Valve Plans For More Half-Life Beyond Episode 3 105
Ars Technica notes, via an interview at the StuffWeLike site, comments from Valve's Doug Lombardi indicating that the company has plans to continue the Half-Life series beyond Half-Life 2 Episode 3 . "While most sites are taking this as a confirmation of Half-Life 3, the quote is not a definitive on anything other than the continuation of the series. And, of course, there hasn't ever been so much as a rumor hinting at Half-Life's demise. As what is arguably the biggest franchise on the PC platform, there is no reason for Valve to stop producing the crowbar-swingin' good times."
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Queue half-life jokes (Score:5, Funny)
(crickets)
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Does this mean HL2 might go from FPS to RTS?
Or will it just slowly kill us via particulate bombardment?
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Re:Queue half-life jokes (Score:4, Funny)
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Yes. I'm still sore about Valve dropping the black box. I was excited about Team Fortress and Portal. But then they canceled the black box, so I would have to pay an added premium for the orange box for content I already have. After I heard that I swore it off. And with swearing.
Fuck you, Valve.
Re:Queue half-life jokes (Score:5, Insightful)
If you're a 360 player, yeah you're stuck with the Orange Box. But since the only game included in the Orange Box that appeared on consoles previously is Half-Life 2, and a markedly inferior version at that, it shouldn't be so painful.
Anyway, I think you're looking at this the wrong way; the value of Ep2 + Portal + TF2 is at least that of a full game. They threw in HL2 and Ep1 for free. I suspect that's why they cancelled the Black Box; they would have been charging the same for it as the Orange Box, while delivering less.
Hans
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I suspect that's why they cancelled the Black Box; they would have been charging the same for it as the Orange Box, while delivering less.
I doubt it. Episode One + Deathmatch is $20 now (I bought it for $10 on sale). If they just had the Episode 2/Portal/Team Fortress content I believe MSRP was supposed to be $30, instead of having a starting price of $50.
So if you're a PC player, buy Team Fortress and Portal individually. Through Steam, you can.
Having 9 people downloading game content is a GREAT way to kill a LAN party. I bought 9 copies of Episode 1 for $10 each on sale and resold them at a LAN party pretty well and we all enjoyed the game. Not even an option if the game is $50 a shot.
Valve would have a great LAN party product i
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Actually, the Black Box was supposed to retail for $40, with the Orange Box at $60. Instead, they dropped the Black Box and dropped the Orange Box to $50 (well, for the PC at least). That said, I picked up a copy at Best Buy a few weeks ago for $25. Since I hadn't gotten around to playing HL2 before, it was money well spent. Actually, Portal and TF2 are worth the $5
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Let me make an analysis you might understand. Britney Spears records 2 new songs. The producer announces a release having the 2 songs, for only $5. Then instead they make a compilation of so-called "greatest hits" and include the 2 new songs on that release, for $15. I can understand that you, as
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Later, they decide to include the 2 songs leading up to the 3rd in the series, and charge $5 for the release. No biggie, because the 3 new songs are 3 of the best songs released this year, and given how much quality listening time you get out of them, they really should be charging $3 for each!
Oh wait, the al
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given how much quality listening time you get out of them, they really should be charging $3 for each!
Sounds like you work for the RIAA or something. But I'll be the judge of that when it comes to my own money. The idea that you can dictate to me how much your product is worth to me is the dictionary definition of condescending, and it is insulting.
I just remember the days when this kind of content was called an expansion pack, and was sold separately for a significantly lower price. Valve was set to do that, and then they changed their minds.
You think they were justified? Fine. It's their product, and the
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The idea that you can dictate to me how much your product is worth to me is the dictionary definition of condescending, and it is insulting.
Gee, you must be a real hit at your local shops.
Most people who live on their own with a median income have far better purposes for their money, especially when it comes to buying $50 games. You can buy the same stuff you already have with a little bit of new stuff for $50? Or all new games?
You poor dear. Here in Australia we pay USD$86 and up for the same crap.
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As far as the worth of a product, Valve set a price (and a mighty fair one, just ask someone who's actually PLAYED the new games) - same as any other product. If you don't like being dictated the worth of a product, shop on eBay or at the flea market.
Sounds like you just don't like Valve games to begin with, and you only value linear length as a
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Gee, you must be a real hit at your local shops.
Maybe you're just dense, so I'll explain.
It's fine if you want to tell me how much you think your product is worth. But the moment you presume you can tell me what you think it's worth to ME, you're addressing me in a familiar way. If you are not actually familiar with me, that is quite disrespectful. You have no idea how much time I have to play video games or how much I enjoy a particular type of game. You can't tell me that it's worth $90 to me (which is what the analogy suggested by "$3 per [new] song"
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People with a median income can easily spare $20 more than what they originally expected to pay for a product, and I'd say most of them would do that rather than sitting around bitching about the 20 bucks, irrationally boycotting the company, and not enjoying some of the year's best games.
