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Definitely not. A Half-Life protagonist has to be a blank slate that you can project yourself on, Alyx is the opposite of that.

I must have missed where she was mentioned to be the next protag tbh, I took it that Gordon was saved by the Vortigaunts and the mention of "this is my final epistle" was refering more to Laidlaw himself than to the character of Gordon Freeman. Alyx would be a bad choice as a HL protag. To be completely fair though, HL2 did not succeed in making the entire game feel coherent with Gordon as a mute protag and blank slate. HL1 did this better before and the absolute best game that perfected that design was Portal 1 (Portal 2 failed at that too, albeit still being a fantastic game).
For the silent protag to work you'd need to never have the player questioning why you are not replying to what is going on verbally. Only Portal 1 did this perfectly imo.

 

[TheSecondSpitter]

Definitely not. A Half-Life protagonist has to be a blank slate that you can project yourself on, Alyx is the opposite of that.

#bringbackshephard

 

[ashecitism]

I know that a lot of people won't agree, but I had this suspect for a while that Valve isn't really that scared of "reaching perfection", as many love to speculate, as it is of long term commitment.

All their current projects, on both hardware and software, seem to be more of the "conceptual" sort, where single employees can contribute in a limited, confined way and pull out whenever they feel like: UI improvements, little code tweaks, small content additions for existing projects, "modular" games like DOTA or Artifact where they will be able to add a personal touch and then leave, etc, etc.

This is all great on a prototyping phase, when you throw ideas at the wall and see what sticks, but the company as a whole strike me as afraid of committing on any sort of large scale project where years of relentless focus, effort and grunt work would be required.
And NO, I'm not just bitching about single player games.

Never bought those arguments coupled with "they're waiting for the tech". Just look at some of the products and updates they shipped in recent years: Steam Hardware, Steam Music, SteamOS, Reborn, paid mods, Meet Your Match, R8...

Expectations and quality are least of their concerns.

I'll also add to your point how they lack direction, vision. With the things I listed, but also almost everything else really they have to exclusively rely on the community telling them what works and what doesn't, what they want and don't want because apparently Valve is unable to ship polished, finished products or to sell a crowd. When was the last time the general crowd felt genuine excitement from one of their announcements.

 

[kiguel182]

Respawn doing Half Life would be amazing. Keep the writers from the original games with the team behind TF2 and man, what a combo.

 

[TheRedSnifit]

I don't get the ND hate on this forum. Sure, sometimes they're drowning in their own Kool-Aid but there's no way Druckmann will disrespect the HL franchise.

Like I wrote in the other thread, The Last of Us was more than just inspired by Half Life 2 and the similarities are too many to be coincidental.

He won't "disrespect" it, but he'll make a Neil Druckmann Naughty Dog game, where cutscenes are the main course and "story through gameplay" means "forty minutes of climbing and forced walking." Maybe Naughty Dog fans will enjoy getting "Uncharted: Half Life Edition," but I doubt most Half Life fans will.

And the concept of it being PS4 exclusive is laughable. Imagine the reaction if The Last of Us Part II was announced to be developed by Intelligent Systems exclusively for the Switch.

The concept that this forum hates Naughty Dog is hilarious, by the way.

 

[Jason Frost]

#bringbackshephard

#ForgetAboutFreeman

 

[TheSecondSpitter]

He won't "disrespect" it, but he'll make a Neil Druckmann Naughty Dog game, where cutscenes are the main course and "story through gameplay" means "forty minutes of climbing and forced walking." Maybe Naughty Dog fans will enjoy getting "Uncharted: Half Life Edition," but I doubt most Half Life fans will.

And the concept of it being PS4 exclusive is laughable. Imagine the reaction if The Last of Us Part II was announced to be developed by Intelligent Systems exclusively for the Switch.

The concept that this forum hates Naughty Dog is hilarious, by the way.

Firstly, the idea that Druckmann is not a flexible director and that he can't make an FPS in the style of HL is ridiculous. TLoU and UC are not even FPSs. So why would there be "filler climbing"?

