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Half Life 3

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tokie said:
Kind of depressing actually. I have a feeling after EP2 they realized their mistake with doing episodic content, since it takes nearly as long as a full game. So my hope is that they have morphed the EP3 content they were working on into HL3.

If they just release EP3 with a similar amount of content to EP1/EP2, I will be very disappoint. I may not even purchase.
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Correction... it takes THEM nearly as long as a full game.
 
VulgarDisplay said:
Valve not making profit off Half Life?
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He didn't say no profit, he said not as much

It takes an order of magnitude of more time/resource/effort to produce a top end game like Half Life as it does a game like Counterstrike/TeamFortress/Portal or even Left 4 Dead.

Sure, the games might not be the same level of blockbuster but the sales of such games combined draw in more money overall and more for the effort put into them.

Gamers get more from those games as well. Games like HL might generate dozens of hours of gameplay, maybe hundreds at best. But games like CS/TF/L4D generate hundreds, possibly thousands of hours of gameplay.

As epic and awesome as HL is, its just far worse value for everyone involved.

For one I hope that Valve takes what they've learned from all these other successful games they've made and produce a HL3 that borrows several key elements from the other games.

Class system of Team Fortress combined with the co-op and AI Director of Left 4 Dead and the classic puzzles of HL and Portal so that a group of friends could play together over and over in even more epic fashion than L4D.
 

Seriously? Four player coop in Half Life? Classes? This would just make it some sort of freakish amalgam of three very different genres. I'm not against some new additons, but what you're proposing would make in half life in name only.

Besides when talking about Left 4 Dead of Team Fortress 2 you also have to take into account that Valve has to pay for the dedicated servers and devote some time and manpower to the patches, DLCs updates etc.
 
Am I the only person who thinks they should scrap the episodic content and just give us a full 6 year wait for a game?

I feel like full length COD games come out inbetween half life "episodes"
 
BurnItDwn said:
Isn't counterstrike a Mod for Half Life? Thus, counterstrike players should all be counted as Half Life players?
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Correct me if I'm wrong, but original CS was free or could be purchased with as a stand alone version.

CS:S comes w/ HL2 I believe....and you can also buy CS:S as a stand alone. I think.
 
Darklife said:
Seriously? Four player coop in Half Life? Classes? This would just make it some sort of freakish amalgam of three very different genres. I'm not against some new additons, but what you're proposing would make in half life in name only.

Besides when talking about Left 4 Dead of Team Fortress 2 you also have to take into account that Valve has to pay for the dedicated servers and devote some time and manpower to the patches, DLCs updates etc.
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The quintessential HL trait/experience is a continuous campaign that doesn't contain cutscenes with action spanning a continuous period of time as if the player is living within the game. That's it, there's nothing suggesting new elements could not be introduced. HL2 introduced an ability to lead small squads of AI resistance fighters, why not transform AI into human controlled?

The franchise has already brought forth games that allow us to play as otherwise tertiary characters such as Barney Calhoun and Adrian Shephard. Why not allow players to play as these characters, not individually in their own campaigns like in the past, but together in cooperation?

When I talk of class system, the characters would have more subtle specialties than a game like TF2, but a character like Adrian Shephard would understandably be a better combatant and be better with typical weapons while Gordon with his suit would be needed to get the group through hazards, etc.

Sorry, but a game like that would destroy a boring rehash of what we've already had with HL1 and HL2. I hope you're not against such an idea because you have no friends so you're terrified of a game built around sharing an experience with friends, that would be tragically sad if true.

BurnItDwn said:
Isn't counterstrike a Mod for Half Life? Thus, counterstrike players should all be counted as Half Life players?
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Yes, CS's origins were as a HL mod, however like with many things involved with Valve the game became its own entity separate of HL.

LessThanDan said:
No. Counter Strike: Source was always a separate game from Half Life 2.
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Maybe in terms of functionality, however I think he meant that many packages of HL2 included CS:S. My original retail copy of HL2 came with CS:S.
 
bunnyfubbles said:
The quintessential HL trait/experience is a continuous campaign that doesn't contain cutscenes with action spanning a continuous period of time as if the player is living within the game. That's it, there's nothing suggesting new elements could not be introduced. HL2 introduced an ability to lead small squads of AI resistance fighters, why not transform AI into human controlled?

