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[rofif]

He says it in the documentary:
Watch the final section of the documentary.


They say "in the hindsight, it was so wrong. We could've just finished it"
Then Gabe says he didn't made EP3 because they couldn't think of a way to revolutionize for it.

'My personal failure was being stumped': Gabe Newell says finishing Half-Life 2: Episode 3 just to conclude the story would've been 'copping out of [Valve's] obligation to gamers'​

Like what backwards ass way of thinking.... to settle for episodic content and force yourself to reinvent the wheel with every new installment. They even show some really cool features like the blob or ice gun... THAT WOULD BE WELL MORE THAN ENOUGH new features for ep3.
People wanted the game to be concluded but Gaben did not wanted it to happen without revolutionizing the tech.
That's why the only next half life was in Vr... and while I loved Alyx and finished it 2 times, I don't really think it's that good outside of vr. Really small experience.
What would've been wrong just with ep3 being more of ep2?

 

[TintoConCasera]

don't really think it's that good outside of vr. Really small experience.

Was it? Think my playthrough was like 12 or so hours, which seemed just fine for a single-player HL game.

 

[64bitmodels]

i mean its been 20 years. at this point they have to drastically reinvent the wheel and revolutionize the industry Ocarina of Time style or else you will all inevitably be disappointed.

there is almost nothing they can make that would satisfy fan expectations

 

[rofif]

Was it? Think my playthrough was like 12 or so hours, which seemed just fine for a single-player HL game.

Not small as in short. Although my 2nd playthrough was like 6 hours.
Small as in small in scope. You never fight a lot of dudes and don’t really do that much. It is limited so everyone can finish it within their physical ability to move their hands around. So you can do crazy stuff.

 

[Hookshot]

All it needed was the portal gun and the ability to shoot people in the side of the head through them.

 

[analog_future]

i mean its been 20 years. at this point they have to drastically reinvent the wheel and revolutionize the industry Ocarina of Time style or else you will all inevitably be disappointed.

there is almost nothing they can make that would satisfy fan expectations

Eh, at this point, I think most fans would be happy enough with a conclusion to the story and updated visuals and quality of life improvements in line with modern games.

 

[Drake]

Yeah, I've heard this before. If they really wanted to re-invent the wheel that much they should have done it with Half Life 3. There was no reason to have that sentiment with Episode 3 though. They should have just finished the narrative. The story was already written FFS.

 

[RJMacready73]

There's only so far you can go with the first person shooter genre, he didn't need to reinvent the wheel FFS, just make a great game and finish the story, that would've been more than enough but because back then each iteration or Half Life brought something new to the table he found himself caught by it, which is a pity, I loved those games back in the day and they where truly ground breaking in every sense but there's only so much you can do, still have yet to play Alyx... Ffs Valve port it to PS5 please

 

[Sophist]

Antichamber, that is what they needed. If they had this dude, hl ep3 and maybe hl3 would have happened.

 

[Big Baller]

 

[sankt-Antonio]

Make the world react to real world physics. Do what red faction did 20 years ago to reinvent the game play of HL E3. DM me for payment, Valve.

 

[LavitzSlambert]

They’ve always showcased new tech with the HL games so I’m not surprised, but being that those were episodic follow ups and not necessarily the conclusion of the game’s universe, I don’t understand why not finish the episodes and save the revolutionary breakthroughs for a full new game? And at that point they already committed to expanding the whole universe with Portal and we’re planning Portal 2.

I hope they can do more in VR because I don’t really see another breakthrough coming, but fans want to see the end of the HL story and I don’t think newer players are going to be invested in the series at this point. Yes I know they released a lot of story beat and game info on episode 3, but let’s get to actually experience it before the elder gamers all kick the bucket.

 

[Sybrix]

I get that they want to continually push innovation with each HL itteration but i know at the time i would have eaten Ep3 up and still would.

I guess this is the reason why Valve are seen as masters at their craft, always pushing forward and not standing still.

As opposed to someone like Ubisoft that are happy to push out the same bland shit year on year.

 

[MarkMe2525]

Not small as in short. Although my 2nd playthrough was like 6 hours.
Small as in small in scope. You never fight a lot of dudes and don’t really do that much. It is limited so everyone can finish it within their physical ability to move their hands around. So you can do crazy stuff.

