If they are, I'd like to know how. I for one thick HL3 is a myth, made up by fans of HL and valve is just fucking with themerttheking said:Ok seriously, is ANYONE surprised by this at this point?
They will just refer you to DOTA 2 and call it a day.xPixelatedx said:Seriously, Valve is even worse then crapcom. They'd rather spend 3 years just adding hats to TF2 and siphoning profits from their steam service then actually make video games. Are they even a game company anymore? Am I missing something?
I have a few questions.Dragonbums said:snip
By true game I mean actual installments that either further the games story(or end it) or is simply something new.Vigormortis said:I have a few questions.Dragonbums said:snip
What exactly is a "true game"? What does a game need to entail to be considered a "true game"? Does Counter-Strike: Global Offensive not count as a "true game"? Does Dota 2 not count? I'm honestly curious about this.
Speaking of Dota 2, it's been out of beta for almost a month. But even if it wasn't, it seems as though you think that a game in beta isn't in active development. As if the design team is just sitting around doing nothing.
I mean, say what you will about them, levy as many genuine complaints as you like against them (some I may even share. God knows I have my issues with them.), but "they're lazy" just isn't one. Over the past ten years they've released fifteen games, not counting content updates, DLC, engine development, tech experiments and abandoned projects, and Steam development. All with fewer than 300 employees.
That's a release schedule that requires a lot of "ass busting" to accomplish.
Regardless of all this, you're welcome to your opinions. If you genuinely don't care whether Half-Life 3 gets released or not, that's your prerogative. Can't really blame you given how long it's been since the last installment.
But, they have said the game is in development. Numerous times.
http://half-life.wikia.com/wiki/Future_of_the_Half-Life_series
Most people just ignore those statements because they didn't come paired with a trailer or some such thing. Doesn't help either that most media outlets prefer to cover the community-generated rumors than the real statements from Valve.
'Tis the nature of the internet, I guess.
Fair point. But by that definition both Global Offensive and Dota 2 are full installments. Both building on the prior games, as well as adding a wealth of new content, features, and services.Dragonbums said:By true game I mean actual installments that either further the games story(or end it) or is simply something new.
I'm not going to count TF2 on that front because while yes- the updates do indeed have a story- they are in every sense an episodic kind of thing with a bit of continuity that matches the timeline.
You'd be surprised. We're only now approaching a similar amount of time as was seen between the release of Half-Life and Half-Life 2. So, given that they are making a full game, and not just Episode 3, it's not as far fetched as one might think to have a development cycle this long.It does not take that long to make a game though does it?
Very true. Honestly, had Newell and others not talked on the progress of the title in interviews over the past few years I'd be thinking the same thing.As I've said earlier there is having too tight of a deadline, and there is having so much free time to do something that when they say something is in "development" it could very well mean "we will work on it when we feel like it" which could be anything from having full staff working diligently 24/7 or a couple dozen people throwing around story ideas, a few character models here and there, a bit of coding, and maybe an actually polished model at uneven intervals of time.
To me, at this point anything reported on Half life 3 better be more substantial then "we are currently working on it" or "we aren't going to be showing HL3 at [insert tech/game convention here]it's just not going to cut it for me anymore.I'd rather news reports focus on other things then continue to heckle Valve about HL3. When Valve actually has something to show us, then I will believe it.Vigormortis said:Fair point. But by that definition both Global Offensive and Dota 2 are full installments. Both building on the prior games, as well as adding a wealth of new content, features, and services.Dragonbums said:By true game I mean actual installments that either further the games story(or end it) or is simply something new.
I'm not going to count TF2 on that front because while yes- the updates do indeed have a story- they are in every sense an episodic kind of thing with a bit of continuity that matches the timeline.
You'd be surprised. We're only now approaching a similar amount of time as was seen between the release of Half-Life and Half-Life 2. So, given that they are making a full game, and not just Episode 3, it's not as far fetched as one might think to have a development cycle this long.It does not take that long to make a game though does it?
Very true. Honestly, had Newell and others not talked on the progress of the title in interviews over the past few years I'd be thinking the same thing.As I've said earlier there is having too tight of a deadline, and there is having so much free time to do something that when they say something is in "development" it could very well mean "we will work on it when we feel like it" which could be anything from having full staff working diligently 24/7 or a couple dozen people throwing around story ideas, a few character models here and there, a bit of coding, and maybe an actually polished model at uneven intervals of time.
But they've made it abundantly clear that the game is in active development. And, while it's not entirely clear what the size of the team working on it is, what is clear is that the game is a fairly high priority among those working at Valve. I mean, we regularly see left-over content or code-bits in other game releases. Hinting that bits of Half-Life 3's development are bleeding over into other projects.
My guess is, at some point during development of Episode 3, they decided to scrap the whole thing (including the Ravenholm-themed episode 4) and build a full title. It's also very likely it is being built on Source 2, given that, based on Newell's statements, Source 2 was probably in the design/early coding stages at that point.
By that reasoning, Half-Life 3 may have only been in development for as little as three years.
I could be wrong, of course. Even though we have some info to go on, there isn't much. Still....I'm with a lot of others in wishing they'd say something. Silence at this point is only becoming detrimental.
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On a side note, I wanted to add that it is very unlikely that you'd find anyone at the Valve offices just sitting around doing nothing.
Though they have an open project structure, their actual pay-checks are based on peer ratings. Those ratings are based on several factors including ones productivity and completed work-load.
Ergo: if they're not doing much they aren't getting paid much.
Oh, I completely agree with this. Wholeheartedly.Dragonbums said:To me, at this point anything reported on Half life 3 better be more substantial then "we are currently working on it" or "we aren't going to be showing HL3 at [insert tech/game convention here]it's just not going to cut it for me anymore.I'd rather news reports focus on other things then continue to heckle Valve about HL3. When Valve actually has something to show us, then I will believe it.
Indeed it could. And in many cases, that's probably true.Code from HL inside other games could very well be the remnants of a long since scrapped game that had useful coding functions that were recycled over to other games.
At this point, more people are simply interested in how the story ends more then the game itself.-snip-