As for the topic at hand, I don’t really know what to think. Going all out open-world like Skyrim or whatnot doesn’t seem very appealing. It feels like it’d just detract from the story and lose focus, considering the huge change in style. However, going in a less extreme direction, similar to Crysis or such could be interesting, simply making it less corridor-y.
I highly doubt the information is real in the first place, though.
I’ve always imagined that it would be properly immersive AND properly interactive if the player could move their view up and down somewhat quickly to “nod yes” and move their view left and right somewhat quickly to “shake their head no”.
I think that an open world HL game could be very interesting if done right.
Ideally I think that it would put you in control of a new character, sometime before the events of HL2, and let you play as perhaps a resistance fighter. It could be based on stealthy travel and movement, and you have to be careful to avoid combine patrols and be sure not to lead them to a base, or it could be dynamically destroyed and any parts of the story there lost. There are a lot of interesting ideas there.
I have suspected this for years now, so this comes as no surprise.
Though open world might possibly be a bit much. I’m sure it will have more than one ending and/or several ways of doing things.
The way valve makes stuff could turn this into such an awesomegame though. Just imagine how many hours of stuff you missed the first few playthoughs would be in the game…
I highly doubt valve will go pure open world. Maybe small areas with more exploration detail, but let’s be honest half life is known for its excellent linearity, not for its weighty choices or big environments.
This is probably like what the director of Terminator Salvation did - spew out some bogus information to throw off people from the scent of the actual plot and gameplay 
Open world gameplay may not be the answer, but something has to change. A new engine using the same old gameplay mechanic will only give you more frequent, longer loading times that more often than not break immersion and that’s long been an issue with the series. I’d like to see a balance between the two.
I think a bunch of smaller open world areas would work, especially with the portal storyline. Besides, if we get to see Xen or other borderworlds, that would be a seperate map altogether.
Gameplay mechanics have nothing at all to do with loading times.
If this is actually true, you can be pretty much certain that Valve will design a new loading system.
I recall gaben himself saying they have something even cooler that the portal gun in store for the HL series so I don’t think we have to worry about gameplay mechanics. That was a long time ago though.
As for the loading screens, since they haven’t gotten rid of them by now, I think it’s safe to assume it’ll take a major engine update to do so. And by major I mean basically a new engine.
But isn’t the source engine all modular and designed to be easily changed?
I don’t really know how anyone would think this would be out of place anyway. Half life’s mission structure always resembled those seen in lite rpgs. Npcs telling you what to do and whatnot. The only difference would be that you get to choose what to do first. Something in the style of the darkness or even borderlands to an extent would be perfect for half life. A hub with portals that lead to relatively linear areas.
If it was like RAGE I would not mind.
It can be more open but significant rpg elements…NO WAY!!!
There’s only so much you can change before you have to start from scratch. The engine was built with certain limitations in mind, such as the number of things that can be put into a map and that kind of stuff. If they could easily get rid of loading screens I would imagine they would have in Portal 2. I suppose it kind of worked in that game, with them being after every chamber but I can’t imagine it was a conscious decision to leave them in.
No more loading screens is exactly the sort of thing that’s taking HL3 so long, I think.
gordon used growl. rebels attack has fallen.
If they actually make Half-life what3vs, I don’t see them going through with this. Maybe expanding the idea of a somewhat “open-linear” game, like at the strider battle in EP2, only expanding it to an entire game.
I wish my user name was Eordon.
The strider battle is a perfect example of what I’m thinking of when I think VALVe open world.
This is exactly what I was thinking.
Founded in 2004, Leakfree.org became one of the first online communities dedicated to Valve’s Source engine development. It is more famously known for the formation of Black Mesa: Source under the 'Leakfree Modification Team' handle in September 2004.