(4) Valve vs. (2) Harmonix:
Valve: Valve just barely squeaked past tournament cinderella Double Fine, but a win is a win and Valve moves into the second to last round. Will Valve have another close call against Harmonix or will this be their final match-up until next year?
Harmonix: The Guitar Hero creators come away with the win against Epic and take up one of the last 4 spots. Do they have enough Star Power to take out Valve?

Pointless polls unless something has been done about all these multiple account folk.

Voted Valve, only real bad things on their record are the not-so-smooth release of steam (it's brilliant now) and Counter Strike : Source, the prime reason for CPL shutting down and a all out terrible game for competitive play. Can't wait for a real sequel to 1.6.

I voted for Valve, their games are really fun, like Half-Life and Counter Strike.

In before the Harmonix-whoring.

Valve FTW! [+1 for them!]

As much fun as I've had with the Guitar Hero series, Valve takes the cake here (even though it's a lie). With the release of the Orange Box, Valve has thrown down the gauntlet to just about every developer there is. TF2 is awesome...any game with a drunken Scottish demolitions expert can't not be awesome. The Half-Life series has given me some of the most memorable moments in my gaming career. And Portal...there is no competition. Game Over.

Onward, men of crowbar.

Valve is great, and Harmonix took out Epic, so there's no contest.

Valve all the way.

Got to be Valve. Seemingly the only way they can be outdone is by themselves.

If Rock Band was out in Europe I might have been more swayed. I mean, playing Still Alive on Rock Band has to be awesome. But I suspect therein also lies the reason I'm voting Valve.

Love Harmonix, but Half-Life just has something about it I can't quite put my finger on. . .

Rock Band is also my favorite game, hands down, which made it really hard to vote for Valve. But Portal. . . Probably one of the funnier games I've ever played. Had a great difficulty curve to it. A wonderful ending. . . It "was a triumph", if I may go so far as to quote GLaDOS in a very cliche sort of way. ;)

-D

Harmonix for me; partly as a protest vote for my favourite being eliminated so early by teh haterz (insert smiley), partly because the only Valve title that absolutely blew me away was Portal whereas Guitar Hero and Rock Band look to be amazing games that have each been massive "resets" for an entire genre.

-- Steve

Registered to vote for VALVe, everything they have ever done is Videogame GOLD. Half-Life is VALVe's first game and got over 50 GoTY awards(not just nomimations) whereas Harmonix tried and failed with Frequency and the other game that no one else knows. I love me some Rockband, but Half-Life 2: Episode 2 alone wins my heart for the absolute shocker ending. Playing music to a screen with floating notes is cool and all, but I like a good story, and VALVe's writers have NEVER disapointed. And if this sounds like I'm a Harmonix hater, far from it, I love Rockband, it's the one game that still gets me excited every Tuesday for new DLC but VALVe has Half-friggin-Life and that alone is why they will go down in history as the best developer of all time. Ahem, VALVe FTW.

Only the most rabid Rock Band fanboy could vote against Valve with their record. Unfortunately, there will probably be a wave of these fanboys sent over by the official forums.

I've never even heard of Valve, HMX for me.

ForgottenSoldier:
I've never even heard of Valve, HMX for me.

Have you heard of Half-life then? : P

Valve. I suck at Guitar Hero, so not much fun for me :(

Valve, hands down for this round. I'm actually surprised Harmonix has made it this far.

I voted Harmonix in the previous rounds, I will stick to them! Should be a good poll though, they are 1 and 1A on my personal list of game developers.

I love you GLaDOS!

This is the first choice I'm having a lot of trouble with.

When I got the original HL, I was hooked. I spent my junior and senior years of high school between Beating the game, TFC, and sometimes a little Counter-strike. (I never played a lot of counterstrike because I lived in rural Iowa and the best connection I could muster at the time was a 33.6 kbps modem. Sentry Guns don't miss due to lag. I, however, do.)

Once I burned out waiting for HL2 to be released, I started to gravitate towards music titles, played a lot of arcade DDR, etc. Ended up getting a PS2. My college roommate had this strange game he used to play called "Frequency" that I always thought looked interesting, so I fired it up one day. Immediately, I fell into that hyper-focused 'gaming' zone that we all fall into sometimes, the kind you come out of suddenly realizing that it's 5:00 am, the sun is coming up, and you forgot to get any sleep. Again.

