The new Deus Ex series is another great revival of a dormant franchise, and with newcomer developers. The games are a little less deep than DX1 in some ways, but they also exceed DX1 in some others because their focus is on different things than the original team. I think the Deus Ex revival is another really good example of new faces coming in and refreshing a series, and I feel that Valve needs that from new hires coming in and starting a new Half Life movement from within the company.
I do like that idea. I thought that would work for Halo similar to how they did the Legends series (which was basically a Halo Animatrix).
I don't think that would be a suitable way to resolve the main storyline for HL, though.
This is sort of unrelated, but yeah I'd like that. I have wondered for a while why Microsoft hasn't done the obvious thing of making a Mass Effect inspired Halo spin off, with the main character leading a group of Spartans flying around and taking on missions in either the colony wars, the covenant war or the current conflict (I don't even know anymore what to call it). It seems like a no-brainer spin off idea, Microsoft could have their own Mass Effect, easy. It could also compete more closely with Destiny than Halo does currently.
Honestly... given the way things are over hyped and expectations are blown out of proportion, I wouldn't make HL3 either. There would be too much riding on it.
I understand the apprehension, but I feel that not even attempting it is pretty damaging in itself. I guess Valve may worried about fans who stop using Steam as much (or at all) if Half Life 3 disappoints them, but I just don't see that being a huge thing if that happened. Valve is too paralyzed right now, when they should be inspired by franchise revivals like DOOM and Deus Ex.
The first time I experienced FarCry I was honestly blown away. You had this vast, gorgeous, sunny island and then all of a sudden you find the entrance to a cavern and the atmosphere shifts instantly to moody and spooky. I will never forget the first time I got sneaked upon by guards. I had snuck into a military base and was crouching behind some boxes just to make sense of the environment. So I just sat there for a short while to get my bearings and get a breather. And then all of a sudden I see a dead silent shadow approaching... A crouching guard trying to sneak up on me. This was the first time I had experienced something like this in a game and I still remember it vividly even though it was 12 years ago.
Is it much different from the newer games? I'd have to guess so, since they aren't that special in my opinion, just games arranging from OK to pretty good. I never played any of the original Far Cry except a tiny little bit of multiplayer on Xbox, maybe I should give a go since I think I have it on Steam. It doesn't seem like it would hold up as well as the HL games though based on what I've seen of it.
Valve seems more interested in hardware experiments and holding billion dollar esports tournaments than they do actually making anything I give a shit about.
And I'm getting so tired of it. I never thought I would. I figured I could patiently wait basically forever. As it turns out, by the 8th or 9th year, even I have my limits.
What even would Half-Life 3 be, nowadays? Gabe Newell went on record many years ago saying all Valve games going forward would have some type of multiplayer element, presumably so they could sell cosmetics. And what about VR? Doing VR's stupid teleportation shit in the context of Half-Life doesn't sound very fun.
As a former Valve fanboy, all of this is immensely frustrating. I remember subscribing to the Valvetime News on Youtube and Valve used to do enough cool shit that they put out a 10+ minute video every other week dissecting it all. Now they're lucky to scrape together enough to fill two whole minutes, sometimes with months-long gaps between videos.
Blaaaah
Yeah. Even though I am optimistic it will one day happen once we can get a majority of a new generation of developers into Valve, Valve as it is now is too paralyzed. They don't seem to have the creative spark anymore, so I feel like we will just have to wait out this lull period, which will probably take at least another 4 years. Unless they only hire people who want to maintain a status quo of making basically nothing and experimenting with weird tech with no real payoff, I think we will get another Half Life/Portal or other great game from Valve. It's just a matter of time I think.
Honestly the most frustrating thing isn't really even no HL3, but that we haven't had a single player focused Valve game since Portal 2. If they kept on making new IPs that were excellent, I think we could move past this resentment towards Valve, but they are just too content to do nothing of interest right now. Even though I don't like VR right now, I hope it really does inspire them to start up the actual video game development side of the company so they can at least get going on
something.
Like I was saying, I think they need a lot of retirements and new hires before we can see their creative energy again. It's too stagnant, and ironically their easygoing company policies are most definitely the reason we haven't seen them being as creative as in the past. It is too easy for them to do nothing, so I really think we need a majority of their employees to start
wanting to make something new, and I have a feeling we'll have to wait for that to happen naturally as the older workforce retires.
What annoys me most is the silence. Up until the launch of Ep2 their PR was insane. They were doing interviews and marketing like mad. I know they kind of regretted the ending video of Ep1. That it created expectations for Ep2 they could not match. Still Ep.2 is maybe their best game ever, only matched by Portal 2.
Yes, they need to start being less cryptic and walled off. Letting us know what happened with HL3 is a good starting point to start repairing the good will they have lost.
I firmly believe HL3 will never happen.
I would not be entirely surprised if this happened. Even though I am relatively optimistic that Valve just needs a new generation before it'll start making new games again, it could be that that occurs without HL3. I could understand if they get the drive to create again, but don't want to be stuck in the past anymore and start making new IPs instead. If they do that though, hopefully they have the decency to break the silence and say it isn't happening because they want to pursue new ideas.
I am fairly certain a creativity revolution in Valve will be followed by a new Half Life project though. It could be a reinvention instead of a sequel though, and that might be for the best. Release a novel that ends the story of the original series, make it into a movie or TV show, whatever, and I'd probably be fine with them rebooting and starting from scratch to get rid of the baggage.
