Thats one of my problems, they use a term thats already defined as once a week and apply it to an annual release schedule.
So does that make Madden “episodic” content?
Okay to poke a hole in my own opinion: I guess George Lucas took his own sweet time with the Star Wars episodes, but I think that was more of a link to the pulp serials of the past like Flash Gordon then any scheduling intentions.
that’s not really a fair comparison because he made kill bill as one movie and split it later.
It’s not a continuation of a story. Madden 2007 didn’t end with a “to be continued”. But in terms of scheduling it’s much closer than any other game claiming to be episodic.
star wars was episodic content.
taking a year or two off in between doesn’t necessarily kill the thing.
Valve already said the episodes are practically split parts of the game HL3.
That would be E3 1999, IIRC.
Yes, but Valve hasn’t finished HL3, and is just splitting off chunks. At least, I assume not.
No it wasn’t. Each Star Wars movie told a self-contained story. They were all related, but just because something has sequels doesn’t mean its episodic. Half-Life Episode 1 didn’t feel at all like a self-contained experience at all, it felt like a tv show with a “To be continued…next week!” feel at the end.
If you really want to make a case for a series of movies being “episodic”, LoTR is more apt than Star Wars. If Star Wars never had any sequels, it would still hold up. Fellowship of the Ring…not so much. But there is still a difference between the LoTR movies and real episodic content. Like I said, I’d have no problem with Half-Life 3 taking 6 years to come out if it came out as a fully realized game. What Valve is doing right now is half-way between and feels half-assed, given the amount of time between releases.
Just go back to calling them expansion packs!
If by “content” you mean a roster update and one new feature a year, followed by dropping half of all features each new generation of console launch, sure.
I agree that endings like that are bad, but it isn’t a problem with episodic content in particular. Half Life 2 also had a “TO BE CONTINUED” end, as did Halo 2 (I’ve read). At least this way you only have to wait a couple of years for the next part, instead of five or so…