Gabe Newell opens up about lack of updates regarding next Half Life...

The thing is, expectations only highten when you've been holding on to a sequel for so many years. If you take 7-10 years to get it done, many (most?) will expect it to be damn near perfect, and if it isn't...what a let down.

And I'm not sure why people hate L4D, they were damn fun co-op games.
 
Sorry, I call b.s.

Don't want to do sequelitis:

Let's see since last HL....

L4D1
L4D2
Portal 1
Portal 2
DOTA 2
ANOTHER Counterstrike.

BULLSHIT!

And not talkin guntil they have something to offer???? Let's see, they have been talking the new CS and Dota for over a year each. And no definite release date.

And the ONE open-ended story that fans are clamouring for.... NOTHING.

I am ALL for Valve putting the HL series to bed. Forever, even. I just want them to close the damn storyline if they have lost all interest in the franchise, which is how Gabe comes off in that interview

Hell, a 2 page text summary would do.

And yes, I KNOW they are working on it.

I know people that ARE working on it.

I know that they will be announcing details soon.

And Yes, I will be buying and playing day one.

But this is the epitomy of hypocritcal bullshit.
 
Fail said:
I'm a fan of the whole "it's done when its done" method of releasing games, the only real problem I have with it, is when you look at a game like Starcraft 2, which was a pretty mediocre update of Starcraft, it was just a reskinned version of the same game with slightly more modern graphics.

I'm not expecting a quantum leap forward, but yeah, I need something a little more than mere incrementalism.

To be fair, Blizzard and Valve's versions of incrementalism is better than other companies/devs can pull off.
Click to expand...

To be fair though, Starcraft was the same thing as warcraft 2, just different skins.

Personally, I love both Starcraft and Starcraft 2, especially that the story in SC2 seems more "epic" which is why I loved playing games in the first place.
 
D_Bo pegged it earlier: Gabe's damned if he says anything (and triply so if he makes any statements that aren't backed up later in the eyes of the fandom--and lord knows the fandom NEVER FUCKING FORGETS) and damned if he doesn't. So he doesn't, which at least results in less collateral damage.
 
I was able to go to Valve this summer as part of a tour with other CS majors from my UW. What is amazing about Valve is that they have less than 100 employees (I think it was 80 ish). This includes tech support, Steam IT, HR, and other non-programmers. The amount of content they are able to produce with such a small staff is impressive. Last year they published Portal 2 and a few months later DOTA2/CS:GO were under public beta and there is a TF2 content patch every few months (a 4.5 year old game).

While I would love to see another Half Life continuation Valve can only juggle so many projects at once without starting to outsource to other companies and lose that trademark Valve quality. Waiting isn’t so bad for a sequel that will undoubtedly be another genre redefining experience rather than a long awaited sequel that compromises its soul, unwilling to take risks, or is simply dumbed down, for bland mass appeal.
 
I'm pretty confident at this point that they've not even begun serious work on HL3. I'm sure a few guys are doing something, but it makes no sense from a development or marketing perspective to have absolutely nothing to say this long after the previous game.

Even the most epic of epic shooters wouldn't take this long to develop unless either A) It hasnt been in development, or B) They are throwing it out and starting over constantly ala DNF.

Whatever, it'll happen when it happens, and it'll probably be disappointing. Not because it will be a bad game, but because it won't feel like a game that's been in the works for 6+ years.

ntin said:
Waiting isn’t so bad for a sequel that will undoubtedly be another genre redefining experience rather than a long awaited sequel that compromises its soul, unwilling to take risks, or is simply dumbed down, for bland mass appeal.
Click to expand...

That's what the Duke Nukem Forever fans kept telling themselves.
 
NKDietrich said:
I'm pretty confident at this point that they've not even begun serious work on HL3. I'm sure a few guys are doing something, but it makes no sense from a development or marketing perspective to have absolutely nothing to say this long after the previous game.

Even the most epic of epic shooters wouldn't take this long to develop unless either A) It hasnt been in development, or B) They are throwing it out and starting over constantly ala DNF.

