Gabe Newell Acknowledges Frustrations With Half-Life 3

[rvdm88]

I'm actually pretty sure they are working on it,
Though i think they want to "avoid" the thing that happened with episode 2, where they showed a trailer and new footage in the finale of EP1 and then had nothing of that be actually true in the EP2 that came out years later.

Also one of the devs at valve once slipped up in a very subtle way,
As he was talking about how he loved the L4D2 production since it went very fast and organised.
After wich i sarcastically commented that i would then love HL3's development.
On wich he replied that he isn't involved in that.

My conclusion being, if he is "not" involved then there is also a way to be involved.
Explaining there is a game in the making...

 

[Samus Aran but a man]

They can take all the time they want. It's their property, and frankly I'm grateful for the two masterpieces they have given us already.

 

[IckleMissMayhem]

Not sure how long, might be a bit pressed, you know.
Too much pressure, seven days dead.
Do it like Microsoft - "lt'll be done by Saturday, Tuesday, next week. We'll bring it out when we're fucking ready, right?"

Half of me thinks they won't/don't want to do any more HL, but are afraid of the inevitable rabid fanboy backlash to make such a statement, hence the endless non-commital responses on the subject.

 

[Strazdas]

Woudl i like new half life- sure. would i rage if it wont be coming - nope. i completely understand Gabe. he does not want to speak about things hes not certain on. else we pull up a duke nukem again.

 

[Me55enger]

Valve is rapidly becoming one of the few Devs to still have balls, and still have a good reputation. And this is why.

How many times have we been fed empty promises from other developers?

We may be impatient and demanding, But Valve are handling this the right way.

 

[Zac Smith]

"As to whether or not Valve is currently at work on a new Half-Life title, Newell didn't say."

That's the line people are most upset about, most people arn't saying "give us Ep 3 now damn it" they just want to know, are you working on it, yes or no why all the secrecy? If you're not working on it, "No we are not working on Ep. 3 at the moment" if you are "Yes we are working on it" if you are but it's gonna be a while "yes, but it's still early stages, so don't expect much news yet"

One of those few sentences would make people a lot more comfortable that Valve isn't just screwing with people for the lulz

 

[CoL0sS]

Didn't have time to read the whole article (but I did notice Gabe's awesome beard ). Anyway, while I respect their decision not to give their fans false promises, this has gotten pretty ridiculous over the years. Episode 2 came out in October 2007. It was short and sweet, with cliffhanger ending. Fast forward four years and only thing we know (except that Valve doesn't get the point of episodic gaming) is that Episode 3 is....not dead? Damn, Gabe is really politician material. On a more serious note, ending to Half Life franchise is not something to be taken lightly, given it's significance in the gaming world.

Personally I think while Valve can allow keeping their fans in the dark for nearly half a decade, they can't really excuse it, no matter how pure their intentions were. Leaving us with little to no information on their game only creates bigger expectations and more pointless speculation which will eventually generate great hype (and possibly nation wide celebration ) when proper info is actually revealed. I'm taking the "away from eyes, away from mind approach". I won't give a damn until I actually see it.

 

[Zac Smith]

I've never played halflife, played a bit of HL2, and i'm a bit confused on the episodes i thought they were just HL2 in two parts

The episodes were sequels to HL2, it goes HL1 > HL2 > HL2 Ep1 > HL2 Ep2 > HL2 Ep3 although we never got the episode 3

 

[cobalt358]

is it general consensus around these parts that Valve is waiting for the next generation of consoles or is it just me?

 

[OldNewNewOld]

When a game comes out once every 3 years it's considered milking a franchise, but when it doesn't, people go in berserk mode and hate the company for not milking the franchise.

Internet logic, dafuq?

 

[Frostbite3789]

How many times have we been fed empty promises from other developers?

Promised trilogy of episodes? No episode 3? Boy that sounds a lot like an empty promise to me.

 

[Frostbite3789]

When a game comes out once every 3 years it's considered milking a franchise, but when it doesn't, people go in berserk mode and hate the company for not milking the franchise.

