Just replayed Half Life 2 + Ep. 1 & 2 back to back after years... and... I hate and love you Valve.

imyourzero said:
The team that did Black Mesa should do it. Sure, it'd be at least 20 years before we got it if they started now, but they're probably more enthusiastic about doing it than Valve.
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This could easily turn into another Star Trek Axanar debacle. If Crowbar Collective does HL3, they should be paid for it. Valve wouldn't let that happen.
 
Saturn_V said:
This could easily turn into another Star Trek Axanar debacle. If Crowbar Collective does HL3, they should be paid for it. Valve wouldn't let that happen.
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I'm not saying that Valve will allow an entirely independent mod to be officially released as HL3. I'm saying that it's very possible that a mod team will come up with a very promising HL3 project and Valve could hire them to finish it with Valve's cooperation. It seems like nearly every Valve project has worked this way outside of the HL series. At this point, let's face it: if the fans don't make it happen, it's never going to.
 
There was alot of rumors circulating about HL3, that it should been announced when valve released steamVR. After that, I finally gave up hope.
Sven-coop ftw!
 
I will tell you what I think it is. The game fanbase just does not support the development costs of really doing it right. I remember a friend had Half Life on a Playstation 2 and he like could not navigate his way through the initial office, like before you get to the reactor! This type of game is not everyone's cup of tea and I suspect that compared to Team Fortress, Left 4 Dead and Portal this is small time for Valve. Having said that, screw you Gabe Newell. You go to hell, you go to hell and you die! If I were Valve I would have made the game for the fans even at a loss just to wrap it up. I mean who does this? Can you imagine if Star Wars ended with Han Solo getting carted off to Jabba the Hut Frozen and they never fucking went back for him and just ended the franchise! That is about what this is. I mean we were headed for some cool Borealis station shit and Eli Vance had his brain sucked out of his head and I still don't know what it was for.

Not to mention their absolutely stone aged game engine which is like the lowest common denominator in gaming in terms of performance requirements. Valve really turned out to stand for something very different from what I thought. Dice ultimately ended carrying the technology torch with Frostbite.

On the other hand, Crytek's business model didn't exactly work out and Crysis was like the second coming of Elvis when it launched for PC gamers. Gabe is like the anti-Crysis.
 
still can't replay this game. bores me to tears so quickly. still feel is was a pretty mediocre game even when it was new.
 
Hey hey hey. Don't talk crap on the engine! I remember buying a brand new shiney Radeon 9800 Pro JUST for Half Life 2! :D
 
Yep, this game was great in it's day.. modded up, it's not too bad. I remember buying an x800 pro just before it came out, along with doom 3, and having a blast playing both.. then not playing single player games for years due to a counterstrike:source addiction.. fun times.. I haven't loaded up them in a while, though.. might be time for a play through..
 
Updates to Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode One, Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Half-Life 2: Lost Coast, and Half-Life: Source have been released. The changes include:
  • Fixed a hitch when saving games
  • Fixed SteamVR running when entering the settings menu
  • Fixed missing sounds on combine soldiers
  • Fixed NPCs not blinking
https://store.steampowered.com/news/54632/
 
HL3 COMFIRMED!!!

3bqqt3.jpg
 
ochadd said:
They patched HL2 for real... That's crazy
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They do patch it from time to time ... still. Benefit of a company that let's employees do whatever they want. If they want to keep maintaining old games they can.
 
I realize that I'm in the minority, but I'm with the group that really couldn't care less about the HL series.
Never thought it was all that, it just all felt like another iteration of FPS games.
Some things I really appreciated like "physics puzzles" which were novel at the time, no other game from the period was like that. At the time it's graphics in the source engine (oooh water) were near the top and it was optimized far better than similar engines.

Outside of that, I found the gameplay incredibly boring and most of it to be incredibly tedious. I also agree with the folks that HL3 or HL2: Episode 3 should never be made. Because at this point it will be straight hot garbage. There is too much hype built for it and not enough passionate devs to make magic again.
 
bigdogchris said:
They do patch it from time to time ... still. Benefit of a company that let's employees do whatever they want. If they want to keep maintaining old games they can.
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which begs the question- why don't a group of employees decide to develop HL3?
 
polonyc2 said:
which begs the question- why don't a group of employees decide to develop HL3?
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Who is daring enough to stick their neck out? Hubris would crush any would-be developer that hasn’t thought all of this through incredibly well.

I don’t envy anyone who wants to follow up HL2.
 
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Brodaddy said:
Does valve make games still? Serious question

Is there any news about literally anything that they are developing? New IP? Sequel?
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Pretty sure Valve stopped making games because they started making money instead. So I've heard anyhow.
 
next update is for windows 1.03, where gabe failed to finish taming some stray memory leaks which led to overrun of unnecessary temp files...
 
