Gabe Newell Understands Half-Life Fans, Not Promising Any Sequels 215
jones_supa writes Half-Life 3 is undoubtedly one of the most anticipated games in history. While Valve transitioned from the revolutionary series that brought the company most of its original success, to online games like Team Fortress, Dota and Left 4 Dead, people still desperately want to believe that there is more coming for Half-Life.
In a recent podcast interview he had with Geoff Keighley, Valve CEO Gabe Newell opens up the current situation a bit more: "I'm a fan of TV shows, I'm a fan of writers, I'm a fan of movies, I'm a fan of games and I certainly understand why people are like, you know, hey I remember this awesome experience and I'm starting to get worried that I'm never going to have it again. I am a fan of Terry Pratchett and he has Alzheimer's, it's like, Oh my god, I may never get another great Discworld novel. [...] We aren't going to go all retro because there are too many interesting things that have been learned. The only reason we would go back and do a 'super classic' kind of product is if a whole bunch of people internally at Valve said they wanted to do it, and had a reasonable explanation for why it was."
In a recent podcast interview he had with Geoff Keighley, Valve CEO Gabe Newell opens up the current situation a bit more: "I'm a fan of TV shows, I'm a fan of writers, I'm a fan of movies, I'm a fan of games and I certainly understand why people are like, you know, hey I remember this awesome experience and I'm starting to get worried that I'm never going to have it again. I am a fan of Terry Pratchett and he has Alzheimer's, it's like, Oh my god, I may never get another great Discworld novel. [...] We aren't going to go all retro because there are too many interesting things that have been learned. The only reason we would go back and do a 'super classic' kind of product is if a whole bunch of people internally at Valve said they wanted to do it, and had a reasonable explanation for why it was."
Barney (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Barney (Score:5, Insightful)
I agree they shouldn't rush HL3 (or Episode 3 or whatever), but that's no reason to leave the Half-Life universe hanging.
Opposing Force and Blue Shift were basically keeping HL alive until HL2 came along, and they did a pretty good job.
I'd rather have some spin-off that CAN crash and burn and wait for the big "movie" that we CAN'T have crash and burn get perfected.
I was quite hopeful for things like Lost Coast etc. to provide some kind of in-betweeny bits but I'm still waiting with my character on the brink of death (at least three times now, I've gone through the whole series of games just to play them again) to find out what happens next.
Distract me, or tell me. Don't just ignore me.
Need a reason? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Need a reason? (Score:5, Insightful)
Ya there's plenty of reason to do it, it is just clear Valve has lost interest. They seem to suffer from "Oooo shiny!" syndrome pretty bad, which they can afford to do since Steam makes them more money than they know what to do with. They'll play with a project for awhile, get bored, and move on to something else.
I mean I can respect not making a sequel just for a sequel's sake. If the series has run its course, it sucks to tell the creative people "You have to make another one, no I don't give a shit how much it doesn't fit!" Clearly not the case here, they had more story to tell so the creative types should be happy to continue it.
Likewise I can understand not making a sequel if it is going to be a commercial failure. No matter how much you'd like to continue something, if the market isn't interested it is a bad idea to do. Again, not the case here, the game could be crap and it would still make money because so many people want it bad (not that it matters because of Steam).
So there's no reason not to do it here, only that Valve is flighty and isn't interested in it anymore for whatever reason. I mean all the crap about innovation is bullshit. Valve is happy to do things that are just more of the same. See Left 4 Dead 2, DOTA 2, and CS:GO. Left 4 Dead 2 was really just an expansion pack sold as a new game, DOTA 2 is just a MOBA, one of a shit ton of them and one that borrows heavily from others, and CS:GO is, well, Counterstrike. No problem, I'm not hating, but trying to claim that they somehow have to be really innovative with their games is crap. They have been happy to release games lately that are just rehashes of existing stuff.
I guarantee if the Steam money pit dried up they'd be looking to make HL3 really fast. However they don't have to care right now, they can just play around since they make shit tons of money for doing nothing but being a middleman.
