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So why hasn't there been a Half Life 3 yet?

SCB3

SCB3

Member
I've been on a Half Life kick lately and waiting for my Steam Deck to arrive to go through the series again, but it makes me wonder, what ever happened to the 3rd game?

From looking around we have the following:

  • HL Episode 3 - Plot was leaked out and seemed great, but what happened to the Episode?
  • Half Life Alyx - more a prequel that leads back to the ending of Ep. 2 - No Spoilers here but it makes sense
  • Valve seemingly focussing on first on Steam and then on VR
  • All the HL Writers no longer at Valve
  • Valve do not talk about HL at all
So what the hell happened, its such a an amazing and strange IP to be left seemingly dormant with no plans at all for it

Personally, I do not think if it ever is made, it'll live up to expectations but it will still be a decent game, especially seeing how well Source games handle now (Titanfall and Apex for example)
 
amigastar

amigastar

Member
Because Valve can't count to three.
But seriously i still hope we get HL3 one day.
valve_can_t_count_to_three_by_pokedigifan1178_dd7z2q4-fullview.jpg
 
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The Cockatrice

The Cockatrice

Member
SCB3 said:
Half Life Alyx - more a prequel that leads back to the ending of Ep. 2 - No Spoilers here but it makes sense
Click to expand...

They even changed the ending for ep 2 so its fucking idiotic that they're not actually giving us a true sequel to it. Gamers will forever "owe" Valve a lot for giving us the best gaming platform ever made but fucking hell, with so much money and talent, its insane they're not giving gamers a proper closure for Gordon Freeman.
 
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AV

AV

We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
Short answer: Valve don't care about giving you closure.

Longer answer: HL1 and 2 were somewhat boundary pushing for their times. What would a HL3 realistically do as a first person shooter? Ship's long sailed on an Episode 3 so kick that can down the road. HL3 needs a wider adoption of VR as a consumer tech and it's just not going that way right now. Alyx is the best VR experience I've had but it's easy to see why they wouldn't bother making another one for the returns they probably saw.

There's a team working on a fan-made episode 3 based on Laidlaw's script which is probably the closest you're gonna get.
 
Valonquar

Valonquar

Member
Too much time has passed. Even the remasters are not enough to elevate HL above current games in terms of graphics or storytelling. They were amazing games for the time, but a true story sequel at this point would be kind of weird really.
 
Valt7786

Valt7786

Member
At this point its been so long and so hyped/wanted there's no way it could ever meet the internets expectations. They'd have to absolutely push graphical or physics boundaries, again. Be a PC only release, require a 4090 etcetc, limiting the people who could play it. No matter what I think it would just end up being a PR disaster for Valve at this point.

They'll make it when they get desperate for money, which will probably be never. Its definitely being kept as their ace in the hole though.
 
SCB3

SCB3

Member
Mephisto40 said:
The only time it's ever coming out is if they can make something truely groundbreaking that other games havnt done before

Which at this point, is probably going to be never
Click to expand...
yea this is what I mean, outside of VR whats really the next big technological step?

It reminds me of Mario Kart 8, what could you add to it that justifies a Mario Kart 9 at this point?
 
rabbity-thing

rabbity-thing

Member
Cause Half Life is an overrated series with meh gameplay, generic characters, and a story that can only get dumber as it edges forward towards closure.

I dunno... watching the mysterious gman, a ripoff of agent Smith, antagonize a mute engineer.... it's hard to care where the series goes next.

Edited due to gross inaccuracy
 
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Topher

Topher

Identifies as young
SCB3 said:
I've been on a Half Life kick lately and waiting for my Steam Deck to arrive to go through the series again, but it makes me wonder, what ever happened to the 3rd game?

From looking around we have the following:

  • HL Episode 3 - Plot was leaked out and seemed great, but what happened to the Episode?
  • Half Life Alyx - more a prequel that leads back to the ending of Ep. 2 - No Spoilers here but it makes sense
  • Valve seemingly focussing on first on Steam and then on VR
  • All the HL Writers no longer at Valve
  • Valve do not talk about HL at all
So what the hell happened, its such a an amazing and strange IP to be left seemingly dormant with no plans at all for it

Personally, I do not think if it ever is made, it'll live up to expectations but it will still be a decent game, especially seeing how well Source games handle now (Titanfall and Apex for example)
Click to expand...

I'd tell you the answer but first you have to request your username to be changed to SCB2.
 
remember_spinal

remember_spinal

Banned
Theres nothign they can do to live up to peoples expectations anymore. The things that were novel about HL are common place now

Thats why they were smart for doing Alyx, a complete pivot to something new and innovative in its own lane
 
nightmare-slain

nightmare-slain

Gold Member
Valve don't really make games anymore. Alyx was basically just a VR show piece. Valve are more of a services/hardware company now. They gotta run steam, they do hardware stuff like Steam Machine/Deck, they are forever working towards improving gaming on Linux, and they maintain the games they do have such as DOTA2/CS:GO.

