• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Half-Life 3: 10 years of not playing the most essential sequel in history

ClearData

Member
Is it true that Gabe was seriously depressed during the development of Half Life 2 and that's partly why he doesn't have the desire to push development Half Life 3? I think I read that in an interview a long time ago.
 

Azih

Member
I have accepted that they are not (and likely will not) make HL3. I just don't get why? Seems like it would sell enough to be profitable..
A lot if the driving creative forces behind HL probably aren't at the company anymore and it probably makes more sense in terms of profit to keep updating their F2P games.
 
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.

I think Valve is still plenty creative, it's just they've moved on to "Well we can do literally anything"

So we got Steam Machines. The Steam Controller. Steam in-home streaming. Huge expansions to how Steam publishes, organizes and serves content. Expansions on what type of content is acceptable on Steam at all. They're collaborating with JJ Abrams in creating new modes for Team Fortress 2 and maybe even Valve-based theatrical movies in the future. They collaborated with Adult Swim on a Team Fortress 2 series (that went absolutely nowhere outside of one short). And now we have The Vive, which was in testing for two or three years.

Valve seemingly realized they had enough capita that there was no reason they should limit themselves to being just game developers anymore. Now they're spread really thinly in way too many directions.
 

Agremont

Member
S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2 is GOING TO HAPPEN :D I KNOW!



GSC GAMEWORLD is back, they released COSSACKS 3 and said they will be working on S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2 next. SO HYPED.

I don't usually write like this, but, when it comes to S.T.A.L.K.E.R I just can't control myself.

Is this true?! Please don't toy with me...
 

Akronis

Member
S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2 is GOING TO HAPPEN :D I KNOW!



GSC GAMEWORLD is back, they released COSSACKS 3 and said they will be working on S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2 next. SO HYPED.

I don't usually write like this, but, when it comes to S.T.A.L.K.E.R I just can't control myself.

Source? I haven't heard anything since they released Cossacks 3. Are the original devs from GSC even still there?
 

sikkinixx

Member
Valve is like Nintendo as both love to abuse customers as much as possible.


So me it's such a shame with Valve as so many of their great properties like Half Life, L4D, or Portal are just sitting around doing fuck all. Why not remaster left for dead or portal for current consoles?

Why not do something other that F2P stuff that demands countless hours of organization and dedication for the rest of us plebs ? Surely they have the money and the manpower to do it.
 

RedToad64

Member
There are several other games that I would rather see a sequel to than Half-Life. There are so many existing Half-Life games out there.
 
Id be pretty mad about hl3 but dota 2 is just the best thing valve has ever done.

There are several other games that I would rather see a sequel to than Half-Life. There are so many existing Half-Life games out there.
Yea all two of them plus some short expansions.
 
Is this true?! Please don't toy with me...

Source? I haven't heard anything since they released Cossacks 3. Are the original devs from GSC even still there?

Well, can't say much, but GSCGAMEWORLD said back then, when they were back in business, that they were going to defend the S.T.A.L.K.E.R ip (since it was being "atacked" by a bunch of scammers) and start development after finishing COSSACKS 3 (Not right away, anyway, nor something that they will annonce soon. But still, I have faith).
http://www.polygon.com/2015/2/10/80...it-will-defend-the-stalker-franchise-plans-to
 
Is it true that Gabe was seriously depressed during the development of Half Life 2 and that's partly why he doesn't have the desire to push development Half Life 3? I think I read that in an interview a long time ago.

I think this is from Raising the Bar. It's less that Gabe himself was depressed, and it's more that developing all the new features for the Source Engine apparently stressed out all of Valve Software considerably.

That's why Valve still hasn't moved off the Source Engine. As I understand it, even Source 2, even though it has the "2" at the end, isn't really a new engine. It's just a 64bit version of Source with a few extra enhancements (Valve's own in-house physics engine, better content generation tools, etc).

Gabe Newell has said he doesn't want to put the team through the stress of developing a new engine like that again, so they've chosen to just upgrade parts of it over time as they've felt it necessary.
 

gabbo

Member
I waited for DNF, I'll keep waiting for HL3/Ep3. And to think, DNF had become a joke long before the 10 year mark
 
There are eight total games, plus mods that have spun off to their own, like Team Fortress and Counter Strike.

Counting Team Fortress and Counter Strike is like counting Titanfall just because it runs on Source.

But there could be 20 Half Life games, and it wouldn't change a thing because the franchise is still well-loved, holds up quite well, and currently ends on a massive cliff hanger.
 

shiyrley

Banned
At this point doing a direct sequel to HL2 Episode 2 that takes up directly after that cliffhanger probably doesnt make much sense since the game is a decade old and lots of people who played it probably aged out of gaming or died.

