After 10 Years, I’ve Finally Accepted That “Half-Life” Is Dead

Megalith

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Here is your weekly reminder that Half-Life 3 is (probably) never coming, yet gamers won't stop whining about it: ten years ago today, Valve released Half-Life 2: Episode Two, which ended with a major cliffhanger. “I still have a hard time letting this go. Of course, Valve owes me and other fans nothing. But there's something especially cruel about teasing fans with an ending like the one in Episode Two and then never following through.”

Yes, it's possible that Half-Life gets revisited at some point. There's clearly still demand for another game in the franchise, and we've seen plenty of long-dead titles brought back to life. But after 10 years, I think I've finally reached the acceptance stage of grief. When I think about the formative gaming franchises in my life, the ones that really stuck with me, the ones I turn to as gaming "comfort food," Half-Life is near the top of that list, and that'll probably never change.
 
Half-Life isn't dead. The mod community is keeping it alive and kicking.

Also, Half-Life 3 confirmed. 10 years ago.
 
There are still some great H2L deathmatch clans left. Modders and mapmakers are still breathing life into the franchise. But yeah....I really was hoping for a new HL game a long time ago......
 
I still think we'll see it a la Duke Nukem Forever, MBV, Street Fighter 4, Chinese Democracy, the current Star Wars movies, the Las Vegas Raiders, and literally anything else people are willing to throw their money at. It might not be made by Valve and it might not even be worth a damn, but someone will eventually make it happen and I feel it will be in the next 5 years. $ will do the talking and someone will make it happen.
 
It will be out but it will be totally different than what we might have played if they didnt trash and redid it over and over again like duke nukem forever.


half-life 1 - 1998
half-life 1 - opp force - 1999
half-life 1 - blue shift - 2001
half-life 1 - decay - 2001

half-life 2 - 2004
half-life 2 - eposide 1 - 2006
half-life 2 - eposide 2 - 2007


maybe netflix will release half-life 3 seeing that netflix been making a lot of stuff they want themselves.
 
At this point I do not think people are really whining about HL3, at least for the most part.

It has just become ingrained in the average gamer/internet dweller to throw out "Half Life 3 confirmed!" posts/memes when ever possible. It is more of a joke then a concern/outrage/gripe.
 
Here is your weekly reminder that Half-Life 3 is (probably) never coming, yet gamers won't stop whining about it: ten years ago today, Valve released Half-Life 2: Episode Two, which ended with a major cliffhanger. “I still have a hard time letting this go. Of course, Valve owes me and other fans nothing. But there's something especially cruel about teasing fans with an ending like the one in Episode Two and then never following through.”

Yes, it's possible that Half-Life gets revisited at some point. There's clearly still demand for another game in the franchise, and we've seen plenty of long-dead titles brought back to life. But after 10 years, I think I've finally reached the acceptance stage of grief. When I think about the formative gaming franchises in my life, the ones that really stuck with me, the ones I turn to as gaming "comfort food," Half-Life is near the top of that list, and that'll probably never change.

It probably is dead mainly because there's no pressure on Valve to make one due to their Steam milk cow. Sure there's tons of demand and fans for but it, but I just don't think they care enough anymore. It's all business after all.
 
There was an interesting thread a while ago where we discussed what the hell Valve would have to come up with to not bomb with HL3.

Personally, I was pretty sure it would be released when there was talk of the steambox and early VR. Surprised they didn't jumped on that opportunity. After that, I too have let it go.

Now it seriously seems impossible to make a HL3 that would shut everyone up.
 
Yep, dead and buried. It's a sad ending to one of the greatest game franchises ever made.
 
Maybe they'll pull a Blizzard maneuver and after about 12 years (so another 2 or so) suddenly out of nowhere comes Half-Life 3. Hey, it could happen, stranger things have: even Daikatana eventually made it to store shelves for all of a week. :D
 
I'll never really understand people who, by this point and seeing the trends in gaming, legitimately want another episode/game. It almost never works out for the best in regards to the series if they try to keep the story going. (Dead Space, Mass Effect, FF10, FF13, Assassins Creed, debatably Fallout and Diablo)

Sometimes it does but that's pretty damn rare.

I bought both HL1 and HL2 when they first came out. Loved both of them. Played through both EPs 1 and 2, loved them too. At this point I'm hoping they never release anything to besmirch the games.

End on a high note, always leave them wanting more.
 
It will be out but it will be totally different than what we might have played if they didnt trash and redid it over and over again like duke nukem forever.


half-life 1 - 1998
half-life 1 - opp force - 1999
half-life 1 - blue shift - 2001
half-life 1 - decay - 2001

half-life 2 - 2004
half-life 2 - eposide 1 - 2006
half-life 2 - eposide 2 - 2007


maybe netflix will release half-life 3 seeing that netflix been making a lot of stuff they want themselves.

wasnt the gunman chornicles also based in the hl universe?


im preety sure while hl3 may have been in development they have prolly shelved it. if they some it up or upset peeps with thier choices on the story arc there'd be a epic back lash far worse than say mass effect andromeda etc
 
Meh it will be out when it comes out. The best part about this is new promises. So we don't have to worry about the next duke nukem, or dai katana.
 
At this point, even if HL2:Ep3 or HL3 were announced, I wouldn't get them. I loved the franchise, but after this long, I certainly don't want to jump back into a gaming world that I loved, only to get about 3 hours of gameplay and then spend another decade wishing they'd do something else with the story.
 
