Bah, the only thing Valve changed on TFC that ruined it was limiting the demo's mirv grenades to placate whiny losers who couldn't handle a little spam. Dealing with spam will make you a man.

And its not like you have to play Avanti or Dustbowl, they didn't delete 2fort

oh, and lest we forget, HL was delayed for two whole years. I think that the change from glorified Quake 1 mod to kickass was worth the wait.

Bah, no-one has any right to whine about HL2. In so far as gaming communities have anything to whine about, it's when the developers ruin existing games or make them unnecessarily difficult to use. Complaining about Steam at least has some justification, as does complaining about patches that break mods.

Honestly, why can't everyone learn a little patience? Already there are swathes of putative mods and maps for HL2 in development. If there is any one aspect of the gaming and mapping community that shows how stupid we can collectively be, this has got to be it.

It's very simple: the game isn't out yet, so we don't know how to map or mod for it. But still people try to get a head start on mapping or modding for HL2. They make weapon models, despite not knowing how many polygons to use. When some crappy mapper finds that his misconceived map has 10,000 wpolys, instead of junking it like he should, he claims "This map is now being made for HL2, so that I can take advantage of the higher polygon limits". Newsflash: HL2 is not HL1 with more wpolys. If you have some s**tty HL1 map, don't expect to just throw it into HL2 and solve all your problems.

I'm excited about the creative mapping possibilities of this game as much as anyone. But I have plenty of other things to do while I wait. People ought to realise that they're wasting their time creating HL2 content before the game is even out.

And stop bitching about the game, dammit! So what if it never gets released? Go do something else - play some sport, watch a movie, go exploring, learn a new skill, spend time with your family or your friends or your girlfriend. Anything but complain about a game that doesn't exist yet, from a company that owes you nothing!

/rant

...touche''' Squirrel-san....

gollum, you are a man among.....boulders... ....but i fear that patience is a learned trait, concieved of ageless waiting....and, ...........born from......age.

Doc Brasso...

Indeed, although Valve did state that the money earnt from HL1 was a huge source of funds for HL2, so I presume they also made a bundle. Of course maybe what they MEANT was the popularity of HL1 meant they could make demands for silly amounts of cash for HL2 from publishers...

Regardless, although in most cases it is the publisher who makes the money but the developer who gets the praise, I believe some cases are exceptions. My flatmate tells me the bods at ID earn silly amounts of cash for their games, with their talented leader Mr.Carmack being a collector of Ferraris

To be honest, I haven't the slightest idea As soon as the thing came out the envelope it got thrown in a drawer under a pile of game receipts.

EDIT: At a quick look at the Bank of Scotland's website, it appears to be between 12% and 17%, depending on your account.