It also shows lack of commitment to their projects, specifically the Steam Machine. Valve really is half-assing it (as is obvious from the timeline, that there is on QA on the various platforms, and so on) if they really wanted to try and drive it, HL3 would be there and be used. Make that a Steam Machine/SteamOS exclusive people would give a shit. Even if it was just short term, and then it comes to Windows, it would massively push sales having an exclusive title that people really, really want. Existing console makers know this, and always try to have a killer franchise. Were Valve really committed to their new toy, they'd have HL3 ready to go for it.
Re:Need a reason? (Score:4, Interesting)
It seems more like they're suffering from their flat (in theory) company structure, where there isn't a directed chain of people who say what is going to be done. They appear to be a bit undirected at times because they are. Flat structure is hard; flat structure with over a hundred employees must be ridiculously difficult to orchestrate.
But...But........ (Score:3, Funny)
But Gabe!....It's not the developers who pay the millions for the game...the devs will do whatever you tell'em to do. The Internet has been abuzz with insane amounts of comments from gamers begging for HL3 for years.....how can there not be enough evidence to make it obvious HL3 would be a monumental success...(if on par with previous versions)?
Maybe working on HL3 is what you need at this time of your life.....you know,...something to get those creative juices flowing ....it'll make you feel young again.....HONEST!
Just do it....you'll see!!
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Especially considering the complete lack of compelling competition out there. When the games everyone seems to be looking forward to are Modern Warfare Black Ops 19 and Battlefield 7, which are exactly the same as the last 6 versions, how can you not want to put something out that breaks the mold of "multiplayer first, story last" ?
You aren't EA - we're not worried that you're just milking the IP of the past because there is a completely creatively bankrupt organization paying the bills.
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If you tell your devs to do something they don't want to do they will do a mediocre job, this is true to any kind of development. Only committed people can produce excellent work.
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If thats the case then you should probably fire those devs and get new ones who do want to do it.
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If you tell your devs to do something they don't want to do they will do a mediocre job, this is true to any kind of development. Only committed people can produce excellent work.
Aren't we a precious fucking snowflake?
Meanwhile, in the real world you do the best work you can all the time. It's called being a professional, and it's what you do when you're being paid above minimum wage to do a task.
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They'll drool all over it and then call the customers who have problems with it "entitled wailing hyper-consumers" for wanting a product that actually works and isn't a buggy piece of shit missing half the advertised features.
I don't get it... (Score:4, Informative)
There's an existing horde of people clamoring to buy Valve's sequel/product sight-unseen. They don't want a stupid VR headset or overpriced Linux gamerbox thingy, yet Valve is wasting resources at various dead ends, instead of updating the product category that brought them success and relevance.
Re:I don't get it... (Score:4, Insightful)
No idea why this is modded as Informative -- people wanting to buy HL3 sight-unseen isn't an indicator to make it, that's an indicator for a cash-in which they're not acting on. This is a sobering but good reason as to why there's no HL3. If they aren't feeling it, they shouldn't be doing it, because it's just going to end up with unhappy Valve and unhappy gamers. No one really wins except for Valve's bank account.
Demanding they put out HL3 without a creative impetus is like a kid demanding to eat ice cream for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Seriously, not everything needs to be on a scheduled release cycle; it's okay for stuff to be done when it's done instead of just forcing out a new product 'cause it's about new product time. This mentality is what leads to so much awfulness from the tech sector.
Half Who?? (Score:2, Interesting)
Secondly, it'll invariably suck simply because people's expectations are just ridiculously high after so much time waiting. Look no further than Doom 3 or Diablo 3 for evidence.