Secondly, Valve and Sony have had a great relationship in the past so STEAM/PS4 is quite possible. If you just own an XBOX, cry me a river. (Especially given how they've treated their own studios in the past)

 

[TheRedSnifit]

Firstly, the idea that Druckmann is not a flexible director is ridiculous.

As evidenced by what? Surely, you aren't going to argue that TLoU and Uncharted are vastly different when it comes to how the narrative is conveyed.

Secondly, Valve and Sony have had a great relationship in the past so STEAM/PS4 is quite possible. If you just own an XBOX, cry me a river. (Especially given how they've treated their own IPs in the past)

Bahahahah, there's no way. Maybe next gen if Sony loses their lead they'll become more flexible, but no way are they going to allow their flagship dev team to do anything but crank out exclusives while they're number one. Why would they?

 

[Surfinn]

Christ almighty. It's not as if he's found the body of a long lost relative.

And this is coming from someone who loves those games.

Uhh

Alright?

Because closure for a fucking dead relative and closure for a computer game are the same thing

Dumb post

 

[TheSecondSpitter]

As evidenced by what? Surely, you aren't going to argue that TLoU and Uncharted are vastly different when it comes to how the narrative is conveyed.

Because Druckmann is not a moron -- in fact, he's better at his job than 90% of people in the industry.

Bahahahah, there's no way. Maybe next gen if Sony loses their lead they'll become more flexible, but no way are they going to allow their flagship dev team to do anything but crank out exclusives while they're number one. Why would they?

Yeah, I'm not getting drawn into a console pissing contest with you.

 

[Napoleonthechimp]

Uhh

Alright?

Because closure for a fucking dead relative and closure for a computer game are the same thing

Dumb post

Huh? I literally just used that as an example of how stupid it is that people are treating this as if they've been told a missing relative has been found.

Writing someone and thanking them for "closure"? The whole thing is utterly stupid and OTT.

 

[Scarecrow]

Silent protags are generally lame, I feel. One of the best things about this blog post was reading it as Freeman's voice. Because it sounds EXACTLY how Gordon would talk.

 

[Soulblighter31]

I don't get the ND hate on this forum. Sure, sometimes they're drowning in their own Kool-Aid but there's no way Druckmann will disrespect the HL franchise.

Like I wrote in the other thread, The Last of Us was more than just inspired by Half Life 2 and the similarities are too many to be coincidental.

There are no similarities between Last of Us and Half Life. The way NDog works is the literal complete opposite in every possible sense. Every way. You have Half Life at one extreme, ND at the other. One likes to make movie-games. The other fully relishes in being a game.

I read what you said in the other forum, you seem to be the biggest ND and Last of Us fan, thats ok bu they're nothing alike and you have a very poor understanding of both games design. Theres no one worse in the industry than ND for a Half Life game.

 

[TheRedSnifit]

Because Druckmann is not a moron -- in fact, he's better at his job than 90% of people in the industry.

So based on nothing, then. He's followed the same formula forever but we're supposed to believe he can just pull off something totally different because he's Neil Druckmann, man.

Here's my take: A Naughty Dog Half Life game will just be standard Naughty Dog fare in a different setting. They will not make a game like Half Life. They have never done it, they obviously do not wish to do it, and I personally believe that they are utterly incapable of doing it.

When ND actually pulls a total 180 on game design and makes a game that hews to the Half Life method, then maybe Half Life fans will stop treating the idea with ridicule.

 

[Surfinn]

Huh? I literally just used that as an example of how stupid it is that people are treating this as if they've been told a missing relative has been found.

Writing someone and thanking them for "closure"? The whole thing is utterly stupid and OTT.

My point was that there are different types of closure. It's not a one size fits all term, so I don't know why you're so upset by it and comparing it to literal death, jesus. Stop acting like the comparison you're making isn't ridiculously absurd.

Nothing I said should have caused you to respond in the way you did. I'm still trying to figure out why we're having this conversation

And you weirdly changed your example from literal death to "it's as if he found a missing relative".

It's not as if he's found the body of a long lost relative.

Huh? I literally just used that as an example of how stupid it is that people are treating this as if they've been told a missing relative has been found.

