taffer

I haven't heard anything at all about Episode 3 since last summer.

It cracks me up that the original reason Valve wanted to do episodic games instead of making a full-fledged Half-life 3 is because they could develop the three episodes much more quickly. The original Half-life came out in 1998 and it took them six years to make Half-life 2 which came out in 2004. Instead of making a Half-life 3 which they claimed would take another six years, they decided to make three episodes to wrap up all the loose ends and finish off the story. Well here it is five years later, and we are still waiting on the third episode. At this rate, they could have almost been done with a full-fledged Half-life 3.

Anyway, they really need to hurry up and get Episode 3 out because the Source Engine is definitely showing its age. Most of the kiddies will probably refuse to play it because it is too "ugly" and doesn't look like the Unreal Engine 3.

foxdvd

I love Valve. The have made nothing but great games over the last 10 years. Half Life 2 might be one of the greatest video game experiences I can ever remember. It was a game that my wife actually wanted to watch me play, and hit me on an emotional level that only RPG games usually do. They still make great games with the recent Left 4 Dead being an example. So it is with great difficulty I say this.

Just about every interview I have read, and reports I have seen on Valve shows a level of arrogance above most companies. Don't get me wrong, they have a right more than most to brag. Valve does great work. The problem is when a company reaches a certain level of success they feel they don't need to play to their audience. Smaller companies, or companies that might hit or miss will do everything they can to keep the customer informed. Valve, and rightly so, does not feel the need or desire to do this. They seem to always trickle out information when they see fit, especially when it comes to Half Life. They did release info on Left 4 Dead, but Half Life is their baby, and they know people will buy it no matter what.

So their official answer, though not a quote, is probably "You will get it when it is ready, and that will be when we feel like it, now leave us alone"

I understand a certain level of mystery, and I certainly don't want them to hit us with spoilers and such, but a bit of info would not hurt. They just act like "Hey you will get it when we are ready, you know it will be worth it."

kakihara1

And it will be. Therefore I'll continue to wait patiently

Raul3

Yep. It's not like they haven't released anything lately. The Orange Box, that had Episode 2, also included Portal and TF2, and they have been working on those since released.
Same with L4D, and they just released a free DLC.
So yeah, they'll release Episode 3 when it's ready and it'll be worthy.

Funny thing, I have The Orange Box in PC and Xbox 360 and haven't been able to finish Episode 2 yet.

Drop

They're not getting rid of Source anytime soon. It's a very easy engine to modify. They'll just keep tweaking it to their current needs.

As for Episode 3. They were very up front that their would be a bigger time between Eps 2 and 3 than 1 and 2. I imagine it'll have even more chapters than 2 as well. They've also acknowledged that episodic content as we know it doesn't mesh with how Valve works. Sure they could've released all of them at once as Half-life 3, but we would've had to wait 6 years, we've all ready played the first 2 parts of the game.

RobLutter

The only thing I've seen lately was some artwork for it at SXSW Interactive... I'm sure that they're hard at work behind the scenes however.

JasonF

Drexl

At this point, I think an episode 3 would probably be a major disappointment. The whole idea was that they could deliver them faster than a full sequel, but obviously we're past that now. For them to come out with another episode, and then another long wait would almost be an insult. At this point, I really hope they're just going to move on to Half-Life 3.

An exception would be if they do something where they release the episode as a lead-in to HL3 within a year, sort of like what they're doing for Arrested Development (also infamous for teasing fans).

Matthew Chmiel

We're getting both Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and DOTA 2 from Valve this year.

I'm assuming if anything is coming out in 2013, we may see it at E3. It could be Half Life 3 ...

... or Left 4 Dead 3.
... or Portal 3.
... or Team Fortress 3.
... or DOTA 3.

House

So if Half life 2 came out in 2004, then that means it's been about 8 years now. This is a really long time in between games. I'm suprised we don't have more news yet.

RobLutter

Gabe is not naive... I bet he's got at least a handful of people working on it now.

If I had to make bets... E3 we'll hear... something? Maybe? Last year they didn't have to with imminent Portal 2 release.

Anubis2005X

Yeah, but Episode 2 came out in what, 2007?

kgrogers1979

Episode 1 was 2006, Episode 2 was 2007, and Episode 3 was supposed to have come out in 2008.

Valve said there will not be an actual Half-Life 3. The three annually released episodes comprised together would essentially be the third game to finish out the Half-Life story.