Internet logic, dafuq?

Mass Effect 1: 2007
Mass Effect 2: 2010
Mass Effect 3: 2012

That's a game once every three years and nobody has said they're milking it. At least nobody with a brain. Same with Uncharted. And Killzone. And many other series. Yearly release =/= every three years. I don't know where you got three, but that doesn't even apply here, it's been five.

 

[OldNewNewOld]

Almost everyone is saying that Nintendo is milking the Zelda franchise. It comes out once very 2-4 years. A lot of people say that Uncharted is being milked, same goes with Gears of War.

If you haven't noticed that, than you obviously aren't long enough on the internet.

 

[TastyCarcass]

This is stupid. I love ricochet. God

 

[surg3n]

Pfft Portal?, Counterstrike?, L4D? - these are games that we play while we wait for HL3. Gabe is deluded if he thinks that these franchises are moving forward, or would even be as popular without Half Life. I enjoy all those games, but I don't get excited about them...

Portal2 - Add in celebrity voiceover, 2 player mode, paint and stuff, but the character has not changed at all. What we got was more Portal, but to most people Portal is only interesting because of it's relation to Half Life. I'd say that relationship makes the Portal universe fascinating.

L4D2 - Add in different characters, different enemies, and different levels. It's a good game, but over rated, I'd certainly rather play Killing Floor or Dead Island than L4D.

Counterstrike - I can't fault it, it knows what it has to be, and concentrates on being that - just a fast paced military style shooter with some challenging elements to keep it fresh. But Valve have neglected it from what I can see - it got left off the console versions of Orange Box, personally I'd say it should be pretty awesome as a console shooter, it has that pace and drama that keeps people playing.


Anyhoo, it appears that we'll never get a straight answer from Gabe, maybe it's best to just forget Half Life, and maybe try and conjure up some enthusiasm in 5 years time, when HL3 is released... in the meantime - other companies are filling the heavy-story shooter genre (Mass Effect, Halo, Metro2033 etc etc), maybe it's later than Gabe thinks.

 

[FURY_007]

"As to whether or not Valve is currently at work on a new Half-Life title, Newell didn't say."

That's the line people are most upset about, most people arn't saying "give us Ep 3 now damn it" they just want to know, are you working on it, yes or no why all the secrecy? If you're not working on it, "No we are not working on Ep. 3 at the moment" if you are "Yes we are working on it" if you are but it's gonna be a while "yes, but it's still early stages, so don't expect much news yet"

One of those few sentences would make people a lot more comfortable that Valve isn't just screwing with people for the lulz

THISTHISTHISTHISTHIS. Oh and THIS lol

I don't really care when it comes out, I just want to know that there is or isn't something in development. People complaining about people whining about HL3/HL2ep3 or whatever should be pissed at Valve too, because if thy just came out and said one of the 2, the internet will blow up for a day, and then fizz out and stop talking about it forever. I don't get why they have such radio silence on tthe subject, that's waht's pissing people off more.

 

[templar1138a]

1) Valve is in no risk of bankruptcy any time soon;
2) We don't even know if the game is being developed.

Both are fair points. In that case, make it 2040.

At the expense of sounding nice, you do realise that these two points invalidate your entire analogy to Duke Nukem Forever?

They don't invalidate it. Here's why.
1) Valve may not be at risk of bankruptcy any time soon, but who can say what will happen within the next ten years? Maybe they'll have a change of management and will make their service more aggravating for customers. Maybe Origin will become a more favorable platform. As Strong Bad once said, the plausibilities are endless.
2) Even if the game isn't being developed, that actually doesn't change anything about the validity of my comparison. Sure, it won't be an exact replica of the history of Duke Nukem forever, but there are still a lot of Half Life fans who want the game very badly and will continue to whine about it. And then, after Half Life 3 is finally released in the 29th century, there will be an "epic" sequel in the Angry Birds series supposedly in development for our Immersive Brain Implant Game Systems (otherwise known as iBigs) that we can play while driving our flying cars, and the cycle will begin again.