[quote]The makers of such acclaimed single-player video games as [I]Portal[/I] and [I]Half-Life 2[/I] want all of their future games to support connected, non-solo gaming, in some way, at all levels. That assertion first appeared in the [URL="http://kotaku.com/#%215794465/portal-2-wasnt-going-to-include-portals-according-to-new-ipad-app"]Final Hours of [I]Portal 2[/I][/URL], journalist Geoff Keighley's recent behind-the-scenes chronicle about Valve's newest game. It's an assertion he told me he heard directly from Valve founder Gabe Newell and the company's project manager Erik Johnson.
"Portal 2 will probably be Valve's last game with an isolated single-player experience," Keighley wrote in Final Hours, "What this all means is something Newell is still trying to figure out."
Keighley told me that he considered the comment "curious," noting that the quality of the solo-only main campaign of Portal 2 was [URL="http://kotaku.com/#%215793326/portal-2-is-the-better-portal-but-you-better-bring-a-friend"]a fantastic piece of work[/URL]. But the signs are there, not just from within Valve but all around the pioneering games company that solo-only modes are on their way out.
Valve's [I]Portal 2[/I] introduced multiplayer to the Portal games through a two-player co-op mode. The company's recent 2008 and 2009 [I]Left4Dead[/I] games were presented as a primarily-multiplayer experience, even on consoles where such an animal is about as rare as a Nintendo-made Halo game. Valve has also continued to aggressively support its multiplayer [I]Team Fortress 2[/I], a game launched alongside [I]Portal[/I] in 2007.
The company's primary vehicle for single-player-only experiences has been the one that the public hasn't seen anything new of since 2007. The campaign portions of [I]Half-Life[/I] put players in control of hero Gordon Freeman; other players haven't been able to join the game's main adventure. While Valve has used its Half-Life games to present a more lively, less lonely first-person-shooter campaign, it has done so strictly through improving the artificial intelligence and acting of Freeman's computer-controlled allies, namely Alyx Vance (pictured with our hero above).
Outside of Valve single-player-only games have been vanishing. After a long stretch as leading single-player franchise, [I]Super Mario[/I] games on consoles now include second-player support. Series that launch as solo-only such as [I]Uncharted[/I] or [I]BioShock[/I] add multiplayer for their second installment. Hold-outs like [I]God of War[/I] seem destined to add support for multiple players, somehow, some way. A company like Capcom doesn't just make millions with its four-player series [I]Monster Hunter[/I], but it's slowly but surely been pushing its formerly single-player-only series, Resident Evil, into a vehicle for multiplayer console [I]Resident Evil[/I] games ([I]Operation Raccoon City[/I]) and multiplayer portable ones ([I]Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D[/I]). Even Capcom's [I]Dragon's Dogma[/I], though single-player, [URL="http://kotaku.com/#%215790843/dragons-dogma-is-the-devil-may-cry-teams-next-big-gamble"]simulates a multiplayer experience[/URL] by giving the main player a host of computer-controlled allies who behave as joining [I]Monster Hunter[/I] gamers might.
The comment from Valve is striking, though, in that it doesn't sound like Newell and Johnson said they'd probably never ship a game that didn't have a multiplayer mode somewhere in it. Rather, they told Keighley they "probably" wouldn't make a game "with an isolated single-player experience." That would mean no more modes that couldn't connect in some fashion to other people. Would, say, letting a second player control Alyx in [I]Half Life 3[/I] do the trick? Or could Valve be cooking up something less expected?[/quote]
Source: [url]http://uk.kotaku.com/5795355/valve-probably-done-with-single+player-games[/url]
I hope they have not abandoned EP3, although it would be awesome to have some multiplayer elements in what has typically been a singleplayer experience, perhaps having people controlling the combine and your allies, that would be an advancement I could live with.
Maybe EP3 will have inbuilt deathmatch?
[QUOTE=Blackbird88;29423142]Maybe EP3 will have inbuilt deathmatch?[/QUOTE]
Or a 'Crossing' style enemy that other people play as.
"Non-isolated SP game" is different from "no SP at all."
Ala, the original Half Life. Which had multiplayer and singleplayer.
[QUOTE=zeldar;29423160]"Non-isolated SP game" is different from "no SP at all."[/QUOTE]
Right, someone mentioned about that before.
[QUOTE=ThePunisher1;29423093]Source: [url]http://uk.kotaku.com/5795355/valve-probably-done-with-single+player-games[/url]
I hope they have not abandoned EP3, although it would be awesome to have some multiplayer elements in what has typically been a singleplayer experience, perhaps having people controlling the combine and your allies, that would be an advancement I could live with.[/QUOTE]
I like it how any versions on Kotaku that have a country before the actual link (uk.; ca.; and such) have the old good Kotaku layout :3:
I hope this isn't so they can add a Store to every future game. :gonk:
I dont see how they would build ep3 without singleplayer
-snip-
I want EP3 to be a singleplayer experience. Just like all the other Half Lives.
If anything, EP3 will be co-op with one person as Gordon and the other as Alyx.
Even though that breaks the half-life formula, it would be pretty neat.
I don't see EP3 co-op working out to be honest.
Well, perhaps if it's like Zombie Master except you control the combine...
Ep3 having a [b]option[/b] to invite people to control rebels to help you, that would be good then i wouldn't have to make sure they are in a safe spot, the friend controlling them will save himself and help you at the same time.
Or splitscreen with a friend using a 360 controller.
Remember the scene from Episode two where you defended the rocket from a barrage of strider and hunters in your jalopy?
I want that to be multiplayer, with like 4 players, one car with two seats and wave based.
shit would be so cash
I prefer to play vidya games that have stories on my own
I would hate for the next HL game to be co-op only. Portal 2 co-op is ruined for me because I can't pay attention to any dialogue or think out the solution on my own since everyone I play with knows the solution and rushes me along with the pointer thing.
I don't know about you guys but I rarely play single-player games, I prefer experiencing the games with other people.
Motherfuck no, I, like the man a few posts above me, prefer to be able to enjoy a game without relying on the presence of others, which CoD has recently begun to fail miserably at, and I don't want VALVe joining them
looking forward for Gmann Co.
Seriously valve can you not just do Episode 3 then take this path. I have no interest in Co-op Half Life. Or anything like Half Life 2 Deathmatch.
That is if it ever gets that far.
What they said was that they weren't going to do exclusively SP games, there will always be a MP on the side.
Yeah, OP is kinda of misleading.
I wouldn't actually mind a Half-Life co-op similar to Portal 2 co-op; two separate stories with two different characters. I'd be interested to see the game in a different perspective other than our friendly neighborhood mute.
[QUOTE=Smasher 006;29423157]Or a 'Crossing' style enemy that other people play as.[/QUOTE]
i would love episode 3 to be like that
Ep3 should be singleplayer. That's how it's always been.
imo half-life atmosphere would be ruined if valve add coop to it, unless it's different from the main story like in Portal 2
Well, they really amped up the AI with Alyx in Ep.2, so maybe co-op is the next thing. As an option.
[QUOTE=Getro;29424320]imo half-life atmosphere would be ruined if valve add coop to it, unless it's different from the main story like in Portal 2[/QUOTE]
I can see it now.
Alyx: You'll have to go on without me Gordon...I'm going to join my father now.
*a player with the rebel model picks up a soda can and rubs it on her face*
Some part of me even doubts they are working on Half Life at the moment, or at least their next game after DotA 2 won't be related to the half life series. Also Half life 2 came with Deathmatch. Episode 1 (when bought retail) is their only singleplayer game which doesn't have multiplayer.
If they add hats to Ep. 3, I swear to God......
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