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Half-Life 2 – $29.95
Half-Life 2: Episode One – $19.95
Half-Life 2: Episode Two – $29.95
Portal – $19.95
Team Fortress 2 – $29.95
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Individual price $129.75
Package price $49.95
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Pre-purchase discount – $5.00
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Cost to you $44.95
You save $84.80!

The pre-purchase for “The Orange Box” is now available via Steam. Looking at the prices, if one does not own Half-Life 2 and/or Episode One it’s a great deal. However, if one does own Half-Life 2 and Episode One and is really only interested in Episode Two, it may not be. It looks as if Episode Two will be available later for $29.95, $10.00 more than Episode I was selling, $12 if you expected another 10% discount. Considering that each episode is reported to be like a 1/3 of a normal-length game, the cost of collecting the Episodes are adding up fast. If so, it’s no small wonder Valve wanted to split the releases. $50 for roughly 2/3 of a game works out well for them, especially when released on Steam and especially when first offering the higher-priced package first in order to get the eager beavers to pay more. Episode One, many agree, was short but we do not yet know about the length of Episode Two so it’s possible it is considerably longer than the first and, as such, worth the additional 50% ($10). To be fair, we’ll reserve final judgement until then.

When Episode One was released, consumers were able to pre-purchase to receive a 10% discount, bringing the price down to $18. Fair enough. Some thought $15-16 was its actual worth whereas most agreed $20 isn’t “too bad” considering you do get it sooner than waiting years for a full-length version.

When Steam was first released to the public some boasted that it was a true win for the consumer since the consumer would be able to download games at a discounted price since there was no need for a publisher (like Vivendi) and the cost for packaging and shipping.

Game titles rolled out slowly at first then the bottom of bargain-basement games started being released by companies trying to make a few dollars on products that have mostly run their course on the retail shelves. Smart business for older titles, really, and convenient to the customer who may want to pick up an inexpensive game on an impulse.

New games like Bioshock were released on Steam. Unfortunately, there was no cost savings to the consumer over purchasing the game in the store. The fact that the consumer isn’t “winning” as much as before, though, is solely the consumer’s fault. You can’t really blame Steam or game providers in as much as they, like all other businesses, simply want to get the most money possible for their investment. The marketplace dictates worth and people have obviously been ready and willing to shell out more money than something is worth. For some, it’s convenience. For others, it’s not knowing any better and jumping at the first offering that pops up in the Steam News window. If only purchasers knew what power they really have.

I don’t wish this post to be a hate-fest toward Valve and Steam since I hold no ill-will toward either. As previously stated, the offering is a great deal if you do not already own Episode One and/or Half-Life 2.

I leave this post with a couple quotes, though:

Team Fortress 2 and Portal are included with all retail and Steam versions of Episode Two for the PC.

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Not only did Newell confirm that the title will be included as the multiplayer component of Half-Life 2: Episode 2, but a first glimpse of the class-based shooter showed a surprisingly stylized look reminiscent of campy 60s spy films — an approach used in titles such as No One Lives Forever and XIII.

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I could be wrong but it looks to me, as noted on pc.ign.com and many other internet sites, that Team Fortress 2 and Portal were to be paired offerings with Episode Two, not quite the case as per the costs posted above. If “Team Fortress 2 and Portal are included with all retail and Steam versions of Episode Two for the PC” how could it be not be free? ALL retail and Steam versions… ALL. If the two games come will ALL versions then they’re either free or they have to overcharge for Episode Two to compensate for the cost of the two other “free” games. Those are the only two options, right? Personally, I only want Episode Two, but I want it at a fair price and I want companies to stick to their word. Also, I don’t care for bait and switch tactics. Promising one thing to get all the good publicity and traction then quietly backing away and overcharging is bad business if caught or interpreted that way by the consumer. I hope this isn’t the case here and will be quick to post if I learn otherwise.

With the recent announcement of the cancellation of the retail Black Box, I wasn’t exactly pleased with Valve’s course of action. Many disputed the impact of the decision, as the various parts were still available via Valve’s online platform Steam. This is a matter of preference, of course, but plenty of consumers still prefer to buy from brick-and-mortar stores.

However, Valve has good news for potential customers. Going against the trend of current digital distributors, Vavle has vowed not to charge for any additional downloadable content, bucking the standard practice on platforms such as the Xbox Live Marketplace and certain PC productions like Oblivion. Rather than focusing on additional revenue via booster packs, Valve plans to focus on in-game advertising for post-release revenue. This move will also help the growing community of smaller developers found on Steam, who will be afforded more pricing options and other benefits.

A variety of voices at Valve sounded off about their philosophy. Marketing director Doug Lombardi was quick to spell out the situation. “Our philosophy there is, if you buy the product, we put more content out to keep the game interesting, we sell more products.” One of Valve’s designers, Robin Walker, expressed the same sentiment, stating that the company makes more money when “more people buy [the product]” than when they “nickel-and-dime the same customers.”

On the one hand, I’m happy to see that Valve is going to be offering some free downloadable content in the future. On the other hand, I’m disappointed at how refreshing this sounds. The movement towards digital distribution and the introduction of closed-platform console distribution has led to the creation of many more opportunities to charge the consumer, and it’s becoming increasingly rare to see free content, even if it will be ad-supported. Additionally, while this may work fine for the PC, it’s unclear whether or not Microsoft will be pleased with Valve’s decision. We know they’ve charged for what should have been free content before.

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Half-Life 2 and Doom 3 assets in the new S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl from GSC Game World? Possibly assets from other games as well?

…the thread creator, user michi.be, posted screen captures allegedly comparing the light image folders from S.T.A.L.K.E.R. to those of Doom 3 (all screen captures locally mirrored). Tellingly, though some of the images had been modified in various ways, such as having hue or saturation adjustments, the original filenames from the Doom 3 folders remained the same–for example, a file with the Doom-esque name “lights_impflash.dds,” referring to one of the game’s enemies, was visually modified in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. folder but retained the filename.

Later in the same thread, user Johnny posted an image allegedly comparing a water texture from S.T.A.L.K.E.R. to a water texture from Half-Life 2. As in the Doom 3 case, the images were nearly identical and the filename was unchanged with the exception of its extension.

CSNation reported the story from Shacknews as well. Their user comments can be found here.

They ripped a fire sprite straight out of Battlefield 2 as well. Google it.
Anyway, this seems pretty lazy to me.

STALKER also borrows some sound effects from CS. I was watching some videos of STALKER and I recognized some sound effects straight from CS.

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