The most heartbreaking thing about this collection is...

[Yuki]

If Valve didn't care about their fans, they would likely have slopped out Ep3 and HL3 long ago, perhaps by contracting them out to third rate developers and unproven upstarts, capitalizing on fans demands for closure to make easy money. They haven't done anything of the sort because they do care about their fans. Of course like any company their primary concern is making money, but unlike many, Valve understands that taking care of their customers is a good long-term business strategy.

It's considered taking care of their customers to have absolutely no information on a highly-anticipated game and yet to give multiple updates to other games they support while doing so?

[NarooN]

What they all said^^^^^

And they've been intently trolling all HL fans ever since about a year after EP3 came out. The most recent thing they did was give out black t-shirts emblazoned with the "Half-Life 3" logo on them, and let the devs walk out in public with them on. Naturally someone saw this and snapped a pic of it, and it became some big news, lots of new speculation, etc. Then when Valve finally responded, they were like "lol yeah those shirts don't mean anything".

I mean, come on. And then there was the bit way back when EP1 came out, how Gabe and the rest said the whole point of the "Episodes" was to be, y'know, episodic, and to lessen the gap between releases of HL games. It's been four and a half years since EP2 came out.

I know HL is obviously their property, and it's their time when they wish to work on it and release info on it, but it's just a joke now. When thousands upon thousands of your fans politely ask you for even the simplest acknowledgement that the game EXISTS, and you basically just troll them and don't even answer the question while hyping up L4D 13, fans tend to get butthurt.

One more small thing, to show how hypocritical Valve can be at times; when they previously said they didn't like to make sequels too quickly and whatnot, then they turned around and released L4D2 almost less than a year after the first one came out. Just lol.

[kyleb]

It's considered taking care of their customers to have absolutely no information on a highly-anticipated game and yet to give multiple updates to other games they support while doing so?

Yes, the way Valve continually supports the games they've released by improving them through updates is exactly how they take care of their customers to an extent which few other game companies even come close to. As for having "absolutely no information on a highly-anticipated game", that's much better than than announcing features and release dates which they aren't in the potion to guarantee, as Valve had done past, and so many other developers and publishers continue to do.

By the way NarooN, your vacuous rants against Valve are particularly comical given your condemnations of the Silent Hill fanbase just the other day.

[Levito]

Not releasing details about about HL3/Episode 3 is hardly a sign of not caring, sure the wait for for HL3 can be agonising. However HL2 was delayed to no end too, and no one remembers that, only that it was great. After all, I would rather a company take the time to make a polished game, rather than throw out a sloppy mess like Konami has.

They also continually update Steam with new features and listen to their customers. For example, the Mobile app is something everyone wanted, and presto, they made one.

Also, as a long time Counter-Strike 1.6 player I am somewhat disappointed with CS:GO, but the CS community is NEVER happy, and never will be. They have pissed and moaned about the slightest changes for even just patches for the original game since the beginning, they're a lot like the Silent Hill Community now that I think about it. lol


You may not like Valve or Steam, but implying that they of all developers don't care is pretty ridiculous. Valve still patches their games regularly, Konami takes your $40 and tells you to contact customer support. lol

Both Downpour and the HD Collection need some serious patching, compare how unpolished of those releases are to the ridiculously polished Portal 2. Valve are by no means perfect, no developer/publisher is. However they're bronze gods compared to Konami these days, I'm pretty baffled that some of you are so indifferent about the HD Collection's problems, but think Valve "Don't care" because they don't release details about a game.

And they've been intently trolling all HL fans ever since about a year after EP3 came out. .

I think you mean EP2?

[nur_ein_tier]

I'm pretty baffled that some of you are so indifferent about the HD Collection's problems, but think Valve "Don't care" because they don't release details about a game.

This. While some are complaining that no one will "allow" them to enjoy the HD colllection, I feel the opposite. It's like anyone who mentions the fact that SHHD and SHD have glitches and major problems are accused of jumping on a bandwagon and hating for no reason, whereas I feel like if it's broken, people should really call attention to that. I know this is a SHHD thread, but also with Downpour, some of the glitches I got were actually game-breaking. With SHHD, the framerate issues and freezes are quite nearly game breaking. There's no bandwagon; people are just saying that a broken product is broken.

And as I've said, i enjoyed playing through SHHD, esp. SH2, but was greatly annoyed by some of the problems in it, which it shouldn't have had.

[Augophthalmoses]

The fact that the collection was so glitched to hell that Amazon pulled it temporarily for review should have been a big clue to people that a lot of this criticism might have some merit behind it.

[Yuki]

I'm pretty baffled that some of you are so indifferent about the HD Collection's problems, but think Valve "Don't care" because they don't release details about a game.

