars :S

Thing is, killing zombies would have the same motion as Tennis on Wii Sports. Your arm movement really isn't going to get any more exciting, not to mention boredom and aching. Sure it would be fun for five minutes, but after that?

Thank god. The Wii is fun while playing drunk or intoxicated on illegal substances, but I couldn't stand throwing my arms around sober. I actually tried and I don't know about the whole controller flying out of your hand thing, but I actually threw the controllers at the tv after my arms got tired within 30 minutes.

Sounds like any of these games would eventually end up like cheat codes for consoles. "To use your knife....up, up, down, left, right, left, up." Huh? XD

Are you effing kidding me? Crysis really blew monkeys, but was pretty, and that's it. Get over that game, it's not worth mentioning unless you're talking about benchmarking.

They need to fix L4D2 being votekicked from games for no reason whatsoever then I will listen to what they have to say about game development.

Why does every idiot on the internet seem to act like graphics do not matter...

While Crysis was average at best, the engine Crytek made clearly pushed the industry. If someone had taken the CryTek 2 engine and made a good game with it, everyone would be all over it.

Coming from the company that has only released 2 games and a couple expansions in their entire existence... Maybe what he meant was the development house will no longer be buying - college students school projects, existing development teams that are currently working on a cool looking game, or community made mods - to be rebranded with the Valve name if they involve any crappy mini games.

So we can buy you and slap Valve on the game box.

You didnt get my point, I am referring to the engine itself not the gameplay. Pretty much any game that came after CryEngine 2, is still catching up. They introduced for the first time, Screen Space Ambient Occlusion, Parallax Occlusion, volumetric lighting, CG quality Time of Days, and they had their own Physics Engine...

Just head to crymod.com and browse what people have manage to pull from CryEngine 2.

Also, CryEngine 3 is introducing for the very first time, real time Global Illumination...

Valve can say all they want about what they're producing and not producing. Until I see HL2:EP3 in my Steam account I would like them t shut up, spend the time faffing on finishing the thing and get it out!

Agreed. And if it's to be believed that Crysis 2 will be for PS3,360, chances are it will probably be a port.

It's not that graphics do not matter, but that they are not necessary to make a good game - nor do they make a game good.

Sure, good graphics can help with immersion, but so does a compelling storyline, an intuitive control scheme, a sense that the player is controlling their own actions (to some extent at least), and most importantly smooth gameplay (eg minimizing: lag, time between save points, the ability to "dead end" if you save at the wrong time, unskipable cutscenes, unskipable cutscenes following save points, loading time, glitches, time wasted trying to get money/experience, etc).

Basically, if a company fails on any of these then game play suffers regardless of whether the rest are excellent. Do amazing graphics make up for Crysis' shortcomings? I would say "a little."

Hey Valve... STFU and give us EP3 already!

Well thats the thing. Pushing bars is great. but when you need to have a decent PC to even run your game at low quality, thats not pushing bars. Thats just crap. When the newest hardware can barely max out your game thats 3+ yeras old, thats just crap.

Source and HL2 pushed when maxed but was still doable on age old ATI 8500s and nVidia TNTs. Of course a newer PC could max ait and now even newer PCs max it out at insane res whle pushing 200FPS.

I do want to see HL3 though. but first HL2 EP3. Need to get vengance. And I am sure if they were working on Source 2, it would make CryEngine..... well cry like a little baby.

So you want them to control other people? Good luck with that. Or they could have no votekick like a lot of console games so people would bitch.

VALVe is one of the leading PC game companies, no matter what. They pushed FPS games to new standards and still do.




Because graphics coupled with a horrible game, bad gameplay, rehasehd story and meh quality (not to mention bad engine design, thing is buggy as hell) makes it crap.

Graphics only don't fly with PC gamers. Maybe console gamers, but not PC. Thats why people hate EA the most. They release new games so fast that they lack story and development of the gameplay feels meh.

Crysis was pretty at most. But other than that, it was a waste of money. I could barely play it through once before getting bored.

i take my hat off to valve for taking time with games and not rushing them out the door just to make a quick buck. They are a company known for quality and giving the consumer what they want. Even if it is on a slower schedule. I have never bought a valve game that i regretted buying. Cant say that for any other company. Nintendo is close... (just cause im picky about nintendo games) But valve pretty much everything they make is gold.

These guys need to get their head checked. Nobody cares about those retarded apps, go back to the series that made your name AND GIVE US A F*CKING ENDING TO HALF LIFE 2!!!

ahhh...bring back crysis...if u can improve the gameplay..if not, i'll leave it undusted on the shelf

Its a shame that the its in the end microsoft who keeps back the development of DX10-DX11 games with their dx9 console. For the game developers i can understand the chooice to only use dx9 in games since you reach both PC and Xbox...

I sure hope that they upgrade the xbox and push it to Dx11... The scalability with tesselation ect will allow the games to be played in insane detail on PC and scaled down budget style on the console with the same development time for the developers! - A pure win win for everyone including microsoft who will likely sell more windos+consoles...

My 2 cents!

I propose a new 'law'; the Crysis Law. In any conversation about video games, the probability of a conversation having Crysis mentioned tends to 1. A slight modification of Godwins Laws.

@article: I'm very glad. VALVe products are too good to waste on party games.

no they just make crappy looking cartoony games.

No beer?.. no food?.. i would be board to.

I like the route Valve has been taking. It would be nice if they would be a little more aggressive in pushing the hardware requirements, but the fact that they run the surveys and pay attention to what their player base has installed speaks volumes in of itself.

My current card got damaged (one of the DVI ports is dead) during shipping so I'm waiting for the dust to settle on the current crop from ATI/NVIDIA, but it would be nice to see some games from Valve that could actually take advantage of the new hardware.

here we go again.. yet another developer letting his personal opinions get in the way of good business. as many have stated here... sawing zombies with a motion sensing type controller would be cool.. everyone in here who plays pc games.. think about this.. when you buy a game for pc.. you know who developed it..what game engine it uses.. system requirements.. reading reviews.. and guides for best FPS.. but when someone buys a wii/ or console game.. they dont even now who makes it.. what game engine it has.. they just play it.. they dont care... some like.. a certain type or title.. like call of duty or Madden.. but most have no idea what game engine it uses.. unless they play it on pc. The point im trying to make is.. in this economy.. why in the hell would you not make games the cater to a mass of people who dont even pay attention to who makes the game. My wife.. loves the Wii and has absolutely no idea what makes it work.. or how the games are developed.. but when i want a pc game.. she shakes her head.. "dont you have enough?" but when she see's or here's about a Wii game.. just like a pair of shoes.. its in the bag.
@ developers.. its ok to make games with motion sensing or as you call them.. "mini games"... my wife will be right in line to buy them.

Thats hilarious

Exactly. Finish Half-Life 2. Until then...shutup and work. Don't f'up and pull a DNF on us.

Valve needs to work on HL 3. HL2 is dated already. Give us a new engine.

Soudnds crappy to me, a one trick pony party game like that would be entertaining for maybe 5 minutes.