And happy day at the same time.
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Marc Laidlaw reveals Half-Life 2 Episode 3's story synopsis
- Thread starter dex3108
- Start date
And happy day at the same time.
truestatic
Member
TheSecondSpitter
Member
As the CEO of Valve he can do whatever he pleases with his company, but he didn't have to be such a prick about it.
God bless you Marc Laidlaw, and thank you.
Alyx killing Judith doesn't really ring true to me though. I know they butted heads but MURDER? Doesn't fit her character imo, but I guess desperate times call for desperate measures.
Seeing the Borealis folding in and out of space-time with multiple Gordon's and Alyx's would have been amazing, sort of like Titanfall 2's Effect and Cause taken to the next level.
Alyx killing Judith doesn't really ring true to me though. I know they butted heads but MURDER? Doesn't fit her character imo, but I guess desperate times call for desperate measures.
Seeing the Borealis folding in and out of space-time with multiple Gordon's and Alyx's would have been amazing, sort of like Titanfall 2's Effect and Cause taken to the next level.
Camp1nCarl
Member
It's no substitute for the game itself, but I'll definitely take this as closure to the series. Certainly sounded like a hell of a game, but that cliffhanger at the end...
CountAntonius
Member
For the first time in my delusional mind I believe it's actually over.
What a beauty that would have been to play.
What a beauty that would have been to play.
Mikey Jr.
Member
Ok, that was pretty awesome.
The best part was finding out how all powerful the combine were, and your suicide attempt was just a fart in the wind.
I would have loved to see that in game.
Also, where the fuck did Alex goooooooooo???
I would love if Marc just kept doing these. Fuck it.
I'd rather see his half life than "valve"'s half life, which would probably be turned into some stupid service game.
The best part was finding out how all powerful the combine were, and your suicide attempt was just a fart in the wind.
I would have loved to see that in game.
Also, where the fuck did Alex goooooooooo???
I would love if Marc just kept doing these. Fuck it.
I'd rather see his half life than "valve"'s half life, which would probably be turned into some stupid service game.
EmCeeGramr
Member
So in case anyone wants a tldr:
-Gordon and Alyx head to Antartica and find a Combine base built around the Borealis, their helicopter gets shot down
-The Borealis is a weird shifting place that exists into two places simultaneously
-Breen as a Combine grub doesn't quite realize what happened to him, but hates his current state and after capturing Gordon and Alyx, asks them to kill him. Alyx refuses, but the player/Gordon can apparently do something to kill him
-Mossman claims that Eli had tasked her with being a triple agent for the Resistance all along
-They realize the Borealis is "stretched" between the past and present, not just two places in space; the Aperture scientists activated the device during the Seven Hours' War while the Combine was approaching and attempted to warp to Antarctica to be as remote as possible, but ended up warping into the future
-Time and space warp more around the Borealis and they get a glimpse of the Combine's headquarters they launch invasions from
-Mossman wants to "anchor" the Borealis in the present in Antarctica to safeguard it for the Resistance, Alyx wants to honor Eli's wishes and destroy it so it can never be misused; there's talk of the potential time paradoxes
-Mossman and Alyx fight, Alyx shoots Mossman
-Gordon and Alyx rig the Borealis to self destruct and create a missile that can travel between dimensions, essentially turning the Borealis into a time/space warping bomb aimed at the Combine base
-As they fire it, the G-Man suddenly appears and reveals that he's been keeping tabs on Alyx as some kind of sleeper agent (as hinted at in Episode 2) since the events of Black Mesa, and actually appears to Alyx (she remembers him) and takes her with him through his glowy train door as a "replacement" for Gordon, who he leaves to die
-The player sees that the Combine base is actually a massive Dyson sphere and there's no way the Borealis bomb will actually do any significant damage
-The Vortigaunts intervene and pull Gordon out right before the Borealis self destructs
-Gordon and Alyx head to Antartica and find a Combine base built around the Borealis, their helicopter gets shot down
-The Borealis is a weird shifting place that exists into two places simultaneously
-Breen as a Combine grub doesn't quite realize what happened to him, but hates his current state and after capturing Gordon and Alyx, asks them to kill him. Alyx refuses, but the player/Gordon can apparently do something to kill him
-Mossman claims that Eli had tasked her with being a triple agent for the Resistance all along
-They realize the Borealis is "stretched" between the past and present, not just two places in space; the Aperture scientists activated the device during the Seven Hours' War while the Combine was approaching and attempted to warp to Antarctica to be as remote as possible, but ended up warping into the future
-Time and space warp more around the Borealis and they get a glimpse of the Combine's headquarters they launch invasions from
-Mossman wants to "anchor" the Borealis in the present in Antarctica to safeguard it for the Resistance, Alyx wants to honor Eli's wishes and destroy it so it can never be misused; there's talk of the potential time paradoxes
-Mossman and Alyx fight, Alyx shoots Mossman
-Gordon and Alyx rig the Borealis to self destruct and create a missile that can travel between dimensions, essentially turning the Borealis into a time/space warping bomb aimed at the Combine base
-As they fire it, the G-Man suddenly appears and reveals that he's been keeping tabs on Alyx as some kind of sleeper agent (as hinted at in Episode 2) since the events of Black Mesa, and actually appears to Alyx (she remembers him) and takes her with him through his glowy train door as a "replacement" for Gordon, who he leaves to die
-The player sees that the Combine base is actually a massive Dyson sphere and there's no way the Borealis bomb will actually do any significant damage
-The Vortigaunts intervene and pull Gordon out right before the Borealis self destructs
OverdriveOtaku
Member
Yep, same exact boat, buddy. I would hate for my most beloved franchises to have it's developers take me on a ride like Valve did with Half-Life and it's many fans.
