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."

Comments

Queue half-life jokes

[192939495969798999]

And now for all the jokes relating the number of half-life sequels to some periodic radioactive decay!

(crickets)

Re:Queue half-life jokes

[moderatorrater]

All right, the original was released in '98. Half Life 2 was released in '04, Episode 1 in '06, and Episode 2 in '07. It appears to be accelerating. At this rate, our children will be able to play nothing but half life sequels!

Re:Queue half-life jokes

[enjerth]

If the boxed version of Episode 17 includes Episodes 16, 15, 14... etc AND the original Half-Life 2, then my kids won't likely be able to afford to play Half-Life as the box will cost $390.

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

[hidannik]

So if you're a PC player, buy Team Fortress and Portal individually. Through Steam, you can.

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

Re:Queue half-life jokes

[heinousjay]

So, looking in the Steam Store, I see the Orange Box is $49.95. Checking the individual prices shows me that Episode 2 sells for $29.95, Team Fortress 2 for $29.95, and Portal for $19.95. I see no Black Box option. This leads me to believe that in your comment, the "M" in "MSRP" means "man on the Internet" because I see no such suggested price from the manufacturer. I guess you're allowed to assign whatever value you like, but comparing the price against something that was never offered is kinda retarded.

Sequels....

[Lulfas]

Yes yes, news that a sequel to a huge well selling franchise might be coming. Obvious cat is obvious!

You coul dhave included...

[tyroneking]

... 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"

Half-Life 2 Ep 3 Gameplay

[Cerberus7]

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?

Re:Half-Life 2 Ep 3 Gameplay

[enderjsv]

But therein lays the predicament. Often times, freedom comes at the expense of story and character development. If I had to choose between the awesome story and charming characters of HL2, or a more open environment, I'd choose the former.

Re:Half-Life 2 Ep 3 Gameplay

[MrHanky]

The characters of GTA: Vice City and San Andreas were much, much better than the ones in Half-Life 2, perhaps in part because of the superior voice acting, but also because they had larger than life personalities. What exactly is there to Alyx? She's a boilerplate "fun" girl who likes action and dangerous things, but she doesn't express any personal ideas (well, she came up with the word 'zombine'), and she certainly doesn't properly function as a dramatic character. For that you need some sort of conflict, like with those traitorous scumbags Big Smoke and Ryder. Apart from the one with the Combines, all conflicts in HL2 are shallow and superficial, but that one suffers from being too big and too obvious to really generate interest. It's not like you ever consider going over to the Combines as a serious option, is it?

And what exactly is so great about the story? It consists mainly of going from one place to the next while shooting stuff and sometimes even solving small problems. Sometimes you get cooler toys. Hey, even a James Bond movie can do better than that.

No, what HL2 has going for it is that it's an immensely well made action game. Like a rollercoaster, it runs on rails, but like a well-made rollercoaster, it has well thought out pacing, the right intervals between challenging moments, and so on. A rollercoaster isn't supposed to tell a story, and neither is HL2. There is, perhaps, a story in there somewhere, but it's not one of the positive aspects of the game.

Re:Half-Life 2 Ep 3 Gameplay

[Chyeld]

Valve has a love for games on rails. They do everything they can possible to ensure that you see what they want you to see, when they want you to see it, without being aware of the rails. Listen to the dev commentary in Ep 2 and Portal and it becomes immediately obvious that the perfect game experience in Valve's mind would be to give the illusion of GTA while ensuring you never actually stray from the path.

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.

Re:Half-Life 2 Ep 3 Gameplay

[enderjsv]

First, I'll reply to what I agree with. GTA Vice city (and 3 and San Andreas) were GREAT games with great stories and great characters (lotsa great). That being said, the GTA franchise is far more linear than people make it out to be. Sure, in between missions there is a sandbox, but once a mission starts, it's a linear endeavor from start to finish. And lets not fool ourselves, what made the characters so appealing in the GTA games was the scripted cut scenes and awesome voice acting, not any sandbox interaction we had with these characters.

I could concede that in between plot points, there is probably room for more sandbox variety in HL, but when it comes to advances in plot or storyline, I'm willing to forgive the linearity.

As for your specific remarks about the HL2 story and Alyx in particular, you're entitled to your opinion, but I for one found it to be remarkably captivating. In fact, Alyx is one of the best formed characters in recent gaming history, in my opinion. One reviewer (I forget which one) cited a specific situation that I think really captures Alyx's character. He was driving through the wilderness when he happened to look over at Alyx in the passenger seat. She looked back at him, smiled and winked.

Valve will give up on HL franchise....

[robinsonne]

...about the same time Blizzard gives up on WoW.

Re:Valve will give up on HL franchise....

[gEvil (beta)]

Activision is gonna buy Valve?!? : o That's what you just said!

linux client please

[pak9rabid]

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.

Re:linux client please

[LingNoi]

Since Gabe is ex-Microsoft I think your answer would be "when hell freezes over". Of course they'd never publicly say that.

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 openGL? If anyone knows the answer to that then why can't they put a little work into getting a client that works on *insert fav distro*?

I think it's good to also have some perspective here. Linux isn't popular and it's only in the last few years that the majority of the public are taking it seriously for desktops. Even so I bet it would be quick for them to get a native client up and running in no time. It's just they see no value in doing so.

TF2 maps!!!

[martin_b1sh0p]

How about a few more TF2 maps on the console!!!

Re:Just give us a Halflife movie already!

[HairyNevus]

On the IMDb boards, there's already a lot of speculation on who would play Freeman. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0239023/board/nest/65756292

What will be in Episode 3? We know some of it.

[Hackie_Chan]

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.

Re:What will be in Episode 3? We know some of it.

[rvw14]

I will play Episode 3 only if there is cake.

Re:I know Valve can do no wrong but...

[Cheesey]

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.