Spong.com got the chance to sit down with Doug Lombardi, director of marketing at Valve at this year's Leipzig Games Convention.
Doug, if you didn't know, is a thoroughly 'Good Bloke'. His profile up on Valve's website introduces him quite nicely: "After years in the music industry, Doug decided to get a real job. Then he came to his senses and made the decision to get into the gaming industry instead."
Doug joined Valve back in the heady days of the first Half Life, and has been with the company through numerous sequels, new franchises and the introduction of a little online service called Steam.
From the luxury of EA's business stand (revolving bar and all) Doug and Spong talked about Valve, Steam, PC gaming, online services, Half Life and Darwinism. First, however, they got into the much talked-about but little acted-upon subject of episodic gaming. Read on...
Video games are no longer just a simple past time. Today's games are evolving into true works of art. Offering intriguing narratives, cinematic setpieces, and profound messages, games can entertain us for hundreds of hours.
I never got around to mass effect - I’m skeptical that it would hold up if I were to try it now
I would say it does. The combat is a bit shit for todays standards but everything else is great.
the first one is abit the odd one out but after u finished it, believe it it gets tremendously better and better
Valve has finally introduced the much-needed 64-bit support in an unexpected Team Fortress 2 update after 17 years since its release.
64 bit support is not the same as a next gen upgrade. 64 bit has been used for like 12-15 years now?
The most disappointing and infamous video game endings even sour the overall thoughts of a game. Most of these titles represent some of the finest entries in their respective series, marred by an ending we can't quite forgive.
There is no game called Final Fantasy VII Remake Part 2, but Rebirth had a great ending imo. Felt robbed by the ending at first, but the more I've seen it and during my 3rd playthrough, I started to understand and realize a lot more that make me appreciate the ending.
I was enjoying FFVII Remake, even though those whispers throughout the game were annoying. But the ending was so bad that I don't even want to play Rebirth. On top of that, from what I saw on reviews, the ending of Rebirth is even worse.
Also, I'm glad to see Zero Time Dilemma being recognized as the trainwreck it is. After the amazing two first games (especially the near perfect second one), the low quality of the trilogy end is baffling. The new characters are bad, the old characters don't feel like themselves, a surprise "alien technology" pops out of nowhere, the big twist was like "eh?", and it doesn't really finish the story nor explains the loose threads from the second game.
Nice interview, really nice. Valve is really one of the good guys of developers. They know what most of us want.
And Doug didnt say anything that could be misinterpreted/used/abused by console fanboys on either side of the war, and thats refreshing in these days of comment wars....