Reseñas

• gamedeal user

  Jul 10, 2020

  Incredible! Hint: I will not speak anything about the details / informations. (Spoiler free!) First, i thought that this is a "movie". Just bought it and started it. Wow! A interactive software. About this software: Thats a well made "ebook". A interactive ebook. It have so many interactive 3D animations, videos, mini games (Alyx games!) and a soundboard. This got so many background infos which aren't public before (Half Life, Valve internal stuff, how they work and much more!). Really nice to read and a MUST HAVE for every Half Life fan! It's not just a "movie" or a "ebook". It's a whole new level of that. Thank you for this! 10/10
• gamedeal user

  Jul 12, 2020

  For a time - a long time - I had a lot of ire in my heart for the seemingly lax effort from Valve to bring a new game to gamers, especially in an era of half-baked video games and early accesses. I honestly didn't care what it would be just as long as they released SOMETHING... or so I thought. I was really upset at the announcement and release of Artifact. As someone who has failed to truly invest and dive into TCGs, it just wasn't for me - nor was it for the people in that audience. That collective 'boo' still haunts me. Seeing it subsequently flop after my own disappointment, I felt that Valve was gone. Long and truly gone. I sought for the days where my best mate of the time and I would boot up our Xbox 360s and launch into some Left 4 Dead. I strongly remember the days of owning The Orange Box, in a time where I had never (and still hadn't) played an online game on my console, and I would just roll around the TF2 maps alone, making believe in my head about epic fights. I remember making a Steam account 12 years ago, despite not having a good computer at the time, forgetting about it, and booting it back up as I received my graduation computer, a whopping $2.500 at the time, to join in on the fun that ended up being Portal 2 and Left 4 Dead 2. Circa 2015, I recall being angry; very angry. I was constantly looking for games that'd emulate Left 4 Dead's feel or the communal cohesion of TF2 as I'd beaten both of those games to death. Nothing. We heard nothing. Fast forward to today: I all but squee'd for joy and annoyed my friends on Discord at learning about the announcement of Half Life Alyx. I've now played it, enjoyed it, and have just purchased Final Hours. I feel terrible. I can't deny my passion as a gamer and my desire to seek these quintessential experiences, but to carry the genuine anger in my heart for Valve for not releasing a game in years; it's not only selfish, but very wrong. For a long time, and rightfully so considering the state of the industry, I had assumed that Valve, knowing how projects operate internally; no, it's employee's, all of the sound techs and visual artists and the like, were all sitting under Gabe's umbrella of success and riding the wave of gainful employment, laughing as I perceived all they to be working on was Steam UI upgrades. As I said, I was wrong. Final Hours revealed to me that, what I had secretly hoped and internalized all along, but had often let my anger cloud: Valve STILL made games. Not only did they still make games, they had BEEN making games, but due to what could be considered as stubborness and an outright refusal to let anything creep out the door that wasn't worthy of the public, as well as some technical difficulties, they simply couldn't. They tried and tried again, but failed due to things beyond their own control. However, once it all lined up, and once everything was ready, they resumed classic and by-the-Valve-textbook methods of development and created a masterpiece of the era (we're just gonna consider Artifact a... lapse of judgement, okay?), truly living up to the age-old Valve standard of game releases and harkening to Miyamoto's famous quote: "A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad." While I don't think Miyamoto quite envisioned a delay lasting 13 years, Valve took their time, as they seemingly always have, and released Half LIfe Alyx. Final Hours is memoir of that journey, and I can honestly say that it's well worth the time. To Valve, while I may not know when your next game will release, or what it will be, I'd like to offer an apology for internally berating your studio and it's workers. It's one thing to berate a company, but it's another to berate it's workers. No one deserves that admonishment, even if it is private. For that, I'm sorry, and I'm eager to see what you make in the future. I've learned a hard lesson in patience and considering the plight of everyone, even a corporation, no less one gilded in double-decade old praise. To Geoff, I want to thank you for the lesson mentioned above, and your continued passion in the industry. As someone who also routinely writes long stints of things related to video games, I can appreciate your candor to the task. Thank you.
• gamedeal user

  Jul 10, 2020

  A highly illuminating, richly detailed and absolutely fascinating look at the development of Half-Life: Alyx, with a few detailed chapters focusing briefly on other cancelled projects at Valve (both hardware and game/software). DO NOT go into this expecting a full reveal of the cancelled Episode 3 or HL3, because understandably Valve did not discuss too much of this - the core of the Final Hours of Alyx story is the struggle to ship the actual Alyx game and the many pieces of cut content and iterations the team went through. The unused story is incredibly interesting! As a software app, Final Hours of Alyx is interactive, impeccably well-designed, gorgeous and with excellent use of sound and graphics, with rich 3D elements from inside Alyx itself. I wasn't expecting any of this - it's not just a barebones PDF reader, this is a full-blown Unity app with a lot of work put into it. A "must-read" for any Half-Life or Valve fan.
• gamedeal user

  Jul 10, 2020

  A lot of information that was left to speculation for so, so long about Valve is now public. I'm kinda speechless right now... never though the day would come. If you told me 2 years ago that Valve was developing a new Half-Life game, I would have laughed at you. Now we know everything that has happened at Valve since that cliffhanger in 2007. Please give this a read if you played any of the games / at least watched Half Life Alyx or something.
• gamedeal user

  Jul 10, 2020

  3 minutes into it: "It's starting to look better than it has in a while, so that's promising," responds Michael Coupland, an 11-year veteran of Valve who admits he hasn't yet shipped a game at Valve because his projects keep getting canceled" This is gonna be good.
• gamedeal user

  Jul 10, 2020

  An engrossing 4 hour long interactive e-book, detailing the trials and tribulations of Valve's return to the legendary Half-Life franchise. A must buy for HL fans and anyone interested in the inner workings of game development. Important: DO NOT read this if you have NOT beaten HL: Alyx. There are MAJOR SPOILERS within.
• gamedeal user

  Jul 10, 2020

  I got jumpscared reading a fucking book. 10/10
• gamedeal user

  Jul 12, 2020

  This could have just been a pdf report but Geoff Keighley went above and beyond putting this together with videos, puzzles and interactable models from the Half Life franchise. Incredibly well written and really opens the door on the many failed projects Valve worked as they underwent the hurdles of creating Source 2 and developing their VR hardware.
• gamedeal user

  Nov 1, 2020

  Many Steam users assumed (wrongly) that "Half-Life: Alyx - Final Hours" was some sort of game. It is not. It is a very well written, enhanced, audio/visual eBook, documenting the inner-workings of the Valve corporation, and more importantly, the making of the latest Half-Life game: "Half-Life: Alyx". I found reading the story to be very rewarding, and the overall presentation delightful. At times, there is background audio which helps set the atmosphere throughout the book. Additionally, you have access to visual guides and 3D models which also help add to the amazing story.
• gamedeal user

  Jan 25, 2021

  I bought this on a whim as it was bundled with HL: Alyx at a reduced price as part of the 2020 Winter Sale. For the price of a coffee, and thinking it was a documentary vid that I could just sit back and enjoy over a lunch break, I thought I may as well. So, I was a little disappointed when I first launched it and it turned out to be a (highly polished and interactive) wall of text. But after reading the first few paragraphs (and being impressed with the 'gamification' of a book) I decided to stick with it and I'm really glad I did. It uncovers some fascinating insights into how Valve operates as an organisation, how the fate and continued development of practically every project at Valve seems to be on a permanent knife-edge, and just how much the staff there care about what they do. Well worth the read, but DEFINITELY NOT until AFTER you've completed the game!