More Half-Life games confirmed; nobody surprised

by Scott Jon Siegel on Dec 18th 2007 4:15PM

In perhaps an over-exaggeration of the term "world exclusive", StuffWeLike.com has revealed that Valve intends on continuing the Half-Life series after Half-Life 2: Episode Three. Big news, we know.

When Stuff We Like asked Valve's Doug Lombardi about the possibility of a Half-Life 3, he responded that nothing has been announced, but that Half-Life "won't end at Episode Three." Originally, Stuff We Like reported this news as "OMG WORLD EXCLUSIVE HALF-LIFE 3 CONFIRMED" (we're paraphrasing, of course), but has since recanted, admitting that all this means is that the series will not conclude with the third piece of episodic content.

We're curious to see whether Valve intends on continuing to release episodes connected to Half-Life 2, or whether they will in fact move forward with a third title in the series (episodic or otherwise). No release date has yet been confirmed for Episode Three.

Source

Tags: half-life, half-life-2, halflife, PC, steam, valve

Reader Comments (47)

What happened to Shephard, damn it?!

What happened to the water monster that was in all the publicity shots for Half Life 2?

YES, WHERE IS MY OPPOSING FORCE SEQUEL? JERKS

Not to mention that during the commentary for portal the phrase "Future portal games" is used several times.

Portal 2 anyone?

Protip: Op4 was not done by Valve. Talk to Gearbox.

I would love to see Portal 2, followed by a convergence of the Half-Life and Portal universes.

Perhaps Portal 2 can follow Chelle struggling to survive against a mix of Combine and A.I. as she tries to figure out what's happened to the outside world while she's been stuck at AL...using only the Portal device, of course. The "action" would be much more puzzler-ish, of course (no run and gun).

I dunno, I would just really like to see the two game universes tied together, as well they should.

Blue Shift was also made by Gear Box, but Barney Calhoun is still a major character in the series...despite his absence in Episode 2.

@ Shignami:

Portal 2 sounds great, but if you've played episode two, you'll know episode three will include getting something from a sunken aperture science boat....

so either we have the portal gun in episode three, or just a load of companion cubes to throw around with the gravity gun

" No release date has yet been confirmed for Episode Three."

uhh, it came out a month ago

You mean Episode 2?

oh was it just #2? damn, i thought it was the 3rd

It was. Confusing isn't it?

yeah it is

Didn't Valve say that was the plan before they released Episode 1?

Portal 2: Shock Treatment

He looks like the Joker.

You guys are misinformed. Episode 1, 2, and 3 ARE Half-Life 3. After HL:E3 comes out, Valve would be releasing Half-Life 4.

No the next game will Half-Life 3. Otherwise the episodes wouldn't be Half-Life 2 Episode 1/2/3

It would be Half-Life 3 Episode 1/2/3

No, the episodes are what Half-Life 3 would have been... there's a difference.

I read somewhere, or maybe heard in the Dev Commentary, that it is the case that the episodes are indeed Half-Life 3 in a way. Put together, they make a decent length full game. I kind of like that idea, but I would find it stupid if they call the next one Half-Life 4. I say that the next Half-Life game should continue to be episodic, starting with Half-Life 3 Episode 1. The one thing they need to change though, is they need to complete them all before releasing any, that way they can have shorter intervals between episodes. It needs to be either monthly, or every other month. The Sam & Max episodes have the timing about right, but they are shorter games.

Gabe called the Episodes HL3 before they came out. IE when they were exciting and new.

Then the Episodic Gaming thing turned out to be a bit of a flop and Valve backed off. Sure, the HL episodes are selling decently enough, but has it been beneficial to either the developer or the consumer? Not so much.

Now they're no longer saying these are HL3. Nor are they calling them expansions. They're saying there still might be expansions which occur during the HL2 timeline, and there will likely (but not definitely) be a full sequel.

To quote wikipedia 'In an interview with Eurogamer, Gabe Newell revealed that the Half-Life 2 "episodes" are essentially Half-Life 3'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-Life_2#Expansions_and_modifications

He have a really bad hair cut.

