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Valve Plans For More Half-Life Beyond Episode 3
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."
On second thought they'd probably make Michael Bay do it and then we'd all die a little inside after watching it.
And now for all the jokes relating the number of half-life sequels to some periodic radioactive decay!
(crickets)
stuff |
Yes yes, news that a sequel to a huge well selling franchise might be coming. Obvious cat is obvious!
... the few extra words in the Ars 'article':
"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/
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"
I can't even begin to consider anything about Half-Life 3, but since we're speaking of the Half-Life series...
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?
I don't know about you, but my servers run on the power of cotton candy and happy thoughts. -Anonymous Coward
...about the same time Blizzard gives up on WoW.
Valve plans to milk the cow dry.
If this proves to be true I will be so glad. The HL franchise is by far my favorite. I love HL series and hope it continues for a long time. Otherwise it shall be a very disappointing day for me. :-)
They won't farm the PS3 version out to EA to fsck up. Unlike like the orange box with its pathetic loading times, and frame rate issues making it just about unplayable in places.
I really wish Valve would put out a Linux client so us Linux-only users can play HL2 + sequels without the performance rape associated with using Wine (no hate on the Wine project...it kicks ass at what it does). Ah well, I guess we'll have to wait for Microsoft to shoot themselves in the foot for a few more years before that will ever become a possibility.
A sequel to a successful franchise? Shocking!
In other news: Who started this whole "Half-Life ends with Ep3" rumor anyway?
I use Windows... like a two dollar wh.. why don't I just go ahead and not finish that sentence.
How about a few more TF2 maps on the console!!!
I don't know why they insist on the allusions to the crowbar. Yes, I used the crowbar in the original HL, and in the beginning of HL2, but really, I think the Zero Point Energy Field Manipulator is really the item that is most closely associated with Half Life these days, isn't it? I mean, heck, it's the first thing you get in Episode 2, and I really think you could play the entire game using almost nothing but the G-Gun.
It's also pretty unique to HL2. I don't think I've seen anything quite like it in any other games, though I'm hardly a gaming encyclopedia.
Why are you only getting up in arms about copy protection now, when companies have being doing this since the Commodore Amiga?
"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."
Great, so as long as I'm running the same Windows in 5 years and still have Steam on it, I can still play my game. This is not what I described as a situation you're being intellectually dishonest by suggesting it as a solution.
"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."
I believe I already called bullshit on believing any company about future promises in my original post. More intellectual dishonesty, I'm seeing a trend here...
"I don't know where you got this idea. Surely activating online is the same as entering a CD key, only online? What if you lose the CD key and you want to install the game later? What if you want to go back in 20 years time only to realise you can't install the game because you don't have a code?"
Umm these are not at all the same. I'm not thrilled with CD keys, but compared to online activation they are freaking fantastic. 1) any CD key will do for single player, 2) they normally only lock you from playing with the same CD key online or on a local networked game. They tend to be written on the jewel case or manual the game came with. If you lose your manual or jewel case, please see point one, 2 minutes of googling will also solve such a problem. At any rate, losing my game manual is 100 times more in my control than what Valve does or does not do. Oh also, if I buy my game in Taiwan my Taiwanese CD key will still work when I get back home in the US. If I import my game from anywhere on the global market, it will work in fact. CD keys are nearly 100% immune from a company's capricious desires once I get the freaking software home.
"Why are you only getting up in arms about copy protection now, when companies have being doing this since the Commodore Amiga?"
I've been playing since the Commodore 64 days, only now I spend several thousand dollars a year on gaming software alone. I have never liked copy protection. I don't know why you would assume I'm just now "up in arms" about it given that we've most likely never met or spoken before. Beyond that, online activation goes much further than copy protection. Unless you honestly want to claim that and explain how DIVX is the same as CSS (for DVD) that is.
Like I said, I know there's a whole lot of Valve apologists out there, but please avoid intellectual dishonesty.
I certainly wouldn't mind my Half-Life a little brandied up.
Gabe Newell seems to show a lot of fancy towards the episodic method of distributing games. Put that in mind when he remarked to Eurogamer a while back that Episode 1 to Episode 3 "essentially" was Half Life 3. Smaller teams with less to lose permits them to take more risks in game design. Does this mean the real Half Life 3 (not episode 1-3!) will be distributed the same way?
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. 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 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.
What's so bad about being lazy? What if there was a war and nobody showed up?
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.
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 the Steam platform. Also, I doubt that the third-party games on Steam would be affected by the universal unlock. So don't put any faith in Valve doing the right thing as the ship sinks, because it won't happen.