Whatever, it'll happen when it happens, and it'll probably be disappointing. Not because it will be a bad game, but because it won't feel like a game that's been in the works for 6+ years.
Click to expand...

Those are my thoughts exactly.
 
Just treat it like Duke Nukem. Gabe has had to re-write game engines as each AAA games comes out to incorporate all the new features of the said game. It'll be out eventually with all the bells and whistles. I can wait.
 
NKDietrich said:
I'm pretty confident at this point that they've not even begun serious work on HL3. I'm sure a few guys are doing something, but it makes no sense from a development or marketing perspective to have absolutely nothing to say this long after the previous game.

Even the most epic of epic shooters wouldn't take this long to develop unless either A) It hasnt been in development, or B) They are throwing it out and starting over constantly ala DNF.

Whatever, it'll happen when it happens, and it'll probably be disappointing. Not because it will be a bad game, but because it won't feel like a game that's been in the works for 6+ years.



That's what the Duke Nukem Forever fans kept telling themselves.
Click to expand...

I would agree I doubt they've touched it. I would like to believe that its just them waiting on an epiphany with where to take the series.

Reality: They want to make a major graphical update to Source and have HL3 co-inside with that, but they're waiting on the next generation of consoles to be able to work on side by side with the PC version.

That's depressing and entirely logical.
 
NKDietrich said:
I'm pretty confident at this point that they've not even begun serious work on HL3. I'm sure a few guys are doing something, but it makes no sense from a development or marketing perspective to have absolutely nothing to say this long after the previous game.

Even the most epic of epic shooters wouldn't take this long to develop unless either A) It hasnt been in development, or B) They are throwing it out and starting over constantly ala DNF.

Whatever, it'll happen when it happens, and it'll probably be disappointing. Not because it will be a bad game, but because it won't feel like a game that's been in the works for 6+ years.



That's what the Duke Nukem Forever fans kept telling themselves.
Click to expand...

I would wager majority of the Duke Nukem fans never actually played a Duke Nukem game just attaching themselves to its delay for its meme appeal. The best tell of this was all the complaints that the game was misogynistic.

Duke Nukem was a mediocre game series in its prime. A decade of on and off again produce with a bad foundation was not going to produce the magnum opus of video games.
 
piscian18 said:
I would agree I doubt they've touched it. I would like to believe that its just them waiting on an epiphany with where to take the series.

Reality: They want to make a major graphical update to Source and have HL3 co-inside with that, but they're waiting on the next generation of consoles to be able to work on side by side with the PC version.

That's depressing and entirely logical.
Click to expand...

Yep, especially considering that the next generation of consoles are in no hurry to arrive. I'd like to think that Valve would gladly release HL3 as a PC exclusive since it would no doubt sell like crazy, but I think that's just me living in a dreamworld.

ntin said:
Duke Nukem was a mediocre game series in its prime. A decade of on and off again produce with a bad foundation was not going to produce the magnum opus of video games.
Click to expand...

Yep. Well hopefully this is just a case of them waiting for the right time to do their thing, rather than taking the DNF approach.
 
IMO Gabe acknowledging it is a good sign, they probably have enough done for Gabe to start giving out information. It has been 4 1/2 years since episode 2.
 
vicsrealms said:
I just want them to finish the story from the HL2 episodes. After that they dick around all they want. Their other games haven't been very interesting as I'm not much into playing co-op and spend most of my time in SP games unless I playing through WoW or TOR.
Click to expand...

portal series isn't interesting?
 
is he makes so sure to not even confirm they are even working on HL3. It wouldn't make everyone happy but I am sure a large percentage are in the same boat as me that even if I was just told they were working on it would make me happy. Then you have the asshats who scream "Valve owes you nothing." Well, they certainly have avoided even confirming it's in development.
 
What is funny is when Valve announced instead of doing Half Life 3 they were going to do Episodes; they claimed this would allow them to continue the Half Life story faster without having to wait 6-7 years between releases

Eurogamer: So why did you go for this episodic system?