I got to play it for the first time last night. Crazy how a 4 year old game is still so far ahead of the competition, when it comes to presentation and immersion.

 

[{insert code here}]

My interpretation was that they had spent so much time in that universe, with that toolset and they were running out of ideas of what to do with it. And so, at the time they felt that if they made Ep 3 it would've just reused a lot of the designs from the previous games and that, that would not be fair to the fans in their minds (at that time). Dude in the interview says looking back with hindsight that mindset was flawed and they should've shipped it.

 

[Hrk69]

Thank you Hermen​

 

[RoboFu]

They were too scared to say that the VR game was part 3

 

[proandrad]

2004 was really the best year in gaming, it's just been downhill since then.

 

[Fahdis]

there is almost nothing they can make that would satisfy fan expectations

You haven't tried anal cleansing have you?

 

[Gamezone]

He just didn't need episode 3. Steam itself has become too profitable for Gabe to even care.

 

[Grildon Tundy]

They don't want to iterate on HL if it isn't a revolution. Half Life 3 will be a neural-interface interactive experience.

 

[LordOfChaos]

Perfect is the enemy of great. All they had to do was release another great game.

 

[Warspite]

He just didn't need episode 3. Steam itself has become too profitable for Gabe to even care.

There is the real answer, episode 3 of HL3 is something valuable, they will save it for when they need to bring out the big guns to sell something.

 

[Ristifer]

Pretty weird point of view, considering the episodic releases were originally meant to bring the story to conclusion faster than a full title (aka Half-Life 3).

I can’t even begin to understand releasing two episodes as regular instalments and then thinking, “well, the third episode needs to reinvent the wheel.” Makes no sense. The only way it makes sense is if they completely scrapped the episodic approach and made Half-Life 3.

 

[Ceadeus]

Can we blame him?

I mean, I probably couldn't reinvent anything if I was eating caviar and bitches on a yacht under the hot sweet sun

 

[Polygonal_Sprite]

i mean its been 20 years. at this point they have to drastically reinvent the wheel and revolutionize the industry Ocarina of Time style or else you will all inevitably be disappointed.

there is almost nothing they can make that would satisfy fan expectations

As long as they’re willing to accept probably losing money people would be more than satisfied with a very well made 12 hour single player campaign that ties up the story.

There’s simply a shrinking number of people that would be interested in that though then you add in the fact that it would be a $200 million investment it just doesn’t make sense to do it unless they’d be willing to lose some money.

 

[Rush2112]

More likely he made enough money not to care enough to finish it. Guy is like GRRM of gaming.

 

[March Climber]

Half-Life 2 should have never had post-ending episodic content in the first place.

There I said it.

 

[ozz ex machina]

I think it's perfectly sound logic. Half Life 3 sounds like the revolution will be around npc interaction. Looking forward to it.

 

[ScHlAuChi]

So HL2E3 wasnt released becasue it wasnt innovative enough, but somehow....
Artifact was?
Deadlock is?

Gabe is just giving a copout answer!

 

[Donald mac Ronald]

Too busy eating

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

So HL2E3 wasnt released becasue it wasnt innovative enough, but somehow....
Artifact was?
Deadlock is?

Gabe is just giving a copout answer!

Kinda where I'm at. Looking at how downright boring Valve's output got after the fact, I would've been more than happy with a "safe" follow-up to HL2E2.

 

[efyu_lemonardo]

People treat the first two HL games as if they were the second coming of Christ.
I mean, they were very good for their time, but plenty of more influential games continue to receive sequels.

Just look at Doom, went through a weird phase for about a decade but alive and kicking today! Old and new games alike!

Deus Ex was revived and very healthy for a while. System Shock is making a comeback.
Mario never left. Even Metroid has returned after a particularly bad run.
We'll have a new Elder Scrolls sooner than HL3 because Valve just let the dust settle for too long. The franchise is increasingly irrelevant now.

 

[rodrigolfp]

After Alyx at least trying to innovate in immersion for the series, I fully believe him.

 

[rofif]

Half-Life 2 should have never had post-ending episodic content in the first place.

There I said it.

