If Half-Life2 Episode: 3.....

[HT_Black]

Alyx is probably going to trade in that .45 of hers for a shotgun/assault rifle if Valve clings to their "Narrative-through-gameplay" methods. Similarly, there's probably going to be an increased G-man presence as the story reaches a climax.
They're probably going to do something with portal-based gameplay, and my intuition tells me some form of multiplayer...but beyond that, I can't say.

... Valve would need to release a full size game, and they would need to come up with new ideas. That doesn't seem like something Valve would do.

...Okay, sure.

Half Life 1 was in 98, things have changed.
Portal was a demo that people treated as a full game. L4D was short, and overall not worth mentioning.
Your move.
Just remember; you're arguing against me, which is a clear sign that you are wrong.

...And? All three of them did things that blew the competition out of the water and took the prevailing standards with it. It doesn't matter if Portal was a tech demo--and I know just as well as you that it was--because it did something that hadn't ever been touched on in video games (with the exception of Narabacular Drop, which I am obliged to mention). Something doesn't need to have excellent multiplayer and an RPG-length campaign to be a great game; all any game needs is a few really well-executed (and preferably original) ideas and it's good to go. (Incidentally, I don't know of these "people" you're talking about who treated it as a full game-- would you care to elaborate?)

Left 4 Dead is a similar situation, only replace "interesting portal-based puzzles", "I-have-no-mouth-and-I-must-scream-style story", and "Haunting postmodern aesthetic" with "gameplay-based narrative", "Early-George-Romero-style-story" and "haunting apocalyptic aesthetic", respectively.

At any rate, though, I'm glad you have such a high opinion of yourself. Keep that up and maybe you'll impress it on somebody else one day.

 

[Folio]

-Cover based combat with ess emm gees.
-Freeman will be replaced with a large marine with biceps the size of his head.
-Alyx will find a way to always be wearing a bikini and her dialogue will be entirely double entendre.
-The G-Man will be a CIA sleeper agent and will join the new Freeman as they battle the advisor in a climactic boss fight.
-The Final boss will only be able to be killed by the American Army who fly in at the last minute.
-Graphics will become photo-realistic and the Source engine will be replaced with the Unreal engine.
-Level design will be handled by Activision.
-Barney will die
-Headcrabs will be replaced with attack dogs for better realism.
-The crowbar will be replaced with a knife, as it suits the character better.
-Eli will be found partially alive at the end fight, pumped up with steroid enhanced biceps and will blow himself up to save Freeman at some point during the fight.
-The HEV suit will be replaced with a bullet proof vest.
-Med kits will be replaced with regenerating health.

And Gordon Freeman will talk in a low-raspy voice like Duke Nukem and constantly spew phrases and puns like: "At least the zombies knew how to get ahead".

Or perhaps it will have a crowbar gun.

 

[Palademon]

Two words.
Sniper crowbar.
You know the one.

 

[Burck]

you do realize that Duke Nukem Forever is getting released right?

Holy shit, that just reminded me that Duke Nukem Forever might be released before episode 3...

 

[Knusper]

Making the crowbar useful would be a good start.

Hey! The crowbar may not be useful against larger enemies, but it can kill any type of headcrab in one hit. I'd say that's somewhat useful.

Yeah, but so can several magazines worth of rounds from your assault rifle - Half life doesn't give you prizes for efficiency, and that's why I ran out of ammo on my SMG about 5 minutes into Ravenholm.

 

[Mr.PlanetEater]

Nothing, because we'll never see the game. As I've been working on unraveling their little conspiracy, that involves J.F.K. Castro, and the Duke coming out before this. So far, I've drawn the conclusion that your Xbox, or PC will melt upon putting the disc in. At which point the soviets will launch an attack from an octopus base located in Lake Michigan, which will pave the way for the super vikings.

Really, I think they'll just keep with the already excellent formula.

 

[Bek359]

Making the crowbar useful would be a good start.

Hey! The crowbar may not be useful against larger enemies, but it can kill any type of headcrab in one hit. I'd say that's somewhat useful.

Yeah, but so can several magazines worth of rounds from your assault rifle - Half life doesn't give you prizes for efficiency, and that's why I ran out of ammo on my SMG about 5 minutes into Ravenholm.

If you run out of ammo, you're doing it wrong. Conserving ammo by using the crowbar for headcrab kills lets you maintain a healthy supply of powerful ammo for holding out against, say, multiple fast zombies, or allows you to have enough SMG ammo to take out the poison zombie that caught you off guard.

 

[Still Life]

Freeman talks, and has a crazy Jamaican accent. Same with headcrabs, but with EXTREMELY polite British dialogue.

I like this: *fingers crossed*

 

[Knusper]

Making the crowbar useful would be a good start.

Hey! The crowbar may not be useful against larger enemies, but it can kill any type of headcrab in one hit. I'd say that's somewhat useful.

Yeah, but so can several magazines worth of rounds from your assault rifle - Half life doesn't give you prizes for efficiency, and that's why I ran out of ammo on my SMG about 5 minutes into Ravenholm.

If you run out of ammo, you're doing it wrong. Conserving ammo by using the crowbar for headcrab kills lets you maintain a healthy supply of powerful ammo for holding out against, say, multiple fast zombies, or allows you to have enough SMG ammo to take out the poison zombie that caught you off guard.

Err... maybe I didn't word that correctly, it was a joke.

 

[Bek359]

Making the crowbar useful would be a good start.

Hey! The crowbar may not be useful against larger enemies, but it can kill any type of headcrab in one hit. I'd say that's somewhat useful.

Yeah, but so can several magazines worth of rounds from your assault rifle - Half life doesn't give you prizes for efficiency, and that's why I ran out of ammo on my SMG about 5 minutes into Ravenholm.

If you run out of ammo, you're doing it wrong. Conserving ammo by using the crowbar for headcrab kills lets you maintain a healthy supply of powerful ammo for holding out against, say, multiple fast zombies, or allows you to have enough SMG ammo to take out the poison zombie that caught you off guard.

Err... maybe I didn't word that correctly, it was a joke.

Oh. Needs more sarcasm/snarkiness. Mention "spray-and-pray" or something. The way you said it made it sound like you really just didn't get how the Half-Life series works.

 

[Knusper]

Making the crowbar useful would be a good start.

Hey! The crowbar may not be useful against larger enemies, but it can kill any type of headcrab in one hit. I'd say that's somewhat useful.

Yeah, but so can several magazines worth of rounds from your assault rifle - Half life doesn't give you prizes for efficiency, and that's why I ran out of ammo on my SMG about 5 minutes into Ravenholm.

If you run out of ammo, you're doing it wrong. Conserving ammo by using the crowbar for headcrab kills lets you maintain a healthy supply of powerful ammo for holding out against, say, multiple fast zombies, or allows you to have enough SMG ammo to take out the poison zombie that caught you off guard.

Err... maybe I didn't word that correctly, it was a joke.

Oh. Needs more sarcasm/snarkiness. Mention "spray-and-pray" or something. The way you said it made it sound like you really just didn't get how the Half-Life series works.

Sorry, I apologise. But I guess there was a slight element of truth in what I said Firstly, I prefer my gravity gun shot to take down headcrabs, becasue it's easier to get the timing right, and secondly, I sometimes do just panic and spray an entire magazine into the enemy.

 

[C117]

Adrian Shephard is the hero, not Gordon Freeman.

 

[Lacsapix]

Riding the giant antlion thing!

AWSOME!!!!