There's a sickness in this country where people (gifted by their short attention span) do not hold grudges. I call that a sickness because I believe it's the leading cause to the degeneration of customer service in this world, which I remember was alive and well 10 years ago, but is dying off quickly today. I may be a dying breed, but when I draw a line, it's final. Valve disposing of the Bla
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Fortunately enough for music, it can be purchased individually with very little markup.
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On the other hand I have HL2, but not Ep1, so for me it's a rather better deal. Sucks to have to buy HL2 again, but with The Orange Box currently being sold by amazon.co.uk for roughly half the RRP, I'm not complaining too hard. (In fact, I'm waiting for it to arrive - hopefully tomorrow (well, later today now) with a bit of luck)
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There. I adjusted it to inflation for you.
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Sequels.... (Score:2, Funny)
You coul dhave included... (Score:4, Informative)
"SWL: Are there any current plans after Episode 3 to have a Half Life 3?
DL: We haven't announced anything specific, but Half-Life won't end at Episode Three - hang on to your crowbars!"
Unless you thought 'crowbar' was in fact an allusion to 'penis' in which case you probably shouldn't have included it in the Slashdot story after all...
Or even a link to the original article: http://www.stuffwelike.com/stuffwelike/2007/12/12/half-life-3-world-exclusive/ [stuffwelike.com]
Which has fun comments like:
"ummm... in no way whatsoever did doug say there would be a half-life three. could just be episode four. please stop brandying guesses as legitimate facts." - wow, brandying is a real word - it means "To preserve, flavor, or mix with brandy"
Half-Life and Brandy (Score:1)
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Half-Life 2 Ep 3 Gameplay (Score:3, Insightful)
Has anybody managed to get any information on what kind of game Ep3 will be? I've read about the HL2 episodes as being testbeds for different kinds of play technology; Ep1 was Alyx's development, having an effective side-kick. Ep2 was cinematic physics and large outdoor areas. I'm really, really hoping that Ep3 will be an unbounded game world, such as the GTA games (only with headcrabs instead of gangs). All of the Half-Life games so far have been, in general, train rides. You go from point A via route A with almost no variation. The combat areas may have some openness to them, but the world as a whole does not. Has anybody out there heard anything?
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The great scripted, movie-like feel of the HL games require linearity.
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What happens when End of the Earth Situation occurs in game, and you're still free to go about your business, and the End of Earth Situation waits until you get there to take the mission?
Then compare to the current HL way...
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Also Freeman had the major advantage in that he was wearing the HEV Mk VI protective suit for use in hazardous environments which was partially bulletproof and provided better protection in the large variety of dangerous locati
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Er, no he didn't. Shepherd was detained by the G-Man. How you got "the South Pole" from OpFor's ending, I have no idea.
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The worlds weren't as expansive as say Oblivion on GTA but you were still mostly free to go around and do as you please.
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It's not like you ever consider going over to the Combines as a serious option, is it?
"Did you know your contract was open to the highest bidder?"
It's possible that the G-Man would have sold Gordon's services if the price was right. Gordon may even believe he's working against the Combine while he's doing it ("The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world"--the G-Man can insert Gordon into a place where his natural reactions will work in the Combine's favor). Who knows just
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Of course, if you're willing to put in the extra time and effort, you can come up w
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Re:Half-Life 2 Ep 3 Gameplay (Score:5, Interesting)
This is not a horrible thing. The reason most people are down on games that are on rails is that most developers suck at story telling and cinematic experiences while simultaneously thinking they rock at the same. Therefore most games on rails feel more like a Disney ride than an epic adventure. Both in the fact that you are consitantly reminded that you are on rails and that the various "props" are obviously only expected to be seen from the "ride-side" of the game. Valve actually puts the effort in to cover up the rails, to polish the props and to make it look as if the fact that you just happen to be going down the path is because YOU choose to go that way, not because every other way was closed.
Take for instance, the 'other' episodic game that was released around the time of Episode 1. SiN Episodes: Emergence.
In SiN, you were shown this huge city, many of the locations in game were huge, the modern day equivalents of the Tower of Babel. And yet, there was always a fence, a door, or a window between you and the rest of the world. There were very strict paths you were forced to take, and even though you would often be assulted by people coming from the inaccessible areas, you never were given the chance to get to them yourself. It was very obvious that your goals were "get A to pass B so you can push C and open D".
This is exactly the same scenario that the Half-Life games provide, but with them it is far, far easier to forget that you are being herded along a path. Take dodging the Antlion guard in the mines/hive. Most people, the first time around, probably almost shat themselves when they finially fell down that final shaft with the guard seemingly just a millisecond behind them. However if you play the game through again, you realize that this spot was actually scripted to come off exactly that way. You might be able to mess around and actually die there, but you will never get so far ahead of the guard that they won't be a millisecond behind you at the final shaft.
Valve specializes in cinematic magic. A sandbox free-will game is their anti-thesis.
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Valve has NAILED the pure-FPS, linear game. Fucking nailed it. As in, may-never-be-beat nailed it.
