Why is it taking so long?

As a soon-to-become developer myself (hopefully) I realize that people dont actually know how much work that lies ahead of you once you decide to create a game.

Starting with creating a plot that works all the way, screenplay, characterdesign, then moving on to the modelling, audiorecording, texturing, lightning... every single bit are things that require alot of time to get perfected.
Valve are like Blizzard Entertainment; they won't release nothing until it is absolutely perfect. Which is good, but the wait makes you wanna bite parts off of your body.

And like someone said, some amount of the crew (probably) worked on Left 4 Dead, which slowed the EP3-progress down a bit.
I'm sure we will be hearing something before the end of February at least.
I'd rather wait another year than getting the last episode of the best game in the world, not complete and/or too short, just to please 15% of the fans that can't actually wait..
 
I agree with Nibwoddle.

I still wonder how us 360'ers will get it..
 
I'm not really that in a rush to be honest, I rather wait for as long as I can, as long as I can just play a "Nice game". If you rush them, they'll release the game sooner as there would be many things incomplete, many bugs, the story line wouldn't be so shocking, and the game will suck. Even if you rush, then you play finish the game. You'll complain like "Aww Valve is a noob company it's the final game and they make it like counter strike for kids!" No, my friend, no.

So now Valve won't actually care ANYMORE as a lot of their previous games sucked monkey balls. L4D wasn't bad. And if you actually wanna see what Valve is made of, I suggest you stop rushing for a while. And get Half life 2 Episode 3 out of your mind.
 
I can't believe how long it's taking personally. It's been well over a year since ep2 was released and we haven't even HEARD jack shit about episode 3. It makes me wonder how they can even call this stuff episodic. I'm sure some people are gonna jump on my case about how valve should take their time and not rush, but in all reality, how long does it take a huge professional game development company to make a 5 hour game, all they need to do is make some new maps, dialogue and maybe 2 new models.. They already have an engine and they are going to recycle sounds/models/etc anyway. I can't see why this is taking so long.
 
Short answer is that the episodes stopped being a top priority for Valve once they realised that the development overhead was much larger than they'd estimated, for something they're not even able to charge top dollar for (due to their very nature as 'episodes'). I haven't ever wanted Valve to rush stuff, but I have always wanted them to treat the HL series as their most important IP. Choosing the episodic business model, I feel, hasn't really allowed them to do this, due to practical considerations relating to their revenue stream.

Maybe Ep3 IS top priority now that L4D is out of the way. I certainly hope it is.
 
5 hours? This is the LAST game in this current combine story arch. So it will play for at least 7-10 hours.
 
And what excactly wasnt?
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All of them sold rather well, though not all of them were masterpieces. To name the worst example so far, Condition Zero.
 
Yes, CZ and Blue Shift recieved mixed responses too. From critics that is.
 
Operational said:
I'm not expecting Ep3 until late '09.
I'm expecting it to be something really special.

Time will tell.
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This tbh. I would rather they take their time than rush it and screw it up. So many games end up being a disappointment because the developers didn't take their time.
 
If it's taken this long I hope its a bit longer than episode two, maybe 8 chapters that you can play all of them, instead of the last chapter of episode 2 which just includes a bit of walking.
 
l4d obviously took a lot of energy and resources from Valve for some time. Now that it's over, they're splitting up into groups to work on tf2 updates, l4d updates, portal 2, and half-life 2: episode 3. So it could still take some time for hl 2: ep 3 to come out. I can't wait for every one of these.
 
the cow says moo said:
l4d obviously took a lot of energy and resources from Valve for some time. Now that it's over, they're splitting up into groups to work on tf2 updates, l4d updates, portal 2, and half-life 2: episode 3. So it could still take some time for hl 2: ep 3 to come out. I can't wait for every one of these.
Click to expand...

Portal 2, that apparently is a 'large-scale project' like half life 2 was, according to Doug Lombardi, so i can't imagine that being in the same stages of production as Episode 3. They're probably still brainstorming and taking that project slowly. The main project being worked on at valve currently are L4D, TF2, and EP3.
 
First I think they'll have to fix L4D first and release the SDK and new multiplayer levels (which would be awesome because I want user created content already!).

Next they'll probably focus on TF2 tweaks and new weapons because TF2 is their attractive child and they want to see it grow up right.

HL2 E3 is likely been in the works this entire time but don't expect anything. With all these other projects on the go I'm sure they're not too worried about finishing the one of the most popular FPS series ever. It wont matter to them when it comes out since we'll buy it anyway. They just want to get it right, and you gotta respect that.

So go play some mods, L4D, TF2 , whatever you need to do to put episode 3 out of your mind because I doubt we'll see it until the new NEW year (2010)
 
Half-Life 2: Episode 3 isn't actually in development right now, nor will it ever be. Episode 2 was the last episode in the series and the cliffhanger ending was designed solely to get you hyped up for a climax that will never happen.

Valve has trolled you all.
 
Darkside55 said:
Half-Life 2: Episode 3 isn't actually in development right now, nor will it ever be. Episode 2 was the last episode in the series and the cliffhanger ending was designed solely to get you hyped up for a climax that will never happen.

Valve has trolled you all.
Click to expand...

Agreed.
 
How long was that again? I never finished it since the On A Rail chapter sucked.
 
Oh, On A Rail. You're so horrible. And look at you, you come right after Power Up. Now how were you supposed to live up to that excitement and tension? I feel for you, On A Rail, I really do.
 
Of course, I'm actually past it already, I just never got around to actually getting further than that. And yeah, Power Up was excellent.
 
Sledgehammer said:
How long was that again? I never finished it since the On A Rail chapter sucked.
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emot-ughh.gif
 
eger_666 said:
Gabe told the last episode will be the THIRD episode!
Click to expand...
Gabe Newell lives under a bridge in a Bellevue park. He has grown fat off eating children that he entices with promises of GOTY video games and updates for TF2.

He is a troll lord.
 
Darkside55 said:
Gabe Newell lives under a bridge in a Bellevue park. He has grown fat off eating children that he entices with promises of GOTY video games and updates for TF2.

He is a troll lord.
Click to expand...

This.
 
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