I give +5 to Valve for this.
Moral highground? They have it.

old news yawn

good excuse for the delay!

Wow, +50000000 cookies for Valve. What a great idea, this will be a deaf gamer must have. I remember seeing a site with reviews of games for deaf people....

seems like the valve is at the cutting edge of game innovation and creating something much deeper and meaningful experience unlike some other game companies that are just trying to rake in a quick buck

OH NOOOOOOOOOO!!! >.<
[SPOILER] should be on the title...
Now I won't have the 'waaaw' feeling when I play the game...

PISSING ME OFF!!

For actual deaf gamers it's called subtitles. They arent blind. I'm fairly certain the majority of games have that. I turn it on all the time, cause sometimes gunfire is too loud to hear the voices, or there's talking going on too far from the player to hear, but the subs show it anyway.

Cool, but pointless. Still, it could have implications latter on. Just as gamers appreciate voice acting over text perhaps signing will be a better way to interact with def computer users than just plain text.

@false_dmitry_ii

This isn't for deaf gamers,did you even read the article? It's about making a more believable, realistic, and enveloping experience out of the game, something many developers don't give two shits about these days.

Dog doesn't have fingers, don't you need fingers to sign?

+1 @ false_dmitry_ii

The first thing that came to mind when I read this was, subtitles would make deaf people hear what's going on in the game. Still pretty interesting though

Really? Is it really that hard to catch that typo?

Seems like they're putting a lot of thought into this EP, let's hope it lasts more than the 2hrs EP2 took to complete...

Apparently it is because only you noticed it.

errrr can't the players just turn on subtitles? I doubt blind people would even consider playing video games, more likely in a wheelchair.

I think if I were deaf, I would definitely opt for the sign language over plain old subtitles. I would imagine it would increase the atmosphere a bit.

I think Vavle should accept paypal debit accounts, not just credit. -_-
... They would have had my money (getting ready tp purchase, then I discover...).

I think people are kinda failing to see the point. Its not only to advance the game to a new group of players, yes there are deaf players out there, but its also to develop Alyx's back story.

If you remember, VALVe is huge on having a back story for all but of course Freeman and G-Man.

Think of when you played EP2 and the ending. How did you feel? (to those who beat it). Didn't you feel that remorse and anger all at once? VALVe just wants to deepen Alyx to a new level. I find nothing wrong with that as the HL series itself has a very deep story thats become more wide open with the OB but also has a lot of mystery to it, such as who the G-Man is or what happened to Freeman those 7 years.

Just mentioning it: the game in the background is Left4Dead 2

im gonna need to re-play ep2 and probably ep1 to remember what happened, before ep3 is released xD

i seriously forgot the storyline.

I was so hyped for E3 news about Ep3 I played the whole damn series again. Even "Decay". Then, pfffffft.

We have been so so starved for Ep3 news. Lest we forget Portal 2. Just make it worth the pains of withdrawl, Valve.

And this is the reason episode 3 is so delayed? They should implement something for the blind too to get 3 more years of development funding.

YOu mean for GABE?

FINALLY SOME NEWS ON EP3!!!!

Not really, this typo is the reason why I opened the article in the first place.

I would have posted an editorial post about it, but alas, you beat me ahslan.

Anyhow... fix the typo guys!

Greetz,

Mike

What's with this EP BS? Originally Valve was saying they would start releasing crap in short episodes rather than full games so that it can be released faster and people could start enjoying the game earlier, blah blah. It's taking so long now to release one episode which really is just an expansion pack of an existing game, NOT a new game. It took 6 years between HL (1998) and HL2 (2004), with 2 HL expansions in between (opposing forces and blue shift). When HL2 came out though it was a completely new game... new graphics, new effects, new technologies. It was an actual sequal.

We're coming up on 5 years now since HL2 and we don't even have EP3 yet. By now we should be seeing a completely new SEQUAL. Much improved graphics, effects, technologies, etc. These episodes are BS, they are not sequals, they are only EXPANSION PACKS. After 5 years I expect to dish out money for a real SEQUAL, not stupid expansion pack. Who else thinks this "episodic content" is complete BS and only a cash grab?

jimmysmitty wrote:
"Think of when you played EP2 and the ending. How did you feel? (to those who beat it). Didn't you feel that remorse and anger all at once?"

lol, yeah, because it was so freakin' short. It's a good thing it was part of Orange Box, and I got it on sale

Personally I think adding sign language to 'deepen' the game is kind of meh. If it were actually to help deaf people then sure, but otherwise I'm not impressed. Alyx never used sign language before, so it will be kinda odd for her to start all of a sudden regardless of the back-story. Plus I doubt I'll see much of it, what with trying not to get killed and all, unless they script it into a cut-scene.

cash grab? O_o each episode was only $10. Orange Box that comes with hl2, ep 1, ep 2, portal, and tf2 is $30. the only cash grab I can think of is L4D2. the only thing I agree with about your post is that these episodes are only 6 hours long and its time they finish their story at least. idk Valve pisses me off sometimes. especially with tf2 and L4D decisions.

Okay maybe cash grab is too much but it IS a wasted time. It takes 6 years to get 3 short expansion packs to a game released back in 2004. In the 6 years between HL and HL2 we got 2 expansion packs plus a brand new full game. We certainly have to wait a lot longer for less these days..

I think this is more a publicity gimmick than anything else. I don't hear well and I always turn on subtitles. I have a deaf daughter and son-in-law and they never complain about games excluding signing. It just doesn't seem worth the effort.

i think it'll be interesting if they develope and then license the tech to schools to teach signing. In game it seems abit of a stretch besides basic hand signals to coordinate a sneak attack on an enemy position. I just hope that it isn't a all of a sudden alyx can sign type of thing.

definent kudos to valve for developing the tech that can help countless deaf cildren in learning signing. not so much for the in game thing. At least it'll increase the hand details and dexterity wich should be cool