So... Half Life 3...

[Eggsnham]

...that would be like puting a random and meaningless ending to mass effect 3 that was full of plot holes.

I see what you did there...

 

[hermes]

I like to think I live in a world where the episodes didn't happen (in fact, neither did the crappy ending of HL2). In this world, no one expects a sequel to a game that will not come.

In other words, Valve know they put themselves between a rock and a hard place with the delay and the ending of episode 2; and they plan to leave it the best way they can: by ignoring it and letting water slide under the bridge. They know they can't make a 3rd game that lives to expectations, and they don't know how to resolve the cliffhanger they left after Episode 2. So they just won't-. They are just going to troll all the people that expect a game to actually exist and will continue on with their merry lives until the pool of cash they are swimming on dries out.

 

[Wolfhowl the shadow lurker]

...that would be like puting a random and meaningless ending to mass effect 3 that was full of plot holes.

I see what you did there...

Im over it now... over the bad ending... THAT FUCKING LOAD OF SHI- *this post has hit technical difficulties please try again later*

 

[SextusMaximus]

Opinions?

Half Life: Class game, great bit of fun! Aged well
Half Life 2: Horribly boring, repetitive, not half as fun as the first
Episode 1: Definitely an improvement on Half Life 2

FTR I played HL2 first.

Half Life 3?

Would buy it, not that interested though.

 

[Wolfhowl the shadow lurker]

I don't really mind what it is. As long as they give us it sometime, its kind of unfair to just leave it and not end it after all these games, that would be like puting a random and meaningless ending to mass effect 3 that was full of plot holes.

I am on your side with this. I have yet to play the HL2 episodes because HL2 at least is an ending that can stand alone and leave you with thoughts - do I really had any control over anything that happened? Was it my decision to help or did went it all like 'planed' from the very first second? And what is Gordon Freeman? Is he a thinking human who is trapped in a cycle he can't break out from or is he nothing more than a shell for us to jump in and control? Since the episodes catch up at the end of HL2 I'll wait with playing them untill HL3 is at least announced.

not in control no, but still an story being told about him and the world he lives in. I want to know where everything goes and where it ends all the games are good and i liked playing them, it seems odd to not put this game out when so many people want it, theres got to be money to be made there... but i guess they do not want money.

also the freemans thinking and wants are unknown but im pretty sure he does not want the world to be drained of its water and taken over by big flying lava. I hope everything is put togehter in a nice ending... unlike some games... nameing no names... mass ef-

 

[Treblaine]

Play Portal 1 and 2... apparently set in the same universe (both reference Black Mesa) and HL2 Episode 2 mentions aperture Science of Portal Series.

But it's interesting VALVE CANNOT DO A THIRD ITERATION OF ANYTHING!

Half Life
Half Life 2
HL2: Episode 1
HL2: episode 2
Portal
Portal 2
Left 4 Dead
Left 4 Dead 2
Team Fortress
Team Fortress 2

Demoman: "THREEE-DOM!"

 

[Eggsnham]

Valve said several times, that G-Man is going to have a bigger role. I would love to see Freeman actively try to break away from him and not just stare blankly as the space bureaucrat teleports him away.

I am quite thrilled to see how they are going to merge the Portal and Half-life universe in one piece. It's hell of a work and there are thousand ways in which it could fail. Still, I remain hopeful.

The Vortigaunts broke G-Mans grip on Freeman in Episode 2, remember?

Or am I forgetting something?

Spoiler: Spoiler'd on the off chance that somebody might not know anything about the HL storyline and be pissed at me for talking about it...

I thought it was in the end of Half Life 2 (or was it the beginning of episode 1?) that you see this short cutscene of G-man being a creepy bastard about Gordon, and suddenly the Vortigaunts get all religious over him and teleport you away, as well as Alyx I believe.

Granted, I haven't gotten around to finishing Episode 2 quite yet, so I may just be making myself look stupid.

 

[Laughing Man]

Better question, is Valve even working on any IPs new or otherwise? What was the last game that Valve actually released? Portal 2 back in 2011 and since then we haven't heard of anything.

People seem to be shocked that Valve aren't working on HL3 but it's clear that Valve don't really spend time working on any games Portal 2 in 2011 before that L4D2 in 2009, how many games developers can survive on one game every 2 years?

