Are people really still waiting for HL3? It's not going to happen. Even if it does it would never live up to the hype.
What hype? Given HL2:EP3 has been AWOL for over 10 years at this point in time (there never was a HL3, that's just something 'game journalism' concocted on a slow news day) there's no mainstream interest in it any more. it only exists as a perpetual question mark on Valves ability to commit and see things through. I think most people long ago gave up any hope of it happening because ultimately Valve as developers cant seem to get their shit together most of the time. Meanwhile, in between Episode 2 and their ongoing ineptitude, other studios have shipped entire franchises to great success (CDP with The Witcher series for instance).
Also, I'm fascinated by this conceit that always does the rounds that it's somehow a good thing that it's not been made because it could never deliver on certain peoples unrealistic expectations as if somehow that is the end goal of game development, versus delivering the developers vision. If we apply the same rationale to Film, should the Russo's Brothers just pull Endgame because there's no way it's going to deliver on the promise of Infinity War because a few Edge loads out there are invariably going to be unhappy about certain aspects about it? Second, to that, we're talking EP3 here, not the conclusion to ASOIAF. If the
EP3 Outline posted up by Mark Laidlaw is anything to go by, pretty straight forward plotting. Why it never came to be, is up for speculation, but there is a theory that
Timeshift came along and ate their lunch from the gameplay perspective whilst they were fucking around.
