Valve is still "not prepared to talk about" Half-Life: Episode Three "at the moment", despite the last episodic instalment having been released almost three and a half years ago.
That's what head scribe Chet Falisek told News.com.au, later pretending to be on the bad end of a dodgy phone line, before joking (or was he?) that the third Half-Life episode will expose dimensional travler G-Man as "Gordon Freeman from the future".
In late 2009 Valve's Chet Falisek visited the CVG office and when quizzed on the missing-in-action third HL2 instalment, was rather cagey.
"Until we have something we have to announce we tend not to talk about what we're working on," he said.
A later magazine rumour suggested that Episode Three might not even release in episodic form. Whether its via box product, download or stage play, we just want it to come out.
Comments
24 comments so far...
El Mag on 21 Feb '11 said:
But whyyyyyyy Valve, i need my Alyx Vance fix you can't leave everybody with an ending like THAT one *floor tantrum*
altitude2k on 21 Feb '11 said:
That was one hell of a cliffhanger ending in Ep2. Especially when you consider the length of time.
I'm expecting there to be a full HL3 release next, rather than Ep3. Either that or they bring out Ep3 knowing full well that HL3 is well under way and soon to be released.
jdkoke on 21 Feb '11 said:
Grrrrr it would've been better if you didn't do this article at all, you've opened a wound. Whhhhhyyyyyyy Valve whhhhhhyyyyyyy
Nah but seriously, pull the finger out and get it done or I'll start a petition
RandyTandy on 21 Feb '11 said:
I think more than ever, we need a new Half Life game; really show all of these hand-holding, military shooters how it's done.
Here's looking forwards to Portal 2 anyway.
gilly83 on 21 Feb '11 said:
valve i love you, i love your games and i spend a lot of time playing your games every week... you care for us pc gamers when no one else does
but
please give us epi3 or HL3
Love,
the whole world
not that iam desperate of nothin'
justforkicks101 on 21 Feb '11 said:
no rush fellas, im only getting old as i wait, if it isnt here by my 40th im starting a petition damnit
anytime on 21 Feb '11 said:
They (valve) dont want it to end either, they have major headaches about letting there beloved hl end,draw the curtains, close its door, so much so that there have been major arguments about how it will end - if it will end, to the extent it is kind of in limbo right now. Lets face it half life is special to valve and i wouldnt put a hl3 thought in the bin. But for the good of the game it deserves an amazing send off and a episode 3 doesn't seem fit imo.
sonic_uk on 21 Feb '11 said:
Most people said at the time Valve announced they would do the game in Episodic content (including me) that it was a bad idea as we have no way of knowing how long it will take until the next Episode is released (its the same story with Sonic 4 - and indeed any other game that uses Episodic content instead of a full on start - finish campaign). Either this game don't exist anymore (hard to believe given how popular the Half-Life games are, and the revenue they must generate for Valve) or Valve are making one hell of an end to Half Life 2 that will blow your socks off. I can't help feeling its the former, but I guess only (more) time will tell.
altitude2k on 21 Feb '11 said:
Why does the next Half Life have to be the last Half Life?
ravingkamikaze on 21 Feb '11 said:
cos 2 halves make a whole??
pRM8 on 21 Feb '11 said:
Surely it doesn't take this long to make a 5-7Hr long game....
I wish they would just make up their minds though, is it a full game or is it episodic? Its funny though as I really think they don't have a clue themselves, I think its more down to them making other games and just putting HL3/HL:E3 or whatever they are going to call it on the back burner.
It was 6 years between the first 2 games then they wanted to do episodic as 'from the stats' only 30% played the whole of HL2 and they wanted more people to play through it to the end so making it shorter was one way of doing that. What happened after HL2:E2 I don't know but they obviously changed their thinking on the whole episodic way of doing things so I reckon we are in for another long wait before we get the next HL game. It will be a whole game as people wont be happy with just 6Hrs after such a long time waiting as it kind of falls out of the definition of being episodic.
Oh and Doug Lombardi is quoted as saying that it wont be the end at HL3, though not sure how reliable that is. http://www.gamersglobal.com/news/438
nathar on 21 Feb '11 said:
If you completed HL and HL2 in 5-7 hrs first time through then thats a very impressive achievement. For most people the playtime to completion for both games was significantly longer than that first time through. Ep1 was about 4 hrs, and ep2 was about 5hrs. There seems to be a growing acceptance that a single player FPS need only be that long (MW/Homefront), but honestly id expect a minimum 15hrs from a game. I look at it as a hours to cost ratio. Something like MW2 has such a short SP campaign that it worked out at around £6-8 an hour to play it when new.
I suspect Valve will announce something when they have it almost ready. I would imagine theyll go straight onto HL3, with a new or updated source engine, and that itll tie in with Portal so maybe some hints in Portal2 about the links between aperture science and black mesa. Either way - L4d, L4d2, Portal2, DoTA and the updates to TF2 are a hell of a way to kill some time while waiting for the main event.
runadumb on 21 Feb '11 said:
Look it's been delayed because they have decided to ditch the ancient source engine and build a brand new utterly turbo mega engine that blows every current game into dust. Well that's my hope anyway. Come on valve, push the PC to the next level.
Very_Silver_Ownz on 21 Feb '11 said:
'' Valve 'not prepared to talk about' Half-Life: Episode 3 ''
but...but they just did
The Sandbag on 21 Feb '11 said:
It's Valve. It will be worth it.
Just if they leave us on another cliffhanger I will kill someone.
Metagen on 21 Feb '11 said:
Personally I'll be looking for some sort of hint about Half-Life while playing through Portal 2
pRM8 on 21 Feb '11 said:
I don't claim to have completed either of the first two games within 7hrs though so not sure what your getting at. I was actually having a dig at them for taking so long to develop the next installment of HL considering they were doing these episodes at around 5-7 Hrs play through and was suggesting it really shouldnt take them this long.
I really thought I wouldn't have to have explained myself on that one...
The_Hun1 on 21 Feb '11 said:
how about merging episode 3 into half life 3, come on, do it, i canny f**king wait much longer, my life is only so long.........
Blumiere on 21 Feb '11 said:
Duke Nukem Forever is due out in a few months time, so I'm sure Episode 3 or Half Life 3 even will be out for christmas.
Tingles dingle on 21 Feb '11 said:
I'm begining to suspect this will be an early next-gen game, which will mean it will be potentially very impressive upon release, but be heck of a long wait.
plain_kloz_cop on 21 Feb '11 said:
What the f**k, CVG!?! How about a spoiler alert before you tell us plot details like that!! Ok, calm down, I'm sure the plot won't do an 'inFamous' on us!!
theblkwhsp on 21 Feb '11 said:
I'm amazed the bean counters have allowed a franchise that includes a game which constantly wins the "best game of all time" award to allow such a long gap when disposable tat like CoD is hovering up cash. God I'd forgotten how good Valve is! Roll on Portal 2!
kimoak on 21 Feb '11 said:
My guess is as they were burnt so bad when their code was stolen for HL2 they are creating a full 3rd game and want to keep it quiet so that no bastard hackers come snooping trying to steal code. Keep details close to your chest and keep away from publicity is probably the best way to protect the game you are making.
The_KFD_Case on 22 Feb '11 said:
That may have something to do with the fact that Valve is still an independent company that isn't owned by any of the big-boy-publishers. Good on Valve.