I happen to like that genre, when it's done well. Non-linear shooters, FPS/RPG hybrids, etc. are a different matter entirely. I have trouble saying that HL2: Ep2 is a better or worse game than, say, Deus Ex or GTAIII: Vice City. I don't think it even makes a lot of sense to compare it to Doom I and II, or Painkiller, for example, since those are run-and-gun, minimal-story games, and the
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rails (Score:1)
What will be in Episode 3? We know some of it. (Score:5, Insightful)
However, on what we know about Episode 3: First of all, Portal takes place in the Half Life universe in the laboratories of Aperture Science. This had to be for an obvious reason since it essentially is a storyline shoe-horn in to a puzzle game. They didn't need to do it, but they did it anyway. Episode 2 spills the info that Aperture Science has a vessel called the Borealis [youtube.com]. It "vanished" (i.e. teleportation) but has now been found. Obviously Gordon will have to go there and find the ship and obtain the gadgets and gizmos. This means Gordon will have to travel to the arctic, so Episode 3 will most likely feature snowy areas. And then there is this Gabe Newell quote [g4tv.com] on Portal (After you launch the player, play the video called "X-Play Review: Portal". Gabe's quote is a little over the halfway mark):
"The character that you play is a character who has importance in the overall half-life universe, and will eventually have a fairly significant relationship with other characters that we're already familiar with".
The way Portal works as an introductory game to educate the players on how to use the Portal gun to interact with the environment is a really clever method to set things up on how it will potentially be used in Episode 3. But I'm actually not so sure however whether Chell will give Gordon the gun, cause he doesn't have the surgically inserted heel springs to prevent injury from falling the large distances. Oh, and GLaDOS will probably be involved somehow...she's "still alive" you know.
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Valve will give up on HL franchise.... (Score:4, Insightful)
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Fixed it for you.
Awesome!!! (Score:1)
linux client please (Score:3, Interesting)
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It's a shame really because I too would like a Linux client on my Ubuntu machine.. Carmack's engines are always cross-platform, the UT engines are cross platform but source is Windows only and that's probably never going to change at Valve. I am guessing it doesn't even show up on their radar.
I can't remember or not, did the orange box come out for the PS3? And doesn't the PS3 run openG
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Valve really needs to take the finger out of its ass and support OpenGL officially, because DirectX 10 is a wash for at least 2 more years (until Vista / DX10 maybe hits critical mass) and since all OpenGL (OSX/Linux/PS3) market segments are growing, if just a little.
Their inferiority on these platfor
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One can still hope though (I know I am).
id and Epic do Linux ports of their flagship games mostly because it makes a good bullet point on their respective engines' feature lists (ie. "Cross-platform Windows/Mac/Linux support". Valve might be tempted to do the same eventually.
orly? (Score:1)
In other news: Who started this whole "Half-Life ends with Ep3" rumor anyway?
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I suspect it's just an assumption--the whole "things tend to come in threes" rule of thumb. (Of course Half-Life 2 Episode 3 would actually be the 4th Half-Life 2 game . . . confusingly. Perhaps Valve goes by the Douglas Adams definition of "Trilogy")
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Especially since they clearly have at least one story left to tell after HL2:EP3.
HL2:EP3: Combine suffers a last, crippling defeat on Earth, but is still a big (possibly realized, at the end of the game) threat. Gordon gets teleporting tech.... hmmm...
HL3: Gordon uses the teleporting tech to reach the Combine homeworld (or a major regional capitol world, or something) and kicks some ass, giving humanity long enough to build itself
TF2 maps!!! (Score:2, Insightful)
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I'm looking forward... (Score:1)
Perhaps for Mac? (Score:1)
Perhaps a Steam client for OS X, and/or linux?
Plenty of OpenGL love is in place if Steam (for some unforseeable reason) decides to hop platforms.
*Sighs*
Wishful thinking...
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This just in: (Score:1)
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What happens when the servers are down and you want to install and play HL2?
If you want it on physical media, Steam has options to dump the game cache and burn it to DVD, which you can then reimport back into Steam when you want it. You only have to register the game with your copy of Steam once, and that lasts until you wipe Steam completely or reinstall Windows.
What happens when you try to show your kid in a few years about the classic games that were the genesis of what they're used to?
If Valve and therefore Steam ever went bankrupt, they have a universal unlock all ready to go. Cache your games, as mentioned before, and then import from the DVD when you want it.
Seriously, fuck Valve. I loved HL, and I blame them for screwing the whole thing up, and not only with the HL series, but a bunch of other games that get sucked into this idea that content producers should perpetually "own" the minute you decide you want to consume their product (I'm looking at you Sin).
I don't
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The nice thing about Steam is that if I lose or destroy a CD, I don't have to worry about it. I can log in to my account, and download my games to any PC.
What if Valve goes out of business? These games are already cracked on the web, I would just download the cracked version of the game.
I don't think you are being intellectual
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No, that's not what would happen. If Valve went bankrupt, the company assets would be sold off to another company. That new company might continue to operate Steam, or they might not, but one thing is certain - they would be very pissed if Valve had given away their universal unlock, since that would destroy much of the value of t