To be honest I couldn't care less about HL3, I do however love Portal and L4D and given the protracted development time on Valve games it really irks me some when you get reports about Valve wasting huge amounts of development time on, augmented reality hardware and fucking Steam for Linux.

Steam for Linux, really no one at Valve stood back and said 'hold on guys aren't we paying you to develop games, make Steam better and not to sit around all day wasting a huge amount of time'. Hell forget actually developing games how about you spend some time on the Windows Steam client, which is still slow, still goes tits up when ever their is any server load, still has bugs and suffers from a horrible effect of crashing routers with mass server calls when you first log in

It's okay folk Valve are working on Source 2... very nice would be even better if they announced some games to go with it, all very well developing an updated game engine but if you ain't got any games to go with it.

 

[ohnoitsabear]

Better question, is Valve even working on any IPs new or otherwise? What was the last game that Valve actually released?

Valve released Counter-Strike: Global Offensive just this August. They've also been putting a lot of resources into DOTA 2, and are probably fairly close (ie: within three months) to releasing it after a ridiculously long beta period. Now, this is small consolation to me, somebody that doesn't care about either of those games and just wants more Half-Life, but it's simply untrue to say that Valve hasn't worked on anything.

 

[VoidWanderer]

As a PC Gamer who never got into Half-Life, I find it bemusing watching people salivating over the idea of Half-Life 3.

While this may piss some of the more dedicated fans, to me HL3 would be as relevant as Duke Nukem Forever.

Sorry guys, but I think you guys want this game WAY too much and make Valve uncomfortable. Unless I get a response from Gabe Newell, I recommend not holding your breath.

 

[Cyrus Hanley]

I expect to see it shipped with Source 2.

Valve is off making the entire world a better place for video games, innovating the shit out of everything and making all of our lives easier, increasing communication and experience, and still people ask for the third installment to something they did in '98.

They're smart cookies, those Valve folks. They see what happened to Duke Nukem Forever. You will never get Half-Life 3 until the IP is sold to someone else.

Your ignorance is showing.

 

[BeerTent]

I'm hoping we'll get to see Corporal Shephard, or if he going be a playable character in the next game.

Considering, I believe, he's owned by Gearbox, this is pretty unlikely. We got lucky with Barny because that was all of the security guard's names in HL1. Gearbox simply expanded on that particular character and enabled his escape at the end of Blue Shift.

According to the Wiki, Shepard was "[praised] for his ability to "adapt and survive against all odds" which "rather reminds [the G-Man] of [himself]." If we do see him again, it'd very likely be as an antagonist.

I'm more interested in the engine. HL3 will likely come during, or shortly after the release of S2. I theorize that HL3 will have an extremely strong focus on Portals, and perhaps another GLADDOS, as, well... The Aperture ship...

 

[Vigormortis]

Whatever

Just ignore people like that. There are people around here that simply love to hate on valve and it's fan-base. They (rarely) acquire a passing knowledge of Valves actual history and fill in the (often enormous) gaps they missed with rhetoric, bullshit, and bile. They absolutely adore angrily making fun of people and attempting to ruin everyones day.

You'll run into those kinds of people often around here. (and everywhere, honestly) Thankfully, not quite as often as you would have a year ago, say, but some are still around. They're usually the ones that start the weekly, "Half-Life/Valve/Steam suck" threads. You know the ones. The threads wherein the OP starts a circle-jerk of hate-filled insults towards Valve and it's fans. After which a few others, much like the OP, will chime in and do the same. In fact, there are a collective of posters that will do that sort of thing for just about anything. Half-Life, Valve, Mass Effect, Call of Duty, Halo, etc, etc. You name it, these people will hatefully insult it and anyone who likes it.

Some more tempered posters will add their two cents to the "discussion", often calmly refuting the OPs ludicrous and often hyperbolic claims; usually with real facts. While others will be baited in and respond with equally hateful retorts.

However, the OP (and sometimes others) will just resort to insults and repeated rhetoric to continue their hate train. Some even resort to straw-man arguments.

