Valve done with single player games?

[Neil]

http://www.co-optimus.com/article/5925/is-valve-done-with-single-player-games.html

I know multi-player games are great (eg: Left 4 Dead), but a quality single player experience (like Half-Life) is surely just as valid/good?

[Tricky]

It'll be a shame if they don't make any more SP games, they've always excelled at them and not all of us want to play every game online all the time. Quite often you end up teamed with a load of gimps who just dick around and dont play the game "properly" which for me sucks the fun out of it. I've had some great multiplayer experiences such as battlefield 2 & Counter strike back in the day, as well as Bad Company 2 more recently, but I still like an SP story driven experience that I can immerse myself in & explore without interference from strangers

[MinionZombie]

http://www.co-optimus.com/article/5925/is-valve-done-with-single-player-games.html

I know multi-player games are great (eg: Left 4 Dead), but a quality single player experience (like Half-Life) is surely just as valid/good?

If Valve are done with Single Player games, then I'm done with Valve, and they can officially go screw themselves and their complete lack of Episode 3 or HL3.

I hate this fascination with Multi Player that some companies have, especially in big name shooters, where all you ever hear about is the goddamned MP - which will inevitably be rubbish, or ditched as soon as the next CoD comes along - all the while the SP gets neglected.

And this coming from a company that produced two of the best Single Player campaigns in recent times, too. Knob'eds.

[shootemindehead]

Me too. I just don't get the Multiplayer angle at all. Online, it nearly always turns into a clusterfuck and quickly becomes unenjoyable.

I've never played MP online, but at the moment, I am playing Battlefield 1942 over the net quite a bit. It's old, I know. But, the fun factor is already wearing thin. The maps are limited and I'm truly sick to the back teeth of some assholes on my own team killing me. Seriously, WTF is that all about?

SP is still my main enjoyment and will always be I think. MP is just populated by fools, most of the time and governed by hardware limitations all of the time.

I was thinking what might be good for MP war games. It's that, say you got a load of guys on a BF1942 server and a given map and once you were killed you were off that map, until the next map generated and you spawned again. That would limit the "all guns blazing" nonsense that you see all the time. That kind of MP experience would be fantastic. MP in most games simply consists of the same thing. Everyone running around blasting, getting killed, respawning, blasting, getting killed, respawning...ad nauseum.

Kind of boring after a while.

[Trin]

I like their direction. They aren't abandoning the single-player experience. They're taking what's good about it and taking it to multiplayer. They are talking co-op, not multiplayer deathmatch. Co-op is the best of both worlds in my opinion. It captures the single-player storyline and immersive experience while broadening the scope to include those who crave online play as a social outlet.

It's too bad that people who like pure single-player will suffer. But I'm not one of them. I would much prefer to have a co-op campaign over a single-player campaign. And just for the record, I abhor and will not play multiplayer deathmatch style games.

If you like good co-op try Splinter Cell Conviction... it has a very good single-player campaign plus a great co-op campaign.

[CoinReturn]

Besides the Half Life series, which other singleplayer games are Valve known for? Defense of the Ancients 2 is arguable, but it doesn't come out until later this year.

With both L4D games, Team Fortress 2, the acquisition of the developer behind Counter Strike, and now Portal 2, they've proven time and time again they make some of the best competitive and co-operative multiplayer games on the market. I for one welcome our new Valve overlords!

---------- Post added at 11:25 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:19 AM ----------



I was thinking what might be good for MP war games. It's that, say you got a load of guys on a BF1942 server and a given map and once you were killed you were off that map, until the next map generated and you spawned again. That would limit the "all guns blazing" nonsense that you see all the time. That kind of MP experience would be fantastic. MP in most games simply consists of the same thing. Everyone running around blasting, getting killed, respawning, blasting, getting killed, respawning...ad nauseum.

Kind of boring after a while.

You've just described a singleplayer game, except instead of respawning you start the level over. MP games inherently have higher replay value; are you going to sit there and tell me you play SP games more than once or twice?



I've never played MP online,

I'm done here.

[Danny]

single, multi, dont care, just half life 3 and maybe something other than some form of first person shooter. do something new valve.

[CoinReturn]

single, multi, dont care, just half life 3 and maybe something other than some form of first person shooter. do something new valve.

And while their at it, upgrade their engine! Source is really showing it's age.

