Fans goad Valve for Half-Life 3 gen

Fans of Valve's groundbreaking FPS franchise, Half-Life, have taken to the net en masse to voice their frustration regarding a lack of information on the series' next installment, Half-Life 3. Seven years or so have passed since Half Life 2 hit shelves for the PC. Ever since, the gaming world has sat patiently holding its …

[JonP]

half life 3?!

How about half life 2 episode 3 first! ... a 4 year cliff hanger from then end of ep.2 is more than a tad cruel.

[Anonymous Coward]

HL3

Im working myself into a froth as we speak... HL2 was a seminal game and still graces every console i have.....

Valve, dont be valves!!!!! (Chant) HL3 HL3 HL3

[Anonymous Coward]

Frothing with rage

CONSOLE!?!?

[Silverburn]

HL3 = HL2.3

I suspect they've dug themselves into a hole, plot-wise, and marketing-wise.

How do you offer an episode 3, then offer a brand new game afterwards? Episode 3 should be the conclusion, but how do you charge full price for what is essentially a dot release? And if HL 2.3 is not the conclusion plot-wise, will there be enough story-line left for a brand new HL3 rleease? And how do you avoid the Duke Nukem Forever syndrome?

[Greg J Preece]

They always do this. They did this with HL2. Just be patient, it'll turn up. They're not psycho enough to not make HL3. Besides, would you rather they rushed it?

[Stewart Atkins]

Nobody's asking them to rush it, the petition is not saying "We want HL3 and we want it right now", it's saying "We want NEWS ABOUT HL3 and we want it right now".

[Martin Huizing]

Just hope and pray...

It won't be another Dud that Nukes the series (Duke Nukem, geddit?)

[Asiren]

It was a bad and obvious enough attempt at a joke without the geddit...

[Martin Huizing]

Drat! I underestimated your intellect...

Won't happen again.

[Jonathan 10]

Bad joke or not, a little harsh chaps? You could just ignore the comment...?

I'm going to back away slowly now...for fear of "The Wrath".

[probedb]

Some people have too much time on their hands

If your life revolves around needing to know when the next Half Life instalment comes out or not you need to get out a bit more.

[Annihilator]

I wondered that

"Waiting patiently for over four years is a daunting task"

Suggests that there are people out there who can't get on with their lives until they know if a game sequel is even planned.

I would love for a HL sequel to come out, but it's not like I'm ignoring other game franchises until I know for sure...

[Barry Tabrah]

Okay, I need to get out more

... but until I get out more I'm spending my life playing computer games. More Half Life!

[Matt Bryant]

RE: Okay, I need to get out more

So, you seriously need to get a (Half) life?

[Annihilator]

@Barry Tabrah

That sounds very much like something Cave Johnstone would say...

"They're telling me I should stop making these pre-recorded messages. That gave me an idea, make more pre-recorded messages!"

[Egons Proton Pack]

Ill sign

Damn websense wont let me view the link, I'll deffo add my vote for another installment though.

I was only playing this last week, LOVE IT!!!

[Bernard M. Orwell]

Hey, ProbeDB..

...what are you into then?

Movies? TV Series? Golf? Footie? WWE? Bird Watching? Music? Gardening? Reading? Going to the pub with your mates every friday? Church on a sunday? Something else?

You surely have a hobby/interest/enthusiasm of some kind too, so quit knocking ours.

Of course, if you don't have a pastime that engages you then I'd suggest it's YOU who needs to get out a bit...

[Alistair MacRae]

Dark Souls wont release on the PC

Developers prefer console sales as they say that the games are pirated too much on the PC and aren't worth the expense in porting to the PC.

As for Valve i would be very happy to see more half-life in whatever form it takes, be it a 2.3 or a 3.

I thought Valve's idea for episodic content was good, trouble is the gaps between the episode are as long as most full games take to make. (Unless its an EA rushed game, in which case its double :P)

[Winkypop]

HL 2.3 - yes please

After that, they can make HL 3 if they want.

[DrXym]

What a stupid petition

Valve are most likely working on HL3 so some petition is not going to alter their plans one jot. It'll come when it's ready. Maybe fans of the series should calm down and check out some other games in the meantime.

I liked HL2. It was a highly polished shooter with a somewhat interesting story, but I don't get where the adulation is coming from. I thought Portal / Portal 2 had a far better plot and script and was technically part of the same "universe" as HL.

