Maybe they think he’s dreamy
what divides a Gordon Freeman from an Adrian Shepherd is simple. Adrian is faceless. Why? Cuz he’s unimportant.
actually, I think gman may have just stuffed adrian shepherd into a cryotank and a halloween costume so that he could go do what he’s good at. you know, kill unimaginative things with recycled ideas.
I would like him to at least make a cameo appearance, just to satisfy the hungry Shepard fans and to finally end the subplot he created. It would just seem dumb to not even mention the famous character, possibly a hint by Gman of his fate and such. I’m not saying he gets a major role, or even a minor role, just mentioned of his whereabouts.
EDIT: Ohhh, I see that sneaky move there Fodder, and good point as well.
that’d be a cool tid bit. Gman can mention “…you weren’t the ONLY one at Black Mesa to show supreme methods of survival.” 
Not that I don’t have choices, Doctor Freeman. You weren’t the… only one to excape Black Mesa alive who I have unlimited acesssss to. I happen to have a certain soldier in… Well… Let’s just say he can be… persuaded to our cause in return for his freedom.
Once again, time to choose, Mister Freeman. Time to… choose.
(If someone at valve happens to read this out of boredom, go ahead and use an edited version, I won’t mind ;D)
But Shephards story ended a long time after Freemans did.
Only during Black Mesa, I’m thinking this is part of his speech at the end of episode 3, when he gets ahold of Gordon again.
You’re talking as if you’ve already played Episode 3.
Maybe I am. 
No, I meant
Sorry that it didn’t come out the way I meant it to.
Send Shephard back in time to Vietnam, in an alternate universe where everyone has a moustache. Race X could follow him and team up with the Vietcong.
Or how about you take the some bio-weapons and race-X from Opposing Force, put them in Half Life EP. 3, and then realize that that was the only thing that set Opposing Force apart from Half Life. Admittedly, many of the HL2 Ep. 3 needs some good Bio-weapons…
I have to say…this thread made me die a little inside…Bean had the right idea…I don’t want Shepherd back…ever. Gordon Freeman is the person in the spotlight. Shepherd was like a spinoff and hopefully is floating through space after the G-man was done touching him.
Don’t get me wrong, Opposing Force was fun and well made, although I was never a fan of Race X on the whole. But Shepard doesn’t even have a personality, and unlike Gordon he doesn’t have relationships with well-developed characters like Alyx to give the illusion of a personality, so even if he was included in a future game I can’t imagine how it would be good. We don’t know what he looks like, sounds like, or thinks like. Hell, if you’re so bothered just pretend that one of the random rebels is Shepard or something.
But didn’t you say this is what you liked about the HL series? So that you can impart your own thoughts into said character?
Shepard doesn’t have a personality because YOU ARE SHEPARD - his personality is your personality. Same with Gordan, because Gabe Newell said so in Raising the Bar. They are BOTH supposed to be faceless - it is YOUR FACE IN THE CHARACTER!
So was Barney Calhoun at first. Now he’s a lead character.
And don’t give me that “He was an NPC first” Crap, that’s a generic ‘barney’ guard, not Barney Calhoun.
round and round we go.
Well he was an NPC first. The HL2 Barney’s personality is based on the NPC and his story is based on the Barney from BS.
You can’t do that with Shepard because the grunts in HL don’t have enough personality to base anything on, as far as I’m aware.
I like to believe that Adrian is the mute soldier from MINERVA. Somehow he’s knocked out of confinement, or dropped into the future after the 7 hour war. He decides to join up in Civil Protection, become a soldier (trying to recover his lost memory/sense of self?) Then MINERVA discovers who he really is and ‘appropriates’ him from the Combine.
Since Adam Foster, maker of the MINERVA levels, has been recruited by valve… I think this is one route to bring Adrian back into the story but not tangle his plot up with Gordon’s.