[bassman]

Count me in as another that can't stand the online mp craze. It's insane how most companies now think that people only play online. There are those of us that like to play games by ourselves in our free time. And for that matter.....there are also those of us that have friends that we actually spend time with and would LOVE to be able to play multiplayer on the same fucking system.

It's things like this that actually make me love the wii more and more. It's actually a system that people can share with their friends at social events or just a night over...

[Tricky]

I've played a fair few co-op games and half the time you end up partnered off with idiots who bunnyhop up and down all over the place while spraying bullets at anything & everything including their own team mates, and generally just dicking around, it spoils the experience for me. That said I've had some good co-op games on Arma 2 which is a serious game that attracts serious players so people tend to play realistically & tactically, lots of headset chat and sneaking about, rather than in your face charging around and calling everyone "noobs"

[Danny]

Count me in as another that can't stand the online mp craze. It's insane how most companies now think that people only play online. There are those of us that like to play games by ourselves in our free time. And for that matter.....there are also those of us that have friends that we actually spend time with and would LOVE to be able to play multiplayer on the same fucking system.

It's things like this that actually make me love the wii more and more. It's actually a system that people can share with their friends at social events or just a night over...

casual...

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y91/khazrak/158120-28254-158120-grandmajpg-620x.jpg

:lol:

[MinionZombie]

casual...

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y91/khazrak/158120-28254-158120-grandmajpg-620x.jpg

:lol:

Prescriptive contrarian... :evil::sneaky::p:sneaky::evil:

[shootemindehead]

You've just described a singleplayer game, except instead of respawning you start the level over. MP games inherently have higher replay value; are you going to sit there and tell me you play SP games more than once or twice?

Erm...no. I've described the usual MP clusterfuck.

...and yes, I do play games more than once. I'm on my second playthrough of Dragonage II now, in fact, with another play of Fallout New Vegas and I'm STILL playing games like Silent Hunter III and IV and will continue to, no doubt.




I'm done here.

No, you're not dickhead. Just because I haven't gone online for MP until recently, doesn't mean I don't have a shedload of Lan parties (of various games) under my belt.[COLOR="Silver"]




I've played a fair few co-op games and half the time you end up partnered off with idiots who bunnyhop up and down all over the place while spraying bullets at anything & everything including their own team mates, and generally just dicking around, it spoils the experience for me.

Bingo!

We have a winner.






---------- Post added at 07:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:46 PM ----------

Hmmm...in the time between my last post and now, I've just been online in a Battlefield 1942 game and I've been killed 3 times in quick succession, by my own team, so they could get to a plane and not me.

That's what I call a shit experience.

[bassman]

casual...

:lol:

Hey, if that's what it means to have real interaction with a person in the same room, then i'll take it. I just prefer to have fun with friends in the same area rather than shutting myself in a dark room for hours on end while playing against some punk-ass kid across the globe that's never left the vacinity of his mother's tit or his precious gaming system.

[MinionZombie]

Hey, if that's what it means to have real interaction with a person in the same room, then i'll take it. I just prefer to have fun with friends in the same area rather than shutting myself in a dark room for hours on end while playing against some punk-ass kid across the globe that's never left the vacinity of his mother's tit or his precious gaming system.

Damn straight.

I've played MP online now and then over the years, and it's never been an experience I've wanted to continue, and certainly not one that lasts any real length of time before I grow decidedly tired of it.

Furthermore, back when I was at uni and living off campus, one housemate bought an Xbox and got Halo 2 on it. There were four of us in the house, and we'd play Deathmatch (and other variants) together as a group (or sometimes just 2 or 3 of us) constantly for hours on end. That was fun and enjoyable, and if someone acted an arse, they were right there so you could smack them, lol. It's much more enjoyable to actually be side-by-side with those your playing, not some disembodied tween on a headset calling you a "fag noob" and claiming they could "kick yo ass, bitch, bring it" etc ... that sense of anonymity really brings out the twat-holes, and inspires twat-hole behaviour in a lot of people too.

[Danny]

Hey, if that's what it means to have real interaction with a person in the same room, then i'll take it. I just prefer to have fun with friends in the same area rather than shutting myself in a dark room for hours on end while playing against some punk-ass kid across the globe that's never left the vacinity of his mother's tit or his precious gaming system.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y91/khazrak/1397788-thats_the_joke_super.jpg