Waiting for Half-Life 2: Ep 3? Keep Waiting.

[modeps]

Looks like the already long-in-development Half-Life 2: Episode 3 may not make it out till 2010. As reported by Shacknews (http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/55310):

"The next time you play as Gordon will be longer than the distance between Half-Life 2 to Episode One, and Episode One to Episode Two," Lombardi told Kikizo when asked about Episode Three.

For reference, Half-Life 2 arrived in November 2004, with Episode One arriving nearly two years later in June 2006 and Episode Two following in October 2007.

However, the marketing VP offered one slight consolation, noting that the company "may [announce or show something] at the very end of the year."

How about that episodic gaming!

[StoneGut]

I smell a MAJOR engine upgrade....

[Exodus]

I smell a MAJOR engine upgrade....

I hope so. Episodes were supposed to make it easier for everyone on both sides of the way things work. This is taking as long as a full fledged stand alone title.

[menage]

I smell a MAJOR engine upgrade....

Sorry, but couldn't they better use it for Half Life 3? And just finish this with the same look and feel?

I think it's quite ridiculous that 6 hours of gaming need to take 3 years. Of course they're good, very in fact. But it's not like they we're perfect. Some bits were drawn out and others frankly a bit lame (the underground antlion bit was a lame bitch, seriously, the Flood, Antlions, Facehuggers, Spiderbots, everything crawlling, not fun)

[MasterEvilAce]

That antlion part wasn't that hard. It's all about turret positioning.

Anyways.. they fail at episodic gaming. Not only do I barely remember what happened in the previous episodes.. I'm going to forget even more by the time the game DOES come out.

[abso]

This has to include that big multi-core and super-physics engine updates they discussed a while back. Although I thought that was all a part of the orange box. Perhaps there is more? Wouldn't be surprised if they added a DX10 path to the game as well.

But I have to agree, the whole point of episodic content was to reduce the amount of time between playing. 2-3 years development for 4-8 hours of additional play time does not seem right. Granted, having now stared at the source engine code for a bit, I understand why it takes so long for them to do anything. Absolutely no organization to it as far as I can tell. How is it that great games can emerge from spaghetti code...

[menage]

That antlion part wasn't that hard. It's all about turret positioning.

I didn't think it was hard, just boring and uninteresting.

[mkelehan]

I still can't bring myself to finish HL1. Shooting marines is incredibly boring and done to death.

[modeps]

I still can't bring myself to finish HL1. Shooting marines is incredibly boring and done to death.

When HL1 came out, the AI behind the Marine segments was absolutely revolutionary. To this day, no other game has had such an eye opening impact on me as to what AI could do.

[Rafer]

So I guess it's "episodic" in the same way the Star Wars films are "episodic", to say not really.

Episode 2 rocked though... and FU Magnusson, saying with your device Strider's "practically kill themselves" my ass. One of the worst weapons ever.

[ElektroDragon]

Fantastic news! Seeing as how I bought Orange Box on launch and I don't even think I'm halfway through the main campaign yet....

[Zetsuei]

I think this is absolutely ridiculous. There has been almost nothing new integrated into the game, minus a few new(ish) locales, and 1 new enemy. Episode one was a joke, in that it didn't add anything new at all. Just a bunch of ant-lions to kill. Episode two added some open-area strider battles - using a fighting convention that had been around since HL2. Wow, you can use the gravity gun to shoot something!

Had episode 1 and 2 been a part of the original game, then HL2 would have been even more incredible than it already was, since I believe it was on the short side compared to the original. Now, instead of getting a new game, with new weapons, enemies, and ideas, we get the same old shit we've been playing since 2004. Yeah, there's the story element, which is very intriguing, but there's no point in caring about it when you know they're going to drag it out for another 10-15 years.

[MankoChu]

2010? I could be dead by then. I want it nowww! :eek:

[Orphiuchus]

Take all the time you want, just make it good.

[Steve_Erhardt]

Anyways.. they fail at episodic gaming. Not only do I barely remember what happened in the previous episodes.. I'm going to forget even more by the time the game DOES come out.
QFT

You know what I remember from Episode 1? Dog chucked the minivan across the gorge. Alex's Dad got killed and she got killed but was brought back to life?

I remember I enoyed episode one a lot, but other than that, I really can't recall much else. I have Episode 2, but TF2 and Portal were the big winners in the Orange Box, so I've barely touched it so far. I'm in a cave squashing glowy bugs or something, I think.

[Trickyicky]

It's hard to believe it takes years to make a 5 hours worth of in-game textures, voice acting and scripted events.

[Tryke]

QFT

You know what I remember from Episode 1? Dog chucked the minivan across the gorge. Alex's Dad got killed and she got killed but was brought back to life?

You really drove home your point. Those last two points were from Episode 2! :D

What do I remember from Episode 1? Dog chucking the car. There are weird giant brainy slug aliens in the Citadel. Lots and Lots of zombies. :shrug:

[Steve_Erhardt]

LOL See? SEE? it's been so damn long I can't even keep the stuff apart anymore!

[AlwaysOn222]

Man it really has been a while since we heard anything from Valve about Half-Life series I had completly forgotten about them. Shows how "memorable" they were :P Oh well I guess this whole Episodic gaming thing was just that, a "thing" you know, things comes and goes etc.

[tombofsoldier]

I think Concerned had it right, Valve spends half their time throwing wild rave parties.

[Azriel77]

You have the system upgrade AND they are including portal technology in episode 3. So that is a lot of stuff. However, I agree that this has confirmed that episodic content is a joke and just need to have full fledged games if it is going to take this long.

[ProfPuppet]

Aren't they upgrading the engine to incorporate more physics and effects? I thought that Portal was originally crafted as somewhat of a proof-of-concept for putting the portal gun/abilities in the next Half-Life product.