I wonder how long it will take before journalists stop beating this dead horse.

It's disappointing but we should move on. I'm happy with the Episode 3 treatment from Marc Laidlaw even though that's a cliffhanger too. That's more than we could have hoped for at this point.
 
It will be out but it will be totally different than what we might have played if they didnt trash and redid it over and over again like duke nukem forever.
maybe netflix will release half-life 3 seeing that netflix been making a lot of stuff they want themselves.


Suzanne Collins already created Half-Life 3.... or maybe it was just a half-life remake.

Anyone ever watched the hunger games series, then started to play Half-Life 2 from the beginning....
I did just that about a month ago and i couldn't get over the similarities.
 
It doesn't even matter at this point. It could be released tomorrow and it wouldn't matter because almost everyone would hate it for one reason or another. It has simply been way too long to get something that most people would enjoy. The very people who played the originals on release or close to it aren't the same people anymore. They may very well not like it even if it is faithful to the originals. People who first came to the games more recently may not like them at all or at least don't like them as much as those who played it earlier. Games have changed quite a bit in that time and gaming interests have also change. You also can't forget about the nostalgia factor and ten years in the gaming/computing space is a very long time to build up a lot of nostalgia.
 
'Half-Life' is such an appropriate name for that series, it'll never die down.
Beats plutonium's, that's for sure.
 
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HL3 has became a symbol of indifference. They don't give a crap about such horseshit as the gaming scene, or the passion for gaming From the profits they reap off steam they could've easily financed any development. But they don't do it, and that tells you everything about how much they care.
 
I don't get why they don't release it now as an early access title, and have little more than a tech demo running the hl2 game in a room with some physics stuff. Then add an new object to the room once a year. And charge $59.99 for the early access. And never finish it that way, but at least people could say they have hl3.
 
Love it or hate it, good or bad, HL3 would probably sell pretty good.

That shows how much of a cash machine Steam is that valve can look at HL3 and say "Nah, we gotta better stuff to put resources in."

Any business looks at how much return it can get from spending a buck on a project. If spending money on project A will likely return more money than spending money on project B, then they are not going to fund project B untill project A is fully funded.

HL3 is project B compared to Steam.
 
I wonder, do people really want to pay $59.99 for Ep 3, for 3 hours worth of gameplay???
 
After so many years in all honesty the masses of ravenous fans would like it, the horde of disappointed critiques would drown it.

Make a lot of money....yes

Make a lot of money from dlc....probably not.

Tank interest... Assuredly.
 
We already got the ending story to Half-Life 3 straight from the writers blog. It's dead Jim.

But, he were surprised that people took it seriously, saying that his short story is fanfiction, based on a dream he had. Also, the the story seemed to omit recognition of things that previously happened in Half-Life, so I don't think it was meant to be canon, at all.

Also, I'm sure he wouldn't have said anything that might actually be the potential Half-Life story, because he wouldn't know what Valve might choose to do with their materials in the future, and that would be screwing over the company, and players. He also might be contractually barred from talking about any actual specific Half-Life details.
 
We still be whining 10 years from so get over and just releases Half-Life 3 now Valve
 
Keep in mind that a lot of teens and people in their 20s who are heavily into gaming now have never played Half-life 1 or 2. Many of them have never even heard of it. The people who have are now in their 30s and 40s with jobs, houses, and kids, and many have moved on from gaming. If they released it now, I'm not even sure how well it would do. It seems like most of the audience for it has moved on. It's been 10 years since HL2 Ep2, and nearly 20 years since the original Half-Life. That's an eternity in the world of gaming.
 
Keep in mind that a lot of teens and people in their 20s who are heavily into gaming now have never played Half-life 1 or 2. Many of them have never even heard of it. The people who have are now in their 30s and 40s with jobs, houses, and kids, and many have moved on from gaming. If they released it now, I'm not even sure how well it would do. It seems like most of the audience for it has moved on. It's been 10 years since HL2 Ep2, and nearly 20 years since the original Half-Life. That's an eternity in the world of gaming.

Unfortunately I think you are spot on. I have mentioned Half Life 2 to many gamers in MMO's like World of Warcraft, Star Wars: The Old Republic, and Final Fantasy XIV and most of them have never even heard of it. One of my best friends never even played it because by the time he'd heard about it, 5 years or so had passed and he didn't want to get involved with something that was abandoned in a cliff hanger.

I still play HL2 at least once a year and the associated episodes. I don't really even notice the dated graphics because honestly their still pretty good and the AI was damn near top notch.

At this point, I really don't expect HL3. It really is one of those things you just kind of have to move on from. I went through the same thing with Duke Nukem back in the 90's. By the mid 2000's I had become so disillusioned I didn't even bother picking up the game they finally did release as a sequel. Of course, I heard it was pretty bad and not worth it anyway.
 
Read this earlier today. It is a good write up and I think a lot of us feel this way.
 
Half life
Portal
Wing commander
Ultima

Great gaming series I will miss
Don't forget the stuff from Bullfrog too.
I miss Populous, Hi Octane, Dungeon Keeper, Magic Carpet, etc. :(

Then again, to some of the young 'uns viewing this thread, I might as well be talking about Pong, or Colossal Cave Adventure :p
 
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...have to agree. :(
 
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