Harmonix aside, who is your favorite video game developer?

[firedoom666]

Valve, a hundred times Valve. Their games, their distribution model, their approach to pricing, their development structure, their branding... I am consistently blown away by their work.

The only bad things that can be said about Valve is No half Life 3 and Valve Time

[SheSaidSheSaid]

I'm pretty sure Rockstar was the publisher for LA Noire.

[AzureAngel17]

That one is complicated. Both Rockstar and 2K serve as publishers for some titles and have subsidiary studios that develop games, while Rockstar and 2K are themselves owned by Take Two Interactive.

Yaaaaay corporate bureaucracy!

[CJHobbes]

Huh, 7 pages and no mention of Blizzard. I figured at least one person would throw their name out there by now.

Just like favorite bands/movies, I have multiple devs I like.

So, to name a few:

Valve, Black Isle (Planescape: Torment is a must play), Blizzard (I don't care how people feel about them currently, they owned my playtime late 90s through the 00s), Westwood Studios (C&C series), Firaxis (Civilization series), Turn 10 (Forza series), Epic Games/Digital Extremes (Unreal Tournament, my favorite FPS game of all time), and Maxis (Sim City series).

[GreatJedi7]

Exactly. Even though I dislike Half Life and haven't touched Counter Strike (and friends),

/facedesk

[instantdeath999]

I definitely don't see the appeal in Counter Strike (but I get really bored of almost all online first persons shooters), I do like what I've played of Half-Life, though I confess I've never actually sat down and beat one of the games.

Valve do get points for making pretty much the only online first person shooter that I will occasionally play and enjoy: Left 4 Dead. I don't like it nearly as much as a friend of mine, and his constant insistence that I play it has kinda soured me on it, but it is still a really great game.

[Cubecubed]

I'm not big on Half life or Counter strike, but Valve gets a great amount of credit from me for the Portal and Left 4 Dead series.

[CJHobbes]

Regarding Counter-Strike, it was a fan created Half-Life mod (Minh Le and Jess Cliffe) that became successful enough that Valve hired the two guys to further develop it. So I guess while Valve was 95% of the reason Counter-Strike is around, the people who actually created it were college kids at the time.

"By the fourth beta version, Valve Software, the developer who created Half-Life, began assisting in the development of Counter-Strike.[4] In 2000, Valve bought the rights to Counter-Strike and hired Le and Cliffe to work with them in Bellevue, Washington, USA where Le continued to work on Counter-Strike and related games."

I don't mean to do Valve a disservice, in fact just the opposite: just wanted to point this out because it's a really cool story. Two guys who loved Half-Life and created a fun mod, and a development company (Valve) that saw its potential and assisted in making it into a lucrative reality.

[Cipher_Peon]

/facedesk

What?!?

[instantdeath999]

Regarding Counter-Strike, it was a fan created Half-Life mod (Minh Le and Jess Cliffe) that became successful enough that Valve hired the two guys to further develop it. So I guess while Valve was 95% of the reason Counter-Strike is around, the people who actually created it were college kids at the time.

"By the fourth beta version, Valve Software, the developer who created Half-Life, began assisting in the development of Counter-Strike.[4] In 2000, Valve bought the rights to Counter-Strike and hired Le and Cliffe to work with them in Bellevue, Washington, USA where Le continued to work on Counter-Strike and related games."

I don't mean to do Valve a disservice, in fact just the opposite: just wanted to point this out because it's a really cool story. Two guys who loved Half-Life and created a fun mod, and a development company (Valve) that saw its potential and assisted in making it into a lucrative reality.

Wasn't aware of that, thanks for sharing. I just assumed the similar gameplay style was due to the company making it, since Left 4 Dead handles a bit like Half-Life and Counter Strike, IMO.

On Portal, I really enjoyed the first game, but I honestly haven't gotten around to playing the second. Too bad it doesn't come in an extraordinary "Orange Box" type deal