Like, what are you even talking about

I said thank you in an email because he did the right thing. Get over it, my god

 

[TheSecondSpitter]

There are no similarities between Last of Us and Half Life. The way NDog works is the literal complete opposite in every possible sense. Every way. You have Half Life at one extreme, ND at the other. One likes to make movie-games. The other fully relishes in being a game.

I read what you said in the other forum, you seem to be the biggest ND and Last of Us fan, thats ok bu they're nothing alike and you have a very poor understanding of both games design. Theres no one worse in the industry than ND for a Half Life game.

Well, I beg to differ and lets leave it at that.

FTR, I thought TLoU was decent at best (MP is where it really excelled) and I've criticized ND enough in the past (including in this thread!) Also, I hated UC4 and didn't even bother finishing the final boss fight. However, I believe any competent HL sequel is better than no HL sequel. And at least with ND, you know you'll get a polished product.

 

[c0Zm1c]

Huh? I literally just used that as an example of how stupid it is that people are treating this as if they've been told a missing relative has been found.

Writing someone and thanking them for "closure"? The whole thing is utterly stupid and OTT.

People are passionate about the Half-Life series (as fans are about many things), one that's story has been left unfinished for 10 years, but more importantly, having ended abruptly at a climactic and shocking cliffhanger. I don't think it's stupid that we get a sense of closure from finally reading what was to happen next.

 

[Savitar]

The whole thing makes me happy I found Half Life 2 to be ho hum and didn't bother with the follow ups.

Valve definitely has become an odd beast since it's younger days, that's undeniable. Makes me wonder how they shall fare once someone else rises up and becomes true competition for Steam.

 

[The Freeman]

If we're going to give the franchise to another company, surely Respawn would be the most obvious choice. The Titanfall series is pretty much a spiritual successor in many ways.

 

[ultrazilla]

If we're going to give the franchise to another company, surely Respawn would be the most obvious choice. The Titanfall series is pretty much a spiritual successor in many ways.

How can anyone argue in a thread like this, especially with "The Freeman"? I love it!

And 100% agreed! Titanfall 2's single player campaign was without a doubt the best single player campaign I have played since Half Life 2's.

My vote goes to Respawn if Gabe/Valve ever decide to lend/sell the I.P.

And for all you game journalists who are undoubtedly reading this thread-it's time to start asking Valve/Gabe(when you can actually get ahold of him) since Half Life 3 isn't being made by them, if they'll consider lending/selling the I.P off to a capable developer like RESPAWN.

 

[sflufan]

Marc posted some more thoughts on epistle 3 on twitter:
https://twitter.com/marc_laidlaw/status/901647787854462976

This'd be pretty great:

Great idea sir



Wow. This would actually be a pretty incredible "ending" ("beginning"?). But only if we get a satisfying amount of closure before.

That would be better than Gordon living with the vortigaunts, just giving up basically like anakin after episode 3 for eternity

This is actually the most interesting possibility to me because if it is in fact an infinite time-loop, then the ONLY way to prevent any of the events from ever happening to begin with is for Gordon to NEVER push the cart containing the Xen crystal sample into the Anti-Mass Spectrometer at Black Mesa. In other words, in order to "win", you have to literally turn off Half-Life and never play the game.

 

[mazillion]

And for all you game journalists who are undoubtedly reading this thread-it's time to start asking Valve/Gabe(when you can actually get ahold of him) since Half Life 3 isn't being made by them, if they'll consider lending/selling the I.P off to a capable developer like RESPAWN.

Oh man I'd love to see Respawn's take on HL3. I wonder if they would make it with Source 2?

 

[gaugebozo]

Well, I beg to differ and lets leave it at that.

FTR, I thought TLoU was decent at best (MP is where it really excelled) and I've criticized ND enough in the past (including in this thread!) Also, I hated UC4 and didn't even bother finishing the final boss fight. However, I believe any competent HL sequel is better than no HL sequel. And at least with ND, you know you'll get a polished product.

The issue isn't how good or bad ND is. It's that a ND produced Half-Life would not be Half-Life. They have completely different philosophies.

 

[ashecitism]

Oh man I'd love to see Respawn's take on HL3. I wonder if they would make it with Source 2?

Source 2 would have to be finished and ready for licensing first for them to even consider.

