Why new ideas, people, games, and platforms are always needed.

Do you watch My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic?

The show is well respected, known for crossing age and demographic lines, is lauded for it's fleshed out all female cast, and would not exist if Hasbro didn't decide to start a TV channel. 

When you start a TV channel, you have two options.  Make wildly original shows or show repeats.  MLP fell into the "Original Shows" Category and has been a boon for Hasbro and it's marketing department. 


The same idea applies to games.

Valve is releasing the steambox. 

The PS4 is speculated to be announced on February 20th. 

The Xbox 720 may be announced before then.


Everytime something new comes out, there are the two instincts.  Do something new, and do something old.  Mario and Pokemon WILL sell systems.  That is without a doubt.  So will  Nathan Drake.  Sly Cooper still has buying power.  Infamous might, but the way Infamous 2 ended who knows if it can go on to Infamous 3 with Cole.

As for Valve, Valve has Half Life 3/Half Life 2 episode 3.  That is their ace in the hole.  No matter what, people will buy the steambox to play this game.  It's not going to be on GOG.  No one really sells PC boxed games anymore, not when Valve made Digital Download so easy.  If Half Life 3 comes preloaded and several months before it's released to the public on steam?   Sweet Celestia, the sales would be enormous.  People would buy it anyway, but that would push people on the edge over the edge. 


People always crave the new and the familiar.  The familiar can help them grasp something easier.  It's why Mario and Luigi are used to sell Nintendo systems.  People know how they work.  People know they will be good games, or at the very least pretty decent. 



People also crave the new.  They have something in front of them, they want to know what it can do!


And that fresh blood is always critical.  New creators give fresh ideas. Portal is a very original puzzle game.  It started because Valve hired some new and forward thinking college students.  They got a new, popular, and reasonably all ages series out of it. 



If people and games just retread the same paths, they become stale.  Others retread but mix it up to become more interesting.  That doesn't always work out (I'm looking at you, Sonic Unleashed. Day parts were good, fun, and typical.  Night parts... interesting but not as much fun) 



But is important is that games try and learn.  It's why Journey, Flower, and Shadow of the Colossus are well regarding, because they are unique.  They take ideas and concepts that shouldn't work, and do. 

It's also why Final Fantasy is having difficulty.  They are trying very hard to change and keep their formula, but it is having trouble gelling.  Fresh blood must come into Square Enix.

Then again, with a fresh system (A bit of Fresh Blood on it's own) we get The World Ends With You which is one of the most original and FANTASTIC games I've played.

Everything needs a new idea, a new system, so new blood.  It gets creative juices flowing, allows old ideas to become fully fleshed out and realized, and let's people resee classics in a new light. 

To the Steambox, WiiU, PS4 and Xbox 720 (or whatever you'll be called) !  May we have fresh games and wonderful ideas to look forward to in the future.

The legalities of Black Mesa

Half Life came out in 1998.  The game was owned and created by Valve. In the fifteen years (well, fourteen) years since the game came out, technology has increased dramatically.

For example, here is the Half Life 1 original trailer:

Here is the Half Life 2 trailer:

As you can see, a big jump in quality, people on screen, AI tactics, etc. 

One day, around 2004 some fans decided to remake the game.  An upgrade is always nice. Technology had improved, and Half Life 3 didn't look like it was coming out.  So, they started.  They realized they would have to give it out for free, but they kind of knew that coming in.

And then they did more research and found out that they couldn't use ANY pre existing assets from Half Life or Valve.

"No big deal" you may say.  "That was the point."

Let me reiterate.  This means, no programming, no skinning (I'm not sure about models.  I thought not, but some might), and no sounds or voices.  They would have to make it COMPLETELY from scratch. Though, they could use the Source engine since Valve lets anyone use that to mod.

Much like Valve, they had to push the date back, a lot.  It was originally supposed to in 2009.  In fact, the game still isn't done.  The Black Mesa mod lacks the Xen chapters.  The Xen Chapters are well thought of to be the weak point in Half Life (as they are repetitive and require a completely different style of gameplay)  but the group promises they will be finished.

But don't worry about Valve striking back.  Valve actually did some promo work for Black Mesa on steam, let it be downloaded from Steam for free and they said they were excited to see it play out.

And, as Valve is known to hire people that impress them... I'd say quite a few of them got e-mails inviting them to work at Valve....


Here is Half Life's "Inbound" level

Here is Black Mesa's

 Can we sit here for a bit and be impressed with how legal issues forced people to improve?