Gabe Newell Acknowledges Frustrations With Half-Life 3

[Xanadu84]

Being vague? Fine. And Valve still rocks. But it would be nice and completely safe to say something like, "It will happen, there's some programming work done, the new counterstrike is getting most of our attention, but we will probably make it a priority after that.". Even just saying whether it will be HL3 or episode 3, or if you don't know yet would be nice. At least tell us why you can't make promises. I'm not asking for a date, I'm asking for a general sense of what year it will be realeased, give or take maybe 3 years. And if your wrong, hey, I'm fine with you not promising a 6 year spread. This is how vauge I'm fine with you being. If you tell us vaugely the factual data, we will not be surprised when you go over. Valve is synonomous with extended dev cycles, and we love you for it. Your attempt to squash dissapointment with few promises is like squashing a housefly with a MOAB bomb.

 

[Agente L]

Did Gaben just hinted Ricochet 2 in that interview?

 

[SoranMBane]

Oh, Andy, I was just about to commend you for being relatively good about keeping your opinion out of this particular news piece (good journalism)... And then your last paragraph started with the words "I think" (bad journalism). For shame, Escapist.

 

[XDravond]

Gabe Newell KNOWS gamers want next installment of Half Life... Are you sure we have only been talking about it since well HLep2.... And we haven't stopped talking about it... Now you say he knows that, how can we be sure he isn't just trolling...
But as said in article just tell us is just tell us if you are working on it or if it sits in a bin somewhere...

 

[IckleMissMayhem]

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.

We are pretty much guaranteed to see more Half Life, publishers NEVER let hugely popular franchises die except in extreme circumstances, case in point the Watchmen prequels.

Its just a matter of when and I think its far enough into the future that it will still piss off core fans.

I don't think any game is "guaranteed" until it hits the shelves, but then I've a reputation for being ever so slightly cynical about some things, especially when it comes for games that haven't even been announced. Especially potential sequels or remakes that the deelopers seem really unhappy giving solid information about.

Basically, I'm not holding my breath.

 

[Xman490]

Gabe could have at least said that Valve wants to perfect the Source engine or advance it graphically (as with the HL1-HL2 transition) before starting anything like HL3.

By the time they could be done, the new Xbox and Playstation will be out.

 

[Draconalis]

Think about that for a second. There are high school students today who weren't born when Half-Life hit the shelves.

Yeah... but any highschoolers who weren't born when the game came out skipped grades and shouldn't, by age bracket, be in highschool yet.

 

[TheEndIsNear5115]

Alright, even though I would do quite a few things I wouldn't be proud of later in order to play Episode 3/HL3, and even though every fiber of my being is screaming at me not to type this, I'm on Gabe's side.

Step back for a second. Remember Modern Warfare? It came out of (arguably) nowhere and impressed us all. Now do you remember MW2 and MW3? I was a little depressed with MW2 and cripplingly disappointed with MW3. Why? The problem with releasing such a big, over-hyped game on a set schedule is that you yourself do not dictate when it's done. When you have no real control over the release date of your own game, you have a deadline. When you have a deadline, things get rushed. When things get rushed, things don't turn out well. There were things about the latter two games (which I won't mention here lest I pull the thread off-topic) that I certainly didn't like, and I known other gamers here share my peeves.

However, with HL2E1 & E2, aside from the brevity, there was nothing that turned me off of those games.

In short: Development cycles at the developer's pace yield better games. And frankly, if I'm going to play the last game in a series that has captivated me since I first picked it up, I want to be d*mn sure that my $60 is going towards something that completely satisfies me and completely wraps up the story (every loose end). Because if it doesn't, there will be ten times as many threads about how "Valve didn't satisfy their customers" and "Valve skimped out on finishing up the story" and (God forbid) "Valve rushed development and we got a half-baked conclusion".

[kicks soapbox over to the next person]

P.S. I love the beard. You look more grizzled, more aged, more world-weary. You physically look like you've heard "Where's Episode 3??" a million times.

 

[CarlMin]

Valve obviously value quality over quantity and they will not release Half Life 3 until the game is as ready as it can be. Good for them.

Just imagined what would happen if for example Activision owned the rights to the title. This is probably what we would get in about the same time we have had to wait for Half Life 3:

Half Life 2
Half Life 2 + DLC map release
Half Life Modern Something 1 (Half Life 2 with new weapon skins)
Half Life Modern Something 2
Half Life Now_we're_changing_the_title_again_so_that_people_wont_notice_the_lack_of_new_content
Half Life 2012
Half Life 3

 

[freaper]

I'd be happy and not surprised if they stated they'd never make HL3, just so they wouldn't disappoint the fans in any way. An unfinished work also has its charm.

 

[Vigormortis]

big snip

And you have a point too. While I'd rather see the next chapter sooner rather than later, I don't really care when it hits. (as long as it's not too long from now)

You really should read that PA interview. Newell sometimes waffles on some of the questions asked, but he brings up some rather surprising and rather exciting topics. Like I said, their experimentation with biometric inputs and wearable computers. He also brings up some very good points about free-to-play and pricing models going forward into the fully digital age.

It's almost like...while the rest of the industry is starting to find uses for waggle-controllers and the Kinect, Valve's over there play-testing tech right out of an Asimov or Philip K Dick story.

 

[Raddra]

I love you Valve but..

"We try to go as fast as we can and we try to pick the things that we think are going to be most valuable to our customers and if there's some magic way we can get more work done in a day then we'd love to hear about it

This is a bit of a d**k quote.

If this was a year or so after the release of Ep2 I wouldn't fault you for saying this.

It has been nearly ten years since the release of the last game and five since the release of the last episode.

This is no longer an excuse. It has become readily apparent that resources have been put into other games.

 

[Grey Day for Elcia]

@Andy

Stop trolling the audience and using sensationalism for views (i.e.: the title).

It's tacky.

 

[zombiesinc]

Still? I mean, really? I'd love for people to move on. I can appreciate that so many PC gamers love the Half-Life series, but constant whining for a third one will more than likely result in an over-hyped game that doesn't come close to the nostalgic inner-creation the fans have been sitting on for the past how many years. It could be another DNF all over again.

 

[duchaked]

"yes we know you want it"

oh, well glad that's gotten through! :}

 

[Worr Monger]

Given the longevity of the Source Engine, I think it's safe to say that Valve has been working on a new engine for Half Life 3 for years now. They probably want to create something that will last another 10 years.

To assume that Half Life 3 is not somehow in the works would be foolish. There may not be a playable Half Life 3 yet, but I'm sure Valve hasn't been spending these 8 years not throwing around ideas, or working on a new engine to launch the game.

Be patient...... Half Life 2 was lame compared to the original anyway.. **runs away**

 

[Awexsome]

I would bet that it's Steam related upkeep that keeps them on the slowest developing schedule in the industry. However that income does give them the freedom to continue being incredibly user friendly with stuff like all the free TF2 updates (probably supported with the Mann Co. store now but that didn't exist for quite a while.)

 

[Erttheking]

I think I see the problem, Valve spread themselves WAYYYYYY too thin.

 

[Spector29]

Just saying, but the Freshman class of this year (In America, at least) was born in 1996-7.