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What awesome games? I'm still waiting for a reason to buy a PS4 and so far the new game releases from 2014 and 2015 are shit-tier. Best thing I've seen so far is Mass Effect 4, which will be out... sometime before 2018... maybe. If it weren't for the release of the Mass Effect bundle last summer, I probably wouldn't be playing anything right now. The Last of Us is the only thing that's tempted me, but I hear the Multiplayer on that is pretty crappy so have decided to pass on that for now since it sounds lik
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So I'm curious where this backlog of awesome games are, or what you mean by awesome games, because right now, I can't think of any. But I'd like to know of any that might be worth my heading out and getting a PS4. I make occasional pop-ins at Gamestop to see the new releases, but so far nothing is tempting.
One new-ish game I got was Middle Earth: Shadows of Mordor [shadowofmordor.com]. It's pretty fun, but make sure to get the PS4 version. I have the PS3 version, so it has laggy transitions. It will pause for a minute to load a 3 second cut scene, then pause another minute after that plays another 3 second cut scene, then pause another minute to switch back to the game. From what I understand, the PS4 doesn't have that issue at all. Watch Dogs [ubi.com] was pretty fun, and I guess the PS4 version of that is even better, especially when it
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My group of friends have been playing Payday 2, but I believe that is a pretty old title, though they have been releasing a ton of new content.
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I was unimpressed by HL2, I didn't even play the sequels to it. A bit of a letdown. That said, I don't have much interest in shooter games, especially ones that set you tightly on the rails. I'll replay the HL1 series when I want to play something like that.
Kickstarter! (Score:2, Funny)
If we raise 1 million dollars, we can send a team of people to help Terry Pratchett write another Discworld novel, making Gabe so happy he approves work on Half-Life 3.
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That would be one seriously impressive Kickstarter....
"For the first step, we will breach the barrier into the next world..."
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SÊoeááoeÊYá...É'á Ê(TM)á ááá ÊoeáÊá...... DáááÊoe És á áÊáááÊ ÉÉáá ÉáoeÊ, áÒ"ááÊ áÊYÊY.
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Wow. Epic Slashdot it's-2015-and-still-no-unicode-support fail. :(
(Those were supposed to be small-caps, as per Death, pointing out that Death is a pretty nice guy, at least. Fail!)
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Wow. Epic Slashdot it's-2015-and-still-no-unicode-support fail. :(
(Those were supposed to be small-caps, as per Death, pointing out that Death is a pretty nice guy, at least. Fail!)
I CAN ALSO SPEAK IN ORDINARY CAPITAL LETTERS IF THAT MAKES YOU ANY HAPPIER.
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Re:Kickstarter! (Score:4, Funny)
I won't believe it until Netcraft confirms this.
Retro?!?! (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, Gabe, Half-Life 3 wouldn't be "Retro" if you hadn't WAITED SO FREEKIN LONG!
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Valve isn't the savior people thought they were... (Score:5, Interesting)
Let's be honest... we love Valve because of Half Life, and GabeN's voice through the years.
That's been gone for a long time. They are a money machine now, and their Steam platform is basically a printing press for said money. Where are the improvements to the Steam platform? When you rank behind EA in customer service, you have to think that there's something amiss.
Don't get me wrong, I love Valve games, I love Steam not because it's a great platform (it's actually pretty shit), but because I have a whole bunch of games at a cheap price. The communication tools ingame are pretty terrible, the game updates themselves are pretty terrible (coming from a CSGO player), and they make exceptions to their marketplace to allow bots to trade, so they can keep a very shady betting scene from the likes of CSGOLounge/DotaLounge going strong. After all, they get a cut of every marketplace transaction. It's also the reason for the big push behind Steam Machines, which are positioned so that the likes of Microsoft and the Xbox/Windows integration to an app store (and games!) never competes. In short, Valve isn't that "indy" group of lovable "gamers who make games" any more -- they are a pretty ruthless business.
Long story short... I don't care about Half Life 3. That's about something that isn't even here yet. I care more about their attention to the games they have out now, engagement with the community (which is how they got this big to start), and a start to a conversation with the gamers. Half Life 3 will come when it comes; I am sure Valve wants to get it out too so they can cash in another big check.
