Just want to clear up some stuff on the Half-Life 2: Episode 1 thing.

Originally it was titled "Half-Life 2: Aftermath," and initial price statement was 12.99 (Though it has been speculated that it was the "pre-ordered" price, and it would be a 13 dollar preorder, 15 dollar normal price on Steam). It was always mentioned as being episodic though. (An article in the September issue of CGW even talked about what they're thinking about for the next episode.)

The original statement was that the would put out one of these episodes every three months (CGW article), but considering this is Valve, I'll be surprised if they stick to that release schedule, especially considering how long they've been working on Aftermath. :D The episode was said to be "3-4 hours" "1/3rd as long as Half-Life 2" and "Around five hours" (Gabe’s FAQ) so I'm guessing mileage will vary.

Originally it was ambigious on whether or not it'll get a retail release or just be Steam only, but since then we've seen listing for a retail package that Valve clarified that would contain Aftermath, Half-Life 2: Deathmatch and Half-Life: Source Deathmath, for $20 bucks. This would be available by April 24th. (Teamkiller Article)

Now, the gaming press kept calling Aftermath an expansion and not an episode, which I'm guessing is what prompted Valve to rename it to "Episode 1." Personally I think the name pales compared to "Aftermath" but whatever I guess. Whether or not the prior information on Aftermath applies to Episode 1 is unknown.

Sources:
Gabe’s FAQ: http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Gabe_Newell%27s_FAQ
CGW September 2005 Article: Not online, unfortunately.
Teamkiller Article: http://tkv2.teamkilled.net/display/article/half-life-2-aftermath-platinum-price/
I couldn’t find sources for the original price, nor a few of the length estimates, but since they’re probably out of date anyway, I guess that doesn’t matter :D

I hope you found this post useful :D

It's apparant that everytime Steve wants to shorten his podcast, it gets longer.
Oh well, at least I've got something to listen to the next two hours.

Yeah it's great, thanks for the nice long show Steve!

Ooh, I like the sound of that Spore demo!

I hope you are not refering to the GDC DEMOnstration, but I'll have a listen.

Hang in there fellow Spore-aholics, 37 Days to Wrights GDC appearance.

Yep, Steve should give up and just let it be as long as it wants to be. I bet that the moment he does that it'll come out 30 minutes or something.

For a retro-review I'd like to see you do a review of the crusader series (Crusader: no remorse, Crusader: no regret)

One program note, I did get the date of when Warcraft I was first released wrong. It was actually 1994 and not 1996 like I said (one little sidenote for fun, the original list price for Warcraft I in 1994 was a whooping $79.95! Yikes!).

Here is a great article of the entire history of the RTS genre:

http://tinyurl.com/asadz

Steve, how does Crystal Quest Classic Mode stack up to the old game? It's much harder than the Xbox360 game. You have to shoot in the direction you're facing, for example.

If there is one retroreview I would like to see, is from the original Sims. It's mindboggling that it already is 7 years since the first one came out.

Hey Steve,

As you said in your final thoughts I agree with the gaming slump. It happened to me and I recently got out of about half a year of a slump.

I have Batien Katios, Tales of Symphonia, Phantom Brave, La Pucelle Tactics, all unopened waiting to play but I could never work up the muster to want to play any console games. (I do however, still MUD on the same MUD for the past decade or so. Funny enough, it's the one Aradune(Brad Q) mudded on with a lot of people from the original EQ Team).

I recently got out of the slump though when I picked up Dragon Quest. Took a good 120 hours but I pretty much slam dunked that one.

Just so you know Steve, most PC gamers (myself included) don't give a rats pa’toot about Halo 1, 2 or 50. Much better FPS games are out for the PC. The Halo series is great on the console, but it's a small fish with bad eye sight and asthma in a big pond out here in PC land.

I believe the primary reason for a gaming slump is an subconscious nagging that you really should be doing something else. It might just be a general sort of thing, or it could be that you are specifically neglecting: wife, kids, housework, other hobbies, books, movies, DVR/Tivo, music, bills, etc. Since you probably won't know immediately what you're missing, just pick something that will have a positive impact.

Now, if its still a slump, I'll tell you what I do next. I go find game program with a "construction set." Then I start making levels and testing them out. It gets you interested again. You need to "find your muse."

I've thought of a game like spore too. I think everyone who has ever enjoyed a simulation game has thought of a game like this. Finally someone is making it. :-)

you can play the old version of crystal quest if you get the full version.

I'm a big Command and Conquer fan, and I was like "WTF" when you were talking about C&C and RA2 in particular. Sure, It's a great game, I still play it quite a bit. But... Best story of the series???!! "Z0MGWTFBBQLOL" The story is close to retarded. UFO's, Yuri on the moon?! Psychic dominators?! Besides that, it doens't even really follow up with the rest of the story.
And Terrorists blowing up monuments? For your information, the Soviets are an army and nothing like terrorists... Generals had terrorists, but that was a stupid game.
Besides this, RA2 has some minor ballance issues.

