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turn on suggestions
 Auto-suggest helps you quickly narrow down your search results by suggesting possible matches as you type. Well this is... frustrating. Is Half-Life 3 in the works? (Or Half-Life 2 Episode 3, if they would even consider keeping it with the previous title). Apparently Gabe Newell knows HL fans are annoyed that we haven't heard anything about the final(?) installment, especially since Valve refuses to say anything about it anyway.
Article from the Escapist anyhoo.
We did get another Duke Nukem eventually, so there is hope that Valve will do something about their game franchise too. 
Dang episodic crap was a bad idea from the start. I still haven't played either of the two episodes, despite owning them for years.
I mean, if you're going to experiment with something which might crash and burn, I sure as hell wouldn't use your flagship title.  i5 2500k | P67 | GTX460 1GB SC | Xonar Essence STX Samsung 2693HM | Sennheiser HD595s Well, the good thing about the two episodes, and HL2 itself, is that they are still damned good fun to play even now, and TBH, while I'd like another sequel I don't need one. It would be nice to round out the experience though.
I think their main fear would be that it would get the DNF treatment for not being God's Own game that would bless all who play it with super powers or something. However, unlike DNF, they haven't been going on about it being in producution for over a decade so there is that. Still, will be a hard title to live up to, and that might make some developers wary of returning to it.
Not sure why another episode would be even remotely considered at this point . . . unless it's released at the same time an announcement for HL3 is made. Kind of a party starter. Otherwise, they should just bring on HL3. We all know they're working on it. It's their bread and butter. They're just treating its development like Area 51.
They should just release Episode 3 and finish off the immediate storyline. Have Episode 3 be the final, ultimate update to the Source Engine and then announce Half-Life 3 and Source Engine 2. Have HL3 be the last Half-Life game but not necessarily the last game in the universe, just an end to Gordon Freeman's saga so Valve can move on and do something new without worry.
But I trust Valve with whatever they're planning. They've never once disappointed me and I have tons of games to occupy my time with until their next release. 
Gordon is getting a little old for running around hitting people with a crow bar... By now he's settled down with Alex and they have like five kids... maybe have one of his daughters or sons take up the fight and move on from there. An Alex-looking woman with Gordon's glasses. A Hipster-Ironic type. She can attitude the aliens to death. Her Mom was sure good at it.
Portal 2 was the trainer for how to use the toys he's going to find and there's still the missing Borealis. So maybe have the end of Ep2 be the start of HL3, blend the last episode into the newest game.. either way, I want it so I can put the damned game to rest...  I was not trying to indicate that I thought there be another "episode" game using the Half-life 2 name. In truth I didn't even think of EP1 or EP2 as episodes, but short games in their own right. Anything now won't have the episode label attached to it at all, or HL2. But yes, I do think it will just carry on from where EP2 finished and run straight through.
Of course they may even do the latest trick we've seen in other games and not even attach a series number to it. Just call it something like Half-Life: The Portal Gun.
I can just see Gordon flashing a couple of worm holes so he can death from above the combine with his crowbar!
They're not going to include any Portal elements to the next game beyond mentioning Aperture Science and what they were up to with the Borealis. Though they may be in the same universe, Portal and Half-Life are two different games and should remain that way. I don't want to Portal Gun my way through a bunch of levels like I already have with two other games.
Source and the rage engine are both in a pickle.. Source is outdated and rage is too new and comlicated.. I am so sick of the Unreal engine that I could puke. Frostbyte looks like it has promise, but imh it doesn't play well single player. Skryim has a very nice engine but not sure if you could do a faster paced game with it. I am very curious about Far Cry 3... it's a big update to a solid engine that has always been scrutinized. I never sang the Crysis games praises as a whole.. but as an engine they are always impressive. I just wish they could get the best of both worlds.. good single player and good multuplayer.. which in my opinion only has two engines that do both well at the same time.. Souce and Unreal. 
Always comes down to money.. if it's cheaper to lease someone else's engine.. then that is why. Valve has so many titles they take credit for, they could get away with outsourcing another engine.. people like ID are kind of pride themselves on their own engine. So they wind up hemorrhaging money until they recoup dev costs. To be honest. In this market, a game's lifespan is so short it would be very difficult to get all your money back if you start from scratch. One of the reasons people haven't seen a new engine on COD for a long ass time. They gonna milk that cow for everything it's worth.
Yes, but that's not Valve. Valve is just as prideful, if not more so, and would never use someone else's engine for their baby. If they were truly milking their franchises we would have been up to Half-Life 5 by now. The only reason for this absurd length of time spent on development is quite simply the creation of a new engine. Thanks to Steam, Valve can afford to create their own engine and with a new engine they can create sequels to all of the other franchises under their belt. The Source Engine is as much a part of Valve's brand as Half-Life itself. Leasing it out to other companies would expand Valve's market share considerably and help them out in the long run versus using an old, foreign engine.
My bet is that they have plenty of content at this point. Stuff already created and playable. Hell, they may have the entire game already created with the existing engine, just waiting for the right time to either give it an overhaul or recreate it from the ground up based on what they have. I just find it tough to believe that Half Life has ever remained dormant as far as development goes.
There's a lot riding on a follow up to what many regard as the greatest game of all time. So it's understandable that they keep progress under wraps until they're confident that they have something that can be held in a similar regard. Newell's gonna be a perfectionist with it. That you can be sure of.
While again everyone could theorize.. yet another theory is that resources from valve are pooled towards other projects and there isn't a single shred of work being done on HL3.. simply because it is a money pit and they could easily make more money on cheap stuff they buy from other people and sell for 10 bucks on Steam. HL3 would be millions of dollars to create.. yes millions upon millions.. Hell I worked on Freelancer like 10 years ago and over 50 million dollars was spent before that game was released.. and that was 10 years ago. To make the game worthwhile it would have to be amazing which means it would cost a crap load of time and money. Why do that when you can pay some Independant company a few thousand bucks for a game to sell on Steam and make huge profits with little to know risk? We might see a half life 3.. but if we do.. it is not because Valve is shooting for the moon on HL3 sales.. they are simply looking to lease their engine.. would would have to be amazing in itself. With the competition there is already.. I can't see a smart business man re-inventing the wheel. There is nothing you can do in a new game engine that hasn't been done before. When Half Life 1 came out it did something unique.. the first game to have colored lighting effects. Stuff light that drew people to the engine. Now... nah.. there is nothing you can create that will draw a crowd like that. I just don't see it happening. Just my opinion though.
Well if you played it to the end.. you can tell that Microsoft had enough and just told the team to finish the game anyway they could with the resources they had. That was something they promised Chris Roberts they wouldn't do. There was still a lot to be done, and the story interactions "Which I may add where the same as Mass Effect long before Mass Effect" where cut out and funds where stopped. Microsoft got tired of dumping money and not seeing a game release. Chris stopped even coming to the office like a month after Microsoft started being a dicks. He was pretty pissed.
That pissed everyone off because if you loved Wing Commander you sooo wanted the Freelancer world to work....but that is an entirely different thread and story.
Who knows.. there could be engine limitations that prevent it from competing.. when you see some of the mocap intergrations and stuff they have now days.. maybe Source is still lacking something to make it competitive. For all we know the engine could have a poly count limitation based on old hardware specs from the time.
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