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When you rank behind EA in customer service, you have to think that there's something amiss.
I don't take issue with most of your points, but citation needed here. As someone that has actually tried to play an EA game in the recent past, Valve is no where near as awful to their customers as EA.
Re:Valve isn't the savior people thought they were (Score:5, Informative)
Customer service scores are great and all, but if I never need support at all, that ranks much higher on my hierarchy of ratings.
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That's more lucky than good though. Steam does very little to make sure shit works. Older games are notorious for problems whereas other services (like GOG) make sure they are fixed to work on modern systems. If you ever do need support, Steam is a nightmare.
I agree that needing less maintenance is better than having good maintenance support, but you need a large sample size to be able to tell if that is the case or if you just got lucky. For example I have needed maintenance on precisely zero of my LG appl
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There's a solution to this, it's called the humble store. Cut off valve's money-making machine and suddenly they'll start caring again.
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Well, I wouldn't exactly condone giving microsoft money either, but to each his own.
GOG is another games retailer with ethics.
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If Microsoft can do that and provide some nice social tools to boot, then I will give them my money. Or GOG, or Humble, or anybody else. (thought the irony is with GOG/Humble is that they are usually Steam activated).
Minor correction:
HumbleBundle games often offer titles through the Steam platform, which requires you to activate their titles online first, which can be a surprise for someone who buys a game through HumbleBundle not expecting that sort of inquisition.
GOG.com never does; their chief claim to
Terry Pratchett is now alive? (Score:2)
I saw headlines that 50 Cent was shot dead last year and Terry Pratchett died this year. What? Are they BOTH alive?
Too late (Score:2)
"I am a fan of Terry Pratchett and he has Alzheimer's, it's like, Oh my god, I may never get another great Discworld novel."
It's dead, Jim.
Half-Life 3 would never work (Score:3)
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It also needs a garden gnome.
HL3 where it is a coop with other players taking on the role of Alex and Barney, have Chel come from the portal universe and meet up with them at the ship (can't remember the name), and they have to use the portal guns to save the world from the Combine? As you say, it doesn't even need a spectacular engine, but apparently, multiplayer is the thing now.
No, it'll get praise no matter what (Score:2)
Valve is one of those devs that can do no wrong in most people's eyes. They'll get high scores because of who they and, and because of what people want Halflife to be.
You want an example of shit like that happening? Look at Civilization 5. It wasn't a great Civ game. It wasn't BAD, but it was a step down from 4 in most ways. Realistic scores would have been 7/10 or so. However all the reviews were glowing. Why? Because reviewers WANTED it to be good. They love Civ, have loved it for a long time, and have an
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I have and you are right, they made it a very good game, just stating that on release all those 9 and 10 scores were BS, based on what people wanted it to be, not what it was. As it stands now, solid 9.
Alternative headline (Score:2)
Gabe Newell Understands Half-Life Fans Not Promising
Desperately Want to Believe? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Desperately Want to Believe? (Score:4, Interesting)
"and haven't bought a Valve game since Portal2"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L... [wikipedia.org]
Which just means you didn't buy DOTA 2 (which is Free-to-Play) or CS:GO. They don't pump out a lot of games.
BTW: Those are their current two "Top games by current player count"
http://store.steampowered.com/... [steampowered.com]
by an order of magnitude over third-place TF2.
Not insulting you, but I don't think they care much about your boycott. And I bet if they do release HL3 and it's anywhere near decent, you'll end up buying it.
I agree they should continue the franchise, even it's just a Source-engine HL2:Episode 3 that is quite short while we wait for a proper HL3 (but I don't see that happening). But I'd much rather nothing than cocking up HL3 entirely.
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You're not the first to boycott them, and you won't be the last. Welcome!
One day there will be enough of us that they'll start caring.
And I bet if they do release HL3 and it's anywhere near decent, you'll end up buying it.
No, I will pirate it.
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They don't pump out a lot of games.