I agree but ep2 is the best paced fps ever

 

[notseqi]

Imagine being somewhat bound to the quality you expect to put out and being in charge of that decision, then not putting out something you don't want to put out. With incentives or no incentives.
From what I hear about the guy or his PR he wants to put out good shit. I don't feel bad about not being able to play something he doesn't want to play.

edit: HL2 is free on Steam rn, incase you missed it

 

[FireFly]

Pretty weird point of view, considering the episodic releases were originally meant to bring the story to conclusion faster than a full title (aka Half-Life 3).

I can’t even begin to understand releasing two episodes as regular instalments and then thinking, “well, the third episode needs to reinvent the wheel.” Makes no sense. The only way it makes sense is if they completely scrapped the episodic approach and made Half-Life 3.

I don't think Valve has ever been a story first developer. In their games, the story serves the gameplay, which itself is based on a bunch of systems. The point of the episodes was to allow them to experiment with new mechanics on top of a stable technological base, which they did with the Alyx gameplay in Episode 1, and the larger scale encounters and physics based destruction in Episode 2. But they obviously felt they didn't have anything mechanically interesting enough for Episode 3.

 

[ZehDon]

Half-Life Alyx shows Valve can still be revolutionary, but they need something new to push them. So much of the industry is focused on photo-realistic fidelity that innovations like physics and gravity guns feel like a lifetime ago. There hasn't really been anything crazy new in a long, long time. Is trying to capture that level of innovation asking too much of themselves? Perhaps. But that's Half-Life's legacy; Half-Life 1 and Half-Life 2 were both milestone moments in the history of gaming. Trying to live up to that legacy would drive you made.

 

[Loomy]

The shitty thing is whatever they put out will never live up to the expectation people have had for almost 20 years.

 

[Badlucktroll]

LORD GABEN SPEAKETH

 

[chakadave]

I have no problem with this.

It is better than the alternative of releasing half asses crap games.

Valve is better for the industry doing other things.

 

[intbal]

A board game.
That would have been revolutionary.

 

[Corian33]

They could release Episode 3 with straight up the same graphics from then, no wild innovations needed, just another 6-8 hours to finish the story and I would totally buy it.

Obviously Valve doesn’t need our advice on making money, but it’s not like they’re infallible deity level game developers (see: Artifact). It would be okay to make something that’s just “pretty good” and give the fans what they want.

They keep re-releasing Counter-Strike and it’s just a prettier, more polished version of the exact same thing from 30 years ago and people still seem to absolutely love it.

 

[64bitmodels]

So HL2E3 wasnt released becasue it wasnt innovative enough, but somehow....
Artifact was?
Deadlock is?

Gabe is just giving a copout answer!

i guess it's just that Half Life has established itself as valve's premiere franchise so they'd rather waffle about with new IP and not tarnish the name of their biggest (singleplayer) shooter franchise

 

[Bulletbrain]

All it needed was the portal gun and the ability to shoot people in the side of the head through them.

This is it. Bringing in the portal gun as a fully functional combat weapon would have been tremendously inventive. Imagine being able topple striders with a well placed portal on the ground, or trapping combine in endless falls... Would still be inventive if released today!

 

[Ristifer]

I don't think Valve has ever been a story first developer. In their games, the story serves the gameplay, which itself is based on a bunch of systems. The point of the episodes was to allow them to experiment with new mechanics on top of a stable technological base, which they did with the Alyx gameplay in Episode 1, and the larger scale encounters and physics based destruction in Episode 2. But they obviously felt they didn't have anything mechanically interesting enough for Episode 3.

I guess, but utilizing the Portal gun would’ve been pretty big for the Half-Life universe. I understand why they want it to be a big leap. But make that leap for the third game. Finish the episodes.

 

[MiguelItUp]

Half-Life 2 should have never had post-ending episodic content in the first place.

There I said it.

Yeah, I would've much rather EP 1 + 2 just have been a part of whatever 3 would've become. But then again, I enjoyed EP1 and EP2 more than HL2. It also makes me pretty excited at what could potentially come next. I just hope it actually DOES come.

 

[N30RYU]

So is better for Gaben not to end a game than give us more of the same with a story conclusion?

Also didn't he spin the wheel with Alyx too?

 

[FunkMiller]

The GRRM comparison is appropriate.

Get your head out of your ass, man. You're making a sci-fi video game, not the fucking Mona Lisa Part 2.

 

[darrylgorn]

Yeah, his shark story was also kinda sussy.