Is Half life 3 (or EP3) is only Vaporware That will never release?

[MHR]

It will probably release, but it will probably disappoint. Nothing short of God coming down from the sky and saying he's sorry for cancer, mosquitoes, and the HL3 delay, and then giving everyone a copy of pure transcendent bliss will make it live up to the legendary expectations.

That's your problem. I don't have overblown expectations. I just want a good game worthy of the name.

I'd be taking my time too. No point in showing it years before it's ready or releasing it before technology is ready for it. James Cameron knew that when he wrote Avatar fifteen years before finishing the movie.

My problem? Did I say it would disappoint me? No, I don't have those expectations, I'm going to love HL3, but people do have those unreasonable expectations.

 

[Chaosian]

Yeah, actually, don't get your hopes up. My boss is friends with a few people at Valve and at least few years back, it was an absolutely dead project that had been abandoned; largely for DOTA and VR.
I image, this also probably extends to Source 2 and Linux support / steam boxes. Valve is comparatively small for all the things they're getting into, and I would be pretty surprised if they wanted to still make games with all this going on.

 

[Sinister Minister]

My boss is friends with a few people at Valve

Yeah, I hope you don't mind if I don't believe a word you say based on that alone.

 

[MHR]

My dad works at Nintendo. He says Nintendo is batshit. This checks out.

 

[ZeD [taken 0]]

As many have stated, vaporware is being too generous, something has to be announced and then never heard from again to be vaporware, HL3 is a rumor based on some random code in various steam related things, at this point, I doubt that Valve will ever make any original game ever again

They talked, albeit briefly, about Episode 3's development in the Ep2 commentary mode.

 

[Vigormortis]

It's not even vaporware. Something needs to be ANNOUNCED in order for it to be vaporware. HL3 was never officially announced. It's not vaporware. It's nothing.

It was dead years ago, cause it never existed and it's been refusing to exist. So much so that it just became a bunch of memes and nothing more

It never took it up to begin with.

Mmm, that's not true, though.

Newell, Faliszek, and others have talked about Episode 3, of which became Half-Life 3, several times in the years after Episode 2 dropped. There were the JIRA leaks, Dota2/Source2 leaks and files that linked back to Half-Life 3 dev tools and assets. There were also the anecdotal 'reveals' from former Valve employees.

Now, whether it's still in development, who the hell knows beyond Valve themselves? I don't think it is, but I also doubt Valve have simply "forgotten" about it, nor do I think they've completely abandoned it. Either way, I'm not waiting on bated breath. If it comes, great. If it doesn't, what a shame.

A complete rebuild of the excellent but aged Source Engine.

Why? Source 2 already exists. Has since last year.

<.<

HD remodeling everything to today's resolution.

That assumes they'd reuse all of the old assets.

Bringing back all the voice actors who have worked elsewhere the past decade.

Happens all the time with projects like this. Doesn't mean it'll be easy, but it's not without precedent.

On top of that they are content with sitting on their Steam empire, have the community update their games, and sell hundreds of thousands of weapon skins. I am not faulting them for being successful, I am just explaining what I have noticed in their trend. Even their new games were made by people who came into Valve with that express purpose, like Portal.

Portal's core concept was carried over from Narbacular Drop, but the game itself was built from the ground up as an extension of the Half-Life universe. Valve didn't hire on the DigiPen students to make Portal, they hired them on because they showed a lot of talent. Those students, joined by a number of other Valve employees, decided to make Portal on their own.

I just never understand this criticism of "Valve never makes their own games because they hired X." Valve is a think tank that seeks out talent. When they find it, they hire them. Those new hires then choose what they want to make or work on while employed there. Sometimes that means, like with Team Fortress, most of the original team decides to make a new version of the game that got them hired. Sometimes, like with the Disney and WETA works animators, they choose to work on animated shorts. Whatever the case, they make their projects as a part of Valve. Valve, as a collective, as a company, make those projects.

It'd be like saying Bioware didn't make Mass Effect because they hired on a writer who thought up the idea years before they were working at Bioware.

It's a baffling criticism.

Try to find satisfaction in what we have now. From what I have seen, other then HD remakes of Counter Strike with new names we aren't getting much else in the near future.

Except for the advent of VR. As much as everyone seems intent on giving Oculus the credit, todays VR is owed in large part to Valve's efforts. Most notably in room-scale tracking.

Hell, it was recently revealed that most of the Rift's core systems were lifted almost entirely from the original code work Valve did with their VR experiments.

So, yeah. We may not be seeing Half-Life 3 any time soon, but it's not like Valve are just sitting around doing nothing other than raking in TF2 hat money.