These days they don't pump out much of anything other than half-baked promises. Look at all the physical vaporwear they've been pedaling. That's become the problem with Valve. They don't want to make HL3, which is fine I guess, but they don't seem to do shit else either. Maybe instead of just letting his employees work on whatever they want, Gabe should start mandating that they also produce *something* marketable.
Also the games they do make are nothing special (Score:2)
Yes DOTA 2 and CS:GO are very popular, but innovative they are not. CS:GO is just Counterstrike. New graphics and some tweaks, but same game it ever way. DOTA 2 is just another MOBA, one of very many, not the biggest out there (that's League of Legends) and it borrows heavily from other games. They are popular not because they are amazing new titles doing never before seen stuff, they are popular because it is the same shit people like, well executed and pushed on the most popular PC game store.
Not hating o
Re:Desperately Want to Believe? (Score:5, Interesting)
He's not saying that Half-Life is retro or that no one wants to make Half-Life 3, he's saying that no one at Valve wants to make a HL3 that is just more of the same. Valve seems to pride itself on gameplay innovations, and if they can't come up with something totally unique and creative for HL3, they aren't going to just put it out as-is.
There are several problems with that logic, though: for one, they don't come up with those types of innovations very often and rely on hiring outside talent to provide them (e.g. Portal). Second, all that innovation hunting tends to be focused on crafting new franchises (Portal, again); I don't think Valve is particularly concerned with thinking of a new gimmick specifically for the next Half-Life.
The biggest point is that I don't think most Half-Life fans care about that level of innovation quite as much as Mr. Newell and would be more than satisfied with a "retro" HL3. Part of the reason for this is because what we call HL3 is really just the end of HL2. Fans are more eager to see how the story ends than whatever new physics gimmick Valve is going to add to the game. I think there would be far greater expectations for a new Half-Life entry with a new story and new characters, but we know that's not what the theoretical next Half-Life game would be. The disconnect between fan expectations and Valve's expectations is very frustrating.
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He's not saying that Half-Life is retro or that no one wants to make Half-Life 3, he's saying that no one at Valve wants to make a HL3 that is just more of the same. Valve seems to pride itself on gameplay innovations, and if they can't come up with something totally unique and creative for HL3, they aren't going to just put it out as-is.
That's not what I was saying. I was saying that they backed in a lead in to a sequel into the plot. Maybe you didn't play HL2, but it ended at a major enem installation and it was made clear that the next step was to travel to where the invaders were based from. Then they just left it. It's an unfinished, incomplete story that promised to resume. And Gabe is saying they probably wont and those that want the conclusion are just delusional little shits. But Valve is a Company, not a Person and while an Autho
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Even that argument is pretty lame, though. They specifically wrote Portal into the Half-Life universe, so the new gimmicky physics thing for Episode 3 could have just been the portal gun. It was practically all laid out for them. They could still cash in on that today.
Even the ending (or the segue into HL3) doesn't have to be that great. The story behind HL has always been a bit cobbled together.
I wonder if Gabe is somehow misremembering HL as much more than it ever was and only wants to follow it with a ma
A Wise Move (Score:2)
Honestly, I see this as a wise move. There's an incredible risk of providing a game that won't meet the extremely high expectations; and who knows what kind of staffing and office politics might affect development and direction. Also if there isn't that divine spark of creation, that burning vision to create, then the result will be, at best, lackluster. Halflife and Halflife 2 were obviously projects of passion.
Without passion in your work, you're just doing the daily grind. That doesn't lead to an inspiri
Retro classic? (Score:2)
With the success of HL, then HL2 and all the money that brought in and the variety of games that exploded around it, you'd think that Valve employees would be eager to start HL3 now. It's been so long since the last HL episode that a new engine would bring new life to a series.
The man needs to give a full,
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Hats off to you.
HL3 pre-quel confirmed! (Score:2)
So, HL3 confirmed as a "prequel", right?