Amplitude soon followed, (I played that game for hours on end), and then in 2004 they locked up what should have been a sure vote from me in this contest by releasing Guitar Hero. Then, a year later, they boosted their stock again with GH2.

But somewhere during this span, I played HL2, which I still recognize as the best FPS I have ever played, period.

Episode 1 was alright, but kind of same-y. Same with Guitar Hero Rock the 80s. Then the Orange Box dropped, and I fell in love with Valve all over again.

Portal. God Damn Portal. While I can't give it the nod for "Best game ever" due to the length (And that's really the ONLY reason at this point), it's by far one of the best written games I've ever played. It is a physics lesson disguised as a first person shooter. I could go on, but really the only thing to say is "if you haven't played it yet then GO PLAY IT."

TF2 is awesome. It's exactly what I hoped it would be. I would probably be playing it obsessively still.

But then, Rock Band dropped on Nov. 20. And Rock Band has completely consumed my gaming world. Apart from the crappy first run instruments, (which were fixed for me for free, express delivery, plus I got a copy of .skate free for my trouble), I have become absolutely consumed with Rock Band. I couldn't tell you why, apparently I'm just hardwired to enjoy playing a fake plastic bass more than the average person. The weekly DLC is an especially nice touch, that seems to be prolonging my obsession with this game a little past the obligatory 2-3 months I tend to sink into a good video game. Communication with the Harmonix staff about problems and concerns has been great.

Had it not been for RB, I think Valve would have won me back with TF2. However, I think Valve will probably win anyway (Counter-strike has a hell of a lot larger playerbase than RB) so I don't think it will matter in the end.

I'm voting HMX.

Harmonix for the win! Original Guitar Heroes and Rock Band are the best!

This has been the hardest one for me yet, as I was an absolute Counter Strike addict. However I realized that was the original CS, which wasnt actually made by Valve, but was a mod to the original Half Life. Not a big fan of CS: Source.

Tons of shooters were made before Valve ever got into the picture. Granted they made some great shooters, but nothing super innovative. HMX is almost single handedly responsible for the boom of the music / rhythm game, which is now hands down my favorite genre. Instead of just standing pat and raking in the cash (Im looking at you Guitar Hero 3) they continued to push the envelope and take a risk with a high price point full band experience, and in so doing made my favorite game ever, Rock Band.

Look, I am a huge Guitar Hero and Rock Band fan and the most I've played of Valve is a few minutes of Counter-Strike.
BUT.
Valve made arguably the greatest linear shooter series of all time, made the Source Engine available for other companies, and made Steam available. They've done more for gaming than HMX.

no way 66 plays 41

i'm not a fan of valve but they should be eating HMX alive

Dectilon:

ForgottenSoldier:
I've never even heard of Valve, HMX for me.

Have you heard of Half-life then? : P

No, but I guess they made that one Portal game that had a song just released on RB.

You've never heard of Half-Life?

You're not a gamer.

Valve hands down. They'll probably go on to win the finals vs Turbine as well. I found this place via link on the LOTRO forums, but I doubt anyone is going to beat out Valve for their long line of excellent games. While Turbine is, without a doubt, a respectable and top gaming company, I feel the honors should really be given to Valve and Blizzard. Harmonix is known for not even a handful of games - it would be ridiculous for them to win this one.

I'm sorta sad that Blizzard has already been beaten out. Valve vs Blizzard would have been pretty epic as both companies have had a very long line (10+ Years) of award winning games.

Both Developers are fantastic and it's a shame that this isn't the Final Round.

Valve, no questions. Well, one question, but the answer was Gordon.

Firaxis hath failed me. Valve FTW

Valve. I can still remember to this day the exact part of Half-Life I first played at a friends house where we took turns to try out this new game, no other game since has made such a lasting impression.

ELAzalin:
I have no reason to even think about voting for Valve. I don't care for the crap they put out on the market.

huh? i'm not a valve fan but i can hardly call their stuff 'crap'

ELAzalin:

nightfish:

ELAzalin:
I have no reason to even think about voting for Valve. I don't care for the crap they put out on the market.

huh? i'm not a valve fan but i can hardly call their stuff 'crap'

FPS? I mean come on thats point and click. Got tired of that during Doom , Duke Nuke'em, and Castle Wolfenstien. Nothing really new.

Have you even played Half Life 2 or any of its sequels?