This is something that's been bothering me for a while now. It's now been 10 years since Valve released Half-Life 2 and 7 since Episode 2 left us on the bitter cliffhanger from hell. Since then, Valve have gone completely and utterly silent on the franchise, refusing to say ANYTHING concrete about what is probably the most anticipated sequel of all time. It's turned into a meme- anything to do with Valve that can be, even in the most tangential manner, associated with 3 becomes "HALF-LIFE 3 CONFIRMED!"
The thing is, memes aside, this is really, REALLY dumb of Valve. At first, people were excited. Then they were eager. Then they were impatient. Now it's at the stage of a joke. But I think it's starting to get to the stage that people are going to get angry. And then, worst of all, it'll reach the stage where no-one cares any more. And then, no matter how good the game ends up, it'll be dooming itself to become the next Duke Nukem Forever, completely crushed under the weight of its own expectations.
And I just don't get why Valve are doing it. How can it possibly benefit them to constantly stonewall the gaming community regarding the next installment of one of the most highly-regarded series of all time? They're not even letting tiny details slip to build anticipation, as far as we know from what they've told us (i.e NOTHING) they might not even be MAKING Half-Life 3 at all! And that would be so phenomenally stupid as to be outright insane. Half-Life isn't some Call of Duty-esque cash-cow which gets samey installments squirted out yearly just because it can, it's the crown jewel of the FPS genre and its massively in-depth story has just been left hanging for literal YEARS. As far as I can see, Valve's constant refusal to say ANYTHING about Half-Life 3, anything at all, is a blunder as stupid as Square Enix's ridiculous insistence that remaking FFVII on modern consoles would be "too hard" to be worth their effort.
I just don't get it. Half-Life is what made Valve the company they are today. Are they trying to fail as much as they can? Do they even realise how badly they're screwing up with this?
The thing is, memes aside, this is really, REALLY dumb of Valve. At first, people were excited. Then they were eager. Then they were impatient. Now it's at the stage of a joke. But I think it's starting to get to the stage that people are going to get angry. And then, worst of all, it'll reach the stage where no-one cares any more. And then, no matter how good the game ends up, it'll be dooming itself to become the next Duke Nukem Forever, completely crushed under the weight of its own expectations.
And I just don't get why Valve are doing it. How can it possibly benefit them to constantly stonewall the gaming community regarding the next installment of one of the most highly-regarded series of all time? They're not even letting tiny details slip to build anticipation, as far as we know from what they've told us (i.e NOTHING) they might not even be MAKING Half-Life 3 at all! And that would be so phenomenally stupid as to be outright insane. Half-Life isn't some Call of Duty-esque cash-cow which gets samey installments squirted out yearly just because it can, it's the crown jewel of the FPS genre and its massively in-depth story has just been left hanging for literal YEARS. As far as I can see, Valve's constant refusal to say ANYTHING about Half-Life 3, anything at all, is a blunder as stupid as Square Enix's ridiculous insistence that remaking FFVII on modern consoles would be "too hard" to be worth their effort.
I just don't get it. Half-Life is what made Valve the company they are today. Are they trying to fail as much as they can? Do they even realise how badly they're screwing up with this?