The franchise has already brought forth games that allow us to play as otherwise tertiary characters such as Barney Calhoun and Adrian Shephard. Why not allow players to play as these characters, not individually in their own campaigns like in the past, but together in cooperation?

When I talk of class system, the characters would have more subtle specialties than a game like TF2, but a character like Adrian Shephard would understandably be a better combatant and be better with typical weapons while Gordon with his suit would be needed to get the group through hazards, etc.

Sorry, but a game like that would destroy a boring rehash of what we've already had with HL1 and HL2. I hope you're not against such an idea because you have no friends so you're terrified of a game built around sharing an experience with friends, that would be tragically sad if true.
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Yes, exactly. I sit alone in my unlit basement, with the computer screen serving as my light source, my fingers covered in Cheetos' crust vigorously masturbating to tentacle hentai all the while trying to think up Left 4 Dead strategies that involve me playing solo, due to the aforementioned lack of friends and a giant bottomless pit in the place of my heart. OH and my face is literally swarming with pimples!

Or, maybe I just think that what you're proposing would take away one of the trademarks of Half Life, it's silent protagonist. How would you explain three mute characters( assuming they were to add in coop play)? You would have to create some voice lines for them, which in turn would take away some of the magic.
 
Darklife said:
Yes, exactly. I sit alone in my unlit basement, with the computer screen serving as my light source, my fingers covered in Cheetos' crust vigorously masturbating to tentacle hentai all the while trying to think up Left 4 Dead strategies that involve me playing solo, due to the aforementioned lack of friends and a giant bottomless pit in the place of my heart. OH and my face is literally swarming with pimples!

Or, maybe I just think that what you're proposing would take away one of the trademarks of Half Life, it's silent protagonist. How would you explain three mute characters( assuming they were to add in coop play)? You would have to create some voice lines for them, which in turn would take away some of the magic.
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Agreed. Half Life is as much about being Gordon Freeman as anything else. Give the players the ability to play someone else, and it's not really Half Life any more.

Also, if the Half Life series were to be over after just one more game, I think everyone would be disappointed. There are WWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYY too many loose ends that need to be tied up before they could have a satisfying ending to the series, and I just don't see that happening in one game.
 
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The Source engine was pretty spectacular back in 2004. I ran this game on my shiny new x800xt and it was magnificent. It's really showing it's age now. When the Source engine is no longer useful, a new HL might be on the way.

I enjoyed the HL2 story, but the episodes have really been a disappointment. This is from a die-hard HL1 fan.
 
Gabe Newell has said that Episode 3 will probably be released as Half Life 3 (not as HL2: Ep. 3), a full sequel with (presumably) a lot more content than the previous episodes. Then again, he also said that they would focus on episodic content in order to get the story out more quickly in smaller chunks, and obviously that didn't pan out given how damn long it's been.
 
Ryland said:
I wonder if we will have to wait 12 years for HL3 and if it will be renamed HL3F 🙂
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Interesting thing about that, if/when Duke Nukem Forever is released, any game that comes out after that will be... a game that was released AFTER Duke Nukem Forever. That could include Half Life 3, Diablo 3, Gran Turismo 5...
 
Valve completely dropped the ball IMO with the HL series. They had (still have) a cash cow with massive worldwide following. They have taken beyond way far too long releasing HL2_EP3. I'm a HL fanboy for sure and I'm pissed off. No excuses for Valve coming from me!

Sure; the Source Engine has been a massive hit and they should be happy and proud. OK...great...how about FINISHING the story that got you all that attention in the first place? Are they even working on it? There have been no leaks, screenshots, rumors...nothing.
 
Lonbjerg said:
HL1 was good, a really refreshment of the FPS genre.
HL2 EP1 was suppar, plauged with bugs (stu-stu-stu-stuttering sound eg.) a damn short gameplay and weapons that never felt right.
HL2 EP2 was even shorter and more boring.

.oO(See the trend?)

HL2 EP3 won't be a game I will purchase.
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eh, I played Ep 1 on release and have replayed it at least twice with no major bugs at all.