It's amazing to me that they never created HL2 EP3... it would be a cash cow for them. Heck even if they just finished the story with a short EP3 using the same Source engine, sold it for $20, they'd still sell millions.

HL and HL2 were huge successes, and Valve just walked away from free cash. Yes, I'm aware that Steam has also been a massive cash cow for them which is ultimately where they placed the focus, but they have left huge $$ on the table walking away from the HL series.

As players though, it's frustrating to have the ending unfinished.
 
dave343 said:
It's amazing to me that they never created HL2 EP3... it would be a cash cow for them.
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Not amazing in the slightest. Orange Box was hugely successful when it came out twelve years ago, but it was a hit because of Portal and TF2, not because of HL2 Ep2- which everyone thought was just icing on the cake- not the main course.

They probably had to choose between developing HL2Ep3 or Portal 2, and they *correctly* chose to do Portal 2.

dave343 said:
Heck even if they just finished the story with a short EP3 using the same Source engine, sold it for $20, they'd still sell millions.
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They missed their window. (2012 would've been my deadline) HL2 doesn't carry the same weight as it once did and Source looks like stone knives and bearskins now. Even a polished mod like Black Mesa looks only okay- it's not going to take anyone's breath away.
 
Saturn_V said:
Not amazing in the slightest. Orange Box was hugely successful when it came out twelve years ago, but it was a hit because of Portal and TF2, not because of HL2 Ep2- which everyone thought was just icing on the cake- not the main course.

They probably had to choose between developing HL2Ep3 or Portal 2, and they *correctly* chose to do Portal 2.



They missed their window. (2012 would've been my deadline) HL2 doesn't carry the same weight as it once did and Source looks like stone knives and bearskins now. Even a polished mod like Black Mesa looks only okay- it's not going to take anyone's breath away.
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It’s been over a decade. They should have developed both Portal 2 and HL3 by now quite easily. Steam is their cash cow and has been for a long time.
 
i'm glad it stopped after 2. HL2 was a HUGE disappointment to me. I've tried so many times since it originally launched to play through it again and I just can't...it is SO boring and bleh...the episodes were not any better.

Let it die... HL1+ the expansions were epic and it was ruined after.
 
Bigbacon said:
i'm glad it stopped after 2. HL2 was a HUGE disappointment to me. I've tried so many times since it originally launched to play through it again and I just can't...it is SO boring and bleh...the episodes were not any better.

Let it die... HL1+ the expansions were epic and it was ruined after.
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Blasphemy!
 
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Just finish the story........

It's like hearing a joke, and just before the punchline is delivered, bam, the comedian gets trampled in a Yak stampede.
 
I did a replay of HL1 last year. I'm lost at some warehouse with all these water pumps. I got so lost. I stopped there. Haven't played since. I should knock it out though.
 
Valve quietly updates Half-Life 2 with increased FOV, ultrawide support and ancient bug fixes

Half-Life 2, Episode One, and Episode Two have received new beta updates today which introduce new features and more

The new beta updates' highlights include a maximum field of view increase, from 90 to 110, ultrawide resolutions support, and interface improvements with resolution scaling...additionally, with the beta updates, the three games now use Vulkan, which makes it much easier for Linux users to run them...

https://www.pcgamer.com/valve-quiet...-fov-ultrawide-support-and-ancient-bug-fixes/
 
polonyc2 said:
Valve quietly updates Half-Life 2 with increased FOV, ultrawide support and ancient bug fixes

Half-Life 2, Episode One, and Episode Two have received new beta updates today which introduce new features and more

The new beta updates' highlights include a maximum field of view increase, from 90 to 110, ultrawide resolutions support, and interface improvements with resolution scaling...additionally, with the beta updates, the three games now use Vulkan, which makes it much easier for Linux users to run them...

https://www.pcgamer.com/valve-quiet...-fov-ultrawide-support-and-ancient-bug-fixes/
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Probably to make it work better on their handheld, then they just threw in the other updates while they were in there.
 
huh? I seem to recall playing hl2 at higher FOV, I guess at a certain point they fixed it, or was it considered a "cheat" or something?
 
Youn said:
huh? I seem to recall playing hl2 at higher FOV, I guess at a certain point they fixed it, or was it considered a "cheat" or something?
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The hFOV was always hardcoded to a maximum of 90. You could enter a higher number in the console, but it would always clamp to 90. You could get around it through other means, but the game never officially supported hFOV higher than 90. The game defaulted to 70 or 75.
Jonnycat99 said:
I really wish they would have made more SP games on that engine, I would have played every one of them.
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Lots of SP games were made on the Source Engine. Or do you mean Valve specifically?
 
Wait.. they updated the game before (and likely for) the Steam Deck launch, and there's three configurations of the Steam Deck at launch...
 
HL2 is one of the greats, I just replayed it also about 6 months ago, We don't go to Ravenholm is one of my favorite all time levels.
 
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