I don't know where you got this idea. Surely activating online is the same as entering a CD key, only online? What if you lose the CD key and you want to install the game later? What if you want to go back in 20 years time only to realise you can't install the game because you don't have a code?
No, it's not the same. If the servers are down or you don't have an Internet connection, you can't do online activation. And you do have to reactivate online if your hardware or your OS changes, even if you install from a backup you have made. CD keys don't have these problems.
Never forget, Steam is iTunes for games. There's nasty DRM all over the place, but since it mostly works fine, many people don't mind. Just bear in mind that the games aren't really yours, even though you paid for them, because Valve can ban your account. This is the price of convenience. It is the same deal with DIVX, with iTunes, with Wii Shop/Xbox Live Arcade, and with Windows Media. If you don't like it, don't buy it.
In Steam's defense, I will say this - there are no limits to the number of downloads for a particular game. You really have bought a license to play, so you can shift your account between as many PCs as you want. This is a good thing: much better than DIVX, who didn't provide free replacement disks, much better than the console services which lock downloaded games to one device, and much better than iTunes, which limits the number of machines you can activate. What really amazes me about Steam is that the DRM it provides is not enough for some companies (cough, Take 2) and their games (cough, Bioshock), so they hack on their own incompatible extra solutions (cough, SecuROM). If we must have DRM, at least let it be standardised.
>north
You're an immobile computer, remember?
I never had an issue playing a single player game with Steam. When I do, maybe I can go down that road. Until then, it is a non-issue that people seem to make a big deal about.
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 intellectually honest here. Old games already don't work on XP unless you jump through some huge number of hoops and even then you may not be able to get them to work. Just because you have the media does not mean you will have the hardware or software in the future that will be able to play the game anyways. If you are really so worried, you can stick to console gaming and save that for your future offspring
For the great majority of the people Steam is convenient and easy to use. If you want to deprive yourself of quality games, feel free to. But don't tell me where I should spend my money and who I should support.
Support a great indie game: http://www.abaddon360.com
A few examples of old games I have played recently (in the last 2 months) on Windows XP SP2:
Dungeon Keeper
Baldur's Gate
Planscape Torment
Abe's Oddysse
Most games do work. And I do have my old software if I need it, it can be run in a VM fine. I have my old hardware too, though I don't see why I'd ever need it when it can be emulated in real time.
The point of buying a game is to trade your cash (your time and effort) for the game (the author's time and effort) to enjoy whenever you please. If the author retains the right to jack back his half of the bargain while keeping my cash, well then that sucks. That's why Steam sucks. Having to do something illegal to get around it (like download the cracked version) which could eventually become very difficult to do without landing yourself in hot water makes it even worse.
I think my intellectual honesty is fine here. Nothing I've said is untrue and those are the games I've played recently on my screaming hardware that also runs Clive Barker's Jericho and all other recent games with all the goodies turned on.
There are three reasons Steam sucks:
1. 5 to 20% cpu utilization at all times, even when not playing HL2. At least on my pc.
2. Takes the control of the license key and gives it to Valve, not you.
3. Blocks the game rental industry.
There is a reason Steam is free. And nothing is free.
Awake you Lemmings! Awake!
....to Valve discovering the joys of open ended game play. Their scripted games are great, but after playing San Andreas, and other games of that type, I think it is clear that there lies the future. I'd love to run around in the beautifully rendered Half Life world with the gravity gun, whimsically careening hither and thither in vehicles and such.
I hold very few opinions. I hold information based on observation and fact. If you wish to disagree, please use facts.
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.
Who knows how long those cracked versions will be available? You'd better grab them now while you have the chance. And once you've done that, why bother with Steam?
What? No love for the Mac?
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...
Answer truthfully (yes or no) this question... Will you say no to this question?
Having the One True Path worked just fine for the first Half-Life, because you were trapped in a collapsing underground base so it made sense that your movement options were very limited. Valve continued to make great "on rails" games with Half-Life 2 and it's Episodes, but the illusion disappeared because you spend most of the game in cities or in open country. After the first game, there hasn't been a single moment that I wasn't aware that I was "on rails". As someone pointed out, FarCry is a great counter example. You still have to get to your destination, still have to pass through choke points (so you can still have your scripted moments) but you have plenty of choices on how to get there. To that I would add Deus Ex, where many of the levels included multiple ways to travel, but multiple ways to accomplish your objective. I would further argue that Valve spends at least as much time on their scripted scenes as if they had some more open areas and let the AI do some work for once.
Nintendo plans to continue producing mario titles. Shocking.
I are winner