[QUOTE]Originally posted by Groucho
[B]They're a business. By definition they do things for money. Otherwise, they'd be a charity.

I agree with the above. Also if they made the tools then they own them so what if they want folks to pay not like they owe it to the fans to gave them away for free. Also this may shock folks but if you don't agree with it then don't buy it 0_0 They owe the fans jack **** in my book that same goes for every other company too all they owe ya is a game that has no bugs and works right.

However the free tools for half life did help it sell a ass load of copy's. So I'd think it would help the game sell better to gave the tools away. Damn next thing you know people will say it's unfair you have to pay for flash and other Internet making tools.

Just to pick a feature at random, name another game with the interactivity of Half-Life...where you can pick up most any object in the game and have it react with the correct phsyics, whether it be a matresss, a corpse, or the letters "F" and "U" from the side of the hotel.

Hard cord FPS fans who have been playing these games since the beginning can see how revolutionary this game is. The experts all agree that Half-Life 2 is anything but average.

I'm thinking that maybe if you purchase using a sub to steam then you might have to be online for it to verify before running it since you aren't paying the full 50 bucks for it up front.. not sure how well that would work but that's my take

I'm sure you are obligated for a certain amount of months in order to buy it online that would equel retail price.

not necessarily... he did say that those who took the monthly subscription are getting the best value.

I assume he ment best value because you get a direct feed of mods and other bonus crap. I'm sure you just can't pay for a month and then take off keeping the game.

I played the original HL regularly for 2.5 years. No way would a monthly fee be my best value

Gordon, must A) Save the world from Aliens B) must escape the horrer of these aliens but yet, he has no poblem killing these aliens but still wants to escape?? and your telling me this is not a average thing in video games?. Have you seen 1 of the aliens?, they completely copied it the alien from StarShip Troopers, innovative my ass. Creating aliens is unlimited so why the copy?.

I can name many games that I think is much better then HL2 but I wont go into that because you like HL alot as to I dont so there isnt a point of discussing it. The reason I can say that without even trying it is because from reports so far, HL2 will carry the same gameplay style as HL1 except with a major upgrade and I did not like HL1 for many reasons and only got it for the awsome mods. Do you want me to name all the games that I like way more then HL1 or HL2?. Name everything that is innovative or atleast as much as you can that is innovative in HL2?. I'll you let you know if its been done before. Face it man, no point in discussing this if you like HL to where I dont like HL. I'm in the small majority that does not like HL so can we leave it at?.

Killa: Other than setting, that game has nothing original about it. At least Half-Life 2 is doing a lot of things new to advance the genre. Not to mention the open ended SDK which means even if you don't like Half-Life 2's setting, people will be able to mod the hell out of it for completely original games. Counter-Striker, and Day of Defeat are completely different than Half Life but all are based on Half Life.

Like it or not, you can't deny that the game is advancing the genre in so many ways unlike VietCong which is fairly generic except for the setting. Settings don't define a game, gameplay does. Half-Life 2 is anything but "average" regardless if it interests you or not.

From what i read on the steam forums.. the game may be stored in encrypted files that make you connect to steam to play if you did the subscription

Ok well... it sounds like I'm much to old to be having this argument with you. You just don't like Half-Life or HL2... that's fine. It won't have any effect on me whatsoever.

Vietcong was fun and all, but man was it dated.

Valve's past games have proven to be MOD friendly, given that the modding tools come with the package, and mod groups have already got the maps and textures, that this one will have a stronger modding community on release date.

Vietcong LOL.

Even the first HL was innovative. Maybe not for the graphics (built upon an aged engine as it was) but the amount if interesting and immersive plot was a first in the genre. Or at least the first to do it really well.