Humbug! (Score:2)
And after waiting long enough with the promised sequeal you claim we don't go retro for no reason. Nice way to treat fans.
What about HL2: Episode 3 (Score:2)
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I could care less about HL3.
Obligatory PSA [youtube.com] regarding your butchered idiom.
On topic: Completely agree. In the Zero Punctuation review of The Orange Box [escapistmagazine.com] Yahtzee observed that [wikia.com]:
Episode 2 does suffer a little from being the middle child, there's no real beginning and no real end so the story tends to meander around and it's difficult to shake the feeling that we're just killing time before the next episode wraps it all up.
Over 7 years later we're still waiting... :(
R.I.P. Half-Life (Score:2)
Not in Valve's commercial interest (Score:5, Insightful)
Valve has no commercial interest in making Half-Life 3. It's not that the game wouldn't be profitable. It almost certainly would be - lots of people would buy it. But it would risk the wider strategy they've been pursuing for a decade now.
Valve's income these days isn't from making and selling games; it's from charging other people to sell games via Steam. Seriously - you buy a game on Steam and a big slug of the price you pay goes straight to Valve. Sure, they have hosting costs, but there is a lot of pure profit in there.
Ever since Steam started to be a big thing, Valve has focussed on more niche games rather than big-budget fpses. It does not want to be seen as threatening or a rival to its biggest business partners. EA have already taken their toys and gone home to Origin; Valve's dominance of the PC gaming market relies on keeping Activision, Ubisoft and others on board.
And a big part of that is not being seen as a competitor. If Activision wants to pay Valve a lot of money to plaster the Steam front-page with a huge Call of Duty advert, then that's good for Valve. But Activision might get nervous if they worried that the platform they were using was run by a company that was actively pushing a game in competition with theirs.
Over in console-land, Sony and Microsoft's first party exclusives are generally put out there to sell consoles (not always a profitable activity in itself). They build up the installed base to get the third parties interested. The only platform-owner to really emphasise first-party games development is Nintendo, who, surprise surprise, have terrible third-party relationships.
Far easier for Valve to allow other people to put the effort in to making money for them, rather than take the risk of investing in games development to make direct income from sales. Particularly now that Steam is so ubiquitous as a platform that it doesn't need first-party games to grow the installed base.
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The best stories... (Score:2)
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The best stories have no "ending". Because a wrapped up sort of endings always feel a bit cliche and thin. But with so many possibilities open, it allows for user/player interpretation.
Nice try Gabe.
Stairway to heaven , part 3 (Score:2)
Gameplay? Story? (Score:2)
Why do we want HL2E3? It isn't gameplay (for the most part). We can get that anywhere. Do you pull out HL2E1 or HL2E2 (or even Black Mesa) every now and then? Yeah. It is story. It is borderline art (though my artist-wife would guffaw to read that).
Story, give us story. If no one is interested in completing it, is it because no one is interested in the story, or because no one is int
Gordon needs a portal gun! (Score:2)
They already made HL3 (Score:2)
it's called "The Last Of Us"
Humans infected and turned into zombies? Check. Underwater collapsed buildings? Check. Army out to get you? Check. Filing Cabinets, Crates and Bins to climb on? etc.
Re:Internal (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Internal (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Internal (Score:5, Interesting)
Heck, if there's nothing else you want to do with the gameplay, write a novel (or, probably better, get a well-known SF writer to do it) to give it all a proper ending.
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This. With half life 2 they set it up for multiple equals and the never ended it.
It's like R.R. Martin just giving up at the second to last book because "he's learned so much" and now he's going to write something else.
Re: Internal (Score:3, Insightful)
One problem with this kind of series is that it was so successful that an average sequel will not cut it.
Whatever comes out better be excellent or it will trashed by the gaming community. They cannot afford to have the kind of game which would be labelled as 'quite good' if it was made by an indie developer.
