A crafty puzzle/platformer 1) from the first person perspective and 2) with a unique gameplay hook which is also 3) set in the Half-life Universe is more than I can handle mentally. The existing materials point toward a clinical, detached, (but most importantly) truly original sense of humor, which I guess is what happens when you hire Old Man Murray to do your writin's.
Another reason I have positive associations with it are that, yeah, this team is originally from DigiPen, our local game development institute - you can check out work and games from other students here. They showed their final project to the guys at Valve, and (to hear that interview tell it) before it was even over they'd been offered jobs developing an advanced version of their concept on their in-house technology. Valve pulls directly from the community with extraordinary frequency, a philosophy so intensely moral I can hardly articulate it.
Episode 2 is hitting along with Team Fortress 2 and Portal, in a single purchase, and it seems crazy that I would get all of that for twenty dollars. They haven't announced pricing yet, and I imagine that's why. I don't want to pay more than I need to, certainly, but one of the things I like about buying things directly from Valve is that I perceive it as being humane. I don't want them to kill themselves entertaining me, and if they suffer at my expense, then I at least want to compensate them fairly.
(CW)TB
September 8, 2006
