Gabe & Erik Appear on Episode 1 of Geoff Keighley Podcast, Gameslice

-smash- said:
Why does it have to be instead of, and not in combination with, a full game? They could fit some of those pieces together in one package. Package not meaning one release, but a generation like Dota 2 or TF2.
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Because the game clearly isn't ready. I'm extremely confident we'll get secondary materials such as comics and short films when the game is done, and even several prior to release building up to the game's launch. I actually imagine they'll cover the moments after Episode Two in a comic, meaning Half-Life 3 doesn't just have to start off in the middle of the hangar or some other new scenario. It would give Valve the freedom to start HL3 how they wanted while also getting people hyped up for more narrative stuff before the game even launches. Think of it as the Half-Life equivalent of Lab Ratt for Portal 2.
 
I find Valve and Gabe's attitude to be strangely patronizing. Somewhere along the line they started acting as though the fan interest in additional Half-Life content is absurd and unjustified.

Valve was in the middle of telling an epic story over many years and multiple games, and then they just stopped. They ended the last game on a gigantic cliffhanger and announced that there would be another game, and then they just stopped. And the worst part of it is their refusal to acknowledge any of this. They've even started acting like there was never supposed to be another game.

I always compare this situation to the Harry Potter books. Imagine if J.K. Rowling had written and released the sixth Harry Potter book and then just stopped. Imagine if years had gone by with no final book and no comment from J.K. Rowling. Imagine if, after a few years of radio silence, J.K. Rowling had started making comments like "I'm a fan of books and I certainly understand why people are like, you know, hey I remember this awesome experience and I'm starting to get worried that I'm never going to have it again... We aren't going to go all retro because there are too many interesting things that have been learned."
 
I can also imagine besides a comic book an update to HL2:Ep2 adding some more cinematics to the ending, much like was done to the ending of Portal 1?
 
For me what Gabe said meant that it is likely there wont be a Half-Life 3... I'm getting sad. But seriously, you can't do that! (well you can but it's so wrong!)
 
Vi-Pe said:
For me what Gabe said meant that it is likely there wont be a Half-Life 3... I'm getting sad. But seriously, you can't do that! (well you can but it's so wrong!)
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At best listening to the interview seems to me like the employees are more interested in VR, multiplayer, etc, doesn't seem like it's Gabe ordering them not to work on HL3.

Why would they have the HL3 files we have seen on JIRA if they don't want it anymore? I think it'll come out, we just don't know when or how it will look like...might be something we don't want in the end, but I'm pretty sure it'll come out one day....possibly...eventualy.
 
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SpotEnemyBoats said:
If your definition of fine is "just another soulless corporation like EA, Ubisoft and Activision in that they only care about money", sure.
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lol, when did this hatred begin? It's utterly unjustified; just because Valve want's to patiently deliver a good product to their fans, doesn't mean they wan't to abandon Half-Life 3 or such.
 
Lolcomputer said:
lol, when did this hatred begin? It's utterly unjustified; just because Valve want's to patiently deliver a good product to their fans, doesn't mean they wan't to abandon Half-Life 3 or such.
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Actually it is, microtransactions and in-game stores in every single game since the last 5 or 6 years. Limited Steam refund policy (only preorders), the worst customer service in the biz, selling unfinished games that may never be finished in Early Access and the mess that is Steam Greenlight.

Just because Valve is silent doesn't mean that they are making it, or if it ever comes out. Gabe even said it himself that they wont release a HL game unless it has an-game store of some kind. tl;dr Valve has become a shit company.
 
SpotEnemyBoats said:
Actually it is, microtransactions and in-game stores in every single game since the last 5 or 6 years. Limited Steam refund policy (only preorders), the worst customer service in the biz, selling unfinished games that may never be finished in Early Access and the mess that is Steam Greenlight.

Just because Valve is silent doesn't mean that they are making it, or if it ever comes out. Gabe even said it himself that they wont release a HL game unless it has an-game store of some kind. tl;dr Valve has become a shit company.
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I'm not entirely sure if you're either sarcastic or serious, but nontheless, I shall try and prove that Half-Life is still relevant to Valve.

First, the biggest implication to Half-Life 3's existance, is the testbed physics debugging program.
hl3-png.25062

This implies either,

A) that HL3 is so far in development, that it has begun physics debugging. They have created levels or worlds with a physics system, an unkown amount, that has occuring physics bugs, and they wan't to fix them. They have either created a basic game, or they have come very far in development, but considering that HL3 as a concept have been an idea since 2007, they most likely have come somewhat deep into development.

or

B) Valve have an interest in implementing new technology into HL3. So that confirms it's still in active development, or else they wouldn't be implementing Source 2 into HL3, and since Source 2 is waiting for a game to show of it's capabilites, HL3 could be Valve's next release.

Both of these could be false, and they could also be true at the same time.

And I really don't want to discuss Valves business strategies as much, since it's a much deeper topic in itself. Thoughts? Perhaps I'm overreacting, I'm staying open for fallacies.
 
Lolcomputer said:
.........................
First, the biggest implication to Half-Life 3's existance, is the testbed physics debugging program.
...............
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Or:
C) There was some HL-related prototype going on, but it was scratched a long time ago, and the team moved on to other projects. Only small chunks of initialization code remained in DLLs.
 
I've listened closely to the podcast and Gabe isn't really saying anything. He's very good at this. Politicians should hire him. His comments can be taken either way, BUT if Valve were really calling it quits on the game, there would be no danger at all in just coming clean. That would put a lot of headaches to rest.