Gabe Newell: The original Half-Life took us two years to develop. With a considerably larger team Half-Life 2 took us six years to develop, so we thought if we were going to continue our trend with Half-Life 3 we would basically ship after we had all retired.
We're trying to come up with a better way of getting more timely updates to our customers and also come up with something that didn't have the complexities. Projects increased logarithmically with how much we tried to do, so if you tried to put twice as much content or technology into a box it ends up taking you four times the amount of work, right, and so we're trying to figure out a better solution.
Click to expand...

Well there went that plan out the airlock. After selling us all on this whole episodic thing with Half Life they do two and then completely shut everyone out of any news. I don't need a release date but show us or tell us something about what the future holds.

Source: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/i_valve_060606
 
Last edited:
there are 2 issues here 1. is Ep3 and 2. is HL3
Ep3 needs to come out soon wasnt that the whole point of doing this ep 1 2 3 things? less time ?
as for HL3 eh i can wait
but the time its taking for what im guess will amount to a 3 to 4 hour game(ep3) is nuts at this point
 
ryamkajr said:
And not talkin guntil they have something to offer???? Let's see, they have been talking the new CS and Dota for over a year each. And no definite release date.
Click to expand...

They both have playable betas right now.
 
I think going to "episodic" content (should be new content at least once a month) and then not saying anything for YEARS after "episode 2" comes out disappoints your fans more then a missed release date!!!!

At least its not Sin; Episode 1
 
pjs37 said:
What is funny is when Valve announced instead of doing Half Life 3 they were going to do Episodes; they claimed this would allow them to continue the Half Life story faster without having to wait 6-7 years between releases



Well there went that plan out the airlock. After selling us all on this whole episodic thing with Half Life they do two and then completely shut everyone out of any news. I don't need a release date but show us or tell us something about what the future holds.

Source: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/i_valve_060606
Click to expand...

I can't remember where I read it, but I recall one Valve interview talking about that development time issue and saying it had alot to do with the workflow and tools they used to create game resources, and that was a big internal project they were focusing on.

Just looked around a bit and found this, I seem to recall there being more depth to it, maybe in a different article.

http://www.develop-online.net/news/37672/Valve-No-existing-plan-for-Source-Engine-2

"Longstanding Valve artist Ted Backman said “people don’t realise how many times we’ve updated the Steam engine over the last seven years. With every one we’ve released we’ve had some kind of new rendering technology, or new modules to the engine.”

But the firm admits that significant updates need to be made to the tech. This is primarily because the numerous game projects have stretched the studio’s internal resources in recent years.

Project director Erik Johnson said “shipping The Orange Box, Left 4 Dead 1, Left 4 Dead 2 and then Portal 2 – basically in a four year time frame – has meant we have to look back at the Source engine again to improve its workflow”.

"
 
Fail said:
Looking at Gabe, it wouldn't suprise me if they had a Burger King inside the Valve HQ :eek:
Click to expand...

Zing! I was doing countdown when someone was gonna say something along these lines!

But I am sorta on the fence, I want a HL3 very badly, and if that means a brand new engine (sorry, love Source, but HL was always about innovating and not retreading) and another couple of years, I am ok with it. And I think if anything, Gabe would want to make sure it can play on the next generation of consoles as well so there is that to think about (don't get me wrong, I despise consoles and what they have done to PC gaming). On the other hand, I don't see why Gabe would have to be secretive about it. Nothing really to lose, unless he plans on having it able to play on the last generation of consoles, which means it would suck ass most likely. Or if he is being secretive, its mainly because they aren't working on HL3 at all and doesn't want to disappoint the Valve fan base. But I don't see how that would really hurt them because people still buy games off of steam no matter what anyways so I am sure that wouldn't make sense either.

But knowing how their managerial style works, its probably a thing of "we either do this right or don't do it at all".
 
They are working on HL3. They have one guy doing that part time. Several on TF2 hats, other IPs have a sizeable number as well. And most on the steamworks client. If they had more than one guy on HL3 then they'd risk sequelitis. The interesting thing here... when HL3 is released, the expectations will be so high it will be like a Duke Nukem Forever letdown. The game won't be crap, but people will find the game is just like any other good shooter.
 
