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[Draugoth]

"I think we had really explored a lot of what made sense in the Half-Life universe and setting," Riller said. Writer Marc Laidlaw echoed that feeling, noting that even Arkane was struggling to do new things in its canceled Ravenholm spin-off.

When Left 4 Dead needed help shipping, the Episode 3 team paused work on the next Half-Life campaign to pitch in, and like a hobby woodworking project that gets put down for just a moment and winds up collecting dust for decades, that was its ultimate demise.

Engineer David Speyrer says that it was "tragic and almost comical" that, after Left 4 Dead was out the door, they felt like they'd missed their opportunity to finish Episode 3 and needed to make a new engine if they were going to continue the series.

"That just seems in hindsight so wrong," Speyrer said. "We could've definitely gone back and spent two years to make Episode 3."

Source

 

[Buggy Loop]

That was me when I got to that part of the documentary

 

[ShadowNate]

I mean they have a point, and it's good to have the reason directly from Gabe's and the Valve team's mouth, but Episode 3 did not really have to be on an new engine, and arguably would make more sense to be compatible with PC's that could run HL2 original, maybe with a few sacrifices.

And then they could move on to thinking about Half Life 3 as a proper sequel on a better engine with more tech and gameplay innovations.

But the more critical thing is that they got stumped on not finding enough cool / never before experience stuff to put in EP3 at the time.

 

[Grildon Tundy]

They don't want to iterate on HL if it isn't a revolution. Half Life 3 will be a neural-interface interactive experience.

 

[Hot5pur]

Alyx is quite good.
But Valve holds itself a bit too much in high regard. They sit on the Steam cash cow and instead of making games they do what exactly??
With so much resource you'd think people who are passionate about games would actually make more games.

 

[Johnny Concrete]

So Episode 3 was left for dead. Got it.

 

[Lucifers Beard]

I understand what they're saying and it's fine by me. I want them to make a game they are proud of and would like to make rather than shit something out and give it the Half Life name.

 

[Balducci30]

Honestly this makes it pretty clear to me they think they’re gonna release half life 3. I don’t think they’d be talking about it this way otherwise

 

[rofif]

We already have this topic

Drama - We never got EP3 because Gaben couldn't think how to reinvent the wheel again...

He says it in the documentary: Watch the final section of the documentary. They say "in the hindsight, it was so wrong. We could've just finished it" Then Gabe says he didn't made EP3 because they couldn't think of a way to revolutionize for it. 'My personal failure was being stumped': Gabe...

www.neogaf.com

 

[TintoConCasera]

Alyx is quite good.
But Valve holds itself a bit too much in high regard. They sit on the Steam cash cow and instead of making games they do what exactly??
With so much resource you'd think people who are passionate about games would actually make more games.

Google Deadlock or Counter-Strike 2.

 

[Hot5pur]

Google Deadlock or Counter-Strike 2.

A generic hero shooter and an update to CS:GO?
I rest my case.

 

[Reaseru]

Excuses, excuses...

When will Gabe (and Valve) admit they don't want make more games because they make a shit ton of money with Steam? It's easier and better to keep a sucessful Steam up to date than to waste years and braincells to develop a game that might sell well or not...

Does anyone here doubt that if Steam hadn't become the success that it is today, that Valve would have made countless Half-Life games by now?