What IS Half-Life 3

Half-Life Series
#1

I was reading these on Combine Overwiki and it really sparked my interest:

I know we basically know nothing about Half-Life 3, but I’m just kind of trying to sort this out. So according to the above sources, Gabe said that they’re moving to “single player plus” games? With “social components added to them?” So what exactly do you think this means? The only thing that comes to mind is that either, HL3 will have more a more expansive multiplayer component, or that the entire game will feature some kind of co-op. I’m definitely up for multiplayer, but I really don’t think that co-op in the main campaign is very fun. After all, Gordon is the messianic One Freeman right? And I can’t help think of how many annoying (and sometimes drunk) people I play with in L4D. Anyone have any theories on this?

And onto the second quote, this seems kind of interesting. So Gabe’s saying they’re moving onto shorter cycles? Again, two more things come to mind: One, Half-Life 3 will literally be some kind of nonstop content game where we’ll get a new mission or chapter each week (don’t know, sounds kind of weird) or, with DLC becoming more and more common, we’ll see little missions tacked onto the game after the initial release of the main HL3 storyline is complete. I would like that but on one condition: It would be a different main character that we don’t see much of, or we never see at all in the main story. Such as a resistance member.

I don’t know, with everything Valve’s been saying (especially along with the harsh development cycle stuff) makes me to believe that HL3 is going to be very different as far as the general the way the game is updated and provided, as well as the way we play it. Not sure if I like it too much. But I have full faith in anyone, it’s Valve.

#2

A lot of this has been talked about before. Frankly, I’m as nervous as anybody, but never does it state that we will be forced to interact with other people; Valve is smart enough to avoid that, I think.

As long as the game is as good and fun as its predecessors, I’ll be happy.

#3

I still believe that they are remastering all of the previous episodes, 0/1/2, and will be releasing them as “Half Life 2/3”, whatever, with the massive continuation that is the HL3 story. I don’t see any other explanation as to why it’s taking them so long to release it. Unless the fourth instalment of HL2 is going to be more than just “a few hours” longer than than episode 0.

#4

They’re not working on it – that’s why it’s taking so long.

Most likely about 8-10 employees of Valve are occasional toying around with concepts in-game and out of game for Half Life 3.

#5

I think they’ve been fervently working on it all along, in some way or other. From what I can gather from coy comments from Gabe, I think Valve is stuck in integrating these “social entities” into the game, but more so, is finalizing a grandiose story arc that befits and has the wow-factor that HL3 deserves and that we expect. After all, this is the last part for this trilogy. Seems they can’t get a consensus internally on what should be included in HL3 and how deep and far in the story arc they should go. How big a part should Aperture Science play. Which loose ends to tie up now and what should be left for future development to maintain everyone’s interest going forward. They’ve previously set the bar so high that they’re having trouble meeting or hopefully exceeding it. After all, this is Valve’s premier franchise and they don’t want to have a misstep now at this critical point in the Half-Life universe. Everyone’s waiting and watching and Valve wants to be sure they nail it.

That’s just my .02.

#6

I figured it out. It’s going to be an MMOFPS.

#7

Free 2 play with hats

#8

#9

They are working on it, that’s why it’s taking so long. They want to make it good because it’s their best series. Maybe they didn’t like that they couldn’t make ground breaking new things with a episodic model so they move back to the giant project of a full length game.

And about that Singleplayer+ thing, I think Gabe said, that it means taking parts of the coop and putting them into the singleplayer or that kind of thing.

#10

A solid single-player experience is what I am hoping for.

#11

capitalism says other thing

#12

Have you got proof that they’re working on it?

#13

I would fucking love this.

#14

Well -to be honest- neither of us know anything. I’m sure it gets worked on in small portions by employees who finish their quota of work on other games and have time to squeeze in some Half Life 3 concepts.

I doubt a foundation has even been thrown at developers. I’m pretty sure Marc and Wolpaw are conversing with Newell about what to do, and keep giving little ideas and concepts to their art designers and game-mechanics developers (ad-libbing) to try out. This testing and idea exchanging has probably been going on for a while, so they probably have something, but with them still not working on it completely, I doubt it’s getting done.

#15

Gabe Newell confirmed in that one podcast a month or so back that the same development team that started work on “Ricochet 2” after Episode 2 was released is still working on “Ricochet 2”.

#16

Awesome. But that’s still not proof that Half Life 3 is being worked on.

#17

I could never see valve “remastering” a game beyond porting it to a new iteration of their engine. It just doesn’t seem like their style.

#18

Yeah,capitalism ruins everything.

#19

I don’t like multiplayer, I like going through games at my own pace and replaying levels whenever I want to. Also, a friend isn’t always available to play when I suddenly decide I want to play, and playing with a random stranger is annoying.

HL is really not a multiplayer type of game, and it won’t work as one. If they integrate HL and multiplayer, it will no longer be HL.

I really hope that HL is not dead, and that Valve doesn’t want to ruin it by changing what it is.

#20

If they want to make Half-Life a “service” instead of simply doing the episodes or in full-length titles, what they could do is make Left-4-Dead styled free DLC campaigns that they could release on a regular basis. I doubt this could ever happen since the words “regular” & “frequent” aren’t part of their vocabulary.

I wouldn’t be surprised if they tied the idea of downloadable chapters in with the story of the Perpetual Testing Initiative from Portal 2. If the Borealis contains the universe-hopping technology that made that plotline possible, the Combine would want the ship to contact their own multi-dimensional empire. If used by Gordon, it could accidentally lead to him being sent to any on of infinite universes, that could have their own settings, creatures, physics, weapons etc. Each chapter could take place in a new universe with it’s own self-contained short story to it, always ending with Gordon hopping over to the next one.

In short; Half-Life 3 could be Sliders: The Videogame.

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