I think many are missing the point Gabe was trying to make :p

Firstly, this interview to me proves that Valve has NOT abandoned the Half Life franchise, they are just not talking about it as Gabe made it clear here. Not talking about it doesn't mean its dead, Valve just chose to talk about it later (closer to release) than they did with past titles.

As for any lack of info on when its coming out, that's the whole point Gabe was trying to make. He won't talk about the next Half Life title until a later stage of the development. Right now Valve's focus is getting DOTA 2 and CSGO out the door this year. So even if HL3 is the next title after these, Valve won't be talking about it yet, perhaps until HL3 development gets into full gear.
 
At least they are not as bad as Dice/EA.

It took the threat of an all out community boycott of BF3 to get them to post a preliminary list of what's going to get patched next. And they STILL have not told us what MONTH the next patch might be expected.

They're just hopeless.
 
I just want to know when Gordon Freeman is going to be sucked back in time to meet his mom. (the girl in portal) And help her escape from another one of glados' traps.

Or maybe when she escaped from the Testing cave, she finds herself in the apocalypse that is Half Life where she can meet Gordon. There could be some kind of outside mix of portal gun with real guns. GlaDos could network herself out to set more traps for them and Alyx.

This is why I dont make game stories. :D
 
HL1 to HL2 was a huge wait.... I'll keep waiting and hope I outlive Gabe...LOL

But in the meantime the L4D series has been the best Zombie games bar none!

And Steam fricken rocks!
 
zamardii said:
:eek::eek: Say what? :confused::confused:
Click to expand...

I always figured that the events in Portal 1 and 2 happened years after humanity's theoretical victory over the combine. Or that they occured in tandem with the Half life games, and that we'll be seeing Chell and/or Glados in Half-Life 3. :p
 
erek said:
portal series isn't interesting?
Click to expand...

I didn't find the game particularly interesting enough to buy it...although I did get it free when they offered it. Just never got around to playing it. I enjoyed the idea of L4D, but I wish they had created a story campaign rather then a bunch of random levels. I think those games could have blown away a game like Dead Island if they had done it right....and obviously I get my Zombie killing done through Dead Island, or through the Island of Dr. Ned. lol
 
Yoda4561 said:
I can't remember where I read it, but I recall one Valve interview talking about that development time issue and saying it had alot to do with the workflow and tools they used to create game resources, and that was a big internal project they were focusing on.
"
Click to expand...
Yeah, and the things they've talked about sound pretty exciting. Apparently they've hired one of the devs who worked on Google SketchUp to help design the next version of Hammer. If they can make the geometry editing that intuitive it'd be a great improvement.
 
Strategically I think they will save this to launch as a flagship title as part of strategy to grow Steam adoption in next gen consoles. While MS is likely to still be reluctant in doing a third party partnership, there are rumors pointing towards Nintendo and Sony considering opening or partnering with third parties in this area.
 
limitedaccess said:
Strategically I think they will save this to launch as a flagship title as part of strategy to grow Steam adoption in next gen consoles. While MS is likely to still be reluctant in doing a third party partnership, there are rumors pointing towards Nintendo and Sony considering opening or partnering with third parties in this area.
Click to expand...

Probably not actually. Valve's delays aren't strategic, they are just Valve. They've always had a "when it's done" mentality, which is not a bad ting over all. However they've majorly lost focus since Steam has come out. Before they did have to meet some deadlines because 100% of their money was game sales. Now game sales are a tiny fraction of their money, most of it is Steam. So they really don't have to care, they can move on whatever schedule they like and do things at their own pace.

Thus you get shit like massive delays in HL3. It isn't what is holding their attention right now. DoTA 2 seems to be what they are most interested in so it gets the most focus.

Like any system there's up sides and down sides. The up side of a self publishing company with plenty of money is they can make projects how they want, and not release them until they are happy. Quality can be higher because of it. The downside is they can mess around more than they should, and take a long time, and shift focus.