 

[CaitSeith]

To be Vaporware, the game first needs to be announced but never released (once released is no longer Vaporware).

Duke Nukem Forever: released - Not Vaporware
The last Guardian: possible but improbable Vaporware
Final fantasy 7 remake: possible Vaporware
Doom 4: released - Not Vaporware
Shenmue 3: possible but improbable Vaporware

Half-Life 3: high probability of Vaporware (if you count concept art as game announcement).

OT: High hopes, low expectations. I wouldn't be surprised if it never gets released, but I don't consider the opposite an impossibility.

 

[Fieldy409_v1legacy]

Well, its clearly not going to be episode 3.... Way too old an engine for them to release it that way now.

But Half Life 3? No doubt its going on deep inside in Valve, but since it has never actually been announced I cant call it vaporware.

The only thing that gives me any pause is the lack of leaks for this long. I mean damn Valve must run a tight ship for nothing to have come out....

 

[Wrex Brogan]

The answer is one of two things - either no, it'll never see the light of day, or yes, it will see the light of day, and be horribly panned due to the eons long development time and Valve's notorious tight-lippedness (fuck that's not a word) in regards to literally any information about it.

Then again, they could just be taking forever to figure out how to put Hats and weapon skins into it. The ultimate fusion of Microtransactions.

 

[Dalisclock]

I think most of us would be satisfied(if disappointed) if Valve would just say "It's not happening. End of Story". It's the complete silence on the issue that most people(who are or were interested) are annoyed about.

Hell, if Valve just said "Ep2 is where the saga ends. The Portal is closed and Eli is dead", most people would take it and close the book on it(despite how annoying it would be to end it like that). It's the whole lack of....anything that's been driving questions and memes for years.

 

[Bobic]

So little faith on display in this thread. It's coming.

There's something very pleasing about this statement coming from someone with a nun as their avatar.

OT: I used to be a super big half-life fan, I played the original as a 9 year-old when it came out, and it blew my tiny mind. Played the sequel and episodes, various mods etc. Always loved it. But now, after 10 years, I've moved on, and so has the gaming industry. The revolutionary things the half life series introduced are now par-for-the-course for the average game. Half-life had its time, and it was special, but that time has passed. I'd argue it's not a case of whether half life 3 is coming out, more a case if it should come out. Unless valve have something revolutionary to add, there doesn't seem to be a lot of point. They certainly make more money via steam and free-to-play dota/CS:GO style things, and I feel any pay-off to the plot mysteries will be coming too late for any real impact, and just ask the writers of Lost how easy it is to create intrigue compared to paying it off.

Basically, it'd be nice if Half Life 3 came out, for those that want it, but I'm long past the point of caring, and probably wouldn't buy it if it did. . .

And because Sister Silvanus up there went with religious overtones, here's my agnostic religious overtones:

We don't know if half-life 3 is coming or not, it's impossible to know, so it's pointless to talk about, let's all just wait and see.

 

[gsilver]

That Starcraft: Ghost was pretty epic.

Announced in 2002, and not officially cancelled until 2014.

 

[Something Amyss]

It's not even vaporware. Something needs to be ANNOUNCED in order for it to be vaporware. HL3 was never officially announced. It's not vaporware. It's nothing.

Basically this. It was always weird for me to watch all the Valve fans get so angry when Half-Life 3 or Ep 3 was not announced, as though they were promised or owed it at a given time. It's not happening, and if it is, it'll have to work its way UP to vapourware.

 

[Arina Love]

Hahaha expecting something from Valve in 2016 top kek

HL is dead and Valve as a credible game developer is even more dead.

 

[gsilver]

Hahaha expecting something from Valve in 2016 top kek

HL is dead and Valve as a credible game developer is even more dead.

Valve still releases stuff at a reasonable pace:

Looking at stuff in the last 5 years or so:
2011 Portal 2, Team Fortress 2 (F2P)
2012 Counter-Strike: Go
2013 Dota 2
2016 The Lab
+various Linux ports


Portal 2, CS:Go, and Dota 2 are pretty important games, IMO. Not the kind of stuff a "dead" developer releases.

Though with their recent VR and multiplayer focus, Half-Life 3 doesn't exactly fit into what they've been working on lately.

 

[Zombie Proof]

Who cares? There's so many AMAZING titles out with such an insane amount of variety that it's not worth giving it any thought. If it comes out great...
...either way, I'm good.

 

[American Fox]

BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL

I neeeeeed this game. Especially since your Uncle Pey'j opens his hand at the end and was infected by the techno virus. I played this so much I beat the racing mini game with all the medals in the bar.

All we got was a cut scene with Jade on the side of the road in the desert with Pey'j somehow still alive.