Quote :

" Half-Life 2: Episode Two – The Return of Team Fortress 2 and Other Surprises Valve’s Gabe Newell drops some major announcements regarding Episode Two, including Xbox 360 and PS3 support, and the return of Team Fortress 2. By Jason Ocampo, GameSpot Posted Jul 13, 2006 3:09 pm PT Valve founder Gabe Newell dropped a number of bombshells regarding Half-Life 2: Episode Two at EA’s summer press event. Newell revealed that the vaunted PC first-person shooter franchise is going to arrive on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 and that the PC and console versions will ship with not only a new single-player game called Portals, but also with Team Fortress 2, the ambitious multiplayer game that Valve tried to develop in the late 90s but that quietly disappeared later on. Half-Life 2 fans are already aware of the episodic content that Valve is producing, in place of a Half-Life 3. Episode One, the first chapter, was released earlier this summer to great acclaim. Well, Episode Two won’t just continue the story of Gordon Freeman, Alyx Vance, and the rest of humanity battling the alien Combine for control of Earth. For one, Valve is planning to release Episode Two simultaneously on the PC, Xbox 360, and the PlayStation 3. And it wouldn’t make sense to give the console players Episode 2, which is essentially the middle of the story, so the console versions of Episode Two will also include Half-Life 2, as well as Episode One. That’s right, both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 players will be able to get their hands on the entire Half-Life 2 saga in one package. In addition to that bombshell, Newell revealed that all versions of Episode Two will ship with a separate single-player game called Portals. This is something of an insanely inspired puzzle game that takes advantage of the Source engine, judging from the hilarious trailer that Newell showed. The trailer took the form of a training video for a new employee of an advanced corporation in the Half-Life 2 universe. The video shows a diagram and explains that as an employee of this company, you may have to find the emergency exit to a certain room. However, there are often obstacles in your way, like a gaping chasm. No problem, because all you need to use is your Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device to create dimensional doorways that let you mess with reality. For example, if there’s gaping chasm between you and your objective, just shoot a portal on the far side of the room, then shoot a portal open on your side, then enter the portal. You’ll instantly transport from one side of the room to the next by walking through the portal (you’ll even see yourself going through the portal). That’s the simplest example of how to use the portal gun. In other situations, you may be under fire by a gun droid. So all you need to do is shoot a portal open over the gun, then shoot a portal open beneath a crate, then watch the crate fall through the hole and crush the gun. It gets even crazier, and the diagrams shown in the trailer showed some incredibly crazy things that you can attempt, like creating a series of portals so that you’re constantly chasing yourself. Some of the puzzles sound like they’ll be “impossible,” so the challenge will be to figure out how to use the portal gun. This promises to be an incredibly puzzle-style first-person experience, which Newell says is part of the goal. “We wanted to take physics out of this domain as a tool that lets you bounce grenades around to how can we really change the game experience for our customers,” he said. Newell then dropped an even bigger bombshell by showing off Team Fortress 2. Those familiar with Valve’s history know that Team Fortress 2 was an ambitious multiplayer action game that was supposed to come out after the original Half-Life. However, the game quietly disappeared after years of development, and it was assumed that Valve dropped the project. Well, Team Fortress 2 is back and will be included with Episode Two, and it looks like nothing else on the market. Newell explained that Valve wanted to make this action game distinct, so the graphics (which use the Source engine) look like a Pixar animated movie. To reinforce this, the carious character classes in the game look like cartoon caricatures. These include the Medic with the huge needle or the Demoman with the sticks of explosives. Other classes include the Heavy, the Spy, the Scout, the Engineer, the Sniper, the Soldier, and the Pyro. Newell says that the goal with Team Fortress 2 is to create “the best looking and best-playing class-based multiplayer game.” Team Fortress 2 is certainly unique in appearance, so we’ll see how it plays. Valve will release more information about Episode Two and all this new content throughout the fall, and more announcements will be revealed as the year goes on. We’ll obviously keep a close eye on it, so make sure to check back with us for more details. "

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/halflife2episode2/news.html?sid=6154006


I am not big Half LIfe fan, but I welcome any new shooters to the 360.
Welcome aboard HL2!

PLEASE DO NOT START BASHING THIS THREAD WITH THE-PC-VERSION-BLAH-BLAH-BLAH-ANTICS. BECAUSE I HAVE NEWS FOR YOU... XBOX 360 OWNERS DON'T CARE.