A sequel would probably need to be a soft reboot or spinoff.
What are you even saying, Shenmue 3 should not even exist following that logic
 

BigDes

Member
I have come to terms with the fact that HL3 is never coming and that Valve are extremely poor at basic communication with their fans.
 

Laughing Banana

Weeping Pickle
I really dislike those who pull off stuff like this. Creating a universe, creating a story, creating characters that people invested their money and time into, only to dangle a goddamn cliffhanger in it in the end without any sense of closure whatsoever: it feels like a slap on the face towards those who have invested in their product.

I mean, it's not like Valve is bankrupt or anything so that they can't continue it; they just choose not to. It's like paying a ticket for the movie only for you to be ushered away half an hour before you can even see the movie is finished, or missing pages at the end of a novel. It's really annoying.
 

Krev

Unconfirmed Member
Valve's policy of not commenting on Half-Life is extremely fucked up given the way they ended up handling it.
 
http://www.pcgamer.com/half-life-3-unconfirmed-every-rumor-hoax-and-leak-in-one-place/

Taoaze74SepkGywpSebyNo-650-80.png



I was just saying to a coworker the other day, thanks to how valve has shit on their fans with HL3, if it ever comes out, I've half a mind to say fuck valve and ignore it. The damn game has fallen out of relevancy long ago.
 

Ultimadrago

Member
I had a dream last night that Gabe announced Half-Life 3 after walking down a catwalk. There was a CG trailer and everything. I haven't played a single one, yet I still felt a quick burst of relief and excitement...then I woke up.

Maybe this is my brain telling me to play Half-Life.
 

Admodieus

Member
Honestly, the No Man's Sky situation must scare the crap out of Valve - if they had any inclination to show the game or talk about it before it was pretty much finalized, that desire must be completely gone now.

We've seen a number of vaporware/ten-year games be released recently (Duke Nukem Forever, Last Guardian, FF15) to the point where I think this is the last one people are really holding out hope for.
 

Nzyme32

Member
Honestly, the No Man's Sky situation must scare the crap out of Valve - if they had any inclination to show the game or talk about it before it was pretty much finalized, that desire must be completely gone now.

They didn't - that's the one thing they have been clear on since around 2012/13 citing the mess of HL2 when everything kept changing or things got delayed.
 
I think Half-Life 3 will come out at some point, but they have been waiting for the right technology to be available to deliver the type of game they want it to be.

I think a version of Episode 3 was probably in development, but maybe taking longer than they expected. During development I suspect they scrapped what they had and decided to make a full sequel, but by which point expectations for the sequel were huge, and new story driven games were coming along such as Resistance, Killzone, Bioshock and Deus Ex, making them feel the game they were now developing had to do something new to be worthwhile. I kinda think they wanted the next one to blow people away in the same way the second title did at the time, and they think VR and Source 2 is way to do that.

Fast forward to today, I predict that once VR has seen more widespread adoption, we will see Half-Life 3. When I think about it, it is the only way they could possibly live up to expectations (as it would be a truly new experience), and it also explains why they haven't outright said it is not being made.

I also suspect a new Portal and Left 4 Dead to appear following HL3.

I posted this a little while ago, but my thoughts haven't really changed.
 

Admodieus

Member
They didn't - that's the one thing they have been clear on since around 2012/13 citing the mess of HL2 when everything kept changing or things got delayed.

I agree with you about showing it a year or two before release, but I always figured they would show it at say an E3 in June, with release in August or September - and I doubt they would even do that now.
 
I haven't played a single one, yet I still felt a quick burst of relief and excitement...then I woke up.

Maybe this is my brain telling me to play Half-Life.


I mean, you can play it to see where a huge chunk of todays gaming came from. And you can also play it because its better than around 98-99% of everything that came out since.
 
I just realized that the Half-Life logo is an H and an L. I thought it was just a symbol.

Holy shit what is my life. I've had my mind-blown moment. This is my cloudbush. I wish I was never born.

Edit: Hey, wait a minute. The pic of the logo in the OP isn't the same as the normal logo. I'm fine now.
 

mitch1971

Member
They are just waiting on another modder or student team to come up with a new idea in gaming, hire them, get them to make a game under the banner of Valve and take all the credit.
 
What are you even saying, Shenmue 3 should not even exist following that logic

I find that the two things that these games have in common is that they were vaporware. The details are much too you want to go further with the comparison.

I would be completely content yes I could just purchased the script. The story, even in rough draft form. I must know how the cliffhanger is resolved.
 

Cepheus

Member
I really do hope it will come out one day. Leaving Episode 2 on a cliffhanger like that would be like if Tarantino just decided to stop at Kill Bill Volume 1 and never made Volume 2.
 

deriks

4-Time GIF/Meme God
This is such a tired meme at this point.

