Marc Laidlaw reveals Half-Life 2 Episode 3's story synopsis

Valve gets a lot of kudos for creating STEAM and letting it be a relatively free and open platform for game devs, but as a game developer they're irrelevant to me unless you want CS GO and DOTA updates.
 
It's just odd because I can't think of an immensely successful series that just ends the way HL did. It'd be like Two Towers not getting made despite Fellowship making a zillion dollars. It's not like the popularity of HL was waning when Episode 2 released.

Anywho, I hope Valve somehow ports all three HL2 games to current consoles. HL2 plus the episodes remain my favorite FPS games of all time.

Don't get me wrong, I'd totaly love if they'd remake all the games in Source² or port them with a visual upgrade to current gen, but like it was said many times in this thread, todays Valve simply isnt the Valve that created Half Life anymore.
 
Don't get me wrong, I'd totaly love if they'd remake all the games in Source² or port them with a visual upgrade to current gen, but like it was said many times in this thread, todays Valve simply isnt the Valve that created Half Life anymore.

What's interesting to me is that Gabe doesn't seem to want to work on Half Life. If Half Life is what made you famous and what allowed you the freedom to build a platform like steam, wouldn't it have a special place in your heart? I like his passion towards the industry, he created a great system with auto installations, auto updates, cloud saves and other really great features and now seems to be interested in VR, but I wish he still had some passion for normal games. They have the financial freedom to takes risks few other developers could take, which is why it's such a shame.
 
i cant even say i remember anything about the plot of the HL games. i dont care for story in my games, period. but what DO remember is playing the HL games and being in awe of the actual game. could not care less about whatever story they put together, im just bummed ill never actually get to play it.
 
What's interesting to me is that Gabe doesn't seem to want to work on Half Life. If Half Life is what made you famous and what allowed you the freedom to build a platform like steam, wouldn't it have a special place in your heart? I like his passion towards the industry, he created a great system with auto installations, auto updates, cloud saves and other really great features and now seems to be interested in VR, but I wish he still had some passion for normal games. They have the financial freedom to takes risks few other developers could take, which is why it's such a shame.

I get wanting to take a break from HL after the fiasco that was HL2. It almost ruined the company with the amount of stress and issues they had during development.

But.. to give up on it?

That I don't get at all. It's really bizarre to me
 
So, 10 years with "We have nothing to say" ment "everything is totaly fine and we still work on this" to you?

I never said it was a sign the game was being worked on, or everything was fine. just that it isn't a straight 'No, the game is not being worked on.' because by that point there was so much ambiguity built up around it (Ricochet 2 for example, or that stupid 'These things, they take time' kickstarter video joke) anything but a yes or no is going to keep being ambiguous and not lay the issue to rest.
 
Go ask kids today if they know what Half-Life is.

It doesn't matter. Most people who'd play it would probably be older but that audience would carry sales.

Though I'm willing to bet it would draw in younger people. Look at TFA, for example (I know, different mediums but it's the same concept).
 
I woke up to bittersweet news today. Bitter because I realized that Half Life is gone and sweet because I finally got a conclusion to one of my most beloved sagas in videogames. Everything written by Mark sounds like it would have made for a badass game and one hell of a conclusion.

Thanks for the closure Mark and thanks for nothing Valve.
 
It has been 12 hours since I saw Wario64's retweet of the blog post link.

Somehow I'm even more upset about this right now after sleeping on it.

Fuck, man. I was 14 when I play HL2 on modded low settings so it could run on my toaster. I was 18 when the Orange Box came out.

Fuck you, Valve.
 
Fuck you, Valve.

I never reach this kind of sentiment with gaming companies.

But I'm here now.

How badly can you fumble a franchise to the point where the writer releases a vague plot outline as closure for loyal, passionate fans?

Fans who, by the way, put Valve on the map.
 
Now that I have an ending, a good one that I find satisfying, I have deleted the Half-Life games from my PC and I unfavorited them. The series is dead to me, as it's unfinished, but I have my memories and am no longer always thinking "someday".

I'll probably never go back to them now, but I also won't have HL3 in the back of my mind anymore.

Likewise to a lesser extent Portal. I'll return to that from time to time though. I just will never expect another one.

I hate that Valve has nothing for me in the gaming realm anymore. I used to love their output. They Konami now.
 
Now that I have an ending, a good one that I find satisfying, I have deleted the Half-Life games from my PC and I unfavorited them. The series is dead to me, as it's unfinished, but I have my memories and am no longer always thinking "someday".