With a publisher setup the upside is deadlines tend to get met and products released, devs are forced to keep focused. The downside is that publishers will sometimes force things out the door before they are ready, or cut things for monetary reasons.
 
Sycraft said:
Probably not actually. Valve's delays aren't strategic, they are just Valve. They've always had a "when it's done" mentality, which is not a bad ting over all. However they've majorly lost focus since Steam has come out. Before they did have to meet some deadlines because 100% of their money was game sales. Now game sales are a tiny fraction of their money, most of it is Steam. So they really don't have to care, they can move on whatever schedule they like and do things at their own pace.

Thus you get shit like massive delays in HL3. It isn't what is holding their attention right now. DoTA 2 seems to be what they are most interested in so it gets the most focus.

Like any system there's up sides and down sides. The up side of a self publishing company with plenty of money is they can make projects how they want, and not release them until they are happy. Quality can be higher because of it. The downside is they can mess around more than they should, and take a long time, and shift focus.

With a publisher setup the upside is deadlines tend to get met and products released, devs are forced to keep focused. The downside is that publishers will sometimes force things out the door before they are ready, or cut things for monetary reasons.
Click to expand...

I don't think they are intentionally delaying the game, in case that is what people are taking my comment to mean. Instead the plan itself is to use the game as part of a larger strategic plan to push Steam and Valve as a brand, similar to HL2. If HL3 is built upon a new engine it would also serve as a platform for Valves other future titles to launch on the new consoles as well.

Actually being a private company with more internal control is precisely what would enable them to do this in thinking of the long term goal more, just like they have been doing especially with Steam. How HL2 and Steam was launched was actually detrimental to short term profits, but as everyone can see now was the much better long term gamble.

Recent Valve titles have actually been quite punctual, some would say "too punctual" for L4D2. So I don't know if the current feeling that they are somehow not timely with releases due to lack of focus is still an accurate depiction of the company.
 
Basically the problem (read: benefit) is that valve publish their own games and there's no major rush to get games out the door since they're independently wealthy, so deadlines are pushed back to make the games very polished for release, this is good for quality but has caused what gamers now call valve time.

I'm guessing that to valve this idea of valve time is somewhat a black mark on the company and they're simply announcing products much closer to completion than previously to help stop that bad reputation. It seems reasonable to me but it sort of trades one problem for another and now fans have absolutely zero visibility which I don't think is helping.
 
ol1bit said:
HL1 to HL2 was a huge wait.... I'll keep waiting and hope I outlive Gabe...LOL

But in the meantime the L4D series has been the best Zombie games bar none!

And Steam fricken rocks!
Click to expand...

Half-Life - November, 1998
Half-Life 2 - November, 2004
Half-Life 3 - ???, currently 2012

VAAAALVE TIIIIMMMMEEEEEEE
 
I don't know how much weight this carries but in the latest PC Gamer the "Spy" basically said that Valve's docket is strangely devoid of life besides DOTA 2. He personally suspects HL3 makes it before the end of the year. I see something like what Gabe did here and my first reaction was "smokescreen."

Who knows what'll happen but I wouldn't be half surprised myself if we finally see Half Life 3 before the year is out. Even by so called Valve Time, it really is way overdue.
 
vavleprotest610.jpg
 
Q-BZ said:
I don't know how much weight this carries but in the latest PC Gamer the "Spy" basically said that Valve's docket is strangely devoid of life besides DOTA 2. He personally suspects HL3 makes it before the end of the year. I see something like what Gabe did here and my first reaction was "smokescreen."

Who knows what'll happen but I wouldn't be half surprised myself if we finally see Half Life 3 before the year is out. Even by so called Valve Time, it really is way overdue.
Click to expand...

I doubt it somebody got snapshots of concept artwork while at valve looks like a new ip

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/297089/mysterious-valve-concept-art-appears-new-ip-inbound/
 
The only thing Gabe has ever 'opened up' on was a plate of fried chicken.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top