Another issue is caused by the time that went past after the second instalment: times change and what was ok as a FPS may be not appeal to the new gamers or may be considered as archaic when comparing to
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Really there wasnt much it did do revolutionary in game play when it came out, alot of different more games were released at that time that did have more game play mechanics that half-life 2
CS:GO dosnt have all the new things, heck it is a very basic game compare
Re: Internal (Score:4, Interesting)
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No, it wasn't. At the time it had already been done almost a decade prior by Battlefield and Tribes.
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(And I don't know what Battlefield you're talking about, but Battlefield 1942 was released the same year as Halflife 2, not a decade prior).
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all big titles that came out 2004, even halo 2 came out before hf2 even if it was by a week, but I played ut2004 and it has vehicles(it came out march)
bf1942 was released 2002
the only thing new was the source engine, the game half-life 2 by it self wasnt any marvel of its time, but it had a great story and was well made, but frankly it doesnt and didnt stand up to bring in new things into game play mechanics for its time
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If we pick on any single aspect of the game, there were far superior games released at the same time. There were games that looked better, games that played better and games with better stories. The problem was that these games only excelled at one thing. Half
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The best thing about Half-Life 2 was trying to find out ways/glitches to bring the buggy with you to all the levels that you weren't supposed to have the buggy at all.
Re: Internal (Score:5, Interesting)
Now people expect better AI, destructible environments, the focus of FPS is shifting more towards multiplayer including coop mode.
Am I the only one who actually still prefers single-player campaign to co-op/multiplayer? I mean it's ok sometimes, and there's nothing wrong with it. But when the multiplayer fad came along it always seemed like such a tween sub-culture to me.
I have to work for a living and I have a wife & kids.... which means I don't hide in my Mommy's basement every night "pwning teh n00bs" nor do I want to associate with those morons in online game play.
Re: Internal (Score:2)
Same here. I'm only interested in single player games. I get maybe half an hour each day to play games, if I'm lucky, and I want to dip in to a story, soak up the atmosphere etc.
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I work for a living and have a wife and not a lot of time to hang out with "the bros"...which is why my wife and I play co-op games together with our friends online a few hours a week, it's quick and easy to set up and arguably a lot less like hiding in the basement than playing single player games.
Single player games are antisocial as hell, and that's really nice sometimes. Competitive multiplayer seems really friendly in person, but a lot less so online, even with other people you know. Cooperative mult
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You're not the only one.
Re: Internal (Score:2)
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To be completely frank (which I'm not, my name's David), the thing I liked best about the HL series was the story. Which was interesting, and varied, and had some characters I really liked, and did a really, really good job of immersing me in the good but fairly abstract FPS game mechanics.
You don't get stories in multiplayer. Sometimes they can pretend there's a story, but it never really works.
I want to know how it ends. Years later, I'm still emotionally invested in Gordon (even though his entire cha
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Now people expect better AI, destructible environments, the focus of FPS is shifting more towards multiplayer including coop mode.
Am I the only one who actually still prefers single-player campaign to co-op/multiplayer? I mean it's ok sometimes, and there's nothing wrong with it. But when the multiplayer fad came along it always seemed like such a tween sub-culture to me.
No you're not.
Like many people I also have a job, life and girlfriend, but I also play games.
But I do have one objection. Many multiplayer games are mature and tend to attract mature people. Step away from the COD and Halo twitch shooters and get into something a bit more tactical like World of Tanks or War Thunder where someone who thinks is more effective than the fastest person on the button. In fact, step away from the console and get onto PC, the PCGMR tends to attract more mature people and has
Prefer Co-op (Score:3)
I have 3 brothers, back in the day we played Doom, Doom II, Duke Nukem, Quake, Quake II and Unreal coop with 2 to 4 of us doing the whole game. Half Life came along and Coop was out the window, we fired up "Multiplayer" and found ourselves in a warehouse with a bunch of guns, no monsters and no way out, like, WTF do we do now!???
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I think he is saying we don't want to just make "another game" that happens to have the same characters and genre with a new subtitle. It has to really be good so we don't spoil the franchise. In order to make sure it is good we need to know why the first one was really such a big hit.