I'll probably never go back to them now, but I also won't have HL3 in the back of my mind anymore.

Likewise to a lesser extent Portal. I'll return to that from time to time though. I just will never expect another one.

Value owes fans at least the bare minimum gesture of owning up to their mistakes and admit that it's cancelled/never going to happen.

There's no reason for silence anymore.
 
The fact that Ep 3 (or HL3) never came out is fine

The fact that Valve was and has always been so utterly terrible about just honestly owning that and saying so is...not

Sure they're not obligated to. But they look like dicks
 
Reading through the synopsis made happy and sad at the same time.

I was happy and glad that we finally had some conclusion to episode 2. Half life was series I adored back in the day when it came to story telling, character development and gameplay. It was an awesome series

And its such a sad thing that we are parting with Gordon Freeman for good. Despite not talking at all in any of the series, his story was fascinating.

As has been posted previously, Valve is not the same Valve anymore. Its like if Naughty Dog abandoned ToLU2 to work on some service games.

:'(

RIP Half Life. RIP Dr. Freeman
 
I wonder what Valve thinks of Marc doing this.

I wonder if some part of it was vindictive

Vindictive? I doubt it.

Disappointment in Valve after all these years? I expect so. Being the guy, or one of the guys, to spend so much time in that world, to never be able to complete that series must be something that bothered him.

It would've me.
 
End of an era damn

Thank you Marc for giving us some closure at least.
The idea of the Borealis being a space-time nightmare funhouse sounds fantastic and could have lent itself to a lot of cool gameplay possibilities and moments, bordering on the line between sci-fi and a horror/thriller.

Alas, I guess it was not meant to be
 
I wonder if Valve will, one day, actually announce that it's all over.

Or just continue hiding under their rock

Do we really need them to announce that it's all over? I feel like after years of nothing, and finally getting this synopsis, that's enough evidence that Valve is officially never touching the Half Life world again.
 
I'm so glad it's finally over. Myself, like many other people accepted long ago that this game was never going to come out. All people wanted to know at this point was how it would end. Thank you so much Marc for giving us this closure. It's a sad end to the half life series, but at least we know now how it ends.

I wonder how pissed off the higher ups are at Valve that Laidlaw released this.
 
I guess it's time for me to change my avatar. I always had hope for HL3 but with what happened today it's probably time to close the book once and for all.


On one hand Valve brought me to gaming back with HL1 and I'm really happy about it. On the other hand the fact that they couldn't even finish the story and/or tell us exactly why it never happened to atleast show some respect to their die-hard fans really leave a bitter-sweet taste to this saga

Thanks Marc, Fuck you Valve.
 
Meanwhile, at Valve's offices:

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The story is depressing.

The analogy to whatever Valve is now is worse.

The reaction is the worst part. You got the normal angry lot, but most places it's a melancholic acceptance of reality we always knew.
 
I'm glad one of these ex devs had the balls to finally give some information. It's so annoying when someone won't talk about an old project because they are afraid their old boss might get mad. Leak information ya spineless cowards.
 
Yes

Yes we do

This mentality is akin to Stockholm Syndrome.

We know Valve is not making another Half Life game, why do we NEED confirmation? This synposis is confirmation that another game isn't coming. It's time to accept our losses and move on.
lol I don't want HL to be dead either
 
Do we really need them to announce that it's all over? I feel like after years of nothing, and finally getting this synopsis, that's enough evidence that Valve is officially never touching the Half Life world again.

After TF2, yes we do. That game started out as GoldSrc Arma, and look where it ended up nearly a decade later when it out of no where was announced
 
I'm glad one of these ex devs had the balls to finally give some information. It's so annoying when someone won't talk about an old project because they are afraid their old boss might get mad. Leak information ya spineless cowards.

You do realize NDAs are a thing...right? Not everyone can afford to leak information.
 
I only played through the HL games with the Orange Box and it's just a blur at this point. I obviously don't have the connection that others do to it, but I still think that this being the way to finish this whole thing is shitty.
 
Imagine a beautifully-remade Half-Life 2 that only exists to play as video for a Pachislot.

At least those remade cutscenes exist! We got a blogpost! we live in a universe where Konami does more for its fans than VALVE!


You guys can probably tell that after letting this sink in, I'm now completely livid.
 
Is there any fall from grace in gaming more tragic than Valve's? I'm struggling to think of one. It's awful.
Fall from grace? They have millions of fans worldwide and make billions of dollars.... Just cause some HL fans are salty doesn't mean they don't have exponentially more happy DOTA fans.
 
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