There will be a team there that is working on games but most likely nobody cares enough to do Half Life 3. Maybe they don't feel there is a good enough reason to do it. HL might've been innovative when it came out but what can you do now to make it stand out? If Valve makes games it'll be in response to major trends like the MOBA/Autochess/Card craze or if they want to show off new hardware like they did with Alyx.
 
mxbison

mxbison

Member
Because they don't need to push out some generic ass AAA FPS to make money. Peanuts compared to what Steam brings in.

Half-Life was always about pushing boundaries and unless they find the vision/motivation to do so, there will not be a HL3.
 
calistan

calistan

Member
Because Valve can't make games like that anymore. Their glory years as a games developer were decades ago, they've moved on to other things now. Better to just forget about it than to make a disappointment.
 
Salz01

Salz01

Member
Ive come to grips, that we will never see HL3. Plus if it ever did come out, it would have a battle pass too.
 
nightmare-slain

nightmare-slain

Gold Member
SCB3 said:
yea this is what I mean, outside of VR whats really the next big technological step?

It reminds me of Mario Kart 8, what could you add to it that justifies a Mario Kart 9 at this point?
Click to expand...
I think the next big thing after VR will be AR.

VR still hasn't really taken off. On both PC and consoles it's just an expensive accessory that most people will get bored off after a while. The hardware still has a way to go and the game library is small and uninteresting.

If over the next few years headsets become more popular because Apple has entered the market and Meta's investments pay off then we could see headsets with significantly improved passthrough and allow us to play games in Augmented Reality. Look how big Pokemon Go was and imagine instead of everyone running about with smartphones they were wearing headsets. Instead of looking at the Pokemon through the phone screen they could see them infront of their eyes overlayed onto the real world.
 
Y

YCoCg

Member
It was cruel of them to put that easter egg in Portal 2 linking the universes as well, it just adds even more questions!
 
J

jaysius

Banned
Real reason is that Valve used to make money producing their own software, and it has high costs because of development, but the more of other people's shit they got a % of the more they realized they don't need to make shit to thrive as a business. Yea they make VR, but that's also successful.

TL;DR:They shifted to a more profitable revenue stream.
 
Smiggs

Smiggs

Member
radewagon said:
Cause Half Life is an overrated series with meh gameplay, generic characters, and a story that can only get dumber as it edges forward towards closure.

I dunno... watching the mysterious gman, a ripoff of agent Smith, antagonize a mute engineer.... it's hard to care where the series goes next.
Click to expand...
This is one of the most impressively bad takes I've ever seen.

Quick question, which came out first--Half Life or The Matrix?
 
SF Kosmo

SF Kosmo

Al Jazeera Special Reporter
SCB3 said:
I've been on a Half Life kick lately and waiting for my Steam Deck to arrive to go through the series again, but it makes me wonder, what ever happened to the 3rd game?

From looking around we have the following:

  • HL Episode 3 - Plot was leaked out and seemed great, but what happened to the Episode?
  • Half Life Alyx - more a prequel that leads back to the ending of Ep. 2 - No Spoilers here but it makes sense
  • Valve seemingly focussing on first on Steam and then on VR
  • All the HL Writers no longer at Valve
  • Valve do not talk about HL at all
So what the hell happened, its such a an amazing and strange IP to be left seemingly dormant with no plans at all for it

Personally, I do not think if it ever is made, it'll live up to expectations but it will still be a decent game, especially seeing how well Source games handle now (Titanfall and Apex for example)
Click to expand...
Geoff Keighley's Half Life Alyx: The Final Hours does a pretty good job of explaining it but the short version is:

Episode 3 got over scoped and seriously behind so they decided to make it a stand alone game, which delayed it further until Source was just desperately obsolete, so the decision was made to wait until Source 2 was done.

And then at that point everything was fucked because Source 2 was yeaaaars from being a viable engine. So people would make various attempts at things but they would always sputter out early because the tools and engine weren't really there. It wasn't until the VR stuff came out that Valve actually finished Source 2, and a project could get somewhere.

HL Alyx is HL3 as much as any of these projects have been. Like they keep rebooting what HL3 even is. I think they stand a better shot at making a new HL game now than at any point in the last decade but that's not saying much.
 
kurisu_1974

kurisu_1974

is on perm warning for being a low level troll
Smiggs said:
This is one of the most impressively bad takes I've ever seen.

Quick question, which came out first--Half Life or The Matrix?
Click to expand...
I'm sure Half Life was first, makes sense as the Matrix ripped off everything and everyone that came before, put a leather jacket on, and became a mainstream success with people that had never seen a sci fi movie before.
 
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Wildebeest

Wildebeest

Member
YCoCg said:
It was cruel of them to put that easter egg in Portal 2 linking the universes as well, it just adds even more questions!
Click to expand...
Aperture Science was already added to the Half-Life universe in Episode 2 when it was revealed that the Borealis was an Aperture Science research vessel. The Borealis was going to be a central location in Episode 3.

As to why it never happened, I don't know. A shift in management style leading to a lot of internal strife and infighting over direction. A move away from less profitable single player games since even Portal 2 was pushed as a primarily co-op game with microtransactions. They also cited an internal fear over fan backlash after the release of Mass Effect 3. Like the fact that Alyx was going to come into conflict with Gordon in Episode 3 and not be the magical UwU special princess who never does anything wrong and is always right because she has ovaries. No way of predicting how that would go over.
 
