Half-Life 2: Episode 3 is rumored not to be coming in 2010

Guys, the future is episodic games!

Quintin_Stone wrote:

Guys, the future is episodic games!

Fine but that implies episodes. Valve seems to have failed in that regard.

farley3k wrote:
Quintin_Stone wrote:

Guys, the future is episodic games!

Fine but that implies episodes. Valve seems to have failed in that regard.

Step 1: Announce episodic content
Step 2: ??
Step 3: Profit!!

It would make a lot of sense if they were were finally hard at work on a Half-Life title. Valve is a huge company and with CS:GO in beta (and being worked on with another developer) and Dota 2 practically ready to go gold, it seems like the perfect project for them to tackle.

That is, unless Fart Cops finally got the green light.

F2P is the new "episodic."

shoptroll wrote:
Elycion wrote:

I've heard many gamers say they'd like to wear Alyx Vance's ass as a hat, clearly that's the logical choice.

If I want to wear an ass for a hat I'll go play Ragnarok Online or Kingdom of Loathing ;)

At last! A legitimate reason to call someone an asshat.

I'm going to laugh one morning when people boot up Steam and Valve simply released Half-Life 3 with no prior announcement.

Swarfigo wrote:

I'm going to laugh one morning when people boot up Steam and Valve simply released Half-Life 3 with no prior announcement.

I sincerely hope this happens.

Podunk wrote:

F2P is the new "episodic." :D

Except, everyone can actually deliver F2P. Only TellTale was able to deliver on episodic.

mrtomaytohead wrote:

Only TellTale was able to deliver on episodic.

That's because it's easier to reuse map designs in an adventure game (and they're simpler to make). If FPS games were to really be episodic I'd expect a lot more backtracking. Or smaller chunks of game (ie. Doom broken down into its individual level sets) per episode.

I think you can make a case that Valve never abandoned the episodic structure. They just stopped charging money for new "episodes". Take a look at TF2, Portal 2, L4D/L4D2.

"Episodic" is just another form of software as a service.

Bottle wrote:

That is, unless Fart Cops finally got the green light.

I would totally play that.

You mean to tell me I won't know how the Episode 2 cliffhanger ends any time soon?!

Noooooo.

The thing is, I don't really think ep2 is a cliffhanger. Within itself, it's pretty much resolved. If it quickly cut just before (bad thing) happened, or just as (something) was entering the scene, leaving you in suspense, then I'd say it's a cliffhanger.

There's definitely unresolved story there, the Borealis, Mossman in the arctic, the whole "kicking the combine off Earth" thing, G-man, but those are longer term stories spanning multiple titles.

It's not a cliffhanger, but it was not a proper ending for something that's not going to be continued. It had the structure of a cliffhanger ending.

silentsod wrote:

You mean to tell me I won't know how the Episode 2 cliffhanger ends any time soon?!

Noooooo.

It could be worse. I don't even know what the cliffhanger is because I wasn't able to get past the part with the car and the bombs.

iaintgotnopants wrote:

It could be worse. I don't even know what the cliffhanger is because I wasn't able to get past the part with the car and the bombs.

Me, either. As far as I know, the series ends with something about the Borealis, and then Gordon dying because of a puzzle-boss sort of situation.

Bottle wrote:

That is, unless Fart Cops finally got the green light.

I present to you the following evidence: (Finol is Adrian Finol of Valve)

IMAGE(http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i227/Sephirotic/fartcops.jpg)

This thread will only get better with age, clearly. May the thread title never be changed.

misplacedbravado wrote:
iaintgotnopants wrote:

It could be worse. I don't even know what the cliffhanger is because I wasn't able to get past the part with the car and the bombs.

Me, either. As far as I know, the series ends with something about the Borealis, and then Gordon dying because of a puzzle-boss sort of situation.

Pro tip: don't shoot the guys on the ground; run over them like Saint's Row.

2012 is the year. I swear it's in the Mayan calendar somewhere...

Are wheels turning again, if not for ep3/HL3 then for another game that's not DOTA2/CS:GO?

https://twitter.com/Doug_Rattmann
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011...

Video TLDR - at the end the static has what appears to be G-man blinking, which fits in perfectly to most of his appearances in HL2.

ARG, or "AArrrrgggghhhh, not this again!!"?

More like, "Yaaaaaaaaaaaawn."

Half-Life: Online: Described as a F2P Episodic game that will "Have as much content as Half-Life: Episode 3, 4, 5, and 6."

Scratched wrote:

ARG, or "AArrrrgggghhhh, not this again!!"?

Wake me when the Steam holiday sale or GDC gets here.

EDIT: That said, Valve trolling coming hot on the heels of Defense Grid: You Monster is curious timing indeed.

I'm calling it now, The Three Box with:

Half Life 3
TF3
Portal 3

Also, the pack in for the Special Edition will be a real live unicorn and a vial of water from the Fountain of Youth.

Something I've realised is that as with DNF I can like the pre-show drama more than the main event. It's a shame few companies do it intentionally, and most of the time instead of looking for clues and potatoes, we're moaning about pre-order DLC and pricing.

Elysium wrote:

I'm calling it now, The Three Box with:

But doesn't Valve have trouble counting to 3?

(Replace TF3 with L4D3 and I think you've got something)

shoptroll wrote:
Elysium wrote:

I'm calling it now, The Three Box with:

But doesn't Valve have trouble counting to 3?

(Replace TF3 with L4D3 and I think you've got something)

Agreed. I don't see them abandoning TF2 anytime soon.

(Replace TF3 with L4D3 and I think you've got something)

What do you mean replace? Add it to the list!

Scratched wrote:

Are wheels turning again, if not for ep3/HL3 then for another game that's not DOTA2/CS:GO?

https://twitter.com/Doug_Rattmann
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011...

Video TLDR - at the end the static has what appears to be G-man blinking, which fits in perfectly to most of his appearances in HL2.

ARG, or "AArrrrgggghhhh, not this again!!"?

I like to see how ARG are handled. Wished I could understand how to run it down as well. But mostly, how they were able to find the key to understand the encryption. This Tweeter stuff seems so much confusing to me, or maybe just because I got no where to start with.