Glass Shark
Banned
.
truestatic
Member
To HL3 obvs.
We went in circles but the company has changed
No one cares about the past games we made or what I want to do
I tried my best to have HL continue
Valve has gotten rid of the old Valve guard
Some people still care about the past, but Valve has changed completely
Chase that crate money if you want. Peace out.
Baron_Calamity
Member
Frozenprince
Banned
The ending to EP2 was bad, but can you imagine if that was the last thing we ACTUALLY got? People would be even more furious lol.
KINGofCRA5H
Member
Half-Life 3 = limited money
Dota, Dota TCG, Steam = unlimited money
There, done. Now you know.
exmachina64
Banned
It sounds believable and I'm fine with it.
This is a version of the story that ties up loose ends and brings Gordon Freeman's story to a close.
This is a version of the story that ties up loose ends and brings Gordon Freeman's story to a close.
TheNotoriousAFG
Member
Not a HL fan but feel for y'all who are. Hope it brings some closure 
But hey at least valve took some of the greatest game devs around and had them working on controller drivers and a fucking dumbass card game.
But at least they completely support their games like TF2 and promote a healthy economy on CSGo. They would never try to turn gaming into an online casino for money laundering.
But at least they completely support their games like TF2 and promote a healthy economy on CSGo. They would never try to turn gaming into an online casino for money laundering.
This is a fatal indictment, even more so than the thinly-veiled disclosure of material that is surely under NDA.
Are you fucking telling me it was gonna end on another cliffhanger!?
TacticalHotdog
Member
Since it's still called Episode 3 here, it was probably written way before Portal 2
guybrushfreeman
Unconfirmed Member
That last paragraph is so sad to read. It's only lightly cryptic but it's effective, a little poetic too
AHA-Lambda
Member
Yeah, after all that time, another cliffhanger with no new revelations on GMan and a futile plan
Better knowing all this than nothing though. Laidlaw is a saint for this.
Its sad because all Valve had to do to appease their fans was release some quick, even mediocre episode 3 (something that would have taken 6-12 months t whip out) that would conclude the story, regardless of its qualiy HL3 would not have become the massive meme that it has become now and people wouldn't feel like they were "taken on a ride" as you say.
RadioactiveLobster
Member
Valve should have split into two companies long ago.
Valve maintains Steam, helps with publishing, software, etc...
Vavle Software makes games.
Like Bethesda the publisher and Bethesda Softworks the game developer.
Granted, that would be no guarantee that the software side would just continue making hats and Dota 2 skins forever but I think having them separate might have keep some of them more focused on actually making games.
Valve maintains Steam, helps with publishing, software, etc...
Vavle Software makes games.
Like Bethesda the publisher and Bethesda Softworks the game developer.
Granted, that would be no guarantee that the software side would just continue making hats and Dota 2 skins forever but I think having them separate might have keep some of them more focused on actually making games.
Name a single Half-Life game that didn't.
I don't know, I think it would set up Half Life 3 to go in any direction it wanted and brought a conclusion to the main events of 2.
It really sounds like it would've been great.
Holy fucking shit.
Man this is really sinking in and bumming me out. The conclusion to the story that Valve refuses to do. I've been a Half-life fan for a long time. What could have been. It sounds great actually. I would have loved to play it but know that probably won't ever be the case now. I don't think I've ever been more pissed at Valve for allowing it to get to this point. They should have given fans closure a long time ago not have fans finding out the conclusion to the story from a fucking blog post. Half-life deserves better.
Manabanana
Member
People are looking for closure on a series left on a cliffhanger and a promise. It should be clear that wanting closure has nothing to do with the plot or design of a different series.
Seems plausible and good enough to frame the action. I'm really just sad that Valve has let down so many fans. I mean, I really try to avoid saying things like that hyperbolically but they go so far out of the way to avoid paying any basic respect to the series that their studio is built upon, you can't really avoid that kind of language. You can argue about gamer entitlement all day, but the fans ARE entitled to at least a basic update on what has happened to the game.
It's just kind of pathetic, really.
It's just kind of pathetic, really.
Frozenprince
Banned
EP3 was always intended to come out about a year after 2 and lead into HL3 which would be the actual conclusion.
Given that EP3 was never actually even close to completed, I can't imagine they even had more than a storyboard at best for the actual HL3, so this is about as far as the narrative likely got from the writing team at Valve at the time.
Honestly at this point I'd take a book series.
How about that Half-Life game that will never come out.
But this should do the job for most, right? It's kind of an ending.
Yeah, there was a recent interview saying that their plan was always to have the series go on indefinitely and end on a cliffhanger each installment.