 

[TheSecondSpitter]

The issue isn't how good or bad ND is. It's that a ND produced Half-Life would not be Half-Life. They have completely different philosophies.

Again, I feel that Half Life (especially 2 and the Episode 1 and 2) are narrative driven and I think ND has a proven track record of narrative driven games. If the deal-breaker is cutscenes, its not something it so insurmountable or they are so inflexible, they cannot work around. Anyway, we seem to be arguing in circles and I've got nothing further to add.

 

[Adam M]

Even though he was a writer it's just a fanfiction but not bad.He can't just publish the real script because that belongs to Valve. But again, decent fanfiction

I think Valve is waiting for a really big technical jump to tell the story the best possible way. Not just visually, in every way from physics to animations.

Once they feel the right time they will make a new Half-Life game. Why? Because money is never enough and they will do it eventually

 

[Nzyme32]

Marc posted some more thoughts on epistle 3 on twitter:
https://twitter.com/marc_laidlaw/status/901647787854462976

This'd be pretty great:

That is a wonderful direction for things to go in. Shame it probably won't happen now.

Oh man I'd love to see Respawn's take on HL3. I wonder if they would make it with Source 2?

"Farming out" HL as a franchise doesn't instantly get you a game that would really be worthy of the legacy. What you really want is just "more of the same but sort of like favourite company x" Laidlaw is practically the core of HL so its good to hear some of his little brainstorm of ideas hes had over the years for it's possibilities.

 

[derFeef]

I should really play Titanfall 2 I guess? It's on EA Access

 

[BBboy20]

If Valve is that chaotic now...either there isn't even going to be a Team Fortress3/Left4Dead3/Counter-Strike2/Portal3 or they're going to be poorly executed.

 

[Feffe]

I'd like to know more about what happened "18 months ago" to make Laidlaw leave Valve.

In 2015 he had no problem still working at Valve and was hopeful HL 3 would get released sooner or later

http://m.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=1085495

When he left it looks like there wasn't any bad blood between him and Valve

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1167876&page=11

But the first and last paragraph (and well, the whole "leak") seem to suggest otherwise.

 

[Fox318]

VNN just posted a more in-depth video of the leak and a playable mod of all of the leaked data of HL3

https://youtu.be/h3m7Oc08Ur0


Basically money corrupted Valve and their prostitution of the community is what really hurt the company as an artist.

 

[Orthogonal]

Even though he was a writer it's just a fanfiction but not bad.He can't just publish the real script because that belongs to Valve. But again, decent fanfiction

I think Valve is waiting for a really big technical jump to tell the story the best possible way. Not just visually, in every way from physics to animations.

Once they feel the right time they will make a new Half-Life game. Why? Because money is never enough and they will do it eventually

Its more authentic and Canon than anything Valve will ever do. He is not just "a writer" Marc Laidlaw is the authority on Half Life even if Valve owns it. He is like Tolkein to LotR.

 

[OBias]

Its more authentic and Canon than anything Valve will ever do. He is not just "a writer" Marc Laidlaw is the authority on Half Life even if Valve owns it. He is like Tolkein to LotR.

Ehh, Marc Laidlaw wasn't writing the story alone, it was a collaborative effort between many team members. The comparison to Tolkien is not valid.

 

[Yazzees]

If you seriously think Naughty Dog is a good fit for a new Half-Life game I honestly have to question whether you paid attention to anything about how Half-Life tells its story.

 

[TheSecondSpitter]

Its more authentic and Canon than anything Valve will ever do. He is not just "a writer" Marc Laidlaw is the authority on Half Life even if Valve owns it. He is like Tolkein to LotR.

Nowadays, when you go to work for a large corporation, even your sneezes and coughs belong to them.

I've published 5 articles in peer-reviewed journals and I do not own a single word of them.

 

[Orthogonal]

Nowadays, when you go to work for a large corporation, even your sneezes and coughs belong to them.

I've published 5 articles in peer-reviewed journals and I do not own a single word of them.

Im not arguing about ownership. Im talking about how to interpret the post in terms of Canon for the series. Maybe it comes down to semantics, buy his word is more genuine to most fans of the series than anyone elses. Valve or not.