Let's take a look at the big picture: you don't leave your money franchise on an extreme cliffhanger for the rest of eternity. Valve has yet to make a single stupid move in terms of game development. Every game they make is better than the last because of new gaming technology as much as brilliant storylines, voice acting, level design, etc. It's plainly obvious from this standpoint that they have not given, nor ever will give, up on this game. They just want it to be entirely new in every way conceivable. Gabe mentioned God knows how many years ago that they were trying to incorporate sign language and a deaf character into the game for the benefit of deaf players. This is the sort of thing no other gaming company even thinks of.

They also have a very specific direction in which to finish the HL story. Everyone knows it will take place in the Arctic, and we have concept art from 2008 proving this. If I were to blame Valve for the wait, and I don't, actually, I'd blame it on their corporate structure: the 330 or so employees may work on any game or hardware technology on which they want to work, so if no one has any great ideas for this or that game, there will probably be few people working on it. It's a matter of "cracking" the game. Once someone figures out how to proceed, many employees jump on the wagon. HL3 has no choice but to proceed at the slowest rate because they don't want to screw it up. If any game has to be the masterpiece of all time, this is the one, and you have to admire their patience and stoicism, their determination. Here's Gabe's quote:

"But you know if you want to do another Half-Life game and you want to ignore everything we've learned in shipping Portal 2 and in shipping all the updates on the multiplayer side, that seems like a bad choice. So we'll keep moving forward. But that doesn't necessarily always mean what people are worried that it might mean."

That last little addendum he said was completely unnecessary if they've given up on the game. He wouldn't have wasted his breath with it. In my opinion, the fact that he said what's in italics above tells me that HL3 is cooking. I don't know when, but they're working on it.

Even cranking out a bad game would be better than no game at all, so you may rest assured that at some point when we're old and gray (or this year, Hell, there's no way to know), Valve will publish Half-Life 3, and I personally expect it to be as great as we all imagine.
 
Vincent Pride said:
Or:
C) There was some HL-related prototype going on, but it was scratched a long time ago, and the team moved on to other projects. Only small chunks of initialization code remained in DLLs.
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The physics testbed is a relatively new thing, so I doubt it was scratched long time ago. Why bother using the effort to porting a game to more advanced technology, if you're not looking forward to working with it in the future.

You could be entirely true, especially with the lack of information we have, but I see it very unlikely that Half-Life 3 just got scrapped because of reasons. Valve clearly knows that Half-Life 3 will generate them a lot of money and reputation once it is released, so if Valve were the smart ones, they would wait till the product is worthy of a full-blown announcement, so that they don't implode their reputation with angry fans.

But it almost seems like it already has...
 
Lolcomputer said:
The physics testbed is a relatively new thing, so I doubt it was scratched long time ago. Why bother using the effort to porting a game to more advanced technology, if you're not looking forward to working with it in the future
.......................
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Well, considering how development in Valve goes - if papers on physics were presented this year, the initial development had probably started somewhere around 2010-2012, give or take. More over, they are probably reusing some old shelved code here and there - so it could be that HL3 references are dated even older.
 
Lolcomputer said:
I'm not entirely sure if you're either sarcastic or serious, but nontheless, I shall try and prove that Half-Life is still relevant to Valve.

First, the biggest implication to Half-Life 3's existance, is the testbed physics debugging program.
hl3-png.25062

This implies either,

A) that HL3 is so far in development, that it has begun physics debugging. They have created levels or worlds with a physics system, an unkown amount, that has occuring physics bugs, and they wan't to fix them. They have either created a basic game, or they have come very far in development, but considering that HL3 as a concept have been an idea since 2007, they most likely have come somewhat deep into development.

or

B) Valve have an interest in implementing new technology into HL3. So that confirms it's still in active development, or else they wouldn't be implementing Source 2 into HL3, and since Source 2 is waiting for a game to show of it's capabilites, HL3 could be Valve's next release.

Both of these could be false, and they could also be true at the same time.

And I really don't want to discuss Valves business strategies as much, since it's a much deeper topic in itself. Thoughts? Perhaps I'm overreacting, I'm staying open for fallacies.
Click to expand...

So what? SoB and Episode 3 had concept art and lines of code in Dota 2 and Portal 2, both of those games got canned. Hey, they could just as easily just stop working on a HL3 if it was being made, when Valve announce it then I'll believe Valve is going to make it.
 
Valve is like that friend who was your best friend in middle school, and when he joined high school he joined the football team and became the best quarter-back in the state and he promised never to stop being there for you but ended up getting caught up trying to please cheerleaders and other jocks (F2Pers) who would give him a short friendship but ditch him for the next great quarter back (F2P game) and stopped being your friend and acted like you never existed.
 
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SpotEnemyBoats said:
So what? SoB and Episode 3 had concept art and lines of code in Dota 2 and Portal 2, both of those games got canned. Hey, they could just as easily just stop working on a HL3 if it was being made, when Valve announce it then I'll believe Valve is going to make it.
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That's reasonable, no problem in being skeptical until provided concrete evidence.

Alrough that, SoB was confirmed to be canned by Gabe, Half-Life 3 wasn't. No where in the podcast did Gabe say the same thing about HL3 that he did about SoB, which is enough to speculate that Half-Life 3 is still cooking in Valve's complex.

Gabe referenced SoB as an impossible project. In contrast to that, Gabe said, that he and his team wanted to innovate Half-Life 3, combine what he learned from previous titles, and create something that does not dissapoint.
 
rikt said:
After reading all the reasoning here amd listening to the Podcast again suddenly it's not that clear that anything will happen...
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Does that mean we can shut up about it for now?
 
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