[MJI]

Portal is good

But what would you say if worth adulating?

[Paul Westerman]

RTFA

They're not asking Valve to change their plans - just tells us a bit more news about progress.

[MJI]

Still on HL2 so can wait.

Bought Orange Box for Portal.

Thought I would try Half Life 2, good game, dated in some respects* (do NOT downvote), but has to be one of the more important games# of recent years.

Just got to Follow Freeman, afterwards will take a break from HL2 because I bought all the HL stuff over Christmas.

Yes I can wait but only because I haven't finished HL2 yest let alone played HL!

* Why dated?

Look down, where are Gordons feet?, Drive a buggy, airboat, where are Gordons hands?, when you are on narrow beams you want to see feet!

# Why important?

Well look how it has inspired so many other games, how a silent protagonist became so important to a particular entertainment media.

The health pickups are a change from regenerating health.

Oh and you can see the inspiration in other games with Resistance 3, inspiration NOT copying, return to health packs, Mount Pleasant nods to Ravenholme, Gaterford nods towards Nova Prospekt.

Oh and the early Id FPS games mean more to me than a blue hedgehog or an Italian plumber. GF is a modern version of these people.

[Annihilator]

Dated

I haven't downvoted you, but I imagine many people rightly will. Of course HL2 is "dated"! It's bloody 8 years old now. Feet were an absence from most FPS games until quite recently - Crysis being the first example I can think of. Far Cry (released after HL2) didn't have them either, where hands had only just progressed to being on guns (and were part of the gun model itself)

The "importance" of it that you quote isn't seminal in HL2 either. A silent protagonist with health pickups you say? Sounds very much like you can trace the all the way back to Wolvenstein. I'm not sure why you draw parallels to ID and say Gordon Freeman is representative of that - HL2 had bugger all to do with ID. Your equivalent of Sonic or Mario is either Bitterman, Doom Guy/Marine or B.J. Blazkowicz.

[Greg J Preece]

The first example of full body modelling I ever saw was one of the Tribes games. Was it Tribes 2, or even Tribes 1? Wouldn't be surprised if it was the 1st one - that game was way ahead of its time.

[Brangdon]

Actually Far Cry was released six months before Half Life 2. It had similar graphics and physics, and I never understood why it didn't get more credit.

[Annihilator]

@Brangdon

D'oh, yes I meant to say that, I was trying to draw a parallel to a similarly teched game at the same time.

I'd argue Far Cry was technically better than HL2 in terms of its engine - more so when the HDR patch was released.

[Greg J Preece]

@Annihilator

In fairness, Source/HL2 also got many engine patches, including HDR, and continues to. There was also Lost Coast, and the fact that Source could run on surprisingly crap machines.

That, and Far Cry just wasn't as involving. I played it, and I really liked it at first, then halfway through I got inexplicably bored (probably around the time the cliché scientist released his cliché experiments). Crytek games are like Serious Sam games to me - I can't get involved with a tech demo.

HL2 got praised for more than the engine and how good the graphics were or weren't, and rightly so. I'd rather play Deus Ex 1 with graphics that look like arse than Halo 4 with spandangly effects, any day of the week.

[MJI]

People not getting it

If the only thing I can critisise is due to age and lack of Freeman body bits, what does that say about the game?

When there are few things to pick on the silly things get noticed.

I only really noticed in the air boat as the steering went on its own

[Annihilator]

@MJI

People do get it that it's a good game, they just don't know why you even had to criticize parts of the game that were irrelevant, especially at the time it was released. It's like saying Quake is a great game, shame there wasn't any anisotropic filtering.

[MJI]

@Annililator

Only that I am playing it at the moment and it is still as good.

[MJI]

Unlike the Id Games

HL2 has a story beyond killing things.

The escape the trip

[Anonymous Coward]

Feet & hands

So you can't see Gordon's feet when you look down, or his hands when he's driving a buggy or the swamp boat. Personally I've never wished I could see those things, and rather than adding such frankly pointless touches to the game I'd prefer a game that plays brilliantly well and is fast.

[MJI]

Re Peter Lee

Feet & Hands

Might not bother you but if it is the only thing I can think off that is not bad is it?

Some hands & arms on the wheel would not have made it worse either.