 

[TheSecondSpitter]

Im not arguing about ownership. Im talking about how to interpret the post in terms of Canon for the series. Maybe it comes down to semantics, buy his word is more genuine to most fans of the series than anyone elses. Valve or not.

I don't think this is the case either. Laidlaw himself said afterwards, other stories may be developed as a games (or words to similar effect), however improbable this is. I'm sure the tweet is buried in this thread somewhere.

 

[Fjordson]

Even though he was a writer it's just a fanfiction but not bad.He can't just publish the real script because that belongs to Valve. But again, decent fanfiction

I think Valve is waiting for a really big technical jump to tell the story the best possible way. Not just visually, in every way from physics to animations.

Once they feel the right time they will make a new Half-Life game. Why? Because money is never enough and they will do it eventually

The time was already right a decade ago lol. To finish the story they started.

Maybe a full Half-Life 3 needs a certain time or piece of tech, but I struggle to think of a good reason to not make HL2: Episode 3 all those years ago...

 

[Orthogonal]

The time was already right a decade ago lol. To finish the story they started.

Maybe a full Half-Life 3 needs a certain time or piece of tech, but I struggle to think of a good reason to not make HL2: Episode 3 all those years ago...

This is a great point, especially if it follows the mold of what Marc posted. Would probably be a 4-5 hour single player game they could have put out in less than 2 years.

 

[Popstar]

.

 

[funkystudent]

VNN just posted a more in-depth video of the leak and a playable mod of all of the leaked data of HL3

https://youtu.be/h3m7Oc08Ur0


Basically money corrupted Valve and their prostitution of the community is what really hurt the company as an artist.

Never seen that money comment from Gabe.


Man. Dude fell into the darkside hard.

 

[Valentus]

Funny if you think about that the big snowball that is valve snow started with a Half-Life mod (counter-strike)

Damn that Dyson-Sphere scene... Damn you Gabe!

 

[Fjordson]

This is a great point, especially if it follows the mold of what Marc posted. Would probably be a 4-5 hour single player game they could have put out in less than 2 years.

Exactly. And looking at what Laidlaw wrote, it would have still left some avenues open for future Half-Life games.

I would be way less irritated if they had finished episode 3 and then were leaving us waiting for a HL 3. At least that's a clean break. As of now, HL 2 will simply always be woefully incomplete.

 

[angelic]

Laidlaw was being cagey for legal reasons, he knows we view him as the authority on the Half Life universe, he's just deliberately not stating it knowing it goes without saying.

The end of EP3 for him was setting up the future of the series, with Gordon now the betrayed party and Alyx the new potential protagonist. He didnt develop the world beyond that point because he had no need to. He knew that HL3 would then have options.

 

[funkystudent]

Laidlaw was being cagey for legal reasons, he knows we view him as the authority on the Half Life universe, he's just deliberately not stating it knowing it goes without saying.

The end of EP3 for him was setting up the future of the series, with Gordon now the betrayed party and Alyx the new potential protagonist. He didnt develop the world beyond that point because he had no need to. He knew that HL3 would then have options.

He said months ago that EP3 was always gonna be his last half life game and hl3 would be under a new lead tho.


also I could see Alyx's being the result of the g man pulling her strings like how he used her to convey that message to her dad in EP2.

So she wouldn't be a antagonist but she would be the g mans new pawn like Freeman was previously

 

[Drake]

Someone said that when he originally posted this he used all the real names of the characters and then changed them to the fake ones. Is there any truth to that?

 

[OBias]

Someone said that when he originally posted this he used all the real names of the characters and then changed them to the fake ones. Is there any truth to that?

No, that's not true.

 

[Adnor]

Someone said that when he originally posted this he used all the real names of the characters and then changed them to the fake ones. Is there any truth to that?

No, it always had the fake names.

 

[sleepnaught]

Slightly off topic, but do we have any idea when Source 2 will be released to the public? I've ready later this year as a possibility, but with Valve, who the hell knows anymore.

 

[B33]

The Half-Life franchise isn't dead.

It'll likely happen in the form of Half-Life VR.

Episode Three is dead.