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

MechaSlinky wrote:

So, does this mean that Episode 3 still isn't coming out in 2010?

I heard that 2012 was pushed back to 2022 so that they would have time to finish development of Episode 3 before the end....

Grenn wrote:
MechaSlinky wrote:

So, does this mean that Episode 3 still isn't coming out in 2010?

Well, I'm still hoping for a last minute 2010 release.

1. Ship Half-Life 2

2. Release Episode 1

3. Release Orange Box w/ Episode 2

4. Work on Episode 3, provide 2010 release date.

5. Miss 2010 release date. Continue working.

6. Get distracted by Left4Dead, Left4Dead 2, Portal 2

7. Finish Episode 3 Q4 2011.

8. Design, Construct and use Valve Time Machine

9. Episode 3 released in 2010 on schedule!

10. paradoxes ensue, universe ends.

I could deal with that.

It seems Valve may be up to something counter-strike related: http://www.lambdageneration.com/post...

Scratched wrote:

It seems Valve may be up to something counter-strike related: http://www.lambdageneration.com/post...

Maybe they are adding the portal gun in as a weapon.

Earlier this year, or late last year, word from Lombardi or Newell was that there would be 3 "suprises" from Valve in 2011. The two I can think of off hand are the announcement of DotA 2(ftp) and the Portal 2 release.

Am I completely forgetting the 3rd? If not, what do we assume the 3rd is?

Personally, I was really hoping for more HL, but that doesn't seem to be the case for this year.

Mannconomy was the first

Free to play TF2? Free to play games on Steam? Portal as an education tool?

I love the title of this thread.

If it's HL3 I hope it's quite different from the HL2 series. I don't want another game with all those assets reused again.

I'm still going on the theory that Half Life 3 will debut as the showcase for a new engine. When that might happen, I don't know.

Valve are the best trolls

If Episode 3 scope-creeped into Half-Life 3 that would make a lot of sense (and something I've been thinking is the likeliest scenario). The L4D2 team has been awfully quiet the last couple of months once they blew past the Cold Stream DLC release window, maybe they were pulled into this. Although they could easily be helping out with the DotA2 or CS:GO betas.

EDIT: Does anyone know what the Penumbra studio has been up to?

imbiginjapan wrote:

I'm still going on the theory that Half Life 3 will debut as the showcase for a new engine. When that might happen, I don't know.

That would make sense as Source is getting long in the tooth and predates even Unreal Engine 3. If we're on the precipice of a new generation they're going to need to overhaul it to support the higher standards. Source looks perfectly fine on the current consoles and PCs, so I don't think they're in a huge rush.

I want one of two things to happen:
a) Rent out part of the MIT campus during PAX East for the public unveiling
b) Drop the game on Steam out of the blue one day. No fanfare. No advance warning. Watch Steam melt.

On a humorous note: with all their talk of bio-feedback in testing, watch the console version be a WiiU exclusive with vitality sensor support

I'm not sure you can be so cut-and-dried with your engines. You can trace source back to the quake/idtech1 engine, and unreal3 still has it's core guts from 1998 (And there's the unreal tech demo from 1995).

Source is a direct descendent of the HL1 goldsrc engine, as they just created a branch for future development and called it 'src' rather than a clean break, and it shows in their tools. HL1 was on the PS2. HL2 was on the xbox and the 360/PS3.

Various versions of unreal engine have been on a whole range of hardware. The most distinct you can be is that UE3 seems to be suited to consoles reading off a disc, rather than a collection of resource files, and using modern graphics tech as a baseline.

As for the future, the only real clue either company has give is that source is designed to be upgradeable without throwing the whole thing out, as has been seen since 2004, and that UE4 is likely to be a big change to go with a big change in hardware for the consoles, but again mostly for the rendering.

There won't be a new engine, I can virtually guarantee it. Source is modular, and Valve is perfectly happy to just keep bolting new things onto it, as they did with Portal 2.

I hope Half-Life 3 will have mining and crafting and building!

Not hattes? I thought the Valve fanboys were all about the hattes these days.

The next Half-Life will be announced via TF2 hat. I guarantee it.

iaintgotnopants wrote:

I guarantee it.

You're right. There is an obvious lack of a headcrab hat in TF2...

shoptroll wrote:
iaintgotnopants wrote:

I guarantee it.

You're right. There is an obvious lack of a headcrab hat in TF2...

Headcrab? Pshaw!

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

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

Something I'll note, which in the case of the current tease puts me midway between belief and disbelief in something coming, is that when Valve is teasing or announcing a game, you know they're doing it. There's either a straight-forward announcement, or something new added to a related game. This is clearly something, but it's not concrete "HL3 is coming", and that something could still be a few Valve employees taking the gaming 'press' for a ride.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Not hattes? I thought the Valve fanboys were all about the hattes these days.

I love Valve. I hate hattes. I mean, it should be obvious as you can't spell hattes without hate.

I also don't care if it's episode 3 or Half-Life 3, I just want to know what happens with Gordon and Alyx when they go visit Aperture Science via the Borealis.

Was there any indication about Left 4 Dead 2 before release? I seem to recall it was just "bam we're doing L4D2" at GDC that one year. CS:GO came out of left field too, at least to someone who doesn't follow CS at all.

shoptroll wrote:

Was there any indication about Left 4 Dead 2 before release? I seem to recall it was just "bam we're doing L4D2" at GDC that one year. CS:GO came out of left field too, at least to someone who doesn't follow CS at all.

I think it was E3.
They rolled that trailer during the MS presser and nobody had any idea what is was and then L4D2 popped up on the screen from nowhere.

I love Valve, but I really question what is going on with the Half Life franchise. I recognize that they don't really "owe" us anything, but Episode 3 (or whatever) has almost reached DNF proportions of vapor ware. I want to say it is unfair to their fans, but I'm reminded what Neil Gaiman said regarding George R. R. Martin and the Song of Ice and Fire series. To paraphrase: "Valve is not your Female Doggo".

Hyperbole aside, we're still a few years off from DNF status. To put it in perspective, there's been less of a wait for Episode 3 than Skyrim. 5 years is pretty standard for some franchises.

Nevin73 wrote:

I love Valve, but I really question what is going on with the Half Life franchise. I recognize that they don't really "owe" us anything, but Episode 3 (or whatever) has almost reached DNF proportions of vapor ware. I want to say it is unfair to their fans, but I'm reminded what Neil Gaiman said regarding George R. R. Martin and the Song of Ice and Fire series. To paraphrase: "Valve is not your Female Doggo".

I agree with that. The only thing I think they vaguely owe anyone is to tie off the story they started, however, even though I love the HL gameplay and want more of it, I wouldn't mind them doing so in another way, such as a comic.

The only thing I want from Valve is fun games. Singleplayer shooter games like HL would be nice, but given what else they've come up, I'll defer to them. The other thing I often think of is that there's so many studios locked into what's essentially factory production work, and (from what they say publicly) Valve seem to resist that allowing employees to work on what they find interesting, and we've seen the fruits of that, and like it, so why break up a good thing? If that means we don't get to play Gordon any more, so be it.

If you take into account the 'episode 3' not Half Life 3 thing we've been waiting 5 years for one third of a game.

It's not like this is the first time Valve took their sweet time releasing a game. Anybody remember that little gem called Team Fortress 2?

MoonDragon wrote:

It's not like this is the first time Valve took their sweet time releasing a game. Anybody remember that little gem called Team Fortress 2?

There was quite a jump between TF/TFC to TF:Brotherhood of arms to TF2 though.