Since most Westwood people left EA and went to the new studio Peroglyph to work on SW:Empire at war (Looking good btw) so I doubt any good CNC will come out from EA. Hopefully some sort of C&C game following up Tibsun but without official licencing (Like Supcom to TA).

I love it how you retro-reviewed C&C, but please get your "facts" "right". :) :P

Btw, there is a new Might and Magic RPG comming out. I'm not sure if this is anything new or exactly what you were talking about Steve and [guy who asked]. Here's the site: http://www.mightandmagic.com/uk/darkmessiah/teaser/

I've been in a "non gaming mood" pretty much since around october. Just no cool games were comming out and all the games I had were kida getting old. I've played some RA2, CS, Baldurs Gate and some other stuff. In January I've hardly played any games at all. I've maybe only clocked 4 hours of gaming in the whole month(!!!!). Just recently since last week I've been gaming again. I played the Guild Wars Factions trial (Wait, that was in January right? So I maye have actually played a bit more) and got back into GW. I've been playing that now every day. Than last weekend the free DOD:Source trail. I've been really enjoying that alot. Much more than I expected (I played DOD a few years ago when it was still an early mod. I hated it at the time, though now it's completely different and much "quakier" if you know waht I mean). So yeah, now in a few day that SW game comming out. Than Oblivion, Faces of War (Maybe you could cover that Steve? The origenal (Soldiers: Heroes of WW2) got mixed reviews but I loved it (It's completely different than most if not all RTS games)), SEED, and probably a couple more.
So yeah, I'm back into gaming.
What I did when I wasn't in the mood... Well, basicly browsing forums all the time and working on my own little (big) game. And doing some stuff for school.

"I love it how you retro-reviewed C&C, but please get your "facts" "right". :) :P"

Actually all of what you describe is not a "fact" or "facts" but my opinion. My opinion was that I liked RA2 the best of them all, while your opinion is that RA2 blew chunks. To each their own...

"Actually all of what you describe is not a "fact" or "facts" but my opinion. My opinion was that I liked RA2 the best of them all, while your opinion is that RA2 blew chunks. To each their own..."

Yeah I know, that's why I put quotes around the words fact and right. I guess that came over wrong :P (Although it's generally considered by most C&C fans that after Tibsun the series started to go down). Anyway, I'm sorry if that offended you or something, I didn't mean to do that. :)

I HEART C&C.

Steve(n), your Podcast rocks !
These hours that you spend on the microphone give me something no (printed) gaming-magazine can give: the feeling of beeing treated honestly. you don't hype games up, you say clearly what you think (and why you think like that).
Your podcast is truly the only source for intelligent Game-discussions.

I'm german and now spend up to two hours each week listening to some wierd language i last heard in school; something clearly is wrong with me ;-)

Great cast as always.

Help Digg this one.

http://digg.com/gaming/Gaming_Steve_episdoe_38

I like to play some of my favorite N64 games when I just don't feel like doing anything else. It's funny, how can I be bored with The Sins 2, The Movies, Battlefield 2, Battle for MIddle Earth (I also played the Demo and the Beta of teh 2nd one), Alien vs Predator 2 which I still play, and piles of older, still good games. Meh, I'll go play Banjo Tooie.

Sweet. I've got a really long drive tomorrow and am extremely stoked the show came out today. :)

All through December and January, the only new game I played was Shadow Of The Colossus. Pitiful. Fortunately, I am out of my "gaming doldroms", since I recentley picked up Devil May Cry 3, and by the end of February, I'll have BLACK, Me And My Katamari for PSP, and 24: The Game. (I played the 24 demo and it sucked, but I'm a diehard)

I heartily agree with Robb's recommendation to get a game with a construction set. As an excellent example, I suggest Morrowind. That game has a huge world and thousands of brilliant mods out there to play. Either that, or wait a month for the next title in the Elder Scrolls Series, Oblivion, which will also have a construction set.

I'm really angry though, because my Radeon 9250 video card won't play Oblivion >:(

Whenever there's nothing else to play, that's when Tetris goes back into my gameboy and all is well with the world. -leeman

Such is the price of being the hardcore of the hardcore Wahh, PC gaming is expensive =/ Hey, I'm 16, and I still manage to get by on informal Tech Support, selling presents on Ebay and overclocking my rig.

Like others said above, the original Crystal Quest is in the final purchase of the game and it plays just as it did on my Mac years ago and it's complete with all of it's sound effects. The only downside is that there isn't a Live leaderboard devoted to the game.

Also, earlier this week, Downloadable content has already been made available For Crystal Quest including two new graphical looks and two new sound sets as well as a new play mode...

I think PC Fps's are better on PC because the xbox didn't have the technology to keep up in the later years, no way xbox can handle Fear, BF2, even hl2 has some bad framerate hicups. The xbox 360 looks to change this thrend.

I have a question about umbra. I was a level 4 and killed her before knowing there was a quest about her. My 360 is running slow. Could this be the reason?