Ironically it was made for KS that in the end got abandoned.

You mean HL3 as a whole, right? Because it is.

Half Life 3 is like that girlfriend that broke up with you and you dream to have her back, but you're also afraid that if she comes back, things will not be the same and the relationship could be very frustrating.

So let's move on, guys. There's a lot of fish on the ocean.
 

kraspkibble

Permabanned.
I have never played these games. I own them on Steam but just never bothered with it. Probably left it too late now. I also don't think they are working on it any more. That said I would absolutely love for them to announce it just to see what happens.
 

Daffy Duck

Member
The day Half Life 3 is announced it will literally break the internet.

Will I see that day? I doubt it.

Completed Half Life 2 a few weeks ago, should get round to playing Episode 1 and 2 so I am on the same page as everyone esle.
 

Gamezone

Gold Member
Why can't Valve just announce that Half-Life 3 won't happen? Or doesn't he want to say that because it's in development? I'm confused.

Isn't Valve working on Source Engine 2? They have to use it on something, right?
 
People will set themselves on fire if it eventually comes out and doesn't hit solid 10's 100% of the time. They'll take it so personally due to the hype they got themselves into for so long.

Honestly, I've had much better SP experiences with CoD4 MW, MW2 & MW3, The Halo franchise and even Gears of War so I just take HL3 as the oldest troll/meme now.
 

Nzyme32

Member
I just realized that the Half-Life logo is an H and an L. I thought it was just a symbol.

Holy shit what is my life. I've had my mind-blown moment. This is my cloudbush. I wish I was never born.

Edit: Hey, wait a minute. The pic of the logo in the OP isn't the same as the normal logo. I'm fine now.

The actual logo is simply a letter or the greek alphabet - Lambda - which is also the associated letter used to describe "half life" in nuclear physics - the time it takes for half of the unstable nuclei to decay.

Although this also works

3AF447C4F3951B166BC433479B81D1D18439F77A
 

ced

Member
It's like everyone is forgetting HL2 EP3, which I know was supposed to have been moved to HL3 but still.
 

JaseC

gave away the keys to the kingdom.
It's like everyone is forgetting HL2 EP3, which I know was supposed to have been moved to HL3 but still.

People are simply assuming -- and very safely so -- that the game has since transmogrified into a fully-fledged sequel. There's never going to be an Episode Three, but there'll one day be a Half-Life 3.
 
Any good fan hl3 attempts yet in the vein of black
Messa? Il take it at this point, honestly and truly because valve isnt making this game

Why can't Valve just announce that Half-Life 3 won't happen? Or doesn't he want to say that because it's in development? I'm confused.

Isn't Valve working on Source Engine 2? They have to use it on something, right?

Because they would irrehensobly piss people off and likely lose costumers at an alarming rate. In the long run they are better off not saying anything and keeping some kind of hope alive that way they can go to it in a few years if they decide they want to
 

stuminus3

Member
In retrospect I wouldn't be nearly as annoyed at there not being a Half-Life 3 had it not been for the HL2 Episodes. Storyline wise vanilla Half-Life 2 was perfect as it was. It wrapped up exactly where it had to for interpretation to be open ended. Quality sci-fi. We could have been enjoying discussion and debate about what was actually going on in that game for decades.

The episodes had some great content, but besides the hamfisted "5 minutes later Gordon wakes up pretty much where he was for no apparent reason" at the start of Ep 1, the ending of Ep 2 was very specific and the fact that it ended there sort of retroactively ruined the mystique of the whole mythos. Like imagine 2001 just randomly ended just when HAL started going nuts. Very frustrating.
 

jeremy1456

Junior Member
You know, the thing about the source engine around the time of Half Life 2's release is that it was almost all you heard about regarding the entire game.

Very close to launch a friend invited me over to show me the game because he was so proud of it, and had just gotten a new video card to play it.

I showed up and spent 15 minutes with him reloading his save over and over to show me how wood breaks based on where you hit it. I remember saying 'oh that's kinda neat' then he showed me a sequence where you needed to stack items to proceed. Then another, and another. I finally asked him to show me some real action, so he loaded up a save where he had the gravity gun and showed how you can pick up and throw objects to hit enemies. I thought it was pretty cool, but then he got to an area where he needed it to stack items. I asked him to show me something else in the game and then it was immediately to stacking items again.

'Yeah I think I'm gonna leave...'

I remember almost everything I read about that game in this time period wasn't about the story, gameplay, or anything like that. It was mostly 'source engine this' and 'source engine' that.

I ended up getting the game for myself on the Xbox 360 via the Orange Box. It was decent fun but I think the awe of the source engine was the majority of the hype the game had.
 
Top Bottom