This. While some are complaining that no one will "allow" them to enjoy the HD colllection, I feel the opposite. It's like anyone who mentions the fact that SHHD and SHD have glitches and major problems are accused of jumping on a bandwagon and hating for no reason, whereas I feel like if it's broken, people should really call attention to that. I know this is a SHHD thread, but also with Downpour, some of the glitches I got were actually game-breaking. With SHHD, the framerate issues and freezes are quite nearly game breaking. There's no bandwagon; people are just saying that a broken product is broken.

And as I've said, i enjoyed playing through SHHD, esp. SH2, but was greatly annoyed by some of the problems in it, which it shouldn't have had.

The problem here is that some people have said "you know, I know there are glitches, but either I don't experience them or I don't notice them; I like this collection even with the glitches that I do notice", amongst other things (including liking the new voices) and in reply they get insulted and told things like "how can you enjoy this clusterfuck of a game??? it's just bad no matter what!!". It's not an issue of telling people the glitches are invalid; they're important. But when you can say you like the game despite the glitches and still get insulted...

[_Bleaux]

I'd also like to note that I remain indifferent to the problems because they are out of my hands. Why would I waste emotion over something I cannot control and only will frustrate me if I let it get to me?

Both sides of the argument are in the wrong when they start insulting each other though.

A wise statement I once heard is, "Your right to be angry ends at your neighbor's cheek." So the moment you start lashing out at someone else, regardless of your stance, you instantly are now in the wrong.

I'll admit that I've gotten a little more then 'enthusiastic' arguing with a few people here and there, and that was wrong.

Then again, we're all in the wrong since we're steering this discussion closer to being a melee then a discussion.

[nur_ein_tier]

I guess I haven't seen that sort of thing firsthand. Or maybe it's because of my site that I get comments and emails telling me to STFU about glitches that I just can't empathize with that very well. And I'll reiterate that, in my reviews,I said I enjoyed playing through them. I suppose people just live to insult each other though, no matter what side of things they are on. But I have basically been told that the glitches are not valid and I should stfu about them and not mention them at all.

[_Bleaux]

I guess I haven't seen that sort of thing firsthand. Or maybe it's because of my site that I get comments and emails telling me to STFU about glitches that I just can't empathize with that very well. And I'll reiterate that, in my reviews,I said I enjoyed playing through them. I suppose people just live to insult each other though, no matter what side of things they are on. But I have basically been told that the glitches are not valid and I should stfu about them and not mention them at all.

Well generally you see more of either dependent on what side of the gap you are on.

Just like you told me about the folk who told me I can't enjoy the games, those folk are idiots. Yes, the glitches are a valid gripe, I understand that. But I've never been one to dwell on negative things, so.

Mainly I also find the people who most hurl the insults are people who have not played the games all the way through. So they usually just scream out hateful comments without even knowing things.

A lot of the people who are constantly shoving the, "lol you play garbage" argument down my throat are people who haven't even tried the game in the first place.

Unfortunately, the social hierarchy of humankind in general causes people to quickly jump on a side, even if they have absolutely no knowledge of the subject matter.

[Levito]

I guess I haven't seen that sort of thing firsthand. Or maybe it's because of my site that I get comments and emails telling me to STFU.

Same here, the Youtube video I uploaded that detailed some of the problems is consistently commented on by people telling me "You have a bad disk the game is fine STFU and go cry". Someone on the IGN boards even accused me of "spreading propaganda". lmao

[kyleb]

I'd also like to note that I remain indifferent to the problems because they are out of my hands.

It is in your hands to some extent though. I mean of course you aren't in any position to fix the problems yourself, but everyone who bought the games and hasn't bothered to return them as the defective products they are is sending a message that this is an acceptable way to treat classics.

[_Bleaux]

I'd also like to note that I remain indifferent to the problems because they are out of my hands.

It is in your hands to some extent though. I mean of course you aren't in any position to fix the problems yourself, but everyone who bought the games and hasn't bothered to return them as the defective products they are is sending a message that this is an acceptable way to treat classics.

Mmph. But the problem is I have the game opened now and no longer has my receipt. I've also pretty much sworn off trading in games at Gamestop due to the fact I don't particularly enjoy getting maybe a 10th of what I paid for a game.

[Yuki]

I'd also like to note that I remain indifferent to the problems because they are out of my hands.

It is in your hands to some extent though. I mean of course you aren't in any position to fix the problems yourself, but everyone who bought the games and hasn't bothered to return them as the defective products they are is sending a message that this is an acceptable way to treat classics.

Or they could still buy it to support Silent Hill and email them to express their dissatisfaction. In fact, I believe fans were told specifically to email Customer Support about it.