[Edited on July 13, 2006 at 7:52 PM. Reason : blah]

7/13/2006 7:51:45 PM

the pc version will be better b/c mouse and keyboard is better.

7/13/2006 7:55:34 PM

and this is set to release around december, right?

7/13/2006 8:02:51 PM

What the fuck??? I never imagined they would ever actually released Team Fortress 2. It's only been what... 8 years since they announced it?

7/13/2006 8:22:10 PM

If Prey is out

then anything can happen.

7/13/2006 8:52:25 PM

Wow, "bombshell" is right.

7/13/2006 11:31:21 PM

Holy freakin pete

7/14/2006 12:37:16 AM

Team Fortress 2, wow.


blast from the fucking past right there....


next thing you'll know, Duke Nukem Forever will come out.

7/14/2006 9:11:10 AM

Someone needs to scan the page from PC Gamer, with a quote from Newell saying TF2 will be out in late '99.

7/14/2006 9:16:10 AM

I hope it will still run on my P133!

7/14/2006 10:19:35 AM

haha i had that mag

thought it was gonna be the illest shit ever

battlefield 2 done took their idea and ran with it tho

7/14/2006 10:51:42 AM

^agreed.

i figured that was the substitute.


i <3 bf2

7/14/2006 11:44:00 AM

holy shit TF2, its only been what, 8 years?

7/14/2006 2:49:54 PM

7/14/2006 8:11:04 PM

wow they definitely went in a new direction....interesting.

7/14/2006 8:38:24 PM

Its really sad that there has only been 14 responses to this thread.

7/15/2006 1:19:29 AM

^^Actually, the models bear a striking resemblance to the original TFC models, albeit with a shit ton more polygons and texture detail. It is quite a departure though from what they originally showed TF2 as.

original TFC models for comparion:





[Edited on July 15, 2006 at 10:18 AM. Reason : images]

7/15/2006 10:11:48 AM

never really got into team fortress cause I was a CS zombie.

I like the look of the game though

7/15/2006 12:37:34 PM

the dude with the big ole wrench got shitted

7/15/2006 12:46:54 PM

For some reason I see the characters of the different classes being hilarious in just the way they run around the levels.

7/15/2006 1:07:54 PM

Does anyone else still play TFC? I play it all the time. I remember back when they came out with the new models I was pissed because they weren't as cartoony as the originals, and I just kept using the originals.

7/15/2006 1:38:36 PM

holy fucking shit that is awesome news

Team Fortress 2! God damn I cannot wait to play that, oh wait I have waited for 7 fucking years already, haha.

7/16/2006 9:15:20 AM

This is a post from someone I know on another forum:

Quote :

"Just got some info from Dario (the dude who made Dustbowl). He's a member of the .id guild (he has a valve email address so that pretty much confirms he is who he claims to be) and was just on the servers talking about TF2. Basicly it's going to be a complete port of the original TFC to Source. Almost no changes, still will have conc jumping and all that jazz. One of the changes he mentioned was that you wont be able to HH with the flag. And that the flag is no longer a flag. IDK if that's true for all maps, or just source dustbowl. Valve no longer plans to make TF2 what they said it would be 5 years ago because DOD/DOD:S and BF2 have pretty much filled that role in the gaming community."

7/17/2006 5:16:56 PM

HL2 will NEVER be as good on X box or any game console. Too many features missing, on top of the controls..I cant imagine how hellacious it would be to control. I play both Xbox and HL2 on the computer (mostly DoD) and everytime I see a friend trying to play a fps it just isnt the same on the xbox.

7/17/2006 9:11:47 PM

WHO THE FUCK CARES BUT SOME IMBECILE TROGLODYTE FUCKING IDIOT ABOUT WHICH IS BETTER?! PEOPLE PAY FOR WHAT THEY WANT. GODDAMN WHEN WHILE YOU BASTARDS UNDERSTAND THIS CONCEPT?

i just wanted to add one thing to this - it is easy to control on the console, but easier to AIM on the pc. that is really all about what makes the pc version better to many, except for game mods, and who really cares about this?

[Edited on July 18, 2006 at 11:50 AM. Reason : aerhg]

7/18/2006 11:45:33 AM

ive had more fun with halo than any FPS ive ever played on PC

7/18/2006 12:28:20 PM

not to mention everyone has the same handicap (until live anywhere) and sometimes simplified controls are nice.

i like both and agree that whining about it is stupid. the fact that it is expanding to new consoles is great no matter how you look at it.