Ep 2 was substantially longer than Ep 1. Have you honestly played these games at all?
 
I donno why but I never got into HL2. I always play somewhere around the water ski stages and lose interest.
HL2 has been just a so so game for me.

odd since I really enjoyed HL1.
 
AstroManLuca said:
Gabe Newell has said that Episode 3 will probably be released as Half Life 3 (not as HL2: Ep. 3), a full sequel with (presumably) a lot more content than the previous episodes. Then again, he also said that they would focus on episodic content in order to get the story out more quickly in smaller chunks, and obviously that didn't pan out given how damn long it's been.
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I think what he said was that the 3 episodes were HL3. I remember reading that a while ago and being pissed because i thought they were working on HL3 in the background whilest putting out episodes.
 
simonizor said:
Agreed. Half Life is as much about being Gordon Freeman as anything else. Give the players the ability to play someone else, and it's not really Half Life any more.

Also, if the Half Life series were to be over after just one more game, I think everyone would be disappointed. There are WWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYY too many loose ends that need to be tied up before they could have a satisfying ending to the series, and I just don't see that happening in one game.
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Except if you call it Half Life: Opposing Forces, or Half Life: Blue Shift.
 
Darklife said:
Yes, exactly. I sit alone in my unlit basement, with the computer screen serving as my light source, my fingers covered in Cheetos' crust vigorously masturbating to tentacle hentai all the while trying to think up Left 4 Dead strategies that involve me playing solo, due to the aforementioned lack of friends and a giant bottomless pit in the place of my heart. OH and my face is literally swarming with pimples!

Or, maybe I just think that what you're proposing would take away one of the trademarks of Half Life, it's silent protagonist. How would you explain three mute characters( assuming they were to add in coop play)? You would have to create some voice lines for them, which in turn would take away some of the magic.
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voiced lines work just fine in L4D/L4D2, and playable characters wouldn't have to be all mutes. Playing as Barney and Alyx for instance. Barney has been voiced and was the playable character in Blue Shift. So its not like we're doing anything crazy here. And they could even leave Gordon mute, which could still realistically and easily be done in even more amusing fashion and make it an occasional joke for the other voiced characters to play off of for comic relief.

its ok dude, I'd friend you so we could play a HL3 with co-op. I'd even let you play as your fantasy mute Freeman
 
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Lonbjerg said:
HL1 was good, a really refreshment of the FPS genre.
HL2 EP1 was suppar, plauged with bugs (stu-stu-stu-stuttering sound eg.) a damn short gameplay and weapons that never felt right.
HL2 EP2 was even shorter and more boring.

.oO(See the trend?)

HL2 EP3 won't be a game I will purchase.
Click to expand...

Well the whole point of episodic gaming was that they could release an episode every year, therefore the shorter game, but all three together would have been equal to the length of Half-Life 2. Even so, most single player games these days only last 5-6 hours, 8 if you're lucky, so I don't think the Episodes are that much poor value. But considering they didn't release episodes fairly quickly it kinda lost its intended purpose.

Plus they kept dorking around with new technologies that would delay the episode. They should have just continued with the original engine and offered expansions. Would have moved things along a lot more quickly.

Either way, I am seriously irritated that they keep delaying Half-Life Ep 3 or Half-Life 3 whatever they decide. Instead they crank out two Left 4 Dead games in a year and while I'm excited about Portal 2, I'd MUCH rather see Episode 3 or better yet Half-Life 3 and at least finish the story. There's no excuse for an extremely successful franchise to just leave things open. It would make its money back tenfold or more.
 
htwingnut said:
Either way, I am seriously irritated that they keep delaying Half-Life Ep 3 or Half-Life 3 whatever they decide. Instead they crank out two Left 4 Dead games in a year and while I'm excited about Portal 2, I'd MUCH rather see Episode 3 or better yet Half-Life 3 and at least finish the story. There's no excuse for an extremely successful franchise to just leave things open. It would make its money back tenfold or more.
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Yup and while people say that the Left 4 Dead is a different team altogether, it's resources taken away from Half Life. Same wit Portal. It's all resources taken away from Half Life. It really pisses me off thinking about it.
 
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