[kyleb]

Buying it supports the butchering of Silent Hill, and emails expressing dissatisfaction aren't nearly as persuasive as piles of cash.

[Yuki]

Buying it supports the butchering of Silent Hill, and emails expressing dissatisfaction aren't nearly as persuasive as piles of cash.

Not buying it sends the message that people don't want Silent Hill products at all.

[NarooN]

By the way NarooN, your vacuous rants against Valve are particularly comical given your condemnations of the Silent Hill fanbase just the other day.

When I talk shit about the SH fanbase for being mindless sheep who spread misinformation, worship some team that doesn't exist, etc., I fail to draw any parallels to Valve's behavior. And I don't see how the rants against Valve are stupid when just about all of it is true.

Buying it supports the butchering of Silent Hill, and emails expressing dissatisfaction aren't nearly as persuasive as piles of cash.

As was already said, not buying it would tell them that no one cares about SH anymore. And I'd much rather send constructive emails since, y'know, that's what Tomm asked everyone to do in the first place.

Not releasing details about about HL3/Episode 3 is hardly a sign of not caring, sure the wait for for HL3 can be agonising. However HL2 was delayed to no end too, and no one remembers that, only that it was great. After all, I would rather a company take the time to make a polished game, rather than throw out a sloppy mess like Konami has.

HL2 was only delayed because of that hacker who stole the code and uploaded it like an idiot. I don't mind devs working on a game to make it actually good, I just don't see what's so hard about saying "oh, yeah, the game exists guys."

And I'm not worried about release dates for any Valve games because of Valve Time and their tradition of delaying anything they work on a minimum of five times, so yeah.

They also continually update Steam with new features and listen to their customers. For example, the Mobile app is something everyone wanted, and presto, they made one.

That's probably the biggest thing they've done in ages. Usually every steam client update is just fixing some bug related to some game that only three people play lol.

Also, as a long time Counter-Strike 1.6 player I am somewhat disappointed with CS:GO, but the CS community is NEVER happy, and never will be. They have pissed and moaned about the slightest changes for even just patches for the original game since the beginning, they're a lot like the Silent Hill Community now that I think about it. lol

That's kind of a myth. I mean the only CS players who aren't happy are those who get raped at the game lol. CS 1.6 players talk shit about CS: S and vice versa, but that's about it. Those players play their respective games and enjoy it, that's pretty much it. And the reason why CS players usually complained about major or even minor updates is because they always either fixed something that didn't need to be fixed or they broke a bunch of stuff. The game is one of the most competitive shooters ever, it's easy to understand why people would be pissy, especially with the massive tourney scene where a seemingly "small" update might invalidate all the hours spent training and coming up with strats and whatnot.

You may not like Valve or Steam, but implying that they of all developers don't care is pretty ridiculous. Valve still patches their games regularly, Konami takes your $40 and tells you to contact customer support. lol

Who said I didn't like Valve or Steam? Just because I ranted about them? People who know me know that I talk shit about just about any game or dev even if I do worship them. It's not really fair to compare an already-established PC platform like Steam, which can be easily updated by any dev with zero effort, to a console with a somewhat closed platform with a lengthy and pricey patch process. It's takes a while for the patch to be made and then takes even more time to get thru Sony & MS's lengthy certification process. It's not like they were gonna make a patch in two nanoseconds and have it live the next night lol.

Both Downpour and the HD Collection need some serious patching, compare how unpolished of those releases are to the ridiculously polished Portal 2. Valve are by no means perfect, no developer/publisher is. However they're bronze gods compared to Konami these days, I'm pretty baffled that some of you are so indifferent about the HD Collection's problems, but think Valve "Don't care" because they don't release details about a game.

I dunno where this notion that I or any others are "indifferent" just because we're not raving about it nonstop came from. The shit happened a while ago now, a patch will come when it does. I'm mostly non-vocal about it for that reason, as well as me just moving on. Other games and hobbies exist besides me just sitting there crying about the HDC nonstop. It won't get anything done. Konami knows the problems and if they care about their reputation at all, they'll try to fix it. Just be patient.

[kyleb]

Not buying it sends the message that people don't want Silent Hill products at all.

Only if they're foolish enough to believe they've been doing Silent Hill justice with their recent products.

[devil hunter]

Not buying it sends the message that people don't want Silent Hill products at all.

Only if they're foolish enough to believe they've been doing Silent Hill justice with their recent products.

Well, Downpour is amazing.

[what]

Not buying it sends the message that people don't want Silent Hill products at all.

Only if they're foolish enough to believe they've been doing Silent Hill justice with their recent products.

I'm pretty sure that, up there on the corporate floors, nobody cares one bit about 'doing Silent Hill justice'. They care about whether it is profitable.