7/18/2006 12:31:11 PM

need more crowbar

7/18/2006 12:32:37 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eO0viG8L5s

TF2 teaser video

7/25/2006 3:27:27 PM

TF2 - The longest game in production??? Over 10 years IIRC?

7/25/2006 4:11:06 PM

Duke Nukem Forever

7/25/2006 11:44:00 PM

^indeed

and goddamn I want to play TF2 so bad...it looks rad

7/25/2006 11:49:46 PM

So, it's finally coming out. I wonder if it has anything to do with the guys that did The Incredibles looking for work after that movie was a wrap?

7/26/2006 7:41:33 AM

TF didnt even come out till '99, how could TF2 be in development for 10 years?

7/26/2006 8:20:01 AM

I'm pretty sure Team Fortress Classic came out in 1998, and TF2 was in the planning stages well before that. I have no idea when the original Team Fortress (for Quake I think?) came out.

7/26/2006 11:43:28 AM

^'96?

7/26/2006 12:34:16 PM

TF2 gameplay footage: http://www.body-count.org/files/team_fortress_2.wmv

8/23/2006 10:15:41 PM

spy=hot

8/24/2006 3:33:13 PM

i'm kind of disappointed. years ago when i was reading about TFC2, they had awesome shit like being able to zipline into enemy bases, and helicopters, and parachute landings and shit.

this just looks like a cartoony graphical update =-\

8/24/2006 3:34:31 PM

Team Fortress is supposed to be cartoony, though. I think they were going completely in the wrong direction with the original TF2 concept. I think this looks fun, although I am still leaning toward Fortress-Forever as probably being the better game.

8/24/2006 4:17:50 PM

As a person who never really played TF1 I see the cartoony nature of it being very attractive. I assume this will attract a new market to the game as well as the old school TF1 players

8/24/2006 5:06:13 PM

i don't care so much about the cartoony aspect, but that it looks like the exact same game with shinier graphics instead.

pretty much my same gripe about CS: Source.

8/24/2006 5:19:06 PM

Oh man, the nostalgia in that video nearly brought tears to my eyes. This is going to the most awesome thing Valve has ever released. I can't wait.

8/24/2006 5:25:02 PM

What are new games other than old concepts with shinier graphics

8/24/2006 5:26:47 PM

half-life 2 had new enemies, new environments, new characters, new stories, new weapons, new gameplay mechanics.

tfc2 doesn't appear to have much new in it at all other than an updated art style.

8/24/2006 5:43:58 PM

Who cares, its going to be fun as hell. Why mess with gameplay that was already pretty much perfect. Ask fans of the original Unreal Tournament or Starsiege:Tribes if they liked the "improvements" in subsequent releases. 90% of those guys would have been just as happy if not happier with a purely cosmetic makeover (along with improved netcode and such). This is exactly what Valve did, and I couldn't be happier with how it looks so far.

[Edited on August 24, 2006 at 5:52 PM. Reason : :]

8/24/2006 5:51:56 PM

point!

8/24/2006 6:10:24 PM

i guess i expect a somewhat different game when the series number increments.

8/24/2006 6:11:40 PM

If you're not going to bother with realism in terms of the game world, why try to make it realistic in terms of graphics? All you're going to do is piss off realism nuts and raise cries of "omg animated violence" among the stupid fucking soccer moms.

And it looks really slick anyway. I miss seeing style in games. There just isn't much/any in the current crop of cloned "dark and gritty" games.

XIII was a good try (it sure looked cool), but it lacked depth of gameplay. Max Payne was at least a start, but isn't multiplayer. As much shit as us geeks love to give id shit, the Quake and Doom games have always looked reasonably distinctive. Ditto Unreal.

However, the current "tactical shooter" genre is just a bunch of clones. You know, trying to make the games look realistic, and occasionally even trying to be realistic, but mostly just looking vaguely real while not actually being very real for the sake of "gameplay". (Note: Red Orchestra tries rather harder for the realism, and I enjoy it a lot.) It's about damn time someone decided to just throw realism out the window in favor of style and fun. We don't need another Call of Battlefield Defeat or WTF some marketing goon thought would sell copies.

[Edited on August 24, 2006 at 7:17 PM. Reason : .]

8/24/2006 7:16:11 PM

So red orchestra is good?

8/27/2006 9:25:18 PM