I am really excited to maybe actually someday be able to play the next half life…

But when I watched the half life anniversary video a couple months back, their reasoning for why we didn't get more games bothered me. That they don’t want to put a game out solely to advance the story and instead only if it does something new.

As a fan of the series I thought this was frustrating and makes this a bit bittersweet and is kinda tempering my excitement. So we get HL3 soonish and Hl4 in another 20 years? I get it their reasoning but at some point I just want a game to come out for the story without reinventing the game every time.

That was just an excuse by Valve. The reality was that they were unable to finish numerous HL attempts due to the shortcomings of their organisational structure and somewhat absent/aloof/fickle top management.

Maybe they’ve finally recognized and fixed the real problem. Maybe not. We will see in future performance.

While I am sure that may be part of it.

How they have built games recently seem to backup what they said.

Aperture Hand Lab and HL:Alex was VR and partially pushing the Index.

Aperture Desk Job I can’t remember the name of was for the Steam Deck.

The way they have released games seem to backup what they are saying.

HL: Alex happened because "upper management" (aka the people with the actual power in their amorphous organizational structure) was engaged, and wanted a major title in VR. Major titles do not happen otherwise; excitement by the troops only goes so far, because there will always be setbacks and grind.

Too bad it's going to be non-VR. To me hybrid would be ideal. To have it like a normal game but VR as an option instead of VR-only like Alyx.

I've just replayed the original HL2 series in VR and it was amazing. A few community devs have completely made those games VR-capable and it feels like they were made for it. If they can do it so can Valve.

Man I wish I could play HL3 before I die. That's it. And maybe try out the new Hammer/Worldcraft, or whatever it is called.

To me throwing toilets what THE to thing of HL2 (nit graphics or story.Of course made possible by a great physics engine. Wondering how HL3 can top that.

Wow. When I read it I thought yeah right that's never happening, but that GMan clip is not subtle.

back in 2005 my friend and I were obsessed with the game and I told him I'd build a new computer when HL3 released because mine barely ran HL2. I still think about that for some reason and how crazy it would have been to us then that HL3 would simply never come

You‘ll get a huge performance boost though when it finally comes out

Reminds me of a one-sided bet eight-year-old me made with my dad in 1986; he reluctantly agreed to buy me an Atari 1040ST (to complement the 8-bit Atari and PC/AT clone I already had at the time) if the Indianapolis Colts won the Super Bowl.

Imagine my (lack of) disappointment when he refused to honor the arrangement twenty years later.

I've heard HL3 will be released along with Doom4.

Doom 4 (2016) was a amazing entry in the series, Doom 5 (Eternal, 2020) even more so.

DOOM (2016) was another Doom entry but it wasn't the original Doom 4 (which never got done).

What bothers me is that there's no mention of Half-Life 2 episode 3. Valve announced that they would switch to episodic development to "release games more frequently."

It was supposed to be a 3-episode story. They released parts 1 and 2 and part 3 was supposed to wrap up the story using the same engine.

They drop the episodic content idea, it will be a full game

You can watch the 20th anniversary doc, they speak about it : https://youtu.be/YCjNT9qGjh4?t=6381

I'll believe it once I see it for sale. The right product in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world

Man, I really loved modding for HL2, but they really neglected the Source SDK.

Hopefully this means we can finally get an upgrade.