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Umbasaborne

Umbasaborne

Banned
Steam took off and valve grew complacent, they’d rather make cheap easy to make multiplayer games then big expensive single player shooters
 
MiguelItUp

MiguelItUp

Member
I think it's a combination of getting side tracked, losing sight, losing staff, etc.

Now they're at a point where they want to be more comfortable with the HL IP, and it sounds like they are now after Alyx. All the interviews about the development for Alyx really leaned on them being worried and concerned about returning to the IP, which is understandable I feel. I'm sure they STILL feel it.

I'd love to see HL3 come to fruition someday, but honestly, I think it's so far gone it's not even worth hoping for. It'd be cool to be wrong, it happens, and it's amazing. But man, with this large of a gap in time, I really don't even know if it'd live up to any of the hype people have.

It's so sad because I'm just so happy to see Valve still making games when they do since it's so rare these days.
 
Laptop1991

Laptop1991

Member
Because Valve basically, they don't want to make it, i don't understand the VR only Alex either, if they had released Alex has a normal game as well, it would have sold bucket loads.
 
H

HL3.exe

Member
AV said:
Short answer: Valve don't care about giving you closure.

Longer answer: HL1 and 2 were somewhat boundary pushing for their times. What would a HL3 realistically do as a first person shooter? Ship's long sailed on an Episode 3 so kick that can down the road. HL3 needs a wider adoption of VR as a consumer tech and it's just not going that way right now. Alyx is the best VR experience I've had but it's easy to see why they wouldn't bother making another one for the returns they probably saw.

There's a team working on a fan-made episode 3 based on Laidlaw's script which is probably the closest you're gonna get.
Click to expand...
Basically this yeah, gathered from all the interviews, leaks and 'final hours' doc.

Added: combined with tech troubles with Source 2 early on where also part of the reason, according to Final Hours. A lot of physics and Ai concepts just didn't work because of the wonky tools and bad memory management, Combined with Valve's unorganized structure. It kinda says a lot about the leaps in FPS design since HL2 when a big independent party with unlimited funds sorta got stumped a couple of years in search for a new leap in the genre on flat panel (before their VR pivot)

One leak (so take it with a grain of salt) based on information from 2013, was meant to be a leap in elemental physics based gameplay like environmental temperature changes that the player could control and items in the world reacting to these dynamic states to solve puzzles, but they couldn't make it fun (or had early tech issues)

As of now, according to more leaks, since the success from Alyx, that team is more reinvigorated then ever before and 'HLX' (according to the leaker) is HL3 based on Alyx's gameplay fundamentals. But again, take it with a grain of salt.
 
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L

Lasha

Member
Zero incentive. Valve is a private company that prints money due to its defacto monopoly on PC gaming. A lack of external shareholders puts no pressure on Valve to do anything it's employees and owners don't want to. You will only see a HL3 if somebody at Valve feels like making it.
 
A

ADiTAR

ידע זה כוח
Probably the same reason GRRM will never finish SoI&F, they won't live up to people's expectations.

Tho at this point, I dunno why they care.
 
StreetsofBeige

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Too much easy sales just having staff run the e-store. Making HL3 might cost $100M dollars. Will they sell enough PC copies to make it a success? Probably. But the more risk averse thing to do is just keep humming doing what they do now.
 
StreetsofBeige

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Lasha said:
Zero incentive. Valve is a private company that prints money due to its defacto monopoly on PC gaming. A lack of external shareholders puts no pressure on Valve to do anything it's employees and owners don't want to. You will only see a HL3 if somebody at Valve feels like making it.
Click to expand...
And thats such a good benefit of private companies. Its all up to leadership to set internal goals.

With publicly traded companies, it's all about growth and hitting quarterly numbers. In private companies, people have goals too, but they can be annual goals. My old salesmen colleagues who came from privately owned companies would say as long as they hit their targets by end of fiscal year thats all the VPs and execs cared about. I've always worked at big publicly owned companies. The strive to hit the number monthly is a key focus.
 
The Cockatrice

The Cockatrice

Member
Fuz said:
Ahahaha fuck no. Owe them for giving us cancer?
Click to expand...

Steam is cancer? I used quotatio marks for owe. ofc we dont owe them a thing per say. Just that we should be glad, its the best thing there is, considering the other trash stores, including consoles as well.
 
L

Lasha

Member
StreetsofBeige said:
And thats such a good benefit of private companies. Its all up to leadership to set internal goals.

With publicly traded companies, it's all about growth and hitting quarterly numbers. In private companies, people have goals too, but they can be annual goals. My old salesmen colleagues who came from privately owned companies would say as long as they hit their targets by end of fiscal year thats all the VPs and execs cared about. I've always worked at big publicly owned companies. The strive to hit the number monthly is a key focus.
Click to expand...

Doubly so when you work for a local monopoly. A lack of accountability and tribalism are common feedback about working for valve. The company makes money regardless of what the employees do so the incentive to get stuff done is arbitrary.
 
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