I am a very sad person right now. Old news, but still, I'm sad.
Hope the graphic novel thing doesn't mean just six or seven strips of "dreaded continuity", but something more.

Like too many commercials, deliberate misdirection to get viewers attention. Since I never read the others no miss, and I only completed Episode 1 of HL anyway!
Back on track now.

aww, pity. Kind of enjoyed the first two games.

Might be stretching the definition, it's repetitive and not funny so it's a good representation of the webcomic...

When I read "Gabe", Penny Arcade is the first thing I thought of. That's the site I was at right before GOG. Though Half Life was in the back of my mind.
I have no plans to play Half Life Episode 3, so it wouldn't matter to me either way. I think the episodic idea has kinda been ruined anyway. Isn't the idea of episodic gaming to have short episodes of a game every couple of months? In the amount of time it takes to release an episode of Half Life, they should be able to make a full game.

Fuck...you.

By now I'm almost wishing it was about 'the other one'. Valve should just stick to Steam and multiplayer games. It's obvious they can't be bothered with anything else.

Uh, agreed, I will never understand the popularity of that comic. Probably 'cause I'm an evil computer

Dammit, they did the HL2/Penny Arcade mixup trick on purpose. That's not funny. Not even a little bit.
Also, it's somewhat disappointing that Penny Arcade won't finish the series.

Is it April 1st already?

I guess I am the only one who thought it was funny

Rant incoming!
This is why I don't like episodic content unless the company behind it is devoted to going "all the way". How many have failed so far now? Bone only got two episides, the great Sin Emergences was axed after just one, etc.
Telltale are the only ones who seem to know how to do it - after making the mistake with Bone they realised what a better model would be. But then again, they laid out the story from the start AND people could pre-order the entire series so it gives them a big incentive to complete them.
However, Valve are showing how NOT to do it. They take as long between episodes as most companies take to make a full game. Over two years between episodes is a joke - especially if those episodes recycle almost all content from the previous games, are very short, and not that special either. The first episode for HL2 was terrible! I had to push myself to complete it (I had attempted three times before) but had to before I could play Episode 2.

Companies including themselves. Haven't both Left 4 Dead games (or left 4 dead + retail expansion) come out since half life 2 ep2?

Yep they have :S I mean, okay, you want to make other games as well, fine but at least continue working on the new episode.

I never liked the idea for the same reason why I don't like EA's new "demo" system: all advantages are for the developers/publishers and none for us. We get games thinly stretched across big periods of time, the risk of seeing a series die, we got to wait ages before we see the end of the story, with each new episode, the game looks older and older, it's harder to get "into" the game when you know it's going to suddenly end with a gape of several months to several years, etc. etc. For publishers, it's great because it lets them cut costs by pulling a game if it's not unsuccessful but guess what happens to those who DID buy the first episode(s)? They get screwed sideways.