You have really bad grammar.

English is not my primary language...

How is the correct phrase, by the way?

=(

He has a really bad haircut.

What is the correct phrase, by the way?

Years of helping my father speak english kind of makes it a habit for me to correct others...

It would be he *has* a really bad haircut.

I have
You have
They have
He/she/it/ has

And don't worry about it, man. You have better spelling/grammar than most people on this site (Joystiq staff included, occasionally). I had no idea it wasn't your native language til you mentioned it in another thread a while back.

English is a crap language to learn.

Thanks =)

Honestly, they need to start going somewhere else with the series. It's getting old.

Their other titles: Portal, Team Fortress-- absolutely astounding. I'd like to see the move on to some new IPs, or to take the half-life universe in a different direction.

Agreed. Wrap up the story with Episode 3 and move on. It's been a great series, but it's starting to wear thin, IMO.

I think Half Life needs to end soon, and agree they should pursue new IPs with similar mechanics or something instead.

Really nobody wants to play through another whole damn trilogy and still not know who the damn GMan is

They should let sleeping dogs lie after they finish episode 3 and start working on a stand alone Half-Life 3 afterwards. Not to say that the episodic games were horrible, but they were really just more of the same.

Consider something big and new for Half-Life 3! I'm still confused as hell about the G-Man and Adrian Shepard.

This image would make a nice default image for news posts.

That's cool, they just need to make sure they release E:3 over Live and the PSN network for those of us that bought the Orange Box but don't play computer games.

Yeah if they're going to update TF2 that way, I don't see they wouldn't for E:3.

Or in a really awesome bundle that you have no choice but to buy unless you want to get ripped off.

Half-life 2 was good for it's time, but I guess I'm the only person in the world that had no internet in either of the expansions. But TF2 and Portal for $50 was a better deal... blech.

Oh man. As much as I love this franchise, I would like to discover G-Man's motives before the LOST tv series comes to a conclusion.

If they pack Episode 3 with Portal 2...they will have my money ( and my firstborn ).
Hmmmm Alyx.

I agree with them needing to go somewhere else with the series. Part of the problem with episodic gaming is the change in the market - couple years ago, WWII games were all the rage until the market became over-saturated and now they're financial suicide. Same here: the era of the run-and-gun is ending (not quite over, but almost). True, they do need to finish the current story arc and answer some essential questions (like, who is the G-man etc.) but then they need to develop another feature-length title - part of the problem with games this season is that they were all on average less than 10 hours. Make a 20+ hour HL3, but put in something like better squad tactics or something, and keep what makes the HL series awesome - no cutscenes, the action, the music, etc. I dunno move the scene to the Combine homeworld or something - AND BRING US TEH PORTAL GUN!!!! XD

Portal isn't really a new IP.

And Episode 2 definitely went in interesting directions.

yep. obvious. gj valve.

How is Ep 3 gonna work for the 360? Standalone download? Expansion for Orange Box? Or retail copy for $20? Hmm.

My guess would be retail exclusive. And since they will have a multiplayer component... expect a so chaotic it's unplayable: Portal Deathmatch.

best fps of all time, it better not end with ep3..

A PC magazine asked Gabe Newell; when they will see the end of Half Life story and he said;
"Who say that Half Life story has an end..?"

Half life 3 *would* be pretty nice. The source engine, while being awesome and all that, really is starting to look a bit dated.

Where's my COUNTER-STRIKE 2, bitch?! And when will y'all start making games in other genres?

More Half-Life games confirmed; nobody surprised

Reader Comments (47)

Posted: Dec 18th 2007 4:18PM Seroth said

Posted: Dec 18th 2007 4:41PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Dec 18th 2007 4:44PM Shignami said

Posted: Dec 18th 2007 5:22PM AndrewNeo said

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Posted: Dec 18th 2007 5:48PM Seroth said

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Posted: Dec 18th 2007 5:14PM Volkodlak said

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