What was truly unique, what was the special sauce that made all the other ingredients truly integrate? If they can't confidently answer that they won't do it.
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Re:Hes talking shit, as usual (Score:5, Insightful)
At this point, those gamertards are probably in their late 30's. Seriously, it's starting to be a long time now.
It very much reads like they have no intention of doing another one. Which is actually fine, but why play coy? It's not like they ended the series in any sort of final way. People like the series and wanted to play again.
Something makes me wonder if Gabe developed a personal issue with the series and just doesn't want to do another one. That or they have something big up their sleeve and want HL3 to be the flagship title for that thing, whatever it is.
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I'd laugh if they made a game with 3 in the title, some stylized 3, and they only show that at the beginning.
Then make some trailer that almost looks like it could be HL3, 3 flashes on the screen, the entire audience gasp in excitement, "3 days" (or similar) shows on the screen, and it turns out to be not HL related at all, but a whole new IP.
The absolute rage that day would ripple through time and unexist reality.
Re:Hes talking shit, as usual (Score:5, Insightful)
I think they got conscious of their success and realized that they could not live up to the hype.
Look at Duke Nukem: the sequel took forever and... sucked. Well, not exactly sucked, but it was just mediocre, which was worse than sucking. It was supposed to be the Messiah of Games and ended up being a Wal-Mart bargain bin special.
Half Life, as a series, still has the same kind of aura that Doom and Duke Nukem had gathered about themselves. It hasn't been ruined yet: in fact, it's been augmented by the Portal series, which wasn't a sequel but rather a symbiotic addition. The words "Half Life" raise an expectation in the audience, and Gabe knows that HL3 would have trouble living up to that expectation. He doesn't want to be responsible for the next Duke Nukem Forever.
Re:Hes talking shit, as usual (Score:5, Interesting)
DNF changed hands, was abandoned, resurrected, revamped, rewritten, etc. with the details in public before it ever got close to a release. The screenshots from 10 years before look NOTHING like the final game at all. At some point, someone just said "Let's push anything and live off the scam to at least recoup our money".
HL3 doesn't have that legacy. Same guys (probably not exactly, but near enough). Same software. Same engine. Same designers. Same artists. Same programmers. Same company. No hype. No feature promises. No screenshots, even. A company making money hand-over-fist outside of game development to invest into the game. It's a totally different scenario (which makes it much more frustrating).
At this point a HDR HL2 sequel that was written in the same engine, same quality of graphics and game style with a few gimmicks would go down just as well and you can just say "This is Episode 3, the same as Episode 1 and 2 but finishing the story somewhat, and Half-Life 3 will come out later".
That they don't do this makes me think they have something planned. SteamOS maybe? I don't know. But I'd rather they kept the HL universe alive with some "expansion" to HL2 than cocked-up HL3 in the same way as DNF. I can't imagine them doing either, though.
Re:Hes talking shit, as usual (Score:5, Insightful)
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That they don't do this makes me think they have something planned.
This failure to continue the series is pretty much the only source of hype surrounding Half-Life. The expectations are so low, it seems like the only reason to not make HL3 or HL2 ep3 is that they must be planning something amazing.
Episode 3 could have easily just been a continuation of episode 2 with the portal gun or HDR. Hell, they could release that right now and it would be very successful. The actual story in HL has always been pretty tepid anyway... so does the Combine take over Earth or not? No big
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... if a whole bunch of people internally at Valve said they wanted to do it ...
He's being quite literal there. Valve doesn't force people to work on particular projects. If nobody wants to do it, it wont get done.
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I'm a gametard
You fell into his cunning trap there.
Re: mod redemption (Score:3, Funny)
Can someone mod parent down for being an arse ? :)
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Can't respect someone as overweight as he is. If you don't respect your body enough to take care of it, I can't be bothered either.
Boy did you pick the wrong forum to post that.