[Anonymous Coward]

Hands on the wheel

More stuff to animate & chuck around on the screen though, isn't it? And would it really add anything to the experience? I love the "Half Life" (and "Portal") games to bits, but I've never played them and though "ah, I wish I had feet and could see my hands on the steering wheel." Give me a great game rather than unnecessary visual fluff anytime.

BTW In the "Portal" games the only times you ever really see your feet are when you look through one portal and can see yourself vanishing into another, such as if you create two in a corner.

[MJI]

Portal

You do see Chell quite a few times

[dotdavid]

Valve

I thought Valve had decided to move wholesale into game publishing via Steam rather than dirty their hands with coding nowadays. Even things like Portal were made by teams purchased by the company, from what I understand?

Where's the IT (department of Valve)?

[HP Cynic]

Not heard that at all: Portal 2 is recent and they are working on DOTA 2 right now.

[Neil B]

It would be fair to say that all of Valve's recent mega-hits (Portal 1 & 2, L4D 1 & 2, Team Fortress) had their genesis in brains which didn't originally work for the company, but they now work for Valve, so they're as much a product of that culture as Half-Life or HL2.

I'm sure HL3 is heavily in development right now, and has been, in some for or other, for years. A bit like Blizzard, Valve have a habit of tossing everything out and starting again when the direction they've taken isn't working.

[Bunker_Monkey]

Half Life 3?

When in the hell is Black Mesa ever going to see the light of day???

[Greg J Preece]

Good bloody point! It looks soooo good, too.

[Tom 38]

HL2 wasn't nearly as good as HL

And HL 3 will be even worse.

[Ru]

If you can see the future,

Why the hell are you whining about how much better things used to be on a news site instead of cleaning up on the stock market?

[Tom 38]

Given I can see the future

it doesn't actually take me too long to finish cleaning up on the stock market (usually done by about 9:15), and the rest of the day I can devote to illuminating you.

[Anonymous Coward]

And the second part of HL1 was not nearly as good as the first part! When I play Half-Life, as I still do from time to time, I always end the game at the point that I get to Xen. On the other hand, I can play both Half -Life: Blue Shift and Half -Life: Opposing Force all the way through. (Both of these are very underrated, by the way. )

[Greg J Preece]

I always thought OpFor was too easy, and the ending was naff, but it was a fun ride.

[Anonymous Coward]

Xen

That - and "Anomalous Materials" (I think) - were the points where "Half Life" decided to turn into "Jet Set Willy" and was ruined for me. Still a great game, but when the designers decided that a great challenge would be to make the player jump from flying manta ray to flying manta ray until you reach a small green light in the sky was when it all fell apart. The only part of "Half Life 2" that I found a bit bobbins was the "Sandtraps" level where you find yourself dragging mattresses and planks across a beach in order to avoid the antlions.

[Captain Scarlet]

Hmm I wonder why

Because nothing is ever as good as when you were younger, it may not feel as good but enjoy it before the youth of tomorrow year goes lol look at those pants graphics

[Boris the Cockroach]

it took them

9 years between Team fortress classic and releasing Team Fortress 2, so they've got plenty of time left to make HL3

[phuzz]

Well, HL2 was released in 2004 (six years after HL1), so they're only one year off taking as long as Team Fortress > TF2.

(and yes, there have been two episodes since then, but the whole point of the episodes was to speed up the release time, not slow it down)

[Avatar of They]

Valve tease too much

Given portal 2 has a link to the boat that features in the end of episode 2, I think somwhere there is a plan for something of a conclusion.

Can't remember the boat but you have to cimb high up in a level and out the way a little in portal 2 levels and you find the hidden dock to the boat that is where the action ends in ep2.

So if there isn't anything coming from Valve for ep3 and they are leaving little acheivements and breadcrumbs in recent games then Valve really are cruel and need to get a good kicking in the proverbials for years of teasing and torture. :)

[Simon Neill]

The borealis.

Unlocks achievement "The missing experiment".

Ever sine I saw it all I have thought is gravity gun + portal gun = :D :D :D :D

Also, chell and gordon hook up and have a completely silent affair.

[Inachu]

By the time the game comes out........

By the time the game comes out I think the mods will be better than the game itself.

I only finnished HL2 once and 505 2nd time and 3rd time I played it was with mods and hacks and stuff that makes the game super cool.

If they demand a steam account then I'll be angry even though I love STEAM.