I've learned it's best to just speak your piece, calmly and tactfully. If they come back with more angry lies, just ignore them. Let them rile in their own bile.

[sub]For the record, when I reference the "OP", I don't mean this threads OP. Just clearing that up.[/sub]

 

[Vigormortis]

Nope, i'm one of those people who knows what he's actually talking about (unlike you, apparantly.)

No, you know maybe half of what you're talking about. And exaggerating the rest.

Allow me to clear a few things up for you:

Portal wasn't made by a "mod team". It was made, in it's entirety, within the walls of Valve. The base concept of portal-based puzzles started with Narbacular Drop, of which was a final exam project of a team of would-be game designers at the DigiPen University. (they called themselves Nuclear Monkey Software)

When their game was show-cased at the university's annual career fair, Robin Walker was so impressed with their talent he asked them to come visit Valve HQ.

After the team gave a short presentation showing their game, Gabe Newell immediately offered the entire team a job. They jumped at the opportunity.

As soon as the team relocated to Washington, they began working with Mark Laidlaw (author of Half-Life) and quite a few other talented people at Valve on conceptualizing Portal.

. . . . . . .

As for Team Fortress 2, it did not begin life as a mod for Source. It actually began life as a Quake mod.

At some point, after Half-Life came out, Valve approached the mod team with the prospect of porting the game over to Gold Src, their Half-Life 1 engine. The team loved the idea and began work on Team Fortress Classic.

During the process, Valve hired the entire team. As soon as the work was done, Robin Walker formed a new team of designers, made up of designers from numerous projects within Valve, and started working on Team Fortress 2.

'Course, TF2 started out as a complex, ultra-realistic-themed military sim. Thankfully, they scrapped that idea early and ended up making the game we know today.

. . . . . . .

I could go on and on, pointing out the misinformation and fallacies people like you like to throw around, but I'm bored of it at this point.

Maybe you should look at the related Wiki pages on the topic(s). You might learn something.

 

[Overusedname]

I've chosen to not play the franchise at all specifically to avoid what you're going through.

I hate to say it, but you've got another 5 years of waiting ahead of you.

I'd just rather not disappoint myself. If someone else buys out the IP maybe you'll get a 3rd installment. I've seen no evidence that's it's going to happen at all.

 

[tthor]

I considered myself lucky for skipping the ridiculously long wait... however, that was 2 years ago. It's a trap, you just got suckered in

3 for me... The wait never stops ;_;

 

[Dead Seerius]

After this wait, it's not going to live up to expectations, even if it does end up being as good as HL2.

Fans don't end up having realistic expectations after such a long wait, some might even assume that they've literally been working on it for all that time.

So I can see why they'd just not want to make it at all, quit while yer ahead and all that.

I could definitely sympathize with Valve if they just flat out said "The expectations currently set for Half-Life 3 are unrealistic. We are not working on it at this moment, and it is unknown when we will begin to."

The problem is that Gabe's always so goddamn enigmatic. He never says if they're working on it or not, if it has an expected release year, or, for that matter, why the hell Valve needs to be so tight-lipped about HL3.

All people want is communication, I suppose.

 

[AlbertoDeSanta]

Much like you, thread maker, I only recently bought the Orange Box. My Opinion? It was smart to only get it recently. I've got friends that bought it close to release day, and one of them isn't happy. The other is a Halo fanboy.

I personally can't wait, especially with such a cliffhanger as this.

 

[AlbertoDeSanta]

After this wait, it's not going to live up to expectations, even if it does end up being as good as HL2.

Fans don't end up having realistic expectations after such a long wait, some might even assume that they've literally been working on it for all that time.

So I can see why they'd just not want to make it at all, quit while yer ahead and all that.

I could definitely sympathize with Valve if they just flat out said "The expectations currently set for Half-Life 3 are unrealistic. We are not working on it at this moment, and it is unknown when we will begin to."

The problem is that Gabe's always so goddamn enigmatic. He never says if they're working on it or not, if it has an expected release year, or, for that matter, why the hell Valve needs to be so tight-lipped about HL3.

All people want is communication, I suppose.

I agree absolutely 100%. Not knowing a release year for a sequel to one of (if not THE) the most innovative games is painful. It was well written and I loved playing it.